Hello Vietnam

Hello from Da Nang Vietnam!

And Merry Christmas!  Yes, I’m a little late but it is still the holiday season.

We have been in Da Nang for almost two weeks now.   It will be two weeks tomorrow. We leave here Friday January 16 and fly to Hanoi, Vietnam where we will also be for one month.

Arrival in Da Nang

We arrived at the Da Nang airport around 9:30 PM on Monday, December 15.  It took a while to clear customs - it was one of the longest customs lines we have seen in a while.

To visit Vietnam as a U.S. citizen, you have to apply and get approved for a visa.  We did this about 3 weeks before we were to arrive in Da Nang.  It is all done online.  Along with answering a bunch of questions, you have to upload a picture of your passport AND a passport type picture with a white background.  We just took pictures with our phones in the bathroom in Chiang Mai against the white wall.  It worked.  The form is very particular in that you have to apply for the visa on the same device from which you take the pictures.  I found that out the hard way.  The request costs $25.00 and it can take up to two weeks to find out if your visa is approved.  After literally hours of trying to get it right, it took about 2 days for us each to get approved.  I filled my application out first.  Blaise started his after mine but since I had learned so much doing mine, I just went ahead and filled his out for him to save time and effort.

After we were both approved, we both started reading and seeing YouTube videos of the nightmare some people were having with the process.

But, I digress.

We took a Grab from the airport to our AirBnB and met our host.  I have concluded I do not like arriving at a new place in the dark.  The neighborhood looked ominous and not so great in the dark.  I had doubts about feeling safe here.  Those doubts were dispelled the next day after the sun came up. It’s just a working class neighborhood.

Our Home for the Month

Our AirBnB is fine.  For a studio apartment, it is big.  It has a long balcony but not much of a view really.  All we can see is the other side of the street and the Dao Tien hotel.  The sign for this hotel has a heart at the end of it so one wonders exactly what kind of hotel it is.  Is it a “love” hotel?  We don’t know but we never see any odd activity there, other than people pushing their motorcycles out of the lobby.  That is not uncommon here.

Our Neighborhood for the Month

The neighborhood is a fairly working class neighborhood.  Nothing fancy but nothing seedy, despite the “love” hotel. Lots of children in the neighborhood going to school in the mornings. Lots of families.

Families here not only live together, but they also ride their motorcycle together.  Yes, motorcycle, singular.  It is VERY common to see the whole famn damily on the motorcycle - both parents and child or children.  We haven’t seen 5 on a motorcycle yet, but we have seen four, multiple times.

It appears that many people own a business on the ground floor and either live above or behind the business. I am not sure how one short block can have 6 or 7 coffee shops and they all survive, but it appears to be the case.  We have a coffee shop on the ground floor of our building but I rarely see anyone buying coffee.  Maybe once?  The guy that runs it seems more concerned with the fish he has in the tanks than selling coffee.  He seems to be growing or cultivating (or whatever you would call it) fish for fish tanks.  Some of the fish are huge while others are small in a big bin that looks like what we would see someone use to bus tables in a restaurant.  Only the bin has water, small fish, and a hose hanging over the top and into the water blowing bubbles in it. 

We are a less than 5 minute walk to the river and about a 25 minute walk to be able to place our toes in the surf on the beach. Da Nang is on the coast of the South China Sea (yes, I had to look that up).

The Temple in our neighborhood

The Cost of Things

If you thought the cost of things in Thailand was reasonable, you will think they are downright dirt cheap here.

Their currency is the dong and there are approximately 26,000 dong to one dollar.

The most expensive meal here was last night.  We ate a place called Motor City, known for its Detroit style pizza.  We got 1 pizza and a hard cider for a little less than $15.00.

We can eat down the street from our AirBnB for about $5.00 total.  We can both get a coffee drink down the street at “Heaven Coffee” for $2.43 and it is tasty.  I am becoming a coffee drinker on this trip.

I got a facial for about $52.00 that is comparable to what I get at home and pay over $200 for. I haven’t gotten my nails done yet, but that will be tomorrow.

