While our trip to Chiang Mai was restful and awesome, my boots got a bit wanderlusty and I wanted to check out this little town I had heard so much about- Pai Thailand. Tiffany was loving everything about Chiang Mai and wanted to stay in town so we decided to go our separate ways for a few days. I strapped my pack on my back and jumped in a bus and I was Pai bound!
The town of Pai is situated a bit northwest of Chiang Mai nestled in a beautiful verdant valley. Getting there requires overcoming the small hurdle of the 3 hour drive over an incredibly windy road. How windy you ask? Well, it has 762 turns (people actually have counted) and all the rest stops sell motion sickness pills – so be prepared. It’s a small price to pay for what awaits you in this quaint little town
Look a this beautiful river- PERFECT for tubing!
Pai is unlike any other Thai city I’ve visited. It’s laid back and has tons of stuff to do ranging from trekking to biking to yoga to floating in an inner tube down its lazy river. A river cuts the city in two with little guesthouses, hostels and restaurants dotting each bank.
When I got to Pai the one thing I had my heart set on was….tubing! Ever since I was a little kid in Oregon I’ve LOVED floating down a river in an inner tube and Pai did not disappoint. My friend Sonya was in town and we paid one of the many outfits to drive us up the river and dump us into massive truck tire inner tubes. Even though it was February it was still stupid hot and I was able to grab one big bottle of beer Chang before we left which made the rest of the float down the river all the more awesome. Slowly floating down the river we passed all sorts of scenes from peaceful nature to little kids blasting each other with water guns to yoginis working on their practice on a sundeck overlooking the river. After 2 1/2 hours of this chilaxitude, we were ushered ashore by the sharp eyed inner tube wrangler and our voyage came to a close.
One of the many food vendors plying their tasty wares on walking street
At night all the “action” in Pai happens on the main “walking” street. There countless food and merchant vendors vie for space with the throngs of tourists venturing here from every part of the globe. What blew my mind is that you can find everything from tacos to pizza to falafels being sold by some street vendor- and they’re all damn tasty too! At night the energy kicks up a few notches with most of the bars playing live music. Since Pai is a major backpacker magnet, you’ll see tons of elephant printed, harem pant wearing backpackers from all over the world sharing “bucket drinks” which are…basically buckets filled with Thai Whiskey and some ridiculously sweet mixer. With the sheer amount of friendly attitudes here, it’s easy to strike up a conversation with complete strangers and by the end of the chat, leaving as friends. Another interesting thing I wasn’t expecting from such a small town is the existence of an after hours scene. There are a whopping two nightclubs that go till the early morning selling tropical drinks to blacklight painted backpacking revelers- it’s a fun scene for sure but not one that’s anything remotely Thai.
One of the many gullies that snake through Pai Canyon
The next day I wanted to investigate the rest of the valley which has its own “Grand Canyon” along with some incredible vistas and a pure-white Buddha watching over the town. Sonya and I rented mountain bikes from the shop downtown and made the ride over rolling hills to the famous “World War 2 Bridge” which was built by the Japanese during their occupation of Thailand. It’s a major tourist draw but not that spectacular to look at (beyond its storied past). Pai Canyon was pretty cool to look at with its badlands-like hills that you can explore on foot-but be careful, some of the cliffs are pretty sheer and the drop is ridiculous.
Wat Phra THat Mae Yen and a fraction of the many steps you’ll climb to get here
Finally I made the mad bike ride up the winding road to the Wat Phra That Mae Yen– Pai’s massive white Buddha. To get there you’ve got to go up a steep road outside of town and then climb a ton of stairs out in the open. The view – and the Buddha- is worth it, but I would only do it on a cool day or in the morning or sunset- its just too hot otherwise.
And just like that, my time in Pai came to a close. I would love to come back someday – there feels like there’s more to see and experience here. While I can heartily recommend checking out Pai- I do so with one caveat. As awesome as Pai is, it’s the least “Thai” place we visited during our month in Thailand. While the guest houses and restaurants are fantastic and quaint, they’re all mostly owned by expats and there customers are- unsurprisingly- other non Thai tourists. In a nutshell, visit Pai for the serene scene but just don’t expect to get an authentically Thai experience.
Some of our favorite place in Pai
You can get an easy to follow Google Maps list of my favorite Pai locations here.
Peaceful. Tranquil. Serene. Laid back. Reverent. Up and coming. Laos is all of these things and above all else, unexpected. We traveled to Laos without knowing a whole ton about it other than it was beautiful and chill – it certainly delivered. After doing a bunch of research we decided to focus our time in Laos in the city of Luang Prabang and the area around it. While getting there from Vietnam was pretty easy, we had some serious bumps in the road.
Sunset over the fields of Luang Prabang
While traveling can be incredible- filled with amazing experiences and memories you’ll cherish for a lifetime- it also comes with some pretty big lows too (which help put things a bit in perspective). On our way to Laos, we had several of these happen to us all at once. To make sure you dear readers get the full story, we’ll share with you the unvarnished misadventures. First I lost one of my favorite travel accessories on the way to the airport and then in a completely freak accident on the plane, I had the toenail almost completely torn off (if you want to know the full, painfully gross backstory, buy me a drink when you see me next). I had to get patched up in mid-flight and spent the next few days doing my best Keyser Sose impression as I limped around Laos.
Not to be outdone, Tiffany came down with the WORST food poisoning she’s ever experienced and she was sick for 3 days straight.
One of the many wats you’ll find in Luang Prabang
Tiffany: Ya…..about that food poisoning. Since we are doing slow traveling we have been extremely selective on which hotels to splurge on and we decided to choose a 4 star resort in Laos. It was the biggest travel mistake that I made so far on this trip. Avoid Santi Resort & Spa at all cost. I got the worst case of food poisoning at the hotel restaurant. This was a 3 star hotel pretending to be a 4 star resort; do not waste your money here.
Tim: Ya. Fun times. Not so much. And So began our Laos trip- with Tiffany confined to our hotel room like a modern day Rapunzel and me with my messed up toe limping everywhere. I know, the perfect picture of travel bliss! But this is what travel is like sometimes and we wanted to ensure you dear reader get the whole picture of how this extended travel thing really is.
A wat gleaming in the night
When we did finally get to explore the city of Luang Prabang, we found a wonderful little town with lots of charm. When people talked about this Unesco Heritage town, they did not joke about the amount of gorgeous temples (Wats). Each one has their own magical Buddhas and bejeweled depictions of important scenes. Each Wat isn’t very big but the amount of detail packed into every inch is amazing. The town of Luang Prabang has one main street – Sisavangvong Road- that is dotted with all sorts of colorful French colonial buildings, each with their own little charm. On this main drag you’ll find one of the longest night markets ever where local artisans hawk everything from beautiful hand carved wood figures to ornate journals to the ever-in-southeast-Asia elephant print harem pants (y’know, part of the standard tourist Tiluminati uniform). One part of the market we really loved is affectionately called “buffet street” where you can find any kind of grilled product imaginable. Sausages, chicken, beef, fish, tofu- all in skewered form. You literally point at what you want and they grill it up for you.
Luang Prabang’s night market has everything from local handicrafts to….buffets?!
