With two hot, sweaty days and nothing of interest within the city to see or do, we spent two hot, sweaty days on Nha Trang beach soaking up the last bit of sun we can before we go home.

You can really taste the heart attack

We even applied for our first jobs during this time and are now completely freaked out that we are actively seeking employment. It doesn’t feel like it is really happening, or at least not to us. A kind of surreal feeling to be this close to going back to our home country to no home, job (not even any prospects), and no possessions aside from a large wooden dinosaur cut-out and a few boxes of books.

View down the beach

This morning we began day one of our 3 day/2 night Ha Long Bay tour. With a mini bus ride at 8AM and then boarding the boat at 3PM, it turned out to be quite a travel day. Once we were settled aboard the ship, we were set to cruise around the bay.

Boats in the bay

Ha Long is really beautiful even on foggy days and despite the amount of tour boats, it is still a really enjoyable and peaceful ride through the massive rocky islands. Lunch was served on the boat—bony fish, lots of rice and vegetables. We took a pit stop at a brightly lit cave with safe, even walkways and colorful lights to check out some stalactites. It was really nice inside but is was a little cheesy with all the lights and signs and smoothly paved walkways.

View through the bay

Boat in the bay

Random boat side view

Finally just in time for dinner, we arrived at Cat Ba Island where we would spend our first night in a hotel.

Two travel days right in a row. Yuck! We just can’t seem to sit still! On the way from Muang Sing to Luang Nam Tha, we were stuffed into an 11 passenger van that was actually transporting 16 passengers. Saben’s seat was a fold down metal bar and Lin’s was some random part of the van behind the front reclined-passenger seat, facing the other 15 passengers.

Girl waiting at the bus stop

With one of many unscheduled stops on the 2 hour journey, the driver bought 2 chickens from a sizable pile of other dead birds and animals. One of the other passengers bought a dead leopard cat for its fur. A nice looking fur but a little limp. The poachers obviously wouldn’t let us take any photos but pretty neat just the same.

Lao Laap, fried chicken

In Nam Tha, we dropped the bags in yet another guest house and get some lunch. Next day was a shitty 10 hour day filled with the sounds of Lao music videos. A full, un-ending 10 hours of suicide inducing behavior in futile attempts to just make it stop. If you have never seen a Lao music video, think of the worst 1980s American music video you can recall. Then multiply the lameness of it by 288, add some Lao lyrics, and perpetual slow motion. There, now you’ve got a Lao music video! They all look like something a 6th grader would put together sometime in early 1991. It’s honestly beyond painful. If the bus had been going fast enough, we would have happily thrown ourselves from the windows in hopes of the tires smashing us to bits. Instead, we arrived fully in tact at Luang Prabang well after dark. We ate dinner at a tent in the market. It was a chicken sandwich with lots of flies crawling all over. Tasty.

So it’s officially 2010. Feels nice, like a clean sheet of paper and sharpened pencil. Ready for anything!

Best way to start the new year

Maybe it’s just our imagination but it seems like the sky is more bright blue, the water is more clear, and the temperature is just comfortably warm. After a fun day on the beach, we walked to the tip of the island just before sunset. We picked up some (already very dead) coral along the way thinking they will be nice reminders of Koh Samet on some rainy, cold day at home.

The end of the island

Lindsey at the end of the island

After getting some of the sand off us, we went back out for a nice dinner to say ‘Thank You’ to Latham for helping us out while we are away and for coming all this way just to see us.

Dinner

Dinner was delicious: Fried pork and pineapple with steamed white rice, prawns with basil and chili, prawns in garlic sauce, and springs rolls with homemade duck sauce. Yum! It was quite a feast and it was about all we could do to get back up the little hill to our home All in all, a great start to 2010, indeed!

It’s New Year’s Eve! And what better way to start the last day of the year than with a glorious dose of Thai sunshine and a big breakfast. In case you’re curious, breakfast in Thailand for us consists of omlettes, toast, fresh fruit (watermelon, banana, and pineapple), bacon, and hot tea. That’s the breakfast of champions right there.

Lindsey awaiting breakfast

Of course, no day would we complete with the majority spent at the beach. Or, more correctly, in the unbelievably clear ocean.

But now, for the real story of New Year’s Eve.

The entire coast of the island was thumping and blinking brightly with the music and colored lights. Every light on the island must have been on. Hell, we were probably visible from space tonight! Thais and foreigners alike strolled the beach, some looking fabulous and some looking comfortable, relishing the last day of 2009.

The island light up

All throughout the night fire lanterns were being set off from the beach; picnic blankets littered the sand with groups of friends and BYOB gatherings next to the bustling packed restaurants and beach bars. Fireworks went off at all places and times so you had to be careful to watch were you were walking lest you receive a bottle rocket to the face. Everyone was buzzing with excitement and energy at being able to celebrate the new year on such a magnificent place.

