Bangkok, Pai and Chiang Mai (Thailand): big toe injured, sunny X-Mas and amazing food

14 December - 6 January 2011

After my terrible trek in Vietnam, I flew to Bangkok to visit my relatives: my aunt, uncle and 4 cousins. That was my third time in Bangkok. Back to the modernity with shopping malls everywhere.
When I got there, my big toe still hurt a lot so my aunt immediatly took me to the hospital and when the doctor saw it, he said "We must take your nail out! Now!" and without waiting for a response or reaction from me, the nurse took a big plier and just pull my nail out... I screamed like I never did in the entire life, I think that was the worst torture ever!

The consequences were that I couldn't walk for a week and had to rest at home... and that I could not go swimming or go to the beaches for at leat 1.5 month. Terrible news as I already planned to go to Indonesia in January for the beautiful beaches in Bali. What a disappointment...
The good news is that I could spend more time with my family. So all we did for a week is eat, eat and eat. What a surprise isn't it? But i have to admit that the food in Thailand is really amazing.
I couldn't really walk but my cousin managed to take me out with her friends' by car.

After one week, my foot didn't hurt anymore and I could walk again so I decided to go to the Northern part of Thailand, in Pai and Chiang Mai.

Pai is a small town located near the Myanmar border. The town is famous for its stunning landscapes as it is located in the mountains. It is also known as the city where you do nothing... well there are lots of different activities but let's say that they are not very physical like massages, manicures-pedicures, cooking classes, chilling out in cafes, smoking marijuana, ...
You can also meet lots of people interested in reggae, every year there is the Reggae Festival in Pai. It is very funny to see Thai people with the look of Bob Marley.

I stayed 2 days in Pai in a tiny bungalow with a riverview, it was very quiet and relaxing especially because during the day, it was almost 30 degrees. After spending 1 week in Bangkok, it really felt good. The first day, I walked around, met a Korean girl, had a thai massage and ate some great food at the night market. Then the second day, I booked a private tour with my Korean new friend and a Canadian guy. We went to see the morning mist (clouds in the mountains) which were really breathtaking. We also went to visit the Longneck Women willage. It was weird to visit the village and take pictures of those women but everytime we did it, we bought something from their little shops... I ended up with lots of small souvenirs that I didn't need at all...

For Christmas eve, we (the Canadian guy, the Korean girl and a couple of South Africa) decided to have western food so we went to a steak house. I got a chicken steak with french fries, mushroom soup and green salad. It was delicious and it was definitely my cheapest Christmas dinner, 3,1 euros! It was my first Chirstmas with strangers but I had a good time with them. Memorable Chirstmas Eve, for sure!

The next day I left Pai for Chiang Mai where I was meeting one cousin. We spent the day eating, shopping and visiting temples.
The day after, another cousin came to meet us. All together we visited all the must-see in Chiang Mai: the Bhuping Palace, Doi Sothep, Sunday Market and some other temples.
The thai massage was also part of the must-do program. For 150 baht (a little bit less than 4 euros), we enjoyed a real thai massage.

We also met other Thai friends of my cousin there. And with Thai people, all we do is eat, shop and take pictures. It was really fun tough.

After almost 1 week in Pai and Chiang Mai, it was time to come back to Bangkok, especially because my cousins had to work.


Next stop: Yangoon (Myanmar)

Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa (Vietnam): cruise, excellent food and awful trek

5 December - 14 December 2010

I finally arrived in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Back to a big noisy city full of motorbikes everywhere. But the good news is that I was meeting Guillaume, an ex-colleague of my sister and his wife, Ibti.

We spent the day walking around the Old Quarter. Hundreds of small streets. Animated by the motorbikes, horns, food stalls and shops.

Motorbikes, motorbikes, everywhere... then it happened what it should happen for a long time, I got hit by a motorbike. I was crossing the street and during 2 seconds I raised my head to read a board and the second after, a motorbike hit my left leg. But I was very lucky because it wasn't that serious, my musles were sour for a few hours and I got a big bruise but that was it, lucky me!

In the evening, after a great dinner with plenty of delicious fried spring rolls (nems), we went to see the Water Puppet show, the most famous attraction in Hanoi. The show is performed in a waist-deep pool. The puppeteers, hidden behing a kind of curtain, control the puppets. So the puppets appear to be moving over the water. Very different show from what I have ever seen so far.

