Tag Archive: massage


We’ve Got The Scoots

Filed Under: Vietnam
Mar.08, 2010

OK, even if you usually just skim my blog… I have a feeling you started reading this entry.

We had breakfast and then got the scooters, and armed with a horrible map on a small piece of paper, we headed on in search of the ruins. We did a pretty amazing job of getting there. We asked for directions along the way, but we managed to never make a wrong turn which was really good, especially considering the map wasn’t used at all.

The ruins themselves were quite neat. It was more Mayan-esque than what we saw in Ayutthaya, surrounded by jungle, vegetation crawling over the ruins, streams running through the area. We saw a few different neat lizards around there too.

After we were done with the ruins, we headed back, this time enjoying the views a little more, stopping for pictures, and grabbing some random food from a local restaurant. Scooters are really they way to travel over here. After getting back to Hoi An, we checked out Amy’s tailored stuff and then hit the internet cafe. Food and massage are the plans for the evening. Everything closes really early here (9:00ish.) We travel by train tomorrow in hard sleepers to Saigon (Ho Chi Min City) where the goal is to spend maybe 2 days and then booking it up to Cambodia. We are feeling our beach lounging days waste away and we are really excited to get there, so we are taking it up a notch with the actual planning.

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Sleepless in Vietnam

Filed Under: Vietnam
Mar.07, 2010

Well, the train has to this point been a favorite mode of transportation for us in Asia. It is usually the most comfortable, it is continuous, there is food and drink available, you can walk around, and when it is for 14 hours… you can catch some sleep.

Unfortunately the train books up quickly here in Vietnam. Travel agents buy up all the tickets and then sell them back to you at really high rates, and that is if you can find one with some left. We managed to find some soft seat (think like a greyhound bus seat, but smaller, Asian sized) tickets and that is what we used. We had planned on sleeping over the night, but there are nothing but warnings when traveling with locals on buses and trains because of the amount of things which are stolen. Jen fell asleep pretty quickly and Amy eventually got some sleep around 4:00am. I think I was waking up every 15 minutes for most of the night just to look around and see how things were. The lights were never off, and the ride wasn’t the smoothest ever, so it was fairly easy to keep this pattern going.

Eventually we rolled in to Danang, Vietnam’s 4th largest city (1 million people.) Our goal was to rent scooters and ride down to Hoi An ourselves. We left Amy with the bags and Jen and I set off in the heat to try and find somewhere to rent them, but after a kilometer or so with no luck we went back to get Amy and find a new way down to Hoi An. The cheapest option was the local bus. We had no idea what it was, and even less of an idea where it was exactly, but we headed off in what we figured was the suggested direction of the guidebook. When we got to the spot, a man came up and asked us where we were from (Canada… ahhh Quebec *french french french french*) when telling him we were headed for the bus to Hoi An, he took us to where we needed to go.

Now we have been scammed so many times (or attempts made at least) that we are a very skeptical group. I didn’t have a horrible feeling from him, but we just kept waiting for it to happen. Eventually he saw us off and it was all fine, he was just being nice (I got to use some of my French with him which was fun.) We regretted not offering him some money after we realized that it was all just to help us, but the opportunity was gone. Up rolls the local bus and it is a dash on to the stairs as it just keeps rolling by. The system is, listen for the continuous horn, wave when you want it, run like hell to get on it, and grab something when you make it in. It was about 30 – 45 minutes of this and then we got to Hoi An.

A German girl named Mascha got off as well, and she joined us on the hunt for a guest house. After finding one, showering, and dropping off laundry, we headed off to find some food. They have “fresh beer” which is made daily and disposed of at night if there is any left. It costs about 20 cents a glass and it is very tasty. We had a set menu at a place by the river and everything we were brought tasted fantastic. The restaurant was empty when we arrived, but through the magic of having tourists sitting at at table in your place of business, soon after there were 7 other tables filled.

The evening was spent shopping with Amy (custom tailoring is huge in Hoi An) and topped off with a massage. The goal tomorrow is to rent the scooters we wanted earlier and check out the My Son ruins.

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Ha Long Bay Trip – Day 2

Filed Under: Vietnam
Mar.04, 2010

After breakfast we boarded Cat Ba Island – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Ba_Island – the weirdness started here. Half our group was on a 2 day 1 night trip, so they all left, then our group of 6 people who were going to the island were separated into a group of 4 and 2 groups of 1, all heading with different groups to do the same thing.

