The second video for our Southeast Asia trip is complete. Enjoy!
Until next time,
Hoi An, Vietnam
Vietnam is a big country. Well, a long country I suppose I should say.
To make our way from Ben Tre to Hoi An, we needed to bus, plane, and cab to get there.
Hoi An was going to be special: we were to spend New Year’s Eve & my birthday here, it was our last stop as a foursome, and it’s the home of the famous basket boats!
Now, I will go ahead and tell you that I almost didn’t want to participate in the basket boats despite being the one who insisted that we find them. I had read a lot online – travel blogs mostly – about how much fun they were with great pictures of a single basket boat surrounded by lush coconut trees. I had this picture in my mind of an authentic Vietnam boating experience.
That ain’t what it is, ya’ll.
It’s a damn tourist trap.
Should have known better when we got out of the cab in Cam Thanh village (where the boats are) and we were instantly bombarded and steered to the “best basket boats in town”. We ended up here…
I had two thoughts walking up.
1) This reminds me of the water ride “Rip Roaring Rapids” at our hometown theme park, Carowinds.
2) I am NOT getting in a damn basket boat with a pink life vest.
Needless to say, I was thoroughly disappointed by what I was seeing. To top it off, there was top 40 pop blasting and they wanted 400,000 dong per person (~$17 USD). My authentic Vietnam boating experience was crumbling.
But, we were already here so Shane and Terry start negotiating. After convincing the guy to let us go for 100,000 dong per person and then convincing me that it was going to be fun – “just think of it like the gondolas in Venice” – we were on our way (sans pink lifevest).
At least the ride came with a hat, right?
You know what else the ride came with? Dancing.
Do you see that party happening behind Sis? They had 2 workers stationed there with speakers, blasting more top 40 hits, and (if you wanted to) you could swing by for a dance party. We stopped long enough to watch – these people were having a grand time, good for them! – but opted out of the dance party ourselves.
Your ride experience also greatly varied depending on your boat driver. Boat paddler, I suppose is a better term? Whatever you want to call it, it was hard work to paddle those round boats in a particular direction, and it was windy that day too! Shane and I ended up with an older guy who was a more subdued ride-giver.
Sis and Terry had a little different experience…
Their boat driver thought it was HILARIOUS to make them paddle, and paddle they did – in the rain – for probably 20 min of the 40 min trip.
They also spun you around in the boat, this happened to Sis and terry a lot, and made you fun rings out of banana leaves so all in all it ended up being a win. If you’re interested in the basket boats, I’d say do it. Just go into it with an open mind…
Basket boats aside, Hoi An was a great town. With only 150,000 residents as opposed to Ho Chi Minh City’s 8.5 million, it was a nice change of pace. The city was large enough to have plenty to do over our 3-day stay, yet small enough that we could ditch the maps and navigate ourselves.
It’s also famous for two things: hand-made clothes and lanterns.
I’ll start with the clothes. We heard from the interwebs and a few others who had traveled to Hoi An that tailor-made clothing was A THING here. That it was good quality and that it was inexpensive. We both thought – Ok, good to know, but we didn’t come all the way to Vietnam to shop for clothes.
So, what did we do? Came all the way to Vietnam and shopped for clothes.
Ya win some – ya lose some, right? This time we won big!
Once it occurred to us that Shane needed a new suit for his Ph.D. defense we decided to check out the hype. And with over 400 tailors to choose from, it was a hard decision. There are shops for all budgets, so thanks to some Tripadvisor reviews and a few backpacker blogs we settled on one that was supposedly mid-level price range with glowing reviews: FaiFoo.
We were warmly welcomed and the next thing you know Shane is picking out the fabric, lining, and style of his very own suit and I was choosing the fabric and style for a new dress (gotta look good at the defense, ya know). You make your selections, they measure you, and then off you go with instructions to come back in ~24h for your first fitting.
So, funny story. We ended up going to two different tailors while we were there. On the way to FaiFoo, someone got distracted by banana pancakes.
When we stopped, there was a man already at the stand who started talking to us. Turns out, he and his sisters own “the #4 shop on Tripadvisor!” and he was just so friendly that we ended up going to his shop as well. The picture of Shane being fitted in the bicycle shirt? That’s from our 2nd tailor – Ba-Ri.
You’ll have to wait until the Ph.D. defense post for the final products, but less than 48 hours later Shane was the proud new owner of a black suit, 2 long sleeve shirts, 2 short sleeve button-ups and I, a dress and 2 blouses for a grand total of $240.
The price was INCREDIBLE, but I think what was most impressive to me was the talent of these ladies. They work so hard and quickly to give you a perfectly fitted, quality product in a time-frame that SUITS (see what I did there) your travels. And, they literally have books and books of ideas – you just skim through the books and say “I like this one” and seemingly with a glance they know exactly what you want and how to make it.
Killing some time during Shane’s fitting. 
Shane is convinced that the next time we make a trip to that side of the world we will make a stop in Hoi An with a list and a dedicated clothing budget.
The 2nd thing Hoi An is known for: lanterns
They are everywhere and they are beautiful! My pictures won’t even do them justice.
Part of the fun of Hoi An was walking around at night, enjoying the lights. Which brings me to a very special night – New Year’s Eve!
