I never thought I’d say this, but Jason and I are officially PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Open Water scuba divers.  We took a three day training course on a rather large island in Thailand called Koh Chang and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced.

I’m just going to say this upfront: this is not going to be a post about some miraculous occurrence during our dive training.  In fact, in the scheme of scuba trainings it was probably a very average, non eventful course.  However, if you compare that to the fact that it was absolutely incredible for us, it says a lot about scuba diving in general.

To be perfectly honest I had never expected to become a certified diver in any sense, and neither had Jason.  It was just one of those things that we felt was necessary.  We were in Thailand, after all, and becoming certified back in the States is significantly more expensive (so we heard).  After a few days of deliberating whether it was foolish to spend that much money on something that we may never do again, we of course decided to do it.  Why not, right?

In a nutshell, on day one we found ourselves watching instructional videos, completing some tests, and then heading to a huge Olympic sized pool for our confined water training.  On day two we boarded the boat and completed two of our very first dives!  Day three we were back on the boat and completed two more dives to complete our total of four dives, then we took a final exam to pass the course.

The most startling moment of my experience was the very first breaths of air I took underwater.  Our instructor had told us that one of the most difficult things for first timers to get used to was simply breathing underwater since our bodies weren’t meant to do such a thing.  I took this very lightly since I didn’t understand how that could be possible with the security of a regulator (the piece of equipment that supplies the air into your mouth), but the second I descended into the wonderfully clean pool, I experienced a very strange freak out.  I understood EXACTLY what it meant to feel that feeling of ‘we weren’t meant to breathe underwater’.  I mildly panicked, held my breath, then mildly hyperventilated for a few breaths, then eventually started calming down.  The number one rule in scuba diving is to never ever hold your breath.  I would say that not holding your breath during your first scuba descent seems impossible to me since you have learned to hold your breath underwater since you were a child.  It only took about 30 seconds to get used to this alien feeling, but it was one of the most bizarre things I have ever felt in my life.

Our first dive in the ocean was a crazy mix of emotions; excitement, fear (the ocean scares the sh*t out of me), anxiety, happiness, tranquility, etc.  Once I got over my initial fear of being eaten by a shark on my first scuba dive, my biggest fear was the descent.  You know the feeling when your ears feel pressure as you swim into depths deeper than five feet?  That’s what happens when the outside water pressure squeezes the air spaces inside your body- in diving you must “equalize” to blow air into your air spaces as you descend.  Unfortunately, this freaked both of us out on our first descent.  Jason had to go back up to the surface after a small panic attack while descending, something that is common among first timers.  He experienced pain in his ears, causing a mild hyperventilation and then the panic set in.

For anyone out there thinking about scuba diving for the first time, my advice is to do it.  Whether you are planning on taking the full PADI Open Water course, or you just want to do what’s called a Discovery Dive where you just go out for one day, you will find that diving is even more amazing in person.  There are not that many things I have experienced that impressed me more than I anticipated; I tend to get overexcited about things only to be disappointed.  That is not the case with diving.  DO IT!

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Sharon and I have now wrapped up our 2+ week tour through Cambodia. The last few days were spent in Siem Reap touring the various Angkor temples. There was quite a buildup for the temples. We saw models and pictures of them in Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat is pictured on Cambodia’s money as well as their flag, and we heard great things from numerous other travelers. Once there, we were not in the least bit disappointed. The temple’s size, intricate details and uniqueness do not fail to amaze. In this post, I’ll give a quick background on the Angkor temples, offer advice on seeing the temples and also provide a 2 or 3 day Angkor itinerary.

Brief Angkor Temple Background

The temples of Angkor were built between 802AD and 1220AD by the Khmer civilization and “represent one of humankind’s most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements”¹. There are over one thousand temples, with the most magnificent one being Angkor Wat, literally meaning “city temple”. Many of the temples are still used today as Buddhist temples. The Angkor area is believed to have been populated by potentially one million people and is considered to be the largest preindustrial city in the world.²

General Angkor Advice

The temples should not be seen in one day. There are too many and too many great ones to pack into a few hours. While you might think you would get “templed” out, the uniqueness of each temple allows you to hold great interest in each new site. As you see more, it’s also enjoyable to contrast them as well as notice similar structures, stones, characters and faces.

