Hoi An, Vietnam

We heard Hoi An, Vietnam was a cute little beach town. After spending 6 weeks overland in Thailand and Vietnam, a BEACH sounded amazing. We got a taste of the water spending a night in Halong Bay, but just one night doesn't cut it. A week on the beach was just what we needed!!!

The above picture was our first view of the beach upon walking out of the path from our hostel. We ate lunch and laid out here for a couple days.  It was so peaceful.

Actually, that's all we did all week!  Breakfast, beach, lunch at beach, lay out more, dinner at beach, sleep, repeat!  This beach, An Bang, was glorious.  Quaint enough to be able to relax, and quiet in parts. However there was a stretch of restaurants with TONS of chairs smashed together where you could hang out with more people, if you are in to that kind of thing.  ;)  

It's quite funny, the workers of the restaurants come out as you are walking down the beach and approach you to lay out on THEIR chairs.  They will be lined up every 20 feet saying "Come lay out in my chairs, free chair just eat at my restaurant!"  As they are saying that, you hear the next one 10 chairs down saying "My chair is better, it's better down here!"  I mean really?  These folks have to have a love/hate relationship with each other!  So literally you just choose the chairs that are most appealing to you and sit.  It's quite awesome, all you have to do is order a $1 beer or $3 spring rolls and you are set for the day!!!

If you are ever visiting An Bang Beach, I highly recommend staying at our hostel, Under The Coconut Tree.  It was recommended to us and we were not let down.  This hostel/hotel actually has individual rooms as well, if dorm/hostel style living doesn't suit you.  However I highly recommend the dorms for single travelers or those traveling with friends.  It's a GREAT way to meet other travelers, and at $6 a night that's an amazing way to save money and feel like you are back in college again.  ;)  There are lockers under the bed, and mosquito nets.  It's quite perfect.  

You walk out of the back of the hostel and you are on the beach. It was amazing.

We are quite sad to be leaving today, but it is time. We are off to Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat, the oldest religious monument in the world!


Stay tuned! :)

Halong Bay!!!

How lucky I am to get to experience this majestic place, Halong Bay, Vietnam.

On our tour of Vietnam, this was a 'must see' for us. The thought of being surrounded by grassy limestone mountains while laying out on top of a small cruise ship just sounded darn good to me.

Halong Bay, YES, it is just as pretty as you would think it would be. We did a one night cruise through Paloma tours. They were amazing. They were the utmost professional, caring, kind and fun!

The boat was exquisite. Dark hardwood floors throughout, impeccable table settings, TONS of food. When I first stepped on the boat (note this is my very FIRST cruise) I said man look at these dark hardwoods looking like The Titanic! Eeekkk! We didn't need for a thing. Well, wi-fi, but it was actually nice to have a break from that! ;) We were able to drown ourselves in the surrounding sea of tranquil beauty. With full bellies and no where to go, we were gladly trapped in paradise.

I highly recommend seeing Halong Bay if you get the chance. I would also recommend staying more than one night on the boat if you can, although it can get quite pricey, ~$100 per person/per night. There are a lot of excursion opportunities actually, like visiting a local fishing village, pearl farm, caves, and more, which are included! Wish we could have stayed longer!

Set Backs are Temporary!

Why in life is it so much easier to go backwards than forwards?! Why does the familiar, even if painful, feel so comfortable? Why do we feel that the change we need to occur in order to move forward is so much more difficult than the familiar we are use to? How have our psyches accepted such ridiculousness!? We would rather stay in the pain we know than endure the change it takes to propel us into something better.

Physically we can easily put ourselves in different locations, continents even. But emotionally, it takes a conscious effort, daily, weekly, sometimes hourly, to take steps FORWARD. The unknown can be exciting. Doesn't that sound better??

We are so use to wallowing in pain. Do you ever notice the conversations you have with friends? It's so common to talk about what's wrong, what's happening with who, what happened to them, I'm hot, I'm sad, I hate this, I hate that, I'm fat, I hate my hair... When did speaking joyously become such a crime? Why is frolicking in bliss and happiness such taboo?

Its OK to be happy. Its OK to be amazing. The world needs more of that! We all have endless love inside of us not only to light up our own life, but the lives of others. Often we feel like love is a finite resource, that if others have it that means we can't. That is NONSENSE! There is enough love to go around, and then some.