New Year’s Eve started out kind of wet. Go figure, you go 950km (~600mi) north the weather changes. We were on the tail end of the rainy season in central Vietnam, and we definitely experienced that. The first day, we kind of dealt with it or happened to be inside during the heavy rain. We did pass a lot of people wearing ponchos though, and kind of snickered to ourselves… HA! Ponchos!
Guess who bought ponchos the next morning?
Obviously, this required a photo shoot.
We spent the morning walking around, seeing the sights. One of which was the famous Japanese Covered Bridge which was built in the early 17th century. The bridge was originally built by the Japanese community in Hoi An to create a link between the city and the Chinese community across the stream.
Lunch that day was a sandwich that required a 45 min wait in line.
Oh bahn mi – how delicious thou art. From what we gathered, bahn mi is just a baguette-style sandwich with whatever toppings they choose, generally a few meats, some veggies, and a few sauces.
We heard about this particular Bahn Mi place from our cousin, Rehana, who had traveled to Hoi An before. Turns out, she visited here BEFORE Anthony Bourdain did and, well, it makes the 45 min wait make more sense.
There were mixed emotions when we finally made it through.
But, it was worth the wait because it was delicious!
The rest of the evening was spent eating sushi and hanging out with the New Year’s Eve crowd in the streets! We found a street party, and rang in the New Year with fireworks, sparklers, and dancing!
Oh, and light up bunny ears. Can’t forget those. Even the boys got in on the action.
For those who don’t know, New Years Day is my birthday! After the festivities of the night before we took it easy, but I was surprised by the fantastic people at our homestay, Pebble Homestay, who legitimately surprised me with a birthday cake and flowers!
And I say legitimately surprised because I never told them it was my birthday. No one in the group told them it was my birthday. The only thing we can figure is they saw the birth date on my passport when we checked in and remembered it, which is such a lovely gesture!
I will say it all went down a little awkwardly though. We were staying in essentially a 2 bedroom apartment within the homestay. As you can see from the picture above, there was this glass partition between the dining area and the bedrooms. We had just come home from lunch and picking up Shane’s suit from the tailor, so everyone had gone to their separate spaces for a bit. Me – to the bed watching TV, Sis & Terry for a nap, and Shane to the …uh…toilet (sorry honey).
The lady who was working, with whom we’d had the most contact, poked her head into the glass partition shortly after we all dispersed holding a cake and flowers in her hand. Thoroughly confused, I had to round up everyone, including my indisposed husband, whilst trying to be polite and excited and secretly figure out who arranged this.
As I said before, the homestay did and it was truly a nice birthday surprise!
We did manage to make it out for one more final Hoi An experience, the water puppet show!
The show itself was in Vietnamese, but there was a short English description before each scene. Water puppetry originated in Vietnam in the 11th century and was a really neat tradition to see. Wooden puppets tell various stories about the life of Vietnamese people and Vietnamese legends. There was the tale of the water buffalo, farmers catching frogs, and the dance of the dragons.
And that about wraps up our time in Hoi An! Unfortunately, it also wrapped up our time as a foursome. We started as six, down to four, and now down to two as Shane and I were heading to Hanoi and Sis and Terry headed a short distance to Da Nang. We asked our homestay host to take a picture of the four of us which started out happy, turned into a “pretend you’re crying” cause we’re sad and evolved into real “sisters sobbing while the host awkwardly looks on”.
And with that, I’ll get a little mushy. I couldn’t have imagined doing this with anyone other than this crew. My sister and I were spoiled for a few years and actually lived in the same place where (in my opinion) we forged the bond that we have today. This trip was the most consecutive time we’ve spent together since that period 7 years ago.
To (kind of) quote the old Mastercard commercial.
Round-trip plane tickets to Southeast Asia: 800 euros (+ credit card points).
A month with my sister, Terry, and Shane in Cambodia* & Vietnam: priceless
Sis – love ya, mean it!
*and, of course, two weeks with Michelle and Steve!
And for everyone else, next up is our penultimate stop…
Hanoi, Vietnam!
Tot ziens,
Whitney
Ben Tre, Vietnam
After a few days in Ho Chi Minh City, it was time to escape the hustle and bustle and head to our next stop: Ben Tre.
Ben Tre (both a province and a city) is about 2 hours south-west of HCMC in the Mekong Delta. There was no way we were coming to Vietnam without seeing the Mekong River.
We were keeping the bungalow streak alive and staying at Quoc Phuong Riverside Homestay which was chosen for much of the same reasons as Battambang – it just looked so pretty! And when we arrived, we were not disappointed.
How did we get there? Funny you should ask.
I was having a hard time finding information online about how to get to our homestay. There were some public buses to Ben Tre city, but the homestay itself was on the river about 15km (~9mi) away from the city center. Finally, a few days before we were due to arrive I messaged the property (thank you Booking.com!) and received some instructions on how to get there.
- Go to your hotel reception and ask them to call this phone number and ask for 4 people on the bus.
- Go to this address.
- Get on the bus, show the driver the name of my homestay. He will know where to drop you off.
ahh… ok.
Luckily, our Airbnb was in a serviced apartment building so there was actually a reception area and a person who could help us. He called, reserved our spot over the phone, and the next day (with nothing but a verbal confirmation) we were in a cab to the bus stop.
‘Bus stop’ is a very loose term. It was a restaurant.
We hesitantly walked up, looking thoroughly confused I’m sure, showed one of the people working the message and the address, and were immediately given small stools and told to sit & wait. So, we were in the right place!