One of the biggest draws for Luang Prabang beyond the many Wat’s is the Kuang Si falls. These are roughly 45 mins by tuk tuk or scooter outside of the city and are absolutely worth the visit as they’re not just your everyday “water going over a ledge” situation. The falls are split into upper and lower portions -both stunning in their own ways. The lower falls are terraced where the turquoise water cascades in all directions. Not only that but you can actually swim and bathe in the falls! There were countless amounts of selfies and instagrams being made of this while we were there. Unfortunately for me I wasn’t able to swim because of my toe but it looked pretty awesome from my view! The upper falls are closed off to swimming but make up for it in the incredible cascades of water you see falling from hundreds of feet above. Its worth the hike up here to check everything out. As you walk out of the park you can also see a preserve where rescued moon bears live. Moon bears are native to Laos and look like…well..bears with longer snouts. They’re unfortunately sought after for their bile which apparently is used in Chinese medicine and the whole backstory of these playful creatures is kind of heartbreaking, but it is great to see places like this taking care of them.
Tiffany: This was truly a magical waterfall. One of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen in my life. I was immediately captured by its natural beauty. I was inspired to meditate right next to the waterfall and it was one of the most unique and special meditations sessions of this trip. It was truly grounding and wonderful. I will never forget how beautiful it is and how wonderful I felt in this moment.
One of our favorite aspects of Laos was some of the characters we met. For example we met Keo who runs an incredible cultural center called Heun Chan Heritage House in the heart of Luang Prabang. We spent an afternoon with her as she showed us a traditional house, taught us how to make Laotian Dream Catchers and then gave us the most heartfelt cooking class we’ve ever taken. We’ve taken a TON of cooking classes all over the world and this one felt to us to be the most intimate and personal we’ve seen. It was clear Keo loves her culture and food and truly wanted to share it with us. We made several dishes by hand that we’ve never seen before including tasty savory grilled rice cakes, a delicious eggplant dip, a spicy chicken salad, soup and ground pork brochettes. We even made this gorgeous purple sweet and sticky rice desert. It was hands down the best food we ate in Laos- and we helped make it ourselves!
Tiffany: I’m so grateful to Thanh for connecting us with Keo. She told me it was one of the most memorable cooking classes she’s ever taken and she was right. Keo was a true gem and overall a really kind passionate person. I had to reschedule our class due to my serve case of food poisoning but Keo was super flexible and understanding and even offer to bring me soup and medication to my hotel. When we arrived at her cooking school she was excited to inform me that she customize the menu for to accommodate my needs. Learning to cook with Keo and her team was a true joy and definitely an unforgettable experience. We had the best meal in Laos here learning how to cook with Keo. She was so passionate about her food and you can truly feel the care and love into her cooking.
Tim: A place we found ourselves coming back to again and again was Elizabeth’s Icon Klub– hands down the best drinks we had in Laos. Elizabeth left her native Hungary and and loved Luang Prabang so much, she felt it silly to live anywhere else and here she made her very quirky, very awesome bar. Festooned with all sorts of Dada-esque art and an incredibly friendly clientele it’s easy to strike up a conversation and make new friends from all over the world.
I spent the final day renting a bike and visiting the countryside and its picturesque wats. Coming from Vietnam, its really striking to see how laid back Laos is. As the sun crept down the horizon, we clambered up the hill called Mount Phousi that sits in the middle of Luang Prabang to get a chance to watch the sunset. It was glorious but apparently we weren’t the only ones as throngs of tourists all clambered to get that one perfect instagram worthy sunset pic to prove they were there. It was admittedly a pretty funny scene and one we were totally complicit in 😉
Sunset from Mount Phousie
And just like that, our time in Laos was done and off we were to Thailand and the wonders of Chiang Mai!
Phuong makes the _best_ bahn mi’s we’ve ever had at Bahn Mi 25
Yes, the title is a bit click baity and maybe even slightly controversial but after visiting here twice, we feel pretty damn confident calling it one of the best- if not the best- street food cities in the world. From the second you arrive in Hanoi with its sea of activity, the buzz of thousands of scooters- its the smell of amazing food cooking everywhere that seduces your senses and beckons you closer. It’s here you’ll find flavors you never knew you loved and ingredients you’ve never heard of. This is a place that changed our perspective on Vietnamese food- and food in general- 4 years ago and we’re happy to say that magic hasn’t faded.
The Magritte’ themed Polite and Co. Bar
Tiffany: Hanoi is one of my favorite cities in Asia. From the first time I laid eyes on this magnificent place four years ago to my current visit to Hanoi, I can say without a doubt in mind that I am truly in love with this city and it will always have a special place in my heart. Let’s start with the obvious attractions of Hanoi (street food, Halong Bay, and of course and vibe of the city), but the true hidden beauty of Hanoi is its people. Some of my best friends are born and raised in Hanoi. They are the most passionate, dedicated, fun, talented and loving people I have ever known in my life. If you are lucky enough to visit this city; I highly encourage you to get to know the locals. I hope their passion for love and thirst for life will inspire you. If you are really lucky, you will build lifetime friendships.
The view from the lake in old town
Tim: Like many cities in Southeast Asia, Hanoi has an “old town” and “the rest of hanoi”. Most of the action happens in old town but it also…has all the action happening. We stayed in several places during our time in Hanoi. While staying in the Old Town is super convenient, staying just outside of it affords you some peace and quiet while still making it easy to get to where the action is.
Bun Cha- deconstructed so you can make the ultimate flavor dream team in your bowl (and mouth!)
While the list of “must visit” big ticket attractions is somewhat thin (the closest thing is probably Turtle Tower), what really steals the show is the food. Specifically the street food. Why is that? Because everywhere you go, there’s people selling amazing food on the street. While this might seem sketchy to western palates, this is very normal in most of the world. What makes Hanoi so special is that the people selling these amazing foods usually make just 1 thing, and since they’ve been doing it for their whole lives they’re the best person at cooking it on the planet. Seriously. Regardless if its Bun Cha – a rice noodle based dish that has healthy amounts of fresh herbs, fish sauce, pork meatballs and an imperial roll- or pha (traditional beef or chicken noodle soup) or Cha Ka – marinated grilled fish- the best you can find is somewhere on the streets in Hanoi. We’ve tried to find better versions in white napkin restaurants but they pale in comparison- and value- to their street based brethren.
Bún Riêu in action
THE place to get Bún Riêu
Magic by the bowlful at Pho Thin (best Pho Bo in the city hands down)
Some of our favorites you HAVE to try include Bun Cha (noted above) but there are some lesser known delicacies. For example, Bún Riêu- a crab and tamarind based noodle soup. It’s made from tiny crabs that scurry around rice paddies. They’re pounded out of their shells and strained. Together with tomato that makes the base of the soup. The crab meat is then used for mini crab cakes that you find in the soup along with vermicelli noodles, roasted tomatoes and fresh herbs. Its tangy, savory and utterly delicious. It’s one of my favorite soups of all time, I just wish I could get it back home! Our friend Kim helped show us the best place to go to enjoy this amazing concoction- it is in a tiny storefront at 11 Hàng Bạc.
Cha Ca in its final tasty form
Tiffany: If you are a seafood lover then you must try one of Hanoi’s oldest and most famous of dishes – Cha Ca. There’s an entire street dedicated to this signature dish. Cha Ca La Vong is one of the oldest restaurants in Hanoi and one of the first places you will see on Cha Ca street. Cha Ca dates back more than 130 years and it was first created by the local Doan family. People in Hanoi celebrate and enjoys food with enthusiasm and passion. Food is the glue that connects and brings family and friends together. This crispy turmeric marinated fish is fried tableside in a pan with herbs and is one of the best ways to bring your love ones together.
