[Stop #7 & 8]: Vietnam | Mekong Delta & Ho Chi Minh City

Took a little break from blogging since New York has kept me busy, but I wanted to keep documenting my travels, even if only for myself!  Though we didn't stay in Vietnam for too long, we were able to visit both the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City. We stayed in a homestay in the Mekong Delta to help break up our long trip from Cambodia to HCM, and we had an absolutely delicious homecooked meal (can egg rolls be in its own food group?) and experienced quite a bit of...wildlife. Our mosquito net beds were a lifesaver considering I attract all the mosquitos within a 100 mile radius, but we also saw giant lizards the size of our arms and woke up at 2AM to a thousand roosters going bezerk.

Before we left, we took an early morning boat tour. In Thailand we had gone to a floating market, but as I mentioned in my earlier post, the market was clearly set up for tourists and hawking overpriced souveneirs and photo opportunities. This floating market actually was where locals went to buy their vegetables and fruits! As its "advertisement," each boat had a stick skewering whatever fruit or vegetable they were selling rising up for potential customers to see.

In Ho Chi Minh City, we actually were able to meet up with Sophie, Jeremy, and Katie again who had just finished up their tour two days earlier. They brought us to an amazing South Korean French style bakery called Tous Les Jours which oddly enough, I found last night in New York City in K-Town! 

Because of the Vietnam War, our experience in Vietnam as Americans was extremely interesting. On one hand, during our visit to the war museum and the Cu Chi Tunnels, there was a lot of propaganda/anti-American language everywhere such as a video with a cute little girl declaring who was the "Number 1 American Killer Hero!!" On the other hand, we read stories and saw photographs of various citizens horribly affected by Agent Orange. It was certainly a lot to take in, especially since I have none of my own memories to draw from.

The Cu Chi Tunnels themselves were fascinating just from a tactical perspective. The Viet Cong soldiers used the tunnels as hiding spots, supply routes, and actual homes during the war. They had multiple levels with emergency air shafts, guerilla tactic booby traps, and camouflaged hiding spots all over the place.   We actually got a chance to run through the tunnels ourselves and even though I'm not a claustrophobic person at all (being 5'2 means I can just fit in more places, right?!) I quickly became terrified by the pitch black, sharp turns, and just how cramped the entire space is.

Overall, I wish we had more time to spend in Vietnam. The rest of the tour actually continued on a 10-day excursion throughout the rest of the country, and it was so sad to say goodbye to the rest of our group. Everybody on the trip was so fun and had so many stories to exchange. Hopefully one day I'll be able to visit Germany, Australia or the UK again to be reunited! Love you all!

[Nikon D3100 and iPhone Camera +]

[Stop #4, 5, 6]: Cambodia | Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh

Even though our G Adventures tour was meeting in Bangkok, the majority of our 10 day guided trip was to go through Cambodia. Our first stop was Siem Reap to see the absolutely phenomenal Angkor Wat and various other ancient temples. There were many aspects of G Adventures that we absolutely loved - it was the first "semi-guided" tour that I had been on, and I loved the freedom to eat where we wanted to eat/shop where we wanted to shop, but still be able to have some semblance of organization (ie, hit up all the major sights & not have to worry about booking hotels or crossing the border - we actually crossed the Thai/Cambodian border by foot!). The people on the trip were absolutely amazing. We were the only Americans, but there was a good mixture of travelers from Germany, the UK, Canada, and more. I was absolutely amazed at how many of our group members were actually solo travelers! We realized that the traveling culture in other countries is vastly different to the US - it's not uncommon to go by yourself on a 6 month backpacking tour throughout the world. On top of that, G Adventures would often have a relationship with local community groups or families who would serve us the most amazing home cooked meals and the profits made would go to a school or program. It gave us the opportunity to meet some of the people in the area, and of course, the unbelievably cute little kids (she's holding a puppy! How can you resist?!)

