4.8 million Dong!

Oh Vietnam….. the exchange rate is $1US = 21,000VND. Basically we have to carry a calculator with everywhere we go. It’s not every day that you spend 186,000 on a light lunch. My favorite expenditure thus far was for our visas. To quote my brother “they charge a million dong just to get in the door”. The jokes really never get old.

Sorry for the lack of updates, we have been really busy. So far I like everything about Vietnam except the weather. It’s been cold and rainy since we got here :(

We flew into Hanoi (the capital) last Thursday. Hanoi is hard to explain. The population is something like 1/4 of Bangkok yet it is chaos on a level I’ve never experienced.

All the motorbikes park on the sidewalk (apparently they don’t have double parking laws in Vietnam):

 

So absolutely everything else happens in the street:

 

 

 

After wandering around the city for a few days we left for Halong Bay. The tour package we booked included a night on a junk boat, not really understanding what that meant had us a little nervous. Fortunately, our boat ended up being one of the few with a fresh coat of paint, that made me feel a little more confident.

 

 

Halong Bay has almost 2,000 limestone islands that are absolutely beautiful. We spent time in a huge cave, kayaking around a little floating fishing village, and teaching a Vietnamese couple on our ship how to play the card game bullshit… I never said I was classy.

 

We arrived in Hoi An today after a 16 hour train ride. It was a lot less painful than it sounds. We shared our cabin yep, a cabin! with a couple from Australia. It really makes a world of difference when you speak the same language as whoever you’re sitting with. Yay English!

Brrrrrrrrrrrr

While in Chiang Mai Jeremy and I went to the highest point in Thailand. It was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit and I seriously almost froze to death:

I am now slightly concerned that I’m going to be that girl wearing flannel lined jeans in July when I’m back in Minnesota.

Caitlin and Liz got here the next day and I took them on a whirlwind temple tour of Chiang Mai. I thought I had a great map, but of course I got lost so we didn’t make it to all the temples. woops.

 

 

 

 

 

If you’ve seen one Wat you’ve seen them all… I think it will be ok.

 

We also met up with my friends Lex, Adam, and Mike for lunch at an AMAZING sandwich shop. I met Lex and Adam when I first got to Cambodia and hadn’t seen them since last April so that was really fun. I found out they will be in Vietnam the same time as Jeremy and I so we’ll meet up again which will be really nice.

The highlight of Chiang Mai for me was our day at the Elephant Nature Park. If you are ever in Thailand I recommend that you spend a day (or more) there.

My parents had gone to this reserve last year when they visited me so I have been looking forward to this for awhile. You basically spend an entire day within 5 feet of an elephant. We fed them in the morning and right before we left at night. In between we watched them play in the mud and helped them bathe in the river.

 

 

 

 

 

Upon arrival at the river I saw two elephants pooping which REALLY grossed me out so I didn’t go in, but I got some great photos of everyone else and I uploaded all of my pictures to my Flickr page. We spent the two days in Bangkok and now we are on an island in the south of Thailand. It is very stormy today and the power keeps going out so I apologize for the layout of this blog. There isn’t enough wine in Thailand to give me the patience to try to fix it :)

Sukhothai

Sorry for the hiatus, I didn’t bring my computer so I couldn’t blog :( We are back in Bangkok now though so get ready for a flurry of updates!!

Last week on Monday Jeremy and I left Bangkok on a lovely second class bus headed for Sukhothai. I chose our guesthouse out of the Lonely Planet book and it ended up being a winner, I love when that happens.

These are surprisingly hard to come by in Thailand, it’s the little things people.

Ok on to business, Sukhothai has a decent sized historical park containing ancient temples. I wanted Jeremy to see some of the really old ones so that is why we decided to stop in Sukhothai. It was beautiful:

We left Sukhothai on a great note, I was able to find and show Jeremy my all time favorite Thai shoe:

The keyboard flip flop. Oh Thailand…

Mini Photos

I finally found the positive in having a rock hard leather mattress: when you share a bed with someone, you don’t even know they are there! :)

After finishing up with school on Thursday we had a nice 10 1/2 hour sleep and then set out for a day of sightseeing on Friday.

First we went to Khaosan road to get pictures taken for our Vietnamese visa’s. I was really terrible with picture-taking so you’ll just have to imagine. My goal of the day was to avoid taxi’s, so now Jeremy has used seven different forms of transportation in Thailand: planes, above ground train, tuk-tuk, taxi (from the airport), underground train, boat, and a motorcycle. Khaosan road is pretty overwhelming, I’m not sure if I have blogged about it before, but it is basically the backpacker ghetto in Bangkok. It’s my favorite place to just sit and watch people.

After Khaosan we decided to go to the aquarium. Jeremy is a nerd when it comes to fish so he was pretty excited. I wasn’t really on board until I saw that the ticket included free popcorn– HOLLA! The aquarium ended up being really beautiful:

Jeremy even got me to go in a glass bottom boat! After the boat ride we were forced into taking a photo standing in front of a green screen. I was annoyed at first, but then I found out we were going to get a free copy of this mini photo and I’m a huge fan of cheesy ridiculous pictures. I spent the next hour or so thinking about this mini photo and how awesome it would be. We walked through tunnels with fish swimming overhead, got a fish massage, ate the delicious free popcorn, and Jeremy got to have another meet and greet with an otter family! (If you don’t know that story you need to email him)

After it was all over we came to the last desk where the prized mini photo was waiting. When they say mini photo, they aren’t kidding:

Hopefully one day I’ll fully recover from the let down that was the mini photo.

Last day of School!

It’s officially over and I’m somewhere in between excited and sad. This weekend Jeremy and I are putting together some last-minute plans for the big trip and on Monday we will head out. It’s going to be a busy and exciting month!

BROTHER!!!!!

He made it!

YAY! :)

Stalking my brother…

… and he won’t even know it :)

+ He left the land of open spaces and chilly weather at 9pm last night (8am MN)

+ Stopped in Minneapolis for a short layover…. left at 2:15am (1:15pm MN)

+ Arriving in Tokyo: March 2nd at 4:50pm Tokyo time (12:50pm BKK/ March 1 @ 11:50pm MN)
+ Leaving Tokyo at 6:05pm Tokyo time ( 2:05pm BKK/ 1:05am MN)

+ Arriving in Bangkok March 2 at 11:40pm (10:40am MN)

My students might be the only people more excited than I am! I’ll let you know when he gets here! :)