City in Pictures: Hanoi, Vietnam

I've decided to start a new series, "Cities in Pictures". My goal in life is to travel to as many places around the world. During those travels I will take pictures to not only remember the places I've been, but capture their spirit. All pictures are taken by me, and I ask that none are used without permission. Please enjoy a look at the first City in Pictures, Hanoi, Vietnam!

From the top of my hostel I am able to see just how crowded the city is. City planning does not exist, and the same cheap materials make up most of the buildings. Even from this height the never ending cacophony of the streets surrounds us. 

There is a railroad which runs through town, is it in use? I don't think so. There's so safety barriers and the shops are all very close to the tracks. 

A visit to the Temple of Literature shows the dirt and grime with seems to coat the city. Opaque reflection pools of green, weathered monuments. 

Along the streets you see traditional sights, mainly that of women selling local foods. They can be pushy, yelling at you as you wait to cross the street and shoving bananas and pineapples into your hand and demanding money.

Traffic laws are something unknown in the city. Most streetlights don't work, and the streets are so busy that traffic moves at a slow pace. There aren't many sidewalks, and the ones that are there usually have tiny plastic chairs where locals sit crowding the walkway.

The streets are crammed with buildings and the power lines are a cross-crossing mess. It's very easy to get turned around and completely lose your way, but that also leads to great possibility for adventure and exploration.

The pho is fantastic. A light, crisp meal in a bowl that fills you up so you can continue going about your day. Walking along the road you'll see a small shop with people outside, just go in and grab a bowl. Hanoi doesn't really have restaurants, and I think that's fantastic.

Banh mi is a must. Vietnam is great at marrying flavorful meats with fresh vegetables in ways you can't get anywhere else. Not to mention the bread. The bread is just so, so good. It's a light lunch to pick up as you walk towards your night sight.

The center of town boasts a lake. Foreigners line the red bridge to see the Temple of the Jade Mountain. The lake is also home to endangered soft-shell turtles that lucky visitors may get a chance to see. 

The water puppet theater to the north of Hoan Kiem lake is an enjoyable way to spend an hour of your day, even if you can't understand Vietnamese. It's a unique production you'll be hard-pressed to find anywhere else.

Most of the streets themselves are covered in a canopy of bright green trees. It's amazing to see the branches appearing to emerge from the buildings themselves. The abundance of trees leads to nice, shady strolls through the tropical city.

Souvenir shops line most main streets, all housing the same goods packed into their stores, waiting to sell to unsuspecting tourists looking for something unique to bring home.

Remnants of the French occupation are still prevalent around the city, best shown by the dreary looking Notre Dame near the center of town. The gates which surround it give it a feel of an era long past.

At night the streets come alive with stalls selling anything you could think of. It's refreshing to not worry about traffic for once while walking along the roads, and the sound of car horns is replaced by the sound of music.

A food tour is a must in the city. Not only are you guided along by a local you get to try foods you never would have dreamed of. There are so many little set ups of all these different dishes lining the roads, it's hard to tell which are good and which are not-so-good. Hint: It's almost always good if there are people around!

Hope you enjoyed this first city in pictures! Please click on the images for better quality shots!

Cambodia: Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

It’s been a while since I have written about my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. It was so long ago now that I feel a little silly typing it up after so much time. I’ve decided to put both Cambodian cities in the same post, as there really wasn’t that much difference between the two.

Our first stop was in the capital of Phnom Penh. The city was much larger than I expected, mainly because Hanoi has completely thrown off any expectations I had previously. It felt like a huge metro area with large roads, regular grocery stores, and an easy to follow layout. The hostel we stayed at was located right near the royal palace and pretty much everything else I wanted to do in the city.

Central Market in Phnom Penh

The first thing I noticed, however, was the heat. I am from Florida so I am no stranger to the all-encompassing humid kinda heat that you get in more tropical climates, but I’ve lived the last couple years in Sapporo where you’re in a jacket ten months of the year, so my body is out of practice with heat. And boy, does Cambodia really know how to do heat. The worst part is that there is very little escape from it when you’re outside, the tree lined roads of Vietnam aren’t a thing in Cambodia and walks around town are just you and the sun and heat. I mean, it’s beautiful out there with the cloudless skies but that just means it’s always, always hot.

