The Best Coffee in Asia

Kunming has been called the Seattle of China, and while this is mostly attributed to its laid-back atmosphere despite being a city of about four million people, it also has to do with the fact that the Yunnanese coffee here is really darn good and there are a ton of coffee and tea houses in which to enjoy it. We arrived in Kunming late on Monday night and even though we had booked a hotel last minute, we had no idea how difficult it would be to find. By some miracle, and a team of helpful passers-by, we managed to find the place which was located on the 19th floor of a high-rise building overlooking the city. Pretty sweet. We decided we would spend a day hanging out in the city and figuring out our onward travel whilst sipping some of that aforementioned delicious brew.

View from our room of the Kunming skyline

Sampling the local delights: Yunnan Coffee and Over-the-Bridge Noodles

We walked around the main shopping district and the bird and flower market, and then wandered up north towards the Yunnan University campus and strolled through the Green Lake and surrounding park.

Practicing their croquet game in the park

Once we were ready to head back into town so we could purchase bus tickets for the next day, we had a little adventure trying to get a taxi to take us there. We’re still not sure what their objection was, but it did sound as though all three taxis we flagged down had the same excuse for why they couldn't take us to the bus station. That left us with a nice long walk and a short jog from our hotel down to the station instead. Oh well, I suppose we can use the exercise after all the sumptuous meals we’ve been eating! At the bus station, I used one of the two Chinese travel phrases I practiced to get us some bus tickets to Lijiang the next morning. Score!

It's Soap! I Promise!

Hanoi was the last city in Vietnam for us before making our way north to China. To get to China we took a nine-hour overnight train to the Chinese border town of Hekou and then an eleven-hour bus to Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan Province in southwest China. When we arrived in Hekou we literally walked across the bridge from Vietnam to China. The customs officer in China looked at my passport, chuckled and said “ugh, American” and then said something in Chinese that was apparently hilarious to his counterpart. This was followed by a full search of both of our bags – the first such search at any of the border crossings. The biggest item of interest was an unopened box of three bars of soap that we had bought in Vietnam. Three inspection agents looked at it, sniffed it and eventually handed me a knife to cut open one of the boxes to more closely inspect its contents. We had heard the customs agents were tough at the Chinese border so our bag inspection was a relatively minor process. But still, they had my heart beating having a foreign discussion all crowded around my bag. I wanted to tell them “it’s clean” but I’m afraid the humor would have been lost in translation.

At the foot of the bridge, leaving Vietnam.

Near end of bridge, entering China.

Here ye! Here ye! All aboard the tour boat to Halong Bay!

Three hours from Hanoi is the majestic island-speckled attraction of Halong Bay. There are nearly 2,000 rocky little islands sprinkled around the bay, and to see pictures of these islands makes you think that there may be no more beautiful place on earth. It’s true, the islands are incredibly beautiful but for every one of these islands there is a tour boat loaded down with 15+ tourists all with digital camera at the ready. The tour trips are run out of Hanoi and the general feeling (ours included) is that many fail to live up to their promises at booking. Halong Bay is still a must visit if in northern Vietnam but in order to fully enjoy the experience you’d have to somehow arrange it independent of the standard tour groups, or be willing to shell out enough cash to customize your tour. Halong Bay reminded us that our best traveling experiences are those where we guide ourselves. On the positive, we met friendly travelers on the boat and got to jump off the top deck into the water a few times. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon.

Crossing from the South to the North – Hanoi

From Hoi An we took a short bus ride to the former capital city of Hue where we would spend just six hours before flying to Hanoi, the capital city. Hue was a fairly uneventful stop that really consisted of us walking around the Citadel, which is the moat and wall-enclosed historic one-time capital city. We then got a ride to airport and had a good short flight to Hanoi.

Hanoi was the capital of the North Vietnamese Communist regime during the division of the country into North and South in 1954, and then became the capital of the unified country of Vietnam after its victory over the South in 1976. We heard that some of the older generation of the North still holds hostility for the South and I assume the U.S. as well. Thankfully we didn’t experience any hostilities for being Americans, though the general feeling in Hanoi was not as welcoming as that in HCMC. The one war museum that we visited was the Hoa Lao (aka the “Hanoi Hilton”) to tour the area where American pilots, including John McCain, were held captive between 1965 – 1973. The prison was originally erected by the French to house Vietnamese prisoners centuries earlier. The first section of the tour is devoted to the inhumane treatment of the Vietnamese prisoners by the French; the second section tells of the five star hotel treatment that the Americans received from the North Vietnamese. Uh-huh.

