Arrival

Welcome to our blog about quitting yer job and traveling around in southeast asia. Its a bit of a misnomer since I (Shawn) didn't really quit, but at least the url was available. Here we will try to post some updates about what we've been up to and maybe even drop some knowledge here or there (no promises). We think we can at least get one more post out of this puppy. But I'm already seriously unhappy with this blogging software and the internet in general. Lauren says I should chill out... I digress.


We landed in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) on Sept 4 and popped into a hotel. We spent a couple days exploring the city before deciding to fly down to the Con Dao island chain. What stands out to me the most about this place is the motorbike traffic. Almost all vehicles on the road are motorbikes, and there are virtually no rules. When you cross a street you just walk through a throng of motorbikes moving at 15mph. They just somehow handle it. But don't worry, we always look both ways.


Day 2 revelation: Just being a tourist for three months is going to wear on my psyche. I decided I better try to do something with my free time on top of exploring sites. We went to a bookstore hoping I could find a good subject to study, but all they sold in English was English teaching material. Well... maybe if we go relax on some islands for a few days I'll figure something else out :).

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Sitting down to the first Asian meal of our trip. In the Seoul airport en route to Saigon, Vietnam.

A market in Saigon. We bought a bottle of Vietnamese vodka here for $1. We didn't feel too bad leaving half of it in the hotel when we left.

Another market. Cows?

In the basement of the Independence Palace in Saigon. This palace is where the South surrendered to the North Vietnamese. The general sentiment in the museums is anti-US (regarding the American War).




Spiraled incense burning in a pagoda.

Turtle Rescue. Behind the pagoda. He was trapped between the ramp and the wall.

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So we got out of Ho Chi Minh City and flew down to the Con Dao island chain. We're staying on the main island, Con Son. Most of the people here, tourists included, are Vietnamese. We ended up getting a good deal on a nice set of bungalows that just opened so we decided to go for it

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The view from our room on Con Son.

The beach outside our room. Tons of boats hang out here amongst the islands. They were waiting out a storm when we arrived.

A view down the road on Con Son.

Cow.

Us on our motorbike. Sorry moms.

Side of the road on the way to the only other town on the island. There were no tourists at all when we got there which was awesome. Its a fishing town as the woman at our bungalow later told us. The feeling of being on display for everyone was insane. Every single person stared at us until we were out of sight. We had the best bowl of Pho we've had yet.

Island. Boat.

Just read this. We like 3. 5 is also good, a nice tip to keep you going while you read all these rules.

We made soup in our teapot. They have Pho soup packaged like Ramen!