Cambodia

So yesterday we spent all day on a bus 8.5 hours traveling between HCMC and Phnom Penh Cambodia. Quite a lot of time was spent at the border. As you have to wait on Vietnam to be called through from a warehouse to leave the country. Then in Cambodia you can get your visa at the crossing so you have to wait got them to be processed. I had an evisa which seemed like a good idea but I ended up being the last to cross over in Cambodia.

Once we were finally in Phnom Penh we went on a tuk tuk tour around the city. It was quite exhilarating going so fast and with so little space. We saw the city at night which turned out to be when everyone is out before getting dinner.

The next day was a combination of sad and happy.  Ok, mostly sad.  We got to visit the sad places of a killing field that was used during Pol Pot's regime as well as a Genocide Museum which was in an school, turned prison.  We learned a lot, and really experienced the horrors of the time.  It was amazing how many precautions were made so that the people close by had no idea what was going on and how many lives were being lost.


After all the sadness we visited the royal palace and silver pagoda which thankfully lightened the mood.  it was a really beautiful space with interesting architecture and beautiful colors.


Then we had dinner together at a snazzy spot called Malis. Then we walked to a bar named Top Banana.

Mekong Delta Vietnam

Today was a wonderful day. I slept a lot so getting up early for my tour was easy and I even felt rested. The tour itself was to the Mekong river Delta and my tour mates were a couple of Aussies.  We road on a private bus out. Which was comfortable and we learned from our guide Jackie along the way. 

We then rode a boat to unicorn island where we had honey tea (hot water, honey, lemon and bee pollen) and a few snacks. 

Then we ate tropical fruit and listened to folk music. 

Next was to see the making of coconut paper and thy ten are a fair bit of it. 

We visited a coconut candy factory and even tried coconut wine. 

Then road a cycle cart thing on crazy tiny roads to a lunch of all kinds of Vietnamese food. We finished the trip by riding a canal in a sanpan boat before heading back to the hotel.

I ventured to the huge market in HCMC and made a few purchases including getting half off a beautiful table runner by bartering down the price.

I met up with my group next and it should be an interesting trip. An Indian couple from Australia, a couple from England, a lady from Germany, a lady from Italy, an Aussie from a rural, a couple we haven't met yet and if course Rita. So 11 people total.

Our guide Sum took some of us to pub Street (Aussie, Italian and German). I drank Strongbow and finally had my chicken pho. It was a great day.

Tomorrow we check out early (7:45) and head to Phnom Pen Cambodia.

Ho Chi Minh City Day 1

After the fascinating time in the Taipei airport it was a 3 hour flight on a 777 to Ho Chi Minh City. Once of the airplane it was time to stand in line. First was to the landing Visa line to turn in the paperwork. Then waiting for them to print the visa. Thankfully that prices was faster then I thought it would be. Next they sent me back and forth of the line to get it stamped. Then baggage claim of course. I was amazed at how much so many of the people were picking up. One couple had 2 carts full of luggage and boxes. Once I had my luggage it was just the declaration scanning. On the other side of the scanners I easily found the guy who was there to take e me to the airport. I am so glad I paid for the transfer so much less stress since I was so tired.

Driving to the hotel was crazy. Drivers don't stay in their lanes and motorcycles are everywhere. My hotel is pretty nice. It's called the Queen Anne and has a comfy waiting room/lobby. My room is a corner on the 7th floor and has a queen bed. The best part is the rain shower walk in shower. Heaven since it is so hot here. After cleaning up and relaxing a bit I decided to set out to see the sights. Looking on a map it was supposed to be a 16 minute walk to the War Remnants Museum. Took a bit longer since cruising the roads is a show of faith. You basically step out in traffic and the drive around you. Super insane.

I made it to the museum and it was worth it. Made me sad to be an American and see all the destruction of this country. Especially all the kids who ended up deformed due to agent orange. Seeing all the USA helicopters, tanks etc were really neat. I tried to see the Reunification Palace but it closed before I got there. So I walked back to the hotel through a park.

Back at the hotel I met a lady named Rita from the UK who it turns out it's on my trip with Intrepid. She is quite worried so I hope being in a trip helps her. We ended up going to dinner together getting so OK food down the street.

Tomorrow is the Mekong valley tour and I can't wait.

