March 12, 2010 – Day 442 – Ha Long Bay to Hanoi, Vietnam

Bang, bang bang! “Hello! Get up!” Bang, bang! “Hello! Kayaking!”

And that was at 6:30am. We had not even had breakfast yet and were just waking up when we heard the call for hello kayaking. Shaking the sleep from our bones we dropped into our 2 person kayak and paddled around the bay.

Kayaking too early

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March 11, 2010 – Day 441 – Ha Long Bay

Bright and early this morning we went “trekking.” Usually this means walking around on paved sidewalks with some kind of vegetation nearby, although that is optional. Today they actually meant some serious hiking. Inside Cat Ba National Park we climbed over tree roots and through slippery mud to get to the top of the big hill for a nice view of the island.

She'll be coming round the mountain

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March 10, 2010 – Day 440 – Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

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

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March 3-4, 2010 – Day 433-434 – Phonsavan, Laos

First day we arrived and it was freezing!! Of course we were still in shorts since Vientiane was so warm. We rested a bit the first day and checked around to see how exactly we wanted to go about seeing the Plain of Jars.

Jars... on a plain

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February 24, 2010 – Day 426 – Luang Prabang, Laos

At the last minute we decided to jump on a minibus heading for the Khuangsi Waterfall, about 30km outside Luang Prabang. The waterfall is actually a series of different size pools with ice cold, aqua blue water in the middle of the woods.

Backflip into the pool

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February 23, 2010 – Day 425 – Luang Prabang, Laos

We walked to the top of Phousi Hill, the site of a very old wat that looks over the city. It was a nice breezy view—we could even see the puny airport from the top! It’s been pretty hot in Luang Prabang and it was a welcome chance to get out of the heat for a bit. We were so winded for climbing a few stairs that we had to go repair to our room to watch HBO. (What’s that you say? Burned out? Nooooo, of course not!)

Vew over the city

Stupa at the top

December 9-10, 2009 – Day 349-350 – Alleppy, India

Spent the 9th hanging around town and home, not doing much. The 10th we took an awesome boat trip through Kerala’s famous backwaters.

On the river

November 24, 2009 – Day 334 – Anjuna Beach, Goa, India

We started our morning with a long, brisk walk…to the ATM. From town, the ATM is 2.5km, just next to the Domino’s (yes, there really is a Domino’s there). After walking back to town, we walked another couple of kilometers to check out Vagator Beach. We were hoping it would be as beautiful as we had heard it was and, feeling a little disappointed with Anjuna, we were ready for a nice beach. There are two ways to get to Vagator Beach from Anjuna Beach: the road and the path by the water which is supposedly about half a kilometer shorter than the road way.

Vagator

November 17, 2009 – Day 326 – Mumbai, India

We really packed in a full sightseeing tour of Mumbai today! We started the morning with a taxi ride to the Hanging Garden for a nice view of the beach and a bit of the city. The garden is very pleasant and extremely well maintained and for this reason, many Indians like to spend time walking around and people watching (yes, they stare at each other too), especially since the park is free to go in. Across the street is another smaller park where we passed a mini-market with 8-10 tables of random wares for sale and the giant shoe to check out the view.

Hazy day on the beach

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November 15, 2009 – Day 324 – Udaipur, India

So the sun is shining and making the lake in town look very pretty! The Lake Palace is glistening white out in the middle of the lake and the ghats are busy with locals doing their washing. We took a walk to Fateh Sagar lake that looked a lot like the one in town. It is pretty…from the right sightline. The edge we came to was strewn with garbage and the water was lower than normal since there has been a drought in the recent weeks (according to some locals we asked).

Gazebo over the lake

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