While we do have a washer, since we have no dryer and would have to hang up the laundry either in our studio apartment or on the communal roof of the apartment building to dry, we take our laundry to a lady down the street.  She charges 9,000 dong per kilo.  Last week our laundry cost 50,000 dong to clean; that’s $1.90.  I am not sure how someone makes a living that way but things are certainly much cheaper here than at home, so maybe that’s it.  

Cheese is expensive here.  They don’t really eat it in their food so it is pretty expensive in the grocery store.

The Food

I do like the food here better than Thailand.  There are more non-soup-like choices here.  I am not a big fan of soupy foods.  The banh mi’s are delicious.  They have these bau bun things that are yummy and I like their rice choices.

We have a stove-top here in the apartment so I have been cooking more here. It is Western food that we are used to so I don’t miss the food at home as much as I did in Thailand.

They do an unusual thing here with coffee that we haven’t seen elsewhere.  I call it a coffee chaser.  Oftentimes when you order coffee, you get an extra drink.  At Heaven, our morning coffee place, they weren’t giving it to us at first, but now they are.  I guess we are local now. We have seen this extra cup of beverage everywhere so I had to Google it.  It is a tea that serves as a palate cleanser between drinks of coffee.  Blaise and both agree it is a type of tea we had at the house at home but we can’t quite place what kind of tea it is.

The People

The Vietnamese people we have come across have been amazing!  Every place we have been on this trip, the people have been lovely.

The Vietnamese are a bit different though.  We are clearly not Vietnamese.  In non-tourist areas, we tend to stick out.  And when we do, there seems to be a curiosity with them when they look at us.  Their gaze lingers a bit longer.  Their smiles are big and genuine though.

We have been asked more here than anywhere thus far, where we are from.

The children seem the most curious.  We have walked past a school several times and all the kids say “Hello!”  They seem so eager to try out their English.  Yesterday we were waiting at a bus stop (for the bus, clearly) and two boys (preteenish) walked by and asked where we are from.

The Scout Meeting

Last Sunday, we were at the restaurant down the street and across from the river eating lunch. We had been there once before and it was good so we went back.  It was about 1:30/2:00 PM.  There was a large group of men at a bunch of tables placed together to make one long table.  There were about 15-20 of them.  To picture this properly, you have to keep in mind that all the tables and chairs were half the size of what we are used to.  It’s a cultural thing that my 6 foot frame is not a fan of.  Also, this is outside, as are most restaurants here, with a covered area.

When we walked up and sat down, several of the men smiled and enthusiastically said “Hello” to us.  They had been there a while and they all had had a few beers.  There were coolers around them with plenty of beer at the ready.  This was a festive group having a great time.

I was facing their table while Blaise had his back to them.  The men kept looking over at us.  It wasn’t a glaring thing.  It didn’t feel rude in any way.  More curiosity.  After we had been there for 15 minutes or so, one of the men came up and set down a plate of food for us.  He had taken food from their platter and gave it to us.  We thanked him and he went back to the table.  Some of it was chicken and some of it was some weird sea creature that Blaise took a bite of, said it was awful and so we hid the rest under some rice.

As I was struggling using the chopsticks on the chicken they gave us (I’m still not good with them - never have been), another man brought us some forks.

The next thing you know, some other guy is talking to Blaise in Vietnamese, broken English, and using Google translate.  He tells Blaise through Google translate, that they are “scouts” having a meeting. It was no scout meeting I have ever seen!

One thing leads to another and they are handing us beers, teaching us their version of “Cheers!”  Then I am not sure how it happened but we are at their table right in the middle of things, drinking beer and getting hugged.  We had already paid and were ready to leave but it was difficult to extricate ourselves from the celebration - they did not want us to go.  It was a fun experience, one we were not expecting.  Until Blaise got sick from the beer.  He is not supposed to drink carbonated beverages but felt obligated to have a few sips.  Also, they were not going to let that go until he drank.

The Cultural Nuances

It is always interesting to see how other cultures have evolved and what things are unique.

Here are a few we have noticed:

1. The little tables and chairs have to be number one.  Ugh!  I googled this one too and google says it is done for a couple of reasons - 1) the smaller tables and chairs create an intimate environment for people to visit with each other; and 2) it makes it easier to move them out of the way when it is time to close up.  I guess so they can take them inside at the end of the day.

