'Bodia, Snooky, and 'Nam

With only 10 days left (EEK!) of traveling throughout Asia, I wanted to give a quick recap of where we've been over the past few weeks. November was a blur to me...it came and went seemingly within only a few short days. The entirety of Laos and Cambodia were accomplished within this month. Ironically, the month that went by so quickly started with a slow boat into Laos, and ending with taking an even sloooower night bus out of Cambodia. For the past 10 days, we have been in Vietnam soaking up city life and the beach. Despite a nasty strep throat bout for a day or two, things have been peachy but we are still anxiously awaiting the holidays at home!

Some highlights:

1. Cambodia- Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. (This is an obvious one.) What can only be described as "majestic," these sites made me feel as though I was back in time, thousands of years ago. For some reason, seeing Angkor Wat at sunrise heightened this feeling immensely--seeing the sun come up over the ruins and the tall trees made it seem like nothing had changed since it's inception. Bonus: Most of the temples were virtually empty when Ross and I viewed them. That made climbing in, out, and around them even more fun. It's not like in the US where there are ropes around every corner--it was free reign.

2. Cambodia- Sihanoukville (aka Snooky). Despite having to bribe a police officer with our lowly $5 "police fine", Snooky was amazing. The beaches- top notch. The beer- .25 cents a glass. This smallish beach town is what Thailand's most popular beaches were 15 years ago. Glad to have happened upon this little gem.

3. Vietnam:

a. Women dressed in matching outfits. All. The. Time. They look like pajamas, but are way more unnatural in daylight hours. (This photo comes after searching Google for 20 minutes..Apparently, the real outfits just aren't heard of online. This is a pretty good depiction though!)

b. Shirts that say, "Vietnam- I came back." Also, being able to say, "Well, back in 'Nam...."

c. Ho Chi Minh. Very cool, leafy green big city in the south. I may be biased about this one because we met a guy from Encinitas who opened up a Mexican restaurant, Gringo's, and fed us delicious California burritos and nachos for 2 days. Other than the fact that you may as well walk across the street blindfolded because the motorbikes are that insane, and the fact some bi**ches tried to steal my purse, unsuccessfully of course, I loved this city.

d. Hoi An- It's Paris on a smaller scale meets Tuscany meets Asia. A beautiful town on the river, as well as the beach. Had one of the best beach days in my life today; the beach and weather are a lot like San Diego on a beautiful day. Hoi An is known for having 200+ tailor shops that will custom make anything- from suits to shoes to evening gowns for super cheap. Unfortunately for them, and me, I have no more room in my itty bitty backpack. 

e. Christmas everywhere! Vietnam is the first country we have been to that celebrates Christmas. So, it is very fitting and lucky for us that we get to spend our December actually getting into the holiday spirit.

Hoi An, river view

Tomorrow morning we leave for Hue, our second to last stop on this 4 month long journey. After that, we will be in Hanoi for a few days before leavin' on that jetplane.

Our one request for post- airport pickup? California burritos.