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Asia 2023

April - May 2023
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” - Heraclitus Read more

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  • Canada
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Around the world, Backpacking, Beach, Couple, Diving, Hiking
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  • Asia 2023
    Day 19

    Ha Giang Loop - Day 2

    April 22, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌩️ 29 °C

    Sore butts.

    Left Dong Van this morning to go up to the northern most part of Vietnam, Lung Cu. From here, we could see where Vietnam ends and southern China begins. While we were here Matt became the tourist attraction again and had numerous photos taken with him.

    After lunch we went through one of the most beautiful spots of the country, Ma Pi Leng Pass. We drove some sketchy dirt roads and were rewarded with (not having to walk up and) incredibly beautiful 360 views of mountain peaks and paddy fields.

    In Meo Vac on route to our home stay, we visited a site where once a year they hold a “Love Market” where ex lovers come together and just mingle. Weird. It’s almost like a festival of sorts!

    Our home stay was very homely. A mattress on the floor with a giant mosquito net and a wasps nest right above us (and a wasp on the mosquito net that’s been there for a while…). We had dinner with locals in a very communal setting. They fed us lots of delicious Vietnamese dishes and lots more rice wine! (Literally brought out a 20L plastic can of homemade rice wine..).

    As I’m writing this now it’s raining. Not just drizzling but full on thunderstorm, this wooden-old-house-is-going-to-blow-away type storm.. Gotta love Asia!    Read more

  • Asia 2023
    Day 20

    Ha Giang Loop - Day 3

    April 23, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    First up this morning, boat ride down the Nho Que river and into Cao Bang. This was really beautiful. The landscapes and small huts belonging to the farmers were spread throughout the valley along the river. There were cables that ran across the river as guides for the villagers bamboo boats (rafts?!). They would pull on these cables to get back and forth across the river.

    Todays ride was LONG. But all along the way we saw terraced paddy fields lining the valleys as far as the eye could see.

    We arrived in our home stay on the top of a village mountain with panoramic views of the town of Du Gia. Both of us agreed it was the best accommodation we have stayed at for the entire trip! Views were incredible from the room. The road to the home wasn’t exactly easy but totally worth it! It was only about 1km (of gnarly dirt roads) from the Du Gia waterfall which we visited for a swim. The local kids were there jumping off all the tall rocks. We got back and enjoyed a stunning sunset followed by a real feast with yet again, unlimited rice wine aka “happy water”.    Read more

  • Asia 2023
    Day 21

    Ha Giang Loop - Day 4 aka ‘Day Sore’

    April 24, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    Last day on the bikes today and it’s bittersweet. It’s definitely been a highlight of our trip so far but at the same time, our glutes are in desperate need for a few days off of a bike.

    We have been so extremely fortunate to be able to witness Vietnamese hospitality at its finest out on the Ha Giang loop. We have had local families wholeheartedly opening up their homes to strangers like us and feasting with us like friends who don’t speak a word of Vietnamese. We were never made to feel like intruders and each home stay genuinely appreciated our presence in their homes as though it was their pleasure of hosting us rather than ours for the experience.

    Both of us were really humbled by the way of life of the villagers and how they have so little but are willing to give so much to people they don’t even know. They live with the bare necessities and each day is hard labour - building, growing, harvesting, cleaning… The kids also are so happy just roaming around the mountainside or the dirt roads half naked while cars and bikes speed by them, the chickens with their chicks dig at the corn and the buffalo roam around. It’s really a whole other world!    Read more

  • Asia 2023
    Day 21

    Back to Hanoi

    April 24, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    Back to Hanoi for a quick stop!

    Hanoi has been our base through the trip and a great one for food and shopping. Before the Ha Giang loop while we were here, Matt was measured up for a tailored suit. Today we went for a fitting so that touch ups can be made. I would definitely recommend at least a couple of trips to Hanoi if anyone else were to get a suit made as these tailors are working off a few measurements and seeing the person once. The colour of Matt’s suit looked really smart and of good quality! All for less than $200!!

    Hanoi is fantastic for cheap food. We had bun cha for lunch, banh mi for a snack and pho bo for dinner. Followed this with che for dessert. What a fantastic day for food 🤤!!    Read more

  • Asia 2023
    Day 23

    Halong Bay … on a 5 star cruise!

    April 26, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Fun fact, there are 600+ cruise boats on Halong bay! They get to take 1 of 4 routes through Halong Bay and Lan Ha bay.

    We decided we would splurge to see the world famous Halong bay via cruise boat with Sena cruises. It was an experience with lots of food and random activities like a cooking class and tai chi as well as kayaking, squid fishing, karaoke and a small boat tour through some caves. After having spent the last few weeks backpacking, a room on a fancy boat with fancy people and fancy dining really made us feel like royalty! We had our own little outdoor seating area from our room and a very nice bathroom.