2. There is LOTS of honking of car and motorcycle horns.  Honking and beeping all the time.  I don’t need to google this one to know why that is.  They have traffic lights at the major intersections but there are absolutely zero stop signs.  So people honk as they are approaching an intersection to warn those coming from other directions.  It seems to work.  The traffic flows well and people rarely have to stop at an intersection with no traffic light.

3. We have been asked no less than half a dozen times if we want tempered glass for our phones - sitting at the beach, sitting at a restaurant - just about everywhere.  It took us a few times to figure out what this was for.  They all have a laminated sign situated landscape with prices.  It says “Tempered Glass” at the top of it and we originally wondered why would someone want to sell an obvious foreigner tempered glass.  It took a while to figure out it was for cell phones.  But still.  I guess breaking your glass on your cell phone is a serious problem here.

4. Lots of bonsai trees all over the place here.

5. Lots of places to play pool here.  And they are serious about their billiards.  You look in these places and you have to hunt for the bar.  Pool is not just a thing you do to kill time while you are drinking beer.

6. They have many tall skinny buildings.  We kind of live in one.  It is 5 stories with a rooftop area on the 6th.  The building is so skinny, there are only 2 apartments on each floor; one in the front and one in the back.  Some of these buildings stand all by themselves while others are right next to each other.

7. They work 6 days a week here and the children go to school 6 days a week but only for ½ day each day.

8. Sundays appear to be family day.  We see multiple families with several generations out and about on Sundays.  I think it is wonderful!

9. Whenever we visit a new country, I like to see what their religious makeup is.  I find it interesting but it also affects their culture.  Vietnam is 74% non-religious or they worship their ancestors; 15% is Buddhist; 7% is Roman Catholic; while the rest is a mix of other religions including Protestant, Islam, Caodaism, and Hinduism.

This has nothing to do with anything I wrote but this is before a major intersection telling you what vehicles are allowed in which lane.  It works well.

The Hospital Experience

We were originally going to take care of some preventative medicine while we were in Osaka.  We were both going to get colonoscopies and I was going to get a breast MRI.

But that did not happen because our time in Osaka was shortened because our cruise was extended due to a typhoon.  Then when we got to Osaka, one of our 5 days left there was a national holiday.  If you have ever had a colonoscopy, you know you have that one night of God-awful preparation.  If you don’t know, I will let you Google that shit (pun intended).  The prep is definitely worse than the actual colonoscopy.

Anyway, we still had to get those things done.

So no one worries, I was getting a breast MRI at the recommendation of my gynecologist at home.  After genetic testing and really, my family history of breast cancer, the doctor recommended alternating every six months a 3D mammogram and breast MRI.  It is just a diagnostic thing.

Blaise did the research and found a place here called Vin Mec International Hospital, a JCI accredited hospital.

Last Monday we went over there to see about getting these things done.  They asked if we could come back Thursday at 8 AM for a doctor consultation.  So we scheduled it only to remember right after we did it, that Thursday was Christmas Day.  By then, it was easier just to keep the appointment than reschedule.  It’s not like we were visiting family or unwrapping gifts anyway.

We showed up Thursday morning.  Our colonoscopies were scheduled for the next morning (we still had to do the prep) and I did my breast MRI right then and there Christmas Day.  I also got an X Ray of my left heel as well as an ultrasound of the same since I had been struggling with pain for over a year.

The two colonoscopies, breast MRI, X Ray, and ultrasound cost $914.00.  We paid at their payment counter and we were good to go.

The MRI, X Ray, and ultrasound were all done within a couple of hours and by around lunchtime, I found out I have a bone spur, calcification, and plantar fasciitis which I Google-diagnosed myself with a year ago. I got some medication from their pharmacy, was told to buy a sleeve that went around the heel, and given some exercises to do.

That's my heel!

They told me they would give me my MRI results the next day after the colonoscopies.

We did our colonoscopy prep hell that night and returned the next day for the deed.  When we got there, the doctor told me they needed to do an MRI with contrast and that could be done right after the colonoscopies.