They say when someone shows you who they are, to believe them the first time. If you ever find yourself down, frustrated or mad at yourself, just take a deep breath. It's both a blessing and a curse to feel things so deeply. Ones who have the most love to give are often the ones finding themselves in this situation. We actually care too much, but that's not a bad thing. I often find when I'm most frustrated with myself I find the most power within me. You should not avoid these "negative" feelings inside of you. Acknowledge them and move forward. All I have to do is play a little Drake or 2Pac to get me back in my groove. I QUICKLY realize my awesomeness and almost laugh at the fact I was feeling so down. There are so many energies circulating around us that its inevitable that we will find ourselves lost in the whirlwind of the past or negativity at some point. Just breathe through it, step back and get outside of your own mind. Set backs are only temporary, and usually provide you with more power than you realize to propel you to an even more awesome day, and future.  :)

Sapa, Vietnam

Sapa, Vietnam is a cute little mountain town in Northwest Vietnam. To get to Sapa you need to fly into Hanoi and either take an overnight bus or train to La Cai, then another 1 hour bus ride to Sapa.

When we arrived in Sapa it was POURING down raining! It was actually quite refreshing being that we hadn't showered in a day or so throughout all of our plane, train and bus travels. We were now in the mountains of Vietnam, and it was much cooler, thankfully.

One thing to forewarn you about in Sapa, as soon as you step off the bus you will be approached by a mob of local tribal women trying to sell you handbags and jewelry. It is serious. They are polite and most have decent English. They will ask you your name and where you're from. They make small talk asking how long you will be in town, etc. But after a while you realize they've been following you and talking to you for over 30 minutes! If you try to step into a store to lose them, HA, not happening. They will quietly wait outside for you and will latch back on ever so quickly. Even if you go to lunch, they will wait. These were our girls. Mine was Zoe, second from the right.

Our girls followed us around all day until we finally broke down and bought something from them. Then they were on their way! Sheeeesh!!! But it's not over yet, if there is another tribal lady NEAR you when you make your purchase she will latch herself onto you and say "Buy from me BUY FROM MEEEEEE!!!!" I felt so sorry for this lady, below. She had the cutest little baby with her so after 15 minutes of her begging I finally broke down and bought something and then she disappeared.

After a couple of days of being stalked and bothered you had to get more firm with these ladies. We learned if you didn't look at them or respond to them they would pass. We hated to be less than friendly, but they come on STRONG, ALL DAY LONG, and it gets old very fast.

So the real reason we were in Sapa was to volunteer teaching English to orphaned and underprivileged children! We found this opportunity through helpx. A man named Peter started the Sapa Hope Center where he houses, feeds and gives free English lessons to children living in the hills of Sapa. Most of these kids do not go to school or do not have access to schools, so they come here. Some kinds walk for over an hour, alone, to get here. It was such an eye opening experience.

When we arrived in Sapa we stayed at the associated Sapa Backpackers hostel. Our contact Peter was no where to be found when we arrived so we walked around, etc. It was actually nice to finally shower and have a free day to rest up before our first day with the kids.

What we did not realize when we arrived was that the Hope Center was over 5km (3-4 miles) away from where we were staying. When we finally found Peter he said that some people walk it (ummmm) but others rent motor bikes. Getting to the Hope Center was a big issue because we were not prepared to walk 4 miles each way for a 1 hour lesson, and we are inexperienced motorbike drivers. Ok so taxis were our last option....

The first two days we volunteered we grabbed taxis, thankfully.  It took us about our 5th or 6th taxi driver to finally take us because they either didn't want to take us, or claimed they didn't know where the center was. We later realized they price gouged us, which was not cool. We informed Peter but unfortunately he did not help us coordinate or arrange travel for the additional days. When you have quit your job and decided to backpack overseas, and are staying in places that are $3 a night, paying for unexpected transportation that is over $5 a day starts to eat into your budget. I know most of my family and friends back home are reading this and are probably thinking, "Elizabeth, five dollars!" If we would have known going into this about the location disparity we could have planned appropriately. Hailing cabs to/from was tough, especially with the language barrier. It was actually sad to see that locals were completely taking advantage of tourists. You would think they want people to come back, right? It seemed that most taxis would rather lay in their cars and nap than take us 4 miles down the road and back. Frustrating!

We did make it work the first two days.  We talked our way into a cab and back, overpaid, but we were able to teach the children.  It was such a wonderful experience, teaching that is!  

I will never forget seeing the "whites" in these kids' eyes when they were looking back at my whiteboard trying to spell certain colors I had written out for them to practice.  They were eager and excited to learn. These kids did not have to be here but they were.  They were kind, curious and genuine.  