    It was a nice experience but probably one that both of us thought would be a once in a lifetime activity that we needed to do! We prefer our simple life of adventure!    Read more

  • Asia 2023
    Day 25

    Ninh binh, Vietnam

    April 28, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    We stayed at an Airbnb homestay with Anna at Ninh Binh Palm homestay for 2 nights. We borrowed her bikes and rode 30+km to visit some must see stops in the area.

    On route to our first stop, Matt’s bike chain snapped and to top it off, drops of rain started down and his haunting stomach cramps started to do their thing. After messaging our homestay host an sos message we just waited for the repair man and we’re on our way after that.

    First stop was Trang An - scenic boat ride down a river loop through caves. The longest cave we went through was 1km long and very low in some places! Super cool experience … especially when a bat comes out of nowhere right toward you! The ride lasted about 3 hours which is a LONG time for the poor rowers! Helped that we had stops where we could get out of the boat for a bit to stretch our legs!

    Second stop: Hang Mua peak where we climbed a lot of stairs to reach a dragon sculpture and a pagoda at the top. Neither of these were fascinating but the views were pretty incredible! Lots of people at this site which spoils it a little but still nice views either way. We heard some thunder rolling in from the distance and decided we didn’t fancy being on the top of the mountain so we started heading down for our 15km cycle back home … in the rain.

    Because the homestay is so close to the Bai Dinh Pagoda, we took some dirt roads and managed to see them in the night fully lit up. We didn’t have time on this trip to visit but next time for sure! Being the biggest pagoda complex in Southeast Asia, it’s one that we need more time for but at the same time, glad we caught a glimpse of it!    Read more

  • Asia 2023
    Day 30

    Island hopping in El Nido

    May 3, 2023 on the Philippines ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Snorkel day!

    Super chill day snorkelling around islands and bays near El Nido.
    - Helicopter island
    - Matinloc Shrine
    - Secret Beach
    - Talisay Beach
    - Hidden Beach

    Each one was so different and beautiful!
    We saw loads of clown fish, little jelly fish (that created nice welts on our bodies!), eel, sea snake and starfish!

    We had onboard karaoke where Matt and I joined forces with the singular Italian, Irish and Swiss to form a miscellaneous team to sing Country Roads 🎤 🎶

    On the way back we were lucky enough to see a pod of dolphins before the storm came rolling through.    Read more

  • Asia 2023
    Day 30

    El Nido Diving!!

    May 3, 2023 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌩️ 28 °C

    Diving! We went on our first fun dives with @200BarDive in El Nido and our dive master Errol. We had another British girl with us and a boat of other fun people. It was great not to have a full boat and just the 10-12 of us on the smaller speed boat.

    Site 1 for the day was at Nat Nat. We dived to about 17-18m and saw loads of fish. On the descent, I came very close to standing on a Stingray on the sandy floor. We saw a couple of puffer fish, sea cucumber, a huge trigger fish, loads of clown fish and parrotfish.
    Highlight: watching two cuttlefish (male and female) interact and the colour changes that the male displays for mating. Who knew cuttlefish were so cool!!?!!

    Site 2 - Helicopter island or as Errol says ‘drumstick island if you’re hungry … because it looks like a drumstick’. We saw colourful coral, electric clam, poisonous lion fish, razor fish and schools of other small, curious and cheeky fish.
    Highlight: We saw a turtle!! Super mellow guy just at the bottom of the sandy floor eating seaweed. It would follow wherever the seaweed went and even went up to the surface and back down towards/on top of us again.

    One of the highlights from our trip so far! The water clarity was incredible and the ocean is so clean out here. They really do a great job preserving their environment in El Nido. Let hope it can continue to be el nido/the best for the turtles!    Read more

  • Asia 2023
    Day 32

    Last days in El Nido

    May 5, 2023 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌩️ 26 °C

    Lio Beach, Scuba El Nido round #2, Nacpan Beach, Vanilla Beach, Maremegmeg and Las Cabañas.

    Rounded off the Philippines trip with another round of scuba. This time we went to North Entalula and South Miniloc. Interesting underwater topography but quite a bit of current meant that we couldn’t safely get to the areas with loads of marine life. Still a cool experience to be able to swim alongside a 30m wall underwater at Entalula and to experience the current wall that can exist in a channel between two islands at South Miniloc.
    Miniloc was the site we were most excited for because of the thousands of snapper and 700+ different forms of marine life out there! Both of us had fun either way and are becoming so much more comfortable with the process of ascending, descending and just being underwater in general.

    We didn’t want to waste our last full day so that afternoon we took a tricycle for $1200 return to Nacpan beach 40 minutes away. Such a beautiful beach that stretches up the coast. Perfect spot for sunbathing and swimming although sea lice are such a pain! Right now there are harmless spots and rashes all the arms and legs!

    Although the rain really bucketed down for periods, we were so lucky and got patches of sunshine while we were at Nacpan and when we got to Las Cabañas beach for sunset. No actual setting of the sun was witnessed but the bright colours that made the sky light up were well worth it!

    Side note: frogs in sewer tunnels sound like a baby cow stuck in a drain    Read more

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