We’ve got under 500 miles to go before our turnoff to Skagway. Today’s been a long slog across rolling hills and thickly forested landscape. The rain came down heavy almost from the time we hit the road. The burn scars became more and more prevalent as we came up to Fort Nelson, which is where you finally turn WNW towards Alaska.
It is incredible how straight roads can be. The roads are just tar strips atop a berm built up to aide in run off. These ribbons of black go for miles on end, or perhaps more fitting, kilometers on end, cut through a huge swath of trees. This is by design I’m guessing, to avoid vehicle big game accidents. I’ve heard a story of a guy who watched an elk and calf bolt out of the thick forest and straight across the road in front of him. He didn’t see the bear chasing them until he slammed in his brakes to avoid a deadly collision with it.
There are mystery roads all over. Dirt roads that just veer off into the thick vegetation. No signage and no squiggly line on the gps. Sometimes you can see a river or a lake as you blast by, but other times they just go into the darkness.
Provençal parks in Canada, are like our state parks in the USA. They are dotted all over the map with no real rhyme or reason. Tonight we are at about 4200 feet/1280m. We just got back into the northern Rockies. The horizon changed radically from rolling hills to steep passes and snow capped jagged mountains. We picked a place called Stone Mountain Provençal Park and Summit Lake Campground. Had the weather cooperated, we could’ve blown up our pack rafts and paddled around for hours exploring the coves and shoreline. Perhaps in the morning, the sun will grace us with its shining face and we can start the day off with a paddle.
We took a break from travel today. 2 nights in the same place…yay! We managed to push through Idaho and Montana to burn the miles we had to in order to get caught up on our travel itinerary to Skagway, Alaska.
Canada has been just as beautiful as I remembered. Towering mountain ranges, frozen solid in ice and snow older than I can imagine. Huge glaciers clung to the rocky cliffs and high mountain valleys and passes. Rivers of aqua green and olive, lakes of turquoise, icy waters as clear as glass. Shear cliffs of curved and bent rock from the beginning of the earth. Further north west, turning into an undulating green valleys slowly rolling to a high peak and back down the other side. Scars of forest fires that scorch the land and leave the once majestic towering pines like burnt matchsticks.
Willow is performing brilliantly. We’ve had quite a bit of rain since we crossed into Canada. Last night we sprung a leak from our fan, I’m guessing from driving sheets of rain. It stopped as the rain tapered off. We’re settling back into van life after a pretty rocky start. But this I can tell you…our bed is super comfy, a bit of a pain in the ass to make each day but so cozy. Weather permitting, we will do more home cooking in the van. We’ve just been a bit hurried to this point.
As many of you already know…we came back from SE Asia on April 1, and began to plan our next adventures. We have always planned no more than a few weeks in the future. We’ve always done hours of research, blogs, travel tour itineraries, FB and IG pages; there’s just so much information to be found. Our next destination was to be Alaska and Canada.
While sitting in our hotel room in Bali, we began our research and found it very depressing how much it might cost to: A) rent a car or B) rent a van or motor coach. We had just about put the whole idea to bed when we thought about Andrew, the best man at our wedding and a wholesale car dealer in California. ‘Why not’, we thought, ask Andrew if we could browse the auctions and buy a van! It sounded like a great idea and no sooner did we ask, a Sprinter van showed up at an auction in LA, that was exactly what we were hoping for.
It was extremely low priced for what it was, a stock Revel 4×4 with 3,000 miles. After much research, phone calls at 2am Bali time, we decided to go for it, and bought the van. The auction had announced that it was stuck in 4wd low and would need to be towed to the dealer. Still under factory warranty, we decided the risk was small that a 3,000 mile Sprinter would have any major issues caused by improper use, so we scheduled an appointment with the dealer. Turned out to be user error, got her out of 4wd low by pushing a button.
Chris decided that she was going to fly to Los Angeles and drive the van back, and so 2 days after arriving back to Salt Lake, she was back on a plane and driving the van back. I would stay behind and manage our house/pet sit in Salt Lake City.
