You’ll notice we changed the look of the blog site. The header photo is from this Floating Village, an entire community living on water. It was so interesting, people just living on little houses floating on the water. Here is a clip from our tour:
Monthly Archives: March 2011
Cambodia Kids in River
Here’s a video of our Cambodia Countryside Tour, we asked our tour guide to take us off the beaten path where not many tourists go and they took us down this dirt road for a couple hour drive. My favorite part was the kids, there were so cute!
Filed under Cambodia, Cambodia Kids
Help Our Blog “Gone to Asia” Support Japan Earthquake/Tsunami Victims for FREE!
We’ve been wanting to help the victims in Japan, but didn’t know what to do.
As I was updating my blog earlier today, I found a widget to post here on my sidebar from SocialVibe. If you click it, there are easy, fast & FREE ways you can participate by simply taking a corporate poll and the corporation will contribute. So, in a small way, maybe it will help do some good. Spread the word by forwarding this link.
As you know if you’ve been following our blog, we got home from our trip last Thursday; the same day the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. It’s been a whirlwind since. We didn’t go to Japan on this trip, but we were in the region (Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand & Hong Kong). When we got home, that night I went to bed at 5p.m. and Jim went to bed around 8p.m. we were so tired from travel and catching up to the new time zone. So when the earthquake struck, we had no idea, we were sleeping soundly.
Friday morning, we woke up at 4a.m., my family had been trying to reach us advising us to wake up and tune in to news re: possible tsunami here on the U.S. West Coast. When they first called us, we thought they thought we were still abroad and were warning of a tsunami there. Foggy-headed, we turned on the news and saw what was going on. We couldn’t believe it. Of course we kept an eye on the news and waited to see what would happen with Hawaii, as that would be a pre-cursor to how we would be affected along our coast. But the devastation in Japan was unbelievable, and we were both grateful to be home safe and sound after a long, nice vacation yet also feeling guilty that we are home safe and sound with walls around us while people were suffering so much.
All this past week and a half, amidst catching up with work and trying to get caught up in our time zone and watching news of Japan’s tragedy we’ve been wanting to do something to help. But what?! It seems so overwhelming and what do you do? So hopefully adding the little widget we will promote enough to make a difference.
God Bless Japan, Asia, and all the world.
Wells Fargo Fraud Dept & New Debit Card
Wow, I logged in to my Wells Fargo checking account from Vietnam and they pulled the plug on my account! I ended up calling the Fraud Department and getting it re-activated while I was over there, so it wasn’t too big of a deal. I wasn’t even using my debit which is why I didn’t think I needed to call them ahead of time to let them know I’d be overseas.
But now, now I have to start over with a NEW debit card and hassle through who I have on auto-pay and give them my new card #. Very much an inconvenience, but I guess it’s good that Wells has good security measures in place. Note to self: just call the dern banks and let them know.
I know, this one probably rates up there with the most boringest blog post ever. No pics, no videos, no exciting story. So as I used to tell my students when I taught middle school: it’s not all fun and games around here! 🙂
But I will get you more pics & videos as promised in the upcoming week. Been hectic here getting back in the swing of things! Esp. now that I’m using this “would-be updating blog with pics & videos” rainy Sunday with “tracking down and notifying my auto-pays with my new debit card”!
March 20, 2011 · 8:35 pm
Headline News: Rare Giant Turtle in Hoan Kiem Lake
Interesting that Hanoi, Vietnam was our first stop on our trip & now it’s making headlines regarding the Rare Giant Turtle in Hoan Kiem Lake. We ran daily around the Hoan Kiem Lake and noticed many people running to catch of glimpse of something in the water. When it peeked its head out, we thought it was a seal or an otter of sorts and couldn’t see what the big deal was.
Literally people running to catch a glimpse. We always knew where the “seal” was, because a large crowd was around it. I had footage on my beloved FlipVideo Camera of all the people getting excited, it was so interesting to see people’s reaction the a seal in the lake. Or so we thought! Now we know what the hoopla was about.
Now, reading in the news we see what all the fuss was about. We were really out of the loop on the sacred turtle concept, but now we know.
As of 3/15/11 here’s the latest info on the Turtle in Hanoi. Looks like he escaped the rescue attempts!
I’ve got more interesting footage from Hanoi, like street vendors making noodle and how to cross the street in Hanoi! Stay tuned.
Filed under Hanoi, Hanoi Turtle, Rafetus swinhoei rare turtle, Travel, Trip planning, Vietnam
Close call getting home:back tracking updates
Some other interesting events happened on our travels, but between experiencing the events and getting online to write about it was a hard thing to manage. So I’ll back track and fill you in in the coming few weeks as time allows. I still haven’t shown you our video of the friendly countryside in Cambodia tour, or our dinner in a cave at Halong Bay.
On our whole trip we took many flights within Vietnam, to Cambodia and in Thailand to get around and each time the flights were on time and no problems–I haven’t counted, but we must’ve taken at least 10 flights; that’s a lot of airport time. It took a lot of planning on Jim’s part to get all of those details square before we left. He would do well with Jim’s Travel Planning service!
