all in all

since im such a bloggerholic, let me start this one off.

May 10th - 13th (Day 01 - 04)
Hanoi
Bodega hotel with their nice staff, dorm stay, hoan kiem lake, learning vietnamese, vietnamese walking in their pajamas, "very far very far", this was referring to Lenin Park, superb massage!, meeting vietnamese friends, not meeting vietnamese friends, learning about the ethnology of Vietnamese, pagodas, Temple of Literature where we touched turtles and asked for good GPA (haha), water puppet show, day tour to Halong Bay, 4th day was bus ride to Hue (14hrs)where in the midst of sleeping and waking up on the bumpy ride, we woke up and saw roasted dogs (thit cho).

May 14th (Day 05)
Hue
At Hue, we had good cheap food, first experience at cycling in Vietnam and rebelling against traffic rules if any exists. Cyclo day tour. Hue pancakes. Visiting the Forbidden City.

May 15th - 17th (Day 06 - 08)
Hoi An
Travel from Hue to Hoi An, where we drove throught Hai Van Pass which separates North and South Vietnam. Pitstop at LangCo Beach, which was BEAUTIFUL. tailor made clothes, My Son, cao lau & white rose (both of which are hoi an's speciality. and they taste great. hoi an is one of the few places that actually has their own local speciality), alot of walking around and shopping, for books/scarves/teeshirts. Day 08 was a cab back to Danang to catch our 12 hour train ride to HCMC (soft sleeper $41usd/pax)

May 18th - May 19th (Day 9 - 10)
HCMC
train ride to HCMC was comfortable enough to read, get decent sleep. weird train food. sharing a cabin with australian travelers-1 of whom has been traveling for 9 months, polluted air, expensive cabs which we have to hail selectively cos some of their meters jump so fast, spending a day just to check out travel agencies to get to Cambodia, being sian cos their elections screwed the bus schedule and our schedule, and finally being able to find a solution and get to Cambodia without having to waste time and doing a night stopover at Phnom Penh. best part of it was eating roadside seafood, crabs, clams, SNAILS (my 1st time), all of which cost $14? Notre Dame Cathedral, Post Office (Buu Dien), going to Cholon (HCMC's chinatown) but disappointed with the many shops closed early. Going to Cuchi tunnel and the Cao Dai Temple the next day. Getting caught in the rain and experiencing first hand how life was like in the tunnel where we took cover from the rain.

May 20th - 23rd (Day 11 - 14)
Cambodia
clearing customs, getting mobbed by tuktuk/motorcycle/taxi operators, by children, asking for money/food/candy/to buy their stuff, food peddlers carry their goods on baskets atop their heads, dirt roads, minivans operating as buses with people sitting on top of the vans, (that means they actually have to breathe in all the dust flying up from the road), being dumped in the middle of the road, no rooms available at the hotel, to having 1 last room (thank goodness) because someone checked out 2 hours ago, feeling relief that we are still alive, Angkor Wat, HOTHOTHOT, climbing steep stairs, taking unglam videos, slacking out the next day at a bubble tea place, giving out chocolates to kids, buy more teeshirts, another 12hr back to HCMC (what to do, budget traveling, got time but no money)

May 24th - 27th (Day 15 - 17)
Back at HCMC
typing all these. and realizing i got my dates all mixed up. hahaa.. ok will have to refer to our travel log. now i will go upstairs to get fiona. she will fill in the other missing details of our trip. we are rather broke so we decided to scrap the tour to Mekong and slack out. Visited the Ben Thamn Day market, did final shopping, and left with only.... a miserable 50cents after dinner. We had dinner at a vegetarian place called 'The original Bohdi Tree' (recommended in Lonely Planet) because it was cheap. we were so broke. hotel with no tv (and fiona freaked out) and we started making each other hysterical by singing, acting to ourselves. we settled down for reading and then having an early night. Spending $4 at a bar on beer, which was the equivalent of our dinner just because we dont want to go back to the hotel where we had nothing to do.

2 countries. 17 days. 6 cities. Hanging on by a shoestring of $1000 (airtix included) it's a good 1st backpacking trip. =) definately returning for Sapa, Dalat, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc Islands (the highlands & the beaches!) and yes sunrise & sunset at Angkor.

p/s: edited after referring to travel log