Lisa and Simon go to Asia

Well, the title of this blog is now a major misnomer, but we will let that slide, won't we? Apologies in advance for typos. I am writing this on our little tablet and I left the real keyboard at home. And I am trying to type fast to tell you all about the exciting excitings that we have been up to.

Flight Friday night at 1am to Hong Kong. 16 hourss later we land in HK. We each slept for four or five hours thanks to our ostrich pillows (Google it) and were not too bad upon arrival. We followed our instructions and got on bus A41 to Sha Tin and Shannon was there with TEA and COFFEE. Shannon is nice. And so is Andrew! I mean Jeezy! Awesome hosts. Zombie Lisa and I toured around HK for the day and had a nice time. It was very comfortable for us there. I think we could live in Hong Kong. We like the way that everyone lives is apartments, parks are near and plentiful, and transit is cheap and amazing. The city is modern and busy and fun and delicious!! We vowed to stay up to 8pm even though we were drunk tired by mid afternoon. After a game of Chinese settlers and a yummy beet pasta thing, we slept. A lot. Lisa got up after 14 hours, but I went for the full 17. It was spectacular. Lisa wasn't mad, but she was impressed.

On our own. we took the subway to downtown and went up the busy Peak Tram to the top of a mountain in the city. Where there were two malls, lol. We walked around for a while, then went to meet ourhosts for dinner. And then we went for more sleep. Mmmm sleep.

So that brings us to Tuesday morning. We got our S together (s stands for stuff, obviously) and took the bus to the airport. The airport is very fancy. Lots and lots of fancy. We were assigned to the dimmer gate and took a bus to our airplane. Then we got on it and it flew to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. We had to get our visa on arrival, and everything went very smoothly so that was a relief. Lisa and I don't really understand how politics work here. It is apparently communist, but it doesn't seem to be much different than our market-economy. And you should trust me because after two and a half days here I am quite the expert...

Hanoi is crazy. We heard it was crazy, but it's one of those things that you have to experience to really get. There are cars, and even the occasional bus, but for way more people, there are motorbikes. Not big bikes, mostly low cc bikes and scooters and mopeds. There are a few traffic lights, but they seem to be just a recommendation. Same with lane / direction markers. Follow it if you feel like it. Seeing a family of four on a scooter is pretty common. Most riders wear patterned mouthmasks to keep out dirt and pollution. Its just kind of how it is.

Okay, so. We took a taxi from the airport. He pulled over, pointed down a narrow lane where cars clearly cc would not fit, pointed, and drove off. Our hotel is lovely though. The staff and people are just so nice. On Tuesday night we arranged to go on a boat to Halong Bay Wed-Thurs. So we woke up on Wednesday waiting for a ride to the coast. I got up early so I went wandering around, inthe rain. I found the best coffee I've had this trip. A "Take Away Coffee" was advertised, so I went in. the man poured coffee from a plastic water bottle into a saucepan, heated it up, dumped it into a red solo cup, and put a straw in. Delicious, thick, black coffee syrup! I might have to go find that guy tomorrow.

Halong bay is an amazing place full of amazing. I took lots and lots and lots of photos, but don't have them on the right device so far. Google it. That place is real and we went there! We went to a huge cave! We went ashore and swam around and climbed to the top and looked around. Lisa caught a squid!!! We kayaked in a nice lagoon. It's one of those places. Go there. Plus, the people in our group were all super nice. One of the guys had a s erious case of resting bitch face,.  but you can't win em all. Our tour guide, Van, was the cutest. So funny! The scenery and the food and the hotel are important but it really is the people that make our vacations, and so far the Vietnamese people are awesome.

We got back from that journey at around 430 today. We went for rooftop coffee (cold, with cocoa and yoghurt... yup... it was weird but good!) and then had delicious street food. We saw Hanoi's water puppet theatre, had a nice BIA Hoi, and that will be all for tonight. Tomorrow we fly to Siam Reap, in Cambodia. We will see big Wats there. If you haven't heard of it, Google Angkor Wat. We will go to there! We are excited for hot weather, culture, and Cambodian food!

We are having fun and doing lots of activities. We heard it is super cold back in Toronto. Sorry!?

Lisa says: I caught a squid! Almost! I had it and then when I went to bring it in, it flipped off. I almost caught a squid!!