We got the colonoscopies done.  I got my second MRI and the very sweet technician was asking me all kinds of questions afterwards about why I was there to do a breast MRI instead of a mammogram, family history, etc.  She was very kind about it but all that did was hike up my anxiety.

We went in to see the doctor for the results of everything.  Colonoscopy results were great.  No issues, zero polyps for the both of us.  But they wanted to send the MRI results out for reading by an expert and we would have to come back the next day for the results.  This new MRI cost $40 and we paid right then.

The next morning, we got there and they said a doctor wanted to do an ultrasound and to go back to imaging.  No charge. Free!  An actual free medical procedure. The actual doctor did the ultrasound, not a technician.  Then, right there after we were done and I was dressed, the doctor showed me the pictures and explained what she saw.  There were some lesions but not cancerous.  She spent about 10 minutes explaining everything and said my doctor had a good plan, given my dense breast tissue and family history.  But she also told me to always get the MRI with contrast for diagnostic purposes.

I was blown away by this last part of the process.  I have had breast MRIs and ultrasounds in the past at home - all a part of the whole dense breast problem and family history - but no one has ever sat down and explained all the details with me, showing me the MRI pictures of my breasts.  All I have ever gotten is - “You’re OK” and “You have dense breasts so it’s hard to tell.”

I left the hospital with a CD of all the images and report to provide to the next health provider. 

That was a long 3 days, but I am glad we did it and it is done!

The Emotional Struggle

One last thing before I call it quits for the day. Even before I got here, I struggled a bit with coming to Vietnam.  This is the place that really screwed up my dad.  While I think it is quite possible he would have become an alcoholic without Vietnam, what happened here is what made it a certainty.   There were zero good memories here for him.  I have no doubt, had he lived past age 46, he would have never stepped foot in this part of the world, let alone Vietnam for any amount of money.

What happened here changed the trajectory of my life.  A chunk of my life was rough because of what happened here.  Then I lost my dad at age 19 (in part) because of the war.

Even the first week I was here, I was unsettled as a result of this.

But the people have won me over.  So kind. So friendly, full of smiles for you. So curious.  So eager to talk to us.

You have to separate governments from their people in many ways.  And I’ve had to keep in mind, the majority of the people in Vietnam were not alive during that time in their history and have absolutely nothing to do with what happened to my father or me.  And if they were alive during that time, they certainly don’t want to dwell on it, have moved on, and hold no animosity.  And so must I.

Farewell Thailand

Today is Saturday, December 20, five days before Christmas.

On Monday we left Thailand and headed for Vietnam.  In this writing, I want to focus on some final thoughts regarding Thailand as well as our travel day from Thailand to Vietnam.  I have all kinds of thoughts about our time thus far in Vietnam but I will save that for another blog in a couple of days.

We spent our final weekend in Chiang Mai, visiting places for the last time and simply enjoying those last moments in Thailand.

We said goodbye to our morning coffee place and its very friendly employees.  We went there 3-5 mornings a week for the month we were there.  They knew our coffee order and they were so kind to us every day so I felt compelled to say goodbye.  I thought it would be weird if, all of the sudden after a month, we simply vanished.  I am sure I overthought that whole scenario.  We are clearly not Thai so I am sure the thought was at some point, we would be gone.  But it didn’t feel right not saying goodbye, so I did.

I do have to point out that Blaise liked going to this coffee place because for some odd reason it had a scale to weigh yourself.  This coffee place was two stories with the 2nd floor being a nomad workplace area.  You had to go up to the second floor to use the restroom and the scale was in a “conference room” (for lack of a better term) next to the bathroom.  No one ever used the conference room so we would go up there and weigh ourselves.

Why would they have a scale?  The only thing we could come up with was maybe some of the digital nomads working there would bring their luggage to weigh.  Maybe?

By the way, I lost about 11 pounds while in Chiang Mai.  All that walking will do it for you! Crazy! I have no idea how much I lost before Chiang Mai but I am sure once we left the cruise ship, weight was shed.  I just don’t know how much.

We had our last walk in the park Sunday morning and then went back to the AirBnB and did laundry so we would arrive in Vietnam with our clothes clean and ready to go.