We spent the next 2 months making small but expensive modifications to the van. Suspension, sound system, bed mattress, additional storage boxes and additional water tank. We took her out a few times to the desert to make sure to work out any kinks and get a “feel” for how the space was set up for living. We finished our last house /pet sit, and loaded up the van, and set out for Canada and Alaska.
It was nice to be back on the road again. Back in a van and free. The only thing was we were basically driving through Canada and Alaska during high season and in a few places had to make reservations for camping. This does the very thing we try never to do…put us on a time schedule. We had to be in Haines Alaska by July 10th for an epoch river trip down the Tatshenshini and Alsek rivers than run the border between Canada and Alaska.
We got a bit of a late start. The van was loaded up, fluids checked, water tank full, plenty of groceries and “add water food” and clothes to cover heat to icy cold. Things had found their place in the van, all systems were go, so off we went…but we didn’t get far.
Cruising up the freeway, about 2 hours into our trip, outside of Idaho Falls, in the middle of soy beans and wheat fields, the van decided to throw a bunch of codes, the dashboard told us to pull over and shut off the engine immediately! So we did. We got out and put some reflective triangles behind the van. Bummed out, sitting on the side of the road, we called Mercedes roadside assistance and sat in the heat of the blazing evening sun waiting for a tow…back to where we came from.
I had deduced just from looking under the van that the serpentine belt, the main belt that drives all the charging and engine cooling, had shredded. The van only had less than 6,000 miles and was barely 2 years old?!? It turned out to be a warranty issue and 6 days later, we were back on the road.
Running days behind schedule we hit the road, again a late start, and boogied north. Nice thing about traveling in a van, you are completely self contained, so you can find a dirt road and follow it until you find a glorious secluded clearing, pull in, and go to sleep. That’s exactly what we did after 5 hours of driving, the last 2 with the sun glaring through the smashed bug guts on the window.
Day two: we woke to the early morning sun, warming the chilled night air. There was a huge lake outside our doors with families of Canadian geese strutting around its banks and little goslings splashing at the edge of the water. A lone cottonwood trees stood stately in the middle of the field. Just us and the geese. We took off after a bit of food and turning the van back around for travel. This requires making the bed so it can be raised up to the ceiling and freeing up the “closet” or “garage”, where our clothes and gear are stacked and organized neatly. The front two seats swivel to allow extra space and seating while parked. Window covering removed and stowed away. Counter tops cleared and cabinets doors closed and latched.
The next four hours we drove along the Beaverhead Mountains and the Bitterroot. Our destination was Whitefish Montana, to visit some dear friends that also enjoy van travel. We actually met them when we had our dealership. They owned a 2003 VW Westfalia and needed to sell it to buy and build new Sprinter conversion vans. Salt Lake Imports, or “The girls”, as we were known, came up in their search. We sold their van in a flash and became close friends.
We pulled into Whitefish at just around 6:30. Our friend suggested we go to the town square for some local live music and the food trucks, I just relished the thought of sitting in the grass, barefoot grounding myself back into the earth. Van life is usually a bit more relaxing, but with loosing 6 days we had ground to cover and fast. Our visit was short but we caught up in her kids and the sale of the house, her new business and our recent, year long EU and SE Asia trip. We still had an hour of driving to get to the border town of Eureka.
It’s been 2 months since we left the most peaceful, kind and giving part of the world.
We left Utah on June 1, 2020, as the world fell apart with COVID-19. We took off in our 2015 Ford Transit Van which we had spent the previous year preparing and building out the inside to serve as our home on the road. We chose the van life primarily for Gandaulf, since he was getting a bit too old to travel abroad via airplanes. It also was the safest way we could see the western US, with thousands of people dying everyday from this horrible disease.
It was hard at first to adjust to a small living space, but in actuality it was to be mainly for escaping weather and sleeping. Cooking, showering and all other “living” were done outside. Chris, Gandaulf, and I communing with Mother Nature at the most intimate of levels. Soon we became one with the ebb and flow of the days, enjoying hikes, bike rides, kayaking, campfires, sitting in silence, and living carefree. We spent the year touring Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, Southern California, Montana and headed into Baja, Mexico for February through April of 2021.
