Melbourne

After leaving Thailand it was time to start my three week journey home.  First stop, Melbourne.  I actually decided to go to Melbourne kind of last minute.  Originally, I was only going to spend some time in Sydney but after hearing awesome things about Melbourne I decided to add it to my itinerary.  I'm really glad I did.

I arrived early last Tuesday morning and checked into a hostel located in the beach area of Melbourne, St Kilda.  It was my first experience in a hostel and I didn't really know what to expect. The truth is, the place was like College Part II.  There were people hanging out all over the place playing pool and watching sports.  Interestingly enough, the smell was even exactly like I remember the dorms at school smelling like.  I guess that's nostalgia?  For the most part, I enjoyed the place and the bar downstairs.

The first day, I took a trip into downtown Melbourne and checked out the Melbourne Aquarium.  I had heard it was pretty good and it didn't disappoint.  After that, I walked around the city for a bit to get my bearings straight.  It's a really cool city.  It's pretty small so it was very easy to learn.  It actually reminded me quite a bit of Boston in a lot of ways.  That night, I met some Irish guys at the hostel and we went to some bars around St. Kilda.  It was a really good time.

Melbourne

The next day I headed to the famous Phillip Island, home of the Penguin Parade.  Every night, the penguins that live there march up from the water to their nests on the beach, right past all the spectators.  One of my co-workers in Thailand had told me all about it and it got pretty good reviews so I made a day trip out of it.  The tour was pretty fantastic.  The guide was giving us information before we even pulled away from the curb.  Along the way, we stopped at various places including a kangaroo farm and a koala reserve.  It was cool to see Australia's most famous inhabitants up close.  Following that we grabbed dinner in the town of Cowes on the island.  I had my first real cheeseburger in 6 months and it was awesome.  After that, it was time for the main event.  It was pretty funny.  The little penguins just march right past all the people on the beach, completely oblivious to everyone.  I have some pictures of the other animals and of the views but we weren't allowed to take pictures of the penguins marching.  The pictures I did get can be seen below.

They're not very friendly animals.

Koala

The view from Cowes

The penguins climb the cliffs in the background.

The next day, Thursday, I went into the center of Melbourne to the Old Melbourne Gaol, the city's old prison.  Australia, being that it was founded as a colony for British criminals, has a long and interesting history with its jails.  Sydney had more of the criminal population than Melbourne but the Melbourne Gaol was really interesting nonetheless.  It told stories and showed exhibits about the prisoners' daily lives and also told the stories of many of the famous prisoners at the prison.  One in particular, an Irishman named Ned Kelly, is especially prominent.  It's very clear in visiting the museum that Australians are pretty fond of their criminal ancestors.  In addition to learning about the history of the jail and its inhabitants, part of the tour involved being locked up in the holding cells next door that were used right up until 1994.  They treat you like a prisoner for about 20 minutes and put you in the cells that were most commonly used as drunk tanks.  It was pretty funny.  After leaving the prison, I headed to the free tram that Melbourne has around the city.  It was nice to get a complete view of everything.  That night, I hung out with the Irish guys again at the hostel bar and met a few other people from Australia and England.

Melbourne Gaol

Inside the Gaol

Locked up in the drunk tank

The following day was my last in Melbourne.  I decided to head to the Shrine of Remembrance.  It was originally set up as a memorial to Australian soldiers in WWI but has since been expanded to honor all Australian soldiers who have served overseas.  It was really an awesome place.  I find it fascinating, after seeing so many monuments in Washington D.C. and various other places around the U.S., to see the monuments that other countries have to their soldiers.  The Shrine of Remembrance in particular was especially well done.  After visiting the Shrine, I headed over to the main area in the city, Federation Square, and went to the Australian Center for the Moving Image.  It's a museum set up to show the evolution of film from the earliest silent movies right up to the smart phones of today.  I really enjoyed it.

Shrine of Remembrance

Part of the WWI and WWII memorials

View of the city from the Shrine

Federation Square

Rod Laver Arena

Saturday my time in Melbourne came to an end.  I had to catch a 7 am flight (I wasn't a big fan of the band performing at the hostel bar downstairs Friday night as I tried to get some sleep) to Sydney.  I'm definitely thrilled with my last minute decision to head to Melbourne.  It's a really cool, smaller city with a very laid back vibe.  I hope one day I have the chance to head back for longer than four days.