Miscellaneous Observations of Thailand

Temporary Markets

Both in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, they had lots of temporary outdoor markets and festivals that would be there one day and the next day there would be absolutely no sign that a market had even been there.  These markets mostly sold street food but there would be - to use a former Kroger employee (from the 1980s) term - non foods, you could also buy.

For example, when we first got to our AirBnB in Bangkok, on our first trip to the train station, there were food stands on one side of the street on the walkway.  Two days later, those stands were gone and the ground was clean as a whistle.  A couple of days later, an outdoor market popped up in an open area next to the street where the first market shut down.  Then a market appeared across the street on the walkway.  Then, right before we left, the one across the street disappeared and a day later, the market was back on the other side of the street where we saw a market the first day.

In Chiang Mai, we visited a courtyard area surrounded by buildings and a shopping center.  This courtyard area had some food vendors. Then a few days later, the courtyard had even more vendors, and a rather large covered area that was previously selling clothing, was now devoid of clothing and stalls were being set up in place of the clothes.  The day after that, the clothing area was filled with food vendors and there was signage up for some sort of festival.  This lasted for about 10 days.  A few days before we left, we went there so Blaise could get some sausage from one of the vendors and the entire courtyard was completely empty except for a few empty stalls.  Two days before we left, the courtyard had food vendors again, some new and some from the last event.  It was supposed to be some wine festival but no wine could be found.  At least by us. And I tried!

The courtyard area in Chiang Mai the first day we stumbled upon it

All these markets were super clean; not like some of the street vendors we ran across.  We did eat at these markets many times.  The food was great!

Christmas In Thailand

Although 90% of the Thai people are Buddhist, they sure do love Christmas!  There are Christmas decorations everywhere.  So much so, I had to Google why that is.  The Googs says it is for three reasons:  1) The Thai culture is very accepting of all religions and people; 2) They aren’t going to turn down a good marketing opportunity to sell things; and 3) the Thai people love to party and will always find an excuse to have fun.

However, their acceptance of Christmas is not an acceptance of Jesus as the son of God.

The Thai People

We loved the Thai people.  They were always kind, smiling, and helpful.  They seemed proud of their heritage, country, and their monarchy, particularly the queen mother who had passed away while we we there, their current king, and the last king (who passed away in 2016).

I know I mentioned this before but it bears mentioning again - the Thai businesses really took pride in ownership.  You would see employees or owners sweeping and cleaning in front of their businesses, making sure they were as clean outside as they were inside. It was nice to see.

Leaving Thailand

On Monday, we took a Grab to the airport around 6:30 AM which cost us about $4.50 all in with the tip.

Our flight left at 10:10 AM for Bangkok, but since we had no familiarity with the airport, we wanted to get their early, knowing that we could hang out in a lounge until boarding time, which we did.  If you are someone who flies a great deal, I recommend the CapitalOne Venture X card, which includes access to many airport lounges around the world.  It’s a game changer.

At one point, we thought we were going to leave the Bangkok airport to visit the national museum since our layover was so long but once we found out at the Chiang Mai airport that our checked bags would not go all the way through to Da Nang and that we would have to pick them up in Bangkok, recheck them, plus go through security again with our carryons (rather than store them), we were out.  What a hassle.  We checked our bags all the way through and stayed within the secure area in Bangkok.

In Bangkok, we visited two different lounges since they would not let us through to our concourse until 3 hours before our flight to Da Nang.  The layover was a whopping 8 hours!

Our flight left out of their brand new concourse, Satellite 1.  There is no Satellite 2.  It was beautiful and the former Verizon employee in our party noticed the vast number of cell sites within the concourse.

Sculpture in Satellite 1 in Bangkok International Airport

Temple in Satellite 1

We flew coach on Emirates from Bangkok to Da Nang and they did live up to the hype.  We received a full meal, their service was top notch, and I can see why their entertainment system is award-winning.  They had more movie and TV show choices than I have ever seen on a flight, including transatlantic flights in business class.

We arrived in Da Nang around 9:30 PM.  I will save arrival in Da Nang for my next entry.