Thankfully the hostels will have air conditioning in the room if you do it right, the hostel we stayed at in Phnom Penh was really nice and we ended up with an entire female dorm to ourselves. It was cleaned and the staff were really nice. Cambodian people are just really nice. They want you there, which is a big difference to the Vietnamese. The Cambodians have realized just how valuable foreign tourism is to their country and they are doing every single thing that they can to ensure it continues. The Vietnamese also embrace the tourism but in a very aggressive way. The Japanese, on the other hand, only want foreigners to stay in their nice little foreign bubbles, in my experience.

Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

In Phnom Penh the pace slowed down a lot, which isn’t hard coming from Hanoi. We went to the Royal Palace which was amazingly beautiful, but where I learned that the Heat is going to be an issue on this trip and that Water is my new best friend in the entire world. It doesn’t help that when you’re going to 90% of the tourist spots in Cambodia they double as a sacred place, which means your knees and shoulders should be covered. Which means you’re wearing way more clothes than you would like to. Shawls aren’t really acceptable either. So you’ll be walking around these amazingly beautiful places that you’ll likely never see again and half your focus will be on “man, I really don’t want to climb those ten steps into that hot palace building but I gotta do it, oh goodness why is climbing ten steps so difficult where is my water bottle. I made it! Thank goodness I made it. Now I need a rest.”

There was one point at the Royal Palace where they have all these chairs and fans set up (because people have to remove their shoes to go into the hall) and everyone is just sitting there by the fans and you can tell you’re all in this miserable heat together. This was also when I realized that even surrounded by foreigners I stand out as a foreigner. In Japan, I am usually one of only a few foreigners in an area. Maybe walking in a busy shopping area I’ll see a few others, but we’re a huge minority. At these spots I was visiting I would say that it was usually half foreign tourists and half domestic. Yet, I constantly attracted the attention of the natives. I didn’t really expect this to happen because I was constantly surrounded by people who look very similar to me, but for some reason my “foreignness” is extra special. My height? My extreme paleness? My beauty? I don’t know. But it was something that really surprised me. Because in America I have always just felt very “average” (outside of being a six foot female…).

National Museum in Phnom Penh

That being said, none of the tourist spots you will go to in Cambodia will have air conditioning. It’s a very hot experience. Pretty much the only time you will have any relief from the heat is when you are in your hostel or in a large, modern shopping complex. The markets are outdoors, the museums are outdoors, the temples are outdoors. So you need water, lots of water.

Now, in Vietnam water was cheap. Like the kinda cheap you don’t really even think about. You may your pennies for the huge water bottle and you drink and drink and pay pennies for another. In Cambodia, though, you can pay almost a dollar for 1.5 liters. Now, that doesn’t sound like much compared to bottle water in the States or even Japan, but when your ONLY option for water is to buy it, and you’re drinking maybe 6 liters a day of the stuff, it adds up. That was probably the biggest downfall, how expensive the water was.

In Phnom Penh we had the chance to take a day trip out to, what I would consider, one of the most moving experiences I have ever had traveling. I’ve heard references to the Khmer Rouge growing up, it’s a name I am familiar with but I never really knew why it was familiar. In Cambodia I learned a lot of the history of the country, which is one of the very important parts of traveling to me. I want to learn about the country I am visiting, not just visit a bunch of tourist spots because I can. There is an entire country of people who have histories that are just as detailed and important as my own countries. As an American I think this is a very important thing to do, because it is very easy to just get caught up in the influence America has globally and not really realize that there is an entire world of people outside of your own country.

Mass graves at the killing field

This day trip we took was to a killing field. For some reason the name didn’t really have the impact that it should have when we first started the trip. I’ve watched countless Holocaust documentaries and I have studied the awful things other countries did during WWII. But, it’s always had this distance behind it. We got to the killing field and they have these audio guides for you to take for free. You put the headphones on and suddenly you’re in your own little world. The sun is shining and the sky is blue and this man’s voice comes on and he just starts telling you all these awful things that have happened right where you’re standing. Then you walk on when he tells you to and you realize all those holes in the ground? Those didn’t have one body in them, not even a dozen bodies, they had hundreds. Each of the dozens of holes had hundreds of bodies in them. Then there’s warnings to step carefully because bones get brought to the surface every so often. And that tree? That tree is where they bashed the heads of children.

It’s a dark and it’s a devastating and it’s an awful, awful place. But it’s important. It’s important to see what can and has happened, just what we are capable of if we’re not careful. It’s so weird, knowing that people were trapped where I was walking, and I can just look over a fence and there is this huge open area of green with cows grazing. It seems so beautiful and peaceful until you realize that where you are standing someone died. A lot of someones, really.

