Bon Voyage on a Big Adventure!

October 11, 2018October 12, 2018

Days 98 – 101: Oh Phuket, Thailand

Ah, Thailand beaches. Great for our tans and our moods, maybe not so great for content for the blog. But hey, Phuket, let’s go.

Day 98: Travel from Bangkok to Phuket

As you can imagine, the trail from Bangkok to Phuket is well traveled. We hopped in our Grab (Uber’s SE Asia cousin), and the driver said, “Let me guess: you are headed to Phuket.”

Getting to the Airport

Our Grab ride to the Don Muang airport had us grabbing for a reason anyone would want to live in a city with so much traffic. What is a twenty minute drive on paper took us well over an hour. We had also stayed up until 4:00 AM watching the Philadelphia Eagles lose to the Tennessee Titans and then had to be back up by 5:30 AM to pack and catch a cab. Eeek.

We Heart Airport Lounges

Rich and I got to return to one of our favorite lounges in Bangkok, our airport BFF, to work on our THIRD thirty day post, in the same booth where we wrote our second thirty day post. What beautiful, unplanned symmetry! Also, unlimited free coffee.

Then we almost missed our flight when it got delayed, according to the display board, and then moved back up to its regular time according to a hard-to-understand PA announcement. I thought I heard them say Phuket the first time (Rich: “I didn’t hear it.”), and then Rich and I both definitely heard them say it the second time, followed by “final call.” We sprinted out of the lounge and to the gate to be greeted by a long line of other people who still needed to board.

The flight to Phuket was really stunning as we landed over green islands and deep blue water. From the airport, we took about a thirty minute long shuttle to our hotel and got checked in.

We stayed at the Grand Sunset Hotel, and as advertised, its pool had killer sunset views as well as a free sunset cocktail with free freshly popped popcorn. It’s the small things. Settling in at the pool felt just right.

sunset cocktail in Phuket — Enjoying my sunset cocktail. It’s orange. Like the sunset. Super clever.

Day 99: We Went to the Pool

Umm, it rained in the morning so Rich and I did some work, and then we went to the pool. Then it rained some more so we had a “meeting” where we calendar-ed out how we were going to spend our days in Phuket, and then we showered and went back to the pool for our sunset cocktail. Then we walked out to the beach for a minute and on to dinner.

Let’s just swing by the ocean for a minute on the way to dinner.

A note about Phuket: there are a lot of Russians. Most of the signs for restaurants were translated into English, and they were ALL translated into Russian. In almost all of the other areas of Southeast Asia we have visited, there have been many Asian tourists and many Australian backpackers. In Phuket, we just saw Russians. It struck us as interesting, so I thought I would share.

Day 100: We Tried to Visit Big Buddha, Failed, and Got Epic Sunset Pictures

About PHuket

I have done a terrible job describing Phuket. Most importantly, it’s beautiful. We stayed across the street from a large wide beach with tan colored sand. The water is super blue, and there are huge white waves that roll in. It is exactly what you want a beach to look like.

Secondly, Phuket is surrounded by rolling, incredibly lush, green hills. I think if you planted a seed in Phuket today, you would have a giant blooming plant next week, that’s how fertile the environment is. The green of the hills is just as majestic as the blue of the sea.

Trying to Visit Big Buddha

At the top of one of these green hills is a huge Buddha that you could see from the roof of our hotel. Since I knew we would mostly spend our time in Phuket by water not exercising and not seeing sights, I thought hiking to it would be a good plan. We could see it, take some pictures, get some exercise, and enjoy the hike together.

I came across a blog with step-by-step directions of how to easily hike to Big Buddha. Awesome. The directions included everything except an address of the starting point. Maybe you see where this is going.

Long story long, we got up early, put on workout clothes (long running tights for me so I would be fully covered to go in the temple), walked the twenty five minutes in 85+ degree tropical heat to where we thought the starting point would be…and the starting point wasn’t there.

I’ll speed things up: we walked around looking some more, got very, very cross with one another, and sulkily walked home (Amanda) having not found the trail or seen the Big Buddha.

We did some apologies, and then we went to the pool.

getting lost in Phuket — One large hill we walked up on our way not to the big Buddha.

I’m probably going to have to write about this epic fail on the blog so let me take this terrible selfie.

Taking Epic Sunset Pictures

We lucked into an incredible sunset that night and were able to take really just the best sunset pictures we could have imagined.

It was fortuitous because it was DAY ONE HUNDRED of our trip, and we could do a whole big, beautiful Instagram spread of this gorgeous sunset, looking just the happiest.

As I type, we received 598 LIKES on Instagram on this post. That is clearly the most likes we have ever received, and obviously means one day we might be internet famous.

And the funniest part is that we were as annoyed with/frustrated at/bothered by each other that day as we have been since we left the United States. We are fine now, but getting lost looking for Big Buddha was not a high point of our marriage.

So, enjoy these beautiful pictures, and remember: social media is not real.

Rich examines his bicep. He does this at least once every day. Yep. Still there.

Same sunset, from the roof of our hotel.

Day 101: It Rained

Sometimes a rainy day at the beach is okay! Here’s how we spent the day:

We walked to breakfast and home before it rained.
I blogged.
Rich finished reading Crazy Rich Asians and started China Rich Girlfriend. The man is obsessed. He thinks author Kevin Kwan is his best friend and that all of the main characters are people we actually know. We have big plans to go see the Crazy Rich Asians movie in Singapore where the books are set– we will keep you posted.
Rich and I took a nap.
We ran out in the rain to get dinner and then ran back home (somewhere along our travels Rich lost his rain jacket).

