Caveat Emptor

Well buyer beware is an understatement! We will try not be negative here but it's gonna be hard based on some less than ideal things we've got into lately. We rode into HaLong Bay (they are trying to make it the 7th wonder of the world - it really is amazing) by 10km outta town we were already being followed by motorcycles trying to lure us into their hotels. After riding around for a few hours we found a great hotel with an overly helpful guy. Bonus was the room had an amazing view of the ocean and surrounding city. The guy who sold us the room also had a great deal on a boat tour of Ha Long Bay....sure. Basically Ha Long City is on the edge of the ocean and everyone goes there to explore the limestone outcrops/mountains by boat. Well the boat tour WAS great due to the spectacular scenery, and we spent a lot of time in some really cool caves. The downside was we got ripped off so badly that the other guests on our same boat paid one tenth the price (no joke)and they had a waaaaay better lunch served. Well this same bastard also arranged a bus ride to Hanoi where we would go for our last few days in Vietnam. No word of a lie...it was the absolute scariest thing we have EVER done in our lives. The driver was going soooo fast and swerving and missing on-coming buses and dump trucks by a matter of feet. All of the people in the row in front of us puked in the first fifteen minutes and we were literally hanging on for our lives and they wouldn't stop the bus or slow down despite us begging them to. It was 2 hours where we honstly thought we were going to die and we were so happy to finally arrive in Ha Noi. We spent 3 days in Hanoi exploring the cities unique regions and eating lots of good food. Had a scare yesterday when a guy pick pocketed my wallet right outta by shoulder bag but LUCKILY Marni kinda saw him and we were able to grab him right away. Definitely a good reminder to be more careful. It also left us ready to get outta dodge and experience a new country.

This morning we flew into Bangkok and then rented a cabbie to take us to Kranchanaburi (east of Bangkok 130km) where we'll hang for a day or two. We want to spend x-mas day on a warm beach so we gotta get our asses in gear and start pedaling south soon. It's pretty hot here...like 30 and high humidity so we're looking forward to the hot sun again. I'm thinking that's probably about 65+ degrees warmer than the ski trails in Saskabush so no complaints from us.

Hope everyone is getting geared up for a white x-mas and some quality relaxing. We miss y'all.

Cooky Rooky and Co Fo