Nanning

We made it to China! The border crossing was a breeze and the scenery changed almost immediately once we entered China with beautiful large green mountains.

So what did we do on our first day in this exotic country? We got french fries at McDonalds and went to Wal-Mart.  Nanning is a city of about 2m and while it is not one of the more prominent cities in China, it feels like being in a giant metropolis. It was so much fun wandering through Wal-Mart and looking at all the weird (to us) products.  The amount of individualized packaging way outdoes the US. And who knew there were so many different meat products?  We only splurged on one weird product: blueberry flavored Lays potato chips.  They taste just like they sound. I doubt they will be catching on at home.

The streets are very crowded and instead of motos, everyone seems to ride electric bicycles.  Crosswalks are for both pedestrians and bicycles, which will take some getting used to.  Tomorrow we head to Yangshuo, a much smaller town known for beautiful scenery.  We decided to arrive in China during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, so that should be fun.

Felt like Burbank!

Crowded sidewalk, lots of shopping

River through the city

Blueberry Lays

Travel Technology

It is interesting to think about how traveling has changed with technological gains.  My parents traveling around the world in 1977 would mail letters home and tell family the next city where they could be reached - hoping for a letter to be waiting for them in the Bombay Post Office.  Or hoping the next hotel has a leftover copy of a book they hadn't read yet. And of course, only seeing what pictures they took when they got home.

Jeff and I have it very different.  We brought a couple electronic items with us that have felt invaluable.  For starters, our Kindles.  Being able to carry 40+ books each, buy books as we go, and have a simple device that can connect to the internet when necessary, has been easily the handiest and most valuable piece of technology we brought.  We love our Kindles.

The 3rd generation and 2nd generation Kindles we brought.  The iPod of books, and our favorite devices of our trip.  If you like reading at all, get one.  You will not regret it!

The second most valuable is our little Asus netbook.  We bought it for under $300 in December and at first it felt like the most expensive Solitare machine possible, but it soon proved to be so helpful for storing pictures, writing blog posts, and using wifi (once we got to SE Asia, we've had free wifi in every single hotel we've stayed at). 

Third - now this isn't something we brought with us, but having video chat capabilities for free through Skype. It is so wonderful to be able to video chat with our parents and by far the best is to see our nieces and nephews. For those of you who have never Skyped with a kid before, it is a highly enjoyable experience.  I loved seeing my cousin's kid Sophie show us her Christmas presents through the video. Below is a photo of our niece Madison and her friend talking to us as our nephews Maddox and Mason and our other niece Reagan build a tower of blocks for us in the background. Absolutely hilarious.

There are other items with no need of descriptions: digital cameras, ipods, and an awesome alarm clock my mom got us with time zones pre-coded.  And let's not forget that technology has even helped us stay safer.  The Steripen was a gift from my parents for Jeff's birthday.  It works as an ultraviolet light emitting device that can be used to treat water and help make it potable.  This thing has been simply wonderful, and is a small and convenient way of killing potentially harmful microbes in untested waters.  Very cool, and we've been using it for months now with awesome results (i.e. no-illness from water!)

Ah, the new technology.  Traveling will never be the same, and it has all happened in such a short amount of time.  What will the next ten, twenty, or fifty years bring?  One thing that would have been a nice addition would have been a portable GPS unit.  On Amazon, they sell several for backpackers that resemble a walkie-talkie in size, but the expense was prohibitive at the time we took our trip.  Maybe in another couple of years when we plan our 21 month tour of Africa and the Middle East.

Hanoi and Goodbye Vietnam

We have spent the last five days lounging around our hotel room in Hanoi waiting for our Chinese visas to be processed.  It was a nerve wracking process because information on travel blogs we like to visit were inconclusive about the ability for US passport holders to get Chinese visas in Hanoi. But we were successful! Tomorrow we take a bus from Hanoi, cross the China border at the Friendship Pass, then on to Nanning.

Hanoi is a beautiful city with many French style buildings, lots of restaurants and activity, tree-lined boulevards, and a large lake in the center.

Old Quarter

We also visited the Temple of Literature - a university built in 1070.  It was quite small, but the diplomas were so cool! They are large stone slabs with stone turtles holding them up (turtles represent longevity and success in learning).

Jeff and I have spent four weeks exactly in Vietnam.  Some of our best travel days have been here (Ha Long Bay, snorkeling, riding a motorcycle).  Yes there are a lot of tourists, but there is a good reason for that.

Thank you Vietnam!

National Monuments... International Style!

Everybody probably knows, or a least suspects the availability of cheap brand knock-offs throughout Asia.  As one of our "easy rider" tour guides pointed out to us in Vietnam,  there is really no enforcement of copyright law of any sort here.  We have seen this manifest in multitudinous ways, and sometimes they can can be quite confusing.  For example, we wanted to stay at a hotel in Varanasi, India called "Shanti Guest House."  We asked our tuk-tuk driver to take us there, and we ended up in a hotel called "Shanti Rest House."  We didn't really understand until a few days later why the place was so crummy when we figured out that the tuk-tuk drivers were being paid by the imposter "Shanti" to shuttle passengers there.  We got away clean though, and have since learned that it is a common tactic for businesses to copy each others' names in many of the countries we have traveled in.  It has kept us on our toes.  Sometimes, the names don't differ at all.  I guess it can all be summed up in the most famous regional saying that we've heard repeatedly through Thailand, Cambodia, and now Vietnam, "Same same, but different."