As I’m sure you can surmise, Phuket was really low key. No temples. No tours. Just beach and pool with a sprinkling of rain.

The only picture I took on our rainy day. Coffee + Yogurt.

What we loved about Phuket:

The amazing beach
Our hotel. They did a great job of providing small treats that really helped budget travelers like us. They served free, GOOD coffee from 3-4 PM, provided a yummy sunrise cocktail and popcorn from 6:00 – 6:30 PM, and offered ice cream from 8- 10 PM. The pool was also really fantastic.
Phuket was pretty walkable, and our hotel was centrally located.
Karon Beach, where we stayed, was family friendly. No wild backpacker parties (you know you are old when this falls in the loved section).

What we didn’t like/felt meh about in Phuket:

Phuket is a town that seems like maybe it peaked about 10 years ago. Restaurants are a bit dated/cheesy, and unless you eat street food, are definitely overpriced.
Coffee in the morning was really hard to come by. The earliest any of the coffee shops near us opened was 10 AM– although they then stayed open until at least 10 PM.
The signage was really bad. Big Buddha is a major attraction. Would it kill you to have a sign?
We couldn’t find a bookstore. I am out of books to read. You are a beach town. How does a beach town not have a bookstore? Unfathomable.

If you want hip and modern, go to Chiang Mai. If you just want to sit in the sand and look at beautiful sunsets, well, Phuket. You’ll be glad you did.

October 10, 2018

Days 94 – 97: Birthday + Traffic = Bangkok

So Bangkok was great because we celebrated Rich’s birthday there, but Bangkok was also a bit of a #fail because we underestimated traffic and stayed a bit too far away.

You win some, you lose some. Every destination can’t be Chiang Mai. Sigh.

Keep reading to hear how we celebrated Rich’s FORTIETH birthday and what we might have done differently in Bangkok if we had a chance.

Day 94: Rich’s 40th/Travel Day

Our general approach to travel days– as you can imagine, we have a lot of travel days– is to endure and make the best of what we get. Sometimes we get airport lounges with free food and great WiFi; sometimes we just buckle up and hang on.

In other words, in retrospect, we might have rearranged our days so that we weren’t traveling on Rich’s actual birthday to avoid an early morning and having to adhere to a schedule to make our flight.

Travel from Chiang Mai to Bangkok

Travel from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, Thailand’s two largest cities, was easy enough. We took a tuk tuk from our apartment to the airport. Since the flight was domestic, there was no lounge available. The flight was a little over an hour, direct, and then we took a taxi from the airport to our AirBNB, which was in another high rise apartment building. We got our first taste of Bangkok traffic– the ride from the airport took close to an hour. Eeek.

Violating International Laws, aka Checking Into Our AirBNB

Here’s where things got a bit weird: Despite our host writing that “everything was fine with AirBNB and immigration,” we were instructed to “under no circumstances” communicate with anyone at the front desk of the apartment building and to walk directly to a mailbox to retrieve our key.

Based on the giant signs in the lobby declaring that short term rentals were against the law and anyone violating the act would be reported to authorities, I think that perhaps everything was NOT fine with immigration! Here we are, the only white people in the building, speaking about three words of Thai, with giant backpacks, trying to act like we lived somewhere we had literally never been before. We were not exactly thrilled with our host for putting us in this shady situation.

I guess we did okay because the authorities never came for us. Nothing says living on the edge like violating short term rental acts in a foreign country. I mean there are only about one thousand movies about Americans/Brits ending up in Thai prisons. Happy 40th!

The MASSIVE sign alerting us to our potential AirBNB problem…

Birthday Eating: McDonald’s and Mr. Food

It was rainy when we got to our apartment, and we didn’t really have getting fancy in us so we decided to postpone a true birthday celebration until the next day. We were HUNGRY though.

When we started googling nearby restaurants, reality sunk in that we weren’t close to much. We decided to walk to the closest mall, about 10 minutes away.

This. mall. was. creepy. It was HUGE, but we saw maybe 15 other people shopping in the hour or so we were there. Apparently, it was a very new Korean-style mall doing some sort of soft open so maybe no one knew they could go? It felt a bit apocalyptic.

The food court had NOT fully opened, but McDonald’s had! You don’t have to believe me, but we had not had any American fast food on the previous 93 days of our travel. Eating Mickey D’s on Rich’s birthday felt so right.

Honey, I love you so much I’m taking you to the Golden Arches for your birthday.

When we got back from lunch, epic storms rolled in so we vegged away the afternoon. Instead of going out in Bangkok, we talked about watching Hangover II in Bangkok. Then we wandered out for dinner at Mr. Food around the corner, and it was surprisingly yummy.

Mr. Food in Bangkok — Rich clearly enjoying Mr. Food

We were in bed by 10:30 PM. This is forty.

Day 95: Let’s Celebrate!

The next morning, we made it out for coffee and to buy groceries. The grocery store was huge and beautiful, so Rich was happy.

Yep, looking pretty everyday at The Everyday Cafe

We spent the afternoon by the pool and had it all to ourselves. In Thailand, there is a HUGE industry devoted to skin whitening (seriously– it’s scary) so tanning is pretty much an anathema to the locals.