We waited 15-20 minutes and low and behold a bus shows up, there’s a lot of exchanging of goods (rice, vegetables, drinks, etc.) and then we’re motioned to get on with all our luggage and we head for the last remaining open seats on an already packed bus. Somehow, Sis ended up with the good end of this deal. The rest of us were a little squishy.
We knew we had about 2 hours on the bus and we weren’t really sure where we were going so we kept double checking Google maps to make sure we were at least heading in the right direction. To our surprise, we stopped about 30 min before our final destination at a roadside shop for what we determined was a snack break; evidenced by the random woman who came on the bus selling snacks…
There was also another lady who kept coming on the bus and talking to people. Then, she would make a phone call and like magic, a minute would go by and food would appear! We weren’t really sure what was happening so we didn’t try an get any snacks.
After the break, we were on our way again and quickly approaching where it seemed we needed to be. Shane went to the front of the bus to remind the driver – “Hey, we need to get off here.” with our homestay’s name.
“No, no, not there yet!”
So, we anxiously watch Google maps, watch the driver, the bus stops, we try to get off… “No! Stay!” So we stay.
We stop again and this time “You (points to us). Here!” Off we go at an intersection in what feels like the middle of nowhere. As we get off the bus, we noticed 4 men on scooters but didn’t really think much of it until one of them (nicely) grabs Sis’ bag, puts it on his scooter and then pats the seat for her to get on. So, we all followed suit and off we went, each of us on the back of a strangers scooter for the last 2km to the homestay!
IT WAS THE MOST FUN THING EVER!
And, when editing the video I found this screenshot worthy gem…
The directions may have seemed a little sketchy, but in reality, they were accurate and we had a smooth trip. Once we arrived, we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the river.
We arranged a tour with the property owner on our night of arrival, so the next day we were up early to leave for our essentially private boat tour of the area. Surprisingly, we were on the tour with another American family! We hadn’t run into many other Americans on the trip so far, so it was a nice surprise and we had a great day on the boat as the 8 of us.
First stop, the fish farms. The aquaculture industry in this part of the country is huge, which makes sense given the proximity to the rivers and sea. We saw two types of fish farms: floating farms and pond-style farms. The floating farms are for tilapia, which require/prefer flowing water; the pond-style farms are for catfish. We also learned that a lot of thought goes into how the fish are raised and what they eat to ensure they meet the requirements for export to the US and EU, as well as acknowledging what the consumers in those markets want.
Next up, a honeybee farm!
Here, we tasted the honey (so delicious), had some tea (with honey) and some homemade honey snacks. To taste the honey, you had to stick your finger in the middle of the bees to poke through the honeycomb. Only slightly nerve-racking and, outside of jumping in the black water in Koh Rong, probably Shane’s worst nightmare.
Our trip to the honeybee farm also included a pet snake. Apparently, this is a common pet in (at least this part of) Vietnam. I passed on holding it…
After the honeybee farm, we headed down and across the river to see how coconut candies are made. We were able to have a taste test here too, along with some cobra whiskey. Ah yes, just like Battambang, whiskey made with snake. I mean, our whole group tried it (minus the kids) but I can safely say none of us liked it.
And finally, probably my favorite part of the tour that day. We transferred to a small wooden boat and were taken through the small tributaries connected to the main Mekong River.
After that, we had about an hour on the boat back to the homestay!
Lucky for us, we were back just in time because a massive rain storm came shortly after we were back. Unlucky for Shane and I, we needed to go find an ATM in the village since the place was cash only. This wasn’t really a big deal since the homestay provided free bikes and a map. We’re used to biking, and there was a break in the rain so off we went.
In the beginning, we honestly had such a nice ride. It wasn’t raining, it’s so fun to see the local village, and we passed so many friendly smiling waving kids along the way. But, as one might expect, the above map is not to scale. And our in-person directions from the owner of “two lefts then a right” wasn’t as straight forward as one might think. And then it started raining. And then the chain came off of Shane’s bike – three times. Nothing better than fixing a chain on a red dirt road in the rain.
We did eventually find the ATM, but we were soaked through by the time we got home. Sis and Terry made the smart decision to stay home and take a nap. We probably should have followed suit.
Unfortunately, we only had 2 nights in this amazing place. If I were to do this trip over, I would definitely have stayed here at least 2 or 3 full days. You could just relax, do the boat tour (like we did) or, with more time, an all-day scooter tour through the countryside. We were very disappointed to be leaving so quickly.
Plus side of leaving? We had to take the bus back and the bus stopped for snacks again! This time we knew what to expect…
The real-deal-not-7-11 version of the most delicious bánh bao! This time I remembered to take a picture before I ate it.
With full tummies, we made it back to HCMC, said goodbye to our American friends who were also on the bus, and prepared to go to the airport and our next destination…
Tot ziens,
Whitney
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
After spending about 2 weeks in Cambodia, it was time to change countries!
To reach Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, for short) from Koh Rong required a ferry ride back to the mainland, a 5-hour bus ride to Phnom Penh where we stayed overnight so we could catch a bus for another 6 hours to HCMC! Luckily, we took a different road on the way back to Phnom Penh and the journey was smooth sailing!
We were up bright and early to catch the 7am bus which would take us across the border to Vietnam. Can you guess what fantastic company took us on this journey? If you guessed Mekong Express then you guessed correctly! They were particularly helpful as they guided us through customs at the border.
