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Southeast Asia

So Victoria has finished her assignment and it’s time to hit the road again. This time however that’s a little more figurative than literall. We’ve decided to put the RV in storage for a few months as we travel through southeast asia via backpack. We are planning on traveling through Vietnam, Loas, Thailand, and Cambodia loosly following what is called the “Banana Pankake Route” for two and a half months.

Ever since we went on our honeymoon to Thailand we’ve wanted to return to southeast asia and visit Vietnam. It’s just such a beautiful, friendly, and cheap place to travel, not to mention the food is amazing, that it was irresitible. The flights are out there are a bit expensive but it’s so cheap once you get there that it’s worthwhile staying a while ;). For example you can eat out for every meal for a dollar or two a day, stay in a hotel on the beach for as cheap as $10, or ride a bus cross country for $20. Some people travel here on as little as $250 a month. I am expecting to spend about $1000 a month for the two of us but that might be a little higher because we like to do expensive things every now and then like scuba or take a flight rather than a long rough bus ride. We always get private rooms and get AC, private bath, and hot water anytime they’re avliable. A few nights in Grenada, Nicaragua without AC will convince you it’s worth a few extra bucks every night!

We are going to fly into Ho Chi Minh City and as far as any advance planning, all we have boooked is our hotel for the first night. This allows us the ultimate freedom to choose where we want to go and how long we want to stay there. Like a place, stay longer. Dislike a place, leave the next day. Feeling tired of traveling, take few days and chill on the beach. It also nice to be able to actually look at your hotel before you book it. Sometimes the pictures are very deseaving….. Part of this is traveling light, we are each traveling with a fairly small backpack with everything we need for three months in it.

We are both excited and nervous, but that is part of what I love about traveling. It’s the fear and excitment of a new country, new food, new people. There really just isn’t anything like it. You also meet very interesting people traveling out of the country, both locals and travelers. We’re littlerly flying aroung the world (11 hours time difference from the east coast, 21 hours of traveling time). I hope ya’ll will continue to follow along. Apparently mobile data (and wifi) is both widely avliable and cheap so we plan to post twice a week or so, a post per place. We leave Friday!

Road Trippin Doggie

Hello! I’m a doggie named Marilyn, aka Maribell. Dis is my first blog I’ve ever typed. I heard some of you wanted to know how I fealt about dis trip. Momma said that people always ask about me and how I’m doin. It took some getting used to, but I’m happy and content now.

When I first left home in Jacksonville, I was kinda sad. I was upset about leavin my big pillow, my couch and all the familiar schmells outside. I even miss da mailman, even though I barked at him everyday. Momma only let me bring two of my friends – lion and boyfriend. It took me almost 2 months before I “danced” with boyfriend, dats how sad I was. It took me a few weeks to get over leaving home. I tried to bite people I didnt know and would bark a lot at every noise outside the RV.

Ridin in the truck is fine. Momma velcrowed a small pillow on the center console of the truck so I could sit comfortably in between momma and papi like I always do. I never get sick ridin in the car, Papi always takes me everywhere wif him so I’m used to it.

Every time we stop, I get out of the truck and start sniffin around. I get so confused because a lot of times we are always going to a new place and I can’t schmell the same schmells. It gets really frustratin. One thing I worry about is the grass. Lots of times the grass has stickers and they hurt my feets. Papi has to dig them out of my foot fur and den I’m afraid to walk in the grass. Some grass is nice and some isn’t.

After a while I started to feel better. As long as I’m wif my momma and papi I am happy. My favorite place in the RV is on top of the couch. I like to look outside da window, to see what all is happenin. I also like the carpet in the RV it is nice and sof. As usual, when people see me dey always compliment me on how purty I am, dat perks me up. I already know I’m bootiful since momma tells me all the time. I heard momma saying that we were going to go to Canada soon, I caint wait to see what the grass is like there! I never been outside the country before! Whelp, thats all I have to say about livin in the RV. Let me know if you have any questions or advice for doggies on the road. Buh Bye!

Maribel

Tonto and Coconino National Forest, AZ

I combined these forests into one post because if you look at the map, they border each other, yet are separated for some reason I don’t know. After a nice visit at Tim’s Grandparent’s home in Tuscon, we took the scenic highway 77 up to highway 188 to Theodore Roosevelt Lake in the Tonto Basin. Highway 77 was a lovely route to take to get into Tonto National Forest. One tall, looming thing stands out in the landscape of Arizona, the Seguaro catcus. The large, Gumbi-like cactus stands as tall as a grown man and grows multiple arms. Since it’s a National Forest, we could of dispersed camped anywhere for free but because I wanted to be by the lake we stayed at Bermuda Flat’s campground for $6/day. We literally pulled the fifth wheel right up to the edge of the lake. We kept the windows open to hear the sound of the water breaking on the sand and to feel the occasional cool breeze. The only thing I didn’t like about the site by the lake was the bugs. They were not the biting kind of fly but they swarmed all day and night anywhere sheltered by the wind. I celebrated by 31^st birthday here and was happy to get cell service so I could receive happy birthday calls and messages on Facebook. We spent two nights here before heading to Coconino National Forest.

At Coconino we only stayed one night because we were anxious to get to the Grand Canyon. From Highway 3, F.R. 132 is called Crimson Road, so we passed it initially. We drove quite a ways up the gravel forest road 132 and found a nice little open patch in the woods. Once we started up the narrow gravel road we were dedicated. Doing this with a car or truck is not a big deal, but when you are towing something there is a slight worry in the back of your mind, will I be able to find a spot to camp? Will I be able to turn around if I can’t find a spot? We told ourselves that next time we would pull over and unhitch the trailer so we could scout out a spot a little easier. Since we arrived early, we had time to go for a hike to see Priest’s Draw, a large exposed rock that is popular for bouldering. Bouldering is when you climb up the rock a couple feet without ropes. We saw several people bouldering, carrying with them crash pads to place under the rock for when/if they fall. We also saw a bunch of chipmunks, which triggered me to sing Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas songs pretty much the whole time.

There wasn’t too much going on in these places, hence the short and sweet post. They were means to get to the Grand Canyon, on which I will extensively report next time! Thanks for reading!