Southern Thailand

Following my trip through Laos and Vietnam, I headed back to Bangkok for a much needed night of sleep in my apartment.  But it was a quick turnaround because roughly 15 hours after getting home I was heading back to the bus station to catch an overnight bus to Krabi Province in Southern Thailand.

Our group from Vietnam had all headed separate ways for a few days but we had plans to meet up at Railay Beach in Krabi.  I was there first and spent some time walking around checking out hotels on the three beaches at Railay.  I wound up at the "backpacker" beach, Tonsai Beach.  It's definitely one of my favorite places I've been in Thailand.  Both ends of the beach run directly into limestone cliffs and the land behind the beach is thick jungle.  This means that the only way to get to the beach is by boat.  It was awesome;  incredibly quiet and peaceful.  There were only a handful of hotels on the beach and the tourists were at a minimum.  I wound up grabbing a cheap bungalow with just a bed and a mosquito net, and it was perfect.  I spent the day enjoying the beach and then walked around the beach a little bit that night before heading to bed.

The beach to my right.

The beach to my left.

My favorite Thai beach

The next morning, Katie and Chelsea arrived, followed a few hours later by Lee and Steph.  We had a great day hanging on the beach and swimming in the crystal clear water.  In the afternoon I took out a canoe and checked out some of the areas around the cliffs.  Speaking of the cliffs, Railay is famous for its rock climbing and, although we didn't get to do any ourselves, it was awesome to look up into the cliffs and see ambitious climbers scaling them.  That night was one of my favorites in a long time.  We checked out a few different places and eventually settled on a Reggae bar on the beach.  We had a blast and it was a late night.  We were all hurting quite a bit the next day.

Enjoying the Reggae bar

Despite the late night, we were up early the next morning to catch the ferry to our next location, Koh Phi Phi.  I had already been to Phi Phi once before but I liked it so much I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go with this crew.  A few hours and some extreme nausea later, we arrived on Phi Phi.  We had heard about the opportunity to spend the night camping on Koh Phi Phi's most famous beach, Maya Bay, and knew it was an awesome idea.  Before we got to the beach though, we did a little snorkeling and I actually swam above two sharks.  It was surprisingly less frightening than I thought it would be because, before I even had time to process what I was seeing, they swam away.  The fact that they were only a few feet long and I wasn't staring into the eyes of Jaws probably helped too.  After the snorkeling, we headed over to Maya Bay.  Once the hundreds of tourists left the beach (better known as "The Beach" from the Leonardo DiCaprio movie) there were only forty of us left there to spend the night.  We had a blast.  We played drinking games and got to know the other foreigners who were with us.  Eventually, a guitar was pulled out and people started singing songs around the fire and the host company put on a pretty awesome fire show.  It is certainly one of the nights that will stick out in my memories of Thailand years from now.

Maya Bay

Hanging on the beach.

Setting up the sleeping mats for a night under the stars

The final night of our trip we checked into a guesthouse right in the heart of Koh Phi Phi.  The entire island is overrun with young foreigners and it has a kind of spring break feel to it but it was a lot of fun.  I managed to find a bar that was playing the BC vs. Clemson basketball game which was awesome (until we lost by 20).

The next day it was time to head home.  I've been back in Bangkok for a week now and I've been busy teaching a workshop for the science and math teachers at my school.  It has actually been great, they are very attentive students and I've really enjoyed the chance to get to know some of them better.

Sadly though, my time in Thailand has come to a close.  I head out Monday morning for the final leg of my trip, two weeks in Australia followed by a week in New Zealand.  I'll probably post some sort of wrap up of my time in Thailand and will there will definitely be posts about the last three weeks of my trip, so look for those in the future.

Vietnam

After having an amazing four days in Laos, our schedule led us to our next stop, Vietnam.  It's safe to say all three of us -  Lee, Steph, and I - were pretty nervous.  I had heard that Vietnam can be pretty intimidating at best and downright frightening at worst.  It was with both high anxiety about the week to come and serious sadness about leaving Laos that I boarded the plane headed for Hanoi.