Fun fact: You can’t get a visa on arrival in Vietnam if you enter via land. We knew this ahead of time, so it wasn’t a big deal (and the eVisa process was super easy), but just in case that information might be useful to anyone…
I will also say: this is the first time where I’ve been noticeably (I won’t say discriminated against because it wasn’t that) more ‘scrutinized’. As a white, American girl let’s face it – no one pays attention to me. I understand this is a privilege many others unfairly aren’t given. But, when I looked around and the only 6 people who haven’t made it through customs yet are white (the 4 of us and 2 (oddly enough) Dutch), it gave me pause. All the other passengers were Asian and were quickly called through while our passports and visas were sent elsewhere for extra checks. No one at customs was rude or disrespectful, and before too much longer we were through so it was certainly not anything monumental, but it was a moment that made me think and caused discussion amongst ourselves later on.
Not entirely sure why we needed to include one dollar with our passports & visas, but Ok.
We stayed in an Airbnb in District 2 of HCMC, which was about a 10 – 15 min walk to District 1 that houses many of the main attractions. This Airbnb was AH-MA-ZING. Maybe it was because we just spent a week without air-conditioning or hot showers, but between the view, the water pressure, and the strong air-con, we were living the good life. And, our stay included access to the neighboring building which had a 33rd-floor rooftop garden and a view over the city. It was also prime viewing spot for the Bitexco Financial Tower, which I hear some like to call “the Stark Tower” if you’re into the Avengers…
We arrived in HCMC on Christmas Eve, so I unpacked the Santa hats and off we went. First stop… PHO!
Pho is probably the most famous dish in Vietnam and comes in two flavors: chicken and beef. Since I am by no means a food blogger, I will skip the details of our delicious Pho, but what I will tell you is that I could spend the rest of my life eating only Vietnamese food. Everything was so fresh and flavorful! And we would quickly learn that the best food came from carts and was eaten street-side on tiny stools. I think we ate in an actual restaurant twice during our entire time in HCMC – on Chrismas Day and when Terry found a McDonalds.
As I mentioned before, it was Christmas Eve, so after our introduction to the world of street food, we headed back to the Airbnb for some Christmas Eve traditions.
I think I can speak for everyone when I say that Christmas Eve was a great night – more so than Christmas day. This was the first Christmas that all four of us had spent together, so we tried to pull together some Christmas traditions from all the families. We listened to Bing Crosby & Raffi’s Christmas, we played cards, we drank wine & hot cocoa (not at the same time lol), we even found Home Alone on TV. And one tradition we all shared was reading Christmas stories on Christmas Eve. This year, Terry did the honors. I must say, I was quite impressed with the little Christmas we pulled together.
We woke up Christmas morning to the best gift Santa could ever give…
The gift of bánh bao from the 7-11 at the bottom of the building!
I don’t have a picture of said 7-11 bánh bao because by the time we took the elevator back up to the room they were already gone. Oops. It’s basically a ball of dough filled with things; ours was filled with sausage and a quail egg. You’ll just have to trust me, it was delicious.
What I do have a picture is Shane getting taken for some coconuts by a seemingly nice man on Christmas Day.
He looks so nice, right?!
I mean, I’m sure he’s a perfectly fine person, but (go figure) white people walking around in Santa hats tends to draw some attention. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve been in more random peoples photos than in the 24 hours we wore these Santa hats around town. At one point we were literally standing in a line and posing while 4 people had out their DSLRs taking pictures.
Anybody wanna make this go viral? I’d love to see those pictures! haha
Anyway, back to Shane. We are walking down the road on our way to the War Remnants Museum, and like so many others that day, this man waved and pointed at the hats and said Merry Christmas. We returned the gesture, and the next thing you know he’s asking for a picture with Shane. Then he wants Shane to hold the coconut contraption, and before you know it he’s hacked off the top of 3 coconuts (to drink the coconut water) and is asking for the equivalent of $16 USD.
What the eff!?!
After (unsuccessful) protesting to return said coconuts followed up with some negotiating, we ended up paying ~$4 USD for 3 coconuts we didn’t even want. Somehow, Terry managed to escape this awkward coconut experience unnoticed.
We were well hydrated when we reached the War Remnants Museum, which is the main museum in HCMC covering “the American War”.
Isn’t that an interesting thing. We know it as “the Vietnam War”, but of course it wouldn’t be called that here in Vietnam. I put that in the category of “things you never consider” – like when I had the realization that Anne Frank’s Diary was originally written in Dutch, not English.
I won’t go into detail about the war, but what this museum did best (and subsequently the Ken Burn’s docu-series “The Vietnam War” on Netflix reinforced; highly recommended) is that Vietnam just wanted to be a free nation. The museum started with French colonization, which morphed into Japanese control, which morphed into fighting America – all for their freedoms. And in my opinion (people are of course free to disagree) it’s just too bad that Ho Chi Minh sought training and help from communist Russia & China because the American fear of communism then was so real. Perhaps things could have been different.
Anyway, all in all, it was a terrible war for both sides. I felt like I didn’t really have a grasp about the who/what/why of it all until we came home and watched the docu-series, but what the museum was good for was a solid punch in the American-gut. We, as Americans, are taught to believe that we are the greatest nation in the world but we’ve also made our mistakes. This museum put those mistakes in the forefront. It’s always good to challenge one’s perspective, and this museum definitely did that for all of us.
So, uh – Merry Christmas to us, right?
