backofhouseca

I’d like to start this blog by warning the readers that it will be a relatively general overview of our Journey in Vietnam. Its not that Vietnam is not beautiful or that we didn’t have many great experiences. To be honest its just that nothing that exciting happened. I think after traveling for 6 months  in south east asia you become a little less excited about each and every destination. And although some parts of Vietnam blew me away there were others i could have done without! My deepest and most sincere apologies to Vietnam because i feel i dent give you a fair chance, i was just so tired and broke!

Vietnam is the land of Banh Mi , rice noodles, pho noodle soup, sweet Buun and all kinds of delicious stuff!! Eating in vietnam can be as tasty as it is tricky at times. There have been more than a few times where we just pick the busiest looking food stall and order without ever knowing what were about to eat! In vietnam a local bar, could serve swan, geese, frog, and dog and nobody bats an eye. In fact dog is considered a delicacy and is very pricey. So for any tourist afraid of getting dog instead of beef, rest your weary head there not going to waste good quality dog on you.

We started our journey in Ho Chi Min city. That place is crazy, motorbikes run the world and walking across the streets takes as much gusto as jumping out a plane! The city is hustling and bustling at all hours of the day. You can eat drink and do whatever, whenever you want. The most cultural experience we had was going to the war museum in Saigon. What a f–ked up place excuse my french. This is anti war and anti American propaganda to the max. The photos and stories of the vietnamese victims were so heart wrenching and painful to see. They had a whole room dedicated to to photos about the effects of “project orange”  had on the people of vietnam. The effects of the chemical warfare were the most devastating photos i had ever seen. After you leave the museum you still have a lingering feeling of pain, disgust and nausea. It really makes you think about how cruel war can be and so many innocent lives are ruined forever. It made me appreciate my peace loving and neutral nation of Canada! (besides our brutal attacks on our native population of coarse.)

A few days later we left Ho ChI MIN, we went to see Muine  and nice beach town with amazing sand dunes. We woke up at six am to see the sun rise on the red dunes. It was a beautiful experience. Other then that Muine was pretty boring, the sun was shinning but we were done with tanning and all that Jazz I mean 3 weeks in Bali will do that. We left and went we went to Dalat a very cool mountain town, where it rained and was cold and miserable for three days.It was the best, we stayed in bed all day without a sliver of guilt. Even though the weather wasn’t great (by normal people standards) we did eat the most delicious grilled pork with rice known to man kind. Sounds simple i know but thats what Vietnamese food is all about, delicious fresh and simple food. Everything is a mix of sweet sour, salty and spicy, covered with fresh herbs and pickled vegetables.The pork came  with pickled eggplant and kimchi and it was to die for.Im still craving that dish.

After Delat there was Nahtrang, a very cool up and coming city on the coast with a beautiful boardwalk and white sandy beaches. We decided to go to the vietnamese version of Disney land. It was slightly more ghetto and little more dangerous but it was so much fun!!!!! There was nobody there and we hit the water park full swing! This would never happen in north America where you wouldn’t have to wait in line for a ride let alone be able to do the same ride over and over and over again without waiting. So much fun and a little scary!!!!!!

Then after Nahtrang there was Hoi An. Hoi An is a city dedicated to the sole purpose of having clothes and shoes made and thats exactly what we did. We spent five days making jackets,sweaters and a bridesmaid dress for me. Alex went crazy and i don’t think these two ladies ever saw a man who was so interested in fashion and had so many ideas and was so specific about the details. Lets just say in the end it was not worth the stress of making my own dress. Cheap is Cheap and that what you get. If i had never made any clothes there id be fine. A word of advice to anyone going there..

1- don’t make anything that requires an eye for detail , like suits or jackets. They look cheap and that the bottom line, when you pay 30 bucks for a suit which is made in less than three hours , don’t except Hugo Boss or Moores.

2- don’t have any fancy dresses made for special occasion that actually matter! My experiences making my brides maid dress was more painful then it was enjoyable, they don’t understand the concept of “fit” or “details”

3- still to do fun easy stuff, t-shirts, sundresses, hoodies and all that stuff, don’t expect to much or take it too seriously and maybe you’ll be less disappointed then i was.