We first stopped at the national park and hiked the most sweaty hike of our lives to the top of a 250m hill. At the top there was a 30 meter tower which was kind of scary to climb… OK, a lot scary to climb. The view wasn’t really any better and once you were up, after a picture of proof, you just wanted back down… but after the trek up the hill you want to do it just because it is up there. We then got dropped of at the hotel where we would spend the night. We were on the 6th floor, which was actually the 7th floor and our room looked over the water. It was really nice.

The fourth guy of our group was a guy named Ishai from Israel. We found another guy named David who is from Australia and was from our boat who had a full hotel to himself, and we all headed off to rent scooters to check out the island. It cost 3 dollars for the bike, 2 dollars for gas, and we were off. The first beach we came across was just amazing. Light brown sand, clear water (which appeared a little brown because of the sand it was picking up) and the waves were huge and just crashing up on shore. We hung around and walked the beach, found a path and another beach in the distance. Figuring it was probably more fun to go back and scooter to the new beach we did just that. Eventually we found a third beach which had some little bungalow huts on it and a restaurant and we had a bite to eat and a drink.

Off again to explore the rest of the island we ended up down a lot of roads that just ended at the ocean. Eventually we found a cave with a restaurant outside it. We asked how much for the cave and they said “no dong no dong” (dong being the currency here) we checked out the cave ant it was really neat. On the way out we were so impressed with finally not being taken advantage of here (it happens a lot in Vietnam) so we all prepared tips for them. Amy was ready to give 100000 dong (5 bucks) and I was willing to pay a little too much for some drink or something. Then the “ticket ticket ticket” chant started coming out of everyone and they wanted 15k from each of us. Screwball tactic that made it so we no longer were so thrilled by their friendliness and as a result, they got only the cost of the ticket from us, no large tips as was planned.

We continued down the road and headed off on what looked more like a sidewalk/lane which took us through some country side. David had a spill at one point, but he was OK. We ended the exploration at a place called “The Hive” which is a little relaxation point for people who climb a mountain near by. There were hammocks around and chickens, dogs, cattle, everywhere. A walk through their fields and we got to go see a few people climbing. There was a really tight cave but my flashlight was not nearly bright enough for me to go too deep into it. We rode back, and short of Amy running out of gas, it was a simple trip.

We had dinner at the hotel, spent some time at the only real hangout which had absolutely horrible drinks (we couldn’t finish them) and then I had one of the best massages of my trip. Unfortunately it was only head and shoulders, not full body, but it was still very much well worth it. It is another city which sort of lives by the curfew in place, so we needed to rattle the gate to be let into the hotel to go to sleep.

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Bears of Paradise

Filed Under: Laos
Feb.20, 2010

Woke up and headed off for a quick breakfast. Our goal today was to visit a waterfall we had heard about from the guide book. We started haggling with a tuk-tuk and moved off from him, found another who would go for the price we wanted, but he wanted to find more people to make it worth his while. After like 20 minutes of driving around (and I am sure, wasting more money on fuel than he would have if he just drove us right away) we popped off in search for a new tuk-tuk. After the waste of time we settled for a different, slightly more expensive, but ultimately cheap tuk-tuk which got us to the falls 40 km later.

We bought a couple sandwiches from a vendor for a picnic later and headed into the park. It turns out there was a bear rescue place there with tons of bears. It looked like a really nice place for them actually and there we all these hammocks that they would lay in that looked really really comfy.

We got to the first pool of water and small fall and we were just taken back. The turquoise water described in the book was better than could be imagined. The water was cool, but comfortable. When we get around to getting these pictures up you will not believe it.

We checked out all the different falls and when it got to the first, largest fall Amy and Jen decided to go off to swim, while I decided to check out where a trail led. Turns out it led to the top of the fall, and it was one heck of a hike to make in flip flops. On the way down I ended up going barefoot just to get at least a bit of traction on the dirt. I ended up running into some boat people on my way up. They are everywhere. The view was nice, but maybe not really worth the amount of effort it took to get up there and down.

By the time I met back up with Amy and Jen I was just soaked in sweat and really ready for a swim. There was a rope swing and Amy teased me onto it… what a great way to get into the water. A brief swim, under the waterfall, a few swings and it was time enough for us to go back.