After a heavy morning, we spent the rest of the day eating, wandering, and watching more Christmas movies on TV.
Honestly, HCMC is so big and with Christmas interspersed, I don’t feel like we got to properly explore. There’s just never enough time!
Over the next 2 days, we went to the Ben Thanh Market which is a huge and probably the most famous one. Sis ended up buying the best shirt of all time (well, Shane bought it for her).
We thought markets in Cambodia were crazy. You looked at something and it was guaranteed to get a sales pitch, probably by multiple people. Here, it was like they had super hearing! I swear we would whisper “look at that shirt” and we had two people on us – “Do you like that shirt? Do you like that color? I have other colors! I have a tank top version!” And, the women here were much more touchy-feely, so as Sis was trying to back out of buying a shirt, the lady turns to Shane, grabs his hand, and starts wheelin’ & dealin’.
And that’s how Sissy got a Pho-nominal tank!
(required a photo shoot of course)
We also went to a few pagodas in the city center.
And stuffed our faces. I swear, I dream about this food.
And that sums up our time in HCMC! Next up on our Vietnam adventure:
Ben Tre province in the Mekong Delta!
Tot ziens,
Whitney
Koh Rong, Cambodia
Well friends, we’ve made it to our final stop in Cambodia; the beautiful island of Koh Rong!
After two nights at Eden Eco Village just outside of Kampot, we caught another bus to the beach town of Sihanoukville. From here, you can catch a speed ferry and in 45 min you’re on the island!
Now the time has finally come for me to publicly complain about the bus service that was Champa Mekong. Up to this point, all of our domestic travel (excluding the overnight bus) had been with Mekong Express, and despite having a few unforeseen problems which were out of their control, we had a great experience. Because of the time we needed to catch the ferry, we had to forego our beloved Mekong Express for the-bus-company-who-will-not-be-named-twice.
We arrived at the bus station and checked in for our VIP van – which we pre-booked and selected seats – without issue. It’s getting closer and closer to departure time, and we notice that there’s no 12 passenger van anywhere in sight. Only this bigger, maybe 20 person bus which is parked out front. 5 minutes before departure another even larger bus shows up and a whole crew of people pile out and head straight for the person yelling “Sihanoukville! Sihanoukville!” standing directly in front of that 20 person bus.
Can you see where this is going?
There was no VIP van. There was only that damn bus.
And despite our protests – this isn’t what we paid for! – we were told that that was the only bus going and we could either get on or rebook. AND to top it off, because we were fighting for what we purchased, we were the last on the bus. Sis, Terry & Shane ended up in the jumper seats in the aisle for the next 3 hours and I was shoved in the very back seat with a girl who didn’t give two sh*ts about personal space.
Three happy campers sitting in a row… 
Since the road was bumpy, I was just hoping she would bust her face on my shoulder…
Needless to say, we were all ready to get off that bus. Lesson learned -Mekong Express or bust!
Anyway, back to Koh Rong. We had 4 glorious days in a (basically) beachside bungalow.
If those aren’t the faces of two happy campers then I don’t know what is.
We did two main things while in Koh Rong: take a $10 boat tour around the island and dive. Let’s start with the $10 boat tour, which started out sketchy but ended up being a lot of fun!
First off, it took way more effort than expected to find these elusive $10 boat tours. I had read about them online from other blogs but none seemed to give any indication on how you actually go about booking one. The secret? You just walk up to any of the stands in the main area and ask about the $10 boat tour. You will instantly be bombarded with people trying to sell it to you.
When we purchased the tour the night before we were told there would be a max of 15 people, stops for snorkeling, fishing, time at 4k beach (a white sand beach on the other side of the island), swimming with the bioluminescent plankton after dark, dancing (YES – dancing) AND dinner + 2 beers and a whiskey & coke (lol) included.
We ended up on the “Three Brothers” boat tour, and what we got was a max of 25 people, snorkeling with kid-sized masks, one beer, fishing while drinking our whiskey & coke, time at 4k beach, dinner INCLUDING the fish we caught (didn’t see that coming), swimming with the bioluminescent plankton and dancing (it happened!).
Why was the boat so crowded? Turns out, another company sold tickets the night before and then at the last minute decided not to go, so they transferred those people to the Three Brothers tour. Guess who those people were…
Ya – we (along with a few others) were the reason for the overcrowding.
*shrugs*
So, we were off to a different start, but as I mentioned before if you expect about 50% less than what you imagine then Cambodia will never disappoint you. From that point on, we just went with the flow and ended up having a great time. There were a few other small issues along the way, but we just soaked them up as part of the day!
I like to call this next series “Hold me like those girls on Instagram”.
hard no. 
“but. please!” 
WINNER!
Not pictured is the bioluminescence on account of it being – ya know – pitch black water. Which, I would like to give a little shout out to Shane here because he loves to dive but he has an irrational fear of open water, or should I say open water in which he can’t see what’s around. But, with a little peer pressure and #YOBO (you only ‘Bode’ once) chanting, he jumped in, long enough to see the plankton and call it a day.
Also not pictured were the two adorable brothers who were the co-captains to their dad and grandpa that day and were THRILLED when we gave them a pack of Oreos and a can of Pringles as a “tip” for helping out.
Next up, for Shane & I at least, diving!
We had planned to dive two days, but since Shane was recovering from his Kampot sickness, we were only able to go once. We haven’t been in over a year, so we had a one-day refresher course which made for a nice, relaxing day of diving, but man – what a tease! Diving is just the greatest.