I think it is important to note that the things that I enjoyed the most out of the trip were usually the things that I didn’t plan to do. The food tour in Hanoi was a last minute addition as was the trip to the killing field. I do a lot of planning for traveling, but I always make sure to leave plenty of time to do things that I didn’t realize were an option, or that maybe sounded horrible on paper (“Why would I want to visit a killing field on my vacation???”) but after hearing everyone I talk to say how much I have to do it, I add it in. I think that balance of planning and free time is crucial for a great trip.

Pub Street in Siem Reap

Siem Reap was the next city, and most of that time was spent at Angkor Wat, which I will write in my next Vietnam and Cambodia post. Siem Reap was a fun city, and I think it is a complete tourist town. The only thing that city really has going for it is Angkor Wat and it shows. Pub Street had more cuisines from around the world than I have seen in a long time, and there are foreigners everywhere. You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t speak some English and it just feels really comfortable.

We stayed at a hostel near the night market and Pub Street and I think that is the perfect place to stay. Angkor Wat is a ways out of the city proper, so you’re going to have to travel to get there regardless. Might as well stay where all the fun stuff happens! When we weren’t at Angkor Wat we were walking around, and we managed to get a massage which was well worth the break. But there really isn’t much to do in the city itself, so I don’t suggest allotting too much time outside of Angkor Wat.

This house is on a lake

We did make a trip over to Tonle Sap, though. While the trip itself was slightly weird due to the two of us being the only two people on the entire river boat with a crew of nearly ten and a sick sea boat driver, the actual lake lake itself ("sap" means "lake") was fascinating. It is covered in a floating village. People just live there, floating and fishing in the middle of SE Asia's biggest lake. In the rainy reason I believe you can even travel between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh via this lake.

Cambodia, while hot, was a great experience. It's a very simple country and the people are very nice and welcoming. Maybe one day I will make it back to Cambodia, I could see myself returning there, that's for sure. Maybe not in the hottest month of the year, though!

All photos were taken by me. Please don't use without permission, I hold all copyrights!

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

The never ending cries of car horns and the random bawking of the street chickens had only just begun by the time I awoke in the early hours of the morning on March twenty-sixth. It was an exciting day, probably the day I really looked forward to the most out of all of them on this two week trip. I was finally going to get to Ha Long Bay, a place I had seen in travel shows and on various travel websites across the internet. A place that I couldn't experience anywhere else, a natural formation found no where else in the world.

I'm unsure, really, where I first learned of Ha Long Bay. For years I have dreamed of sailing through it's limestone karsts, thousands of them emerging from the water like some strange mythical beings. Perhaps it was a post on Reddit that brought it to my attention, or maybe some sort of documentary features natural wonders of the world. All I know is that is has been near the top of my list of "must-see" places in the world, along with Angkor Wat (check!) and Machu Picchu.

It was honestly one of the main reasons I had come to Vietnam, let along Hanoi. And I didn't mind having to wake up with the sun in order to see it.

I had a long day ahead of me, the drive out to Ha Long Bay would be at least four hours, as Hanoi isn't that close to the coast and highways aren't really a "thing" in Vietnam yet. I had debated for months if a day trip would be enough, and looking back I would say that it was definitely worth it. There were a number of other packages you could choose from outside of the day trip that me and my friend eventually decided on, ranging from two days and one night to over a week. I honestly can't see more than two days out there being worthwhile, Our one day trip was around $60, if I am remembering correctly, and the multi-day trips are all $100 plus dollars.

We were picked up right on time and our tour guide was a young, energetic Vietnamese man. After a brief trip around the city to pick up our fellow cruisemates we were on our way to the Bay. The guide we had was very knowledgeable and seemed to really enjoy what he was doing, and I believe that in this sort of situation the tour guide can make or break the experience. I learned a lot about Vietnamese culture, about the four sacred animals (turtle, dragon, phoenix, and "unicorn") as well as the meaning behind some common Vietnamese city names.

Four hours in a small bus isn't ideal by any stretch of the word, and midway through I thought my bladder was going to burst, but just when I started eyeing my water bottle as a source of relief we pulled into the definition of a"tourist trap". I am from Orlando, Florida, mind you, and I have never seen a place fit the image of a "trap for tourists" more than the rest stop we were brought to both to and from Ha Long Bay. Inside is dozen of women creating these (amazing) woven pictures, along with other gimmicky souvenirs. You have to walk the entire length of the building, coming out the other side to a newly cleaned and gassed up bus 30 minutes later.

