Adventures By Design

View Larger Map

Wonder where we’ve been? Each of the icons on the map above shows a special place on our travels, and the green line shows our route. Click on an icon for a name and description too. You can also use the zoom buttons on the right side, and click and drag to move around the map.

Here are all our photos, arranged by country.

• Thailand (April 2-?)
• Malaysia (dates?)
• Indonesia (dates?)
• Singapore (dates?)
• Cambodia (dates?)
• Vietnam (dates?)

If you have any questions about, well, anything, leave us a comment. Enjoy!

Ric and Gin

In which the travelers find some friends

We arrived at the Hanoi train station tired but not exhausted, so we walked away from the station. The last time we caught a taxi from the station at 5 am we ended up spending fifteen minutes stuck in traffic: there was a traffic jam of taxis leaving the station at the same time. This time we walked through the gridlock, got our bearings, and started walking. After a ten minutes or so we started looking for a taxi, and found one within nanoseconds.

In which the travelers nearly steal a dog

We had another lazy day today, something the beach is perfect for. We had breakfast and met a couple who were traveling from the north to the south of Vietnam. We chatted for a while and exchanged recommendations for Ho Chi Minh City (our previous stop) and Nha Trang (their previous stop). We also told them a bit about Cambodia, but then they had to leave to catch their bus to HCMC.

On our own again, we went to get our laundry washed. On the way there we contemplated what would happen if the laundry place lost all our clothes. Basically it would be a disaster, since both of us only had one other change of clothes… the ones we were wearing. Hopefully everything will be okay when we go pick our stuff up tomorrow.

We went for lunch again at the same place as yesterday where we could watch kite surfers. This time we were greeted by an adorable and tiny puppy. She was about the size of a grapefruit and seemed to be teething based on the way she bit anything that came within range of her mouth. We played with her for a while and considered kidnapping (uh, dognapping?) her as a playmate for Inca.

We came home to our hotel where the power had been out all day. We have been having daily blackouts, and apparently it is a problem with the whole area. In a place that has near constant wind, we haven’t seen a single wind turbine. Why not? Our hotel is right on the beach, perfect for a couple small sized wind turbines. Maybe it is the initial investment costs? If so, it would be nice if the Vietnamese government could help them out.

Ric went for a swim and Gin read until the non-air conditioned heat made her fall asleep. Ric came home and harassed Gin for a while, but she refused to wake up, so he read his book outside for a while until a thunderstorm rolled in. After Gin finally woke up we went for dinner (Ric was not willing to miss another meal!) and then came home, watched another movie (The Count of Monte Cristo) and then went to bed.

In which the travelers return to the land of Uncle Ho

We got up early, said good bye to bleary-eyed Jesse and Janelle, and boarded our bus. Six hours later, our bus arrived in Phnom Penh, where we changed buses. Five hours after that, we arrived at the Moc Bai border crossing between Cambodia and Vietnam. We piled out of the bus, waited while the Cambodian officials checked our passports, then got back on the bus as they called our names. Our bus then drove a hundred meters to the Vietnamese side, and again we emptied the bus, plus our baggage this time, and proceeded to wait for the Vietnamese immigration officials to call our names. We were then instructed to put our bags on the scanner, and finally return to the bus. It was quite an ordeal, and we marveled at the number of people who were employed to get us from one country to another.

When we finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at about eight o’clock, we were tired and hungry. We tried to stay at the place that Jesse and Janelle had suggested, but they were full. Instead, we found a guest house nearby which offered rooms with air-con and cable TV for only ten dollars a night. The room was clean, and the proprietors charming, but we wont be staying here for a second night. The room lacked expected amenities such as sheets, towels, soap, and a bathroom ceiling (thus broadcasting any… ahem… noises we made). Further, we had to walk through their living room and kitchen to get to the stairs leading to our room; we felt like we were staying at someone’s grandparent’s house (which we were). Still, we were happy that we’d found a place to stay, and we’ll find a better place tomorrow.