Truth be told, my first impression of Vietnam was pretty good.  After landing and exchanging some money at the airport (1 USD = 20,000 Vietnamese Dong, yes they are called Dong), we made our way from the airport to our hostel in the Old Quarter of Hanoi without any serious problems.  We had to walk a bit of the way through the Old Quarter and I actually really enjoyed it.  Hanoi has a famous lake, Hoen Kiem Lake, at its center and at night the area all around it was lit up and looked really cool.  After dropping our bags off in our room and meeting up with our friend Becca, we headed to dinner.  Vietnam has some pretty legendary food and dinner lived up to its reputation.  The fresh spring rolls were fantastic.  As I said, my first impression of Hanoi was pretty good and I went to bed that night thinking my previous anxiety might have been unnecessary.

The next day I realized I was very wrong.  The only word I can use to describe Hanoi during the day is chaos.  It was absolutely crazy.  The shops and restaurants completely take over the sidewalks so you are forced to walk in the street.  This would be ok if the traffic in the streets wasn't INSANE.  There are motorbikes everywhere and God forbid they slow down to let you cross.  Crossing the street is a serious liability.  I suddenly had a lot of sympathy for that little frog in frogger.  In addition to all of this, the people were, in my opinion, incredibly unfriendly.  Now, I know that's a huge generalization and there were a number of people we met that were very nice, but overall, the people of Vietnam just don't even come close to having the level of hospitality that I've found in all of the other Southeast Asian countries I've visited.  I'm sure some people will say that the country's history with Westerners would lead them the have some hard feelings towards us but, be that as it may, the people were just plain rude.

The following pictures are of the same intersection over a 2 minute period:

Anyway, that first day was spent exploring the city.  The lake I mentioned previously was nice but that is pretty much the only highlight of day one in Hanoi.  That night, we went to one of the famous "bia hoy" places in Hanoi.  These places are known for their cheap, homemade beer (the cheapest in the world, according to one travel book).  The places basically consist of a collection of plastic chairs set up on random corners with a keg of beer in the middle.  I'm pretty sure they're illegal because we were forced to stand and pick up our chair every time the police came by.  It was definitely an interesting drinking experience.

Drinking "Bia Hoy" on the street corner

The next day we headed over to Hao Lo Prison.  This is where the Vietnamese kept American POWs during the Vietnam War (American War as they know it).  It was nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton" by American GIs.  The prison was actually really interesting.  I definitely enjoyed checking it out.  The part that addresses their treatment of American soldiers made it look like their time in the prison was practically a vacation, which I'm positive is entirely untrue, but overall it was a pretty cool thing to see.

John McCain's flight suit

That night consisted of one of the two parts of the trip that I was dreading, a 15 hour train ride.  The thought of spending 15 hours stuck in a train car was not the least bit appealing to me.  There were four of us making the trip so we tried to book a four person, "soft" sleeper cabin but they were all sold out and instead we were put into a six person, "hard" sleeper cabin.  I had fears of being forced to lay on a slab of wood listening to our two random bunk mates fart and snore all night.  The truth is though, it wasn't really that bad.  We got placed in a cabin with a very nice German couple and the "hard" beds just meant that the mattress was a little bit thinner.  We boarded the train around seven at night and, after getting used to having the ceiling of the train car mere inches above my face, I spent a few hours reading and then eventually got a decent night's sleep.  An hour after waking up, we arrived at our destination, the city of Danang.

Lee and Becca settle into our spacious digs.

Us and our German friends

Danang is really nothing to write home about but the beach near it, Hoi An, is known as one of Vietnam's premier beaches.  We caught a cab from the train station to Hoi An and checked into a really awesome hotel (the hotels we stayed in throughout Vietnam were all actually pretty nice and they were definitely cheap).  We then rented some bikes and rode down to the beach.  It was a pretty nice beach but the honest truth is it doesn't compare to some of the beaches I've been lucky enough to visit in Thailand.  The next day we checked out the town of Hoi An.  It is a cool, old town where the French influence in Vietnam is very apparent.  It is actually one of the few places in Vietnam that remained untouched during the Vietnam War.