I will say, Shane did push his limits a little here with his recovery time. For those non-divers, you really shouldn’t dive if you’ve had respiratory or sinus problems because it makes it hard or even impossible to equalize pressure as you go under. Shane felt good again, but you know how it is after a cold, things are still just a little bit off. All was OK until after the 2nd dive when he about gave the guide a heart attack. He must have popped a blood vessel in his nose because it started bleeding and was collecting in the bottom of his mask. That, mixed with a little water, and he looked like Carrie when he took his mask off at the surface.
So, uh – lesson learned.
Other than that, our time in Koh Rong was spent playing on the beach and
OH!
We almost adopted a cat.
The first morning, we picked a random, cheap place for breakfast, and a cat and her kitten came up to the table. This wasn’t really anything new because there are (sadly) strays everywhere. This lil’ missy though, hopped right up into Shane’s lap, and where mama went – baby followed.
Naturally, our kitty loving heart-strings were pulled. Shane ate breakfast with both of them in his lap (because how to do you even say no?). By day 2, she was named Xena (after the warrior princess) and by day 3 we were Googling how to get her out of Cambodia and back to the Netherlands. Turns out, since Cambodia is a “high-risk” country for rabies it’s a 3-month process. Had it only been a 1-month wait (like it was for Meatball) I’m pretty sure Shane and Xena would have had an Airbnb in Phnom Penh until she could fly. Alas, we left our warrior princess in Koh Rong, but during our short time with her, she got all the breakfast snuggles and hotdog pieces a kitty could want.
Koh Rong was the type of place that just grew on you. Despite this island being my idea, I was a little bit nervous about coming because I had started to read about how it was a “backpackers paradise”, but not in a good way. Yes, there was a party every night on the main beach, but we stayed far enough down that it wasn’t really an issue. And you could very easily find parts of the island where there was no trace of the party mentality. The longer we stayed, the less I wanted to leave and, to be honest, the more I wish we had stayed on some of the other, even more remote beaches. All in all, I’d say Koh Rong has something for everyone.
And, if you ever find yourself in Koh Rong, you should wander down one of the alleys to find Sigi and his delicious authentic Thai food! He’s a delightfully sarcastic one-man show, cooking staples from his home-county while he sings to Shania Twain. We went there twice.
And you should definitely follow up any meal with a $1 shake. Blended fruit + milk (or not) makes for the most delicious treat.
Koh Rong felt like a relaxing retreat after the (fun) but hectic first 10 days of the trip. It was nice to dive & spend some time in the sun.
Especially since the 36 hours after leaving Koh Rong would be spent traveling to our next destination…
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam!
Tot ziens,
Whitney
Eden Eco Village: Kampot, Cambodia
Our stay at Eden Eco Village was one of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip.
Like a lot of other highly-anticipated things, this one didn’t live up to my expectations, and to no fault of Eden. Let’s see, where do I begin.
Oh yes, this will do.
If you remember from my last post, on our way to Phnom Penh we ended up with a flat tire. After leaving our friends the night before, we took another VIP van with Mekong Express to the town of Kampot. I would like to reiterate that this was in no way a reflection of the service we received from Mekong Express. When your “highway” looks like this, then there’s bound to be a mishap…
Turns out, “highway” number 4 from Phnom Penh to Kampot is quite possibly the worst road I’ve ever been on in my life. First, driving in Cambodia is nerve-racking, to say the least. The first rule of driving in Cambodia is “there are no rules”. Theoretically, it seems that the driving rules are similar to those in America or Europe, but instead of you know, staying in a line of traffic, it’s “gun-it-until-you-reach-a-slower-object (car, scooter, pedestrian)-slam-on-breaks-swerve-and-keep-going”.
This style driving, combined with a case of the “Irish flu” from the night before, a pot-hole riddled “highway” and 30°C (86°F) temps made for a fun ride. And if you’re Shane, who came down with the actual flu… well. Tie him up and throw him in a river because he was dead. (Sorry Marsha, we didn’t tell you this at the time…)
What was wrong with the van? We hit a pothole so big that it knocked the spare tire loose from underneath and we were dragging it. After about 30 minutes it was successfully reattached and we were on our way again.
A 3-hour trip turned into a 5-hour trip, but regardless we made it to Kampot. I can’t say this enough. The road was so bad at one point I looked at the GPS, it said we were about 30km (18mi) away. Think of a normal highway, you’d be there in 15 min? We still had 1 HOUR of travel time left.
Eden Eco Village was located about 5km (3mi) outside the city of Kampot. Our instructions to get there: “Take a tuk-tuk across the new bridge and down the dirt road until you see the signs.”
Hm. Ok then.
To our somewhat delight, this worked!
We showed the tuk-tuk driver and he knew exactly where to go. Over a newer looking bridge and down a dirt road until we saw the signs for Eden. That part was delightful. What was not so delightful was the dirt road itself, which was red mud, puddles, and potholes the entire trip pushing Shane to the edge of vomit.
I was most excited about this place because we were staying in a bungalow on the side of the river where you could literally jump off your bungalow porch and swim!
Remember how I said Shane was on the edge of vomit?
The only thing he did off the edge of our bungalow was puke. Multiple times. Poor guy.
My idyllic time at Eden was off to a great start. A sick husband was not something I (or he) anticipated.
