We finally arrived at the Joy Libi Guesthouse in Ninh Binh starved at about 11:30 p.m. The hostess graciously offered us ChocoPies, which are exactly what one would expect from the name. We crashed quickly, and got up the next morning. I had my first salt coffee. It was pretty good, tasted like caramel. The […]
We slept well, and woke up to rain. The forecast suggested that chances of rain would diminish as the day went on. We decided to go to the Thung Namh Bird Park, as we’d heard it was kind of a hidden gem. I don’t know if it’s just that it was Sunday, but the place […]
Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. It is very near Siem Reap, so there are a bunch of tours to various fishing villages. We’ve been told that the closest one is a tourist trap, full of scams. Kompong Khleang is the furthest from Siem Reap, and the most authentic. We signed […]
Here we were on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, longingly looking at the water. We signed up to go out on a boat, but it had been too windy as of late, and the skipper had vetoed several days. Finally, it was our time. There were seven of us, the Austrians, Peter and […]
Sunrise To an inveterate sunset junkie, it is forgivable to have forgotten that there are also things we call sunrises. When one’s hotel room looks out across the Mekong River to Laos, facing East, one is quickly reminded of sunrises. We got up early for breakfast so that we could make it to the immigration […]
By the way, if you are seeing this in an email because you have subscribed, I remind you, you can view this post in stevenellen.com by clicking on the title, or the view on website link above. I know the picture is a bit of a bait and switch. We were lucky enough to see […]
We ended the tour with a iconic “long-tail” boat ride through some of Bangkok’s canals. For those who aren’t familiar, these boats have huge motors in the back with propellor shafts that extend about 8 feet past the stern of the boat. The area we toured is considered a poor neighborhood. A room starts at […]
We had planned our snorkeling adventure with Caveman Tours (Caveman pictured above) on Tuesday. Tuesday and Wednesday had winds of 21 and 24 knots respectively. We opted for waiting until a calmer day. Our first stop was to feed the Tarpons. Next we were lucky enough to see a manatee. They can stay underwater for […]
Carmen told us that if there is only one tour, this is the one. We took off in the morning with four of her other guests, a Brazilian couple and two young Romanian women. First Stop: Fuel. We were picked up at Carmen’s dock, then stopped at one of the docks. There was a lot […]
We went to the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal today. Quick reminder: France tried to build the canal in late 1800’s, and it almost bankrupted them. U.S. took over in 1903, but not before they basically sent gunships down and told Colombia that either they would grant Panama independence and get a bunch of […]
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