I consider myself lucky with the group that I had for the tour. The people traveling with us to Ha Long Bay were so nice and I met one of the most interesting families, a married couple with two children (plus the daughter's boyfriend) who have lived all over the world thanks to the mother's job. The father was especially interesting to talk to, having so many insights into the world he has traveled. As someone who hopes to continue her worldly adventures into her middle years of life, it was inspiring to see a married couple able to do that, along with their very well adapted and well rounded children. The son, an early teen that was currently on remote schooling while they lived in Kuala Lumpur, spent almost the entire ride talking about Lord Of The Flies with his newly college-aged sister.

At roughly midday we arrived at the port of Ha Long city, the area surrounding the harbor was showing definite signs of development. The hopes of making Ha Long Bay a standalone destination for vacation rather than a day trip from Hanoi were everywhere you looked; a newly opened movie theater, resorts under construction, billboards in English. The docks were busy and full of life, the boats varying in size and color, all with one goal in common - get as many tourists around the bay as possible. It was a bustling center and I found myself wondering off to test out my camera.

It didn't take long for us to get our tickets and board a tiny, tiny little boat that was to ferry us to the larger day cruiser we would have lunch and explore the bay on. Apparently the boat was too big to fit into a docking station so we had to brave the slightly choppy sea in a slightly sketchy looking vessel. But thanks to good fortune we survived and I happily jumped onto the boat I would call home for the next few hours. Little did I know this was only the beginning of my boat parkour during this trip, I believe my trip to Tonle Sap completely removed any fear of boat hopping I once possessed.

As a related aside, I had a bit of anxiety when I booked this tour. I grew up on a small peninsula in the large peninsula of Florida. The small suburban city my parents live in resides in the middle of the lake so boats and jet skis are nothing  new to me. It wasn't until I visited the father of an ex-boyfriend and joined them for a day of deep sea fishing that I learned of my greatest weakness. As I sat on the floor of the fishing boat, hugging my knees to my chest and getting battered my rouge mahi-mahi while hoping the Divine Force Of The Universe would deliver me safely from this hell I was living in I learned that I get seasick. Not the, "hold one while I go feed the fishes" kind of seasick but the "I would give anything to vomit but sadly I cannot do anything but feel awful". Even Dramamine didn't do much to aide in the misery that is deepsea travel to my insides (I tried that months later when we visited again).

Due to this fact I was very, very nervous that I would spend my dream day huddle in a corner of the ship while my dreams little drifted by me. I love being on the water, I love swimming, I love boats, I love the ocean. My first memories are learning to swim and nothing is better that a sea breeze across my face. Our trip out into the bay was spent eating up some fantastically wonderful food, I didn't eat too much thank to the issue mentioned above (though it was more due to the fact that I didn't want to risk upsetting my stomach and less of the fact that I felt motion sick). The food really was fantastic, and we were given a lot of it. I was impressed.

Once we were done eating the group of us went to the top deck of the boat to view the first of the  karsts. The day was overcast and a lurid mist shrouded the bay, which actually gave it an otherworldly effect. While a blue sky would have been nice, the gray skies provided a nice ambiance I didn't mind.

We spent a while driving through dozens of the tiny islands, and I found myself overwhelmed by the fact that I Did It. I had made it here and I was in one of The Places. And in less than a week I would be in Angkor Wat. It was at this point that the fact of me being on this trip really sunk in, that I truly felt like I was Here Now.

After a few minutes of slowly making our way through the limestone formations we made it to a tiny floating village. For an extra few dollars we could either take a kayak trip around two of the larger karsts or have a local woman ferry us around the same area. Due to my laziness and my desire to take pictures I opted for the latter option. Also I am probably the least coordinated person that you have ever met. Regardless, the second scary boat hop happened of the day and I was situated on a handmade boat with some middle-aged Asians and a Vietnamese woman whose arms must be stronger than any of the guys I know.

The boat ride around the karsts was great, and it was awesome to get so close to the islands. We went through a few small tunnels and were even serenaded by some local woman's singing. I believe she was pregnant. And rowing a boat.

Afterwards we were ushered back onto the boat and then taken to a very large limestone island. After jumping onto one on of the same small ferry boats that took us from the docks we disembarked onto our final site in Ha Long Bay. A Giant Cavern Whose Name I Have Forgotten. At this point being on non-moving ground was very strange. But the cave was awesome and lit up by really colorful lighting. We made our way through it and our tour guide proved, again, that he was awesome and full of knowledge.

After we were all safely back on the boat we began to head back towards the harbor. Our time in Ha Long Bay was over and I was filled with a happiness that I can only feel while traveling, and it is a reason I will do it for as long as my body can manage. I also practiced my selfie game, since I seriously lack the ability to take a decent picture of myself in that fashion. I'm still not very good at it.