And then we got ready to go out!

Dinner at Akira Back

While we have eaten out a lot in Southeast Asia, for the most part, we try to do it as inexpensively as possible. But this was Rich’s 40th birthday dinner, so it was time for a treat! We picked Akira Back, a modern Japanese/Korean restaurant on the 37th floor of the Marriott Marquis in downtown Bangkok.

Interestingly enough, SIX of the top 25 restaurants in Bangkok are all located in the Marriott Marquis. Go figure.

The distance from our apartment to the restaurant was only 4.6 km away (less than 3 miles). However, in a Grab (SE Asia Uber equivalent) through Bangkok, it took us 45 MINUTES to get there. Bangkok traffic is seriously no joke.

We arrived in time to enjoy one cocktail at ABar, the bar adjoining the restaurant, and the experience was wild, in a good way. The decor looked like it was from a movie set, and we sat on an outdoor terrace overlooking Bangkok below. Rich and I both took a minute to take stock of how amazing our life is and how grateful we are to be taking all of this in together.

Happy to celebrate my love. Rich asked me to point out that he was happy that I matched the decor.

Dinner was everything we hoped it would be. We enjoyed crab fried rice, wagu short rib for two, INCREDIBLE sushi, and fries made with duck fat along with an unbelievable view of Bangkok. Happy Birthday!

Day 96: Temples in Bangkok

Surprising no one, Bangkok has some amazing temples. A bit surprising to us, however, was how long it took us to get to them– temples that were just 12 km away (~7.5 miles) took more than an hour to reach via Grab. It’s okay, my husband loves traffic (bahahahahahahaha).

Wat Arun

I learned my lesson from the temples in Chiang Mai and had a scarf ready to go if I needed to cover up at the temples in Bangkok. Apparently I did because while Rich was paying to even enter Wat Arun, another visitor tapped me on the arm and said, “Cover your legs.” Yes, m’am. (Rich: “Does she even work here?). It’s bizarre to go from being someone who enforces dress code to being someone told to cover up! Not exposing your knees or your shoulders is tricky when the daily temperature tops ninety degrees– and when all of the outfits you brought fit in one backpack.

Wat Arun is a beautiful temple, covered in mosaics. It was also super crowded with people jockeying to get the perfect Insta shot, which sometimes included separate lights and multiple photographers! Being an influencer is serious business (my friend Sarah Jo: “I read all of your blogs. Are you internet famous yet?” Me: “Decidely not. But I feel super honored that about 100 people read my blog each week. That is a lot to me!”).

At Wat Arun– getting a picture with no one else in it took some work!

Wat Pho

From Wat Arun, we took a quick, cheap ferry across the river to reach Wat Pho. Wat Pho is home to a famous reclining Buddha and has been a temple longer than Bangkok has been the capital of Thailand. The reclining Buddha was cool, but I felt a bit boxed in with many other tourists and signs everywhere warning of pickpockets (of which we have seen none in SE Asia, by the way).

However, outside the temple with the reclining Buddha, there is a huge courtyard filled with phra phrang, or towers. They were all mosaics, like Wat Arun, and we enjoyed walking around that space which was a lot more open.

Full view of my scarf skirt– we call this “make-it-work” fashion

Khao San Road

From Wat Pho, we walked by the royal palace, which unknown to us closed at 3 PM. Ooops. It looked pretty spectacular from the road but was surrounded by high walls which prevented us from getting any good shots. We then walked another 15-20 minutes to Khao San Road.

Khao San Road is the center of backpacker life in Bangkok, and while we saw many hostels along the road, umm, we aren’t sure if any of the hostels have working showers? Sometimes we feel a bit grimy as we travel, but if we ever reach this level of grime, I’m going need one of the hundred people who read this to leave me a comment that it’s time to pull it together.

Rich and I got delicious and CHEAP pad thai from a street vendor, although she stuck us in a bit of an alley to eat it (maybe our cleanliness was going to scare the other customers away?). We then went back to one of the restaurants on the strip to split a big beer and do some people watching. Rich and I both could have sat there for hours– I would be hard pressed to name a better spot for people watching perhaps in the entire world. The New York subway, perhaps? It’s up there.

You can catch a bit of the scene behind Rich

Georgia had a 2:30 AM football game against the University of Tennessee so we went home and crashed so we could rise in the middle of the night to watch it. Dawgs won at 5:48 AM, and we went right to sleep.

Well, one of us made it until the end of the Georgia game…Not quite as glamorous as actually being in Athens. #thisisalso40

Day 97: Let’s Work!

We slept in post-early-morning football game, and then decided to get some work done. We had played with leaving the apartment to work from somewhere else, but it was pretty rainy, and our apartment had a HUGE couch so we burrowed in and got to work.

Not much to report here: Rich did some New Zealand planning, and I published our post on Vientiane, Laos. We ate rice for dinner at a spot about 100 yards from our apartment, stocked up on game watching snacks at a 7-11 across the street, and then threw a load of laundry in the apartment complex’s washer and dryer (hallelujah for every dryer we can get, even though one of my dresses definitely shrunk from a dress to a swimsuit cover up!).

It was now the Eagles turn for a middle-of-the-night football game.

Watching your team lose is bad enough. Staying awake from midnight until 4:00 AM to watch your Super Bowl champion team lose to the terrible Tennessee Titans (sorry Nashville readers, but you know this season it’s true!) in a horrendous overtime showing was BRUTAL.

