Paro
Posted July 2, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Bhutan: The Land of the Thunder Dragon. This country is most famous for three things: 1) Being the last Shangri-la, 2)Tracking their citizens Gross National Happiness (GNH) instead of the standard Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and 3) Severely restricting the amount of tourists that are allowed to enter. We expected the daily tariff to be …
Luang Prabang
Posted June 27, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Luang Prabang has been high on my list of places to go ever since I had to skip it due to time constraints on my last trip to South East Asia in 2006. I had heard so many great things about it during and since that trip. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage …
Tree Top Explorer
Posted June 26, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Despite Amanda feeling terrible, she decided that she wanted to go ahead and go on the Treetop Explorer jungle zipline trek. She loaded up on medicine and we went back to the Green Discovery office in Pakse where we met up with the Israelis and two more fellow travelers: Damien from Austalia and Sarah from …
4000 Islands
Posted June 24, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
The 4000 Islands (Si Phan Don) are in Southern Laos in the Mekong on the border with Cambodia. Several of the islands are populated with sleepy little riverside villages where local fisherman and their families stick to the traditional way of life. A few of the larger islands (Don Det and Don Khan) now even …
Pakse
Posted June 21, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 1 Comment
Pakse is a small town that serves as a transport hub for southern Laos. It is the home a few bus stations, the only airport in the region and not much else. Before we arrived in Laos we had been trying to arrange a zip-lining trek in the jungle through a company called Green Discovery. …
Siem Reap
Posted June 19, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 1 Comment
Siem Reap is the closest city to the ancient Khmer ruins of Angkor. I had been there in 2006, but Amanda had never seen it, and it is such a spectacular site that I was happy to go back with her. Around this point in the trip, scheduling was really starting to stress us …
Hoi An
Posted June 16, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Hoi An is world heritage city in central Vietnam that is close to a few awesome beaches and also known for really good food. The thing that it is most famous for though is it’s wide variety of tailors. I thought about getting one, and even printed out a bunch of pictures from GQ to …
Hue
Posted June 15, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Hue is supposedly the old imperial capital of Vietnam and I hear there a lot of palaces and what not, but we weren’t here for such things. We came to Hue for two reasons: 1) To eat the best food in Vietnam and 2) To rent motorcycles for the epic ride down to Hoi An. …
Phong Nha Farmstay
Posted June 10, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Although we absolutely loved Hanoi, we were ready to get off the beaten track a bit a check out something a bit more rural. After a bit of internet research and a few emails, we discovered the Phong Nha Farmstay and it seemed perfect! The owners Ben (Australian) and Bich (Vietnamese) built a beautiful French …
Ha Long Bay
Posted June 3, 2012 / By Adam and Amanda / 0 Comments
Ha Long bay is one of those things that you just have to do in Vietnam. All over Hanoi we saw posters, tourist agencies and flyers showing the beautiful karst cliffs rising out of the sea and advertising the fact that it was recently added to the list of the New Seven Natural World Wonders …