Itinerary Advice

Our itinerary ended up being a really enjoyable experience. We purchased a 3-day pass. Our general plan was to take a tuk-tuk the first day and hit the main temples surrounding Angkor Wat and then the second day essentially bike around the “short route” and see the major temples of Angkor Wat, Thom and Prohm. Our third day was going to be used to see temples lying much further outside of the primary Angkor area.

Tip: They offer a 3-day pass which can be used on non-consecutive days. The Lonely Planet version that I read did not mention the non-consecutive 3-day pass , so it might be a new addition, and is great if you want to take a break between days of “templing”.

Recommended 2 or 3 day itinerary:

Day 1 – Hire a tuk-tuk to drive around the various sites – it’s a good way to familiarize yourself with Siem Reap and the temple area. Temples to see:

1. Preah Khan
2. Neak Pean
3. Ta Som
4. East Mebon
5. Banteay Samre (Recommend eating lunch on the longer drive either to or from this temple.)
6. Pre Rup
7. Banteay Kdei
8. Sras Srang

Notes on Day 1: This day could have been done on a bike, but it would be a long and rather exhausting day. With a tuk-tuk we had plenty of time to see each sight and we left the hotel at 10 and we were back by 4. Shorter days are typically our preference. We like to have relaxation and computer time built into our days.

For lunch on Day 1, I would recommend a restaurant along the road towards Banteay Samre. There looked to be a few places, and since Banteay Samre is slightly off the beaten path, I imagine the prices would have been far more reasonable.  (We did not do this and instead ate at a place right outside East Mebon — it was a relatively expensive and overall a very mediocre lunch. Plus, it would have been nice not to have four locals sitting with us in attempts to sell you a t-shirt or oversized pants.)

Day 2 – Rent bikes near your hotel–the earlier start, the better. Temples to see:

1. Angkor Wat
2. Angkor Thom
   1. Bayon
   2. Baphuon
   3. Phimeanakas
   4. Terrace of the Leper King
   5. Ta Prohm

Notes on Day 2: This was a longer day that had us biking back in the dark (thankfully, on a well lit rode). We left the hotel at 10, which was a little too late. It would have been nice to start this day earlier to have a choice of where to watch the sunset (I wouldn’t recommend Ta Prohm). Other than that, this was an excellent way to see the Temples.

Day 3 – Hire a tuk-tuk or motorbike driver. These temples are further, so a tuk-tuk is going to be more expensive.

1. Kbal Spean (River of a Thousand Lingas)
2. Banteay Srei
3. Beng Melea

Notes on Day 3: As mentioned, we did not get a chance to do our planned day 3. If we had more time in Siem Reap, ideally we would have taken a day off and then seen the outlying temples.

Regardless of being able to see the outlying temples, we had an amazing couple of days. If you’re ever in Thailand, Siem Reap is not far and well worth the bus ride over the border.

1 – http://www.sacredsites.com/asia/cambodia/angkor_wat.html
2 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor

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We have finally made it to Thailand!  After spending over a month in Vietnam and then three weeks in Cambodia, we have finally crossed the border into the most heavily touristed country in Southeast Asia.  Unfortunately, we only have 13 days to spend here since a tourist Visa is only 15 days and we experienced an unexpected 2-day delay in Siem Reap.  We both contracted some strange flu-like sickness that caused our stomachs to be pissed at us for days (they’re still a bit testy).

Just to let everyone know, the three weeks we just spent in Cambodia proved to be the hardest three weeks of our trip to find a decent WiFi connection, let alone have internet in our own room.  The things that we do, the great lengths that we take for a decent WiFi connection are now typical.  I know I have not been responding to emails as quick as I usually do, nor have I been on Skype recently.  Not to worry, Cambodia is to blame!  For real, though, finding internet has been a difficult task for us the past few weeks.

On the bright side, we are currently on a charming island located on the Eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand called Koh Chang.  We recently had gone on a snorkeling boat tour in Cambodia where we met a nice American fellow, who happened to be the scuba dive instructor, who referred us to this island if we wanted to scuba dive.  Like the carefree youngsters that we are, we thought “sure, what the heck?” and decided to become PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certified scuba divers!  To those of you who are now thinking, “but they’ve never been scuba diving in their life, nor have they ever expressed any interest in diving, in fact Sharon is scared of the ocean, and Jason is afraid of seaweed”, your thoughts are correct (except for Jason being afraid of seaweed).  However, we have met divers along our travels that all tell us the same thing: it’s nothing like anything you will ever experience in your life.  We took their advice and decided to utilize our beautiful surroundings for a purpose.  Plus, it’s  cheaper to become certified here in Thailand than it is in the States, so that’s nice.