Taipei airport

So survived the 13 hour flight to Taipei. I have never flown EVA air but they seemed really efficient. It was a bumpy ride for quite a bit of time so I didn't read as much as I thought. The movie selection was OK not awesome but OK so I watched a few movies mostly in pieces. Burnt, Steve Jobs, Truth and Our Brand is Crisis.

I am feeling pretty tired through as I am waiting for my flight to Vietnam.  The airport is pretty fun. Each waiting room has a theme. Aviation, reading, history, plants and of course Hello Kitty.

Almost ready to travel again

On Thursday I am flying to Southeast Asia for my first trip to that part of the world.  I am going on a tour this time (makes is less scary for me).  So here is the information on the tour.
http://www.intrepidtravel.com/us/cambodia/cambodian-traveller-93967#dates

I am also going to do a day trip while in Vietnam up the Mekong Valley:
http://www.urbanadventures.com/ho-chi-minh-city-tour-mekong-discovery

I am excited to share with you on this blog as I travel.

Home and Pictures

I am quite proud of myself.  I spent some time on Saturday going through the over 700 photos I took and started to turn it into a photo book.

Magnets

I picked up a magnet in each of the cities I visited and Michael's had a cool metal hanging piece that was perfect to put them all on. I am excited to get to see them everyday as a reminder.

Home

I have some catching up to do on my blog, sorry. Everything got a little crazy at the end and the internet hated me when I was trying to post. So, tonight I promise an update about Amsterdam, the trip back and pictures. :)

Update: Added pictures to most of my earlier posts.

Amsterdam

Made it to our very last city on our adventure. We are now sitting on a houseboat which is our home for 4 nights trying to decide what to do first. Update: The first night we ended up not doing a whole lot other than going to the grocery store and picking up food to cook in our kitchen and watching American TV. Friday: We decided to check off the two things we wanted to do the most. A trip to the Anne Frank House was first. The 2 hour wait in line outside talking to a couple from Ohio was completely worth it to see and feel what it was like to have to be hiding from the Nazis. After that very emotional museum we walked a bit to the Van Gogh Museum. That was a different kind of experience in a modern building surrounding by some beautiful art work and writings. It was very worthwhile experience. Saturday: It was the Amsterdam Cana Pride Parade. We found a spot on the canal looking between 2 houseboats at the parade going by. Each of the boats/barges had a theme and a party atmosphere. It was a crazy cool show. After the parade we got lost in Old Town walking all over the place.

Sunday: We woke up to find out that our hot water wasn't working. So, we had to work with the owner a bit before leaving and catching a train to Haarlem. Our goal was to see a museum about the people who were hiding Jewish people during WWII. It turns out it was closed on Sundays so instead we got to explore the cute town and eat pancakes in the square before heading back to the big city. We took a canal boat ride when we got back to Amsterdam and it was really interesting to see the canals from below. We ended the night eating tasty Irish food in a pub before heading back to the boat and packing everything to go home.

The Hague

We left Belgium for the Netherlands. Our destination was The Hague and the surrounding area. In fact our hotel was a funky slightly dated hotel on the beach in Scheveningen which is on the North Sea. It was an easy tram ride from the train station, in fact we got to go to the end of the tram line and then just basically had to cross the street to get to the hotel. Our first partial day was spent walking along the windy promenade and exploring the sculptures and shops.

The next morning we skipped The Hague and took the tram the completely other direction to Delft. A cute little town that is known for their blue and white porcelain that is still hand painted (although they do stamp some of it). We explored a few too many souvenir shops filled with the pretty porcelain and walked the rather quiet streets. We stopped at the Peace Palace on our way to the Madurodam a really interesting and interactive miniature city of the Netherlands.

Before heading to Amsterdam we visited a famous art museum the Mauritshuis that was filled with Rembrandts and Vermeers.

Cologne/Dusseldorf

In Cologne we of course did a walking tour through. This walking tour wasn't the best though it was trying too hard to be cool and ended up being kind of corny. The city itself was fun though they have some interesting architecture and sculptures. The river front area is by far the best feature and has great restaurants and is just really pretty.

We went to a Chocolate Museum which was my lindt chocolates. Learned a lot about the industry to grow and harvest the beans then the shipping and making of the chocolate. My favourite part was that we got to watch them actually make chocolate in the museum so you could see the whole process.

