After a very long and scary bus ride through southern China, we made it to Vietnam. After crossing the border, we spent the night in Lao Cai, the border town. The next morning we found a bus for the short trip up the mountain to the town of Sapa. The weather was cloudy, and we then found out that the weather is always cloudy and misty in Sapa because it is so high in elevation but still in the tropics. After arriving, we went for a short walk into the valley and found that once you get below the clouds, the views are terrific.
Markets descriptive paragraph
The Yunnan
From Yangshuo we took the bus back to Guilin to catch a flight to Kunming. Sitting next to us on our flight was an older American guy from Seattle. Other than that, the flight was nearly empty. Once in Kunming, a huge chaotic city in southwestern China, we settled into our hostel (not very good) and then went to a nearby restaurant (very good). We ended up running into the same guy who was sitting next to us on the plane, and he said he was planning to hike Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Hong Kong and Southern China
The flight was long, and we were very jet lagged, but we made it to Hong Kong on a flight from Atlanta via Seoul. After spending two full days in Hong Kong, I will summarize by saying that Hong Kong is one giant shopping mall. Or, the wealthier sections were, and other sections were full of hectic markets for food and other goods. Everything has a very busy and exciting atmosphere to it. On the first morning, we took a walk through Kowloon, first passing through the park where many locals were doing Tai Chi. Later, we headed south to Hong Kong island.
Bangkok
We had heard from other travelers that the road from Siem Reap, Cambodia to the border of Thailand was in very poor shape. On top of that, there were some very dodgy bus companies around that were scamming customers. We had talked to one guy who took the trip the week before. It took him 24 hours to make the journey because the road was flooded in many places along with the other inconveniences of traveling in Cambodia. So, we opted to take a taxi, and a guy from Scotland joined us to split the cost. It ended up being the same price as the bus.
Riga, Latvia
Riga was to be the last stop on our circuit through the Baltics. We had visited a few small towns in Latvia before heading up to Estonia, but saved Riga for last since we had plane tickets departing from Riga to Istanbul. Riga is a bustling city with a fairly expansive city center and lots of history. We found a cheap place to stay at the "Riga Student Hostel" which seemed to have more older people than students, but it was very clean and modern.
Turkey Has Everything
Turkey has so much to offer that we highly recommend that everyone should look into a very long extended vacation here. Turkey has history that dates back thousands of years, a fascinating Middle Eastern and European culture, and spectacular and unique landscapes that can only be found in this region of the world. Oh, and there's the stunning Mediterranean coast, too.
Syria: The Friendliest Nation on Earth
During our time in Turkey we ran into a number of travelers that had recently come out of Syria, and they had only good things to say. In America, we hear about the governmental policies of Syria, but nothing about what it's like to actually live in or visit the country. We decided to venture south from Turkey with a little bit of trepidation and caution. However, once we arrived in Syria we were just plain blown away by the absolute friendliness of the local people.
Mali: Into the Sahara
For four weeks we traveled through Mali, and it has made our list of one of the best countries we've ever been to. The people are friendly, the landscapes are beautiful, and the food is good. We were able to immerse ourselves into the Malian culture and see the country in ways that we never would have imagined.
Egypt: Pyramids and Heat
We deboarded our cruise through the Med in Alexandria, Egypt, and made our way to Cairo where we met Laurie's parents for a two week Nile adventure. I've always been fascinated with ancient Egyptian stuff, so it was a great experience for us to visit the Pyramids and other temples and tombs. We spent our first few days in Cairo where we wandered through the markets and mosques of the Islamic Quarter, ate some great meals at amazing restaurants on the Nile river, and played chicken with oncoming traffic.
Senegal: Sunrises Over the Atlantic
We flew into Dakar, Senegal's huge capital, late on a Monday night. We had arranged for a hotel with transportation from the airport ahead of time so that we would have a smooth transition. The next day we headed to the city center to catch a long distance bus. From our hotel we opted to take the local Dakar city bus to get to the long distance bus station. The bus that came was an Ndiaga Ndiaye, basically an over sized van or small bus.
Into the Medinas of Morocco
Morocco quickly made our list of favorite countries in the world. Our initial experience in Casablanca was amazing. We had read that the city was not typical of Morocco, but instead it was large, busy, and chaotic. We had low expectations, but the city really surprised us. The medina (the old part of the city, surrounded by walls and made up of a maze of small streets) at first was very touristy. There were a lot of vendors selling things from their stalls that only tourists would want - European clothes, shoes, suitcases, and yummy cookies and pastries.
Ethiopia
To get to Ethiopia, we flew from Amman, the capital of Jordan, to Addis Ababa via Bahrain and Kuwait City. It felt like a whirlwind all night tour of Middle Eastern cities. The Bahrain airport was quite modern, and even had a Chili's. We watched two old men in white robes and turbans eat chicken wings at 2 a.m.