That night, we embarked on the second part of the trip that I was dreading, a 17 hour train ride to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).  Knowing what to expect, I wasn't as nervous about this leg of the trip but I still wasn't looking forward to it.  The unfortunate part of the ride was that despite boarding the train at ten PM and sleeping all night, we didn't get to our stop until three the next afternoon.  It was definitely a long morning.

Fortunately, we made it to Ho Chi Minh City in one piece and all our overnight train journeys were officially behind us.  I liked Ho Chi Minh City far more than I liked Hanoi.  We met our friends Katie and Chelsea there and our first night was one of the most fun I had on the trip.  The six of us went to various spots on "pub street" and tried a few of the local beers.  Fortunately, unlike Hanoi, the bars on pub street were actual bars and not just plastic chairs set up on the sidewalk.

Our first night in Ho Chi Minh City

The next morning we signed up for a tour of the Mekong River Delta.  It was a fun experience.  We went up and down the river checking out various things like the floating market and a coconut candy factory.  We also stopped at one of the islands in the delta for lunch and got to check out the surrounding area.  It was pretty cool to see the way people live on the water.

The Mekong River Delta

Part of the floating Market

The next day was our final one in Vietnam.  I can't say I wasn't excited to head back to the comforts of Thailand (who would have guessed I'd be saying that five months ago?).  But before heading to the airport, I checked out the War Remembrance Museum.  This museum is dedicated to the war with America.  It was a really weird experience.  It was so odd walking around and looking at the exhibits and feeling like "the enemy."  Honestly, I had a lot of mixed feelings while at the museum but for the sake of this blog I'll just stick with the fact that it was a strange, albeit very interesting, experience.

After the museum, it was time to head home.  I really can't decide how I feel about Vietnam.  The truth is, I hated Hanoi and couldn't wait to leave there.  Although Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City were much better than Hanoi, Vietnam is definitely my least favorite of the four Southeast Asian countries I've been to.  I will say though, I'm very glad I had the chance to check it out but I don't see myself ever wishing to return there.

Up next on my Southeast Asian tour was a trip to the beaches of Southern Thailand.  That, though, is a story for another day...

Laos

I've just returned back to Bangkok after my two and a half week tour around Southeast Asia.  All told, I visited two cities in Laos, three cities in Vietnam, and two beaches in Southern Thailand.  For the sake of time, I'm going to break up the trip into three separate posts.  The first of which will be the one on Laos.

Laos is the most amazing country I've ever been to.  It's way up there on the list of most impoverished nations and really has very little in terms of quintessential major tourist sites or any sort of famous beaches, but it's unbelievably beautiful and the people are just awesome.  But before I continue my with my reasons for loving Laos and telling you about my overall impression of the country, I'll share a little bit of detail about my trip there.

I met my friends Lee and Steph at the train station to catch our 12-hour overnight train.  We were all excited to begin our two and a half week trip.  We decided to save a few bucks and just get seats on the train to the Thai-Laos border rather than sleeper berths.  It wasn't our best idea.  It was a pretty uncomfortable, cold ride and the bright lights inside the train remained on the whole time.  We definitely didn't sleep too much that night.  Nonetheless, we made it to the border in one piece around 6 in the morning on February 24th (a certain someone's birthday).  It was immediately clear how much better the relationship between Laos and Thailand is than the relationship between Cambodia and Thailand.  The border crossing into Laos was really well organized and very clean and safe while the one to Cambodia (which we had crossed the week before) was very chaotic and dirty.  So far so good for Laos in my book.

After crossing into the country, we were in the capital of Laos, Vientiane.  We had decided that Vientiane wasn't a priority for us and we had scheduled a flight to one of the oldest cities in Laos, Luang Prabang, for later that afternoon.  Before leaving Vientiane though we exchanged some money (150 USD got me 1.2 million Lao Kip) and grabbed some delicious breakfast sandwiches (impossible to find in Thailand).  So far, this country was off to a pretty great start.

