Me here

I haven't been able to send any blogs for over a week. ISP too weak. So I'll try to bring you a little up to date sans photos. That may be the problem.
I've been in Myanmar a week. Mary left for Thailand today. It's been an education for both of us and a month would have probably been a better idea.
We've spent time viewing pagodas and stupas in Bagan and a day exploring villages around Inle Lake: weaving,silver smiths, cheroot making, floating gardens, tribal markets and more pagodas.

I leave for Mandalay tomorrow and then north east.
-On the road with Kathryn

Location:Myanmar

Good things to eat

Our first night Feb 12,we ate at the Villa, an amazing dish of tempura fried morning glory with prawns in a chili sauce. We both ood and aaahed repeatedly. Can't even remember the other dish some kind of a curry.

All these eateries serve imitation western food - think frozen pizza. While there is all this amazing local food, and fresh seafood... some still wiggling.



I'm reminded too that we are back in the land of teeny tiny napkins.
Lunch has become anything squid as Mary doesn't care for it and we've been sharing dinners. So many choices so little capacity.
Today, Feb 15, Note the little green pepper corns, spicy and flavorful, squid with fried wide noodle.

-on the road/sea with Kathryn

Location:Koh Samed

Samed Villa Resort

Maybe this is a good time to explain baitio. Its Thai for go have a good time, which is what I Am doing;-)
We arrived late afternoon Feb 12 to a charming room, with hot shower, a/c, ceiling fan, safe, tv, fridge and once more swan towels. Also beach towels!



Ive been taking full advantage of both towel and beach. Early morning, time to lay claim to a lounge chair with a towel.





Its one resort after another lining the coves separated by rocky outcroppings along the east coast.



The road from the pier is mud, pot holes, gravel and an occasional strip of concrete. Obviously the tracks get a good bit of wear from water trucks (fresh water is mostly brought in from the mainland) Blue water truck, green saungthauw which serves as a taxi.



Motor scooters and ATV ply the track as well, and there is a restaurant around every turn, most associated with lodgings.

-On the road with Kathryn

Location:Koh Samed

Beach Bliss

One night in Bkk where I discover an amazing b'fast and lunch cafe, with 15 different curries, stir fries, and other dishes, all looking divine and spicy. The one thing I missed in Viet Nam, serious chili power.
But we're not gonna stay here again, and dinner food is not as enticing or available.
Feb 12 we shlep our "leave it" bags to Rambuttri, then on to the Ekamai bus station for Rayong and the boat to Ko Samed = 700B about $24. We aren't in bargain land anymore ;-(
You don't want to see pictures of noisy polluted, smoggy Bkk. So here's the port, Ban Phe, Rayong, heading to Koh Samed.



Looking back at Rayong



And on to Ko Samed, 30' away. A famous piece of literature was written about this place and we are greeted by one of the characters from it.






Notice the fangs, shes alluring but dangerous!
It was all day travel through traffic jams into and then out of town to the bus station.
Lots of little add ons too. Oh there is a 200B National Park fee, and another 10B to get out of the docking area oh yes and another 30B for the "cab" (pick up truc with seats in the back) to close to our hotel. Well we actually got off easy, as we sat inside the a/c cab.
WE did have to drag luggage through a bit of sand to Samed Villa Resort however.
My first thought was: bathing suit into the ocean!!
Divine, gorgeous, relaxing, yummy, tropical paradise. More photos later I'm being devoured by mosquitos.


-On the road with Kathryn

Location:Ko Samed

New Years Day

Where is everyone? Stores closed scooters parked and not out to run us down.....



But people still have to eat right? The Viets are big snackers too. Meals are smallish, but then there are amazing fruits and dumpling things to nosh on between times.






We leave early on day two of the new year, and have to wake up the crew sleeping on the floor in the lobby, their scooters nested lovingly in the breakfast nook....



Back to the tropics after 30 days in Viet Nam. Mary and I toast each other with water, which we had to buy on our cheapo airline, Air Asia. We had our differences and for the most part have been pretty good traveling companions, and I've gotten plenty of opportunities to practice patience and compassion ;-)
On to Thailand!!
-On the road with Kathryn

Midnight

Sudang comes to our hotel and we set off for Hoan Kiem lake for fireworks. Its a crush!!! People and scooters jammed together in an immobile mass like sticky rice. Little kids being dragged along or more safely on dad's shoulders, compete with young men in a mash pit, shoving their way forward into no space.



it would have been smart to have come early and staked out a place in a restaurant on an upper floor.


I sit on a parked scooter to rescue my feet from being trampled.
Balloon sales flourish.


All this for 15 minutes of fireworks , which I don't see directly but via a reflection on a building across the lake. Finally the crowd shifts and I get a glimpse higher up in the sky.
Altars abound in the neighborhood.









