Loose of Limits

You guys, it's been almost year since we were in Laos. A YEAR! And I'm just now telling you about it. How embarrassing. How ridiculous! But there's no time like the present! It's never too late! Yadda yadda yadda. ( Click here for my favorite "yadda yadda yadda" moment.) In any case - I'm telling you now. I'm writing it now. Whether you want to read it or not! Remember how much we LOVED Vietnam ? (Read our wrap-ups here and here .) I could have stayed there for a year. Or more. But, with flights to Australia less than two weeks away and with a desire to still see Laos, we knew we had to leave Vietnam (skipping several places we wanted to visit) so that we could squeeze in 10 days to explore another country. We decided to head to Luang Prabang (loosely pronounced Lahng Prah-bong) to start our time in Laos. Luang Prabang Sneak Peek: They leave out busted coconuts to attract ants and then collect the ants to eat!

Well hello there, friends! It's been a long time hasn't it? I know things kind of ended abruptly back in October after we posted about our time in Vietnam . Maybe you're wondering why that is? I'll give you a bit of insight on that (though that's not the purpose of this post). We got back to SF in September. It was wonderful to be home. I loved having my own bed to sleep in (even though it's lumpy and needs replacing). I went into serious nesting mode. We were painting walls and buying settees and hanging shelves. Reconnecting with friends was amazing. And I was excited about taking the next steps in my career. (Tom was, too.) So that kept us busy for a month or so and, within days of being home, our big trip felt like it happened in a distant memory. And then the newness of being home wore off, and suddenly writing or talking about the trip wasn't fun anymore. It hurt. I was sad that it was over. Like, really, really sad. I didn't want to talk about...

Now it's time for the Vietnam version of 'The Good, The Bad, The "Are You Effing Kidding Me?!?!" But, like before , when we reviewed India , Burma , and Cambodia , we'll start with "The Bad," then move on to "The 'Are You Effing Kidding Me?!?!'" and end with "The Good."

If you want to catch up on our Vietnam posts before you read our wrap ups, click through for: Ho Chi Minh City ,  Steph's 30th Birthday in Lang Co ,  Huế ,  Hoi An ,  Phong Nha ,  Halong Bay & Cat Ba Island ,  Hanoi ,  Bags of Cats , and  Gourmet Vietnamese Recipes . When I think about our time in Vietnam (now almost 6 months ago!), I get the immediate itch to go back. Along with India  and one other place (stay tuned), it's the place we talk about the most now that we're home and are being asked about our trip all the time. It was a very special place for us. We absolutely loved it and are convinced that no amount of time there will ever quench our thirst for all things Vietnamese. We hope to be back in the near-ish future. I already can't wait! In Phong Nha, Vietnam

What's up bloggy people?!?! We're back in SF! Confession: We've been back for over two weeks! Don't worry, we still have a ton of travel updates to share with you and those will be coming soon, we (kind of) promise. We also have a lot to tell you about what it's been like to return, what our lives are like now, and what's on the horizon. In the meantime, all of the pics from our trip (at least the international parts) are uploaded! Did you know that you can view them at any time from our blog? Just click on the Pics  link in the menu bar on any page of the blog. From there, you'll be taken to a page with links to all of our trip photos. Just click on any photo or description and you'll be taken to our Flickr page  with all of our albums. So, even though we haven't written yet about Laos, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, or Zimbabwe...you can still check out our photos. We hope you'll keep...

People - we LOVED Vietnam. Loved it! ADORED it! We're ready to go back. For this reason, our time in Hanoi was bittersweet because it was our last stop. The dive boat in Thailand (read here ) and Vietnam were the only two places where I actually felt myself mourning for leaving. But, alas, with flights awaiting us from Bangkok to Australia and because we still wanted to visit Laos, we had to push off from Vietnam. Chowing down on some spare ribs (I think) in Hanoi We actually visited Hanoi twice. First, we took a train from Phong Nha (read here ) to Hanoi and spent a few days enjoying the city. After that, we took a bus to the mystic Cát Bà and Ha Long Bay region (read here ) before returning back to Hanoi for three more days of urban exploration. On the train from Phong Nha to Hanoi. This guy crawled up in our bunks to take photos with us. Love the friendliness!

