Uncle Ho's Revenge

So, I've had Mao's revenge, Khan's revenge Uncle Ho's revenge as well
as similar chalenges in Cambodia and Thailand. Normally, I have no
problems like this when visiting strange lands. Finally, after having
to deal with a week or so of the trots I took the antibiotics I
brought along for just this purpose and all was well.

I've eaten so much weird stuff in so many places, there's no way I
could narrow it down. Last night would we a good example. We had this
tasty hot pot / korean BBQ. It came with raw pork and chicken. If
you've seen the way meat is handled here, that alone would give you
pause. Now the dicey bit. You use the same pair of chopsticks to pick
up the raw meat as you do to eat the rest of your food. Then there's
all the fresh veggies. A text book example of what your not supposed
to eat if you don't want to get sick. Well it was one of the best
meals I've had in Asia and I felt just fine and still do.

So it's worth some discomfort to have a cultural experience.

Chiang Mai and the North

When we got back to Bangkok, it was lousy with tourists. High season
had begun. We lucked out and got a bed in a decent place. But there
our luck ended. The sleeper train to Chaing Mai was sold out. So we
took what we though was a sleeper bus. Turns out they booked us on an
old piece of crap and charged us more than double the normal cost.
Such is life.

Once in Chaing Mai, I went on a trekk in the jungle for three days and
the girl when to cooking school. Cooking school was great, I'm told.
Trekking was not so much. I had a crap guide and the trails are way
over touristed. Though I did get to have a nice walk in the jungle.

Then we were off to Chiang Dao, to a place called the Nest. It was a
somewhat ritzy kind of place with great food, a place for a mini
retreat at the foot of a mountain, near some famous caves.

Then on to Chiang Khong for a night before crossing the Laos border.

Koh Maak

Yikes!
It's been a while since I posted a blog entry! We traveled to south
east Thialand after leaving Cambodia and spent 4 days on a small
island. The first 2 days were perfect. The second 2 were very windy.
We didn't get any snorkling in and the snorkling trip we signed up for
was cancelled.

The sand and the water were fantastic. The seas were still rough when
we left and it made for a very bumpy speedboat ride.

From there we planed to go to south western Thailand and go to a
couple of remote islands for snorkling. But the weather down there was
shit and since the girlfriends time was running out, we went to the
north where the sun was shining.

Siem Reap

Is in Cambodia for those of you who don't know. It's the place you
stay if you want to see Angkor Wat and the other temple complexes. The
town itself is a bit of a tourist hell. It was not nearly so bad when
my girlfriend was here 4 years ago.

Some of the areas that were open four years ago are closed now,
including the third tier of Angkor Wat.

This is our last day and then it's off to remote islands in Thailand.

The food here is ok, but not as good as Vietnam or Thailand. Though we
did have an excellent brick oven pizza last night.

Ho Chi Minh City

Is what used to be Saigon. In general Vietnam was a much nicer place
than some other visitors had reported, that goes for HCMC as well.
Among other things we went to the War Remnants Musem. Which catalogs
Americas war crimes in Vietnam.

The food was good and the people were friendly. We spent a half an
hour with some college students practicing English. It's the first
time it wasn't a scam.

Hanoi and Ha Long Bay

So, North Vietnam. The weather has been great along with the food. The
trip to Ha Long Bay was beautiful. It's super touristy, but what can
you do. Many of the cool destinations are.

Today it's hanging out and more street food. Hopefully none of it will
seek revenge. Tonight: Ho Chi Min City (Saigon).

Shanghai'd in Bangkok

After more than a mo th of avoided tourist scams. We were finally
taken in. We were steps away from the Grand Palace when this guy steps
out from behind a guard shack. We were looking confused and had just
had a couple of other guys try to "help" us. This dude told us the
palace was closed for lunch and that we should go see some other
sights and come back. The long and short of it is we wasted a couple
hours while various peole tried to get us to buy things from vacations
to jewelry while being driven around in a tuk tuk. At least all we
lost was money.

Scams lime this work so well in Thailand because 90% of the people you
meet are trying to be helpful.