Pictures

Hey! We've added pictures to our shutterfly site. They're from Kolleen (Becker's sister), Susan (Kolleen's friend) and Laura's visit. Enjoy!

www.sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com

Vietnam pics will be coming soon!


<3 Sarah

Tubing in Laos

Tubing in Laos was amazing!!! I will let these pictures and videos speak for themselves.

Pictures under Vang Vieng, Laos on: http://sarahkeepingitmoving.shutterfly.com

Sarah
Matt
Becker
Seamus

Nha Trang & Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)

Nha Trang was a nice little coastal city. While we were there we relaxed on the beach, did 2 dives and a day long boat trip around the islands and to an aquarium. The dives were pretty nice, but they don't compare to Phi Phi. Phi Phi was awesome!! Although while we were diving in Nha Trang one of the girls who was on our African Safari was also on our dive boat. She has been traveling around Asia for the last 5-6 weeks. Its crazy that we were all at the same place at the same time!! Such a small world!

After Nha Trang we headed to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. Whichever you prefer! We actually didn't stay in Saigon for too long. We were there for 3 days and 1 day was spent on a Mekong Delta tour and the next day was at the Cu Chi Tunnels.

The Mekong delta tour was nice. After our bus ride we hopped in a boat and headed to a coconut candy "factory". Its all made my hand and it was really good! I'll get some pics online in a week or two so you can see what it was like. After the candy place we took a little boat ride down a canal, stopped at a cafe for some honey wine, went on a bike ride, tried some snake wine (see left) looks disgusting, but it tasted just like whiskey, then we listened to some tradition music while eating local fruit and then headed back to the city.

The next day was a Cu Chi Tunnels tour. The tunnels are an intense network of tunnels that the Vietnamese created during the Anti-American war as they call it. They consisted of about 250 km of tunnels and had three levels. They were used mostly for fighting but some civilians also lived down there during heavy bombing. we got to go down a few of the tunnels and it was not pleasant. it was really dark and cramped.

Now our Vietnam adventure is over and we are heading for drunken tubing in Laos with 6 other Mountbattens. Should be interesting!!

Hanoi, Halong Bay & Hoi An

After saying goodbye to our guests, Craig, Teresa and I took a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. Talk about car horns a honking and a gazillion motorbikes!!! If we thought traffic was bad in Bangkok it wasn't anything compared to the number of motorbikes in Hanoi. Also there are very few traffic lights so we were literally playing real life frogger!! Slightly fun but also slightly scary! Luckily none of us were hit!! Also upon arriving in Vietnam we were instant millionaires!! It was lots of fun taking out 4,000,000 dong (which is about the equivalent of $240)! Until you spent it all, then it was a little sad :(

While in Hanoi we did a walking tour of the city and also a 2 day, 1 night trip to Halong Bay. The picture below is of the bay.


It was amazing! We cruised around on a boat all day, visited a cave, kayaked, went swimming in the evening and then headed to bed on the boat. We took quite a few good pictures and I'll get them online when I get back to Bangkok in a couple of weeks!

Once we got back to Hanoi we did some shopping! Now we thought Thailand was cheap but that is nothing compared to Vietnam! The prices are crazy! The prices are so cheap that you hardly even have to haggle. They start out so low. While in Hanoi we picked up a few "North Face" backpacks for $11 a piece. They even look like really good quality. We also picked up some shorts and pants that you can zipper off to make shorts for our Everest Trek. And we found a few other souvenirs for our every growing "international room" in our imaginary house!

From Hanoi we took an overnight bus to Hoi An. Hoi An is a very cute little ancient town which was fun to stroll around (although ridiculously HOT!! I thought Thailand was hot, but no, Vietnam is blazing!!) After strolling the streets we realized that apart from it being a nice ancient town it is really known for its cheap clothing and tailoring. For example, after buying a pair of shorts in Hanoi I realized that they were a little too big. So what's a girl to do? After walking down the street for a bit, I found a tailor and they were able to alter my shorts for $2! I also got 2 business suits made ($55 a piece), a tailor made dress for my MBA graduation ($17) and Craig bought two tailor made dress shirts for $22. It was nice! Now we're running out of room in our backpacks! Oops!!

Right now I'm sitting in our hotel lobby waiting for our night bus to Nha Trang. We plan on spending 2 nights in Nha Trang in order to check out the diving in Vietnam before heading to Ho Chi Minh where our flight takes off on the morning of June 15th.

Phi Phi

Koh Phi Phi was an AMAZING island! Crystal clear waters and sun. Who could as for more?!

To get to Phi Phi we took an hour and a half ferry ride from Phuket, and like idiots we all sat out in the sun the entire time and got fried before we even got to the island! After we checked into our hotel, we made a mad dash for the ocean to cool down. The beaches on Phi Phi were absolutely amazing and the water was even better. Our resort had an amazing pool, but we never went near it cuz the beach looked more amazing.

The second day we went diving! The dive sites were awesome! Right when we were about to go down we saw a Black Tip Reef Shark that was pretty darn big. Once under we saw more fish and corral than we ever expected. The next morning we went out for a couple more dives, this time Laura got to go too. She started her scuba diver course the previous day and got all the boring book work out of the way. The two dives were the most amazing we've ever had. Right away we saw a cuddlefish, then a huge porcupine puffer, then right after that a Turtle! Throughout the dives we saw Trumpet fish, Giant Moray Eels, Giant Porcupine Puffer Fish, Yellow and Spotted Boxfish, Sorpionfish, Lionfish, Banded Sea Snakes, Barracuda, Kuhl's Stingrays, Nemo, Blue Ringed Angelfish, Emperor Angelfish, Regal Angelfish, Long Nose Butterflyfish, Bannerfish, a Juvenille Harlequin Sweetlips, Trigger Fish and lots and lots of others. And the grand finale was a Leapord Shark that was laying out in the sand and didn't move even when we were about five feet away!

To celebrate the awesome dives and Laura passing her Scuba Diver course we went out for a few cocktails that night. It started at the Mojito bar, which is a really cool cocktail bar overlooking the ocean. We got Laura a strawberry daiquiri fishbowl that was bigger than her head. She made a lot of friends at that bar as she tried to get everyone to help her finish it! We proceed to several other bars and ended up at the Beach Bar. We grabbed some beers and put our chairs in the sand and let the waves crash over our feet. It was a great way to end the night! The next morning when we woke up the night seemed like a blur. We were able to get checked out by 11am but it was a struggle. After a good greasy meal and a dip in the ocean we started feeling better.

Now we're sitting in Bangkok and it is pouring rain! We can hardly see the buildings outside of my window, its coming down that hard. Hope it clears about in about a half hour though, we gotta catch a taxi to the airport. Sarah, Teresa and I (Craig) are catching a plane to Hanoi, Vietnam, while Laura hops on her flight back to the USA (Kolleen and Susan already left around 8am this morning. They should be in Tokyo right about now!).

We had a great trip with all of our guests! And look forward to seeing Kolleen and Susan in Bali at the beginning of September!