Don't worry...this isn't another post about bags of cats . Cát Bà is the name of the next destination we visited in Vietnam. I hope you had a chance to check out Steph's post about Phong Nha . It was definitely one of the best parts of our trip. After we left Phong Nha, we took a train up to Ha Noi and spent a few days there before bussing it to Cát Bà Island. We'll tell you more about our time in Ha Noi later, as we actually visited it twice and want to share it with you all at once. When we decided that we were going to Vietnam, we kept reading about Ha Long Bay . Ha Long Bay (meaning "Descending Dragon Bay") is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been a popular tourist haunt for years due to the limestone karsts jutting out of the ocean. It creates an otherworldly scene, especially if there is some mist rolling in off the ocean. It's easy to understand where the name comes from. The typical tourist thing to do is to go on a 1-3 night boat trip aro...

It's above us, below us, surrounding us. It's as if the darkness has swallowed us up whole. It seems to go on forever. The air is hollow and silent except for the sounds of our breathing and of our arms and legs softly swishing through the black water. The water is so cold that my legs cramp behind my knees. Is it possible for someone to forget how to swim? I'm worried I might. Occasionally, I reach out to clamp on to Tom's arm/hand/back/head/foot just to have a touchstone. We're in one of the many caves in Vietnam's  Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park  (a UNESCO site), and I'm scared. They had told us what to expect, but I was still unprepared. I never considered myself a brave person, but here I am, swimming in the deep, black waters of a mysterious cave that I was terrified to enter. The only light comes from my headlamp and the headlamps of my companions, though I know (from backpacker tales) that they will soon ask us to turn out our torches and trea...

Have you already read our Cambodia, Revisited post ? No? Well, go read that first and watch the photo slideshow. Go ahead. We'll wait for you. Welcome back! Now, it's time for our full wrap-up of all the best and worst parts of our time in Cambodia. We call this, 'The Good, The Bad, The "Are You Effing Kidding Me?!?!" But, as usual, when we review countries, we'll start with "The Bad," then move on to "The 'Are You Effing Kidding Me?!?!'" and end with "The Good." (We're idealists, remember?)

If you want to catch up on our Cambodia posts before you read our wrap ups, click through for:  Siem Reap ,  Phnom Penh ,  Kampot ,  Sihanoukville , and  Chuck Norris Dim Sum . It's bittersweet that my 15 year goal to visit Cambodia has been achieved. When I was 14, I was introduced to this country - both the beautiful and tragic parts - and it has remained close to my heart all this time. Cambodia was more than a destination to me, it was the place that started it all. It was the place that first made me interested in traveling and it was the first place about which I ever said, "I want to go there some day." And now I have!

I think we told you how much we loved Hoi An, Vietnam. It was incredible. Beyond Hoi An, we loved all of Vietnam for a variety of reasons. Near the top of that list? We ate the.most.delicious food. You have no idea. It was amazing. One of the best things we did in Vietnam was take a cooking class. One day, while biking to the beach, we were hungry and stopped at a random little roadside restaurant. Most of the restaurants in the region are family-owned and consist of a few tables in a sparsely decorated garage below an apartment. They mostly serve the same foods so, we considered ourselves incredibly lucky to stumble upon Red Dragon . It took ages for our food to come, but all was forgiven when we started eating. The food was incredible - a combination of old-style Vietnamese food with a modern flare. A good meal is so satisfying. It was the best meal we'd had in 8 months and we were so happy. Impulsively, we asked the chef if he would give us a cooking class and he said yes! The ...

If we were making a Top Ten list of our favorite stops on this trip, Hoi An, Vietnam, would definitely make the cut. (Though I don't think we ever will make a Top Ten list because it's next to impossible to rank all these amazing experiences. What makes something a favorite? Was it the best beach? The most intense? The funniest experience? The friendliest locals? Impossible. So we probably won't' do that.) As I mentioned in our post about Hue (read here ), we visited Hoi An twice. The first time, we visited on a day trip with Roman while he was visiting us in Lang Co, Vietnam (read about Roman's visit to Lang Co for my 30th birthday here ) After Roman left us, Tom and I decided we wanted to spend more time in Hoi An and ended up staying almost a full week. Japanese Bridge, Hoi An

So, as it turns out, when we casually and impulsively decided to visit Africa ( read here ), that we were unprepared for the amount of planning a trip like our's requires. Tom has been hard at work on an itinerary for South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia for weeks now. We'll share some details about how we plan on exploring Africa in a later post. For now, I want to tell you some scary shit I've been reading. I've been reading several different guide books and have come to one very serious conclusion: Death in Africa is pretty much a sure thing.  (Mom, That was a joke. It's safe. I promise. Kind of.)