Closing Thoughts on Bangkok

Bangkok is probably a lot like any big city globally. Everyone wants to be in the center of the action, but to get there, you have to pay.

We knew that we were going to be about 5 KM out from downtown, but we didn’t anticipate how long it would take to get into the city or how hard it would be to walk. I think we imagined Bangkok as being a lot like New York with pretty easy access to the city from the boroughs via subway– as well as the boroughs being pretty well developed themselves– and that just wasn’t the case.

After being there, it seems like Bangkok exploded population-wise and the infrastructure has not been able to keep up. If traffic makes you crazy, Bangkok is NOT the city for you.

The American couple we met in Chiang Mai told us that they had seen A LOT of old Western men with very young Thai girls in Bangkok, and thankfully, we didn’t see any of that. Also, while we might have encouraged our backpacker friends on Khao San Road to raise their bar for cleanliness/hygiene, we didn’t see anyone eat a scorpion or seem outrageously drunk, though we were there in the late afternoon. Maybe that was the trade off for staying farther out in our “legal” AirBNB: for better or worse, we had a much lower key, 40-year-old-appropriate Bangkok experience.

October 9, 2018

Days 90 – 93: Chiang Mai, Thailand (Our Favorite, Our Favorite, Our Favorite)

So, of course, we loved Budapest and Korcula and Heraklion and Hoi An and the list goes on. But when I say we LOVED being in Chiang Mai, Thailand– we LOVED it. We stayed in the Nimman neighborhood, and it was just. so. hip.

I’m excited to write about it, and I hope you are excited to read. Come explore Chiang Mai with us!

Day 90: Travel from Luang Prabang, Laos to Chiang Mai, Thailand

At this point, we pretty much have airplane travel down, and this was an easy one direct flight trip. We took a tuk tuk from our AirBNB to the Luang Prabang airport, and then our host arranged for us to be picked up from the Chiang Mai airport when we arrived.

Our AirBNB in Chiang Mai was in a pretty new apartment complex that wasn’t that different from any apartment building we had lived in DC over the past ten years. There was a pool and a gym– perfect!

We are taking a new approach to travel days, especially in Thailand where we have pools everywhere we stay: Get to the AirBNB/hotel. Go to the pool. Relax. Make a plan for how to spend the next few days.

This plan was on point. First, I arrived in Chiang Mai having read all of the books we had with us, but in the apartment, there was a copy of Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. A free, great book to read at pool? Hallelujah! Chiang Mai is already winning. Second, the pool was an infinity pool with spectacular views of the hills of Chiang Mai. Does it get better?

Reading at the pool. Does it get better?

Pool in Chiang Mai — Rich also “reading” at the pool.

The Nimman Neighborhood and Nimman Social

So our neighborhood is named Nimman for Nimmanhaemin Road which runs through the center of the area. In Nimman, you will find cafes, bars, and boutiques that all look like they jumped off the pages of Instagram’s top accounts. The food is delicious and healthy, the shops are adorable, and everything is right next to everything else.

For my American readers, you may be thinking, well, is Chiang Mai as hip as Brooklyn or as Twelve South in Nashville or Fishtown in Philly? IT IS HIPPER. Seriously. We thought Nimman might be like our favorite neighborhoods in America, and instead, we may have even liked it better.

The first night in Chiang Mai, Rich walked the seven minutes to dinner repeating, “I love Chiang Mai. I love Chiang Mai.” He was giddy.

We went to dinner at Nimman Social, a part indoor, part outdoor bar/cafe attached to a nearby hostel. We drank a beer and ate two noodle dishes and the most incredible french fries, sitting under white bistro lights, for less than $10. Can’t beat it.

Nimman Social in Chiang Mai — Enjoying dinner at Nimman Social.

Day 91: Umm, We Enjoyed Nimman Some More

If you are reading this thinking you want to travel to Chiang Mai for a few days, umm, this may not be the itinerary you want to follow. If you are traveling the world for a year, I highly recommend a day EXACTLY like this.

How we spent our day:

Slept in.
Worked out in the apartment gym.
Walked to breakfast at Overstand Coffee. Ate avocado toast.
Found a bookstore that didn’t sell any fiction in English. Were directed to a bookstore in the mall.
Walked to the wrong mall, explored it.
Found the right mall, the MAYA Lifestyle Shopping Center, which happened to be unbelievably fabulous. Bought two books and a dress at H&M (on sale!).
Went home and went to the pool.
Got ready and ate dinner at the mall food court.

Perhaps you are wondering about this mall food court eating. That’s because you are imagining an American mall food court. This food court had every kind of Thai street food prepared fresh in clean booths for cheap. Remember: In Southeast Asia, we are eating the majority of our meals out. Being able to grab quick, casual, delicious, inexpensive dinner may have been one of our favorite parts of staying in Chiang Mai.

The outside of the Maya Lifestyle Shopping Center.

The INSIDE of the Maya Shopping Center. All of the games of mall madness I played as a young girl led to this…

Umm, this is pad thai BAKED INTO AN EGG. Genius, mall food court, genius.

Day 92: Temple Time in Chiang Mai

Rich and I woke up, hit the gym, and then enjoyed a yummy bowl of cheap chocolate cereal in our apartment. We decided we should probably check out some of the famous temples of Chiang Mai.