Final Thoughts

When we leave a location, Blaise and I ask ourselves two questions.  Here are those questions as well as each of our answers:

1. Will we miss it?

Blaise: Yes

        Ami:                No

2. Would we want to come back?

Blaise: Bangkok - Yes; Chiang Mai - No

        Ami:                Bangkok - No; Chiang Mai - Yes (but not in the summer)

Just because I would not miss Thailand does not mean I didn’t enjoy our time there.  We absolutely did!

I think, of all the places we have visited, Italy is really the only one that I miss.  There are many I would return to - but Italy - I miss!

We have been in Vietnam for five whole days, wrapping up our 6th.  That is what I will talk about in the next blog.

Living in Chiang Mai, Thailand

We have been in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a little over three weeks and we will leave Thailand and Chiang Mai one week from today, December 15.

Very out-of-place Gothic building right next door to our condo building 

Routine

We have settled into a general daily routine.

We go eat breakfast.  We have the same couple of spots we go to and will throw a new one in every once in a while.

I try to explore new drink options so the other day I tried a coffee with orange juice.  It didn’t sound particularly appetizing but it is rather common around here so I thought there must be something to it. I think I might be alive today to warn all - never try coffee with orange juice.  It was the nastiest drink I have ever had.  It tasted more horrible with every sip. I have never drunk anything like it and I fail to see why it is a thing.  Who is drinking that on the regular?!  I don’t even see how someone could acquire a taste for it.

Our usual drink choices - Americano for Blaise and a "brown coffee" with caramel for me.

After breakfast, we have been walking to the park to get some exercise in.  Including our time in the park, and all other times during the day, we are walking 3-6 miles each day; usually over 4 miles.  At the park, there are also some exercise stations we will take advantage of, Blaise more than me.  I’m trying to get some cardio in so I can get some of this weight off.  I’ll stop and do some sit-ups.

The park near where we are staying

The park near where we are staying

After our walk, we will head on home.  In the afternoons in our AirBnB, we will do laundry, if needed, read, or watch something on streaming.  We do have occasional errands to run like going to the market or the pharmacy.

Statue on the way home from the park

Going to the store here is not like home.  The grocery store is not the one-stop shop like it is at home.  For example, we have to go to 7-11 for toilet paper and the pharmacy or some other store for personal hygiene items like deodorant. Also, the grocery store where we get most of our items does not have a coffee selection so we have to go down the street to another store.  We really don’t mind all this since we just walk there.

The store where we get most of our groceries

Lots of grocery markets here are two stories so they use this combo moving walkway/escalator thing to get upstairs.  But you don't get back down this way - you use either the stairs or an elevator.

View of the downstairs of the grocery market from the walkway to the upstairs

In the evenings, 4 PM or later, we will head out again to eat dinner, walk around, and run errands if necessary.  Remember we have to eat dinner out because we only have a microwave here. Every once in a while, we will stay in and eat a sandwich.

Guy in the Park

Remember the Canadian guy in the park whose name we did not know.  We have talked about him from time to time. Blaise just started calling him Neil.  I had to ask him, “Who is Neil?” “The guy in the park!” Blaise said like it was obvious.  I asked him why he called him Neil and he said he just looks like a Neil.

Well OK.

So we started calling him Neil.

A week later we ran into “Neil” at the park as well as a couple of other times.  The second time we ran into him, as we were leaving, I asked his name.  Neil!  His actual name is Neil!

I asked him if he remembered telling us his name when we met and he said no.  Blaise and I have thought about it and talked it through and we KNOW he did not tell us his name before then.  That’s why I called him “Canadian Guy in the Park.”

We have run into him and have talked to him a couple more times since then.  I guess his routine overlaps with ours.

We found out the other day, he is leaving tomorrow for Da Nang, Vietnam which is where we are heading to one week from today.

The whole thing is weird.  I feel like we were supposed to meet him for some reason but who knows why.

I did try to add him to WhatsApp.  He wasn’t sure what phone number he used for WhatsApp and didn’t have his phone with him.  The number he gave me was wrong so we leave it up to fate - if we are supposed to connect in Da Nang, it will happen.

I wish him well. 