Roman, Tom, and I are quite the trio. Tom knew Roman from the first time he lived in San Francisco (about 13 years ago when I'm sure they were involved in some shenanigans I'd rather not know about) and, when we returned to SF together in 2004, I was quickly introduced to Roman. His giant personality was overwhelming to a newbie like me but, over time, I couldn't help but love Roman. This was no more evident than the time about 5 years ago when Tom told Roman that he and his cat could move into our apartment with us for a few months without consulting me. (Roman had just bought a condo in the city but needed to leave his rental before the condo was ready, so needed a place to stay.) Of course, I gave Tom a stern talking-to for springing this on me without asking but, mostly, I was excited. It was during these two months that we really became the Three Amigos, the Three Musketeers, the Three….Little Pigs? What I mean is that we perfected the art of staying in, ordering take...

You guys, I have the best friends in the world. And, beyond that, my husband is the bomb-dizzle. He's the cat's pajamas. He's the bee's knees. He's my numero uno. Seriously, you should be jealous that my husband is so fantastic. And that my friends are so amazing. Here's why. I turned into a grown-up a few months ago. That's right, I turned 30. And, because my life is amazing right now, I turned 30 IN VIETNAM! I have to admit that I was a little down about turning 30 away from home and my friends. We make a big deal out of birthdays in my circle and both of my BFFs (also turning 30) had surprise parties for their big days. (I made special videos for them. Check out the videos I made for Ashley and Lauren .) There was a part of me that really wished I was going to be home for my 30th and showered with attention, surprises, tiaras, theme parties, and feather boas by my pals. But, of course, I was still psyched to be lucky enough to be in VIETNAM for the...

Vietnam was a place that both of us were very excited to visit and after our time there we realized we loved it and we can't wait to get back! HCM - Yes please! Before we got to experience anything good that Vietnam had to offer we had a 16 hour, miserable, overnight bus ride from Sihanoukville that was supposed to be 11 hours (read about our time in Sihanoukville  here ), we arrived in  Ho Chi Minh City  (HCM) exhausted.  Sleeper bus from Sihanoukville to HCM - a rough night

Did you read Tom's thoughts on Burma? No? Well, you should. Check them out here . And now, our full wrap-up of all the best and worst parts of our time in Burma. We call this, 'The Good, The Bad, The "Are You Effing Kidding Me?!?!" But, like last time , when we reviewed India, we'll start with "The Bad," then move on to "The 'Are You Effing Kidding Me?!?!'" and end with "The Good." (We're idealists, remember?)

Why am I writing all the blog posts? Because Tom is the laziest blogger EVER! No - really it's because all of his computer time has been consumed with planning our African safari (read here ), which is a lot of work. So I'm giving him a free pass and catching up on our travel adventures. After our quick departure from Kampot, Cambodia (read here ), we decided to head to the beach. In my opinion, any travel woes or dips in enthusiasm can be cured with a few things: 1) White sand, 2) Crystal clear water, 3) Beach massages, 4) Fresh fruit cocktails, 5) Having your husband say you look hot in a bikini. With that in mind, we hopped a bus bound for Sihanoukville, Cambodia , also known as Kampong Saom. We decided to stay on Otres Beach and found a great little beach hut. Oh hello beautiful water! Home Sweet Home

Apologies in advance - this post is neither interesting nor funny. I'm just not feeling funny or interesting today. (Don't worry. Nothing's wrong, I'm just in a chilled out mood and having difficulty channeling my inner Tina Fey.) I hope you'll just 'ooh' and 'aah' over a few of the pictures and tune back in when we post again with what I'm sure will be a riveting piece about street meat or traveler's diarrhea. With that said...Ladies and Gentleman....Kampot, Cambodia. One of the craziest things about traveling like this is that we can get excellent recommendations on some places and we visit but are less-than-impressed. And you realize that your judgement is completely dependent on your personal experiences. And sometimes, afterwards, you realize that, if you'd done things differently, you would have enjoyed a place. This is what happened to us with Kampot, Cambodia . Our time there was only so-so, but we know people who have abso...

If you want to catch up on our Burma posts before you read our wrap ups, click for Yangon , Mandalay , Kyaukme , Bagan and Inle Lake . When Steph and I planned on traveling in SE Asia we both wanted to go to Burma. When I travelled there 10 years ago (see previous post here ) it was one of the best traveling experiences of my life so I was excited to share it with Stephanie. I was also eager to see how the political changes in the country have benefited the Burmese people, if at all. I was pretty skeptical that the announced political changes recently would have much of an impact on the country's people, but once we arrived, I was happily proved wrong. There was a noticeable difference in the openness of the people. When we checked into our guest house in Yangon there were posters, calendars and even a clock of "The Lady" (Aung San Suu Kyi) everywhere. I also immediately noticed how the people seemed a lot more relaxed and at ease. There were people hanging out on the...