Firedancer

We watched a crazy fire show performed in front of one of the restaurants that was packed with 300 or so patrons and another 200 or so outside in a giant circle around the fire dancers. Most of the boys looked to be about 15-16 years old, a few maybe 18-19 but barely more. That’s one thing, you never see an old fire dancer. They put on quite a show that lasted almost an hour.

Us setting our hopes for the future afloat

Latham setting off his lantern

Close to midnight, we set off our own fire lanterns, sending our hopes and wishes for 2010 along with them. Amazing how such a simple little thing can make you feel so happy. They floated up into the sky along with dozens of others. All night it looked as if the full blue moon was gathering up everyone’s lanterns and wishes under her wing for safe keeping.

Lantern floating over the island

We spent our evening walking up and down the beach drinking and laughing and enjoying the atmosphere and trying to avoid being blown to bits with some of the fireworks drunk people had taken to setting off. It was incredible, truly, because there aren’t sufficient words to describe how awesome the night was or all the sights and smells and sounds or the energy in the air. It was great to be alive and even greater to be on Samet for this.

Happy New Year!

Us!

Fireworks

Saben and Latham

When midnight came, some of us kissed, some smoked celebratory cigars, and we all toasted to the beginning of what Lin and Saben think will be a most excellent year. Happy New Year!

Despite the beautiful weather early this morning, it turned out to be a kind of grey, stormy-ish day. Saben and Latham tried to go snorkeling but the water was a bit too murky without any sun and didn’t get to see much. Started sprinkling rain mid-afternoon so we made today an internet and drinking inside kind of day. Better luck tomorrow!

Random beach shot

After a stout breakfast of eggs and toast, we set out for a walking tour of the city’s main attractions. We left Khao San district and headed for the sizable Democracy Monument.

Democracy Monument

We crossed the massive intersections and continued on to check out the Giant Swing—a leftover from religious festivals that is no longer used due to the high number of deaths that occurred on it (or off it, rather). Across the road from the swing were the remnants of a “Bangkok 50 Years Ago” expo complete with excellent (and no doubt expensive!) classic cars from the 1940s and ’50s. Beautiful pieces of art!

The Giant Swing

If you look closely you can see a little drool starting to pool

On our way to Wat Pho we detoured into a quiet, serene city park with beautiful flowers and fat koi fish gobbling up bits of food left by some kind heart or happy child. Bangkok is so beautiful, organized, clean, and just fabulous all around. The King really knows how to take care of his people and his country.

Canal running by the park

Wat Pho was absolutely stunning. Thai architecture really celebrates Buddhism in a special way. It’s neat to see how different Chinese, Tibetan, and Thai people all celebrate Buddhism with slightly varied and all equally beautiful architecture.

Inside the complex

Wat Pho’s large complex just sparkles and glitters when the sun shines brightly on the colorful roof tiles of the smaller wats. On top of the sheer magnificence of the complex, we got to see the world’s largest reclining Buddha! Covered in gold with mother of pearl inlay on the soles of the feet, it is a truly impressive sight.

It's huge

Light reflecting off the glazed tile roof

We lunched at a sidewalk stand on fried pork and rice, a simple but tasty meal, while we watching the traffic roll by. We are definitely fully appreciating the lack of horn honking here! Even if you are standing right in front of a car’s path, the will not honk at you. It’s great! Maybe all that hearing damage from India can be halted and prevented from worsening toward complete deafness.

Nothing like tasty street food

On the way back home, we stumbled across a long sidewalk flea market. It was not directed toward tourists so the stuff for sale was really neat and better priced than the usual markets. Tiny metal figurines of Buddha, old postcards, random collections of second hand clothing, shoes, and bags, jewelry, semi precious stones and carved religious images and so on. Great fun seeing what we could find!

Oodles of Idols

We absolutely love Thailand and we have only been here for a few days. There could be no better medicine for coming from India than to come to Thailand. Just imagine if we had visited Thailand first! At any rate, we are thoroughly enjoying everything about this place. The people are so wonderful, the food is incredibly tasty, everything is so clean and organized, and the country itself is so beautiful.

With our one year mark and a new travel mate in hand, we set out to start out Thailand sightseeing right. We hopped on the public ferry and rode the river to the skytrain.

View down the river

We got to see the cliffnotes version of Bangkok’s main attractions from the water: the Royal Palace, the Temple of Dawn, a very large Christian church, some great modern architecture mixed with some traditional Thai architecture, some amazingly huge and beautiful 5-star hotels, and just generally some good stuff. And all for the tune of 18 baht/pp!

Temple of dawn

At the last stop we got off and found the Skytrain, an immaculately clean and pleasantly air conditioned above-ground metro. For 30 baht we went all the way to Moh Chit to check out the Chatuchak Weekend Market.

massive market from above

It’s got everything! Clothing, furniture, household decor like candle holders, decorative trays, chopsticks, shoes, music and DVDs, books, trinkets, jewelry, even a few Chinese wares in the mix. There are also all kinds of food and drink stalls for when you need to refuel from all that shopping.