Now, life on the road is not all fun and games. There’s a lot of lifting, bending, crawling on the ground, maintenance and things we always took for granted such as, finding potable water for our tanks. At times, we’d get a hotel room just to stand under an unlimited amount of hot water. We never planned too far ahead, usually two weeks out was good, but we always had direction. We had the freedom to follow brown signs to some new location we’d never been. There were breakdowns and even a dead mouse somewhere in the van that caused a week and a half of serious woes while in Canada.
Gotta find the mouse
In August of 2021, the border to Canada opened. We spent the previous summer in the Montana back country, hoping the border would open to no avail. This time we were ready and packed up and headed for Canada but this trip ended sooner than planned due to illness in the family. We made it as far as Jasper, AB and turned around to be with family during this time. In January of 2022, while preparing for another winter in Baja, Mexico, we lost both our little sister and Dad within a day of each other. We hung out in Salt Lake to help with the arrangements and to make sure that everyone was back on their feet. In March, 2022, we headed back out towards New Mexico and Arizona, then up to Idaho for the fall. October 2022 through January 2023, we headed down the west coast Highway 1, slowly making our way towards Baja, Mexico to spend another glorious winter.
January 30, 2023, as we were preparing to cross into Baja, Mexico, the call came that stopped us in our tracks. Forced to return to Salt Lake City, Utah, we packed up the van, mid-winter, and headed 700 miles north into the grips of the cold. We spent time at our girlfriend’s AirBnB until we found a new owner for the one ball and chain left in our life, our commercial property. After 3 months of winter, we watched the Spring bloom and the snow melt away. On March 21, 2023, the first day of Spring, we lost our 13 year old corgi, Gandaulf to dementia and pain. It was more than either of us could bear. On one hand we were free now to travel outside of the US, but what fun would it be without our little sidekick? What’s true is that life was still moving on with or without us, so we sold the van, the side by side ATV and trailer, gave away Gandaulf’s toys and food, and bought a one way ticket to Europe May 11, 2023.
Austria
Our travels the next 7 months took us to Ireland, Scotland, Portugal including 2 Azore islands, Germany, Austria, Spain, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Cyprus. We flew back to Salt Lake City for two weeks to resupply and move our clothes over to backpacks which was much more suited for the SE Asia countries and islands we planned to visit next.
IrelandST Miguel, AzoresNorthern CyprusMadeira, Portugal
Europe was an amazing eye opener. First off, everything, it seemed, was uphill. Streets were built to provide one car safe passage and turn outs for passing. There was an exorbitant amount of indiscriminate cigarette smoking…EVERYWHERE! The European people seemed cold and in their own worlds. The inn keepers were friendly enough, but it was their job, not always genuine. The ancient cities and architecture were incredibly beautiful. The history fascinated us. The US is so young in comparison. Kings, queens, armies, witches, sorcerers, jesters, common people and their animals, all strolled around the walled cities commonly found in most countries we visited. In my mind’s eye, I could picture the period costumes on the droves of people mingling in squares, sipping tea and coffee in sidewalk cafes. There is still so much to see and I am sure we will return soon to cover a few more countries there.
MontenegroJohn O’Groats, ScotlandEdinburgh
On November 18, 2023, we left for an undetermined amount of time in SE Asia. We had a tour for 45 days that was to cover Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Again, as in Europe, we were taken back by the history and ancient cities and buildings. The culture was mind blowing! Everywhere you looked, were statues of the Buddha, Vishnu, dragons, snakes, and other spiritual and mythical creatures bearing strong androgynous characteristics. Some half animal half human. The people were genuinely kind in nature, respectful and giving. Their lives were simple and they seemed content. They took care of family, strays, and less fortunate souls. Their religion was not just saved for the weekend, but visible in every aspect of daily life. Kindness abounded.
After our tour, we chose to spend two more months in Thailand, island hopping. We hit Koh Lanta, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Ngai, Koh Kradan, Koh Talabeng, Koh Muk, and Koh Lipe. Each island had its own unique charm with one common denominator…the native islanders. All in all our time in Thailand will always be remembered.
