Siem Reap and Halong Bay

So the last week has gone by very quickly. So far 3 nights in Siem Reap, Cambodia and another 3 nights in Vietnam (2 in Hanoi and 1 on a cruise boat on Halong Bay)... lots to say! Firstly, mom has been a pretty good traveler. We have had some long days and seen a lot, with many of encounters with motos, but overall she has done very well and kept up with me.

So Cambodia... On our 45 min flight they managed to crank out a meal and beer, not sure why, but it was ridic! We arrived in the evening and had already arranged for a driver/guide to take care of us for our short time there (thanks Seth and Romi for the great recommendation, happy to share info about our guide with others headed that way). Mom was excited to see a "Fetterhoff" sign at the the small Siem Reap airport. We got to bed early anticipating a long couple days. Our first day we bypassed the main attraction, Angkor Wat, and hit six other temples... who knew?! The temples were amazing, dating back 900+ years, dedicated to mothers, fathers, common people, etc. A highlight was the temple used in the film Tomb Raider. I really don't think mom was sure why we were in Siem Reap until she saw the temples... and she was instantly impressed.











The temples really were like something just out of a movie and were better than what I was expecting. Our second day began with a 4:30am wake up, arriving at Angkor Wat for 5:30am sunrise. It was a bit of a tourist zoo, but once the sun rose it was obvious to see why hundreds of people had shown up for this awesome occasion. After touring Angkor Wat we visited a small monastery before visiting Angkor Thom. Angkow Thom is another nearby temple with 250+ faces. For those of you "Legends of the Hidden Temple" fans, this is where Omek had to have come from! It was another amazing temple and really capped of the temple visits nicely. After that we visited a floating village. This was a fun boat trip to basically see fisherman who live in floating houses. It was a bit touristy, but also very cool.

A bit about Siem Reap... It was a dusty town that is growing up quickly because of tourism. It reminded me a lot of Central American towns, but more developed. They have a hilarious "Pub Street," much like Bourbon Street, with all the bars. Siem Reap has a major advantage though b/c they sell beer for $.50-1.00... I can drink a lot of .50 beers! We stayed right near downtown Siem Reap and were accessible to many bars, restaurants and markets. We did some damage at all of them, but at very little expense. It is a backpacker haven and I think anyone could find some fun there.

From Siem Reap we hopped a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. Arriving later in the evening we didn't have a good chance to see much of Hanoi on the first night. but were there long enough to know that this is a city of chaos... and I'm speaking mostly of the traffic. It was like nothing I had seen before... more on that...

We had a early wake up after our first night in Hanoi and were shuttled off to Halong Bay for a 24-hour cruise of the bay. It was a painful 4.5 hour shuttle from Hanoi, but worth it. Halong Bay was definitely one of the most picturesque places I have been (and seen many pictures of in the past). We had a fairly luxurious cruise with about 14 other awesome people from around the world, where they fed us like kings and treated us to some awesome sights and experiences. We had a couple very touristy excursions to a floating fishing village (yes, 2 in 72 hours) and a cave. I wasn't expecting much from either, but was pleasantly surprised by both. Also there was a bit of swimming, cooking lesson, happy houring and thai chi (which mom was really into). Great experience overall.


 

After an equally painful ride back to Hanoi, we checked into a hotel and relaxed before hitting the town. Hanoi is chalk-full of motos. It is almost too crazy to cross the street. I really have seen no place like it. In the old city there are no stop signs or traffic lights and hundreds of intersections... proceed with caution is the name of the game. I coaxed mom into eating dinner at a street stall about 6 blocks from our hotel. After one bia hoi (local .25 draft beer) and friendly staff and neighbors sitting around us, she was convinced this was a good idea. Once the tasty food arrived that helped! Also 6 beers and 2 meals for $6-7 seemed like a good deal.