While in Hanoi we also went to a water puppet show, which was a lot of fun despite not understanding the puppets’ language. All things considered Hanoi was an interesting city to visit for a couple days.

View from the Cityview Cafe

Al next to John McCain's flight suit he was wearing upon being captured in 1967.

Photo of American prisoners decorating a Christmas Tree in prison.

Happily in Hoi An

From Nha Trang we boarded another overnight bus to Hoi An. The ride was about 11 hours, much of it along the western coast of Vietnam on the South China Sea. The night bus was another touch one. Even though we had already booked the full Vietnam bus tour and had another 14 hours or so until the north, this trip sealed the deal on booking a plane for the next long leg. Anyone considering the open bus pass through Vietnam should avoid TM Brothers travel agency (heard Sinh Travel is good).

Hoi An is a historic UNESCO city with heavy French influence that is also known as the place to buy fabrics. The city is designed around the Thu Bon River with historic restaurants, shops and bars lining the riverfront and the surrounding small streets. It’s also just a 4km bike ride to the beach, which were not too crowded and backed to restaurants. We entered one restaurant along the river for lunch our first afternoon and sat down before realizing that all the other patrons were young Vietnamese men sitting around playing some form of checkers and drinking coffee / tea. Turns out the “restaurant” was actually a coffee house and the only items on the menu were coffee, tea and beer. Relishing any opportunity to dip into the local culture we stuck around for some brew and a game of cards. It was this kind of laid back experience that we loved about the city and could have spent a week visiting rather than just our two full days. And the Vietnamese food, ah the food, was fantastic.

0.1 Leagues Under the South China Sea

We left Saigon on the overnight bus headed north for Nha Trang. While the overnight bus seems cool in concept, in practice when the AC is not working and the stagnant air on board does not allow you to get more than a couple fitful hours sleep…not so much. Once we arrived in Nha Trang, a beach city on the coast, we were glad to see it was a place we could relax from our travels. The guesthouse we stayed in here, the Phong Lan Orchid, is worth a mention because the proprietors were so incredibly hospitable during our stay. I guess that’s one of the benefits of staying in a more intimate residence—and only $12 a night! One night the woman who owns the guesthouse saw my sunburn and pulled out a fresh aloe plant to massage my skin.

That first day in Nha Trang, we decided to rent a motorbike and head out to a famous hot spring and therapeutic mud spa a few kilometers outside the city. It was a bit more harrowing experience renting a bike here vs. other places. Even though the traffic was nowhere near the magnitude of Saigon, it was still a force to be reckoned with. Fortunately, we made it out to the spa unscathed and enjoyed the mud and mineral baths for the afternoon. Hopefully, the mud therapy regained the years we lost during our anxious motor biking a couple hours earlier.

The second day in Nha Trang, we decided that we just didn’t have enough adventure in our lives, so we signed up for a Discover SCUBA Diving day excursion targeted towards beginners. That was definitely a highlight, despite the fact that I almost chickened out at the last second when I couldn’t wrap my mind around breathing underwater (ironically, I tried it once before when I was about 14 and had no problems!). Luckily, my guide, Marie, had experience with scaredy-cats and talked me through it. Once you are down there and forget about the whole breathing thing, it is amazing! We saw so many kinds of beautiful coral, fish, and other sea creatures.

Look both ways before crossing the street

And then pray. From Cambodia we took a bus from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City (“HCMC” aka Saigon). The bus ride took about thirteen hours. The big tv in the front of the bus featured karaoke while in Cambodia, then switched to kung fu once we crossed the border into Vietnam. I’d give the edge to the kung fu. We dropped into busy HCMC at night and experienced our first true adventure in the country within minutes when attempting to cross the street. Think of Frogger but instead of trucks and cars it’s just motor bikes. Motor bikes dominate the street and at any given time it seems you have to wade through a wall of eight lanes of motor bikes to get to the other side. You don’t wait for an opening in traffic because you would be there all day. Instead you just go slowly across and the motor bike traffic will make room for you as you make your way across. This rule does not hold for the few buses or cars on the street – those don’t try to miss you, you have to be sure to miss them; otherwise, game over.