Our third day we actually went to the grocery store to buy prizes for kids. We were researching lesson plans and wanted to make the biggest impact we could on these children with the little time that we had. Unfortunately day three we were unable to get a taxi because they either were charging us extremely ridiculous rates or did not know where the center was. Such a shame. We attempted to start walking the 3-4 miles but we realized by the time we got there it would be too late, and we would have to turn back around. The two days we volunteered were amazing and we wish we could have helped more. Oh well. :(

I know the Sapa Hope Center is new and unable to arrange transport at this time. Just FYI for any future volunteers interested in helping. Be either experienced or eager to ride a motor bike in crazy traffic, or be prepared to pay a taxi twice your hotel bill each day to get to the center. Sapa Backpackers offers you a bed for $3 a night if you are volunteering. A taxi to and from the center each day will cost you about $6 a day. 

Since teaching was done with we had the rest of our time to relax. Each morning we would wake up and go eat breakfast. Vietnamese coffee is so amazing!!!!!!! I don't know what it is about it, whether it's the actual coffee beans, the way they brew it, I'm not sure. Or it could be the carnation condensed milk they use, but the taste is exceptional. Better than Starbucks!!

We enjoyed our coffee and breakfast each morning and then we were off to explore.  We spent most of our free days finding a nice viewpoint to sit at where we could read, write and relax.

A lot of times when you travel you are so busy packing in excursions and sightseeing trips you never get a chance to really relax and enjoy your surroundings.  But not us - we had a few days of complete relaxation. :)  

Their version of a banana split:

Sapa, Vietnam is a cute little town.  It is away from the bustling streets of Hanoi, tucked away in cool deep mountains.  If you're in Vietnam and you're looking for hiking, trekking, or just to visit a place to check out with amazing views, I highly recommend Sapa.  Just be prepared to be pestered, a little.  :)

When in Rome....

Or in Sapa, Vietnam....

Man, exhaust is hard out here in these streets of Vietnam. SO many motorbikes, trucks, cars, etc. A lot of locals wear these so I thought WHY NOT. I should protect my lungs. :)

I love looking crazy. Yes!  :)

Relationships: 102

How easy is it to give relationship advice? Pretty easy right? From the outside other friends always have the right answers and best perspectives, right? So why is it so hard for us to take our own advice?

In my current read (A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson) I've never seen or heard relationship advice broken down as what I'm about to show you. Instead of calling this Relationships 101, this is Relationships 102. This will take you to the next step of self analysis, understanding and awareness, and you'll probably never look at relationships the same again. ;)



It is not our job to seek for love, but to seek for all the barriers we hold against its coming.

Relationships are assignments. They are part of a vast plan for our enlightenment, the Universe's blueprint by which each individual soul is led to greater awareness and expanded love. Relationships are the Universe's laboratories that brings people together who have the maximal opportunity for mutual growth. No meetings are accidental.

When we're not in a relationship, the ego makes it seem as though all the pain would go away if we were. The ego argues that the love we need must come from someone else, and that there's one special person out there who can fill up that hole, that this special person out there will make all the pain go away. We don't really believe that, of course, but then on the other hand we really do. This "special relationship" makes other people - their behavior, their choices, their opinions of us - too important. It makes us think we need another person, when in fact we are complete and whole as we are. If the relationship lasts, however, it will actually bring much of our existential pain to the surface. That's part of its purpose. It will demand all of our skills at compassion, acceptance, release, forgiveness, and selflessness. We might tend to forget the challenges involved in a relationship when we're not in one, but we remember then clearly enough once we are.

Certain voices go on endlessly these days about whether or not "our needs are being met" in a relationship. When we try to use a relationship to serve our own purposes we falter because we are reinforcing our illusion of need. The ego always emphasizes what someone has done wrong, it guides our thinking and we meet in fear, mask to mask. In the "holy relationship" the universe or Holy Spirit has changed our minds about the purpose of love and we meet heart to heart. Darkness is merely the absence of light, and fear is merely the absence of love. If we want to be rid of darkness, we must turn on a light. Similarly, if we want to be rid of fear, we cannot fight it but but replace it with love. The choice to love is not easy. The ego puts up terrible resistance to giving up fear-laden responses.

Our neuroses in relationships usually stem from our having an agenda (ego) for another person or for the relationship itself. God's or the Universe's idea of a "good relationship" and the Ego's idea of one are completely different. To the ego, a good relationship is one in which another person basically behaves the way we want them to and never presses our buttons, never violates our comfort zones. But if a relationship exists to support our growth, then in many ways it exists to do just those things; force us out of our limited tolerance and inability to love unconditionally.