Ban Oc in all its glory
If you have a more adventurous palate I would recommend trying Bun Oc- aka escargot noodle soup. This is a rice noodle soup with a tomato-based broth made from slowly simmering chicken or pork bones. The soup is topped with escargot, seafood, fried tofu, and a platter of fragrant herbs. This was also one of Anthony Bourdain’s go to dishes when he visited Hanoi. I was extremely fortunate to be invited to a new friend’s house for a home-cooked escargot fest. She made one of the best Bun Ocs I have ever tasted in my life. It was like an explosion of flavors in my mouth. I was VERY suspicious at first- eating snails isn’t exactly on the “safe food” category for visitors but the experience was so unique- sharing a delicious home cooked meal with new friends and family- I had to do it. Obviously, the secret indigents were love and laughter (seriously!). If you want to try a specialty restaurant for snails I would recommend Oc Suong. They have plenty of delicious dishes to choose from at a very reasonable price.
Tim getting overly excited by his third helping of Bahn Cuon
Tim: Hanoi- never content to let just one type of street food dominate the limelight- has many, many others to choose from. The second you think Vietnamese food is just soups, BOOM! Enter the bánh cuốn! Bánh cuốn is basically a thin rice crepe with insane-o-tasty pork and mushrooms all rolled up and cut into sumptuous bite sized morsels. You can even get it with a side of pork sausage. We’ve never seen it before Hanoi so definitely go and grab some! Our favorite place was at 12 Hàng Gà street. We could go on, on and and on about more street food (like the delicious as hell “pillow cakes” which are deep fried Vietnamese empanadas) or the Egg Coffee which is….exactly what it sounds like- but we’ll leave that for another time. We had a lot more fun in Hanoi than just eating. Our friend Tra My helped show us her Hanoi by night.
Egg coffee in action
Our friend and guide Tra My on our journeys into Hanoi’s nights
Hanoi’s nightlife is mostly centered around the Old Quarter where some of the narrow streets turn into bustling beer gardens complete with Smurf-sized plastic stools to sit on. A staple of Vietnam, you’ll be sitting on these things from Saigon all the way up to Sapa. There’s no graceful way to sit on it- you’ve just got to accept that it’s your lot in life and go with the flow. Through this ever shifting maze of people and tiny plastic chairs, Tra My led us through the streets to one of the amazing bars she owns- the Tet bars. Set in the heart of the Old Quarter, its an awesome place to get a strong drink and listen to epic DJ’s spin. The bar became our home base for the next few nights before launching into all sorts of fun adventures ranging from checking out San Francisco class speakeasies like The Mad Botanist and Polite and Co to after hours dance clubs like Savage. Regardless if you’re looking for cold beer Chang or a cocktail to power you onto the dance floor, Hanoi has you covered.
Epic bday celebration at Tet bar
My birthday ended up happening here in Hanoi and Tra My got together her friends and community to surprise me and celebrate the big event. Somehow she even found a baker to make me a cake! Since we’ve been travelling, it’s been hard to be away from so many of our friends, family and community. The party really helped remind us that we’re grateful to have this time to travel, we’re also grateful to be able to keep in touch with all of you and meet new people in places as special as Hanoi.
One of Ngoc Anh’s many awesome creations
Tiffany: Speaking about keeping in touch with friends and trying to check out the local fashion scene, we visited our dear friend Ngoc Anh’s boutique (La Pham) where her line of stylish and modern Ao Dai dresses was on display. Ao Dai is a traditional Vietnamese dress. I already loved Ngoc’s work from Ha and Anh Design (they made two of my wedding dresses) but seeing the greater range of her fashions for Ao Dai was truly special. Ngoc Anh is extremely passionate about her creations and she takes a lot of pride in her work. She will pay attention to the smallest details of the garment to how it fit on her clients. You will feel truly special when you put on one of her designs because it was made with your style, comfort, and fit in mind. She’s a true creator and can take inspiration and beauty from the world around her. If you are in Hanoi, I highly recommend visiting La Pham and meeting this amazing designer in person.
Our Egg Coffee Connoisseur Thanh
While we keep up with old friends, meeting new people and getting to experience their lives is one of my favorite things to do while traveling. Since we were spending more time in Hanoi than our usual stops, it gave me the perfect opportunity to connect with my friends Tra My and Thanh at a deeper level. We talked about about the meaning of life, what does happiness mean to us, and what are our aspirations going forward- y’know, the easy questions 😉 We laughed, ate, and made future travel plans together. I’m truly grateful that I had the opportunity to connect with them at a deeper level build a stronger friendships. I really got a great sense of their perspective of living in Hanoi and why they love this city so much.
Even the damn pizza was epic! 4p’s pizza throwing down a half salsiccia , half curry chicken pizza!
Tim: After staying in hanoi for almost 2 weeks it was time to go head off to our next destination- even though it feels like we still barely scratched the surface of this amazing dynamic city. I know we’ll be back again to savor the food, laugh with the amazing people here and enjoy one more delicious meal while precariously perched on a teeny plastic stool. 🙂
Places we loved in Hanoi
To help you with your visit to Hanoi, here are a few places we highly recommend checking out all handily organized into a Google map view of our favorite places.
Favorite street food in Hanoi
Bun Rieu Hang Bac. Hands down a MUST TRY. Located at 11 Hàng Bạc
Giang Cafe. Another must go to for their egg coffee. located at 39 Nguyễn Hữu Huân
Cha Ca Thang Long. Is it cliche to add another “must go to”? Well do so for cha ca. located at 19 – 21 – 31, Dương Thành
Banh Cuon Gia Truyen Thanh Van located at 4 Hàng Gà
Banh Mi 25 located at 25 Hàng Cá
Banh Goi located at 52 Lý Quốc Sư
Pho Thin. Best Pho Bo ever. located at 13 Lò Đúc
Favorite bars in Hanoi
Tet Bar– 3 locations, 3 different themes! They’re all on Ta Hien street
Mad Botanist – The Gin Specialist. Seriously! The best gin selection i’ve seen outside of San Francisco. Located on 45 Lý Quốc Sư
Polite & Co. Amazing craft cocktails with a Vietnamese twist. located on 5b Ngõ Hàng Hành
One of the things that’s made this extended trip a bit of a different experience than the usual 2-3 week vacation is the flexibility to not plan every little detail. To leave things open. The chance to throw out what you thought you were going to do and replace it with something you didn’t even dream of. My trip to Phong Nha was one of those moments
The cave walls leading into Hang En
I had never even heard about Phong Nha National Park before but I had of one of its big highlights- the recently discovered “World’s Largest Cave”. You might have seen it one of those clickbaity posts that always gets passed around on Facebook and you file it in the back of your mind but never really think you’ll go. Fortunately for me, I had my friends Sam Ready and Sean Paul put the screws on me to make the trek out to visit at least one of its caves. Phong Nha isn’t really close to any major Vietnamese city- you can either take an overnight train or bus (I chose train) or you can fly to a town about 45 minutes drive from the park. Oxalis is the top notch trek operator that runs most of the treks to the caves in Phong Nha and they’re the exclusive operator in the world’s largest cave and Hang En (where I ended up going). The world’s largest cave requires you to sign up (potentially) a few months in advance, dedicated a week to trekking and plunk down around $3500. I was not able to afford any of these items so instead I booked a trek out to Hang En– the world’s third largest cave- and it was worth every moment and Vietnamese Dong I spent on it.
