The Strange and Serene in Sapa and Hanoi

September 21, 2012 in "asia", "hanoi"

After my sister left, I headed to the train station to grab the night train up north to Sapa. The night train was like VIP travel compared to the buses I had been taking before. The bunks were nearly long enough to stretch out in so I hardly complained for the extra hours of sleep when the 8 hour trip 11 hours. The only thing a bit strange was sharing the locked door cabin with three Vietnamese men. Maybe less strange then sharing the bus-bed in Laos with the girl, but there is something a little peculiar about falling asleep with three unfamiliar guys, but maybe the felt the same about me.

Why???

September 10, 2012 in "backpack", "backpacking", "boat", "cat ba island", "ferry", "halong bay", "jumping", "kayak", "lan ha bay", "southeast asia", "travel", "vietnam"

Traveling through Souheast Asia has frequently left me perplexed and confused. I find myself again and again asking, "why?" This was no different when I left Vientiane on another 24 hour journey to Hanoi, Vietnam. The bus itself, was the first of many confusing encounters during the journey. It was a double decker sleeper bus that had seats similar to a regular bus, but were perpetually semi-reclined position with your feet stretched out under the persons chair in front of you. Intersesting enough. But what added to the atmosphere was the neon lights that were flashing throughout the bus, and the thumping house music that our driver was blasting from his cellphone.

Vientiane

September 01, 2012 in "COPE centre", "laos", "southeast asia", "vien chien", "vientiane"

Despite the 25 hour bus ride, and the fact that I'd be missing many beautiful places and faces along the way, after Siem Reap I was ready to head to Vientiane, Laos to find my sister. I've been away from family for a year now, and while the sights of Cambodia and South Vietnam were tempting, the pull to Vientiane was stronger. I was also looking forward to dropping my bags for a few nights and having time to adjust and reflect on moving away from Tel Aviv, and begin preparing myself for moving back to D.C.

Raiding Tombs in Angkor Wat

August 29, 2012 in "Angkor Wat", "Buddhism", "Buddhist", "Cambodia", "Khmer Rouge", "boys", "bus", "jumping", "monks", "playing", "swimming", "temples", "tom raider"

After a couple of days in Bangkok, I decided to make my way to Cambodia. First stop in the country would be Siem Reap. This city is one of the few built up and largely tourist established cities due to it's infamous appearance in Tomb Raider II. Just kidding. Tomb Raider chose this prime location to film because of the Angkor Wat temples that lie a few miles outside of the city.

Wat up, Bangkok

August 27, 2012 in "Bangkok", "cities", "monks", "southeast asia", "temple", "temples", "thailand", "wat", "wats"

Bangkok is a city with more temples (Wats) then the bible belt has churches, and more 7-11's then New York has Starbucks. Actually, probably more 7-11's the the U.S. has nationwide. So much so that I'm pretty sure 7-11 is actually Thai, not American.