Wat Phra Singh

We walked from Nimman to Old City to reach Wat Phra Singh. Wat Phra Singh was one large, beautiful temple, surrounded by several smaller temples. Every year, during the Buddhist Songkran festival, the statue of Buddha that is housed here is paraded through Chiang Mai.

Not unlike what we witnessed in Sicily with the statue of Mary arriving on a boat to celebrate the Assumption!

Rich outside of one of the temples at Wat Phra Singh

Wat Chedi Luang

I had a bit of beef with Wat Chedi Luang because my new H&M dress was deemed to be too short, and so in order to enter the area, I had to borrow a big piece of cloth to wrap around my waist. I will eat that I knew that my dress didn’t come quite down to my knees and that I did some risk analysis on whether I would be able to skate through on temple entry (also similar to Catholicism– figuring out how to pull your school uniform skirt down to pass skirt checks-ha!).

What I did not bank on was receiving the longest piece of cloth ever when my skirt didn’t pass inspection and having said cloth reach my ankles. I was tied up pretty tight which made walking, well, pretty miserable.

But the temple was huge and old and really stately. So it was probably worth it. We just didn’t stay too long.

One of the smaller temples at Wat Chedi Luang

Rich Gets a Haircut!

After we left the temple, we got lunch in Old Town. The restaurant had a good TripAdvisor rating, but didn’t hold a candle to the mall food court.

We then walked back to Nimman for Rich to get his haircut. He did a lot of research and landed on 56 Barber Shop. Rich has very thick, curly hair, and as any of his family members reading this can attest to, is very particular about his appearance (I type this hearing his voice in my head say, “Isn’t it worth it in order to look this good?”).

Chan at 56 Barber Shop did a phenomenal job. He played old school hip hop (read: Biggie, Eve, J-Lo) the whole time and took close to an hour to get everything perfect. This was a big haircut a few days before Rich turned the big 4-0, and Chan came through. It also further fueled our belief that Chiang Mai is A-MAI-ZING (get it?).

After! This almost-40 year old walked out feeling great!

Dinner at the Mall Food Court

We couldn’t resist.

food court dinner in chiang mai — Pad thai meets nachos in this mall food court crispy pad thai dish. This was Rich’s VERY FAVORITE dish in the past 30 days and cost less than $2.

Day 93: Work Day in Chiang Mai

But First, Coffee

As I mentioned (over and over), Nimman had a ton of cute cafes. We wanted to try Ristr8to, a coffee shop that had won international latte art competitions. Our plan was to get a coffee and work on blogging/planning from there. However, while they had great lattes, they did NOT have air conditioning. That dog won’t hunt.

Nothing says good morning like this guy…

We spent at least an hour trying to figure out where to go to work with aircon (as they say over here) and WiFi and finally landed on Healthy B Cafe. I finished our Siem Reap blog post while Rich booked all of our lodging for Australia. Productivity win!

Healthy B in Chiang Mai — We enjoyed working from Healthy B!

Pool Time

We headed back to our glorious apartment pool. I had already finished Born a Crime, and Rich needed to finish it so we could leave it behind in the apartment. We both really loved it. Trevor Noah is of course hilarious, and he is also raw and direct about real systemic and familial challenges he faced during his childhood in South Africa at the end of apartheid. If you enjoy a good memoir about perseverance and chasing the life you believe you can have, pick this one up.

There was another American couple at the pool while we were. The young man was on sabbatical for a year from his job in Baltimore and was traveling long-term like us, and his girlfriend had flown in from New York to meet him for a two week vacation. He was a fellow Teach For America alum (go figure), and it was pretty interesting to share thoughts on places we had visited and exchange reflections.

Dinner at the Food Court

I’m telling you: so cheap and so good. We had already eaten at real restaurants twice that day! Don’t knock it until you try it.

Final Thoughts on Chiang Mai

I re-read this post, and I’m not sure I am capturing well what we loved so much about Chiang Mai, and perhaps that is because what we loved so much is that Chiang Mai felt like home. The apartment building felt like our apartment building in DC, and the cafes felt like our favorite coffee shops in Philly. Nimman was super walkable– we didn’t need Google maps to get around. We went to the gym, we read great books by the pool, we drank coffee slowly, we liked every bite of food we ate.

See, when you go on vacation, you want to see new things and explore different ways of life. Visit the temples; eat the fancy food; go, go, go.

But after 90 days on the road, in ten different countries, the escape we needed was to pretend we were home. Beautiful Chiang Mai gave us that from the minute our plane landed. That sense of home made Chiang Mai one of our most favorite destinations of all.

100%, we will make it back to Chiang Mai again.

October 7, 2018

Days 85 – 89: Our Adventures in Luang Prabang, Laos

Laos was good to us! We enjoyed starting in Vientiane, the capital, and then really enjoyed laying back in Vang Vieng. While the journey from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was a bit of an adventure, Luang Prabang treated us right. I’m excited to share how we spent our time.

Day 85: Travel to Luang Prabang Was More Than a Notion

One of my favorite coworkers in Washington, DC would always say that something was “more than a notion” if it sounded straightforward but then ended up being complicated or challenging.

So by the time you finish reading this section, you will understand what I mean when I say that travel to Luang Prabang was most definitely more than a notion.

The Trip from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang

It started simply enough. Our understanding was that our hotel in Vang Vieng would provide a ride to the bus company. While we were checking out, we let the hotel know we would need that service, and they said that actually, the bus would come to us.