We arrived safely back at Ha Long City and piled into the minibus, I was equal parts tired and excited and the drive back to Hanoi went quicker than the drive to Ha Long Bay, and over 12 hours after we left the hostel in the morning we were back long after the sun had set.

All photos are taken by my and I hold all the rights to them. Please do not use them unless given permission to directly from me. Thanks!!

Hanoi, Vietnam

I realize that it’s been over two months since I returned from my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia and I have posted next to nothing about the experience on here. Sorry, life got in the way! But I really do want to record all the things that I felt and learned on the trip, so I’m writing it now! I’ve actually written a couple of entries over these last couple of months, but I’ve just never felt like posting them for a couple of reasons. So, I am going to break these entries into their respective cities/locations and hope for the best!

The first city that I visited was Hanoi, the northern capital of Vietnam. When I landed in the city it was well into the night and I took a prearranged taxi from the airport to the hostel I was staying at in the Old Quarter. Most of the ride was dark and uninspiring. I’d spent the better part of the day sitting in airports wishing layovers weren’t a real thing and direct flights were affordable, so by the time I had reached Hanoi with my friend I was completely Out Of It.

The more into the city we got, though, the more I began to notice that this place wasn’t like any city I have ever been in. The buildings were the first thing that really caught my eye, there are no big department stores like in Japan, no sprawling megacenters like America, just cramped, multi-story, thin things that looked as if they were pieced together by a child trying to make her own image of a city. The darkness held many of the details from me but I knew that this would be a place to explore. And I was excited!

We got to the hostel and had rooms on the first floor, something I will try to desperately avoid in the future as it’s so noisy. The hostel itself would prove to have its own “quirks” as the days rolled on and I can’t say I will ever recommend anyone to step foot near the place in the future. Let’s just say running water was a luxury in the building, and it wasn’t a Hanoi issue, but a “this hostel sucks” issue. Not to mention the random vomiting dorm mate sleeping above me. So relaxing!

Our first actual day of Hanoi was an early one, as would be a trend for most of the trip. We headed out to the Temple of Literature and then walked towards the One Pillar Pagoda, running into Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum along the way. I had no intention of really seeing that last one, but it was definitely like being in some weird movie with all of the flags of Communism everywhere. We also spent some time walking around the area that our hostel was in, the Old Quarter, which is just north of the main lake in town, Hoan Kiem. It was a mass of people and moving vehicles. I have never felt more alive and in danger of sudden death in my life. It was truly awesome.

Traffic rules aren’t really a thing in most of Indochina, it seems. While there were street lights telling cars when they should go and stop, most didn’t seem to even been turned on, and the rest weren’t followed. What we were left to contend with was a never ending stream of motorbikes and cars. The former outnumbering the later 20:1, easily. Once you got the hang of how things worked, walking around the tiny, narrow streets wasn’t nearly as dangerous as you would think just by stepping outside and seeing the swerving, honking death traps driving by.

The traffic actually doesn’t move that fast in the city, I don’t think most cars or motorbikes were going over 35 mph, and I would say most were well under that. The bikes would actually pay you some mind, going in front of you until you reach the halfway mark of the crosswalk and then going behind you. Basically, you just gotta walk like you own the place and everyone else will follow what you do. Running across the street isn’t very wise, as it’s more difficult for the bikes to predict where you’ll be, and randomly stopping will surely get you injured. Just walk at a normal pace, pretending you are not currently walking across an intersection that has dozens of moving vehicles coming at you full speed.

Most of our days were spent in a similar fashion, going to see various sites and eating local food. The weather wasn’t the best, as late March is the start of their rainy season, but compared to the heat we felt in the southern cities we went to, I would gladly take the overcast drizzle.

The city was just amazing to walk around. I feel like I could spend my entire like there and never see everything. There are so many stores, so many places to eat, so many people. It’s as if someone took an entire city and just squished it in their hands so that it was a fraction of the size it was before. Buildings have no space between them, sidewalks are covered in plastic tables and chairs that are designed for American children, and there is no such thing as silence due to the never-ending chorus of car horns.

There was just so much life and character to the city. It really felt like no city I had ever been before. It had its own personality and while I don’t think I could ever live there, I can definitely see myself going back. I would say the nightlife in Hanoi is great, but I never got to experience it, so that’s what I would like to do. It’s just hard to go out drinking with locals when you gotta share a bedroom with strangers and wake up at 6am to sit in a van for four hours one way on the way to one of your Bucket List destinations.