The next morning, we travel to Halong Bay. A Unesco World Heritage Site. Halong Bay has an area of around 1,553 km2, including 1,960 islets, most of which are limestone. We, together with Guillaume and Ibti, went on a 3 days cruise on board of the Dolphin Cruise.
Halong Bay is just amazing. Sailing for hours in the bay is something everyone should do once in its lifetime. As we often say "A picture is worth a thousand words"...

We spent 3 days and 2 nights on the boat with some other people. During day time, we visited caves and we went kayaking. Late in the afternoon, we swam, jumping from the top of the boat. The water was a little cold but it felt great to be in the water. After dinner, the only activities were squids fishing, but we never saw any, even after hours of fishing... and karaoke! Ibti, I and the crew of the boat sang all kind of songs, in all languages, French, English, Vietnamese and even Chinese. It was really fun.

After Halong Bay, I stayed one more day in Hanoi, walking around with Guillaume and Ibti. In the afternoon, we decided to visit the French Quarter, with all the nice shops and hotels. Guillaume read in his guide book that we should visit the Hotel Metropole, the nicest hotel in Hanoi. We decided to have a drink at the hotel, at the bar, next to the swimming pool. When the waiter showed us the menu, Ibti and I just couldn't believe what we saw... a chocolate buffet set... all you can eat and drink, pralines, chocolate pancakes, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cakes, chocolate fondue and much more...

We couldn't resist to this pre-Christmas celebration of course! So we did it. We took one chocolate buffet set, one chocolate fondue set and one afternoon tea set, for the 3 of us. It was unbelievable. The table was just too small for all the chocolates, we had to move to a bigger one! It was such a delight... 2 other friends that we met on te boat in Halong Bay joined us and still, it was too much chocolate for everyone. Thanks Guillaume for inviting us, it was exactly what we needed.

The same evening, after havind said goodbye to Guillaume and Ibti, I went with Steve, a travel companion I met in Hoi An to the other main region of Northern Vietnam to be visited, Sapa, close to the border with China.

Sapa is a mountain town where different minorities live.
We arrived in Sapa after a very comfortable trip on a night train.

For the first day, we decided to take it easy and to chill out. There I met my English travel companion Dorian again (that I met in Nha Trang).

The second day, we decided to go for a 2 days-trek.

We were 4 and we decided to follow a very young tour guide. She was around 18 years old and could speak very good English. She said she would show us different villages including hers.

When we woke up the 1 day of the trek, it was already raining quite badly. And it just got worse during the day.
We walked for about 6 hours in the rain, the mud and the cold. It was the worst moment in my life ever. It was so slippery that we all felt down. I felt down so many times that I stopped counting the number of times... I was completely wet, my clothes full of mud. For me, the trek was very tough as I haven't exercise at all for the past 3 months... My feet also hurt me very much. My big toe hit a big stone quite strongly but I only noticed the next day that the nail of the big toe was separated from the toe... it still hurt like hell now.

I cancelled the second day of trekking as I couldn't almost not walk anymore... on top of all of this, there was no more train tickets for Hanoi available so I had to take the night bus. 12 hours of loud music, a big stranger sleeping next to me, with maximum airco, the worst bus trip ever... it was definitely time for me to leave Vietnam and go to Thailand... Unfortunately the last days in Vietnam didn't leave me a good souvenir of the country.

Next stops: Bangkok and Kho Tao, Thailand.

Nha Trang, Hoi An and Hue (Vietnam): rain, shopping and excellent food

29 November - 5 December 2010

I arrived in Nha Trang after 6 hours bus from Dalat. Nha Trang is a coastal city on the South central Coast of Vietnam. The city is well known for its beaches and scuba diving. And indeed the beaches are beautiful.

My hotel room was at the top of a building with a view on the beaches. Everything was perfect except ... the weather. It rained the whole day so there was not much to do. I still managed to visit the Champa ruins and a pagoda with a giant buddha.

Then I spent the whole afternoon on a terrace of a cafe reading a book. It is sometimes nice to take a rest and enjoy the view of the beaches even when it is raining...

In the same evening, I took a night bus to Hoi An. The bus arrived at 8AM. After the tough night on the bus, I found a nice hotel with a big bathroom and a bathtub. Then I had my usual Pho (beef noodle soup) for breakfast and went to the Old Town of Hoi An, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1999. The Old Town is a pedestrian zone, which was very nice as there were only a few motorbikes and bicycles around. I walked around the Old Town the whole day, visiting some old houses, temples and the famous Japanese bridge.

