Vietnam

We finally made it home!

A 14 hour night train, a 14 hour flight, another 5 hour flight and a 2 hour drive…Man alive!

And boy does it feel good to be here.

I love the comforts of home…sitting with the fam in the kitchen, cooking a meal together, lazing around etc.  Nothing can beat it.

Any guesses on what I have been craving the most to get home to?

Maybe chocolate, cheese, bread…

I have been dying to get myself into the kitchen and start creating things.  I have lived without an oven for two years and it has been way toooo long.  This baking chick is ready to get back in their and create some yummy treats.  I think I will start with some cookies and muffins…I’ll keep you posted on that one.

I have lots of recipe perusing before I decide.  Recommendations are quite welcome!

You may be bored of my travel pics by now, but I am going to share some pics from Vietnam with you.

Vietnam is a great country.  Very busy and lively, but a fun place to be.  We began in the south and traveled all the way to the top.  Vietnam is a very skinny, but VERY long country, so traveling around took a long time.  We used a bunch of night buses to get us up the coast….double duty; accommodation for the night and travel in one!

Vietnam has a lot to offer; good food, cheap accommodation, great sights, cheap clothes etc.  We definitely could have spent more time their.  We only had about 12 days or so to get from bottom to top, which did feel a little rushed at times.  We enjoyed it thoroughly nonetheless.

A lot of houses down in the south are on stilts.  It always makes me laugh when I see all the TV antennas.

Water markets! They are so much fun.  You just pull your boat up to any of the boats and buy whatever fresh fruit you are craving.  We got a couple huge watermelon, which were divine.

The traditional Vietnamese hat.

This woman was making incense; such a cool process to watch.

Mmmmmm!  Need I say more?

Huge jackfruit.

More markets

Cooking class

Fresh spring rolls.  We even made the rice paper from scratch.

Savory pancake

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’

Fish Stew

Cooling off with  a lemon lassi.

I thought I would like Vietnam the most, out of the three countries we visited, but some places left me wanting more.  I liked the food, but didn’t love it, the people we nice, but not as nice as Thai’s and Cambodian’s and the tourist scamming was awful! Every time we ventured into a taxi or a tuk-tuk we had to hold onto our bags with dear life and keep a constant eye on the meter.  Many of the meters are rigged, which is super annoying. One thing I was definitely not sad to leave. If only we could travels freely with no worries…but I guess that’s all part of traveling, eh?

I am off to surround myself in cookbooks…Oh yeah!

Love C

Cambodia

Hello from Vancouver!

I am back in the homeland and I am loving it.  Adrian and I are spending a couple days here in Vancouver to visit my oldest brother and his family and then are carrying on to Ontario.

Our bodies are slowly adjusting to the time change…14 hours is a big change!  I have been able to sleep through the night, mostly, just waking up around 5:00am, which isn’t too too bad.  It just means that I am craving a nap mid-day.

I am going to continue my trip re-cap by touching a bit on Cambodia.

After we left Korea with my parents, we hung out with them for a bit in Thailand (I’ll share that later) and then Adrian and I carried on by ourselves to Cambodia.

Cambodia is a fascinating country with a rich history.

  The sights are so amazing.  I was blown away by the temples in Siem Reap.  I still cannot fathom how these temples were actually built.  The pictures don’t really do them justice, but it gives you a glimpse.  The temples are out of this world.  They were built in the 11th century and they are still solidly standing; pretty cool!

Recognize this one from anywhere? This was them temple used in Tomb Raider.  I actually have not seen the movie or really care about it, but many people venture to this temple for that reason…to channel their inner Lara Croft, or something like that.

Adrian at the top and me at the bottom.  The stairs were soooo steep.  I sort of think that these people from the past were giants, as it was quite difficult for my little legs to climb to the top.

Inside of Angkor Wat; one of the biggest temples.

Precious little girl sitting outside of the temple.

Little guy selling post cards and bracelets.

The one thing that struck me the most about Cambodia is how poor it is.  I was overwhelmed at first by the number of children begging everywhere!  On the street, in the temples, at restaurants; there was a constant barrage of begging children.