Our first night in Siem Reap we got a chance to explore the night markets. Interestingly enough, it was actually extremely similar to the night market on Khao San Road in Bangkok -  throughout our trip we would actually notice the exact same souvenirs but with different countries on them hahah. One thing that was really unique, though, was the Mr. Fish foot massage parlours! You  literally sit with your feet in a tub filled with tiny fish, and they nibble the dead skin off! I couldn't decide if it was hilarious, gross, unique, or bizarre. As we finished up at the market, we headed over to some of the bars and found the cleverly titled "Angkor What?" bar. Dancing on elevated surfaces may or may not have happened. And of course, as the only sober person in the group, I somehow managed to DGAP in every single photo we took. No shame, no shame.   The next morning, we woke up before sunrise at 4AM in order to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat and see the reflecting pool. To say that the sight was incredible would be an understatement. The details in the architecture were mind blowing, and the reflection in the water just added to it all the more. The photographs speak for themselves: Believe it or not we actually ran into almost the entire graduating lass of PiKapp while we were there - turns out we really weren't kidding about the whole everybody-in-our-graduating-class-is-going-to-south-east-asia thing. With the sun risen, we went back to our hotel to try and nap before getting up again to actually visit Angkor Wat (the stones are too slippery that early in the morning).

After that, it was temples, temples, and more temples! One of my favorites was the "Tomb Raider Temple" thanks to the movie being filmed there. Our tour guide told us that the French helped restore a lot of the temples but kept this one overrun by plants & vegetation to show the extent that the jungle had taken over. The result is an unbelievable mixture of nature, history, and architecture. 

Done with all of the amazing sites in Siem Reap, we headed on down to the Phnom Penh, the capital! We were welcomed with yet another glorious home cooked meal eaten on the ground, Cambodian style. My new favorite? Taro egg rolls.  The majority of our trip to Phnom Penh was actually very sad and a dose of reality. We don't learn much about it in school in America, but the Khmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia absolutely devastated the entire nation. Despite having a population at the time of only ~8million, in just four years, over 2-3 million people were slaughtered for the smallest of reasons. Any signs of education or rebellion could lead to jail time, torture, death, and targeting your family. Even owning a pair of glasses was enough of a justification. We went to S-21, a prison infamous for its activity, and The Killing Fields. Even though they have uncovered over 20,000 mass graves, still now, when the rain comes and washes away the dirt, fragments of bones still come up. I almost didn't believe the tour guide until I saw "white rocks" on the ground beneath me. Learning about the genocide in Cambodia was heartbreaking - there are barely any families in Cambodia who haven't lost a direct relative to the regime. What's even more mind blowing is how recently all of this took place: 1975-1979. I didn't take many photos during my time in Phnom Penh - at times it felt almost disrespectful to do so. But with this tree I was moved - both by the atrocities that we don't even think can happen, and by the respects paid from visitors around the world:Our last stop in Cambodia: The beach community of Sihanoukville! As a Californian - scratch that, as a La Jollan, I have prettyyy high standards for my beaches. But wow, Cambodia, you just blew me away. I had no idea these colors and that warmth could exist in the water! It was the epitome of #vacationproblems when the water at the beach was actually a little too warm for our liking and we needed to get out to cool down. Tough life. Unfortunately I only have photos on my iPhone since I didn't want to ruin my DSLR with the water and sand. Nevertheless, the trusty Camera+ app was able to take some gorgeous views!

Next up? Vietnam!

[Stop #3]: Bangkok, Thailand

After weeks of insane and fun-filled weeks traveling through various cities, I'm finally able to blog a little bit! Things have been supremely delayed since I haven't had my computer up until recently, and I just started work as a real person this month. Looking back at all these photos, I honestly cannot believe how blessed and fortunate I am to be able to visit so many phenomenal places.So, rewind back to the month of May, and we start with Thailand, the first leg of our South East Asia excursions!

Originally we had booked a 10-day tour through G Adventures, but we wanted a few days to ourselves in Bangkok to explore and get over our jet lag. Thanks to our friend, Trisha's, recommendations, we stayed at D&D Inn in the heart of Khao San Road, the main backpacking area with food stalls, bars, clothing that looked like it was from Urban Outfitters but cost a fraction of the price, and so much more. It was insane to see how the street itself transformed from day to night: storefronts would turn into bars trying to out-blast their neighbors with Top 40 hits.

Unfortunately, our first day was off to a little bit of a rough start. We fell into multiple scams pretty early on. Long story short, there is a massive scamming network in Bangkok - so large that it's possible for them to have hundreds of people on the streets telling foreigners the exact same lies ("Why are you going to that temple? It doesn't open until 3pm!") and able to coordinate the scam with others without even talking about it! However, even though we definitely overpaid for many many things, we were able to go on a river boat tour and see a lot of the temples from the water. It was amazing to also see so many houses built on stilts - it was definitely a stark contrast from certain wealthier areas in the city.