Our next stop took us to Singapore and this small countries’ towering highrises, well thought out freeways and the intelligent use of green spaces. It’s a modern metropolis at the tip end of a peninsula. It was a beautiful but very busy country that seems, from flying in, to be just a piece of land with millions of towering buildings. It has every modern technology incorporated into the infrastructure. It was quite a cool place to spend a few days. We also spent a few days in Langkawi, a small island in Indonesia, then took the leap into Malaysia and Bali, Indonesia.
Bali ended our SE Asia tour. We spent a month touring with our personal driver, Dek Udi. We had a really hard time with the humidity and heat so it was imperative to be around water. We met some of the most interesting and kind people who genuinely took an interest in us and our journey. Soon it was time to leave this incredible island and make our way back to the states for our next big adventure.
It’s been a month since we flew from Singapore back to Salt Lake City, UT, our home state, and it seems like we are finally getting a routine back into our lives. We pet/house sit for a week or so, then spend time in the van, then another pet/house sit, then back into the van and back into the desert for some silence. I am afraid this is as routine as it will get. It seems that Chris and I both have restless souls that prefer to wander than to settle down. Traveling allows us to meet and get to know new people on a personal level, one where they are engaged and not simply exchanging niceties.
The last two days have been a bit overcast and rainy. This made for a fun few days in the desert. It is this life giving rain that brings the deserts into bloom and, at the same time, turns the roads into a slick slurry of mud and sticky clay. After a night of downpours, we decided it wise to retreat from the back country and find some provisions and refill the water tank. The ride out was a nail biter but the 4X4 helped out. The slick mud and clay sticking to every inch of the van.
In a harsh environment, such as the desert, any rain that makes it to the ground is a godsend. Before the storm set in, the sky was full of brilliant white towering clouds with grey bottoms, being heavy laden with water. Below these beautiful floating vapor wonders, hang wispy sheets of rain that dissipate hundreds of feet from the ground, never a drop reaching the earth, this is called virga.
This strange but beautiful event occurs when the air is too hot and dry for the rain to hit the ground, it also can create dangerous down burst winds. These winds often show themselves as dust devils, columns of dust, sand and dirt that swirl hundreds of feet into the air like an invisible tornado starting from the ground up. It’s an amazing sight to witness and unforgiving if one is caught near one of these devils. They will hit a car and try to push it off the road, fill a tent and sleeping bag full of sand and send trash and debris flying hundreds of feet into the air, as if they were ballerinas preparing for a dervish dance.
Small flash flood in a desert wash
Traveling, as we do, is not for everyone. Some people like the comforts of four walls, TV, and a routine that rarely changes. Traveling is hard, takes a lot of planning and when traveling in a van, some heavy lifting. It can take you way out of your comfort zone or help you find a new one. It is, however for us, rewarding and fulfilling. The people you meet can be precious gemstones, or an obstacle, your choice. We may think we live in the best country in the world, but unless you travel…how would you know?
Can I start out by saying that my heart feels full when in the vast deserts of Utah. The grandeur is awe inspiring, the silence, deafening. The sun is warm on you skin in the cloud free azure blue skies that go on forever. The deep canyons, carved by wind, rain and the elements are like a sculpture’s best art. The spiral towers of molten type rock appear to ooze down the cliff faces, getting more narrow till one side meets the other in the depths of its rocky tomb. The great cottonwood and juniper, pinion pine and sage, seek shelter in the shadowy depths. If you sit patiently, you can see the prairie dogs, marmots, squirrels and chipmunks run along the layer of the cliff face. A crow breaks the silence with its caw and the swish of its wings as it shoots past us on the currents. A cool breeze slides along my cheek and gives me a shiver.
It’s our first outing with the new van. It’s a 2023 Winnebago Revel 4×4 on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis capable of traversing any terrain we can find, handling the washboard roads like a luxury vehicle but with the weight of a built out adventure van. The inside is cozy, fitted with all the amenities to keep us comfortable for our travel adventures to come.
