A healthy bit of fear

I'm not a fan of a lot of the posts that seem to float around the travel blog world (really the Internet in general) that are lists.

The Capitol!

From all of the other people we'd talking to, it seems like people either like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh and dislike the other. It's strangely polarizing. I liked Ho Chi Minh, so I was excited to get to Hanoi and see what I thought.

Cat Ba Island- the village of puppies

After our horrible tour on the way over, I swore I was done with tours. Done! After the bus finally dropped us off at the hostel, we wandered out to get some pho. After getting some warm food in our tired bodies we perked up a little bit and started chatting with some guys sitting in the restaurant.

Lessons learned after three months (and also maybe some adviceforfellow travelers)

Edit: I wrote this a couple weeks ago and just realized I never posted it. Whoops!

Recently I got some wonderful news from a couple friends that are also quitting their jobs to join the travel life. We had a FaceTime chat and they had a bunch of questions for me. I realized after I got off the phone that I've been traveling for almost four months. So what I'm saying is I am now an expert.

Animals!

I keep saying that I lucked out on my travel timing because of the weather. It seems like I've been able to avoid anything too rainy or too miserably hot this entire trip. I definitely had no idea that I would be here during "babies season."

Caves of wonder (and mud)

After Hoi An, we headed out to a national park called Phong Nha Kẻ Bàng. It houses the largest cave in the world. It can fit an entire Manhattan city block inside it, skyscrapers and all. They also restrict the number of people that visit the cave and it costs several thousand dollars to visit. So I did not go there.

Rice terraces and more baby animals than you could imagine

Sapa is a small town that has boomed for tourism in the last ten years. It's the home to to several ethnic minorities like the Hmong. They grow rice in beautiful terraces on the mountainside. We had amazing weather for the first two days. Warm during the day and pretty chilly at night. The third day, fog and rain rolled in during the night and the day stayed quite cold and the paths were quite muddy and slippery.

A rant. Let's have some respect people.

I've thought a decent amount about writing a post on sustainable tourism. I may write a more helpful post about that a little bit later. Instead this is going to be a rant. Because I feel cranky and think this needs to be said. We all travel for different reasons, and are looking for different sights and experiences. But I feel like some travelers have no respect for the places and cultures they are seeing. And it frustrates me.

Superbowl Sunday

I decided to wait a little bit to post this one. Let the wounds heal a little bit. Cheyenne is a NE fan, so once the Super Bowl teams were set we got pretty stoked. The game was gonna be like 6am Monday morning, so we were game to find a place to watch it. And then we realized thats the day we needed to be out of the country. And we're too cheap to fly (which is what most people do). 

Hey thanks guys!

I just recently looked at my blog's statistics and was thrilled to see that I have page views from nine different countries. I had no idea many people were reading it.

Thanks a bunch!! I'll try to keep things relatively interesting. 

Lantern City

I kept hearing about Hoi An from all the travelers coming south. "It's beautiful!" "You can do so much shopping!" The only criticism I heard was "It's so full of foreigners!"

In which I meet a little cluster of Americans

In Vietnam, people generally tend to go from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi or vice versa. So when you're staying in one of the more touristy areas, there's this great mix of people who have all sorts of advice and recommendations to swap.

Beach life pt. 2

After such a busy few days on the river tour, we really needed some rest and recovery. We hopped on a plane and flew to an island in the south west called Phu Quoc. If you're going to Vietnam anytime soon and want a beautiful sandy beach to lounge on, go here!!

The mighty Mekong Delta (or how I spent a lot of time on a bus/boat)

Ho Chi Minh City was definitely my favorite big city so far.  We got the same warnings about getting pick pocketed and ripped off by taxis that people give in every big city, but somehow I liked the feel of this city better. I think part of it had to do with the long park running down the main district, and part of it was because everything was walk-able (at least of the touristy stuff).  It may also be that I had amazing sandwiches, pho, and coffee. A great start to my month of nomming my way through Vietnam.