Weasel Coffee Da Lat

We decided to travel to Da Lat on the recommendation of MANY Vietnamese people who assured us the weather is lovely : meaning a reprieve from the heat of the coast.

Hanoi!

We both have gotten quite lazy with posts which is unfortunate. I have been spending more time writing in a personal journal to keep track of things. We are in the final week before heading back to Canada. I can not believe it.

Vietnam was added to our destination list for obvious reasons…the food! Of all the things I was missing from home it was Vietnamese food (now after three weeks of indulgence, I am missing hamburgers)

Our first stop was Hanoi. The city has an amazing hustle and bustle and people really perform all activities on the street. The sidewalk is a parking lot for motorbikes, a restaurant, a grocery store, a garbage collection site, a sewing room, a laundromat. Everything but a sidewalk.

While in Hanoi, we visited some museums, had a street food tour and wandered around the lake every morning.

I was also introduced to cà phê trứng – egg coffee which is basically a dessert in coffee form.

All in all – we loved our time in Hanoi and could have easily spent some more time there.

OMG! Where has the time gone

It is April now. APRIL! I have failed to write anything about the places we have visited for the past month. My excuse will be that we have been visiting friends and family.

Brief breakdown:
New Zealand – had the pleasure of sharing this travel experience with my dad and sister who met up with us on the North Island. We spent time in Rotorua, Auckland, 90 mile beach. Highlight was definitely 90 mile beach where we had the best beach house with an enormous deck. Another highlight was the skyswing in Rotorua. Video posted in previous post.
Dani and I then went on a campervan adventure on the south island which was amazing. Highlights include Milford Sound and really just the entire camping experience. I am inspired to get a tear drop trailer on returning home.

Australia – a quick stop to visit friends in Melbourne and then Perth.  After visiting Melbourne, it is easy to see why it tops the most liveable cities lists constantly. It is a city that reminded me of Vancouver but with the right amount of Toronto mixed in. It was also amazing to catch up with friends who took us down to Port Campbell via great ocean road. Beautiful scenery. Perth was also an amazing city! So much green space! Many lovely beautiful parks and hot hot hot weather surrounded by ocean. Sharks are a problem though. On more than one occasion while talking with locals (and our friends who live there) sharks are a real problem. This is very foreign to me. Also, we loved Fremantle! So many cute shops, restaurants and a general great vibe!

It was also interesting to be in these two countries while the world cricket championship was going on. NZ and Australia making it to the final game is akin to a Canada-USA gold medal hockey match.

**No photos from either of these since I had to reset my phone..only in Flickr to be included later***

Bali, Indonesia – We have now spent a week in Bali. Well, kinda. The day we arrived we did a significant amount of touring around with a driver including but not limited to seeing some traditional dancing, viewing a waterfall, hugging a luwak, seeing a temple, getting in a minor car accident, eating satay and buying mangosteens at every fruit stall we passed (total consumption – no joke – nearly 12 kilos). After that day we were interested in catching up with our gay boyfriend from Calgary and have spent the entire week at the Sheraton Kuta Resort by the pool or getting massages(mostly for free!! Thank you points!!) We have ventured out to see some things and eat. Highlight meal being the Indonesian feast where our food was preceded by a drumming procession to announce its arrival. We should have known it was too much when they provided us with an additional table for all the food.

See. Boring. Adventure begins Sunday again when we start our Filipino adventures!!!

Privacy Included

On our way across the ocean from Easter Island we stopped at another beautiful island, Mo’orea French Polynesia.

Our arrival to the island of Tahiti was amazing. The entire flight is greeted by Polynesian dancers and singers right on the tarmac as we disembarked the plane.  True sign that this is a tourist destination I think.  Our transfer to our hotel greeted us with leis as well.  They are beautiful but made me sneeze uncontrollably.

Dani wearing multiple leis

10 hours in SCL

Jen and I are done with South America – for now. After 4 months of wandering mostly Peru, Chile and Argentina – with one bonus trip to Colombia, we are on our way out. Our route leads us now to Easter Island, then Tahiti and landing for a while in New Zealand. Unfortunately our flight to Easter Island left at 4 am – so this left us with a bit of a conundrum. We had basically 3 choices:

1. Spend the night at the Airport Holiday Inn (approx. $200)
2. Stay at our favorite Santiago hostel ($50) and then take a cab to the airport in the middle of the night (approx. $35)
3. Head to the airport in the evening on a normal bus ($1) and spend the night in the airport (real cost yet to be determined – likely to be my sanity) and if things weren’t going so well we had the option of spending a few hours in the lounge near the gate ($70)

We obviously chose #3. Sleepinginairports.net says that sleeping in the SCL airport actually isn’t that bad. I guess I’m a bit spoiled with all the beds I’ve been sleeping in lately – but it definitely was pretty bad. We arrived in the early evening fresh from Valparaiso. We were waaaay early, so we decided to have a leisurely dinner, before trying to pawn off our bags.