Today, mom and I had a good wander around the city. During the day we probably dodged 500 motos, no joke. We visited the "Hanoi Hilton," the former prison in Hanoi for POWs and a beautiful lake Hoan Kiem, in addition to some other awesome sights. Despite the chaos that is Hanoi, it was relaxing day filled with more good food, beer and immersion into this fascinating way of life. Everywhere you looked it was easy to say "you're not in Colorado Springs
anymore."

DC to Denver to Bangkok

I recently made the difficult decision to leave DC, the place where I have spent the last 6 years. There is lots I love about DC, but it felt like it was time to go. Leaving friends and co-workers was difficult, but wonderful inventions like the information superhighway and airplanes make these the people not so far away... Speaking of difficult decisions, this major decision forced me to make another much easier decision... get my travel on while I have the chance! SE Asia it is!

I drove out of DC at noon on September 30 and arrived back in Colorado Springs around 10 p.m. on October 1. Driving 1,750 miles over a day and half is not fun, but there were no snags, so I consider myself lucky. I spent a couple days in the Springs and Sunday in Denver for the Broncos game before heading to DIA first thing Monday morning. Dad drove mom and I to the airport before the sun came up on Monday... oh wait, mom is coming?! I failed to explain...

During my last weekend in DC I alerted my family that I was taking off to SE Asia for the rest of October. Getting little enthusiasm from the parent gallery, I essentially invited/dared my mom to come with me. Little did I know she would bite! A week in advance I booked my mother's ticket to join me for the first part of my trip. She will be with me for Bangkok, Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), Cambodia and Hanoi/Halong Bay, Vietnam, before flying back to the states. Let me just tell you my retired second-grade school teacher mother does not have an ounce of spontaneity in her blood... I guess she proved me wrong (I also think she surprised herself).

Ok, back to the trip... the flight from DEN > LAX > TOYKO > BANGKOK was long and uneventful. Tacking on another 10,000 miles to my cross country trip within a week makes me think I should just finish a quick around the world journey while I am at it! The highlight of the trip was a 5 hour layover in LA where my brother picked me up and took me to lunch at Manhattan Beach. It sure beat the hell out of sitting at dumpy LAX. We arrived in Bangkok around 11pm, with just enough time to catch the final train into the city.

Our first day in Bangkok, I got mom started right lowering expectations of how fettyfun travels. Lots of walking and eating at obscure places (haha). We walked about 25 minutes to the main sites in the city, on the way we stopped for some tasty bfast soup featuring noodles and pork. We also ventured through a beautiful garden. After that we visited the amazing Wat Pho temple, home of some amazing architecture and a giant reclining Buddha. We followed that up with a visit to the nearby Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace. Again, these were amazing sites. When you see images of Thailand aside from the beaches and elephants, these temples are what I picture. After our temple visits and a downpour of rain we were starved and found a great stall by the river for some Phad Thai and drunken noodles. Mom claimed it was the best she ever had!

After a quick rest, we ventured out for the evening, via the metro and our two feet, to a cool rooftop bar recommended by Thai expert Laura H. Great views of the city and overpriced drinks and apps really were a great ending to our first night in Bangkok.

The next day we visited a nearby temple (Wat Traimit) with an awesome golden Buddha and wandered around Chinatown, the neighborhood we were staying in. Mom's favorite part about getting around Bangkok streets and sidewalks were the motos, they were all pretty much out to get her! That afternoon we took a taxi (another mom favorite) to a Thai cooking class in the old part of town. Mom and I were the only students that afternoon and really enjoyed the private class, first visiting a local market (via tuk-tuk, again a transportation favorite of moms) and buying provisions, before making green curry paste, tom yum soup, green curry chicken, Phad Thai and sticky rice with mangoes. A long walk home to work off our massive meal, ensured that we were down for the count that night.

Right now we are waiting at the airport to get to Cambodia... We have had multiple cancelled flights to Siem Reap, but are sure we will get there early this evening. More to come...