We only had two nights here, which was and wasn’t enough time. I think if Shane had been healthy then we would have loved to stay longer. But with him sick, and the relenting heat (and – sorry Eden, my only true complaint) weak fans in the bungalow it wasn’t as magical as I had imagined it to be.
But, as we would come to learn by the end of our time in Cambodia, having expectations is your first mistake. Better to just experience things for what they are.
On our only full day, I knew I wanted to swim in the river and I wanted to do something active. We had been mostly touring cities, so now that we were actually out in the countryside I wanted to see it. Eden provided (for free) bicycles and a list of activities in the area so I forced Sis to go on a hike with me. The boys, not up for an athletic adventure, stayed behind while Sis and I went out to tackle White Mountain.
Following what I would refer to as “country boy” directions – “turn left on the road by the school that goes through the two overhanging trees towards a chainlink fence” – we had a lovely ride through the surrounding local village.
And back through the village when we missed the turn.
And for another time when we missed the turn again.
Third time’s a charm though and we found the path towards the chainlink fence all the while getting waved at by the friendliest children on their way to school.
Our directions described the hike as “short but strenuous with a little bit of scrambling”.
That description was 100% accurate as Sis and I were gasping for air by the time we reached the top. The view was worth it though.
A successful hike required an afternoon dip in the river!
Keeping with the theme, this wasn’t as relaxing as expected, cause you know… river currents! HAH! It was refreshingly cool but MAN did you have to work to stay in front of the bungalows! Something about that flowing river…
Dear Eden, I suggest ropes with a carabiner to attach you to your bungalow for worry-free floating..
And that about wrapped our time at Eden and in the Kampot area.
As I said before, I was so excited to come here but because of the road, it did feel very isolated. It’s definitely the type of place you go to enjoy nature and just relax with no agenda. I mean look at this bungalow!
But, being isolated when one of your group is sick made me a little nervous. And, to top it off, we discovered during our time in Eden that Terry picked up a foot parasite (sorry Terr Bear if you didn’t want this on the blog!). No worries, it turns out they are quite common – even in America – and he could have gotten it anywhere. He took it in stride, even named it Riley, and it was cured with a bumpy ride on the back of a random guys scooter to the “good” hospital for medicine.
If you have the chance to visit Eden Eco Village though, I would definitely do it. The bungalows are beautiful, they are (as the name suggests) eco-friendly by using solar power and reusing where possible. And they work very closely with the local community, giving them jobs and teaching English along the way. And I cannot say this loud enough, but THE FOOD! Ah, it was so amazing. I mean look at this salad!
All the food was made to order and literally, nothing was bad. I think we might have tried the entire menu. If you go, don’t skip the coconut milkshakes!
So, while it seemed like nothing went quite right in the two days since our group of 6 became a group of 4, all in all, our time in Kampot was too short.
We headed out the next day for our final stop in Cambodia,
the island of Koh Rong!
More to come soon!
Tot ziens,
Whitney
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Our last stop as a group of 6 was the capitol of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.
When we first arrived, it took us ~7 hours on an overnight bus to get from Phom Penh to Siem Reap. The drive time from Battambang back to the capitol city was supposedly 5 hours so we opted for a daytime drive. I say supposedly because we would come to learn that whatever the stated travel time is, go ahead and add one hour to that.
After our fantastic day tour of Battambang, we caught a 7am VIP van with Mekong Express and we were on our way…. for about 3 hours.
Yep, that’s the tread almost completely off the tire.
It goes without saying, but this had to be fixed before we could keep going. So, everyone hopped out of the van and headed across the street for a bathroom and some snacks while our (poor) driver frantically tried to figure out where he could have the tire repaired. For some reason, Sis and I came back to the van. Maybe I was coming to take this picture? I don’t really remember. What I do remember is the driver telling Sis to get in the van and Sis telling me to get in the van.
Door closes and off we go.
…and they never saw Whitney & Kelsey again.
Ok – not true. What we figure is our driver didn’t want to take off with all our luggage and no witnesses, which I appreciate. Had we spoke Cambodian, I’m sure this would have been communicated. All part of the adventure, right?
We ended up at the tire repair place and 15 min later we were back in action!
We picked up the rest of the van crew, and we were off again! Turns out, Shane & Terry passed the time by discussing how they were going to break the news to our dad that they lost us. *shrugs*
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, with only one complaint: no karaoke! If your van is going to advertise karaoke on the outside, which it did, then you better give a girl some tunes!
Another squishy luggage-packed tuk-tuk ride took us to the hotel.
Now, I will preface this next statement with this: Phnom Penh is a huge city, and we really only explored within 15-20 min. walking distance from our hotel. With this in mind, Phnom Penh was probably my least favorite city on the whole trip.
Before we came, I had heard from others about the “rawness” of Phnom Penh. There was poverty, prostitution, beggars, people with missing limbs on the streets. I will say, that none of those things are the reason why I didn’t care for Phnom Penh. Honestly, I think you can find all of those things in any major city across the world if you look hard (sometimes not even hard) enough. I just didn’t feel like Phnom Penh had any character.
If you consider the history of the country and the fact that only 40ish years ago Phnom Penh was essentially emptied of its inhabitants when they were sent to the rice fields, it makes more sense. The Khmer Rouge did an excellent job at wiping away Cambodian culture.