We arrived in Luang Prabang around 4 in the afternoon and I was immediately blown away.  It's a little, old-time city built where the the Mekong River meets the Nam Khan River and it's completely surrounded by mountains.  It's unbelievably beautiful.  After finding a place to stay (a little guesthouse on the Nam Khan River) we set out to explore town.  We climbed the highest point in the city, the Phu Si Temple, to watch the sunset over the Mekong River.  The pictures below are my attempt at showing how awesome it was.

Luang Prabang

Coolest  City Ever

Mekong River

Mountain Temple

Sunset over the Mekong River

That night the three of us checked out the Luang Prabang night market (Steph claims it was one of her favorites and she has some serious knowledge of these things) then grabbed a delicious dinner and went out for some birthday drinks.  We had a really fun night but were thrilled to hit the sack after a very long day.

The next day Steph told us that it would be a good idea to bike 32 kms to some "local" waterfalls.  Lee and I, being lazy, felt it was a better idea to rent some motorbikes for the trip but Steph convinced us that biking would be a better experience.  I have to give her some credit here, it was pretty awesome.  I had some technical difficulties with the chain on my bike but made it to the waterfalls in one piece.  They were pretty cool and I snapped some good pictures which can be seen below.  The bike ride home was the best part though.  We passed through some amazing scenery during the trip.  The best part however, came when we rode through each of the three Laotian villages on the journey home.  Each time the kids of the village would shout at us and put out their hands for high fives.  It was a blast riding through the streets with a pack of kids running after us.  Not to mention, I felt pretty good about myself after biking 64 kms (40 miles).  I'm the next Lance Armstrong.

Paradise?

Waterfall

Local girl running after our bikes.

Steph and Lee with some local dudes.

The next day we decided to take it easy and just enjoy Luang Prabang.  We rented bikes again and rolled around town checking out the sights.  It was a great day that once again culminated in watching the sunset over the Mekong River.  That night we went to the night market again and I stocked up on some souvenirs.

Life in Laos.

There were monks everywhere.

Overall, Laos is probably the most amazing country I've ever been too.  Unlike much of Thailand, it's largely untapped by foreign tourism and as a result the natural scenery of the country is outstanding.  The people are so laid back and relaxed about everything.  It it hands down the most chilled out place I have ever been.  Perhaps my favorite thing about Laos though, was the food.  They had the best baked goods and sandwiches I've had since I left home.  Lee and I really enjoyed having baguettes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Unfortunately, the next day it was time to move on to the next stop on our tour of Southeast Asia, Vietnam.  We were all in for a shock.  If Laos is "chilled out" then Vietnam is exactly the opposite...

Cambodia

Now that teaching is over, I have some time to do some serious international travel all around Southeast Asia.  My travels will include three segments.  The first leg of my tour took place this past weekend with a trip to Cambodia.

I was really nervous about heading to Cambodia.  The country has only really become stable in the past ten years and even in that time it has had its share of problems.  I had read that the border crossing is a real pain in the neck and many of the officials at the border are very quick to charge outlandish fees.  It didn't help that every time I'd mention to one of my Thai co-workers that I was heading to Cambodia they'd groan and say "good luck with that." This reaction was probably due to the fact that Thailand and Cambodia aren't the friendliest of neighbors and as recently as two weeks ago shots were fired between the two armies at the border.

Despite all of this, a group of five of us set out to make the trek.  We decided it would be a good idea to head to the border on Thursday night and stay on the Thai side of the border that night. This would allow us to cross the border very early in the morning on Friday and beat all of the buses that leave Bangkok at 7 am to make the five hour trip.  We picked a cheap little motel in the border town and got a good night's sleep.  We woke up at 6 am and grabbed a tuk-tuk to the border.  Our plan worked out flawlessly and we had no trouble crossing the border.  The fees that they charged us were the correct ones and all of the instructions I had read beforehand were easily followed.  After crossing the border we needed to take a taxi the 150 kms to the town of Siem Reap.  Despite the fact that the taxi certainly overcharged us a bit, we were all thrilled to make it to our hotel without any major problems.  We considered it a pretty big accomplishment after all of the horror stories that we had read.