Motorcycle Update

The motorcycle went back today.  We only used it twice in addition to when we picked it up and returned it.

We used it to get to meet-up points for two of the three tours we took. I never did feel comfortable riding on it.  I think Blaise got more comfortable as time went on but I was out on it, especially after seeing a second motorcycle accident while on our first tour while we were on the bus.

We got lost on it twice and I had to use the GPS on my phone to get to places while holding on to Blaise as he was driving.  I had to hold the phone with my arm wrapped around his side and the phone in front of his belly.  I had to look over his shoulder so I could see the map and tell him where to go.

Then the damn phone would back out of the navigation and I would freak out. Blaise would ask me where to go and I would yell “I don’t know!”  Then he would get frustrated and yell at me.  Then I would move and throw him off balance.  He would yell.  I would yell back. Honestly, the whole situation was not good for our marriage.  I am sure this was comical to the people who passed us.

In the end, the motorcycle is gone, we lived to tell about it, and we remain happily married.

This was SO NOT the experience we had on a motorcycle in Mexico last year.  That one was fun!

Weather

The weather here has been incredible!  Until the last few days, the temperatures have been nearly perfect - mid 70s, not too much humidity.  Yesterday the high was 88 so I got a little over-heated walking home from the park.  But by the time we go out in the evenings, the temperatures are tolerable with a nice little breeze.

I think, weather-wise, this is the perfect time to visit Chiang Mai.

Chiang Rai Tour

In the past two weeks, we took three tours using Get Your Guide or Viator to visit places near Chiang Mai: to Chiang Rai to see some temples, to an elephant sanctuary, and to Doi Inthanon National Park.  Each was special in it’s own way.  Since I posted information and pictures about each on Facebook, I won’t cover much here.

The city of Chiang Rai is about 2-hours away.  The temples were incredible and never in a million years would I have thought as a kid seeing the pictures of the women with the rings around their necks in National Geographic that I would actually see them in person.

The Thai people call the Kayan people (the ones with the brass rings,) “longnecks” nearly exclusively. Not sure if the Kayan people appreciate that.  The Kayan people have found a way to capitalize on their different culture by charging an entrance fee to walk around their village and look at them.  It did not feel right doing this.

I recognize that the temples we saw might be for tourists but that doesn’t really take away from their beauty.

We met an American girl from Rhode Island traveling by herself on this tour.  I say girl, but she looked to be in her 20’s so I should probably say “woman.”  She was here visiting Thailand and a few other countries in this area on her way to Germany where her boyfriend lives.  She is hoping to attend a graduate program there.  She had spent some time prior to this, living in Australia working in agriculture (which is what her undergraduate degree is in) and bar tending. It seemed like most of the other people on this tour were from elsewhere in the world other than the U.S. It feels much more international here than in other parts of the world.

Blaise and I enjoyed this tour, which is the only one that had enough people for a bus.

Us at the Blue Temple

Elephant Sanctuary Tour

This was an amazing tour!  There were only 9 of us on this tour.  The elephants seemed well cared for.  The people that worked at the sanctuary seemed to really have the elephants’ best interest, health, and comfort in the forefront of what they did.  The woman working there (our guide) was quick to teach us how to feed them and what to do and not do to assure we don’t stress the elephants.

Me petting the baby elephant.  What a thrill!

Doi Inthanon National Park Tour

This was an absolutely beautiful place! Lucky, you were right. You couldn’t beat the natural beauty of this location.  I loved spending a day in nature.

The tour started out a bit odd.  We were to meet the van in the same location we met the bus for our tour of Chiang Rai.  We were to meet the van at 7:30 and arrived their early so we could beat the traffic since were were on the motorcycle.  If we were going to ride the motorcycle, we were going to do what we could to be safe as possible.

The meeting point was in front of a Burger King attached to a hotel, across the street from the gate into Old Town and what was left of the wall surrounding Old Town.

When we got there, we noticed the buses lined up just as they were for our tour to Chiang Rai a week earlier.  We went and got some coffee and hung out on the other side of what was left of the 13th century wall located across the street from the Burger King.  When we saw the buses drive off a couple minutes after 7, we walked over to the the Burger King to meet our van.

