Bali

We have been in Bali for almost a week already and have spent most of our time on the beach. After all the traveling of the last couple weeks, we were happy to sit back and just take in these awesome views:
We started our trip in Kuta and Legian which is one of the most famous surfing spots in the world (the waves looked more impressive in person than in the pictures!) The area was pretty touristy and filled with surfing schools, Australians and clubs... Needless to say, we felt a little out of place but still had a great time. We saw some awesome surfing just lounging on the beach, tried tasty seafood and Indonesian specialties and watched a couple great sunsets.

After the beach, we headed to Ubud in the center of Bali. Most tourist brochures call it "the real Bali" and it was in stark contrast with the surfer crowd we had just left behind. The whole area is surrounded by rice paddies and the houses were much more traditional. They are built around beautiful gardens and look like a mix of hindu temples and beach cottages. We found a cheap guest house and were amazed to see it had this awesome garden out back despite its dingy entrance:
Our time in Ubud was spent exploring the town, getting the best massage yet in our trip (for only 7$) and visiting the famous Monkey Forrest where we made some new friends.We both look quite calm on these photos but I was actually pretty freaked out. The monkeys were very comfortable climbing on you and stealing bananas from your hands. The picture below is from the "attack" Matt suffered a few minutes before. Wish it was a film instead of a pictures because it was pretty hilarious to watch.
We are now in Sanur for our last couple days before Thailand. It's another beach but much more quiet than Kuta. We are hoping to take a ferry to one of the neighboring islands tomorrow to go snorkeling and see one more beach before heading back. In the mean time, we will be relaxing here today...

Halong Bay

Just got back to Hanoi from our boat tour in the Halong Bay. It was a vision of breathtaking beauty, consisting of thousands of islands rising from the emerald waters. The pictures (some of which are included below) do not do a justice. It was a drastic change in climate and culture from our stay in Sapa. Instead of cold and rainy weather, we were delighted with clear skies and warm winds.

After our tour from hell in Nha Trang, we are very skeptical of all tours and expecting the worse. Granted the bar was set very low, we were pleasantly surprised by this one. The bus ride from Hanoi to Halong Bay took about 3.5 hours and once we arrived, we were greeted by a crew of five that catered to our meager tour group of six.

We immediately set sail towards the islands and soon arrived at the "Surprise Cave." Appropriately named because it is a series of three caves with each one growing exponentially in size. SURPRISE!!

The sundeck of our boat

A few islands

Lo, taking in the view with her awesome sunglasses

Next, we hiked to the top of another island for some breataking views. Check out my glamour shot:

Finally, we kayaked into a cove that had sparsely bonsai-forested slopes ringing with birdsong. We paddled back to the boat very hungry and expecting to be left unsatisfied with whatever to the crew managed to cook up in the kitchen. It turned out to be quite the feast: seven courses, one of which included the largest shrimp I've seen in my life. The gluttony continued into the night as the crew invited me to sample some of the food they prepared for themselves (couldn't figure out what it was but still was delicious) and special rice wine that had been fermenting for 15 years underground. The night ended with squid fishing and green tea, a perfect nightcap.

Tomorrow we head to Bali. We plan to take in the sun on the beach, sharpen our skills on the surfboard and maybe even play some gamelan, if I can remember back to my Indonesian studies gut class that I took senior year....

Sapa

We just got back to Hanoi after spending three awesome days in the mountain in Sapa. The weather, scenery and people were completely different from anything else we've seen in Vietnam, which was a nice break. We felt cold for the first time since we arrived here a month ago, but still managed to really enjoy ourselves thanks to my cousin Antoine who was the perfect tour guide. The picture above is the view we had from our hotel. It was perched on the mountains and we even had our own fire-place in the room. Needless to say, it was incredible to wake up and be able to watch the fog roll into the valley every morning.

This spot (above) is probably my favorite we've seen all trip. Antoine took us there on our first day. We rented motor bikes and explored villages in the rain. When we got to the top of a hill, he made us climb down to this hidden spot. It cleared up right when we got there and we managed to get some great shots of the rice paddies. The whole mountain is carved out to grow rice and the color change year round.

Our second day, we followed our Mong tour guides (see above) to visit some local villages. They could not have been any nicer, and we really enjoyed hearing about their daily lives and their traditional dress. The different tribes each have their own language and traditions and you can see the diversity all around Sapa where they walk around, trying to sell things to tourists.

Finally, on our third day, we visited Antoine's hotel, saw him "in action" welcoming guests and even got to spend the afternoon using the pool and sauna before taking our night train back to Hanoi... all in all, not a bad deal!

We are in Hanoi for another day before heading to the Halong Bay where we will be spending one night on a boat. After that, we fly to Bali on the 6th and are already so excited to lounge on the beach and maybe learn to surf?

Sapa avec Antoine!

Nous rentrons de trois jours supers a Sapa ou nous avons eu l'occasion de voir Antoine et de faire de grandes balades dans la montagne. Malgres le temps pluvieux et froid, nous avons adores notre sejour et sommes ravits d'avoir pu voir Antoine dans son nouveau quotidient!
Le premier jour, nous avons ete nous promener en moto avec Antoine dans la montagne. Il nous a emmene dans certains de ses androits preferes, et nous a bleuffe avec sa capacite a parler Mong et etre si a l'aise avec toutes les tribus de la region. Comme il pleuvait des cordes, nous etions couverts de boue a la fin de l'apres-midi, mais ravit de notre excursion. Le deuxieme jours, nous avons fait une longue balade pour aller visiter deux villages Mongs. Les vues etait spectaculaires comme vous pourrez le voir dans les photos ci-dessous. Enfin, notre troisieme jour, nous sommes alles voir Antoine "en action" a son hotel (vous verrez les photos a la receptions!) ou il nous a fait tout visiter. Nous avons meme pu utitiliser la piscine et le sauna de l'hotel avant de reprendre notre train de nuit vers Hanoi. Bref, sejour parfait grace a Antoine, et on en gardera de super souvenirs!

Moto sous la pluie!