It’s hard because you want to help them, but you can’t help everyone.  Also, it’s not always good to support the street children as they (or their parents) are making the choice not to be in school, which is definitely not a good thing.

There are tons of NGOs and other missionaries doing a lot of good things in Cambodia, which is great to see. Rebuilding things one step at a time.

Lots of these guys hanging around the temples…they really like to eat lotus flowers.

Cambodia is one of my favorite countries that we visited, but it was also the saddest.  We took lots of pictures of the killing fields and prisons, but I did not want to share them here.  It was honestly one of the most awful things I have ever seen.  The war and killing that went on in the 1970s and ended in the 80s still rocks the country to this day.

I cannot comprehend how people are capable of such horrific acts.  The images and sights that we witnessed were disgusting, it made me sick to my stomach.  Despite this, it was a good thing to learn about and understand more about the country and why it’s in the state it is now.  I pray for these poor people that they will be able to overcome this awful past.

On a lighter note…

I hope you have all been having a lovely weekend.  Happy long weekend to all you Canadian folks out there.

Love C

One Month Four Countries

Hello my dear friends!

Oh how I’ve missed thee. 

Being absent from the blogging world for over a month is a weird thing; I feel so disconnected.  Though I am not back to my blogging routine full-time yet, as I am still in Thailand at the moment, I thought that I would start getting back into the swing of things with a little trip re-cap.

I won’t bore you with all the little details, mostly I  just want  to share some pics and fun stories.

Adrian and I have been traveling through four countries over the course of this past month (April/May) and have been having a rockin’ time.  It’s too much to tell you about all countries in one post, so I will start with where our trip began. 

Our great voyage started in South Korea with my parents coming to visit. 

We had a fabulous time showing my parents around Korea, doing our best to squeeze all of our favorite things and food into one week. From the East to West coast we traveled and then South to North; lucky for us Korea is quite small! It was a great opportunity for us to show my parents where we have been doing, where we having been living, what we have been eating etc. 

Not many people know that much about South Korea, but it sure has a lot to offer.  From the most delicious cuisine, to gorgeous beaches, to huge mountains; it’s a beautiful place to live. Lucky for my parents, they arrived right as the cherry blossoms were popping.

Look at this spread!

We had dinner one night in this great lodge on the side of the mountain; a delicious feast.  All the veggies and greens were picked from the mountainside.

From the mountainous coastline…

to the beautiful beach.

(You should see this beach in the summer; it’s crazy.  This beach still holds the world record for the most amount of sun umbrellas on a beach…Koreans are quite terrified of the sun and darkened skin. So many umbrellas are scattered that you can’t see any sand!)

A lunch break of spicy seafood stew; one of our favorite meals.  The base of the broth is similar to Japanese miso, but it’s extra spicy with the addition of Korean hot peppers…Mmmm!

Fish stew…this was at the end of the meal, we didn’t eat the heads!  We saw these guys swimming around in the tank before our meal; doesn’t really get any fresher than that.

They look a little scary, but they tasted great!

More seafood! This fish market on the south coast of Korea, in Busan, is one of the biggest in all of Asia. Lots of interesting underwater creatures to gawk at.

Lots and lots of temples to see.

Guess where we went next?

North Korea!

Well, not exactly, cause I don’t want to die, but we did do a tour of the DMZ.  This North Korea soldier stands there looking through his binoculars at the South Korean side, making sure we were keeping in line.

Adrian blends right in, eh?

A few pictures from a great journey.

Sorry for the length and the amount of pictures…I just like to share what I can.

Today is our last day in Chiang Mai and we are taking an overnight train to Bangkok.  We fly out of Bangkok on Saturday to Vancouver…making a little pit stop to visit my oldest brother….then we will be venturing on to Ontario.  I am so excited to be back at home. Boy am I ready for the comforts of home again. Just a long train ride and an extremely long flight to endure…We can do it!

See you again soon.

My next post will be dedicated to our time in Cambodia.  A amazingly beautiful an extremely sad country.

Take Care.

C