More to come on our scuba adventures, but we have already gone through a day of scuba diving theory in an Olympic sized swimming pool today.  Let me just say that breathing underwater, even through a scuba diving regulator, is NOT as easy as it seems!  Tomorrow we dive in the ocean for the first time in our lives… EVER!  This day will be documented forever in our minds.

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There have been a number of changes that have occurred to me as a result of quitting my job, selling my stuff and moving to Asia for at least a year. Some of them have been rather unexpected. The following is a list of those unexpected changes.

1. My tolerance for what’s considered “dirty” and what’s considered “smelly” in terms of clothes has gone considerably down.
   Choosing what to wear on a daily basis comes down to the smell test. The problem, though, is what I would consider to be smelly and un-wearable a couple months ago now probably has a couple more days of wear left… Steps left to become a full-on hippy: grow dreads and stop wearing deodorant.
2. Having the shower soak the entire bathroom is par for the course.
   Nearly every shower we’ve encountered in our hotel rooms are not your typical Western showers where the shower is enclosed by itself. The shower walls are instead the entire bathroom.
3. I have a confession to make — I litter… a lot.
   I do it almost every day now. I assure you though, it’s no big deal. When garbage sweepers are only a couple hours away from sweeping up your litter, the world is your trash can.
4. I know Celsius!
   I remember traveling to Europe for the first time and hearing the temperature and having absolutely no clue what 28 degrees means. I still don’t have the same sense as I do with Fahrenheit, but it’s getting a lot better. Now if I could learn that whole Kilometer and Kilogram thing…
5. Mosquito bites don’t bother me much anymore.
   At the beginning of the trip, nothing was more of a nuisance than the constant mosquito bites. Now… no big deal. I consistently have between 2 and 15 bites on my body. I put a little itch cream on and they go away.
6. Learned to ride a motorbike.
   This one is just plain awesome. Riding a motorbike is a ton of fun. I never would have thought I would have the courage to rent and ride one, but it’s surprisingly easy and the craziness of the traffic from the sidewalk is a lot easier to deal with once you’re actually in it.
7. I have gotten very used to constant small stomach aches.
   Not being on any sort of regular diet leaves me with pretty regular small stomach aches. They’re not too terrible and after three months of them, I’m just used to it.
8. Whenever we buy sunscreen the first question we ask is: does it have whitener?
   I had no clue whitener even existed before this trip began. People in Asia value fair skin while the opposite is true in the West. Now, it’s the first thing I look for when buying sunscreen. I want a tan!
9. Every time I use a toilet, the first thing I wonder is if the toilet paper goes into the bowl.
   It’s strange how natural this has become. But here, the answer is the paper goes into the trash, not the toilet most of the time. The pipes just can’t handle the TP.
10. Speaking of toilets…Squat toilets? No big deal!
    The first time I used a squatting toilet, it felt like a workout — my thighs were burning, I was sweating and I had to take a break in the middle (too much detail, I know). Now – I’m still not a pro, but my squat is definitely a lot more comfortable and it no longer feels like a workout.

It will be fun to add to this list as the trip progresses. Looking forward to many more unexpected changes!

Photo credit (squat toilet): Roadfood

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Most parents never dream that these words will ever come out of their children’s mouths: “we have been homeless vagabonds for 3 months”.  There are things that I have learned within these past 94 days that I may not have discovered had I never gotten on that plane (granted it was just to Vancouver, but that’s not important).  Things happened that I wasn’t expecting, and there are also things I learned about myself that I never knew before.  My knowledge of poor countries, exotic foods, and international laws were always kept confined inside a television or computer screen.  These things were just displaced ideas to me.

