Vietnam Vagabonds, Part 2

Three weeks later, it has come time for us to say goodbye to Vietnam. We have come a long way from the rainy August day in Pagosa Springs, Colorado when we booked our flights to Southeast Asia. At the time it seemed so surreal; “are we really doing this?!”

Here we are, 6 months later, and it still seems so surreal!! I wonder if the fact that we are traveling through Asia on this completely life changing adventure, will ever actually set in.

We spent the second half of our time in Vietnam in Hoi An and Ha Noi. (In conversation, we mixed up the names of these two cities more times than we could count!)

Hoi An was a lovely quaint town near the coast. We stayed 15 minutes outside of town in a beachside bamboo bungalow (how is that for an alliteration?!). It has been the most unique place we have stayed thus far. It was quite rustic, with gaps in the thin bamboo walls and a much needed mosquito net over our bed. It was beautiful and best of all just a short walk to an awesome beach!!

We spent one day exploring the town of Hoi An, seeing temples and museums, the the quiet streets of an old French town. We ate some really yummy food on this day! A smoothie bowl and vegan pancakes for breakfast, and Banh mi (Vietnamese baguette sandwich) for lunch.

The next two days were spent lounging on the beach, swimming, reading, and listening to podcasts. Vietnam has been the craziest country we’ve been to so far, there are motorbikes everywhere, drivers constantly use their horn to signal to other drivers, and crossing the road feels like you are part of the game Frogger. Needless to say, a few days on the beach was just what we needed to decompress!

The most memorable part about Hoi An was when I locked myself in our room. Reid stayed on the beach and I went to our room to get more sunscreen. Our double doors closed on the inside and outside with a wooden latch. When I got inside our room, the wooden latch on the outside fell down and locked me in! I had to wait for someone to walk by, then I leaned out our window and called for help. I was quite embarrassed to say the least!!

We continued from Hoi An to Hanoi. We left early in the morning on one of the cheapest flights we will ever take. Our tickets were $3 each, and taxes and fees were $22. A $25 flight seemed much more appealing than taking a 17 hour bus ride!!

Hanoi is everything than Hoi An is not! It is crowded and busy, the rules of the road are nonexistent, and the sidewalks are used like parking lots so it is difficult to walk on them.

We took a few days to explore the sights of this sprawling city and a few days to explore other parts of northern Vietnam. One day we took a tour to Ninh Binh. This province felt like a dream! We climbed 500 stairs to reach the top of a small peak that over looked the river valley below. Then later we spent two hours on the river below, slowly rowing through the beautiful scenery, by temples, and through caves. It was an incredible day, we loved being in the countryside and slowing our pace down.

We spent another day exploring Halong Bay. This time of year the weather is typically cloudy, overcast, and chilly in this region of Vietnam. So we were overjoyed that we had a day that was 65° and sunny!!!

Our boat took us through the twists and turns of this beautiful bay, we had a sunny sky and the water was a stunning blueish-green color. We started at a cave that the French discovered when Vietnam was a colony. Sung Sot cave is over 100,000 square feet! It took us about 40 minutes to walk through all of it!

Then we went kayaking. Reid and I are an excellent tandem kayaking pair, and we had a lot of fun! We were able to explore a lagoon that only kayaks (and monkeys) can get to.

Our last stop in Halong Bay was Titop Island. We climbed about 400 stairs to get a panoramic view of the bay. We were exhausted, but it was totally worth it!!

A great part about Hanoi was that we got to meet up with one of my high school friends, Ryan. He has been living in Hanoi, teaching English at a high school, and working with a human rights organization. It was awesome to catch up with him!

As we leave Vietnam, we head for Laos (country #4!).

In our spare time, getting ready in the morning, and on bus trips we have started listening to Christian podcasts. We love the Elevation Church podcast, but if anyone has any suggestions, we are all ears!!

Love,

Sorrell

“Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off” -Proverbs 24:14

Vietnam Vagabonds

“There is no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living” -Nelson Mandela

The world is big and wide and there are endless adventures to find in the nooks and crannies of far away places. After a little more than a month in Southeast Asia, we are still overjoyed with our decision to take three months off from ‘real life’ to come here. Some day are filled with adventures and we are buzzing from one awe-inspiring activity to the next. And other days are incredibly normal. Like today, we are patiently waiting for our night bus to leave at 7pm from Nha Trang to Hoi An. It is overcast and rainy so we are spending the afternoon in a coffee shop, planning, writing, and playing bananagrams! Sometimes it is days like this that allow us to slow down and remember how grateful we are to be living this amazing life!

