S. E. ASIA | FindPenguins

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Trip start
January 12, 2025
S. E. ASIA Traveler
Luang Prabang Laos
Jan 14–17, 2025 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Came here after 4 flights thru ORD and Tokyo and Bangkok 48hrs in planes and long layovers. Stayed at Satri House and old French style villa with wonderful gardens. First day we climbed Phousi mnt to see the sunset and visited the night market. Did a city tour the 3rd day and a waterfall in yhe afternoon.
Prabank is the name of the first Buddha brought to Laos by a Sri Lankan Queen the 14th century and Luang Prabang is the holy city of Laos. The whole city is a Unesco world heritage site because of its french/Laos wooden style buildings. Only 90000 people but very touristy. Also hazy because of the many fire they use for cooking and to burn leaves in the countrysideRead more
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Mekong river cruise
January 15, 2025 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Cruised from Luang Prabang for 2hrs on a long slow boat. Stopped at a village where they were making whiskey out of rice 55% proof
Visited 2 caves with 3000 plus statues of Buddha's in them
On either side of the river they were planting their family gardens but in August when the river is at its highest all gardens are covered with waterRead more
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Hanoi Vietnam
Jan 17–19, 2025 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
Flew here from Laos. Vietnam visa was messed up with the wrong passport number and the Laos airline official help me get a fast 2nd visa for an extra $195
Stayed at the Intercontinental WestLake hotel which has buildings on the water connected with walkways. Lunch at KOTO restaurant which trains disadvantaged youth.
Hanoi is very polluted and has the worst brown/Grey haze I ve seen. Very chaotic city, overcrowded, garbage everywhere. Too many cars on narrow roads with motorcycles everywhere. Impossible to walk. It's a week before their new year on the Chinese calendar and they are selling peach trees and branches everywhere, like our Xmas trees. Also kumquat trees but with round kumquat.
We went downtown buy I cut my tour short after lunch because the city is so overcrowded. Opted to walk around Westlake which is 13km. It took me 4hrs because of a festival in the far site of the lake diverted me. There were people on motorcycles carrying trees, tvs and anything you can think of.
Awful to walk around and place to visitRead more
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Vietnam oddities
Jan 17–23, 2025 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Everything on a motorbike. Amazing what they would carry. I even saw a motorbike pulling a cart with a 2 cows in it. A diff with over 200 ducks.
In Hue they would take their shoes off to enter a shop
They use a 24letters latin alphabet that a Portuguese missionary created in the 17th century to translate the Bible in Vietnamise. The French adapted it to write the Vietnamese language. They use 5 tones (accents) as they call them incl. the ? over a vowel. For example: pho with a ? is the soup they eat, but pho without means road.
They spell coffee Ca Phe (2 words).
They have amazing traffic lights that show the number of minutes remaining in red or green. Very helpful to driversRead more
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Mai Chau and Pu Luong NP
Jan 19–20, 2025 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Drove from the chaos of Hanoi to Pu Luong NP where we had a wonderful lunch at an open air restaurant. The fish was local and breaded with a nut mixture that had a butter,lime and passion fruit sauce. Then we walked around the rice fields and drove to Mai Chau at the Mai Chau lodge. What a wonderful oasis this hotel was. They had a local dance show every night at 830 by the pool. Their basil margarita was excellent.
My suite had a porch overlooking the rice fields with bamboo lounge chairs outside. The bathtub was round and made of wood. It also had a private pool at the lower level below the porch.
The next day I had a full body massage that costed $15.90 in local money.Read more
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HaLong Bay Cruise
January 21, 2025 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
The formations at HaLong bay are called karst limestones and they exist inland also by Mai Chau.
Boarded the cruise boat at noon after a boat transfer from the port. The stuff was there waiving to us. Wonderful cabin. Had a kayak excursion to a cave and a tunnel we passed thru. We had a lady doing the oars
The next day we toured a cave at Catba islandRead more
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Hue -Imperial city
Jan 22–24, 2025 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
Toured the city with Wu. Stayed at the Indochine Palace
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Hue the Imperial City
Jan 24–26, 2025, South China Sea ⋅ 🌬 27 °C
Started the morning with a boat tour on the Perfumed River. Stopped at a 16th century temple. Then visited the Imperial palace inside 3 sets of walls with temples palace musium and gardens. Then finished the tour with the 2nd emperor s tumb 30 km out of town up the river.Read more
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Singapore
Feb 10–11, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C
The cruise finished here 7am Sat Feb 8th, but I left 4pm to Dahka Bangladesh and came back Monday Feb 10 to stay with Simon and Stella at the Marina Sands. The best hotel I ever stayed at
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Dhaka Bangladesh
October 6, 2025 in Cyprus ⋅ 🌬 27 °C
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Trip end
February 8, 2025