I now know, for example, that I am more high maintenance than I thought. Back at home, Jason coined the term “ME-OW maintenance” for me, meaning that I am in between low-medium maintenance as a girl (I assure you these are VERY scientific and real terms).  However, I have learned after careful observation that your placement on the spectrum for girlfriend/wife maintenance is significantly different depending on where you are in the world.  Here in Asia, for example, my maintenance indicator makes a wide leap into medium-high maintenance.  The reasons?  For one thing I realized that my Mother has rubbed off on me way more than previously thought when it comes to germophobia and cleanliness.  Let’s just say that Jason did not have substantial warning of my closeted fear of germs until now.  One of the very few things that I require while traveling is a clean room and a decent bathroom (you would be surprised at the odors that come from toilets here in Asia).  This has required us to spend a little more on accommodations than most budget backpackers, but to us (me) it’s worth the sound sleep you get while knowing you are not being eaten by cockroaches and mosquitoes.

The cleanliness issue sometimes goes hand in hand with the economy of the country that we are in.  Cambodia is a much poorer country than China, for example, so sometimes it’s a bit harder to find a good room without shelling out more money.  This has not changed my opinions of the country as a whole, however, especially since many Cambodian and Vietnamese people who manage guest houses seem to have been born with a broom attached to their hands.  (Most of our hotels in these two countries were kept impeccably clean).

The downside to being in such a poor country is how numb you become to seeing families and men with only two limbs begging on the streets.  You get used to ignoring it because there are just so many of them.  However, I don’t think I have gotten used to seeing the children begging, and I’m not sure if I ever will.  I am never going to forget the sight of a dirty child coming up to me and speaking the only English they know: “some money?”  These children are kept away from school just to bring in a few cents for their families from tourists who feel sympathy for a poor child.  It’s difficult to think that I will go back home and return to my normal life after seeing these things on a daily basis.

Another observation that shaped the way I now view Asia is limited to countries that don’t see as much concentrated tourism as Southeast Asian countries of Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.  So far, the only country that falls into this category that we have travelled is China.  In China, the people would literally stare at Jason as if he was from another planet.  As mentioned in a previous post, the amount of blatant, non-filtered staring was something that took a lot of getting used to for me.  I also realized that it made me kind of sad.  Most of the Chinese people that gawked at Jason will probably never get to travel internationally, therefore they will never get to experience living amongst different cultures and people.  Many of them will never get to go to the family home of their Indian friend, or meet their friend’s Russian parents. The fact that almost the entire country was born with black hair and brown eyes kind of boggled my mind when I saw it first hand; no woman in China (unless they are a foreigner) will never wonder if their pregnant bellies contain a blue or green eyed baby with golden or light hair.  As an American who has grown up around many different types of people, this concept became somewhat depressing knowing that most of them will most likely continue to view all people who don’t look like them as aliens.

Many people we encountered in China, however, were gracious and eager to help us foreigners despite their seemingly negative staring.  Others proved to me that this mentality was, in fact, negative in nature as they would spit as we walked by.  (We were told by a Canadian, who was currently residing in China, that we would encounter a lot of spitting in our direction due to the fact that the locals thought of us as ‘another foreign man dating a Chinese girl’).  As much as I still want to slap the ignorance out of these people, this ideology continues to sadden me.

I could write an entire book on my personal observations abroad, but I doubt anyone would want to read it except maybe my parents.  Maybe.  The point is, this trip has started to mold my views on myself as well as the way I see the world.  For one thing, when I return to the States I will NEVER AGAIN take our western bathrooms for granted.  I will never again take our septic system for granted when I can freely throw toilet paper into the toilet without fear of the water coming back at me like a geyser.  Just an example.

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Sharon and I have now left Vietnam and are currently residing in the quiet beach town of Koh Kong, Cambodia. In this post I’ll wrap things up on Vietnam and reflect on our 5-weeks there.

Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves. It’s pretty cool to say that we traveled almost the entire country, entering their northern border and leaving on their southwest border. It’s also a place we’d like to return to. You can’t beat the prices, and there were a few places we skipped that we’d like to go back to. The highlights:

• Rode our first motorbike in Halong Bay on beautiful Cat Ba Island
• Took a boat tour where the crew turned into a boy band
• Found out what it meant to be in Vietnam too long
• Learned a ton about the culture
• Successfully crashed was invited to two Vietnamese weddings

As usual, making a list is how I’ll wrap things up.