But probably the best thing I did in Hanoi was actually the thing I didn’t plan on doing, a food tour. When I booked my day trip to Ha Long Bay the woman suggested that we do this food tour as well, so I got it. It was awesome. I ate so many things I never would have dreamed to eat and I felt like I truly got to experience the real Hanoi. My host was great and if you’re ever in the city I really, really think you should go on one of them! I didn’t even have a hint at an upset stomach. For $22 I got to eat enough food to last me a week, and it was all amazing. The only thing I wish is that I would have done it for lunch instead of for dinner, because I definitely wasn’t hungry enough for all of the food!

Hanoi was the city I was most hesitant to visit, and the main reason I went there was because it was so close to Ha Long Bay, but I am so glad I did. It was the first stop of the trip, and my favorite city that we visited. I cannot recommend it enough!

All pictures were taken by me on the trip. I hold all of the rights and please do not use any of them without first asking me and giving me credit. Thanks!

VietBodia 2015: How to Find a Hostel

Click here to read part one: Early Planning!

Welcome to the second installment of my VietBodia2015 series! I have completely failed at my "post every four days" plan, and I actually wrote this post the same day as the first one (which just makes it worse). Sorry! I'll hopefully get the others out before my leave date... but I won't make any promises.

This second post will focus on hostels. As I am a very cheap person, I love hostels. And traveling anywhere in the Mekong/Indochina region will give you plenty of cheap places to stay. The dollar is very strong there, and both Vietnam and Cambodia accept the currency. Vietnam also uses their national currency, the dong, but Cambodia uses dollars almost exclusively.

I’ve gone on a number of trips around Japan and have stayed at great hostels along the way. Granted, the hostels in Japan will likely be quite a bit different from those in Vietnam and Cambodia, but I imagine the experience to be similar. I really, really enjoy staying in hostels for a number of reasons.

One of the most enjoyable parts of staying in a hostel in a foreign country is that you can meet other people like you and take a break from the “foreignness” of the place you’re in. If you’re traveling alone you can meet a travel partner, or if you want suggestions of places to go you can likely find someone to give you suggestions. They have common areas with computers and televisions and even kitchens where you can socialize, and it appears that many of the hostels in Vietnam and Cambodia double as bars, making the walk home at the end of the night that much better (and safer)!

Since I’ve mentioned bars, I think it is important to note that hostels are usually not very quiet places. You can find more basic hostels that aren’t as social and focused more on just providing a place to sleep, but I personally would put up with the noise to meet awesome people I couldn’t meet anywhere else. I’ve met people from all over the world and it’s always great to stay up late talking to people and sharing your culture and learning about theirs.

Finding a hostel is very easy, I was actually shocked at just how easy it was when I first started staying at them. There are a number of websites you can use to find hostels. http://hostels.com/ and http://hostelworld.com/ are the two that I most often use. I highly recommend looking at multiple websites before deciding your hostel. For this trip I used Hostel World mainly, for no particular reason other than I have used Hostels.com in the past and wanted to check out Hostel World. But I double checked all of my choices on Hostels.com before deciding!

Using these websites are super easy, when using hostelworld.com you see the main page asks for a city and a length of stay. I’d enter “Hanoi” and click on the city when it pops up in the drop down menu, then change the dates to “March 24” and “March 28” since those are the days I’ll be there, and leave the guests at 2.

Right away you get loads of results. These can be daunting. It’s automatically sorted by availability, which I think is useless. I usually begin by sorting by rating and seeing the prices for the highest rated options. The top hostels range between \1000-\1500, but I switched it to US dollars because that’s what I’ll be using there, and that changes to $8-$12. How cheap! Now, since it is so cheap I could probably stay anywhere I wanted to, but chances are these highly rated hostels don’t have a lot of reviews. I would rather stay at a place rated 90% with 500 reviews than 100% with 10.

Now that I know the price range, I like to fiddle with the settings on the left hand side, hostels.com also has a nearly identical setup. The sliders for price and rating are what I focus on, as they are the most helpful. For this trip I moved the price down to $10 max and the rating to 83%. Then I sort it by price and see the cheapest options with this limits. There are a lot of acceptable hostels at $5 a night, so that is what I set my budget to reflect.

After finding a hostel that looks good with a good number of reviews and a good rating, I look at the page itself. The pictures are the first thing I look at. How does the common area look? What is the design of the bedrooms? How about the bathrooms? These pictures alone will knock out a good number of options. Then I read the descriptions, which are usually written by the staff. If they sound nice and friendly, it makes me like them. Then, I see what kind of rooms they have available. You usually get a few types of rooms at hostels, and you have to be careful when picking one.