The headgear and boots of the kitchen god will be burned to welcome him back for another year. Notice the fruit offering and the square sticky rice cakes wrapped in leaves. When the incense has burned (about an hour) the altar can be disassembled, burned and eaten by the household.
-On the road with Kathryn

Location:Hanoi

NYE afternoon

Wandering back to our Charming Hotel we encounter an "antique" market, with sunglasses and lighters to appeal to the younger set.



Even three illegal tiger skins. They are small compared to tigers I've seen in zoos. Sudang shows some interest in buying one. We protest that it only encourages the killing. He is conflicted, wanting to honor the beast already dead and not wanting to encourage the loss of an endangered species. We tell the sales girl it is illegal and she says its ok because she didn't personally kill it!
As Patrick said back at Phong Nha Farmstay, a Nike plant or any manufacturing plant in the area would put an end to people needing to go into the national forests for endangered animals and illegal timber.
So I honor this beautiful beast with this image.



Sugar cane stalks dressed up as Tet poles line the street back to Charming.



Staff is enjoying a steam pot celebration dinner to end this year. They invite me to join them, but I just want a photo.



Its apparently illegal to shoot off fire crackers too, or at least that's my interpretation of this poster, which is plastered everywhere.



-On the road with Kathryn

Location:Hanoi

New Years Eve

Feb 9 2013, afternoon
We grab a street food Pho lunch and go to check out the flower market. Spring rolls, Pho with lots of greens and chillies, 150,000 dong=$7.50 for three.



Flowers for altars to ancestors and for visits to friends and family members.












Five fruits must be on the alter, bananas, Buddha hands, coconut and whatever else you want to offer.



I lost my Thrive hat on the train to Sapa, and have replaced it with one from the mausoleum. Its still chilly.
-On the road with Kathryn

Location:Hanoi

Tourists in Hanoi

Feb 9, Saturday,2013
With all the Hanoi toing and froing we haven't yet seen the sights outside the old quarter. Mary reluctantly agrees to see the pickled Uncle, so we solemnly join the que of mostly Viets. One of the guards gives Sudang's bulging pockets a glare. Ho himself would have hated this, as he lived a pretty frugal and simple life and had requested cremation. But there was political capital to be made of his preservation. No photos allowed of course. But we saw his dwelling 1954-58.
his dining room.


After that he moved to a two room stilt house until his death.



He did have access to three cars, two Russian and a lovely 404 Peugeot, seen here with Big Anh, Mary and Sudang - who loves cars and everything mechanical.



We also visit the temple of literature which became a pubic university in 1444. Based on merit, the exams to get in and stay in were grueling.



The Phoenix on the tortoise back, strength, longevity reaching to the heavens. The temple dedicated to Confucius.



Students enter as fish and leave as dragons, molded into mandarins by the rigors of their education.



-On the road with Kathryn

Location:Hanoi

Back to Hanoi 2

I've cut this post in two because it seems it too big to post.
Having enjoyed each others company so much,we decide to meet for dinner inviting Anh as our honorary family guest.
I call for 7:30 reservations at the agreed upon restaurant,Quan An Ngon, only to discover they will close at 7. Everyone is at a different hotel and we have no way to contact people. SUDANG has joined us too so we are lucky 13!
Everyone gathers at the appointed time to make the same discovery, but Anh is able to get us all into three taxis headed for the open branch of this restaurant. She rides her scooter and beats us all there. It starts to rain, and although its warmed up we are not happy to stand outside while they try to tell us they have no reservation and no room for us...they want to close early too.
Anh escorts us inside and they push together two tables, evidently the prospect of another $100 outweighs their desire to leave early.
The restaurant is famed for its street foods, we let Anh take charge to choose a variety for us and we enjoy one last feast including the Hanoi version of Viet Namese pancake.


This beauty is cut with scissors, One grabs a section, rolls it up in a rice paper circle with herbs and lettuce, dips it into a sweet/sour sauce with chillies, and savours the blend of tastes. Another fabulous Viet Namese meal.
-On the road with Kathryn

Location:Hanoi

Back to Hanoi One

Before leaving Cat Ba we wait at the hydrofoil pier where a woman is asking $25/kilo for her crabs.



The Haiphong harbor has numerous long piers stretching for what seems like a mile into the bay. Not too many ships unloading today, Fri Feb 8. but plenty of containers ate stacked along the piers. Haiphong is only two hours from Hanoi so the trip back is just two hours.
Thanks to all the US bombing of this important port, Haiphong now has new broad streets and buildings. ;-)
I capture a few shots from the van window. Tet starts tomorrow,i.e. tomorrow is the last day of the old year and people are still scurrying about getting their peach or cumquat trees.






You can see by what they are wearing that it is still cold here - in the 50s - OK so its relatively cold, compared to the south and where we are going next.



There are live chickens stuffed in these boxes on the back of scooters.


Little ones snuggly bundled between parents may be going to grandmothers house! Father's family that is - Confucianism still holds sway here.


Our guide, Anh, has only been working for Phoenix Cruises for 6 months so she gets to work over Tet, while senior employees go home.
We cross the Red River and are back in Hanoi.



-On the road with Kathryn

Location:Hanoi