Three minutes later, a driver in a songthaew, a pick up truck converted into a “bus,” pulled up. He drove us rather aggressively through the muddy streets of Vang Vieng to a bus stop where we got out to wait. About 45 minutes later, he came back, we climbed back into the back of his truck, and we picked up a few more passengers. He then drove us to a different bus station where we loaded a van.

Our first van driver appeared to be about 17 years old. As a former high school teacher and administrator, I’m going to call myself an expert on approximating the age of teenagers. We drove for about three hours on the bumpiest roads I had ever been on. Despite wearing a seatbelt, I almost hit my head on the ceiling. The young driver stopped the van twice to check and see if we had flat tires. I don’t know how, but Rich slept.

Sleeping on the way to Luang Prabang — The man can sleep through anything.

After about three hours, our van pulled to the side of the road, and an older man from a different van approached our van. This man and our young driver switched places. While Rich and I were not expecting this shift change, we were both pretty relieved that someone with a bit more driving experience was taking over.

We then drove about half a mile on top of boulders. I am only minorly exaggerating. If you had told me there had been a rock slide a week before, I would have said, oh, okay, makes perfect sense. I don’t have photographic proof because I was too terrified to capture it.

We then drove up a very tall mountain on a road that was sometimes paved and sometimes not.

I’m assuming you get the picture.

The older driver seemed to do a great job navigating the treacherous terrain, but he did have to get out of the van to relieve himself on the opposite side of the road three times in the next three hours. So maybe the drive made him nervous too.

After about six hours in total of being in the van, and after a drive that while dangerous was unbelievably beautiful, we arrived in Luang Prabang. Our AirBNB hosts had arranged for a tuk tuk driver to pick us up at the bus stop where we were scheduled to arrive. Only one problem: the van driver did not deliver us to the bus stop.

Sunset on the way to Luang Prabang — The. Views. It reminded me of driving through beautiful North Georgia.

Our Harrowing Trip to Our AirBNB

Our van driver’s English accent was very thick, and I didn’t understand what he said at all when he pulled over in town and started removing our items from the back of the van. Rich and another woman on the van independently heard him say that he would not be taking us to the bus station “because of the police.”

Oh.

So we were on the side of the road in Luang Prabang, Laos with our bags and with NO cell service to pull up google maps to find our way. I suggested we walk until we saw a cafe with WiFi and then we could go from there.

Where’s a cafe with WiFi when you need it? We walked for about 10 minutes before we found such a spot. Let’s just say when we arrived, we needed a beer as badly as we needed cell service. So we enjoyed our beer and realized that we were only about a 19 minute walk from our AirBNB which we both felt we had in us.

The Bridge of Doom

About 10 minutes into our walk, we reach a bridge that Google said we were supposed to cross. Let me paint the picture: It is wooden and is about one American traffic lane wide. Bicycles and motorbikes are speeding over it in each direction, barely missing each other. We look at the bridge, not quite sure how we are going to squeeze across with our bags, when we notice a small walkway on the side, below the main bridge.

I say, “I think maybe we walk on that, ” and Rich takes off like a man on a mission.

Oh, I don’t think I mentioned this: the bridge is over a raging river. Maybe I also didn’t mention that it is after 9 PM and pitch black out. And I did mention this but would like to mention it again: we both have our large backpacks and a smaller bag each. All of our worldly possessions.**

So I follow, more slowly, a few steps behind, when I realize this bridge has a ton of give in it, and I step on a plank that gives A LOT. My heart races. I think, “Are we supposed to be crossing the bridge on this adjacent platform? What if what we are on is only for workers or repairs? If I fall in the river, will I be able to swim with a 20 lb backpack?” My thoughts get darker from there, but you get the picture.

Rich is a good 10-15 feet ahead of me because a.) he’s a man, b.) he’s fearless, c.) he’s impatient to get to the AirBNB, or d.) all of the above. He turns around and looks at my face and says, “Are you crying?”

I wimper, “No” because that’s embarrassing. I’m not crying. I’m on the precipice of a full on panic attack. As any appropriately cautious individual would be.

Rich turns around and walks. I inch my way across a very long bridge. I survived. But barely.

The next day, we google the bridge. We read things like, “Only cross if you dare. Not for the faint of heart. No one likes the bridge of death.”

Yeah, no shit.

This is how scary the bridge looks IN THE DAYTIME. I’m unsure why this man is STANDING on this bridge, seemingly unafraid.

Day 86: Our Adventures at the Kuang Si Waterfalls

I’m seguing from a curse word to an adventure that my mom thought was irresponsible to share on Instagram because it looked too dangerous. Sorry, Mom! We really are being careful almost always, and I usually don’t curse!

So the Kuang Si Waterfalls are located in a large park about 45 minutes outside of Luang Prabang. Our AirBNB hosts arranged for a tuk tuk driver to drive us to the falls, wait a few hours for us, and then drive us home.

The Bear Sanctuary

Once you pay a small fee to enter the park, you cross a bear sanctuary to get to the falls. There are several bears in a big space that looks a lot like a zoo but with more fun toys. There is also a caged area where you can watch the baby cubs. Too cute!

Baby bears! (Behind glass, totally safe)

Rich gets tired of Amanda and makes friends with bears.

