our new look....

we had to post again today to show off our new digs.
a few pictures of our new found sense of fashion....

the women who made them.

my new suit....look at the silk liner.

working towards some middle ground on the price.

ps we are having a hard time looking at our blog from veitnam, can someone let us know if it is working out on your end.

thanks zay and heather

Vietnam - Hoi An

We are now further south in Vietnam from when we last signed off. From Hanoi we enjoyed a two day trip on Halong Bay which was one of our goals from the beginning. With our limited time in this country we decided to join a tour group for the two days, which is often hit or miss (in this case a bit of both). The Bay is absolutely beautiful and our time was spent cruising on a 16 person boat. We had fairly cool weather which is how we imagined it would be - but we hear in the summer there's lots of swimming, kayaking, etc - so it must be warm. The only part we didn't like was being the ultimate gravy train of tourists and the overpriced beverages on the boat!

Now we are in a little town called Hoi An. It is going to be very difficult to pack up and leave tomorrow after spending 4 days falling in love with it. You guys would love it here! It is on the Coast just south of Hue set back from the ocean along a riverbed. It is a historic site with many old buildings, great food and friendly faces. We rented cruiser bikes today and explored the area at our leisure. At night the whole place lights up with colourful silk lanterns. We have also gone a bit crazy in many of the local tailor shops (which are EVERYWHERE). Right now we're contemplating how we are going to get our sharp new wardrobes home.....hmmm.

From Hoi An we fly to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow night to spend a few final days in Veitnam. From there our plan is to head to Cambodia. We will keep you posted!

Vietnam - Hanoi

We arrived to Hanoi with the pleasant surprise of 21 C weather instead of the up to minus 10 we were dealing with in china.
our usual way of arriving with no plans worked out nicely, we managed to get a funky room down in the old part of the city. heather thought that she escaped the Chinese food bug but it caught up to her in the middle of the night. needless to say it was a long sleepless while for her, but all 'seems' ok now (fingers crossed).
this morning we rather easily slipped into Hanoi life, sitting back and enjoying Strong coffee watching the crazy scooters zip by, relaxing with an hour full body massage and sampling the local food. what more can i say the people are fantastic beer cost penny's, and we are off to Halong Bay in the morning and then Hue from there.
hope all is well at home.
zay and heather

Bejing - The Great Wall & Forbidden City

So this is an old post that we wrote in Beijing but were unable to save due to a power failure..... Sorry for the dry spell! Its a bit late, but hopefully still interesting.

Our days here have been flying by in beijing. we spent our firstday getting used to the 'smokey' weather and spending one third of our overall trip budget on visas and plane tickets to hanoi. we have been enjoying the food; lots of soups and hot soy drinks help us get through the cold. we have avoided the food stalls with scorpions, snakes, dog, donkey, etc so far this trip! before we left we stalked up warm clothes at the thrift store, as we will soon be in warmer places and happy to shed the extra gear. i might add that coincidently heather bought a green jacket that looks just like all of the army personnel patroling the streets. we fit right in.

We have been doing a lot of walking and exploring in the main city centre. Things are not as crazy here as we were expecting, but that is probably due to the time of year. It is hard to imagine what it will be like in a few months with the Olympics on their way. Apparently thousands of humble homes have been bulldozed in the past few years to get ready for the big event!

Aside from our mindless wandering, we did have a few goals that we set out to accomplish during our time here. On our second day in town we toured the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. It was pretty cool to roam around an area that was off limits for 500 years. Definitely a highight so far. Our third day by far surpassed any expectations as we headed out to the Great Wall of China. We hiked a 10 km expanse of the wall about 2 hours outside of Beijing. We had a starting and end point and could go at our own pace for a half day. The views along the way were beautiful and it caught us by surprise that we had the Wall to ourselves for a good portion of the day. We are both in agreement that this time of year does have its perks despite the frigid cold!

Well, that is it for this portion of our trip. We are off to Hanoi on Tuesday and will write again from there.

Heather & Zay

The Adventure Begins

So we're off again! Our route this time is starting us off in Beijing, China and taking us overland to Bangkok, Thailand. Like our South American travels, we have nothing planned except for the flight home in 6 weeks time. I'm sure we'll get to see some amazing places along the way and we'll try to keep everyone posted with some pics and entries here and there. Maybe we'll even catch Zay at a poetic moment once again!! Fingers crossed.
We shall see what the far east brings.
Cheers,
Heather & Zay