Phong Nha National Park is pretty huge and its known mostly for its massive caves. It’s the limestone that makes up the mountains here combined with the power of its mighty rivers that make these caves possible. Over millions of years these rivers didn’t just cut valleys into the mountains, they straight up punched right through the middle of them like the Kool-Aid man does to brick walls. Fortunately for us, the results are far more exciting than artificially sweetened drinks.
Oxalis offers a ton of trekking options from easy day trips to more intense trekking options. I chose the overnight to Hang En because it offered something I had never even dreamed possible – to camp overnight in a cave so big it makes the Moffett Field hangers look like shoeboxes.
The trek started out at Oxalis’ headquarters where they laid out the details for our trek including the equipment we’d use (Pezl mountaineering helmets and headlamps for the caves) and how the days would work. What made the trek all the more awesome was that Oxalis included porters- which meant we didn’t need to take our tents, our food or even 5 kilos of our stuff. As some who does love extended backpack trips in the mountains, I STILL thought this was awesome because all I needed to take was a daypack! We piled into a bus and off we went to the trailhead. After one quick “before” pic of our merry band of 10 trekkers, we were off onto the muddy track.
Because of our timing, we went during the rainy season which meant the trails were pretty muddy. The pro to this was it was wayyy cooler than it is during the non rainy season (which apparently is stupid hot). The downside? Leeches. Yup, I said leeches. Now growing up I always thought leeches were only in the water but oh was I wrong. The Vietnamese leeches have evolved into what I consider the Golden State Warriors of leeches. These little varmints look like a tiny inchworm that moves a lot like the sandworms from Dune crossed with something from Aliens. They apparently wait around all day for something to walk by and then wave around until the grab onto you. If you want all the exciting scientific leechy details- including how some guys apparently use oil squeezed out of leeches to enhance their “potency”- follow this link. Otherwise, avoid that link…..BUT IN ANY CASE! I had long pants with big huge trekking socks over them to lock out the leeches. Naturally, I still got bit in the first 15 minutes of trekking as one climbed up my leg and then went under my t shirt to bite me right on the belly. Apparently you have to tuck in your shirt- a lesson I learned really quickly. After that, we were off to the races.
A typical river crossing
The jungle as you can imagine was humid but not oppressive and the pace was pretty leisurely. In the trek description they said we’d be fording the river about 32 times and they weren’t kidding. Fortunately the rivers were pretty shallow and unlike my usual runs through Oregon Trail, no oxen were lost 😉
For lunch we stopped at a village of one of the minority tribes in Vietnam, the Ban Doong. There we got a chance to speak with the villagers and get a better understanding of their lives. Since there was about an 8km hike through single track jungle to get here, it was unlike the other tourist-centric “villages” like Cat Cat Village in Sapa. Here you got to see the villagers going about their days under the watchful eye of disinterested set of oxen. We left town just as the ring of the village’s two room schoolhouse chimed- the chime itself fashioned out of a remnant of US bomb. A stark reminder that even though the war was decades ago, its memory still lives on in what was left behind.
Taking a lunch break in Ban Doong Village (pic by Shawn Tran)
Hang En lurking in the mists
We followed the river down the valley further and after turning a bend, the massive entrance to Hang En cave loomed in the distance like some looming mythical place. As we neared the cave entrance, we ducked into a wide opening that the river had cut through the middle of the mountain. On came the helmets and lights for safety and as we came around a massive bend, the full massive splendor of the cave was revealed.
Our camp from above
Below us at the foot of a boulder-strewn subterranean hill lay a beach with our campsite already set up below us. With the light filtering in through the cave’s entrance, it was truly a sight that can’t be explained. After taking the requisite amount of selfies, we clambered down through the boulders and boarded a raft to the other side. For all the jokes I could make about Charon crossing the river Styx, our guide Tha was more than friendly, and even gave us a shot of “happy water” (Vietnam moonshine) later to reward us for the day well trekked.
Tha ferrying us across the river
Plato’s cave
Oxalis really did a fabulous job and had all of our stuff waiting for us at our tents. I had to keep pinching myself as I looked around at the massive cave and our seemingly diminutive tents as they stood against the towering walls of limestone. To ensure the delicate nature of the cave’s ecology wouldn’t be impacted, we had a composting toilet and the porters (and us) made sure we came and left the cave as we found it. Another area they excelled at was the food! It was face meltingly good- and after trekking all day, the spring rolls, barbecued pork, stir fries and rice were much appreciated. It was all capped off with a bunch of Vietnamese Moonshine and some fun games like playing Plato’s Cave (using a super bright torch to project massive shadow puppets on the cave walls. The night ended up with just me and my trekking buddy Shawn with our guides Tha and Thanh who shared their life and perspectives on the massive amounts of change that Vietnam is experiencing. Exciting times indeed.
The morning sun filtering down into the cave
I slept like a rock…deep within a cave…that night and was awoken to a burst of sunlight pouring through the cave entrance unlike anything i’ve ever seen. This is apparently where they filmed a portion of the movie “Pan” and that was just this moment I was experiencing- something of pure beauty that I had not even considered was possible in real life. But there we were! As the light grew brighter, we packed up camp, ate a heart breakfast and donned our helmets to spelunk further into the cave.
A massive stalagmite
Crystallized terraces
An otherworldly sight
Strange shaped stalactites litter the cave…
Looks a bit like coral eh?
Those lost cocktail onions
We traversed boulders and trudged past the fallen nests of the thousands of Swifts that call this place home in spring. Massive stalactites, stalagmites and otherworldly formations greeted us at every turn. From little hills made from crystallized minerals deposited drop by drop over thousands of years. There were even these little balls that looked a bit like cocktail onions that form by slowly rolling down the slopes of the cave. I tried to document as much as I could for dad as he used to be a Geologist and I just knew he’d get a kick out of this.
The second entrance to the cave
As we plunged deeper and deeper into the cave, we started hearing the chirping of countless amount of bats far overhead. The ceiling was so high we coudn’t really see it anymore- but Tha reminded us to keep our mouths closed just in case some guano came flying down. As we wound around one more hill, the second entrance to the cave burst into view with blinding light. The jungle extended right to the entrance where the river had continued plowing its way right through the mountain. It was a gorgeous sight and being able to see the sheer height of the ceiling blew my mind. One pretty cool thing we discovered was that little pebbles on the river’s beach had formed mini towers. As water drops fell constantly fell from above, a pebble would protect the sand below it and over time, the sand around it, forming a little tower the pebble as the “hat”. After bidding goodbye to the tiny hat festooned beach, we returned through the cave to our campsite and ventured home
Tiny pebble towers
The final portion from Hang En back to the main road was rather uneventful compared to the amazing experience of being in the cave. We forded the river a ton of times and our guides gave us a choice. Go a longer way back to the road (that we came on) or go on a new trail that was shorter but steeper and with more leeches. What did we choose? Of course the shorter leechier one. Now i’m not sure it was the wisest of the choices but it did give me a beer quicker. One thing i’ve discovered in hiking Vietnam is that switchback technology hasn’t made it here. Trails just go straight up hills and mountains. This one was no different but unfortunately it had lots of mud, thorn trees and of course leeches. By the time we got to the top, I was damn ready for my celebratory beer but only after all of us hikers counted how many leaches we had trying to eat us. I clocked in at 16 in total- on my pants, boots and socks. One had actually managed to chew through my sock and bite me- so in total, I got 2 bites. Not terribly bad considering!
