Notes & Anecdotes

My dearest readers,

Another trip is soon coming our way. This very evening I am flying away from my beloved Laos to Vietnam for a weekend of touring Hanoi and Halang Bay! Zenia and I are very excited about our new trip, although we are a little nervous as we have heard that Vietnam is even hotter than Laos! Yes, indeed. The interns from Vietnam visited Laos last week and told us that the weather here was so much cooler than Vietnam that they actually felt comfortable standing outside at midday. Oh my…I am going to die from heat stroke. Luckily, Zenia and I have planned two wonderful days in Halong Bay, living on a “junk boat,” a traditional looking Chinese boat that is good for Bay cruising, and swimming all day long. I will come back with amazing new adventures to relate and another SE Asian country explored.

Before I leave for Vietnam, however, I want to relay a few notes and anecdotes from my previous travels that I think you will appreciate and that I forgot to include earlier…

1. SE Asia is the perfect land for the cheapskate. Not only is everything here cheap by American/Canadian/European standards, but this is a land without tipping. Yes, my friends. When you receive your bill in Thailand, leave the amount shown. When you go to pay in Laos, leave the extra behind in your wallet. Every meal costs just what the bill says and there is no need to pay any more. If you are cheap and don’t understand why tips are now required whenever you order food at home, come to SE Asia. *15% gratuity added to your bill for this information.

2. Stairs in SE Asia are a serious problem. Climbing any set of stairs in Thailand, Laos, or Cambodia is a test of ingenuity, strength, and balance. You see, in SE Asia, stairs are built without plan or design. Treads (the area where your foot is placed) may only have room to accommodate a child’s foot, forcing any normal adult to turn sideways to walk up and down the stairs. Stairs will vary in height, leading you to lunge up “one” step, a distance that would normally require three, on hands and knees, while taking a normal step up and skipping two in the next batch. And all the stairs are painted a dark color so that it is impossible to tell how steep the next step is going to be. Handrails are thought to be for wimps in this country and completely unnecessary. At the end of the day, if you can walk up and down a single set of stairs and not injure yourself in any major or permanent fashion, you’ve had a pretty good day.

3. Saem and Zenia are cover hogs. They steal the blankets and leave you to freeze. During our stay in Luang Prabang we discovered that the beds in Laos are HUGE. A “double bed” could easily fit all three of us. So, we determined that in Cambodia, we would just share a double and not spend the extra money on a “spare bed,” which turned out to be a sleeping pad for the floor. Therefore, Phnom Penh found the three of us sharing, Zenia and me on the outsides and Saem in middle. The night started out fine, each of us with plenty of space, able to roll over at will without bumping into the others. However, at around 2 am I awoke when my covers were being slowly tugged away from me. I grabbed the top sheet. It continued to slide out of my grip. I pulled harder and rolled myself over it. Slowly, I unrolled. I grabbed with all my might, yanked, and lost the sheet. Yes, I was sleeping with two blanket hogs. I rolled over and managed to sleep for another hour until the cold awoke me again. I cautiously leaned over, grabbed the edge of the sheet near Saem, and pulled. Simultaneously, Zenia and Saem growled at me in their sleep! I was so shocked I let go of the blanket and slid to the edge of the bed and out of, what I now called, the danger zone. At that point I gave up. I got out of bed, went over to the counter, grabbed a spare, dry towel from the stack for the next morning, and used that as a “blanket” for the rest of the night. My advice to you all when traveling in the future? Don’t sleep with a blanket hog unless you have a backup cover plan!