There are “mixed” and/or “private” rooms at every hostel. The former is shared with many people, while the latter is just you. I have decided on mixed rooms for my trip, as it’s super easy to make friends that way. Though you have to deal with people coming and going at all hours, but that hasn’t really been a huge issue in that past. Though it is sometimes jarring to wake up to a shirtless man hunched over his bag at 2am, I honestly feel there is little danger in the situation, since nearly all hostels are guarded by security (don’t stay if they aren’t) and you will know who is in your room. Anyone who is stupid enough to try something in a hostel probably won’t be that big of a threat. And if you’re staying with someone else you’ll never be alone.

Private rooms are good, I’ve not often stayed in one, as they are more pricy and I would rather spend the money on other things, but be careful when booking. If you book a four bed private for $10 per person, you will have to pay $40 for that room regardless if you have 2 or 3 people, and you cannot put five people in a four bed private room. Also, if you’re getting a two person room, be sure that if you get a 2 person double you don’t mind sharing a double bed! If you want a separate bed you’re stuck looking for a 2 person twin, which can be difficult to find and another reason I opted for the mixed dorms!

After I see that the price and type of room is okay, I move onto the reviews. I read the really good reviews first to see what positives the hostel has. After that I read a view of the not-so-good reviews, usually those who gave it 60-70% and see what their issues are. If there are a lot of the same complaints, it’s likely a large issue. Always read with an objective eye and know that sometimes hostels are having a bad week, or maybe that person is just hard to please. Often people go into hostels with unrealistic expectations, like complaining that the bar way noisy. Of course it was! You stayed at a place with a bar. It comes with the territory. And honestly at $5 a night as long as the toilet flushes and the shower runs I can accept almost anything!

The best part about using websites like these are that they have a handy “Facilities” section near the bottom of the main page which gives you a quick list of things the hostel offers. Must haves for me are 24 hour security, air conditioning, free WiFi or internet access, hot showers, lockers, and linen included. There are others that are bonuses, but if the place doesn’t have all of these I likely won’t stay there at all. In my experience the vast majority do.

Booking the hostel is really easy! All you have to do is just select how many people you want for the room and enter your information. Making an account speeds up the process. You’ll have to do a downpayment on the booking, which is usually 15% of the total cost, at the time of making the reservation. But the rest will be available upon arrival. For an extra couple bucks you can even gain the ability to change your reservation and get that downpayment back!

Once you’ve booked your hostel you’re set. The hostel should email you within a couple of days to verify your reservation, and at that point you can ask them any other questions you have. Can they arrange pick up at an airport (there’s an option for that in the “Facilities” section so look for that if you want it!), can they help you arrange tours to different sites, is there anything they recommend doing in the city, those type of things.

The best thing to remember about hostels is, you're only using them to sleep. When you're traveling around you won't be spending much time inside it's walls, only to socialize in the common rooms or grab a few hours of rest before you're off on another early morning adventure. And it's temporary. If you can remind yourself of these things, you will likely really enjoy staying in a hostel. Sure, there are awful ones that have gross old sheets and disgusting showers and broken toilets, but the majority won't!

Have you ever stayed in a hostel in Asia? How about Europe? I'm curious to know how the two regions compare. Hopefully one day I'll get to know first hand! ;)

VietBodia 2015: How To Plan a Trip to Vietnam and Cambodia

For the past month(ish) I have been planning a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia with one of my friends! We will be leaving later this month for a 16 day, 4 city tour of these two countries so I thought I’d make a series of it on here. So welcome to #VietBodia2015! Hopefully “VietBodia” isn’t offensive, but who knows.

I’ve got roughly ten posts planned out, starting with this one. Five before the trip and five after. Since I’m leaving in 20-something days, I am going to try and get a post out every four days!

Here is a list of posts I am hoping to make over the next few weeks, I’ll add links to the posts as I make them for easy access!

1. Early stages of planning a trip (what you’re currently reading!)

2. Hostels: What kind of experience do you want?

3. Traveling between countries and visa processes.

4. Places I want to visit in Vietnam and Cambodia

5. Packing: Is “backpacking” really possible?

There are five post-trip posts I have planned, but I can deal with that later. J

The early stages of planning a trip are always the most exciting for me. I decided randomly that I wanted to travel in April, as I have the entire month free of work. After I acquired a traveling buddy, I began my fervent planning process. I love planning things. Sometimes I feel like I missed my true calling when I get into planning, but then I remember just how all-consuming and how much of my entire life it takes up and I realize that doing this every day for the rest of my life would easily kill me.