Final random thoughts on Vietnam:

• They blatantly charge tourists more for things. The most blatant example I encountered was at a sandwich cart. The cart only makes 1 kind of sandwich and a lady bought one in front for me for $5,000 dong. I clearly saw the transaction. When it was my turn, the sandwiches were now $10,000 dong. Neither price is very expensive, but this happens with everything. If you go to the market to buy fruit, on some modes of transportation — if they think you’re a foreigner, you’re going to pay more.
• Sharon and I prefer to figure things out on our own and to not do tours. Unfortunately, with many of the hotels we stayed at, if we asked a question about doing something, their answer was almost always to put us on a tour. We did go on two very cool tours, but it was frustrating how everyone just wanted to put us on a tour rather than giving us the information to explore a place on our own.
• People spoke much more English than we thought they would. Compared to China, it was unbelievable how well and how often people spoke English.
• Almost every store sign has the full address on it. This makes getting around much easier when all you have to do is look at a store sign to find out what street and what city you’re in.
• Public buses do not seem as widely used as in China. Another comparison to China. In nearly every city we went to in China, we used the public bus to get around. In Vietnam, we rode the public bus only once. We enjoy taking the bus. The price is posted so we know we’re not paying tourist prices and in China, at least, they were very convenient.

For now, though, we say goodbye to Vietnam.

A great way to see the country, as a tip, would be to buy a motorbike in Hanoi and ride it all the way down to Ho Chi Minh City, where you would be able to sell it for nearly as much as you bought it I would presume. Perhaps this is how we’ll experience Vietnam on the next go around.

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Jason and I crashed two Vietnamese weddings during our 5 week stay in the lovely country.  We were technically invited to each wedding (not by the bride or groom, of course, that would actually be legit), but no invitation is really needed to attend these festivities.

City weddings and countryside weddings are two very different animals.  Whereas city weddings last for one fairly short evening, country weddings last for two days.  Our experience with the city wedding was more similar to a wedding you would see back in the States; it was held in a venue (a hotel) that provided wedding accommodations such as tables, chairs, management, catering, decorations, etc.  The main difference was the live six-part dance crew performances on stage during the entire wedding; performing everything from traditional Vietnamese dance to what looked like lindy hop.  There was an amazing 5 course meal and unlimited beer that kept appearing in your glass thanks to the ever so attentive catering staff.

The country wedding was quite a different story.  For one thing, I only made it to the first night.  The first party was just for the “family” which ended up being about eight packed tables, in addition to a full live band and karaoke.  The Vietnamese locals were so happy to have us foreigners there that they enthusiastically wanted to drink and dance with us the entire time.  We would cheers with a different person/table/police sheriff every few minutes.  We were some hot commodities, that was for sure.  The worst part was that the only drink being served was rice wine.  I can only compare it to a very, VERY strong version of Soju, the Korean rice wine.  The next day I proceeded to experience the worst hangover of my life that actually ended up lasting two days, so unfortunately I missed the second day festivities which involved over 1,000 guests.

Interesting Facts:

-In Vietnam, when a woman gets married she moves out of her parents’ home and into the home of her husband’s family.  Here, she dutifully spends the rest of her life serving her new family.  On the day of the wedding, the woman’s parents are known to shed many tears since they are basically saying good-bye to their daughter.  The new bride does not usually get to visit their parents’ homes after they marry.

-In Vietnam, people very rarely move out of their family’s homes.  If you’re a woman, you get married and move into your husband’s family’s house.  The newest wedded couple lives at the parents’ house until another child gets married, then the newest couple moves in.  If you’re the youngest son, you live at your parents’ house forever.

-When someone gets married, their family members invite just about everyone they know, thus creating a ridiculous number of attendees.  There are no formal invitations or RSVP’s which makes it easy for our new best Vietnamese friend, Rot, to crash many weddings for free food and booze.  “I’m Aunt Linda’s cousin’s son-in-law…”

Random Thought of the Day: I am writing from Phnom Penh, Cambodia- the third country we have hit so far.  Cambodia is a country that is extremely poor.  We were expecting a significant culture shock entering this new country, but instead we found ridiculously expensive cars and higher prices in Phnom Penh.  Granted, any major city is usually more modern than the rest of the country, but this particular city looked like it had reserved all of the money in Cambodia for its own mansions and brand new apartment buildings.  We were privileged enough to meet up with a friend’s cousin in Phnom Penh who showed us around the city.  We learned some staggering facts: Car taxes are outrageous.  Our new friend’s Lexus SUV cost approximately $200K, while his girlfriend’s Toyota Camry cost $60K.  Not to mention that the town was riddled with Lexus SUV’s and Toyotas (in fact we haven’t seen so many cars in a city since back at home).    Where are we?

