Vietnam

After a long day of traveling, we finally arrived in Saigon, Vietnam on Wednesday night.  In true backpacker fashion, we really had no plans and were hoping we could catch a bus to a beach town called Nha Trang. Not only did we catch a bus, but it was a sleeper bus- probably the best mode of transportation we have taken in our lives. Picture a slumber party on wheels

 Around 6:30am, the bus pulled into Nha Trang and we were kind of confused about where we were. We had expected a somewhat quiet beach town and instead found a bustling city. We wouldn't really call it touristy in the American sense but there are a lot of Asians and Russians here. We found a nice hostel, took the cheapest room they had (6^th floor, the elevator stopped at 5), and took the time to become best friends with the owner. We wasted no time in heading to the beach which was incredible. Pictures can't even begin to show the different colors of the water (sorry if we're making you jealous all of your north easterners). We had a relaxing day planning out the rest of our week in Nha Trang and spent the night staring at the ocean talking about life while drinking “Vietnamese boxed wine”.

The next morning, we headed over Vinpearl Island on the world's longest cable car (especially when you share the car with 4 hysterical Russians). Vinpearl is an amusement/water park. For those of you who hate waiting in line, lifeguards, or rides that are always open, then this was the place for you. There was basically no one in the park and we could just run up to the slide and go down when we wanted- there was no staff at the top or the bottom of the ride- something in America that would be illegal. We were like 2 kids in a candy store, which means a lot when it comes to Arielle and Sophie.

 One of the big things to do in Nha Trang is to go on a “Booze Cruise”. We had expected a boat full of drunk frat boys from Australia but instead we were the only white and now currently have places to stay in Vietnam, Singapore, and China. It was one of the highlights of our trip. We spent the day snorkeling, jumping off the boat, singing karaoke, dancing the macarena (we were the only one's who knew it), dancing with a tiny Chinese man who happens to live in our hostel and we are obsessed with, and taking model shots with a group of Vietnamese college students. Coincidentally we ran into the French couple and the hysterical little Chinese man later on in our trip.

Our new Vietnamese friends

Karaoke 

From Nha Trang we took a bus to Mui Ne- a small town on the way back to Saigon. We decided to splurge a little and stay in a nicer hotel with a pool. We saw the most amazing sunset on the beach (seriously, it was a spiritual experience) and spent a lot of time walking along the sand. Pretty much the only thing to do in Mui Ne besides go to the beach is to take a tour of the sand dunes.We went with another couple we met from England and spent the day rolling in the sand and taking pictures of the beautiful sights. Of course we were the only people actually rolling around in the sand which we are still finding in parts of our body. 

The Fairy Stream

Sunset over the dunes

Nicely crisped from the sun, we made our way back to Saigon. We found the cheapest, seediest hostel  possible with a friendly, flirty staff that made it worth it. Monday night we painted the town red (aka bought 50 cent beers on the street) and met some really interesting people from all over. Most of the people we have met on our trip have been traveling or plan on traveling for at least 3 months. A lot of them are going for even longer and are traveling alone. Even though we have been away for 5 months, we have only been moving around for 1 and it is tiring!! It's fun but stressful looking for a different place to stay every night, eat every meal out, and have to figure out $. Also the whole traveling alone thing seems a little much for us... hey 1 month later and we haven't even come close to killing each other!!!

 Anyway- we started off our day in Saigon by going to the War Remnants Museum. We were both really looking forward to the visit because those of you know Arielle know that she is obsessed with the Cold War and Sophie......wants to learn more ;) The museum was very informative, graphic, and shocking at times. On display were pictures of the atrocities and results of the fighting. Most of the material was very anti-American  but we appreciated the story that was told. If we can't change the past, the least we can do is learn and acknowledge what had happened. 

Our last dinner

After the museum we explored the local market and then headed back to the hostel to pack our bags for the last time. That night we walked to the Chabad of Vietnam for the fastest Megillah reading either of us have ever heard- the mix of Chabad/Israeli is epic. We bumped into an Israeli family we had met at the airport and it made us realize how lucky we are to have met so many interesting people but its hard to know we may not see them again. When the two of us first met in Nepal we went to Chabad for Yom Kippur so it was only fitting to end our trip at Chabad for Purim (ha). 

Right now we are sitting in a cafe wasting time until we need to head to the airport. Nepal already seems like it was so long ago but it also feels like we were just on a break and will be going back soon. We can't wait to tell you more about our trip beyond saying "it was amazing!!" 

Arielle and Sophie's Guide to Thailand's Transportation System

Hello from Thailand! We know you're jealous, but hey we've been living in mud huts/crazy cities in Nepal for 4 months. Welcome to this special edition of Arielle and Sophie's blog. We figured since we're living the same life at the moment we might as well just write one post :)

Over the past couple of weeks, we have seen a lot, learned a lot, sweat a lot, and eaten a lot. But most importantly, we have ridden on ever single mode of transportation Thailand has to offer.

The beach

Sophie arrived in Thailand right after TbT ended in Nepal. After a cancelled flight, and an interesting bus ride out of Bangkok, she quickly learned that Thailand really is the "Land of Smiles" as a good 5 people offered to help her find her way via iphone, ipad, cell phone. Her journey finally ended in a ride in a family van to her friend's motorcycle to her house. Soph spent a week exploring Bangkok, making new friends (friends=tuk tuk drivers, random travelers, a security guard or 2...), and chilled out on the beach with her friends from high school.

The Himalayas

                                                                                       

Arielle decided to spend another week in Nepal in the tourist town called Pokhara. What was supposed to be a 6 day trek turned into a week of doing absolutely nothing on the lake (this was due to ankle injuries and sickness, none of which happened to Arielle surprisingly). After arriving back in Kathmandu, Arielle took an insane taxi ride through the city to the airport (there was a nepali festival and it was basically impossible to drive through the streets), almost missed her flight, and then sat in the airport for 3 hours cuz of a delay. Might as well leave Nepal in style!

