Vietnam/Cambodia

Cambodia (once we finally got here) was incredible. Actually, as excited as we were to see Angkor Wat, it wasn't the highlight of the trip. No mistake, it was glorious and the 4:30 a.m. sunrise was spectacular. But, the highlight of the trip was the monkey that Stephanie gave a bottle of water to, only to have it (and the rest of its family) viciously attack her, leaving her bloodied and broken. It's really quite astonishing how many predicaments she gets herself into. O.k., so that might be a slight exaggeration, but this little guy did jump of her back after he was done drinking. No, the real highlight was the Tree Temple, aptly named and where Tomb Raider was filmed. The ruins are from the 12th Century and these amazing, massive trees grow throughout them. We also went to ruins of a temple where they have about 200 sculptures of Buddah. Here's one great leader kissing another. Now, it's off to our last stop, Pnohm Penh, where we'll see the killing ...

Spent 2 days in Phu Quoc, an island resort off the Vietnamese coast. Our resort was kind of crappy, keeping its 70s decor and run down rooms. Pool was nice and ocean was warm. Steph tried sleeping in a hammock with a little girl, but it didn't go well, as she fell out of it, breaking her clavicle. Leaving for Cambodia today, and on to world's #1 place to see, Angkor Wat.

Today was the single most important day in the history of the world. Yep, May 19...Ho Chi Min's birthday. Aside from that little piece of trivia, today we went to the Co Chi tunnels, built in the 40s (but, according to our Vietnamese guide, built to protect the locals from the invading Americans). Can you say propaganda? The tunnels were fascinating, over 130 miles of them, with 3 different levels. We also saw bombs, and a variety of traps that the locals used to kill the invaders. This one I think we're going to put behind our front door to welcome soliciting people who ring the doorbell during dinner. Finally, a sad note--Stephanie went in one of the tunnels and couldn't get out. We've notified the Viet Cong, so hopefully she will be released without too many puncture wounds.

yes, it happened again. Stephanie just had to have a hot dog, and let's just say it didn't agree with either of us. I'm feeling better now, but Steph is still kind of yucky. We left Ba Na Hills and went to Hoi An, a charming city with a jillion leather and silk stores. We tried walking the streets last night, but it was so ungodly hot (40°C) that we didn't get very far. Today we went to My Son ("beautiful mountain" in Vietnamese) a World Heritage UNESCO site of Hindu ruins from the 8th -10th century. Also got our first glimpse of the American presence during the war, as the two bombs that were dropped on the site. Another beastly day,though, so we came back to a small but glorious pool at the hotel. Also saw how silk clothing is made at a silkworm processing store.

We're at a place called Ba Na Hills, which is very hard to describe because on the one hand there are some really beautiful views and amazing things to see but on the other hand it is the schlockyist place you can imagine. They have a place called the Golden Bridge which is pretty amazing. They also have absolutely beautiful gardens here. Last night Steph went way out of her box and had this thing for dinner. Tasted like chicken. Then, we went on a sled ride on a roller coaster track. At night it's pretty cool lit up. Still having a blast with my bride. She continues to try to be a good person and impress the Master.

O.k. so now that we are pros in Vietnam, we thought we'd share some cultural differences. First, and most important are the differences between U.S. and Vietnamese urinals. Theirs are for people who are 12" tall. Next, driving. Stop lights, though rare, are completely ignored by motorbikes. I mean they don't give a crap if there's a 12-way intersection, it's first come, therefore, right of way (unless you're not first, in which case you still have the right of way). Stop signs? No such thing. Their stop lights have a little countdown timer, which is nice because when the timer gets to 3 and you have a red light that means you can floor it as quickly as possible since it's about to turn green and if you're not in the intersection by the time it turns green you're SOL. Right turns should be done as quickly as possible without looking at oncoming traffic at all. Your horn should be pressed continuously. A 3 lane highway has 5 lanes in bot...

Went to Bai Dinh today, a sprawling complex of pagodas and temples in Nihn Bihn province, and other than walking up a thousand steps and it being 100° outside, it was spectacular.Vietnam remains a really poor country, but they spare no expense on their Buddahs. Then we went on a luxury boat tour of the jungle and went through some very cool (and very low clearance) caves. Next we went to the place where they filmed Kong Skull Island, and we had lunch with a King. Got back to our room after a quick swim, and fell asleep about 5 p.m. Steph was, as usual, exhausted from the day's tour, although she did enjoy serving the King.

So we finally started our tour of Vietnam. We drove to HaLong Bay, got on a cruise ship, and then kayaked through some caves where we saw a couple of monkeys in the Battle Royale with 2 crows. The room we had was actually really nice and it came with built-in stabilizers so Stephanie only got sick 3 times on the ship. The food? Not so great, but we have broken into the peanut butter and Stephanie is already starting to eat only rice. Today we went to see a very famous cave. Regrettably, Steph got stuck and is now well on her way to becoming a permanent stalagtite. Then, it was on to Ninh Binh where we climbed up to Heaven That's a dragon at the top of the mountain, and if you look closely you'll see Calisi riding it. Tomorrow--more caves and a search party looks for my favorite stalagtite.

Hanoi has about 7 million people, and about 10 million motorbikes. I kid you not, riding around in Kathmandu was a cakewalk compared to this place. No one even comes close to caring about the rules of the road. No stop lights, no stop signs, and a jillion motorbikes everywhere. We took a tour today...on motorbikes. of course, Steph got the good driver. You can't see me because I'm underneath a bus. The tour was really fun. Went to see the temple where Confucious sat (Confucious say woman who fly upside down in plane have crack up), as well as the mausoleum of HoChi Min whose birthday is the single most important day on the history of the world...correct, May 19. Then, we stopped for ice cream and learned just how inexpensive things are here Take a guess how much for 4, one scoop cones? Winner gets a $10 gift card from DQ if you can come within $1. Our tour guides were two adorable college students who drove like Evel Knieval.

yea! We finally left the U.S. We have a 5 hour layover in Seoul. At the airport, they Have this little robot that goes around talking to people giving directions, telling you where your gate is, and all sorts of other information.

well, We decided to forgo our trip abroad. We are going to spend 16 days in San Francisco, seeing the magnificent city and occasionaly sitting in airport lounges just for fun. Turns out that the gate agent in Indianapolis lied to us about having a seat from San Francisco to Seoul so we ended up spending the night here and we're supposed to leave in the morning. I have absolutely no reason to think that there is even an airplane the goes to Seoul, and we may end up hitching a ride on one of those US navy planes that carry tanks that spit them out of the bottom of the plane. Neither of us are parachuted for quite some time so that should be fun. We will update this blog once we've left the United States, if that ever happens.

So for those of you who know us, there is such a thing called the Litz trip. It seems as if something always happens to us that makes the trip extra special. Here we are not even on day one of the vacation and it's already become a Litz trip because our flight to Chicago was canceled, so we're now going to San Francisco first. Hopefully things run more smoothly for the remainder of the trip; otherwise we'll be coming back as single instead of married.

4 days until we're off to Vietnam and Cambodia, the land of horrific drivers, dreaded food diseases, breathtaking ruins, and all sorts of expatriated Americans. And, yes, my passport is current.