One of the things on my "list" was to try as much food as possible. Our boat tour dropped us off at a local open market with endless amounts of fresh fruit like rambutan (the spiky red fruit) and my new favorite fruit, mangosteen (the purple plum like fruit):

The best, though, was the sticky mango rice. The woman cut the mango fresh for us and poured sweet coconut sauce on top. It was heaven.

Finally, we were able to go to Wat Pho, a large temple complex and home to the enormous Reclining Buddha. Believe it or not, we ran into 3 of our freshman hallmates: Eric, Sam, and Bobby! Turns out everybody from our graduating class had the same idea as us and decided to travel South East Asia after gradution too hahah. We all joked that this was the new "backpacking through Europe." What amazed me was how one temple complex could still have so many different designs and styles. All of the following photos are from one place!

When we were originally planning our trip, we wanted to be on the same tour group with Jeremy, Katie, and Sophie, but there wasn't enough room. They picked a trip that was two days earlier than ours, but since we were starting and ending in the same locations, we had some overlap! Jeremy took on the ultimate role of "Travel Dad" and guided us from place to place with map & tour book in hand hahah:

Our third day, we decided to go with Bangkok Day Tours' Extraordinary Elephant Day Trip, and it was honestly one of the best decisions we made the entire trip. Even though the elephants were about 4 hours away, our personal tour made stops along the way which was a great way to break it up. We first went to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market - it was clearly set up for tourists hahah, but it was still a great experience and really cool visually! Then we stopped for an amazing brunch of authentic Thai food right next to The Bridge on the River Kwai. I seriously ate unlimited amounts of mangosteen - I just couldn't stop! The insides are kind of fleshy like a tangerine, but it's tart, tangy, and sweet all at the same time. Seriously delicious!

After that, it was off to the elephants! Not only did we have a chance to ride them on land, but after a guided ride, we each got our own elephant to ride bareback into the river! The elephants were seriously fiesty and loved to play. They bucked us off multiple times, and the trainers would have us climb on their trunks or stand on their heads. At first I was terrified of hurting them, until I realized they actually couldn't feel me at all and I'm probably 1/20th of their weight! And then? We got to have an actual waterfight. Using elephant trunks. It was amazing.

It was seriously one of the most amazing experiences of my life - I don't think I'll ever forget it. On our last and final day in Bangkok, we visited the Grand Palace on what was probably the hottest day of our lives. On top of that, there's a dress code at many of the temples & government sites - that meant putting on long sleeves and long dresses!

Last but not least, we got to see Wat Arun! We decided not to climb it since we had to go meet our tour group that night, but it was still such an impressive construction feat. I seriously can't believe the architecture on these buildings. That's it for now on Thailand! Next up (whenever I get around to it): Cambodia!

[Stop #2: Annapolis, Maryland] The Hayes Wedding

For my second stop, I headed out to Annapolis for The Hayes Wedding! In previous posts I've talked about the amazing Natalie Franke. A sister in Chi Omega with me, Natalie is honestly one of the most hardworking and dedicated people I know. She's poured her entire life into her photography company, Natalie Franke Photography, and never ceases to amaze me with her love for her clients. Though she's usually behind the lens at weddings, tonight I was blessed to be a part of her and Huey's celebration as they officially became husband and wife. Natalie & Huey have been a unit since I met them 4 years ago. They've been together since Natalie was 15 and Huey was 16. Of course, the story was told tonight from so many different perspectives: Thanks to the seemingly random pushing from their parents, the two independently joined the Annapolis Rowing Team and met each other on the first day of practice. Their story was set in motion immediately, and here they are now 7 years later! It's crazy how two individual decisions changed the course of their lives forever. I think if anything, it should encourage us all to take more chances, make more split second decisions, and just try more out there- you never know how it might change your life! The two of them have been such an amazing example of what it looks like to be in a loving and devoted relationship. What I loved the most is how the two of them expressed their love for one another in their own ways- while Natalie read a beautiful letter, Huey built the altar above out of driftwood. Natalie and Huey, I'm so thrilled for you guys on this new chapter in your lives. Thank you so much for letting me share it with you!

Some quick iPhone photos from the night! Terrible quality, I know, but most of the wedding was "unplugged," and it wasn't worth wasting precious dancing time, anyway! I'm actually doing this entire post on the WordPress iPhone app - gotta love technology!

Now we begin our 34+ hour journey to South East Asia! Madeline and I left Baltimore at the crack of dawn this morning, and we're on a train to Princeton to meet up with Mallika. Then it's off to JFK and a layover in Shanghai! Let's hope my Mandarin is at least good enough to get us some food!