When we came into the room it took us only a second to realize something was off. Amy quickly noticed that the chocolates we on her bed (off of the TV where they were being left untouched.) The pyramid was open and wrappers were everywhere around it. It was very clear that some one was in there, which worried the hell out of us because for the first time ever, knowing we were going swimming and not wanting to leave our passports on the shore unattended we left them in the room along with our extra cash and other valuables. I had $200 laying on the nightstand, right in the open (stupidly.)

After a really thorough look through everything we realized absolutely nothing other than the chocolate was taken. No cameras missing, no money gone, no credit cards taken, no passports stolen… it is one of the weirdest break-ins I have ever heard of, let alone experienced.

We alerted the staff, and it was not easy to explain that some one broke in, took chocolate, nothing else, and then locked the door again on the way out. Then we went for dinner, valuables all safely back in our backpacks and bags on our shoulders. A cocktail, a crepe, and a massage later we were back to the room before curfew.

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Lovely Daze

Filed Under: Thailand
Feb.14, 2010

Well so far every night in Thailand (outside of Bangkok) we have stayed in a different place every night… tonight is no different. It is a really nice place, but our two rooms are separate buildings and we are without AC, and the mosquito nets, while very pretty, seem like an ominous threat alluding to some potential night time visitors.

Today was more like a recovery day from the trek. We all slept in till about 10, which really isn’t common for all of us (maybe some of us, but not all of us.) We had a nice big meal, I took a chance to eat a pizza while it was sill available… it was good, but it was not an “American pizza.” We hit the internet cafe, and did some research on how we were going to get to Laos at some travel agent places around our hostel.

Every sunday there is a massive street market in Chiang Mai. We walked around for hours on end, and we had barely made a dent by the time exhaustion set in and we had to head back to bed. I don’t think it would have been possible to simply walk around the whole thing which spread through court upon court, and block upon block, never mind actually looking at the stands.

On the way back we got a quick massage for 2 dollars and then hit the sack.

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North Thailand Trek – Day 1

Filed Under: Thailand
Feb.11, 2010

We woke up around 8:00 to give copies of our passport to the guide to take to the tourist police (so they knew who was where) then later around 9:00 were picked up to bring our bags to storage. We left around 10 so the guide could pick up the ingredients for our dinner at a market. Our tour consisted of 4 Danish girls: Louise, Lada, Sophie, Melaina; 2 Austrian girls: Agnes, Juliet; 2 Australians: Sam, Lisa; 1 U.K. guy: Tej and us 3 Canadians.

The first stop was the elephant park. We had some food first and then got up on the elephants. We were short one elephant sort, so myself and Tej ended up riding on the neck of the elephant where the guide usually goes. Amy and Jen were in the seat behind me… at least at the beginning. The seat started tilted to one side, Amy’s side, and it just kept going more and more. Eventually it was me jumping off the elephant to try and hold up the seat while Amy and Jen hung on up top. Eventually we got them back up onto the neck of the elephant and were able to reattach the the seat to the elephant and continue the tour. The rest of the trip on the elephant consisted of him sucking up saliva and spraying it on us as we walked through the jungle.

We then got to the first day of hiking. It was pretty hard the first day. Really steep, really hot, and really dry. For the most part the group stayed pretty close together, but for the end, the steepest part Tej and I decided to go off ahead a bit instead of waiting for everyone as we had been and as happens when two guys are off showing that neither of us are all that tired, we ended up hiking up a lot fast than either of us really wanted to.

Eventually we met up with the guides brother who took us to the village. By the way, the guide’s nickname is Oaf — pronounced “Off.” Anyways, we get up there, a really neat bamboo building with nice mosquito nets. Amy and I got a massage from the tribe, it was really nice after the day of hiking. I had 3 people working on me at once… fan-tastic!

Dinner was curry by candle light, followed by fruit. We played cards with Tej and Louise and Lada for a while and had a pretty early night (even after trying to stay up “late” aka like 9:00)

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Jackie Chan Eats Rice

Filed Under: China, Pictures
Jan.30, 2010

Mmm… another massage today… We visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition, neat to see what Shanghai was and what their plans are for the expo etc. We also saw the museum, which had some interesting things. I think the last 3 out of 4 meals have been Japanese food, which is kind of funny. We are having McDonalds for dinner tonight, mainly because I want to be able to say I had Micky’D’s delivered to my place at least once in my life haha. We shopped a bit too. Pictures are NOT easy to do with the slow internet and huge images… but I am trying to get you guys 3 here…

Melanie, Sandra, Jen, Amy and myself on the great wall

Amy and I

The three of us in Tienanmen Square

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