Kuang Si Falls

We hiked for a few minutes before reaching the falls, and they were breathtaking. There were people swimming in a pool at the bottom, but we opted to hike a bit farther before going for a swim. We took some pictures on a bridge at the bottom of the falls, and then crossed it to another trail. We were able to climb up a steep path to reach the top of the falls before coming back down.

Once we were at the bottom, we noticed a few people were headed towards a path on the left. At this point, we had probably hiked for an hour so we said we would check it out but keep the option to turn around before going all the way to the top on the table.

I’m so glad we did NOT turn around. When we got near the top, we saw that there was a staircase that had become part of the waterfall that you could still walk up. Presumably, when the falls were less full, the staircase was dry, but it had rained a day or two before so the water ran down the stairs.

We decided to head up, and it was awesome. I never thought I would walk up a waterfall! It was one of the most fun thirty minutes of our whole around the world trip. (Sorry, Mom. Anyone who has not turned 34 yet most definitely should NOT attempt. It is ONLY really fun if you are old and careful.)

Dinner

We paid a boat to take us across the river to the town of Luang Prabang to avoid crossing the Bridge of Death.

Day 87: Almsgiving Plus Work Day and Laundry

Almsgiving in Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a very religious town with Buddhist monks everywhere. Each morning, the residents of Luang Prabang line the streets to give a small offering to each monk as he passes. Steve, our host, told us that the monks would pass the house between 6:00 and 7:00 AM so we got up early to sit on the balcony and watch. Sure enough, at about 6:15 AM, the women across the street headed outside and the monks came by.

It was really neat to watch and offered a nice, quiet time for reflection.

The procession of monks passed right by where we were staying.

Early morning almsgiving in Luang Prabang

Laundry!

So we ended up going much longer in between doing laundry than intended. I won’t name the last city we did laundry in before Luang Prabang. Luckily, our AirBNB hosts provided laundry service for a reasonable fee so we gave them a VERY big load, put on the clean clothes we had left over (a tank top and hiking pants for me, a long sleeved pullover and jeans for Rich), and settled in to work for the day.

The AirBNB where we were staying was a true bed and breakfast. Steve and Meryl are ex-pats who live downstairs, and they have several guestrooms upstairs. Meryl cooked delicious eggs, bacon, and toast that we enjoyed each morning.

We spread out in the work space downstairs to crank out a blog post and do some planning together. We turned our laundry over to Meryl at about 10:00 AM; however, when we started really needing dinner around 6:00 PM, we hadn’t gotten our clothes back yet.

So Rich went to dinner in Southeast Asia in a snow suit, and I made my improvised outfit fit right in!

Rich working (and sweating) on laundry day.

Of course, the laundry was wonderfully clean and folded when we got home.

Day 88: Checking Out the Sights in Luang Prabang

We really enjoyed having some time to work while we were in Luang Prabang, so I tackled one more blog post in the morning.

In the afternoon, we headed out to see the sights in Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage Center because of the fusion of Laotian and colonial French influences in its art and architecture. We hiked up Mount Phu Si, the highest point in Luang Prabang to reach Wat Chum Si.

Amanda by the scary bridge of death. I conquered my fear to cross into town!

Rich at a Buddhist monument in Luang Prabang

One of the many statues on the way up Mount Phu Si.

Dinner at 525 Cocktails & Tapas

For dinner, we got drinks and tapas at 525 Cocktails & Tapas. The macaroni and cheese and water buffalo sliders were to die for. The owner was there and came over to chat when we had finished eating. He and his wife are ex-pats from the United Kingdom and Australia, and he said they love raising their young son in Laos. Similar to us, they had wanted to take a bit of a step back from hectic jobs and living “busy” lives. For them, that looked like opening a bar in Laos.

We enjoyed spending time with him.

Looking back on that delicious meal, I can definitely tell we have adapted to prices where we are! For less than $25, we got two cocktails, five tapas, one beer, and a dessert thrown in– AND we felt like we had spent a lot on dinner!

We ordered one of these dessert samplers and got TWO. I LOVE dessert. Heaven.

On our way home from dinner– across the scary bridge, I conquered my fear– we ended up walking beside a young monk and his talkative friend. At first, we thought the friend wanted to sell us something, “Where are you going? Where are you staying? Where are you from?” but he was just genuinely curious and friendly.

We really enjoyed the people we met in Laos. They were always nice, but a whole lot less pushy than people in some of the other countries we have visited. There was a quiet confidence to all of the towns we visited in Laos.

Maybe it is the amiability I talked about in my post on Vientiane: being kind and gracious is a virtue. It was easy to imagine why both Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang were full of ex-pats. Laos was an easy place to feel welcome and that you had plenty of space at the same time.

** We were carrying all of our worldly possessions not in storage, at my mom’s, or at Rich’s mom’s across the bridge of doom.

October 4, 2018

Days 83 – 85: Vang Vieng, the Beautiful

So faithful readers will recall that due to one very nasty jellyfish (or family of jellyfish perhaps), I didn’t love our time in the Halong Bay. Fortunately, the same limestone cliffs found in the Halong Bay surround beautiful Vang Vieng, Laos. Same limestone, different outcome: we loved Vang Vieng.

Day 83: Travel to Vang Vieng, Laos

We thought we were taking a bus from Vientiane to Vang Vieng, but our bus ended up being a pretty regular-sized van. Most notably from the trip, everyone’s luggage was tied down on top of the van with a tarp on top of it, and the terrain was rugged. I’m not sure a bus could have passed over the washed out roads we took.