We are halfway through our three week journey through Vietnam, and we are loving it!! We began in Ho Chi Minh City at the end of January, and WOW I do not think anything could have prepared us for the craziness of that city! We spent about two hours trying to get through immigration at the airport and that wore us out! Then we proceeded to enter the city of 9 million motorbikes!

We spent the next day exploring the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Vietnamese created a network of tunnels during the Vietnam War to avoid being seen by the Americans. Before this day, I expected the tunnels to just go from one building/house to another, but I was way wrong, they managed to create whole villages underground! The tunnels had three ‘stories’ beneath the surface. There were bunkers that were used as sleeping quarters, kitchens, medical rooms, meeting rooms, etc. They created special ventilation for fresh air and to get rid of the smoke from the cooking fire. This intricate system was all dug by hand, using wooden/stone tools and woven baskets to move the dirt. Since being in Vietnam, we have learned about the war from a whole new perspective.

The next day we went to the War Remnants Museum. We were super excited to go here to learn about the Vietnam War from a new point of view and see artifacts and photos. However, we were sorely disappointed by the results…but that is a story for another time.

The next day was Super Bowl Monday!! Not quite the same as Super Bowl Sunday, but in Vietnam, we will take what we can get. We woke up at 5am, but that still was not early enough to get to the most popular sports bar in the city. People started lining up at 5am, so by the time we arrived there were no seats left. We found another bar to watch the game at, and it was definitely a taste of home! Sitting to our left there were some died hard 49ers fans and to our right, die hard Chiefs fans. I was rooting for the 49ers (Go Jimmy G!!). But Patrick Mahomes played a great game and it was so fun to watch!! After a late breakfast, we immediately treated ourselves to a nap!

We spent our last day in southern Vietnam exploring the Mekong Delta. After a few hours on a bus to the delta, we took a boat to a few different islands. We had such a wonderful tour, and we got to do so much…eat local fruit, listen to folk music, learn about beekeeping and chocolate making, hold a python, learning about coconut candy, go on a bike ride, have a delish Vietnamese lunch, and explore a Buddhist pagoda. This is a very popular tourist destination, but it felt like we were the only ones there!

I am usually very against tea, iced or hot, any kind! However, on this tour we had kumquat tea with honey, and I was in love!!! It was delicious!

The next day we made our way to Mui Ne, to explore the Vietnamese sand dunes! Our morning started off…well basically in the middle of the night. We took a jeep to the dunes. Which in theory, it sounds awesome, but there were no windows and we were going 50mph… it was COLD! As soon as we arrived an ATV operator insisted that we purchase an expensive ATV ride so he could drive us to the top of the sand dunes to see the sunrise. He told us it was 5km (3 miles) away and there is no way we would make it on time. We hesitantly declined and started our walk….10 minutes late (that’s right, only TEN!) we reached the top of a dune to watch the sun come up. We chose a different dune than everyone who took an ATV to the top, so it felt like we were all alone in this beautiful desert landscape. It was incredible, we could definitely see God painting the sky for us.

We also got to walk through the fairy stream. I think it was appropriately named, as the only word I can think to describe it is: magical! The stream was very shallow, only a few inches at the deepest spots. Palm trees hung over the stream as we walked through, then we rounded a corner and it felt like we were in a mini Bryce Canyon. There were red rocks rising up all around us. How awesome!!

Our trip to Mui Ne was short, but quite lovely. We quickly continued up the coast to Nha Trang a beautiful beach town. However, we did not have beach weather. Just rain, clouds, and wind the whole time!! The silver lining to this is that we got to catch up on life, writing this blog, and planning the remainder of our trip!

Since we did not get to do much sight seeing or beach lounging, we did A LOT of eating!! We had some of the best Italian food in all of Asia (which probably does not sound like much a feat, but boy was it good!), and amazing American barbecue with giant smokers and homemade sauces. However, we were most excited about a beach side restaurant called ‘Louisiane Brewhouse”. It was so good we went back twice! Reid absolutely loves that he is of legal drinking age here and can order a beer without being carded!! (But I am sure it will not be so fun for him when he returns home and still is not 21!)

We will finish out our journey through Vietnam with a few days relaxing by a beach in Hoi An, and then a week in Hanoi. We will then continue on to Laos, Myanmar, and Indonesia. We are quickly approaching the halfway point of our trip (February 18)!!

What a journey it has been so far, we cannot wait to see what is to come!

Stay Tuned!