Once we left Koh Chang island, we took the ferry to Trat Thailand for our flight to Bangkok, then from Bangkok we would fly about 3 or 4 hours to Hong Kong. Then stay one night in Hong Kong and fly home on United, where we were using frequent flier miles and they already told us they didn’t have anything else (we tried to extend our stay by a day or 2). BTW, quick note: I was always careful on my blog not to let on where we were going next, or details of hotels…you never know who is out there watching and waiting your next move–high profile people that we are! He he. In anotherback tracking post I’ll fill you in on our itinerary and hotels if you care to know.
So we got to Bangkok airport and went to Emirates Airline (a very posh airline, wow! Their coach class was like 1st class on other airlines, complete with electrical chargers, cushy chairs and plenty of leg room…would definitely fly them again). We had 2 hours prior to departure to Hong Kong, so we went strait from Bangkok Air (also a very nice airline!) to Emirates counter.
Lo and behold, they couldn’t find our reservation! Turns out, Jim booked it for February 9 instead of March 9, and the guy at the ticket counter said the flight was overbooked and we couldn’t get on that flight. Huh?!
I stayed with our stuff and tried getting online so I could find alternate flights, while Jim rushed over to customer service to see about a refund or credit for the unused flight. He asked the lady if she could get us on that plane, and after some searching she was able to do it.
In the end it turned out fine, and we got on our scheduled flight with a minimal fee. Worse case, I suppose we would have found a later flight and gotten in super late to Hong Kong .
Well if you want to use Jim’s Travel Service, just make sure all the dates are right before you pay! 🙂 Love you, Honey!
Filed under Travel, Trip planning
At SFO!!!
Finally landed at SFO…we have a few hour’s layover before heading to LAX. I have to review my post about the LAX Shuttle Bus to figure out how to get us home!
Jim says take a taxi, but those drivers are so rude since we are less than 7 miles from the airport they get really tiffed at that. Who needs their tude after a nice vacation?! So we will pay our buck and take the shuttle.
Plus we have time to kill, Jim says we have to stay awake til 8p.m. so our jet lag won’t be so bad. It’s 2a.m. for us based on Thai time. Let’s see who falls asleep first…probably me!
Filed under LAX Shuttle Bus, Travel
Koh Chang Thailand
The last 5 days we have been at the Amari Emerald Cove Resort in Koh Chang. We have been here before, the last time was 3 years ago for 4 days of which 2 of those 4 Jim was sick in bed so we weren’t able to do our snorkel trip. Since then, I’ve always been wanted to come back and do what we missed out on. It’s nice to come back to a place that is familiar, esp after being on the go so much in the last couple of weeks. Plus, it’s such a dreamy place, nice & relaxing:
So basically our daily routine has been: Sleep, work out, shower, breakfast, pool/beach relaxation, shower, dinner, repeat.
We did our snorkel boat trip and explored a few other islands off Koh Chang. So that is out of my system, but I am not sure Koh Chang is. Might have to come back another time!
Will post pics later, for now we are at the Trat Airport heading on a 1 hour flight to Bangkok, then to Hong Kong for tonight and home to LA tomorrow. It went so fast, but we are ready to be home!
I imagine I will have another bout of jet lag waiting for me at home if I can’t post more videos & pics before then.
Photos from Hoi An
Sorry, been a little lagging in the blog posting department…with no jet lag now, and always something to head out to do there is little time.
So here’s some general pics from Hoi An, our most recent town in Vietnam.
While walking off the beaten tourist path, we came across a primary school letting out. Many children waved and said hello & these 3 stopped for a photo:
The “Old Town” area has a lot of shops and restaurants, mostly tourists go there, but it’s a nice place to visit. Here’s a pretty lantern shop:
Here’s the river, a nice walking street:
Will post more pics later.
Criminy! 2 things Americans should thoroughly learn in school
Metrics & a foreign language!
I remember learning about metrics in 4th grade and that was about it. They should teach it all the way through primary & secondary schools.
All the travelers we’ve come across from Europe or Asia use metrics, so when they measure something by kilos or meters, I really don’t know what they are talking about (Exactly how does a kilometer compare to a mile? Is a meter deep? Or shallow??).
I keep thinking of 10k as in 10k run= approx. 6miles and then convert from there. In addition to converting the dong and the baht with USD, it’s tiring. I have to use my Jim-o-lator a lot…lucky for me he is good at math! 🙂
For the foreign language, I took 2 years of French in High School. All I remember was “F’erme la bouche” (close your mouth) from my teacher; she used that phrase a lot to get us to be quiet! Granted maybe I didn’t apply myself in High School, but where I was coming from I couldn’t see the use of learning another language when everyone around me spoke English. Once we had the elective to choose another year or not, I chose not.
In Vietnam we met some nice French people poolside one day who were practicing their English; we managed to communicate okay…but lucky for me they spoke more English than I did French. I felt bad, they were trying so hard and making effort using their translation dictionary.
I took a few immersion courses in Spanish while working on my MA in college, but not enough classes to grasp the language fully.
Any rate, we Americans are lucky that most other countries speak English as a common language. But then I feel lazy like we just expect them to learn it if they want to talk us. What?!!
Goals: 1) learn metric system fully, 2) get Rosetta Stone to learn another language!
Gone to Asia! 