As we rolled home in the bus I marveled at how much had happened on this Trek. It was an experience I didn’t even know I needed to have until I came here. I made it back just in time for my night train to Hanoi and Tiffany complete with a trainful of stories to tell. There was still so much more to see in Phong Nha too! If I could have stayed a few more days I would have nailed it, but I guess that means I’ve just got to come back. While my sleep was far from restful I couldn’t be happier to get back to a leechlees existence.
A damn fine burrito (and Margarita) from Tippys Saigon
As a world traveler who both loves Mexican food and super misses it anytime he leaves California, attempting to indulge in a delectable burrito in foreign continents typically results in bouts of self loathing and questioning whether or not life retains meaning. I’ve experienced grave crimes against Mexican food like the time in Serbia where one “Mexican” restaurant served “Salsa” which turned out to be cottage cheese (WTF?!?!?!?) or in Australia where their Chili Verde was drier than the Sahara desert (also WTF) and…well….the list could just go on and on.
So why in the world would I risk having my Mexican food loving heart broken….again…in Southeast Asia. Well, apparently I clearly haven’t learned my lesson (or my desperation for salsa got the best of me) because over the past month we’ve been traveling, i’ve had Mexican food 3 times and let me tell you, IT WAS ACTUALLY GOOD!
Tasty breakfast burrito goodness….also from Tippys
Not Pancho Villa or El Farolete at 2:38 AM after a night of drinking amazing, but still, really, really good! The first place I went to was the aptly named “Taco Casa” in Ubud Bali. My friend Kate who lived next door never went to it for all the reasons I mentioned above. That being said, I was in dire straits. After eating nothing but rice and noodle based dishes for the previous weeks, I was starving after an intense class at Yoga Barn and needed something familiar, so I took a risk and stopped at the closest Mexican sounding place- “Taco Casa”. EVERYTHING in my logical mind told me this was a fool’s errand destined for disappointment, but my sheer lack of tasty, passable Mexican food formed its own voice and strongly insisted “fear is the mindkiller”…and casting aside reason……in I went.
Super juicy fajitas from Salsa Kitchen Chiang Mai
After ordering from the ever so kind waitress, I waited…nervously watching the line chefs practice their arts and in but a few minutes a sizzling platter of fajitas was delivered. With a hesitant fork poke I raised the supposed Mexican themed food to my lips and….it was actually pretty damn good! Like really good! The pico was tasty, the beans not too hard, not too mushy and the fajitas seasoned with cumin! I was damn happy. Now they didn’t have a self serve salsa bar (where I would typically back at home eat all of my weeks worth of vegetables in one sitting), but hey, burrito beggars can’t be choosers so I will happily look past that. And yes, fajitas are technically not a burrito so I went back again a few days later AND THE BURRITO WAS AMAZING TOO (all caps)!
Now I wasn’t sure how things would go elsewhere but fast forward 2 weeks when I found myself in Saigon Vietnam and those familiar hunger cravings for a taco started to hit again. Surely I couldn’t find another place that could have passable Mexican food. I figured if I did, I should definitely start buying some lotto tickets or something but out of sheer coincidence, our place in District 4 was a block away from a Mexican place called “Tippys”. Emboldened by my not soul crushing experience in Bali, I steeled my courage and plunged into the unassuming restaurant tucked down a sleepy residential street. What I was confronted with was a pretty damn robust menu of Taqueria standards plus a crapton of breakfast burrito options. They even had chile verde! I had to try it and I eagerly ordered a burrito with it. The pork was tangy, not dry and paired awesomely with the margaritas. I ended up coming back again to try the breakfast burrito which was also damn good. For extra bonus points they even had SALSA SQUEEZE BOTTLES ON EACH TABLE! They did not though have corn tortillas (this was super rare to find in any Asian taqueria.
Look at this amazingly passable guac and salsa plate!!! From Salsa Kitchen Chiang Mai
Finally, for my third test of Southeast Asian Burritos, I stumbled on Salsa Kitchen in Chiang Mai Thailand a month later. At this point, I had higher expectations. No half-assed attempts were going to be accepted by me and as I pushed the doors to Salsa Kitchen like a cowboy walking into a saloon, I knew I was in for a treat. The interior with its grinning Caballera mural checked out but even better, the place was pretty packed-in the middle of the afternoon! It was of course packed with mostly US expats and the low density of actual Thai’s in the restaurant would usually be a bad thing in my book, but since this was a place that catered to expats, I looked past it. I saw they had actual corn chips and guac! AND SALSA! I had to try them as I was having major guac withdrawal symptoms. I ordered that for myself and then turned my attention to the burrito options. I scooped up the laminated menu and the…..what the heck…THEY HAVE AL PASTOR AS A MEAT OPTION!?!?! Like Golum in Lord Of The Rings, a good Al Pastor burrito is basically my “precious”, and I had to order this bold culinary risk. You know what? IT WAS GLORIOUS! The first bite of the burrito had me seeing stars and unicorns- it was truly something. Well seasoned, juicy and all around delectable, the wet burrito I ordered was stuffed with beans, cheese, guac, and tons of tasty al pastor. I almost died and went to heaven.
And finally, BEHOLD! The wet al pastor burrito from Salsa Kitchen
And the moral of the story is… Asia is now a safe place to eat a burrito! I’m so excited for this momentous occasion. The global exchange of flavors is happening and I hope this foreshadows that world peace is right around the corner. Until then, you can find me munching on this here burrito. See ya next time folks!
When you look at travel guides for Vietnam, one of the typical “must go to” places you see listed again and again is Halong Bay and once you catch a glimpse of it, you can see why. Countless fantasy-like gumdrop islets rise from calm waters as boats navigate through the mists. It’s no wonder why the legends of its creation revolve around a family of dragons calling this place home. We called it home for a whopping 3 days and here’s what we did!
To the Emeraude!
First off, there are a TON of options for way to explore the bay (hey, that rhymed!) Since you really need to have some kind of boat technology to explore the bay, you have many choices to choose from. You can choose a day trip, a fast jetboat 3 hr quick tour or you can do an overnight cruise. If you choose the cruise then you can either go with a one night or two nights package. Now if these weren’t enough options, there are seriously HUNDREDS of tour operators to choose from which made it really tough. You’ve got everything from “party” themed cruises to 4 star luxury cruises- make sure you know what experience you want. We ended up going with Emeraude as our friends in Hanoi recommended it (apparently it’s also the boat Anthony Bourdain went on in his Halong Bay special). These cruises are offered by all sorts of in person travel agent touts who apparently do all kinds of shady business. We actually found an awesome deal on Hotels.com. We’d recommend you find a boat or company you want to go with and then shop around online for the best price.