Whirlwind Portugal, So. Spain, Morocco (with a side of Istanbul)

Million $ view from hotel

Aya Sofya

A $600 r/t plane ticket was enough to finally lure me back to the Eastern Hemisphere. It had been since 2008, when I spent three weeks in Germany and Italy, since my last time in Europe. I will not wait that long again! I picked an itinerary that had been on my radar for quite some time. Portugal (a country I had never been), Sevilla, Spain (a city I had heard wonderful things about) and Morocco (a country I had never been to and wanted to check out).  Along the way I was lucky enough to get to see a few other places I didn't expect (even if for a brief time) like Istanbul, Faro, Cadiz, Tarifa, Malaga, with an encore of Istanbul again.

Aya Sofya mosaic

Istanbul sweets!

Let me say that flying through Istanbul (the great deal was through Turkish Airlines), seemed real painful on paper (given extra flights and overnights in Istanbul), but was a blessing since Istanbul is an amazing city that I might not have sought out otherwise. Granted I only spent 40 hours there, but those 40 hours were well worth it. Both times I stayed within a stones-throw of Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. Both of these building are truly larger-than-life. Luckily I had the opportunity to visit each of them as well. Aside from wandering around that area I also traversed the Grand Bazaar (no, I didn't buy anything) and spent a good deal of time wandering around the Beyoglu and up and down Istiklal Caddesi marveling at the throngs of people out at all hours of the night. Up there I stumbled upon some great food (kebabs and doner kababs mostly... I couldn't get enough), fun bars, live bands, the Galata Tower and some world-class people watching. I had 40 hours, but really needed more like 40 days to get to see everything I wanted to see in Istanbul, but not too shabby for a quick layover.

ginjinha!

From Istanbul I headed to Lisbon (yes, 4 hours back the direction I came from) and to the bulk of the trip that was intended. I did not know much about Lisbon, but it too proved to be an amazing city (and definitely felt like I was in Europe, where Istanbul felt like a mishmash of many places). My only expectation for Lisbon was that they speak Portuguese, which is frustrating, but I found it to be much different than it was spoken in Brazil, also it helped that most people spoke English as well. Staying right in the middle of the city made it easy to roam around the different central neighborhoods. I did not expect Lisbon to be hilly, but it was, which made the city even more interesting with a view point looking over the water or the red tiled roofs pretty much everywhere. 

Lisbon

Though I know I missed some of the sights in Lisbon, I got a good enough taste to realize I would definitely go back. I did get to visit the Castelo de Sao Jorge (the big castle on the hill over looking the city), Pracado Comercio, Se (the big cathedral), Mosteiro de Sao Vicente de Fora, took a ride on Tram 28, drank some ginjinha (the local booze with boozey cherries) and got to stroll around the modern Parque das Nacoes. Strolling the neighborhoods in Lisbon was really the highlight of this city.


From Lisbon I took a train to Faro. The scenery the first part of the trip was ok, but further south it was amazing lush hills, etc., what I was hoping for. Faro is on the southern coast of Portugal. I had heard of it before since Ryan Air flew there from London. It was an impressive town of 40,000. The night in Faro also happened to be the main night of Carnival, giving the bars an excuse to stay open until 7 a.m. or later. I did partake in some Carnival fun, but not all night, as I had to grab a bus to Sevilla pretty early in the morning. Probably had one of my favorite meals of the trip in Faro (an awesome rump steak frites served with a grilled orange). The bus to Sevilla, Spain was a quick 3 hours.

Plaza de Espana

Sunny Sevilla was pretty amazing as advertised. 3 nights there gave a good opportunity to see lots of the city, though again I would love some more time there. The first morning the hotel suggested an excellent freeish walking tour, which was a great opportunity to get acquainted with the city, see the main sights and learn a little more. The cathedral, Giralda, Alcazar, Plaza de Espana and Metropol Parasol were all pretty awesome. The neighborhoods in Sevilla were also very interesting, finding a different hood to have tapas in each day added to the adventure. With the sun shining and excessive amounts of outdoor cafes, it was also quite easy to settle in with a cerveza and watch the day go by.