Siem Reap is the home of the famous ruins of Angkor Wat.  We knew that we didn't have enough time to explore many areas of the country so we went straight to the country's top dog.  Apparently, the ruins, which are hundreds of years old, are the result of the tradition by the ancient Khmer kings that each new king must build a bigger and better temple than his predecessor.  This, naturally, led to some pretty impressive buildings over time.  All that I had read/seen about the temples got me pretty excited to check them out.

After arriving in Siem Reap and getting settled at our guesthouse, we decided that we didn't have enough time to explore the ruins that evening but we'd make a full day of it the next day.  So instead, we spent Friday evening trying out the local beers at a pool bar in town.  Cambodia actually has some pretty delicious beers.  After having the same two Thai beers for the past six months, it was a real treat to try a few of the Cambodian options.  Okay, all of the Cambodian options.  Two that stand out in my mind are Black Panther Stout (the best name/can design award) and Angkor Wat Beer.  Despite the deliciousness of many of these beers, none of them compared to the joy I felt when I opened a cooler at one convenient store and saw an ice cold Budweiser staring back at me.  My buddy Lee and I were pretty thrilled about that one.

Lee and I with one of our favorite Cambodian beers.

Okay, enough about beer.  The real star of the weekend was the the ruins.  We woke up at 4:45 am Saturday morning because many of my fellow travelers wanted to see the sunrise at the temples.  We had arranged for a tuk-tuk driver to drive us around all day for a grand total of 15 dollars (surprisingly, Cambodia uses US Dollars as the default currency).  Our driver, Boran, picked us up at 5 am and we headed to the ruins.  I am not a morning person but I must say, seeing the sun rise over the temple ruins was pretty awesome.  After watching the sunrise, we headed inside the main temple, Angkor Wat. (To be clear, the area is know as the Angkor temples but there is also a specific temple, the most notorious of them all, named Angkor Wat.)  Angkor Wat was pretty spectacular;  it's absolutely enormous.  The work that must have gone into the place must have been tremendous.  Pictures are the only things that can really do justice to it so here they are:

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

The ancient temple of Angkor Wat

Inside Angkor Wat

After visiting Angkor Wat we grabbed some breakfast and Boran took us to the best ruins in the area.  There are over 50 temple ruins at Angkor so we needed to limit ourselves to the ones that sounded the coolest.  Of the ones we saw, two stick out in my memory.  The first was Bayon.  It was a labyrinth of crumbling walls and staircases.  There were hundreds of people walking around the temple while we were there but it was still very easy to get lost and find yourself in an abandoned hallway or an empty courtyard.  The coolest part about the temple were the giant pillars made of stone that had huge faces carved into each of the four sides.  Here are some picture of Bayon:

Bayon

Giant face pillars

It was like a maze.

Empty courtyard

The second very memorable temple that we visited was Ta Prohm.  It is known as the jungle temple.  The temple was built deep in the jungle and is now so old, and so worn down, that giant trees actually grow out of the walls and on top of the temple.  This one, like Bayon, was so enormous that it was easy, and really fun, to get lost in the temple.

Ta Prohm

Awesome

It's falling down

After grabbing a quick lunch and seeing a few other temples, we were exhausted.  I think Boran was a little bit bummed when we asked him to take us back to our guesthouse.  He was a great guy and we had a lot of fun with him throughout the day.  Upon arriving back at the hotel, we all crashed for a few hours.  We woke up around 6:30 pm and headed to the market so the girls could do some shopping while Lee and I continued our taste of Cambodian beers.  We had a really fun night that night on "pub street" in town.  I actually ran into a guy I knew from high school.  It certainly is a small world.

The next morning we woke up and headed straight to the border.  The trip home was definitely a little bit longer than the one on the way there but it wasn't terrible.

Overall, I was thrilled with Cambodia.  The people were amazingly friendly and always willing to talk. In fact, they spoke far better English than any Thais I've met, and I really enjoyed my time in the country. I know I only saw a small portion of the it but, nonetheless, it was a great experience.

In about an hour I head off for the second leg of my Southeast Asia tour.  I will be going to Laos with my friends Lee and Stephanie.  After four days in Laos we head to Vietnam for a week where we will meet up with some more friends.  Following that, I'll be traveling through parts of Thailand, most likely Southern Thailand, before finally heading back to my apartment around March 14th.  It will definitely be a great three weeks.