Our ego is merely our fear. Our egos are not where we are "bad" but where we are wounded. We must reveal ourselves at the deepest level in order to find out how lovable we really are. When we dig deeply enough into our real nature, we do not find darkness. We find endless light. That is what the ego doesn't want us to see; that our safety actually lies in letting down our mask. But we cannot do this when we're constantly afraid of being judged.

As temples of healing, relationships are like a trip to the divine physician's office. How can a doctor help us unless we show him our wounds? Our fearful places have to be revealed before they can be healed. If a relationship allows us to merely avoid our unhealed places, then we're hiding there, not growing. The universe will not support that.

Someone with whom we have a lifetime's worth of lessons to learn is someone whose presence in our lives forces us to grow. Sometimes it represents someone with whom we participate lovingly all our lives, and sometimes it represents someone who we experience as a thorn in our side for years, or even forever. Just because someone has a lot to teach us doesn't mean we like them. People who have the most to teach us are often the ones who reflect back to us the limits to our own capacity to love, those who consciously or unconsciously challenge our fearful positions. They show us our walls. Our walls are our wounds - the places where we feel we cant love any more, cant connect any more deeply, cant forgive past a certain point. We are in each other's lives in order to help us see where we most need healing, and in order to help us heal.

Thinking that there is some special person out there who is going to save us is a barrier to pure love. It is a way the ego tries to keep us away from love, although it doesn't want us to see that. We seek desperately for love, but it is that same desperation that leads us to destroy it once it gets here. Thinking that one special person is going to save us tempts us to load an awful lot of emotional pressure on whoever comes along that we think might fit the bill. A relationship is not meant to be the joining at the hip of two emotional invalids. The purpose of a relationship is not for two incomplete people to become one, but rather for two complete people to join together for the greater glory of the universe. Under the universe's guidance we come together to share joy.

Peace isn't determined by circumstances outside us. Peace stems from forgiveness. Pain doesn't stem from the love we're denied by others, but rather from the love that we deny them. What really has occurred is that someone else's closed heart has tempted us to close our own, and it is our own denial of love that hurts us.

The problem in relationships is rarely that we haven't had wonderful opportunities or met wonderful people. The problem is, we haven't known how to take the greatest advantage of the opportunities we've had. Sometimes we didn't recognize at the time how wonderful those people were. Love is all around us. The ego is the block to our awareness of love's presence.

Growth is never about focusing on someone else's lessons, but only on our own.

Volunteer Thailand!

I've added a tab above, "VOLUNTEER THAILAND" that details my two week volunteer trip through various parts of Thailand.  Please check it out to find out about my encounters with elephants, tigers, monkeys and even a baby leopard!  You'll also read about my first Buddhist Temple experience!  ENJOY!

Food Critic: Magnum Ice Cream Bars

So, I've officially tried almost all the flavors of Magnum ice cream bars over the past month in Thailand. It. Is. Just. SO. Hot! :) I wanted to share my thoughts of the flavors I've tried in case you want to try one of these rich delectable treats. Man, Magnum's marketing team sure knows what they are doing in Thailand!

Magnum Classic - aka vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate. What Magnum Bars have going for them is their vanilla ice cream and chocolate coverings are very rich. So if rich plain vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate is your thing, this should work for you.



Magnum Almond - this is just like the above but with bits of almond in the chocolate crust. Definitely adds some depth and additional flavor. Pretty Good.



Magnum Choco Cappuccino - I must say I was the least impressed with this one. It's just like the Classic bar but with toffee chip tasting things in the chocolate crust. Not that special if you ask me.

Magnum Chocolate & Strawberry - This one was pretty special. This had the same outside chocolate coating, but inside was a sweet rich strawberry swirl vanilla ice cream. This is my second favorite thus far!!!



Now for my favorite...

Magnum Gold: Where do I start! This one flipped the script. Inside is rich caramel and vanilla swirl ice cream, dipped in their Classic chocolate covering. However, this is also dipped in a salted caramel covering, too. MAN - this does it! The ice cream is so rich, so sweet, but the addition of the salted caramel covering just takes this to another level!!!!



Ok there you have it folks - I will update the above with each additional flavor I try. Per their website it looks like I have some more ice cream eating to do!

Headed to yoga in the morning!!!!!!!!!!!!