Thankfully for alex his stuff came out great, I was not as lucky and a basically left with some debt and headache

After Nahtrang there was Hanoi and Sapa. Sapa was beautiful and although we spent most of the five days fighting and sick in bed I did have one glorious day of trekking through the rice paddies and it was amazing! Beautiful fresh air and natural beauty nothing can beat that. Hanoi on the other hand is loud, dirty and filled with rude people. We spent way to much time there and i don’t even want to write about it cause that will give it some importance. Hanoi sucked the life out of us. Its like time stood still and we were just waiting, waiting for something! and we found it in SHANGHAI

GILI Island

After a week or so of pure luxury,4 star hotels, room service and drinks by the pool, our time had come to give up our lavish lifestyle and return to backpacking and ten dollar a night hotel rooms! As we said good bye to my mother and sister after a rather interesting vacation filled with love, laughter and lots of fighting (as all good family vacation are made of) , we set back off on our travels!

We were off to the Gili islands, a little hideaway in Indonesian filled with good looking people, reggae music and magic mushrooms! This island is set back in time, no motorized vehicles and no motor bikes and you can only  get anywhere by horse and buggy. Charming yes but slightly unsettling when you are stumbling home and pony whizzes by you, controlled only by a young indonesian boy, chain smoking and head to toe in surfer gear! Doesn’t exactly scream safety

The Gill’s are beautiful, theres nothing to do but sunbath, eat and drink  and I’m not exaggerating at all. Well theres a little diving and surfing as well!  So Alex and i found ourselves a nice little bungalow on the quiet end of town and set out to relax (cause we haven’t done enough of that!)

Two days in the GiIli’s and you’ve seen it all! The best part of the island is this reggae bar that has the spirit of Bob Marley oozing from its cracked wooden beams. Its all about good music and good company.

Alex and I decided to indulge in the local style of living. Lets just say it was a magical night!!We left the Gilis a little broke and lot enlightened! lol

Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

We didn’t spend much time in malaysia, three days and two nights to be exact. We were in Kuala Lumpur which is a beautiful city , it has all the charms of any great american city like New York but with some asian flare like amazing street food and stylish ouster in platform converse and fake eyelashes! We stayed in a little guest house in china town. Nothing fancy but it happened to be across the street from the best noodle stall we have yet discovered.

Picture this, egg noodles, freshly made covered in an “asian bolognese” , some kind of ground pork and beef cooked with soya sauce and other delicious secret sauces and spices. Then you get a small bow of the most delicious home made broth with four or five “beef balls” (you know the kind you get in pho, the are kind of chewy  but very yummy). So eat the noodles and the soup together but separately and its a flavor explosion. Unfortunately we didn’t take a picture of this marvelous dish, but the memory of it will last forever!!!!! yummmmmmmy

Other then eating we went to see the ” Petronas twin towers”, and they were just as amazing in person as they are in “Entrapment” starring Catherine Zeta jones and Sean Connery. We goofed around and took some great pics.

The next day we left malaysia for vietnam!!!!! Good morning Vietnam!!!!!

To all our loyal fans if your out there I would like to thoroughly apolagize  for the absolute lack of any blogging coming from Alex and I. First off i’d like to blame the horrible chinese internet system! You’d think in a country like China where there fast and on the cutting edge of almost everything, the internet would allow you to do more then check out gossip websites! Unfortunately that was not the case, and between there government restriction and the turtle paced internet there was no way we were able to log on to our site and therefore we could not blog! We are very far behind in fact we are so far behind that we will actually be home in Montreal in 6 days! Its crazy, I know! I’m going to do my best to fill you in on the rest of indonesia, malaysia and vietnam and then of coarse our grand finally in China and then Van city! I hope you’ll forgive me, I promise to get better and be more reliable and this time i  mean it ( i know i sounds like a cheating boyfriend or girlfriend but the difference is Im actually not lying(try to believe me) and I actually feel bad about what I’ve done to you! I’ve deprived you of our adventure and scandal, and living vicariously through us, but don’t worry were back with a vengence!

Here are a few pics from the end of our awesome family vaca!

xoxoxo