Yes I know it's been over a month since my last update... I'm sorry! After Hanoi, we flew to Sanur, Bali and I started my YTT program (yoga teacher training). It was an intense 4 weeks training, but I passed and I am now officially registered to teach yoga!
We had a cute little villa with our own pool 2 min from my yoga studio and beach. Scotty went surfing everyday while I went to class. We made amazing new friends, ate a lot of good food, explored new places on the weekends, celebrated the Balinese new year and had a very hard time leaving.
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We had 1 last destination before reaching Hanoi: Cat Ba Island! Of course we had some more rain on the way, but not as terrible as the previous days.
We had been wanting to do Halong Bay, but after everyone telling us how touristy and polluted it was we were a bit discouraged. Until we heard about Lan Ha Bay, which is the same bay as Halong Bay, more south and part of a different county (hence the different name). Because you have to take a ferry to Cat Ba Island and not many buses go there, it's still very undiscovered. It was the best decision! We had an amazing day on the water, where we got to enjoy the scenery (it's so splendid!), kayak, hike up a viewpoint and visit some of the fishing villages with almost no other boats around. The rain is here! We were so lucky to ride in the sun for the first half, but they weren't lying about the north being a lot colder and rainy. The ride into Phong Nha was still amazing and surprised us with a complete different landscape. Lots of rice paddies, limestone mountains and a tropical forest. Phong Nha is known for having the biggest & longest caves in the world, so we decided to go see the most famous one - Paradise cave. It was gorgeous inside and never ending, Because our next destination was pretty far, we had to stop about midway and sleep at the only hotel in town. Scott and I thought we had the room to ourselves but right before falling asleep we had some not so friendly faces running around our room - RATS!!!!! We "slept" with the lights on and a youtube video to scare the rats away all night!
Our ride to Ninh Binh was miserable - cold, pouring and running on no sleep. Our clothes and shoes were still wet from the previous day. But, you know it's true love when you really have to pee and your boyfriend holds your poncho up while you take a squat on the side of the road... Luckily the day we had there was dry so we got to rent bicycles, bike around, go on a little hike and explore the scenery by boat. Instead of using their hands to paddle, they use their feet. Our guide took us into some dark spooky caves and we enjoyed our time on the water. The journey continues! After 4 days in Hoi An, we headed up the coast to Hue - the ex capital of Vietnam. But first: the Hai Van Pass. It's one of the most famous road in Vietnam for a number of reasons: - beautiful scenic route winding around a mountainside above the ocean - geographic and political boundary between ancient kingdoms - climatic divide between warm south and cold north (it is cold now!!!) I haven't told Scotty so he will probably make fun of me once reading this, but it was so beautiful I teared up while we were driving through the pass. It makes the journey all worth it! In Hue, we explored the Imperial City, now a UNESCO site. It was so grand! Even though a lot of it was destroyed by the war, they have been trying to restore a lot of it. We spent the day exploring and getting lost. At night we ate more Banh Mi and made new friends.
We have reached our halfway point so Beatrice (our motorbike) got an oil change, air in her tires and her chain tighten. We are continuing our journey across Vietnam. Everyday is more beautiful than the other. From the mountains to the beach to the rice paddies, it is so incredible, well except for the blisters on my butt!!
After a few nights in different cities, we made it to Hoi An for the Lunar New Year/Tet - their biggest holiday. Hoi An is the only city that wasn't touched by the war. It's such a pretty city with lanterns everywhere, floating candles in the river and old bridges. We spent our day biking around, going to the beach and partaking in the new year celebrations. We (aka Scotty) decided that it would be a great idea to drive from the south of Vietnam to the north on a motorbike. Well there is no turning back. We are riding between 4 to 8 hours a day and our behinds are hurting! The landscapes are beyond amazing and so different each day.
Our first big stop was Dalat were we had the great idea to go canyoning. It was breathtaking and scary, but what a fun day we had! From hiking to cliff jumping, to repelling down waterfalls, you didn't even have time to think about what you were actually doing. We barely made it to Vietnam after a fiasco at the airport in Cambodia with Scotty's visa... Never thought I would be running on a tarmac in between planes, but we did!
For some reason we weren't expecting much out of Saigon since it's a big city, but we loved it. It has a funky feeling to it - it's very modern, but also has old colonial buildings. The districts are very different from each other and the food was delicious. There are so many little hidden spots, you have to wonder into alleys and climb up stairs to find what you're looking for. We took a few days to wonder the city, visit the Vietnam war museum and get ready for our big ride through Vietnam. We will be riding on a Honda Blade with our bags strapped to the back for 1,300 miles! We took a quick flight south to Sihanoukville, a tiny village by the beach. We knew it was going to be pretty remote, but we were shocked by how run down and still very much recovering from the war it was. We had a super cute hotel right by the beach and spent a few days relaxing - pool, beach, snorkeling, repeat.
Sorry we didn't really take any pictures here. The laziness kicked in. We're in Cambodia - land of the 50 cents beers! It is way too hot and humid so we are spending only 3 days here, just enough time to visit Angkor Wat before heading down south to the beach.
Angkor Wat will take your breath away. It is the largest religious monument in the world, with about 45 temples to visit. Don't worry we didn't see all of them, not even half, only 5 and that was enough. They are all enormous and different in some ways. We had an awesome tuk tuk driver that took us around the entire day, while we pretended to be Lara Croft. Lesson of the day: do not feed chicken to a chicken... After a windy 5 hours in a crammed minivan we made it to Vang Vieng. It's a small town north of the capital right by the Nam Song river. If we thought Laos couldn't get anymore beautiful, we were wrong! The landscape here was incredible and full of limestone mountains, caves and lagoons. We spent a full day tubbing down the river and bar hopping. The other, rented a scooter and explored the lagoons, caves (way too scary! I refused to go in when I saw the entrance) and climbed a mountain. We made some friends along the way and wished we had more days here. We are spending a day in the capital and then off to Cambodia!
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