After the Chocolate Museum we caught a train the Dusseldorf which was only a little ways by train. We got off in a modern city but kept walking towards the pedestrian area thanks to sons signs and found the old town. It was so much fun lots of energy and shops. Picked up a new nutcracker by Christian Ulbrecht that did my other nutcracker as well. Then we ate at one of the brewery/restaurants in town and were waited on by some fun old men. The food was good and the beer was as well. We were definitely smiling on put long walk back to the train station.

The next day before heading to Brussels on our 2:45pm train we went to the Gestapo museum which was where they interrogated and tortured people towards the end of the war. It was heart breaking to see all of the inscriptions in the tiny cells that were designed for 1 to 2 people but often held closer to 30 and some people were there for months and sometimes were held more than once.  After the museum we got out last German meal and browsed some shops.

Germany was fun I will definitely have to come back to see more.

Belgium

I am a little behind on the updating. We made it to Brussels today so I hope to be able to update you soon on everything we did in Germany!

Above is a picture of the picture in our room at the Pantone hotel in Brussels.

Belgium was a fun country a little bit addicted to their French fries and strong in alcohol beers. On our first night in Brussels we had an amazing meal of mussels and tasty desserts. We took a walking tour and did a Belgian beer tour the next day as well as some shopping for TinTin stuff.

The next day we went to the comic strip Museum before heading to Bruges. The cute medieval town was a nice stop and we took a canal ride, went on a history walking tour in the rain and wandered the streets filled with ships closed since it was Sunday. It was a very nice city even though it was quite cold in the rain.

Our last night in Belgium was spent in Antwerp. We explored the old town, listened to a bell chorus at the lop sided cathedral and walked along the river front. We left there this morning and hope to someday return to Belgium.

Copenhagen/Hamburg

Yesterday we got up early to get to the train station hoping to get to Hamburg at a reasonable time. When we got to the train station we find out we couldn't leave until 2:40 so we stored our luggage and went out into the city again. We visited the Town Hall and the Round Tower. Round Tower was quite unique since it had a speak ramp most of the way to the top and not stairs. There was an art exhibit about half way up with the architectural models of buildings that were built and ones that were not. 

We caught the bus to connect to a train to Hamburg on time at 2:40. The bus was OK but a train would have been nicer of course. We realised we needed to be on the bus thought to take a ferry away from the island Copenhagen was on. Turns out our ferry was late. By the time we got to our connection we had all missed it (3 buses of people in total). Our option was to wait almost an hour until the next express or take a local to Lubetz then transfer to another train to Hamburg. We took that option as that train was actually pretty convenient. We finally made it to Hamburg just before 10pm so we didn't see much until today.  We checked out of our hotel in Hamburg this morning then went on a walking tour of the city for about 3 hours. I actually really liked the city. The brick buildings and unique architecture. It really felt like a city with heart and soul. I hope I get to visit again someday.

We caught a train out of Hamburg to Cologne. It was a 4 hour ride and we got in town with just enough time for dinner at a restaurant with actual German food. Out first view when we left the train station is the cathedral at the top of this post I think it bodes well for the rest of time in Cologne.

Copenhagen Day 3

Our third and final day in Copenhagen started with laundry and food. The laundry room longer than we had hoped so we took time to visit Rosenberg Palace which was almost next to our hostel. It was quite an interesting Palace most notably because the throne room was on the third floor and the King and Queen's thrones were very different but also because the there were 3 crowns on display as well as the crown jewels. It was a nice stop.

Later in the day we once again for lost on our way to the main square with town hall and Tivioli on it. We thankfully did finally find it after a few miss turns one took us almost all the way back where we started. We were too late to go inside town hall but we did make it to Tivioli. Tivoli was amazing an amusement park in the middle of the city which was more for the adults then children with whimsical decor.

Copenhagen Day 2

Today was filled with a lot of walking but I feel like I saw most of the city and got a good feel for it. Started off with a really tasty breakfast buffet in true European style. Then we left with the group heading to the walking tour from our hostel. The walk to meet up with the tour was almost a tour in itself with a very fast walking local. We met at the town hall while a a wedding was being celebrated. We didn't go into the town hall deciding to wait until tomorrow. We were split into groups of about 20 each. We walked past trivoli then around the square heading the history and how the growth hall was actually the 6th due to fires and outgrowing the second to last one. We then set off for other parts of the area including 3 churches and 4 statutes of men on horses. We saw the buildings of Nyhavn and ended in Amelienborg where the royal family lives. The tour was 3 hours and really interesting I recommend taking a Copenhagen Free Walking Tour if you ever visit better.