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During our 5-weeks in Vietnam, Sharon and I picked up a good amount of knowledge about the Vietnamese culture. In this post, I’d like to share some of this information. The first few bullets center around things that are good to know as a tourist—information I would have loved to know before I got here! The second half are mostly random pieces we learned about Vietnamese culture.

Note: A lot of these observations are obvious generalities that aren’t true of everyone. Additionally, most of this information comes from one person, so it could just be his view of Vietnamese people. This post isn’t intended to offend, simply to impart some general information about Vietnamese culture.

Information that can be helpful as a tourist coming to Vietnam:

• An open hand shaken by your head means “no thanks” – The movement is similar to saying something is “So-so” in America, except the hand should be vertical instead of horizontal. Very useful to know for all of the solicitors you’ll receive while walking around.
• Holding your hands together at your heart, and bowing means “I don’t like it or want it, go away” – it’s very harsh. Again, as a last resort this could be used with a pushy solicitor.
• To be respectful to someone, shake their hand with two hands. When passing or receiving something (a cup, money, etc.) use two hands instead of one.
• Tourists are almost always charged more for things. Negotiating is recommended. We were told though that sellers are more receptive to bargain with women than men.
• They love US Dollars. In fact, nearly everything is quoted in US dollars. If you’re paying in Vietnamese Dong (yes, Vietnam’s currency is called “Dong”), you’re at the mercy of the vendor’s chosen exchange rate. This rate seems to vary quite a bit.

Other information about Vietnamese culture:

• Holding up the middle finger means nothing in Vietnam, but crossing your fingers (like we do when we say “good luck”) is like saying “F— You”.
• A great compliment to a Vietnamese woman (or man) is you look “fat and white”. This is equivalent in America to telling a woman that she looks “skinny and tan”.  The reason a woman likes to be fat?  It’s a sign that she has money and enough food to eat. Women like to be white because it means that they don’t work in the fields.
• Vietnamese people are infatuated with big noses and big eyes and will often have surgery to get them.
• The Vietnamese language is tonal – meaning depending on the way with which you say a word, the exact same word can have a completely different meaning. Example: The word “Ma” said flatly means “ghost”. “Ma” with your pitch rising means “cheek”. “Ma” with your pitch falling means “but”.
• 40% of people in Vietnam are considered tribal. There are over 30 different languages spoken among the different tribes.
• Women typically do not smoke or drink in public. We were told if you see a woman in a bar smoking, she is most likely a prostitute (or a tourist).
• In the typical married household, women do all of the cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the kids (and many times will have a job on top of this). On March 8^th every year, for one day, the roles are reversed and men will do the cooking and cleaning. On March 9^th, it’s back to normal.
• Vietnamese people have a tough time speaking English because Vietnamese is very throaty. English uses the tongue a lot at the front of the mouth. When Vietnamese people speak a lot of English their tongue will feel sore from doing so.

If you’ve got some good information about the Vietnamese culture I missed, let me know. I’m sure this is only the tip of the iceberg.

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Greetings from Saigon, Vietnam, our home for the next few (and the past few) days due to Visa extension issues. We initially tried to extend the Visa ourselves, which unfortunately failed after a day of jumping through hoops. Our cheap and fast Vietnamese hookup in Dalat had issues as well. Now, our Visa is getting extended by someone here in Saigon, but it’s taking 5 business days and costing a bit more than we had hoped. But nonetheless we should have no issues leaving Vietnam and hopefully on Saturday we’ll add another stamp in our passports as we head to Phnom Penh, Cambodia by bus!

From time-to-time, Sharon and I will be sharing some of the travel tips we’ve learned. Our first “tips post” discusses the science of packing our backpack.

A concern we had about traveling for an extended period of time was becoming annoyed with “living out of our backpacks”. I’m happy to report back that with some extensive trial-and-error, this is no longer much of a nuisance.

The key to the way we pack is that everything goes in a bag before going into our backpack. Essentially, nothing in my backpack is just stuffed into the pack by itself. Stuffing individual items leads to disorganization, inefficient use of space, and takes much longer to pack and unpack.

The best packing accessory we purchased were ITW’s Space Compressible Travel Roll Bags. They’re essentially large see-through compression “Ziploc” bags. They’re cheap and awesome! All of my clothes now fit into one large and one small bag – pants, shirts and jacket in the big bag and underwear and socks in the small bag. To use them, you roll-up the bag and while you do so, air is released from the bag out of the bottom, creating an air-tight bundle of clothing – it saves a ton of space. It also makes unpacking all of my clothes easy; I simply pull out two bags.

