more Mekong

our tour companions are Mary from Minnesooooota and Lynn from Melbourne. Each on their second marriage with grown kids, they met on a trip over ten years ago and have been traveling together ever since. They are very funny, wise and seasoned travelers but you would not guess looking at them. Game for anything, and hop in the support van when they have had enough. They have been great company.

Mekong

Toughening up the backsides! Onto day 3 of cycling trip in the Mekong Delta. We are loving it!

Sweaty and smelly!

We are on our second night in the Mekong Delta. We stayed last night in a still house on an island. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful. There is water everywhere - and every means of water transport ever invented, including giant tankers and long, thin paddle boats carrying loads of fish and vegetables to market.

We biked today on dirt paths and narrow roads along the canals. It is way more populated than I thought it would be - farms and stilt houses and market line every canal and dirt path. We have one more full day of biking, then back to Hanoi for the next - and last - adventure.

Write back - we miss you!

Siagon

Had to work thru logistics this am. Leaving for a 4 day biking tour on the Mekong in the am, we are psyched!!!! Thinking of Robin when I saw a big rat in the sewer and enormous cockroach on the same corner crossing on the way to airline office - where we we able to change our flight back to Hanoi for nothing more than the difference in ticket cost, how nice. Touring Siagon today, I feel like a 25 yr smoker after walking around in this city just one afternoon. More later.

Siem Reap final pictures

Biked past slums with kids fishing in the filthy river. The smell and sight awful. Explored a temple area with far less restoration than the day prior, made offering for safe decent of frighteningly steep, narrow stone steps, amazed to find ourselves alone at one site not more than a mile off the standard temple loop, the lonely bike shot. While the temples are amazing, enough of Siem Reap. Siagon is crazy, motorbike madness,
more to come

Good morning, Vermont!

We are back in Vietnam - Saigon this time. The city is giant, sprawling and noisy. It is a crazy combination of high tech, stores selling $1,000 crocodile bags, sidewalk vendors and backpackers. We have decided to stay here two nights and will see some museums and the tunnels that the Viet Cong used during the Vietnam War.

Friday, we are heading off for a three day bike trip through the Mekong Delta.

Miss you all!

angkor

You asked for more photos - you get them!

Siem Reap

We flew into Siem Reap, Cambodia, yesterday for our Angkor Wat adventure. We rented bikes last night and started out at 5 this morning so we could see the sunrise over the ruins. The sunrise was a bust but the day was amazing. We walked and biked and kept falling over more temples and more cute little kids who wanted to sell us something for "Only one dollar - very good deal - where you from lady?"

We are loaded down with one dollar gadgets and temple overload - until tomorrow.

We finished the afternoon by donating blood at the cildren's hospital outside town which was mobbed by mothers waiting with their ill babies to see a doctor. Very special way to end a day of contrasts.

Angkor is beyond description - miles of ruined temples. Between the vast size and the minute, perfect carvings everywhere it is awe-inspiring and humbling.

We are heading off for dinner in town - which is also beyond description (but that's for tomorrow; $.50 draft beer is calling!)

Day 3

So 3:30am finds you anywhere. I guess I could find that comforting in a sick way. Started the day officially with a run around the lake. This time we were fortunate to come across the older ladies exercise class early enough that they encouraged us to join in just as the massage congo line was forming. Progressively slapped, rubbed and chopped the back in front while someone did the same to me, after 10 minutes or so we turned around, repeated and did the same to the person now in front. The ladies could not have been kinder, but for the one who would not touch Kate and forced her to a different spot in the line. We had a legit massage later, with major grime exfoliation. No modesty here, as Kate said, I've never had my chest massaged like that before, or glutes. Went to the Temple of Literature transported on the back of a motor bike. While in the city, the Temple was peaceful and beautiful compared to the energy of downtown Hanoi, which has been amazing. Flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia this afternoon. We'll spend a few days here at the Temples of Angor. It is small village like here, but growing rapidly. Much warmer as well, high 80's. Internet cafe at .50 and hour so we'll manage to swing getting on daily. off for dinner and sunscreen. Sue

day two

All is very well here. We started the day with a run. We joined in the last few minutes of an old ladies' exercise class by the lake.

I had water spinach w/ garlic, yogurt w/ pomegranate, a platter of French pastries and two cups of coffee for breakfast. Sue had scrambled eggs. We followed up with about 7 hours of walking through the old city.

We found entire blocks dedicated to duct tape, candy, buttons, toys, tin boxes and live frogs and eels and rabbits and crabs and chickens waiting to turn into lunch. It is like Home Depot only an entire city of blocks representing each section of Home Depot. Plus, everything is made on the sidewalk or in the living room right behind the store front. Last time I assumed everything was made in a factory. It's not. It's all made right there.

Lunch cost about $2 for more food than we could eat and totally yummy.

Tonight we are seeing the water puppets and then wrapping ourselves around yet more food.

Tomorrow we are booked for a full body scrub and massage and then heading for Siem Reap and Angkor Wat in the afternoon.

Vietnam is awesome. Asia rocks.

Sue loves it. She totally gets the traffic and food and energy.

Good morning Vietnam, ha, ha. We just woke at 6:30 to morning announcements! Not sure what the official name is but it is a city wide broadcast over loudspeakers. Nor do we know what they are saying but it is going on and on. After dinner and logistics review last night looks like we will try to head to Cambodia and the Temples of Angor tomorrow, then Siagon area and loop back north for the second week. Headed out for a run now, I'm sure we won't see any other runners. We'll spend the day seeing more of Hanoi and further mastering the art of street crossing. Sue

Arrived at 9:30 this am, long travel but really not that bad. Slept some on the way, managed to stay up when we got here and walked the day away. Hanoi. Like living a breathing the Mario Cart wii game, millions of motor scooters on the roads beeping and zooming past. When the roads are crowded, they come right up and drive on the sidewalks. Sidewalks are full of Pho vendors selling variations of soup with veggies, meat. I really tried to get the tofu variety at one place, which the woman next to me was eating, but the soup lady just told me no. The sidewalks are where people carry out their entire day, sitting at mini stools socializing, eating and selling. So much food is prepared and sold on the streets.

Diito for Kate. We managed a great dinner in a place recommended by the Lonely Planet guide and populated with tourists - all carrying their own copies of the Lonely Planet. We each had a Hanoi beer, dinner, side dish and appetizer - for 260,000 dong. Which means $15. So we are in budget.

Sue has mastered street crossing which means plunging a teeming mass of motorbikes, bikes, cars and women yoked with baskets of fruit and hoping for the best. Early bed tonight. We are both a little fried.

Stay tuned.