When the tour let up Sara and I decided to visit the Design Museum Denmark. It was filled with all sorts of information about design in Denmark from children's toys, posters and furniture to funky adult furniture. There were textiles and interesting things galore. After all that walking we sat and relaxed for a few minutes.

We decided to go to the Norrebro Bryghus or Brewhouse. We didn't have anything except for an address to go on and only a map since our phones are WiFi only here. On our way we saw part of the Kastellet which is an active military fortification that is open to the public much like the royal castles are. It was a beautiful side trip as the park around it is outstanding.

The walk to the brewery was quite long and we hit one road block with a park in the middle of the road we were looking for the restaurant on. We finally found it and it was really worth it. Actually smoked almonds, great beer (lemon pale ale was my favorite). I had fish and chips as my entree and dessert was to die for. A rhubarb mousse and strawberries in fermented honey with juniper ice cream. It was the best dessert I have had in ages. After an enjoyable meal the walk back to the hostel didn't feel so long.

Tomorrow we are going to Tivoli the second oldest amusement park on the world. Then reserving our ticket to Hamburg for the next morning.

Copenhagen Day 1

Got off the plane and easily found our baggage, metro ticket and metro. It got a little tricky navigating to our hostel. We walked the wrong direction then turned around and walked the correct direction. Finding the street signs proved tricky as in European fashion they were on the sides of buildings. We finally made it to the right building then found the door and went up to check in. We expected to have to pay to store or luggage but instead our private room was ready. So up to the study room we went and took a couple hour nap. When awake we tried to find an ATM machine which turned out to be a few blocks down. Back to hostel we went to try and start the 3 hour walking tour. Our timing was off so instead we walked our way into the city. It wasn't as tricky as I feared and met up with the free walking tour of Christanhavn. The streets removed me of upscale Fremont. It was a fun walk. The tour itself was 90 minutes and took us to some pretty site and across the bridge to Christanhavn. We ended up in the strange hippie area of Christiana. It was quite the site. We meandered back to our hostel and grabbed dinner there. Tomorrow we are going to do the 3 hour walking tour.

Last day in New Orleans

So to finish up or time in New Orleans we did a couple of fun things. Retraced our steps to the WWII Museum to finish up the sections we missed then took a long bus ride out to the city park to play historical mini golf and walk in the heart of course. It was a nice detour from the French quarter and we ended up back in the quarter for food.

We have been in planes and airports all through the 16th and just made it to Amsterdam just one more hop to Copenhagen.

New Orleans day 5

Last night we went out for a nice dinner with Stef at a tasty restaurant called Oceana. It was one of my favorite restaurants so far. Sara and I ended the night early to do laundry in preparation for switching hotels.

This morning Stef left at about 8:30 so we got up at about 9 to pack and clean up the room. After we were checked out we went to the French Market for breakfast with Lisa and Serena. We also browsed the flea market and I picked up a DVD of a documentary on freight train hopping as well a couple of really cool pictures on metal.

We split up from Lisa and Serena so they could go to the airport and we went to ride the Mississippi river on a stream boat. We enjoyed lunch, jazz music and beautiful views. It was a really great experience.

After the cruise we went to our new hotel and checked in even though we left our luggage at the other one. It is in an art deco style and quite comfy. We finally went to the place with cheap happy hour oysters and a great beer selection. It was such a wonderful way to spend the evening eating oysters and salad, drinking beer and just relaxing even with it still being 90 degrees out was fun.

After picking up put luggage we are taking the night off to hanging out. Tomorrow we are going to finish the WWII Museum and head to the city park to play mini golf for our last day in the US. Thursday it is off to Copenhagen and the European trip begins.

New Orleans Day 3

Today has been so much fun. We started the day with a bus tour through the city and cemetery. I learned a lot of history and saw some beautiful buildings. After the tour we decided to do a walking tour from a guidebook of the Garden District. That was probably one of my favorite times. The architecture was stunning in the huge homes. We found Anne Rice's Old home which was amazing lots of rot iron and sun rooms. We grabbed am authentic po boy before a bit of an adventure getting to the Hilton for all of them to go on a swamp tour and me to go on another Haunted tour.

New Orleans - National WWII Museum

If you are ever in the area this is definitely a museum to visit. It is well put together and has a very interactive way where you get to follow a soldier (in my case soldier brothers) throughout their story in the war. The information is really well put together.