Part of getting the new van was learning from our old van, SleepyTurtle. She was a fine build and was perfect for what we needed and especially traveling with Gandaulf, our old corgi. There were a few things missing, as we found out after 2.5 years living full time in her. She was built to withstand the worst rutted roads we found in Montana and Wyoming. She rarely had a rattle. She was built as a fair weather camping rig, without heat or AC, she had an inside composting toilet and an outside shower. There was plenty of counter space, we carried 50 gallons of water and had a ginormous fridge and high output stove, for outside cooking only. She was a great van! Now she and Gandaulf are gone.
Our new van, doesn’t have a name yet, but as we investigate her and outfit her to be home for perhaps the next year, one will come. Maybe some sort of warrior princess or a great explorer name, perhaps a docile creature of the desert or mountains. It will come.
We just finished our first house/pet sit in SLC and have taken a retreat to our favorite place, The Swell in central Utah’s San Rafael Desert. It’s a relatively short drive from SLC and sits at about 6,000 feet in elevation. The Good Water Rim Mountain bike single track trail sits adjacent to our camp. It’s a 6.8 mile trail that skirts the canyon rim and is quite technical although, and an easy ride to get the heart pumping.
Around our primitive camp, the sandy ground is a mauve color with stark greenish black, twisted bark, pinion pine and juniper trees standing against the brilliant blue sky. The layered sandstone revealed by the erosion of the sand, stand like castle walls at the top of an impenetrable hill. There is no sounds outside of the wind, birds and occasional passing vehicle.
It’s an oasis in the mad haste of life in the city. It’s a welcome respite from the last year of traveling in Europe and Asia. It calms the mind, lowers the blood pressure and can suck you away in a hypnotic trance if you sit and don’t think. A perfect spot for a meditation or just to day dream. Not a care in the world or a need to rush. Just silence, beauty and peace.
We’ve moved from the jungle of Ubud back to the beach of Sanur…the humidity is back at a manageable level with the sea breezes, and the temp has dropped 2 degrees Celsius which is huge. Moving days are often the hardest days, even with a short drive (1-2 hours) and a late check out. For me, I forget to hydrate like I should, since I am in the AC, so last night I was not much fun to be around at dinner. The headache, excessive sweating, lack of appetite, lethargy and irritability are real. Poor Chris.
Pumpkin Ravioli with roasted almonds in almond oil Grilled fish in a curry aioli sauce
I wanted to talk today, about our time in Ubud, a crazy hub and sprawling city jammed with tourists on foot, motorbikes zigging and zagging in and out of vehicle traffic and congested intersections without traffic circles or stop lights. If we were in America, there would be numerous deaths and accidents, but here, there is an understanding that is learned at an early age. In the states, the person with the ugliest car wins as they throw caution to the wind and barrel through, thinking only of themselves. Here, a small amount of Evil Knevivel stunt driving is involved, nerves of steel, kindness of a sage, concentration of a bird of prey and lots of guts. There is horn honking, which means…I’m coming ahead so don’t turn in front of me, turn signals to inform the head on traffic that you are coming over into their lane and a great deal of patience. One lane becomes two and a half. We would be dead, plain and simple, or frozen with fear, or perhaps never turn and continue straight forever. LOL
Next is the artists and shops that line the roads for sometimes a mile at a time. It’s like candy to the eye. There is no way to stop and visit in most cases, so you just gawk and dream about the intricate wood work and stone carvings, the time, skill and effort it takes to create such beauty. The incredibly colorful paintings that are on display in a little dark shops, you wonder how they make a sale…?
Next would have to be the temple carvings of beasts with human bodies and animal heads or visa-versa. The guardians of sacred spaces, mythological creatures that scare evil spirits or project a story from Hindu culture. Left to a foreigner’s imagination, emanations of bad nightmares.
Each home has a temple. The temples are the front yards, so to speak. They hold spirt or ancestor houses that often times, hold the ashes of the dead. Each day three offerings are made, morning, noon and night. Simple but powerful. Perhaps a little food, flowers and drink accompanied by a burning stick of incense placed on a small handmade plate made from palm leaves. Rice grains are often pressed to the forehead or temple of the family members as a prayer for peace and good health. Women and men, both in colorful saris are seen in open fields, making offerings to the Mother earth, soil, water and sky for a good harvest. Such a simple and uncomplicated way to show respect.