Hoi An is especially famous for the tailors, who produce made-to-measure clothes for a very cheap price. Everything can be made, it was unbelievable. Clothes (dresses, shirts, suits, ...) of course but also all kind of shoes, bags etc. Paradise for all girls!

I hesitated to make some clothes as I couldn't carry more stuff in my backpack but it was too tempting. So I decided to make a dress and a pair of leather sandals. Besides that I also bought a bag and a short. Hoi An is definitely a great place for shopping.

The second day, I took a cooking class. It is time to learn how to cook according to my mum. So after a short visit to the market where our cooking teacher gave us some information about the vietnamese ingredients, we took a boat to a small island to have the class. There, I learned how to prepare fresh spring rolls including the rice papers, Banh Xeo, typical vietnamese yellow pancakes and a hot clay with eggplants, tomatoes and lemon grass. I even learned how to carve a flower with a tomato and a cucumber. Well, the carving wasn't a big success... but the dishes were delicious! According to me of course... I was very proud of myself. Now I'm definitely ready to get married.

After this great experience, it was time for me to move to my next destination, Hue.

Hue is well known for its architecture and monuments. It was more a cultural city. As I was short in time, I hired a private motorbike to visit all the main monuments. I started with the Citadel, seat of the Nguyen Emperors.

Inside the citadel was a forbidden city where only the emperors, concubines, and those close enough to them were granted access; the punishment for trespassing was death.

I expected a Forbidden City as the one in Beijing but I was quite disappointed as it was small and only little of the forbidden city remains.
After the Citadel, I visited the tombs of two emperors, Minh Mang and Tu Duc and the Thien Mu Pagoda, the largest pagoda in Hue and the official symbol of the city.

The second day, I went to see the Demilitarized zone, the dividing line between North and South Vietnam at the war time. We also visited the Vinh Moc Tunnels, where 300 people lived during war time.

Hue was very interesting in terms of Vietnam cultural monuments but 2 days was enough to see most of it and food wasn't that special. And Hanoi was waiting for me.

Next stops: Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa (Vietnam)

Ho-Chi-Minh City and Dalat (Vietnam): Friends, excellent food and meditation

17 November - 29 November 2010











After a little bit more than 1 week in Cambodia, I went to Vietnam. Half way by boat and half way by bus, to sail on the Mekong and to see the beautiful landscapes.

First step in Vietnam, in Saigon (since 1976 called Ho-Chi-Minh City). Biggest city in Vietnam, noisy with a crazy traffic, hundreds, thousands of motorbikes everywhere all day long. But though very nice city.

Em, my vietnamese-belgian friend was there when I was there. She took my to the nicest places in HCMC, meeting up with all her friends and having delicious food. It was great to have her there. I stayed there almost one week, time goes fast when you have friends around.

The city is also very interesting from a cultural point of view because of all the sights related to the Vietnam war. Sometimes very chocking museums like the War remnants museum where you have lots of pictures of the war. But still extremely instructive.

This is my first time in Vietnam. And I have to say that so far I like it very much. I appreciate the life, the culture and the diversified landscapes and especially the food.
I could have Pho every day for breakfast... and the coffee is so good, especially the ice coffee with milk, the main drink of all vietnamese. Vietnam is the second largest producer of coffee in the world, after Brazil, counting for 14.3 per cent of the world market share, impressive isn't it?

Anyway, after one week in HCMC I moved to the North, to Dalat. The city is located in the mountains. Reason why the temperature dropped by 5-8 degres compared to HCMC. I m not going to complain, it was still around 18-20 degrees...

There is not much to see in Dalat, a part from the market, some small touristic places like the Crazy House and a lake. But there was the most beautiful monastery of Vietnam.

Monastery Thien Vien Truc Lam, where I decided to stay for 4 days. After having asked the permission to stay with the nuns to the Zen Master, I have been authorized to share their daily lives. My first experience in meditation. It was physically extremely tough. Wake up bell at 3AM for 2 hours of meditation and another 2 hours session at 7.30PM, no food after noon... (my stomach still remembers the stay).

Besides the mediation sessions, I also had to share the nuns' life: read books about bouddhism, participate to the cleaning work, prepare food for 120 nuns, pray, dress like a nun, etc. I was definitely totally disturbed by this new life...

After this great experience, I decided to come back to the real life. As soon as I came out of the Monastery, I went to the restaurant to have some meat, went to 2 bars and 1 club, what a contrast!

Next stops: Nha Trang, Hoi An and Hue (Vietnam)