Love,

Sorrell

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” -Romans 5:5

P.S. to Reid’s family: He is practically a pro backpacker now, but he is sad he missed the end of rifle season! (You can take the Reid out of the south, but you can’t take the south out of Reid!)

We are going to Asia!!!!

Do you ever stop and realize how quickly life can pass you by? (I know I am only 22, and I don’t have any business saying that, but hear me out!)

I have done of lot of soul searching since finishing school in May, and here is what I have come up with. I have been going to school for as long as I can remember. And now that I am done, I am supposed to get a job and work for the next 40-50 years?! Come on, there has got to be more than that!! I have been searching for that ‘more’.

More adventure, more living, more exploring.

Life is too short to not be intentional in how we live!!!!

I always try my best to live ‘on purpose’. If you are looking, life has got a lot to offer! Sometimes this means making the best of a spontaneous camping trip that doesn’t go as planned, or going to college in a state that I had never been to, or studying abroad in a big city (If you know me, you know I am definitely not a city person). Living ‘on purpose’ always means pushing myself to learn and grow, and expanding my comfort zone. Great things never came from comfort zones!

Reid and I are putting our intentional living to the ultimate test!! We decided that we wanted one more season at the ranch (Summer 2020), so that meant we had to find something to do in the off-season. We thought about working at another ranch, or some sort of other seasonal work. But then I came up with a wonderful (in my opinion), albeit crazy (in Reid’s opinion) idea.

A three month vacation!!!!

From January 7- April 8 we will be backpacking through Southeast Asia!! We will be visiting Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Indonesia. We are so excited to explore temples, trek through jungles, lounge on beaches, and everything in between! These beautiful countries have so much to offer and we cannot wait to immerse ourselves in the local culture.

When I studied abroad in Hong Kong in 2017, I got the chance to explore some of Southeast Asia. I experienced what it is like to be a total outsider, how to navigate a city with a paper map, and what to do when a monkey attacks me in the jungles of Bali. When I left, after spending five whole months completely out of my comfort zone, I left much to be explored. So as soon as I had the chance to return, I took it!

I am so excited for this new adventure with Reid! And my siblings!! (Ellery and Tristan will be joining us for the Thailand leg of our trip!!)

During these past few months Reid and I have spent SO much time planning…itineraries, accommodations, budget, activities, etiquette, weather, visas, embassy locations, packing lists, flights… the list goes on! (Seriously, we have a whole notebook dedicated to this trip!) Fingers crossed, all this planning will help our trip go a bit more smoothly once we get there.

Our exploration of Southeast Asia is just around the corner (Three weeks away!) and I will do my best to write about our adventures so our friends and families can keep up with our travels.

Stay tuned!!

Love,
Sorrell
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
-Proverbs 3:5-6

Happy-Go-Lucky in Hanoi

Before leaving for our Lunar New Year vacation to Hanoi I read countless articles about what to expect in Vietnam. However, I don’t think anything could have actually prepared me for this wonderfully overwhelming experience. I felt as though I was constantly dodging mopeds and people, reading my map to try to get us back to the hostel, and avoiding stepping in some sort of trash or unidentified liquid in the streets.

I had my first real hostel experience, staying in the heart of the Old Quarter. This trip definitely forced me to be low maintenance! I didn’t bring any makeup, I was living with 6 strangers (plus Arden) in a small room, and we hardly had a real shower.

*Be prepared for an extra-long post! I am so excited to tell y’all about my adventures in Vietnam!!

Day 1: Exploring Hanoi

We started our first full day in Hanoi with a walking tour of the city. I thought that would help me get my bearings and help me navigate the Old Quarter…I was sorely mistaken. Every street looked exactly the same: lined with mopeds and with sidewalks that were full of plastic tables and chairs serving as make-shift restaurants.

Almost every street had a few dogs too! (Which, of course, I felt the need to point out to everyone as we passed…It took almost all of my self-control not to pet those cute little guys).

In addition to all of the make-shift restaurants, people bought most of their food on the sidewalks. Fruits and vegetables, as well as live chickens and fish! A woman across the street from our hostel sold fish. She gave some people live fish in a plastic grocery bag (now that is fresh!). For others, she grabbed a fish out of the bin, hit it over the head until it died, then cut it up.

Our guide pointed out some of the best sites in the Old Quarter, including a temple built in 1182, that largely remains the same, even after the Indochina Wars, and Hoan Kiem Lake with legends that are as old as the water is murky.