The overly enthusiastic Cap’n
We embarked and were shown our cabin which was the captain’s suite! We splurged a little and the crew gave us an awesome upgrade with complimentary Champagne and fresh fruit (since it is our honeymoon). The cabin had everything a small hotel room would have- shower, bathroom, writing desk- and it was super cute. The Emeraude definitely was throw back to the early 20th century golden era of ship based travel with all the trimmings. Brass railings? Check. Hardwood paneling? Check. Big ass metal portholes? Double check. With our bags in our room we were ready to see the bay!
The towering limestone islands you see in pictures stands like a wall right in front of the coastal towns- it’s pretty amazing to take a look at. Our ship was one of many- all traveling into the countless islets together. Standing on the main deck and watching so many other ships all headed in the same direction you felt like you were part of some rag-tag armada. Some ships looked like cruise ships, others like like faux-junks and some just looked like they were slapped together escape boats from the Fyre festival.
Tiff’s first kayak paddle!
Regardless of the boat, everyone seemed to be on the same itinerary of visiting key scenic views, boating by fishing villages, visiting caves and most importantly- visiting pearl farms. That last one was kinda annoying since the “pearl farm” was basically one big gift shop/tourist trap. The other stops were pretty cool though.
The impressive interior to the Surprise Cave (SURPRISE! It’s a cave 😉 )
Surprise Cave was actually pretty surprising! With huge stalactites, stalagmites and other cave features, it was pretty impressive. Our guide from Emeraude did a great job showing us aspects of the cave that we would have missed otherwise (even cracking some funny jokes about what some of the formations “could” look like). After this we went sea kayaking (Tiff’s first time!) I had low expectations for this but it turned out to be totally rad! Watching the sun go down behind the massive limestone islets was something out of a movie.
The bay by night
Our ship dropped anchor in one of the many bays between the islands and all the lights of the neighboring boats twinkled in the night. You could hear conversations and music lightly filtering across the water between boats- it really was something special. Our companions on the boat were mostly German retirees save for a fun couple (Henry and Juliana) from Denver.
Making fun out of ANOTHER mandatory pearl farm visit
Day 2 of our cruise was a bit underwhelming from the awesomeness of the first day. The draw to us on taking the 3 day cruise over the 2 day cruise was that we’d be able to get to less touristed parts of the Bay. In reality, we got handed off to another smaller day boat along with those foolish enough to have booked this part of the tour from other boats. This smaller ship was commanded by who I think was 19 year Vietnamese guy who spent most of the time throughout the day hitting on a group of girls from the US. While we did see parts of the bay that had less tourists boats, it was pretty much the same views we had already seen. In the cave we went to, it was basically a smaller, less impressive version of the previous days cave. After toodling around the backwaters of Halong Bay, doing some directionless sea kayaking and snacking on the all-fried food from the galley, it was time to go back home to the Emeraude.
We were treated to another night of floating on the bay and watching the lights of our fellow ships twinkling in the night and reflecting on the trip and its ups and downs. While the 2nd day had been a bit of a letdown after the first, sleeping on a ship moore between massive stone towers was pretty impressive.
Last night on the Emeraude….
For day 3 we madly packed our bags and headed back to port with a short stop at a vista point. Halong Bay was breathtaking and we enjoyed our time voyagin on the Emeraude. If we had to do it again, would we do the 3 day trip again? Probably not- we’d stick to the 2 day option – but we did enjoy the experience. After all, there’s always other places to adventure to. Which reminds us…it’s time to _finally_ write up our Hanoi adventures. Until then…..
The term “Cloud City” might evoke the epic of The Empire Strikes Back, Lando Calrissian’s epic cape game or even a wee bit of carbonite. Well, Sapa lacks all of those things but makes up for it with…well…lots and lots of clouds!
Sapa is situated in the Hoang Lien Son mountains of Vietnam that border China. Here you’ll find the highest point in Vietnam – Mount Fansipan (I swear it’s not a made up name) and a gorgeous alpine town. We were drawn to Sapa with our friends’ stories of verdant rice terraces clinging to steep hillsides a quiet escape from the buzz and bustle of Hanoi. We found that and more. More being mostly fog but also some incredible adventures.
Notice the other side of the lake? We couldn’t either 😉
Let’s get to Sapa logistics. Sapa doesn’t have a central “downtown” but instead has one main drag where most of the action happens called Cầu Mây. There is a lake and market to check out and there roughly 5-15 minutes walk away (respectively). The lake is apparently really beautiful in the spring and summer but everything in the city was covered in dense fog. We visited in mid January and it was RIDICULOUSLY foggy. How foggy you ask? Well, we live in the Sunset District of San Francisco and it made our “fogust” look like tahiti (see attached photo). That being said, we were able to experience some incredible moments of beauty we haven’t seen in many other places. A lot of this came down to straight up dumb luck as the weather changed every 15 minutes with varying levels of fog, clarity, then back to fog again.
Salmon hot pot!
BBQ yummyness
One of the most intriguing aspects of Sapa is its very Vietnamese take on an alpine town. Everyone is bundled up in “North Face” outfits (read: knockoffs), in the buildings you see exposed wooden beams and big fireplaces-it seems familiar. With a closer look though its very Vietnamese with Salmon Hot Pot, Pho and BBQ places a plenty.
Hmong sisters who invited us to their village
One of the most enticing draws to the city is to see several of the minority tribes in Vietnam come together to sell their wares, attend cultural events and even run love markets. The Hmong, the Tay and red-clad Dao. All of these tribes make the journey from remote villages scattered throughout the mountains to Sapa. This journey can sometimes take days to make. The love market is a fascinating event which we sadly missed. It harkens back to a time seemingly long ago when people met the love of their life in-person (!!!!!). Apparently when you live in a small village, the dating pool is pretty small so eligible singles from the villages surrounding Sapa make the long trek to the Love Market on Saturday to drink, dance and hopefully meet that special someone.
Taking cherry trees to market via scooter (!)
You can immediately identify them by their colorful clothes and distinctive personalities. Everyone we met from the tribes was incredibly friendly, welcoming us to visit their villages, learn about their culture and of course, buy their wares. These minority groups live below Vietnam’s poverty line so earning from tourists can be a necessity. At the main market you can find them selling everything from their colorful clothes to bringing entire cherry tree saplings on their back (for lunar new year). Kinda like a Christmas tree, but different.
Vietnamese Elote!
After getting settled we decided to check out Cat Cat village since it was just 25 minutes walk from town. While the previous night was pouring rain, that morning it was clear as can be and we were treated to some amazing views of the Muong Ha valley. Cat Cat Village is pretty touristy- instead of exiting through the gift shop, it pretty much is the gift shop with people selling clothes, souvenirs and all sorts of Sapa themed brik a brak alongside “authentic representations” of village life. One interesting thing we noticed was the Vietnamese who visited often bought full Hmong or Dao villager outfits and immediately wore them- essentially cosplaying the minority groups in the village and posing for all the selfies. It was an interesting experience. The “village” is mostly built on a hill and at the bottom of the valley, I noticed a bunch of Hmong ladies walking down a long path and got the idea to follow them.
The jaw-droppingly gorgeous Muong Ha Valley
What we accidentally found was a gorgeous path that wound its way through the Muong Ha valley. Along every hillside, terraces growing everything from rice to holy basil abounded. It was jaw-droppingly beautiful- especially shrouded in fog. Our pictures really can’t do it justice. We met with a few of Hmong along the path who invited us to their homestays in their village just a few kilometers away. Unfortunately we were short on time. If you go, we HIGHLY recommend checking out the opportunity to do this. Please do it through one of the local companies like Sapa Sisters to ensure money actually makes it to these local tribes.
