Iguazu Falls, Argentina April 2008

With much anticipation, we finally made it to South America. Our trip started in Las Vegas where we stayed a night to visit our friends who we haven't seen in a few years. We got a really awesome Business Class fare on Mexicana Airlines that was too good to pass up ($1350/person). However, having flown many other carriers in Business class, I would rank Mexicana near or at the bottom. Anyway, lets get on with the trip.

After approximately 10 hours flight, we landed in Buenos Aires. We took an Aerolinas Argentina flight to Iguazu Falls. I have to confess, I've never heard of this world famous wonder until I started to research for the trip. If you think Niagara Falls was grand, Iguazu is about 10 times bigger and grander. Iguazu Falls is in the northern part of Argentina bordering Brazil. After our short flight north we landed in Iguazu and took a taxi to our hotel, Sheraton Iguazu. The nice part about the Sheraton is it's right inside the Iguazu Falls national park. It's the only hotel within walking distance to the Falls. We booked regular room on points and got upgraded to a nice suite along with a bottle of wine and snacks. Our suite has a balcony with the view of the falls.

I'll let the pictures describe what a breath taking place it is. No wonder they are calling Iguazu Falls the new 7 wonders of the world.

Sapa, Vietnam June 2004

Even though I was born and raised in Vietnam, but I've never been to Sapa until our visit to Vietnam in 2004. Sapa is a mountain township in northwest Vietnam near the Chinese border. Fansipan mountain is located in this area, dubbed "the roof of Indochina", (3143m or ~10000ft). We took the overnight train from Hanoi departing at midnight and arriving in Lao Cai train station at aroun 6AM. After a short bus ride through the mountain pass, we arrived at our Hotel Victoria. The hotel is on the mountain side overlooking the valley. Sapa has gotten very popular with Western tourists, though the French came to this region during the colonial era as evidence by a roman catholic church in the middle of Sapa's main square. While dinning at the hotel we had conversations with tourists from New Zealand and Israel. The hotel was good standard for the this remote region. It included breakfast for less than $30/night. Though, it's probably much higher now.

The next morning we got up early for our guided trek through the valley. The trek was about 5 hours and our hired guide spoke English, he's a young man from the central province, which was a surprise for us because we expected someone indigenous to the area. However, he was a nice young man and knew enough about the area to keep us entertained.

The H'mong, Dao, Tay, Giay are 4 distinct minority groups in this area. They have their own colorful clothing. I remember seeing, black, hot pink and aqua green for each of the groups. They lived the same way for hundreds of years, other than tourism, their way of life remains the same today.

Sapa is one of those places that I would definitely return again. It's a place to get away from it all, though, I hope the influx of tourism hasn't ruined it.

Old woman throwing tantrum at HKG

Note: Satire is used for the translation and it's not real.

She's basically saying the plane is still there why did you closed the door, why don't you let me board. Airlines employee was trying to calm her down and told her that they will put her on another flight. If this was in the U.S. she would be in jail already. - LOL. Here's the original version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbVw7entkxg