In which the travelers enjoy the last moments

This was our last day in Cambodia, and our last day with Jesse and Janelle, so we didn’t do much, just hung out, drank lots of fruit shakes, and talked. At our second stop of the day we sat at tables on the side of the street and watched a 40-something year-old European man take off in a tuk-tuk with a young Cambodian girl who couldn’t have been more than 15 or 16 years old. We had all just seen a documentary on BBC the day before about the exploitation of children around the world. Cambodia is known for having the largest problem with child prostitution. While there are hotlines to call if you see or suspect something, we learned from the documentary that NGOs actually have to bribe the police to get involved and carry out raids on brothels with children in them. It’s pretty sick, and we spent some time discussing the issue and what people could do to combat it. Unfortunately we didn’t come up with a lot of solutions.

Later we returned to The Blue Pumpkin, where we spent some time yesterday. The construction wasn’t quite as noisy today and Gin got some work done on the blog, while Jesse and Janelle taught Ric a fun card game they know called ‘Yaniv.’

Before we left The Blue Pumpkin we picked up some yummy looking snacks from the bakery for the bus trip tomorrow. Then we headed to a great-looking used bookstore that Gin has been eying up for a couple of days. She found some wonderful books there, including Salman Rusdie’s new novel “The Enchantress of Florence;” she didn’t even know that Rushdie had published a new book so she was pretty pleased. She also got another book by her latest favorite author: David Mitchell. She’s looking forward to getting a start on her haul during our 12 hour bus ride tomorrow.

Thrilled with these acquisitions (well, Gin was thrilled) we headed out for our last dinner as a foursome. Following Janelle’s suggestion we went to a Mexican restaurant just a couple of doors down from the bookstore and had some delicious nachos, enchiladas, and burritos. We really wanted to be the first to give Jesse and Janelle an engagement gift, so we bought them dinner!

Bellies stuffed with Mexican goodness we headed home to pack, and to pay our hotel bill since we had to leave for our bus at 6am. Jesse interrupted the hotel manager’s massage from one of the waitresses to tell him we wanted to pay, and he was less than enthusiastic or cooperative after that. Nonetheless he roused himself enough to take our money, scowling all the while. With all that taken care of we hung out with Jesse and Janelle in our room and enjoyed our last bit of time with them. We stayed up until almost midnight chatting, way too late when you consider that we have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning!!

In which the travelers bid Angkor goodbye

Today is our last day visiting the Angkor temples. The past two days have been great, but busy always with the sense that there is more to see. Today, we decided that we’d find a comfortable place and just hang out for a while. We went back to Angkor Thom to see some of the things that we’d missed when the rain came on our first day.

One of the temples we visited, called Baphuon, is also knows as the ‘world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle.’ According to our Lonely Planet travel guide: Baphuon was “painstakingly taken apart piece by piece by a team of archaeologists before the civil war, [but] their meticulous records were destroyed during the madness of the Khmer Rouge.” We can empathize with those archaeologists who took so much time carefully attending to every detail, only to have all their work wasted.

Leaving Baphon, we looked for a comfortable shady place to sit and relax, but since it was noon and none of the temples had roofs anymore, it was near impossible. We walked through the tall grass, roving from temple to temple, and ended up with only some burrs on our pant legs to show for our troubles. As we walked back to our tuk-tuk, we saw a dog frantically looking for shelter just as we noticed black clouds gathering on the other side of a field. Taking our cue from the dog, we sprinted back to our tuk-tuk just as the rain hit.

We drove back to town and bade our driver, Tan, farewell. Tan dropped us off at a restaurant called the Blue Pumpkin, where we had lunch. The Blue Pumpkin is a funky bakery and restaurant with deep bed-style benches for lounging and short-legged tables that sit over your legs. Unfortunately, the shop adjacent to the Blue Pumpkin was being renovated, and our visit was interrupted by the frequent sound of drilling and hammering. But despite the noise, we still had a great meal, plus they offered free wireless, so Ric taught Janelle a little about how he made our blog (maybe she’ll use WordPress too?).

After a brief stop at our hotel, we set out again to buy our bus tickets to Ho Chi Minh City (12 hours), followed by dinner at Le Tigre Papier. The restaurant had great food and decor, but their ceiling fans were right in front of their lights, creating a subtle, yet constant strobe light effect. Janelle quickly felt ill, and the restaurant turned off the fan when we asked. But as soon as some new patrons arrived, the fan came back on so we didn’t linger.

Our time with Jesse and Janelle is drawing to a close; we leave Cambodia the day after tomorrow.