We then had a yummy Vietnamese lunch overlooking a rotary that was complete pandemonium. No signs, no lanes, no crosswalks, no traffic signals! It was a free-for-all! Cars, buses, bikes, mopeds, and people. I felt like I was in the video game ‘Frogger’ when I tried to cross the street. Its a good thing I had some friends that were a little more confident than me…I stuck to them like glue!

Next we met up with some HKBU friends (some, on purpose and a few, on accident) and went to a prison museum. Hoa Lo Prison was first used by the French to house Vietnamese revolutionaries during the struggle for independence, then by the Vietnamese to house American POWs during the Second Indochina War.

That night we went to a traditional puppet theater. Even though the whole performance was in Vietnamese, we still had a great time! After dinner that night, I was more than ready to take a hot shower and climb into bed. When we got back to the hostel, the receptionist told us that there were no more towels. So, I ended up taking a cold shower and air dried a bit, then used a tee-shirt to dry off (not ideal, but it worked).

Day 2: Hoa Lu and Tam Coc

On our second day in Hanoi we took a trip to the Ninh Binh province, south of Hanoi. After a two hour bus ride we made it to two beautifully intricate pagodas, dedicated to the first two kings of Vietnam. Then we had another delicious lunch. To everyone who thinks I am a picky eater: I tried goat, and it wasn’t bad! They also had the best pineapple. By the time dinner rolled around, I was still full.

Next, we went on a boat ride on the beautiful Tam Coc River. We got in a small boat with a Vietnamese woman and her son, and she rowed us down the river. The river zig-zagged through massive limestone rock formations and we meandered past rice paddies and small houses. It was an incredible experience and I am pretty sure I had a smile plastered on my face the entire time. Her son was adorable and he did the best to keep himself entertained and not get in the way. I tried to teach him how to use my camera, but he was a little shy. Almost everyone we passed along the river was thrilled to see Caucasian people. I wish I kept track of how many Vietnamese people talked to us or took pictures of us. Arden said, “this must be what it feels like to be a celebrity.”

After our boat ride we went biking through the rice paddies…yet another amazing experience! The trail was very bumpy and for the first five minutes I was clenching that handlebars as tight as I could and barely looked up from the trail. The last thing I wanted was to be that American girl that veered off the path and fell into a rice paddy. Luckily, that didn’t happen! We passed by people planting rice and small houses with small children peering out the windows. It was an inside look into how the Vietnamese people lived, and they all seemed really happy. Although every aspect of this trip was incredible, I think this was my favorite.

Day 3: Halong Bay

We started this lovely day with a 3 ½ hour bus ride to the coast. We then got on our boat for the day and had a huge seafood lunch. Almost immediately after we left the port we were surrounded by more beautiful limestone formations (similar to Tam Coc, the day before). It was a little cold and very windy, but I do not think anything could dampen my spirts this day. We got to a cove and had the opportunity to go kayaking. We went through a few caves got to do some exploring. Another beautiful and eye-opening experience where I was smiling the entire time. Not to mention Arden and I were a great tandem kayaking team!!

Next we visited the Cave of Wonders. It was so huge, it felt like one of the limestone mountains was completely hollowed out. There were stalactites and stalagmites that are so big they must have been forming for millions and millions of years.

Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and of the New Seven Wonders of the Natural World, and I can see why. It was such a unique place, like nothing I have ever seen before.

After the 3 ½ hour bus ride back, we finished the long day with some well-deserved ice-cream sundaes.

Day 4: Exploring Hanoi (again)

We decided to take our last day in Hanoi to explore the city some more and I am so glad we did! We ended up walking 11 miles this day, but it was so worth it. We were able to see some new districts of the city that were completely different from the Old Quarter, where we had spent most of our time. We explored the Don Xuan market and some small shops (I bought some ever-coveted elephant pants!). We also walked across the city to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the One Pillar Pagoda, and the Presidential Palace. The mausoleum is a memorial where Ho Chi Minh read the country’s Declaration of Independence for the first time, which established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The One Pillar Pagoda is exactly what it sounds like. It is the tiniest temple, situated over a small pond, standing on one pillar. The Presidential Palace was where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked. Every building on this property was very yellow and very beautiful! This country loves Ho Chi Minh and it was great to experience some of its history.

I loved experiencing Vietnam. The culture and the way of life is so different from Hong Kong. I spent the past week teetering on the edge of the unknown and I loved it!

If you have read this whole post- Thank you! And sorry it was so long!

Stay Tuned!

Love,

Sorrell

“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” -Ephesians 4:1-2