Of course, with such a small compact society comes the refuse. It is an ever present problem, and one that cannot be overlooked. I actually heard a guide blame it on tourists when a client asked him about it…to me, the solution begins with the community and seems such an easy one. In some countries, they have “tidy town awards”. These are incentives given to a community based on their beautification. This includes removal of debris and refuse. I have seen garbage trucks picking up garbage so maybe the infrastructure exists here. With deep rain gutters and a heavy rainy season, the problem just washes into the sea and up onto the beaches.
Lastly, monkeys…Ubud is home to the monkey forest and these cute, clever creatures are everywhere. Not nearly as aggressive as in other countries we’ve visited, such as Cambodia. One group did enter another’s territory while we were in The Monkey Forest, and as one male was escaping the other, it used Chris as a trampoline to bounce away further from the chasing male. It was startling and happened so fast, no one was hurt.
I’m sure I’ve missed something but it will have to wait for the next post. Hope you are enjoying the updates and insights.
Well…what can I say? It’s been about 4 days now that whatever had gripped my body, and made me so ill, has passed. It literally reduced me to tears at least once. Perhaps it was the dreaded COVID that slapped me upside my head almost a month ago to the day. Perhaps it was the gut bacterium that affects some poor souls traveling to this part of the world all the way down to Indonesia. The shear will power to eat a meal, even though you know the inevitable cause and effect of this necessary evil of human existence. The constant “thick head” feeling, like you’re gonna pass out in a puddle of sweat, or pop like an over ripe tomato. No matter, until we finally came out the other end of it, it’s just been an unmotivated, uncreative existence. Today the urge finally hit me. The words began to flow in my head to the point of needing to pick up the pen and paper, and share.
It’s hard to remember good things to write about, although I know there were plenty. Why does it have to be big? Perhaps just the joy of watching something as brilliant and humbling, as the sun melting into the ocean each night. Maybe it is the feeling of the warm ocean and fine sand beneath your feet as you walk down the beach admiring the brightly colored beach bars and restaurants. Or it could be one word and a hand gesture symbolizing a lotus flower, used as a greeting, for conveying respect, or just being kind and letting them know they see and hear you… “Kaaaaaa…” or Krub for men. One word that has so much meaning to us now. https://coconuts.co/bangkok/features/thinglish-professional-thais-still-use-ka-krub-speaking-english/
My eyes see the incredible blues and greens of the sea. My ears hear the crashing of the waves, the sounds of the longtail boats, the song of the birds shrill song, morning, noon, and night. The sound of the cicadas wishing the sun good morning and goodnight as it slips below the horizon, grabbing the blanket of night with all its stars. I can smell the sweetness of the salt hanging in the heavy air. My skin burns with the warmth of the equatorial sun and the salt spray turns to tiny diamonds on my skin. You can taste the sweat and salty air on your lips. These are all mesmerizing and just make you feel alive.
We’ve been to 6 islands now in Thailand and Vietnam. Koh Lanta, Koh Naig, Koh Kradon, Koh Muk, Con Dao, and now Koh Phi Phi. We’ve spent nearly 3 months here in SE Asia. When we set out 10 months ago, we had dreamed of spending the winter in SE Asia. We’ve covered but half of the world. I guess one doesn’t realize how big the world is. Some set out to go around the world in a year. I think I am finding that we’ve been a meer skipping stone across the surface of a big pond. This next year we may be skipping across the Americas, perhaps in a van again. Brush up on our Spanish that has taken a third row to learning customs and a few phrases in whatever country we’ve been in. Touch more countries in hopes of finding more places to want to hang our hat someday and use it as the “home base” of our nomadic lifestyle. Delve deeper into the culture and people. Honor them and be respectful. To make more likeminded friends, whom we may only meet on a ferry or bus ride, but immediately have a connection with. The internet and social media indeed has made the world a smaller place and opened our eyes to places we never even knew existed. Our minds are fluid, we can’t stay still for long, but I think we’ve realized that it is nice to have a base from which to venture out from and back to when we feel the need to ground.
And again, it is time to move along to our next destination, Singapore.