When we arrived in Vang Vieng, our cell phones couldn’t pick up any internet or regular service which made finding our AirBNB in a town we had never visited before a bit challenging. We decided to walk in the direction that everyone else from our van walked and hauled our belongings, which survived five hours of jostling on the roof of the van, about 10 minutes until we found an Amazon Cafe with free WiFi and could pull up a map.

Originally, we planned to stay in an AirBNB in Vang Vieng, but Rich found an amazing resort at a pretty reasonable price ($76/night) that he kept showing me over and over again (“Look at those views! The mountains! That swimming pool!”) so we changed our plans to stay there instead.

The Riverside Boutique Hotel in Vang Vieng

Staying at the Riverside Boutique Hotel was a great decision. All of the things that Rich saw in the pictures were better in real life. We walked into our room, and a scented candle was burning. We had arrived.

Day 84: Visiting a Limestone Cave and One of Many Blue Lagoons

When we started researching things to do in Vang Vieng, we realized quite a few of the things were pretty far outside of Vang Vieng. Rich suggested using the free hotel bicycles to bike to some far away trails and waterfalls, but all I could think of was the terrible dirt roads we had driven in on. Off-road biking didn’t appeal to me at all.

We decided instead to relax at the pool in the morning and then head to the closest “attraction,” a limestone cave and a blue lagoon in the afternoon.

Visiting the Tham Phu KHam Cave

The Tham Phu Kham cave was an easy 25 minute walk from our hotel. We paid a nominal toll to cross a big orange pedestrian bridge over the river, and then bought a ticket to the cave once across. We climbed a steep staircase to enter the cave, and then once we entered, we were the only ones inside. I had never had a cave to myself before!

The cave was really cool temperature-wise, which was a big relief from the Southeast Asian heat, and beautiful too. It was also a bit creepy, so I’ll go ahead and admit that we didn’t explore it too thoroughly for fear that we would forget our path out! I love my husband, but I can imagine other people who might handle being lost in a cave with more composure than he would.

The view of Vang Vieng from outside the cave.

Inside the cave. We are not the best cave photographers.

Cave in Vang Vieng — The climb up to the entrance of the cave

The Blue Lagoon

By the entrance to the cave, there is a decent sized natural swimming lagoon. During dry season, the water is very blue. We were there during rainy season so it was a little murky.

There were several other tourists there when we got there, and Rich was all about jumping in. Knowing that we had an actual pool back at a resort (and remembering my jellyfish fiasco), I was good to sit this one out and hold our stuff.

As we were walking over the bridge towards where you climbed in, about twelve boys between the ages of nine and thirteen came running towards the water. School had obviously just let out as they were discarding pieces of their school uniforms as they ran.

The first young man climbed up a tree and then out on to a branch over the water, and then he just let himself drop into the lagoon below. The next young man climbed up on top of the bridge and dove in. Each boy performed a feat crazier than the last to enter the water until they were all in the lagoon.

These kids were having the time of their lives.

Rich, meanwhile, slowly eased his way in to the icy waters, while children splashed and jumped around him. It was amazing.

Dinner at the Happy Mango Thai Restaurant

Vang Vieng has a reputation as a fairly wild backpacker town– apparently for years, backpackers would float down the Nam Sung river until they came upon a riverside bar where they would consume a beer or two, then float down the river until they encountered another bar, wash, rinse, repeat.

After a number of backpackers died (eeek!), town officials took some measures to cut down on some of the tomfoolery that resulted from all of this drinking and floating. However, several years later, Vang Vieng still has many more bars than restaurants.

When we saw fabulous Tripadvisor reviews for a place called The Happy Mango Thai Restaurant, we were all in. We went the first night we arrived, then back the second, and then spoiler alert: we also went the third. The prices were incredible; dinner each night averaged $10 total which included two entrees, two beers, and the BEST mango sticky rice for dessert.

Is it wrong to say that I ate my favorite Thai food in Southeast Asia in Laos? If Happy Mango is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

Rich posed with the lizard, and then said “Get the check.” The waitress laughed at him and shooed the lizard away.

Day 85: Umm, We Went to the Pool

We considered more hiking, visiting waterfalls, etc., but instead, it was raining so we decided to:

Sleep in.
Eat a glorious resort breakfast.
Read at the pool (once I picked up Crazy Rich Asians I couldn’t put it down– “frothy” was the exact right description on the back cover) when it wasn’t raining.
Work a little whenever the rain drove us inside.
Shower.
Go eat dinner at Happy Mango Thai Restaurant

Productive, huh? It doesn’t make much of a blog post, but it was a great day.

Vang Vieng, Laos: Were We Laid Back or What?

If you can’t tell from how relaxed we look in all of our pictures, Vang Vieng was a breeze. We had delicious hotel breakfast each morning, grabbed mango shakes and egg bahn mi once or twice for lunch, and ate Happy Mango Thai for dinner. We wore work out clothes or swimsuits every day, and I’m not sure I wore make up or used a blow dryer once.

The people in Vang Vieng were super friendly, and the rain gave us a bit of cover not to tackle all of the sightseeing we might otherwise feel like we should attempt. We were as relaxed in Vang Vieng as anywhere else we have been on the trip.

If you visit southeast Asia, have the stomach for a bumpy van ride, and are looking for somewhere where you can just be, add Vang Vieng to your list. We would go back in a heartbeat.