The view from up top
The actual peak!
Gondolas cutting through the fog
An ocean of fog
Pure serenity
Our next adventure was scaling Mount Fansipan- Vietnam’s tallest mountain. When we say “scaling” we mean….taking the brand new, Guinness Record-Holding cable cars right to the top. We’ll stop to mention that this cable project was/is super controversial as there was a lot of debate about the environmental and aesthetic impact of having a cable car go right to the top of such a picturesque mountain. It would be kind of like having Yosemite National Park put in a cable car to the top of half dome. Considering our time constraints, we chose the cable car route. The trip started out hilari-bad because the aforementioned finicky Sapa weather gifted us with fog so think, we couldn’t see across our tiny street. We were running out of Sapa time so we said “screw it” and paid the entry fee fully expecting to see absolutely nothing but fog. After thousands of feet of elevation gain and a few cable car exchanges, you get to the “top” of Fansipan where they’ve build several Buddhist temples and several huge Buddhas. To get to the actual top requires climbing 600 additional steps spanning the very large summit of Fansipan. This isn’t as easy as it might sound because the air is much thinner, its WAAAAY colder than the already cold Sapa and the weather changes every 15 seconds. Every. 15. Seconds. See the time lapse if you doubt us 🙂 After clambering to the top, we got insanely lucky and were treated to some of the most jaw-dropping views i’ve ever seen. Fansipan’s peak and the mountain tops around it poked through a sea of fog that stretched as far as the eye could see. The Buddhas standing tall and stoic as clouds coursed over them. It was a magical view. We got so enamored that we almost missed the last cable car home and that would have really sucked!
The next day we packed up our bags and headed back to Hanoi for our next adventure- a 3 day cruise on Halong Bay!
The electric buzz of tens of thousands of scooters zipping through the streets, LED encrusted skyscrapers each doing their own light shows and street vendors winding through the streets, loudspeakers advertising their wares. You can be only in one place, and that place is Saigon Vietnam- where the region’s history of farming collides with its fast passed future. Saigon is a city on the move and we were excited to jump right into all it had to offer!
Saigon’s skyline from one of its many rooftop bars
Saigon is split into districts- basically just like neighborhoods, boroughs or wards back in the states. Each has its own vibe but most of the action (tourist and otherwise) happens in District 1. We decided to keep things a little bit more chill and stayed across the Son Sai Gon river in District 4 that was a bit more residential but still a quick cab into the heart of District 1.
A typical crosswalk in Saigon
The first thing that will astound you when you get to Saigon is the sheer energy of everything happening around you. This is most apparently in the streets, roadways and sometimes, even sidewalks where there are literally thousands of scooters all vying for space. According to Saigon’s Transit bureau, 7.43 million are legally registered in the city- which is kind of impressive when you consider there’s only 8 million people in the city. That means that scootering around is a no-holds-barred thrill ride. Traffic lights, right of way, and traffic laws in general seem to be very loose suggestions at best. For instance, if you want to cross the street in the states, all you do is push the “walk” button, wait for the walk sign to come on and then you walk.You’ve got the right of way! In Vietnam, that is NOT the case. To cross the street, pedistrians have no right of way so instead you reenact the scene from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” where Indy has to take a literal leap of faith. The Saigon version has you basically shuffling at exactly the same pace without stopping or speeding up and praying no one hits you. This works surprisingly well AND it’s a huge adrenaline rush too! Just watch out for busses- they stop for NO ONE!
Tiffany riding in a Saigon Cyclo Taxi
Vietnam was a French colony at one point and you can see it all around Saigon in their buildings and street layout. Getting around is pretty easy with the Grab app (kind of like Gojek in Indonesia or Uber combined with Grubhub in the states). Cabs are cheap but with the traffic, make sure to tack on a few extra minutes to each trip. The quickest way is to get a scooter driver to give you a lift. You’ll be certain to have an awesome ride!
Tiffany: We met up with our new friends Ngoc and Quan who showed us their Saigon. We really enjoyed hearing stories from Ngoc and Quan about what they loved most about living in Saigon. Quan taught us how to say cheers in Vietnamese; it sounds like “Yo” in English. It was so special to connect with them and experience the love and passion they have for Saigon. It’s amazing to me how much we as humans can share and connect with delicious meals and tasty drinks. I’m super grateful for our new friendship and look forward to hosting them when they come to visit San Francisco in a couple of years.
Happy hour at Chill Sky Bar
The food scene in Saigon is pretty impressive with everything from street food to Michelin rated restaurants to local delicacies to taquerias (!). It’s all here. One thing people really love here is their “sky bars” (basically a super nice rooftop bar). It seems like every building has one and some of them are really, really nice. What is super cool about them is they have actual happy hours where food and drinks are 50% off! Pretty epic compared to San Francisco’s “mildly amusing hour” where they maaaaaay take 1 buck off a drink. What’s great about the sky bars’ happy hour is that they perfectly coincide with sunset! We highly recommend checking them out. Helping us out in this department were Mo and Eric- two friends we made thanks to the awesomeness of how small a world it is and the willingness of friends to help us meet folks around the world.
Mo and Eric showing us all the kitschy fun of Saigon by night
Exploring another happy hour with Le Ha and Jenny
Tiff: Our friends Le Ha and Jenny showed us their favorite bars in the city. I really enjoyed laughing and joking with them in Saigon. They told us amazing stories about their recent adventures in Phu Quoc Island. It’s Vietnam’s version of a music festival like “Lightning in a Bottle” (aka burning man light). You get all the awesome Djs and parties without any of the prep work. I think we committed to going next year. Not sure after many drinks later. Either way, I’m confident we will have a good time with Le Ha and Jenny no matter where we are in the world.
As we try to do in many cities, we took a cooking class to try our hand at making delicacies like imperial rolls, Pho Ga and Vietnamese pancakes. The whole experience was hilarious with us lumped in with a bunch of New Zealanders. Throughout the day we learned new knife skills like smashing the shit of garlic and turning tomatoes into rad looking Swan food decorations. I’m definitely going to use that on Tiff on date night someday 😛 While I don’t think our Pho rivaled PPQ’s back at home, it was fun to try out!
Cookin’ up a storm in Saigon
Tiff: Checking out local designers is another fun activity to do while traveling. Saigon women are super stylish and proud of their unique sense of fashion. My friend Jenny Kim is an amazing local designer. You can check out her boutique “Cashew” in the heart of district 1.
Another top things to see is the War Remnants Museum. The museum shows the Vietnam War (or the American War as the call it here) from the other side. It’s a sobering a truly heart wrenching experience where you see the full damage that war has not just on the combatants, but innocent civilians, children and generations to come in the case of the Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians (unexploded ordinance is still a huge problem). I was moved to tears seeing all the tragedy that war creates and as naive as it seems, I hope we evolve past it someday…
One awesome side trip I did was go to the Mekong Delta. The delta is a few hours outside of Saigon and could be its own trip destination in its own right. By the time the Mekong river makes it to the delta, its the width of the Mississippi River and has been through several countries. On my tour I got to see how the Mekong locals harvest coconuts and use every part for some interesting product. The water for coconut water (duh), the meat for candy or selling wholesale, the husk for making everything from charcoal to welcome mats and the leaves for thatching roofs and making cabin walls. Its really cool. We also got to navigate the mangrove bayous by canoe.