Another great packing accessory purchase was the Eagle Creek Pack-It Stuffer set. The largest one is a perfect place to store laundry and the other two I use to store some random smaller things – locks for our laptops, my snorkel gear, etc.

Sharon’s favorite purchase was Eagle Creek’s Koala Hanging Toiletry Kit. I bought a small, basic toiletry bag which works just fine, but I must admit, I do get jealous when Sharon just hangs up her toiletry bag in the bathroom.  It’s pretty darn convenient.

Not all of my packing related purchases worked out well.  Here are a couple of items I regretted packing and ended up shipping back to the states:

• Eagle Creek Travel Gear Pack-It Folder – I think this would be a great accessory if you were traveling with a regular suitcase for a week of business meetings where you needed each shirt to be crisp. For backpacking though, it was bulky and frankly a burden to fold my t-shirts and 1 collared shirt each time.
• Eagle Creek 2-Sided Packing Cube – I had the great idea to use this to store my workout clothes, underwear and socks, which it did just fine. But similarly to the Pack-It folder, it’s pretty bulky and didn’t fit nicely into my pack. Space is at a premium and unfortunately I didn’t think the cube saved space. It does make organization easier though.

In all, including my toiletry bag, I have 10 bags which go into my backpack- three of which rarely leave my bag. So, packing and unpacking essentially involves 7 bags. When they’re out of my bag, they feel like drawers–I can open, close and put them away. Most of them are see-through or are a different color so it’s easy to tell what’s inside.

If you have any packing tips you’d like to share, I’d love to hear them. We’re constantly striving to make it an easier process.

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Filed under: Travel Tips | Travel: Vietnam
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I gave China a Top Nine list, so it’s only fair to give the same honor to Vietnam.  Granted, the change between China and Vietnam wasn’t extreme for us because we had been in China for a month already before entering Vietnam.  Nonetheless, after spending four weeks in Vietnam, there have been some interesting epiphanies about the fact that we are actually adapting to life in Southeast Asia.

Here are the top 9 indicators that you may have been in Vietnam for too long…

1. You think Pho is now boring (the staple Vietnamese noodle soup that once was a hot commodity to you in the States).  We can distinguish between bun, mi, bahn, and bo, and we can also name where certain foods originated from.
2. You no longer see your life flash before your eyes when you cross the street in Saigon or Hanoi.
3. You walk away from $5 restaurants.  If we’re going to eat at a restaurant that’s going to cost us $10 or more for the total bill (including a couple beers), it’s got to be something spectacular or at least cooked by Bobby Flay himself.
4. You’ve been to more than two Vietnamese weddings in a month.  FACT: We have attended two Vietnamese weddings in our one month stay here.  Weddings here do not include guest lists, name cards, or seating arrangements, so it’s normal for randoms to be invited, let alone a table full of whities if your relative runs a tourist business.
5. You find yourself using Vietnamese lingo.  Their favorite phrase is “same same”, which roughly means “the same as”.  They love pointing to me while saying “same same?” and then pointing to themselves, thinking that I am Vietnamese.  They also sell shirts on every block that say “Same Same”.
6. You don’t even think about singing karaoke on stage unless you know the lyrics by heart already and you have a dance performance to go with it (preferably you’re wearing a white disco suit).
7. You bought your first matching pajama set and now wear it all day long.
8. You no longer bother with learning Vietnamese because it’s obvious that there will be enough English to communicate efficiently.
9. You aim for consuming 1/4 of the amount of alcohol you can handle while hanging out with Vietnamese locals.  The reason for this is because they are so excited to drink with you that you end up drinking about double the amount that you think you’re drinking…

It’s pretty funny to think that because of these reasons, we will experience some culture shock when we go back to our motherland.  Fifteen dollars for dinner?  Preposterous!  For our health’s sake, and our dignity’s sake, it’s a good thing that we don’t eat fast food.  Just because it’s closer to SE Asia prices doesn’t mean we will eat it when we’re back home (but we will probably wear our matching pajamas).  The minute we start bargaining the price down at Safeway, however, please put us in our place.

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Filed under: Travel: Vietnam
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