The first step of any trip is deciding how long the trip should be. It was originally going to be a Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand trip of roughly three weeks, but due to some outstanding circumstances my travel buddy wasn’t able to have as much time off as originally expected, so we cut Thailand from the trip. Vietnam and Cambodia have places that I must see, whereas Thailand doesn’t (plus she’d been there before).

Once a rough outline of days (two weeks) was picked for the trip, I began researching the places that I wanted to visit. This involved Excel and lots of googling. The site http://visit-mekong.com/ was a great resource for learning about different sites and their locations. So I recommend it if you’re traveling in the Indochina area! Japan has a similar site (http://www.japan-guide.com/) that I’ve used for planning trips in the past. Lonely Planet (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/) is always a good choice, but I prefer sites that are focused more on the area I am visiting. Googling things like “top places to visit in Vietnam” or “must see spots in Cambodia” are also great ways of finding the things that you can’t miss out on when traveling. Later you can go in and add little places to visit once you see how much time you will have.

This is my actual Excel sheet.

Now, because I love planning, I take this spot a step further. I like to open Google Maps and type in all these places and see which ones are located where, and then decide a rough daily schedule based on these locations. Things that are closer together get seen on the same day. Places which close early get seen early in the morning. While this may sound time consuming, it really isn’t, and it gets me super excited for the trip as I get to actually see where it is I will be going. This daily schedule also makes me see how much time I really need to dedicate to each thing and finalize the number of days that would be best for each city I am going to.

We’ve decided on four nights in Hanoi, a flight to Ho Chi Minh and a bus to Phnom Penh that same day. Two nights will be spent in Phnom Penh followed by an overnight bus to Siem Reap with a four night stay there. Finally an overnight bus back to Phnom Penh and a bus back to Ho Chi Minh with a two night stay there. This may sound kind of crazy, but a round trip ticket from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh was very, very cheap and this is the easiest way to do that!

Now that the dates have been decided, it is time to book the flight! This is where I got in trouble with my friend. We waited far too long to actually do this, as it took time to finalize the amount of time we would have free. Due to this, we missed out on the perfect flight by hours. When I checked it at school it was there and when I got home that evening it was gone. We booked the tickets almost exactly a month in advance, and that was cutting it really close. I strongly suggest booking it earlier than that. The prices didn’t change much over the span of the weeks, one of the flights we needed just got full so we couldn’t get the days we wanted. We ended up pushing the trip back two days (because that makes sense…) to get a much cheaper flight, which just meant that I needed to take a couple of my last days of work off. Oh well!

We are flying via Korean Air from Sapporo, with a six hour layover in Seoul before landing in Hanoi late at night. This sucks, but can’t be helped. It’s part of traveling overseas. You’re going to lose a day no matter what. I’m sure if you book well in advance and are willing to dish out more money for premium flight times you could spend only half a day flying from Japan to Vietnam, but we aren’t those people. The flight back is similar, flight from Ho Chi Minh early in the afternoon to a 10pm flight from Hanoi to Seoul. Landing in Seoul at 5am and a five hour wait until our flight back to Sapporo. At least I can say I’ve been to Korea!

These are the early stages of planning. Once all this had been decided it is time to move onto the next exciting part, deciding where to stay! My friend and I have decided on staying at some hostels in each city, because they’re cheap and I love staying in hostels when traveling. Look out for the next blog post where I go into detail about hostels!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and that it is helpful (or inspirational) to your travels! I’d love to hear how you plan trips, so leave your methods in the comments!

Here’s some questions for you:

Have you ever been to Vietnam or Cambodia? What do you suggest doing there? If not, have you ever wanted to go?

How long does it take you to plan for trips and what are the things you do early on in deciding how the trip will pan out?

Click here for part 2 about hostels!

[Picture Post] Winter 2011: Kobe, Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto

My first winter living in Japan I took a trip to the Kansai area with two of my friends from my company. The two guys, Joe and Ben, who I traveled with worked for the same company as me and we had training together. As they lived in Kyushu and I in Yamaguchi we met up in Kobe and had a little adventure for a couple of weeks. Here are a few pictures from that trip nearly three years ago.














If you're curious as to where I went and what I did during this vacation, let me know and I'll see about making a post about what I can remember. It was a while ago, so I can't promise much!

I hope you all enjoyed these pictures! Have a wonderful day!