Besides dodging traffic, we spent time in HCMC visiting the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi Tunnels. The War Remnants Museum has been renamed from its original name, The American War Crimes Museum, so you can probably imagine the political slant of the exhibitions. The same theme continued at the Cu Chi tunnels. Our guide on the tour was a Vietnamese man who actually served in the US Marines during the war and moved back to Vietnam afterwards. He told his riveting personal tale on the hour trip out to the tunnels from HCMC, which concluded for him with a four-year sentence in a Communist Reeducation Camp following the war as punishment for serving with the US. Though he presented his story as unbiased it seemed to be heavily influenced by this reeducation. Upon arrival at the tunnel site, all visitors watched a black-and-white propaganda video from 1965 that referred to the Americans as “devils from Washington DC.” I guess you could say that hit pretty close to home… The tunnel system itself is an impressively intricate set of underground crawlspaces and miniature rooms totaling over a hundred miles in length and three levels ranging from about 10 to 30 yards underground. Wiki it. The trip culminated with us actually going into a tunnel for about 100 yards. It was narrow and dark at parts, but still much more comfortable than it was forty years ago because they widened the tunnels so that oversized tourists could get through without clogging the way.

Though the war sites were severely anti-American, we received the opposite feeling from the people of HCMC. Most everyone was friendly and literally every person that asked us where we were from smiled upon hearing “USA.” HCMC was probably our favorite of the big cities that we have visited. We spent a lot of time walking around the city (avoiding as many street crossings as possible), bargaining in the street markets, eating lots of pho, and enjoyed a night out with my cousin’s wife’s cousin and her husband (thanks Matt and Kat!). They took us out to eat and then to a local hangout with live music, highlighted by a cameo from the fifth runner-up in Vietnam Idol 2008. It was much better than just okay for us.

Can I Get a Wat Wat?!

We caught a bright and early flight out of Laos’ capital city, Vientiane and arrived a couple hours later in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Our objective: tour the famed Temples of Angkor. Now, we have seen quite a few Wats in our travels, but none of them even holds a candle to these babies. First off, these temples were built several hundred years ago (around 800 – 1400AD) and rediscovered in the not too distant past by French explorers. Even more significant is that they and the surrounding ancient city grounds covered about 3000 square kilometers and were home to a population of around two million people, at a time when the city of London had only about 50,000.

With only two days to explore, we hired a car along with a couple other tourists (from Milwaukee) we met on the plane to take us around the first day so we could get our bearings. We explored about five different temples/structures, including Ta Prohm—the “Jungle Temple” featured in Tomb Raider, and ended the day by hiking to the top of the “mountain” to watch the sun set over the ruins. The second day, we decided to go it on our own and bike around the Grand Loop to see some of the temples a bit further out after first stopping at the most famous temple of all, Angkor Wat. That was a really cool experience…ok, actually it was an extremely HOT experience as temps were around 100F both days, but definitely worth it.

King of the Mountain in Vang Vieng

From Luang Prubang we took a minivan on the 6-hr drive to Vang Vieng. The drive was only about 120 miles I think but it took so long because it was up and down a winding mountain range. It’s the kind of ride that makes you wish you skipped breakfast (of course, we did not). In true SE Asian fashion the minivan was at cramped capacity for the entire trip. We pitied a poor Dutch couple that had easily the most uncomfortable seats in the van and switched off with them for a leg. Turns out this is a good way to meet people because we ended up having dinner and kayaking with them a couple days later.


Vang Vieng is best known as a tourist location for its tubing down the Nam Song River. We planned to do that the second day via kayak and spent the first day on mountain bikes exploring the area around the town. We settled on a short tip of just 5k to the blue lagoon and cave. Halfway to the lagoon we stopped at a small local village that our Canadian friends had recommended for a good hike up a mountain. When we were biking back into the village suddenly two little guys started running alongside our bikes. The reason they were running alongside soon became clear, as we arrived at an unmanned station charging 10,000 kip ($1.20) / person to climb the hill. One of these two then started walking with us up the hill, and we discovered that he was to be our guide. Wish I could tell you his name but we never got past that initial language barrier. His communication to us was basically limited to a huge smile and raising his two hands above his head at a peak, meaning “follow me to the top of the mountain!” So we followed this 8-yr old climbing superhero, who wore flip flops and refused to show any sign of exertion let alone a bead of sweat, up the mountain for about 45 mins until we came upon a tiny hut perched at the top. The blue lagoon and cave at the end were okay too.