I will say, I never felt unsafe in Phnom Penh. There are definitely nice places to stay (like our beautiful hotel), and good places to eat and drink. We had a great few days here so I certainly don’t think the city was ‘bad’, but when we left for our next destination after 3 nights, I was ok to go.
One thing I was not ok to leave was the cat cafe we stumbled upon on our first night!
Terry living his best life.
On a more serious note, we came to Phnom Penh with one main goal: visiting the killing fields.
As I mentioned in the Battambang post, there are killing fields and killing caves scattered throughout the country. These serve as mass graves for the millions of people murdered by the Khmer Rouge. Choeung Ek is the closest to Phnom Penh, ~15km (9mi) outside of the city and is thought to be the largest in the country.
Once an orchard, this field turned into a holding cell and killing area. People were brought here in trucks, held in wooden buildings until the time, and shortly after arrival killed. Most of the killings were by blunt force trauma with various items, or stabbing, as bullets were expensive to come by so they weren’t to be “wasted”. Anywhere from 15 – 300 people were brought at one time. One of the most harrowing accounts (from the audio guide – highly recommended) was the story of the music. In general, music was banned under the Khmer Rouge regime, but here they played loud music to drown out the screams of the victims.
Today, you can walk through the fields. Some mass graves have been blocked off with fencing, but most are just seen as depressions in the ground. To this day, bones, clothing, and other items can be found in the area.
Now, the fields are home to a stupa (a type of memorial, in Buddhism) which houses the bones of those killed here. Those found have been analyzed by archeologists to determine the relative age and, based on the skull damage, with which tool they were murdered. They are arranged accordingly inside the stupa. A memorial ceremony is held here each year on May 9th to commemorate those who lost their lives.
The killing fields, like the killing cave, were definitely not an easy thing to visit, but the history of these places should be learned and remembered.
Our other main Phnom Pehn tourist attraction was the Royal Palace.
Lucky for us, we could literally see it from our hotel!
The Royal Palace is actually more of a Royal Palace compound. There are multiple buildings within the gates; the image above is the main pavilion where the King would address the public.
Inside the walls, there are a number of buildings which are used for state visits (dinners, ceremonies etc.), office spaces, Royal stupas (memorials to the royal families throughout history) and even the Royal residence of the King.
Back in the day, the King would get on his elephant from this balcony. 
Inside a museum of Royal attire.
Other than that, we spent the rest of our time in Phnom Penh just soaking up our last days together!
Perhaps you’ve noticed in some of the pictures, but we’ve all been carrying fanny packs this trip – or FP for short. The FP idea started a few months ago in the SEA 2018 group chat – what’s everyone bringing? How much are you packing? What kind of bag are you taking? I, in passing, mentioned that Shane picked up an FP in the store (he says as a joke) but the idea was quickly vetoed by me. Ya know, nerd alert!
Fast forward to the first night of the trip.
Steve & Michelle – “We have a surprise for you!”
Sis & Terry – “Us too!”
THEY BOTH HAD FANNYS FOR THE GROUP!!
Sis & Terry found their fannys during their first stop in Koh Lanta, Thailand. They became our day-to-day packs.
Steve & Michelle picked out each fanny to match everyone’s personality and these became our “Party Packs”. Which leads me to my next photo.
Terry WON the party pack game.
This picture was taken at dinner on our last night together. It was so realistic looking that the waitress COULD NOT look Terry in the eyes and just giggled every time she came to the table.
So – I would like to publicly say… I was wrong. Fanny packs are awesome and actually very practical travel accessories! It’s a great way to carry all your valuables, safely in a crowd.
We did manage to take some nice photos on our last night out, which ended in spontaneous karaoke at a non-karaoke bar and a handful of new friends.
Terry’s song choice you might wonder? A song that knows no global limits. Billy Ray Cyrus – Achy Breaky Heart.
And with that, our time in Phnom Penh and as a group of 6 was over. The next morning, with sad hearts (and slight hangovers) we said goodbye to Steve & Michelle.
Thanks for the memories, friends!
Next up, our foursome heads to Kampot, Cambodia!
Tot Ziens,
Whitney
Video: Southeast Asia 2018/19 – Part 1
One year, six months, and thirteen days. That’s how long it’s been since I (Shane) have written a blog post.
Why such a long break? Well, mostly I blame it on writing my PhD thesis – it consumed my life for the better part of two years. But I also blame it on us buying a GoPro. A couple years ago, I filmed us snowboarding in the Alps and then later compiled the footage into a mash-up of our trip. I enjoyed this enough that it more-or-less became a thing: Whitney blogged and I made videos. Granted, this doesn’t account for countless trips/posts without a video…but that’s not the point. The videos are just a fun way to relive the trip – our own version of ‘home movies’, if you will.
So this is how it went, until another faithful snowboarding trip last year, when I managed to lose essentially every electronic device we own. No more GoPro. No more videos.
That is, until now! For those following along, you know Whitney has been chronicling our recent trip to Southeast Asia (with lots more to come!). For this trip, I once again had my (new) GoPro in hand and we did our best to film it all. Now, my task is to condense four weeks of travel into a few videos; the first of which is now complete!
Obviously, there is more to come – I still have two more weeks of travel, corresponding to 25gb of footage! I’m still figuring out my new video editing software (Adobe Premiere Pro, for those interested), so the coming video(s) will (hopefully) improve. In the meantime, stay tuned for more posts from Whitney!
Until next time,
Shane
The Shwits 