Upon arriving in the Bangkok International Airport, both Arielle and Sophie totally forgot that Thailand is a developed country. We kind of expected something more like Nepal not like NYC. We have basically spent the whole week comparing everything to Nepal (prices, transportation, language, people). There are real roads here with real cars and road rules- its a shocker and makes America seem a little too developed for us...

Scary real street!

Sadly this made us feel a little more at home

On our first day together in Thailand, we took a train into Bangkok to see the sights. We rode in style in the 3rd class compartment on the train- basically the only genuine Thai experience we have had in this country. The best way to see a foreign country is to ride with the locals! We had planned on visiting the Grand Palace  so we took a local bus over to the area only to discover it had closed an hour before. SO we got amazing bubble tea instead and hopped on the famous Bangkok Ferry and rode around for a bit. We explored the Chinatown market and went back over to the train station for a 14-hour overnight train to the north.

The ferry

Chinatown

Arielle on the train!

"Air conditioning" in 90 degree weather

Sophie on the train!

the open bus/truck thing

We arrived in Chiang Mai in the afternoon. Sophie got lost in the city looking for a hostel while Arielle sat patiently in a cafe knowing Sophie would eventually make her way back (she always does). We found a nice place (by our standards as in it had a toilet and running water) and spent the night exploring a really cool market in town. Its going to be weird shopping in supermarkets again. The next day we rode even more exotic forms of transportation. We became best friends with a travel agent at the hostel who got us a good deal (we hope) for a day trek. There were 10 of us- 2 americans, 1 canadian (2 if you count arielle), and 7 Frenchmen. We started out on a weird open bus/truck thing that took us to a random trail that we hiked up to a beaufitul waterfall where we swam and relaxed for awhile.

the crew

 Then we went to a river where we went "white water rafting" (it was really just floating down the river) and bamboo rafting. THEN- we rode elephants!!! We both rode 1 elephant with the other Canadian girl which explains why there is a random girl in all of pictures. The whole day was epic and we got in everything we wanted to do in Chiang Mai. That night we went to a bar and met some Spanish-speaking Frenchmen so we spent the night practicing the 4 words of Spanish we learned in high school. The point of that story is that we have met some really amazing and interesting people on this trip- we love introducing ourselves to people on the bus/train and hearing their own stories.

feeding the elephant!!

tobacco farm- thats what we get for asking what they grow

The next day, we went to Tiger Kingdom to play with tigers!!! This place stresses that its purpose is to protect the endangered species and they don't harm the animals. We had worked out a deal with our best friend travel agent for a ride to get there. We expected Thailand's version of a Tuk Tuk but then one of the guys who worked there drove up in his huge white SUV just for us! It was our first ride in a real car since the ride to the airport in America. Anyway, at TK you can choose to go in a cage for 15 minutes with baby tigers medium, or large. We decided to play with the large ones cuz it seemed really hardcore (go big or go home). And cuz it was cheaper...hey we just graduated ;)

the mush face!!!!

little baby tiger!!!! we just want to take it home :(

our pimpin ride

The Pai Night Market

After our adventure in Chiang Mai, we headed up to a town called Pai. We had heard from a lot of people that the drive there in the minivan was insane and windy. We thought "we rode in the worst buses in Nepal on unpaved roads- this is a real van with airconditioning on real roads- we can handle it". We were waaaay wrong. Everyone on the bus wanted to die and one of us may have gotten sick on the way back.... (not telling who! rhymes with shmarielle) Pai is pretty much a toursity, hippy town where people walk around barefoot all the time. There was a great night market that we hit up both nights- awesome food (not daal baat!!) and some very cool people.

During the day we rented a motorbike that we had planned on driving to a waterfall. Almost everyone living in Asia drives a motorbike and its a big thing for toursits to rent them for the day to get around. Sophie was pretty good at driving it, but then one of us (cough shmarielle) crashed. Don't worry, just a little scratch on her toe but after that we decided to rent regular bikes :) 

We had heard that the ride to the waterfall was uphill but again we waaay overestimated our abilities. About halfway there on these dinky little bikes with picnic baskets we had to leave them at a hostel and we got a ride in a pickup truck down the road. Along the way everyone kept telling us 2km, 1km (we really have no idea how much a kilometer is) but suddenly we saw a sign that said 4km... About 2 hours later we FINlALLY got to the waterfall. Luckily it was worth it. We swam for awhile, walked around, and then began the journey back. 

We got a ride on the back of a motorbike with some random Thai guy. He was quite the character- showed us that he could drive while standing, go really fast and make people on the street stop to talk to him. We finally got back to our bikes and it only took 15 mins to bike back as opposed to the 2 hours it had on the way! Craziness.

The bamboo hut we stayed in for a night

We went back to Chiang Mai (super fun ride! not) and got on a tourist bus to Bangkok. This was a much better choice then the train. We got into a tuk tuk who took us to Wat Pro- a beautiful temple with a ton of Buddahs. We explored a bit more and then got onto our final train back to Saraburi. Again- rode 3rd class, made some crazy friends, almost died from the heat, but had a lot of fun. 

reclining buddah

When we got to the train station we tried to explain to the motorbike-taxi driver where we needed to go but we were usuing the wrong accent so no one understood us. we spent the next 15 minutes going around the station asking everyone "English? English?" Finally we got that we had used the wrong intonation, they all laughed at us, and we made it back to the house :)

Long story short, if you ever need any advice on how to travel around Thailand using the public transportation system- we are experts.

In 8 hours we are off to Vietnam!!!!

Our best friend (don't worry, we made sure to go off the beaten path all the time!)