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Pretty awesome!

 

You need a wood stove...

 

How was Da Nang? and Chiang Mai? And Bangkok?

 

fack! Cheers! Pinot Grigio, in my case

 

The dude that built my house (as his retirement house but he changed his mind and bought a larger lot and built another house before he moved into this one) was a San Fran contractor. No fireplace. WTF

 

Da Nang was pretty much exactly what we expected - great City, super friendly locals, killer coffee and food, and we lucked out with ideal weather while there. Hoi An was really nice too.

Chiang Mai - much the same as Da Nang - friendly people, loads of ex-pats, solid culture city with cool temples, artifacts, etc... We had a couple fun excursions while there but still didn't get to see much outside of Old Town where we stayed. Wifey had a lot of massages and salon trips in all three but loved the Chiang Mai ones best.

Bangkok - we had 2 visits there - one near Khao San road and one near Suhkumvit so we got to see two totally different areas. Weather was quite hot (95+) and air pollution was bas on our second stay there. Nana Plaza was fun to explore for a few hours as a people watcher and the Siam Mall complexes were insane with the MKB Center and Siam Paragon. We barely saw 0.0001% of the place so a tiny sample size for sure but it lived up to the hype as a mega city with a lot going on.

Our only real issue during the trip was that I got a Cold on day 3 and 22 days later it's still with me. I had to cancel a few planned excursions and our scooter rental because of it so that sucked, and since sleep was hard to come by I wasn't 100% during the day's there either.

It was amazing though in many ways - one obvious eye-opener is going somewhere and paying 1/3 - 1/10th for similar items I get here in Canada, then not paying taxes on it, and also not having to tip on rides, meals, coffee's, etc... Felt like heaven in that regard. We did tip a few times early on but mostly we just got weird/confused looks when we did so we stopped after a while.

The language barrier was a thing - we typically go south to Mexico once or twice a year and I can speak enough Spanish to embarrass myself but it gets us everything we need - over there I knew like 4 words in Thai and less in Vietnamese when we got there so Google Translate or hand signals were a saving grace.

 

I'd put the wood burning stove to the right of this door.

 

Sounds like a really nice trip. Post up some more pics!

I hear you on the price of things subject... after months in Asia or even Europe, I return back home and in shock that a sammy downtown costs $18, or a crappy pizza for $35. I just don't see it and for the most part, don't participate with the ridiculous costs in the USA. I guess everyone lives in $1 million homes and drives new $70K pickup trucks.

I think I picked up the same bug as you. Got it on the flight from Vietnam back to the USA 3 weeks ago and its still with me. Sucks!

 

The trip was great, we're both really glad we went and happy with our schedule and choices for locations and excursions - no regrets.

Our Grab ride from the airport in Bangkok was $7 to our hotel for a 25 minute ride - we got home and the Uber was $44 plus tip for a 22 minute ride - I feel ya, prices are not even comparable.

Sorry to hear about your bug but quite possible it's the same strain as it's a long-lived bastard.

As requested:

- Elephant Sanctuary - shower time in the River, soap was from a crushed wood that when mixed with water foamed up like real soap - crazy.
- My Khe Beach in Da Nang - walked it daily
- Hotel pool in Chiang Mai
- Muay Thai fight night in Chiang Mai (dude was out COLD)
- Bangkok shopping Center pic of the wife still being amazed at the traffic and scooters filtering through the 4-wheelers like a dance.

 

Nice, love Asia, were things don't work out as you plan

 

Kind of in love with the country, they didn't get the same memo as Thailand has had for the last 20 years, to try and shake every tourist for every dollar you have. They are some of the most honest and friendly people I have meet while traveling. And it's the most cheap place in the world for what you get. Stayed at a really nice beach resort in Mui ne, had been to the town before to kiteboard about 12 years ago. It's grown but the vibe is still the same, 45 dollars for a resort hotel on the beach, huge pool, restaurant on site, massages, room service. In the Bahamas you get less for 500-800 usd a night, never buy, on the boat but gueasts do. I lost track of how many times I pulled out the wrong bills over paying or honestly giving someone a small tip because I didn't want the 23 cents back form a convenience store to a restaurant, and they said its to much, and had to convince them its ok to take a 2 dollars tip. Got a private car, because their were no easy taxi's from where I was at to the airport on a 5-6 hour drive in a 4 runner. 100 bucks, gave the guy a 5 dollar tip and he hugged me and thanked me profusely. Vietnam is the bomb, great fresh food, nice people, lots of beauty, different climates, I can really say after traveling a lot, as a culture in general, Vietnamese people are happy, humble, respectful, and thankful, and are no strangers to a good time. Found one of the best kite spots in the world, in 10 years the sleepy little town with rice paddies running up to the lagoon and the little restaurant that you can get a live lobster, shrimp, scallops on the 1/2 shell, beef stir fry and 4 local beers for 16 usd might fade away. But happy for the families that don't quite realize their little town is going to be a worldwide kiteboarding destination

 

My hopes of not having to fire up the snow blower this season were dashed. We got about 8 inches today. I also didnt fire it up at the beginning of the season so it didnt want to fire up until I put a heater pointed at it for an hour. Now its good to go.

 

Should have just pointed the heater at the snow, dumbass.

 

Oh yeah, you are in Cedar Rapids, aren't you? My contractor in my house a couple hours east of you on US 30 was complaining about the same thing today.

 

Yup CR baby!

 

Did it smell like fermenting garbage or captain crunch today?

 

Capn Crunch every day!

Im on the north edge of town theres no smells up here. The cereal plant is downtown it smells nice. Theres some other smelly stinky stuff like ethanol plants but thats well south of me.

 

You guys are hooked now! Its a great region to keep going back and exploring.

 

We've found that we really love the vibe of the Vietnamese. Even in the big city, people are happy and chill. No aggression. Everyone gets along. I do feel that as you get north up to Hanoi, the people get more serious. But you are right, down south they love to party.