A group of about 8 people were standing there talking for a few minutes.  All but one of them eventually walked off as we waited.  The one that did not leave, a 20 something woman, came up to us and started talking.  She and the others missed their tour to Chiang Rai.  They were told the buses would wait until 7:10 and would leave without them if they weren’t there by then.  The tours did not wait until 10 after.  We know this because we saw the buses drive off probably about 2-3 minutes after 7.

The woman’s name was Lilly.  She was from Germany.  Was - I suppose she is still from Germany.  She asked us where we were going and if the tour had room for her.  We had no idea so we suggested she ask the tour guide once the van arrived.  And that is how we ended up with six people on our tour instead of five.  The other three people were father, son, and brother/uncle.

Lilly was on a 3 ½ week trip by herself.  She had just come from Vietnam and was heading to Pai (pronounced pie), Thailand the next day.  Pai is also where the Rhode Island woman from the Chiang Rai tour was heading next.

We had to look Pai up after this to find out why everyone was going there.  Apparently it is reasonably-priced young backpacker, hippie haven.  Probably not our scene.

The family (father, son, brother/uncle) that was on the tour was heading to Da Nang, Vietnam the next day.  They were meeting a friend of the father’s and then renting motorcycles to ride up to Hanoi from Da Nang.

It is always so interesting to hear other people’s travel plans.

Lilly did ask us what Americans thought of Germans.  I wasn’t really sure what to say about that as I hadn’t really given it much thought.  I have strong German heritage on my mother’s side so it’s not like I have a bad feeling about Germans.  I have never had a bad experience with the German people; not at home or when we have visited Germany.

She shared with us that Germans don’t have a good opinion of Americans - they think we are stupid.  After seeing how many Americans act abroad and seeing some of the things posted on YouTube and TikTok, I get it.  I am not so sure we are all that smart, in general.

And then you look at our educational system.  Lilly was in her 20s and spoke 3 languages fluently - German, English, and Spanish (her mother is Colombian).  How many languages do I speak fluently? Uhhh, one.  How many do most Americans speak fluently? One.  And if an American is bi-lingual, it is not because our schools taught them (in most cases) - it’s because they have a family heritage outside of the United States and their parents spoke a different language.  

One last interesting thing to mention about this trip that has nothing to do with the beauty of what we saw either:  I am not sure on this trip we were any safer riding in a van than riding that motorcycle. There were times with that van driver, I thought we were going to die.  He was passing cars on the 2-lane mountain highway where you couldn’t see if there was a car coming from the opposite direction.  In the city, he loved to weave in and out of traffic and drive on the shoulder.  At one point in the city, I thought he was going to hit a pedestrian crossing the road.  He did, however, turn a 2-hour drive back from the national park to the Burger King into a 1.5 hour drive and we live to tell the tale.

Us at the tallest point in Thailand

Itinerary Changes

Whelp, we have changed the next two months of our itinerary, which in turn will change the subsequent months’ itinerary.

The catalyst of this change is we want to take a 2-day cruise of Halong Bay near Hanoi, Vietnam.  That wasn’t going to work because the only place we’re visiting in Vietnam was Da Nang from December 15 through January 15.

Here are our definite changes for the next couple of months:

December 15 - January 15: Da Nang, Vietnam (this actually stays the same)

January 15 - February 15: Hanoi, Vietnam (added, thus moving Cambodia)

February 15 - March 2:         Siem Reap, Cambodia

Those are all booked with flights and accommodations.  Because we added Hanoi, we need to take a look at the rest of the schedule, which also has us looking at new places and eliminating others.  We enlisted the help of ChatGPT and put in a bunch of criteria - things like excluding the places we have already been,assuring we see the cherry blossoms in Japan in the spring, and being in Tokyo on May 8 to catch our cruise back to the U.S. on May 9.

We are now looking at the following (dates TBD):

Panang, Malaysia

Taiwan

Seoul, South Korea

Kyoto/Osaka, Japan

Our original itinerary had us going to Hua Hin, Thailand and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and NOT Panang or Taiwan.

We are still mulling over our options after March 2 so stay tuned.