One of the more confusing examples of this "Asian freedom" to use whatever means necessary to get a customer is in the name brand product knock-offs that don't even bother to use the actual brand name.  Take the following picture:

Calvin Klenin

At first, I thought this Cambodian fellow was just wearing a fashionable shirt, proudly displaying his love for a brand that has always been famous for flaunting its name right on its products.  On closer inspection, I thought maybe it looked more like a typo.  Maybe he was just a Vietnamese tourist in Cambodia, and it is easier to pass of brand names if they look like they are linked to the communist father of the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Lenin?  Nice try buddy!  Capitalommunism?

This next one is less impressive, but solidifies the point:

Dolce Gabba

It looks like Dolce did just fine, but Gabbana got the the short end of the stick.  Neither of these is quite as interesting as the Harley Devidson gang is, but then again, the people that wear these aren't the moto-riding roughnecks we've come to know and love.

Ha Long Way from Home

We spent the last two days on a cruise through Ha Long Bay.  This has easily been one of the most beautiful locations we have visited in the last four months of traveling.  Ha Long Bay is located in the northern part of Vietnam, almost at the Chinese border.  The area contains almost 2000 separate islands that pop out of the sea like some mythical land.

The first day started out with some torrential rain that thankfully let up, but left us with a cloudy first day.

The view from our cabin door

Rain at first but also heat

One of the other boats

Floating stores! Beer, cigarettes, choco-pies

We also got to visit an enormous cave in one of the islands.  Most of my pictures didn't really turn out, but it was a really interesting cave.  There are a couple people in the foreground for perspective.

We got to kayak around the first day for about an hour.  We went around a couple of the islands and checked out one of the fishing villages.

Sunset and some of the cool island formations

We got sun the next morning

View from our room the next morning

 We also got a "cooking lesson" which involved learning how to roll spring rolls.  It is exactly like rolling a burrito so we were pros!

It was absolutely magnificent being out in the water among the islands in Ha Long Bay. Words don't do justice to the natural beauty, and neither do our pictures. We could have easily stayed a couple more days taking in the scenery and relaxing on the upper deck. For anyone planning a trip to Vietnam (which we highly recommend) Ha Long Bay is essential!

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

We have been hanging out in Hanoi for the last couple of days and will be here for another 3-4 days while we wait for our Chinese visas to be authorized.  I'll do a Hanoi post in another couple days once we've seen more of the city.

Today we went to the Ho Chi Minh amusement park - I mean memorial park.  Ho Chi Minh led the North Vietnamese in the war with the US and is credited for bringing communism to Vietnam.  Being in Hanoi has reminded us that this is a communist country, whereas the south does not feel communist. (Side note - we have not been able to use Facebook here because it is blocked by the government.) We've seen far more soldiers here and there is a more confined feeling to the city, especially being around the memorial park. The memorial park is set up with distinct paths where you can walk and the guards are quick to alert you when you've strayed.

I knew nothing about Ho Chi Minh before walking through the memorial park and I still know very little, but thankfully wikipedia has helped me out.  Ho started the communist party in 1945, helped defeat the French rule in 1954, and lead the Viet Cong until he died in 1969.  His face is on all the money here.  His body has been embalmed and lies available for public viewing.  It was easily one of the most bizarre experiences of my life seeing his embalmed body.  It looks more like the work of Madame Tussaud. The guards rushed us around his body (no cameras allowed) and even asked Jeff to not cross his arms behind his back but have them at his sides. We also walked around to see the presidential palace and the house on stilts where Ho lived.

The mausoleum

No communist memorial complete without Pepsi and trinkets

A "beautiful" fountain at the entrance

The long lines to see where Ho lived

More lines around the memorial park

His house

It was a very interesting experience and definitely worth walking through the long crowds and being shuttled from one spot to the next like a ride at Disneyland.  Tomorrow we are off to Ha Long Bay for a two-day cruise, then back to Hanoi to wait for our visas.  We will be in China in about a week!

A Long Hue From Home

We are now finishing up two days in Hue here in Vietnam.  As I write this post from our very comfortable, $10.00 per night hotel room (including free WiFi), there is a fantastic rain storm coming down outside.  Thankfully yesterday, when we walked to visit the city's main tourism attraction, Hue's Citadel (Kinh Thanh), located on the Northern bank of the Song Huong (Perfume River), it wasn't raining at all.  The short history of the Citadel is that emperor Gia Long began construction of it in 1804.  Inside the 6 meter high, 2.5km long wall was where he carried out his functions.  Included within the citadel walls was the Forbidden Purple City.  It is a beautiful and interesting site despite much of it having been destroyed in wars with both the French in 1947, and then again by American bombs during the Vietnam war.

By the Song Huong on the way to the Citadel.

While it may not look like it, the heat during the middle of the day here is oppressive and very humid.  Actually, it doesn't cool off that much at night either.  Having said that, the day was really fun, relaxing and interesting as we walked around (I in a new version of a "sweat-shirt.")

Bridge over the moat to the Citadel walls.

Citadel entrance.

Some of the beautiful grounds just outside.

Wearing that "sweat-shirt" I just mentioned.

One of the many buildings inside the walls.

Elephants are always photogenic!

One of the original walls (some parts were reconstructed)

Beautiful structures inside...

...and beautiful gardens.

Guess who's in the water?...

We are and we're hungry!  Feed us!

Hoi An

Hoi An is a beautiful, historic town located on the coast in the middle of Vietnam. Known for its well preserved architecture with a mix of Chinese, French and Japanese styles, it has been a pleasure to spend a couple days here. Our internet is quite slow here, so I apologize that this post is light on pictures and descriptions.

There are no motos or cars allowed in the old section of town

River through town

This field is right in the middle of the city

Very beautiful paper lanterns sold all throughout the town