The last 10 days have been spent recovering from a 43 day tour of SE Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The things we have seen, heard and experienced, will be indelibly etched into our psyches forever.
The kindness of the locals, the stories told by our many guides, the sights and sounds of countless prisons, war museums and mass grave sites.
The opulence of beautiful temples. The immense grandeur of karst mountains jutting up from azure blue waters. Tiny, brightly painted long boats and giant wooden boats gliding down the Mekong and bobbing in silent, protected coves.
Stunning, powdery white sand beaches, towering skyscrapers in bustling cities, the sensory overload of horns and music blaring from establishments, to the gentle crashing of waves.
All these things paint a picture in our minds eye of life in these countries. We hunger for more as our thirst for travel and new experiences hasn’t waned in the 9 months we’ve been traveling.
What have we learned? Well, how to live in the moment, how to sit in silence, how to take life as it comes with no preconceived notions of what the next destination will bring. We’ve learned to accept that which we cannot change and make the best of it. Mostly, I’d say we’ve learned to slow down. We aren’t just living a dream but also have responsibilities. We have time to pick and choose our battles and how we will approach them. As a teacher of mine always says, we have the luxury of leisure.
It warms my heart to know that sometimes, just the words I write, can transport some of you outside of your haste and allow you 10 or 15 minutes to dream and escape reality. Perhaps they stir a deep longing inside of you to travel outside of your comfort zone.
The life of a traveler is constantly stepping into the unknown and overcoming any trepidation that may arise from traveling to a new destination, one we’ve never been to before. Learning new languages, customs and new currencies. We are traveling to find a place to settle in and become a landing spot, after all, we can’t continue this pace forever and the urge to stop sometimes looms large. But in the mean time, we plan a few weeks to a month and do it again and again. I hope you will continue to follow us and join in our exploration.
Back on a bus headed for Hoi An, Vietnam. It’s Christmas Day. The weather has taken a turn from hot and muggy to a pesky misty rain and much cooler temps. We have hit many cities so far in Vietnam and again we hear, from our local guides, about the horrors of war and the way of the communist rule here in SE Asia. I’m reminded of the famous line from Apocalypse Now…”the horror.” It’s only been since 2000 that westerners have been welcomed back into these countries, and unless you are hearing an account, such as the Tet Offensive, you’d never know how ravaged the people have been. As travelers, we now are bolstering the economy and making a better life for the Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians. They’ve opened up to share their culture, their very kind souls.
As we’ve been traveling about in these countries, I can’t help but feel that slight embarrassment of being from a country that gave up after engaging in such horrorable acts. Our guide said it quite perfectly yesterday, the people choose to live in the present moment. Harboring hate and anger only eats at the lively hood they are enjoying. They are a proud, hard working and very considerate people.
Throughout Vietnam, we’ve seen Buddhist Temples, King’s Tombs, Pagodas, museums and memorials. A culture dating back before anything I can imagine. The streets are lined with markets and food stands, restaurants and hotels that welcome the traveler in. The flurry of motor bikes, cars and buses, vying for a little piece of the road, and even the sidewalks. Two, three, even four people stacked onto a small motor bike. Huge piles of textiles, packaged goods, food and even other motor bikes and animals, all carefully balanced on these small motor bikes. Who needs a van…
Then there’s the thick jungles, farms and cemeteries, stretching as far as the eye can see, when traveling by bus or train from destination to destination. Buddhist Temple and Monasteries stitch together communities, both in the cities and countrysides. The buildings and houses are covered in thick moss and mildew creating a patina only Mother Nature and time can create. The hard working farmers, often are seen plowing muddy fields with water buffalo. Villagers in conical hats, stray, skinny dogs laze around waiting for some kind soul to drop a tasty morsel, perhaps the only food they will get. Ancestor houses at the entrance of every home, carefully decorated in flowers and incense. Huge rivers meander silently, providing transportation and food, through these countries. Mystical and beautiful in its own way.
The rain pitter patters on the window, breaking my stare and bringing me back to the bus, as I watch the bumpy black ribbon of tar take us away from Hue to Hoi An and another city to discover its secrets and stories.
Two Travelin' Chicas... 