Dancing the night away with the Saigon Swing Cats
Final note- Saigon is home to some AMAZING dancers! There’s a vibrant swing dance and salsa dance scene here and the dancers are some of the most energetic, creative and welcoming folks I’ve danced with. For an epic night out, I’d highly recommend checking out the dance scene!
PHEW! That was a long one! And just like that, our week in Saigon was done. On to Hanoi- one of the greatest street food capitals in the world!
Bali is a fabulous island of mystery and magic. While you’ll need to plan for the standard tropical island adventure, here are some specific tips we can share from our experience that will make your Bali trip that much more epic. We’ve also included links to some of our favorite restaurants, hotels, homestays and other things we liked.
Horse carts sure don’t take Amex! Cash is king.
Mosquito repellent (Autan or even better, something with deet!) Bali has mosquitoes- mosquitoes who especially love “sweet blood” folks like Tiffany. To help prevent this from happening, we HIGHLY recommend you bring some insect repellent with deet from home. Its hard to find deet based insect repellent in Bali so pack accordingly.
Use Gojek for getting around Seminyak and getting food Gojek is kinda like Uber combined with Grubhub. It makes getting around Seminyak a breeze and they’ll deliver tasty food to you too. It’s also CRAZY cheap with most car rides costing 1-4 US dollars. Unfortunately this app doesn’t work well in Ubud because the local Taxi drivers have beaten up and threatened all Gojek drivers to stay out of their turf. Not a very enlightened and spiritual approach if you ask us but….
Prepare for some Bali Belly (travelers diarrhea 🙁 ) Ya, I think it happened to all of us here. Have your doc prescribe some medication to make it go away quick
Get money from ATMs before visiting small islands The Gilis are beautiful but run totally on cash. If you’re visiting, bring as much cash as possible because if you don’t, you could seriously get stuck. We almost did but managed to BARELY scrape enough together to buy our ferry ride tickets back
Dry your ears out AFTER diving I didn’t and got some mean ear infections 🙁
Be ready to haggle for taxis and horse rides In Ubud, Taxi drivers will happily try to gouge you with inflated prices. Always stick to half of what they say and walk away if they won’t budge. They’ll change their tune fast when you do that.
Traffic is CRAZY- don’t trust google maps (add extra time) Traffic all over the islands is insane. Add at least 2 to 3x the time google maps comes up with.
Ahhh Ubud. This magical little town is what draws countless people from all corners of the globe is what most people think of when the word “Bali” is uttered. Ubud is the cultural, spiritual and musical heart of Bali where you can hear the sounds of Gamelan wafting through the air, competing with the buzz of scooters darting through its narrow streets. Here you can find picturesque rice fields, temples, curious monkeys, waterfalls and yes- even attempt to find your own version of “eat pray love”. Ubud can also be one big contradiction with one foot squarely in Balinese culture and the other in an expat spiritual dreamland
An altar at one of the many retreat facilities in Bali
That air of mystical spirituality is clearly a big draw for tourists from all over. Ubud has what appears to be the largest expat community we’ve seen in Southeast Asia – all drawn here to explore some new aspect of themselves from consciousness to yoga to reiki healing. One way to think about it is Ubud is it’s the spiritual equivalent of the Bellagio Buffet- it seems like all the worlds spiritual practices can be found in classes and retreats that highlight and integrate belief systems from all over the world. Hinduism, Buddhism, shamanism, tantra- even Navajo dream catchers- they’re all here in every combination you can imagine. For our trip, we focused more on exploring the countryside with its many temples along with taking a few yoga classes and of course- the much recommended ecstatic dance at the Yoga Barn.
We were super lucky to have several friends in town. Our friend Kate gave us a lay of the land and introduced us to her Ubud. Kate introduced us to smiling drivers, laughing yoga masters and the ins and outs of making sure we can try to jam as much fun and chill time in as possible.
A mother monkey nursing her baby
I was able to check out the Sacred Monkey Forest which was a total trip. The forest is in the middle of Ubud and houses countless Macaque monkeys which are pretty cute little guys and gals, but you gotta watch out because they’re pretty fast and super smart. When I was there they were non stop cute- eating fruits, grooming each other and having mommas take care of their little baby monkeys. This being said, i’ve also heard they love stealing people water bottles and other shiny things. There’s a number of temples in the forest along with a cool waterfall that you can explore- allowing you to indulge your errant Indiana Jones Impulses. I think it’s totally worth checking out.
If you’re in Ubud, you also HAVE to check out the rice paddies. In particular, check out the Tegallang Rice Terraces. They look to be something straight out of a fantasy movie with stone terraces clinging to the steep hillsides. While you’ll definitely do your share of climbing muddy stairs, it’s totally worth it to take in the views and even to get a chance to thresh and beat some rice yourself. You can easily book a driver to take you here as well as the many, many temples that dot the hills around Ubud.
The rice paddies that surround Ubud
Our temple exploration crew at the Elephant Water Temple
Hard at work 😛
One of the things we love doing wherever we travel is taking a cooking class. By experiencing how people cook their favorite local foods, it gives you a unique perspective into their lives. Tiff and I took this great class where they whisked us away to this little house surrounded by rice paddies. As the rain poured down outside and the Egrets stalked their way through the flooded rice paddies searching for their next meal, we learned how to make several Balinese classic Dishes. Fish cooked in banana leaves, marinated pork satay, sauteed chicken soup, fish meatballs and a sweet crepe for desert. The chef walked us through every step ranging from making the hilariously named “basic sauce” (which made up the base of three of the dishes) to the tamale-like banana wrapped fish. It was truly a fun experience and we got to meet a few new friends along the way!
The finished meal
Tiffany showing off her basic sauce
Tim working on grinding spices
Shifting gears, we also took in a number of Yoga classes and events around town. Of the many studios and and retreat spaces, we liked the Yoga Barn most for the quality of the teachers and the facilities. The place is very much a community center with a cafe, inn and many cool class areas. One of the coolest events they had was their Friday Night Ecstatic Dance. A bunch of our friends told us to get there early because it sold out (!) Having a “sold out” weekly dance party in a place as chill as Ubud seemed kinda crazy but we quickly found out why that was the case- it seemed like the _entire_ expat community comes every week! In order to get a place into the party you have to first line up to get a number at 4:30 pm. The line hit capacity i’m guessing around 4:50. If you’re lucky enough to get a number, you can come back at 7:30 to go to the party. The actual dance party takes place in this big upstairs veranda that lit up only by lamps inside this big, leaf chandelier (super Burning Man style). The dance begins with a meditative chill instrumentalists playing anything from a sitar to a Tibetan crystal bowl. This transitions into a DJ who drops some serious beats. The end result is something that looks a lot like the scene from the Matrix 2 where everyone is dancing their faces off. What super interesting is that its totally sober so when people are letting loose, they’re doing it completely from within and DAMN CAN THEY DANCE! After the dance ends, the DJ and instrumentalists bring everything down to a chill meditative level and everyone lies down for a quiet, guided meditation. The whole thing is totally rad and if you’re going to Ubud, you should check it out.
And with that, our week and a half in Ubud was over! Off we went to Saigon Vietnam! Expect that blog post soon!