Quail eggs

Pad thai, fried jumbo shrimp, cups of fresh fruit, fried rice, grilled meat on a stick, ice creams, and more. Even if you don’t feel like buying anything it is still an entertaining place to just walk around.

Fried fish and shrimp

In the market

After a long day of walking and shopping, we made our way back to Khao San for some dinner and a noisy night out with much beer drinking and food cart eating in the streets!

A full day of “sightseeing” in Fort Kochi is really all it takes. It is a pleasant little town and would be a wonderful, quiet place to spend 2 or 3 days. We are running a bit short on time and decided to do a day-tour.

Chinese fishing nets

Walking down by the water, we passed through the fish market of the early morning catches. You can buy a fish at this market and take it to one of the few small places in town who will cook it for you. Depending on the kind of fish, it might cost you anywhere from Rs.30 upward for the fish and usually only Rs.40-50 for some place to cook it and provided you with a small salad and chips (sometimes even a chai as well).

Bringing in the catch

Along the water are rows of small fishing boats and plenty of colorful characters who like to chat with foreigners and often ask for photos (and a tip, too!). The Chinese nets are along the waterfront and in the mornings, the workers drop and raise the nets hoping to catch something good. Each net has a captain and crew who manually work the weighted ropes (rocks tied to the ends) that raise and lower the nets.

Pulling up the nets

After watching some fishing, we walked out to the end of the bay where the ocean waves spill noisily against rock. Honestly, it is not very nice, just a bit run down and littered thanks to careless inhabitants and domestic tourists who come to Kochi in droves. Heading back toward town, we just kept walking and eventually made it to Jewtown. We passed the former Dutch Palace, the shop fronts and the synagogue before turning back.

The Synagogue

For us, there was little of interest but we did enjoy taking a walk. For Kochi is not a lively place and the volume of tourist attractions is pretty low compared to many other Indian destinations. However, it is still a very enjoyable place to visit! It’s a pretty, peaceful and relaxing place to escape the bustle of north India.

Travel Tip:

Some things to know about Kochi. It’s old name is Cochin and many people still call it so. As with most places in Kerala, it has multiple names (just look at the capital city’s names!) Kochi is a pretty big city and Fort Kochi is an island, the place that tourists really enjoy the best. Fort Kochi is a small town itself but has plenty of guest houses and hotels, many restaurants, internet cafes and supermarkets, travel agencies, and a large children’s park in the center of town. It’s a busy place for people of all ages as it is literally across the street from the water where the famous Chinese nets are.

The restaurants in town are nearly all tourist places and have prices that are unbelievably expensive compared to most places in India. There were only 2-3 places we could find all over town that were cheaper. One of those was the “Talk of the Town” and is NOT recommended. We were served a lassi that was literally covered in ants and when our meal arrived, it was actually dripping with oil (it was simple vegetable thali, nothing too complicated). On top of that, the service was bad and definitely not worth the cost savings that attracted us in the first place. We did find a place just down the road from this restaurant called “Fish O’ Chips” with a cheery red and white sign. It’s a nice little cafe style restaurant with decent prices and good food.

If you were to walk left out of Kochi’s jetty, you would eventually come into Jewtown (yes, it’s really called that), which is where the Mattancherry ferry dock is located. It’s maybe a 15-20 minute walk from Kochi, quite easy and flat, through town with lots of local shops for things like hardware, onions or garlic, large sacks of flour, etc. (Of course you can also take the ferry from Kochi straight to Mattancherry if you don’t want to visit Fort Kochi.)

Jewtown is the area where many Jews settled during the Dutch reign in India. Today Jewtown is a characterized by its one synagogue and the market street with street stalls and many shops selling rugs, bed covers, pashminas, metalwares, and so on. The synagogue is open to visitors who are asked to remove shoes, cover shoulders and knees before entering. If we recall correctly, it opens at 3pm but we didn’t take note of the hours for the whole week (we visited on a Monday, just fyi). It’s a fairly small neighborhood and will easily be enjoyed on foot in maybe an hour or so, depending on how much/if you want to do any shopping.

Up to a good start with a hard workout this morning and a good breakfast (eggs, toast, fresh veggies, and black tea—yum!) before hitting the beach. As beautiful as Palolem Beach is, it can be tough to face the reality that it’s overrun with tourists and touts, cows and boats, and more touts!

A little over crowded

After taking in as much sun as our skin could handle (we’ve got some red patches okay!) we trucked across the street from our guest house for some delicious veg thali (rice, thick lentil soup, cooked mixed veggies, and a small fresh salad) for a delightful Rs. 40/pp (that’s about US$0.90 for a very filling meal!).

Fish Thali

Wanting to stay out of the sun we caught a late afternoon TV movie in our room and lazed about indoors for the rest of the night.