We arrived in Viet Nam with mixed expectations. We've heard it all. Some travelers hate it. Older generations don't understand why we would even want to set foot in the country. Backpackers love to rage there for pennies. The Vietnamese hate Americans. The food will make you sick. We put all the noise out of our minds as soon as we landed in Hanoi.

Entry

When giving a place a real "go," it's important to not judge based on first impressions. Our first impression was immigration and it was annoying. Americans need a visa to enter, but unlike most other countries in Southeast Asia, you can NOT get one upon arrival. This left us three options:

1. Send our passports away to the consulate in D.C.-Not an option

2. Visit a consulate in a capital city of another country. -Not an option

3. Pay an online service to fill out our application and email us the certified approval. -Winner!

As soon as we arrived back from our safari we submitted our paperwork and forked over $8 each. Big spending, we know! Within three days we had received our approval letter via email.

So, we arrive in Hanoi thinking we will just need to pay our $45 USD for a single-entry visa because our paperwork is already done. Nope. We were turned away at immigration to fill out more paperwork after they had already taken our certified visa letter and our passports. We waited until they flashed our photo on a giant screen to pay and hand over our additional paperwork. Then they returned our passports with our visa attached. It was a strange process.

Hanoi

We arrived in Hanoi and immediately fell in love with the food and the city itself. We spent nearly a week in Hanoi wandering the city.

Learning to cross the street was one of our first challenges. This is a big deal because Viet Nam has zero traffic laws. I'm talking nada. The few traffic lights are merely suggestions. You can drive on sidewalks, against on-coming traffic, stop in the middle of the road, anything. You do you. We quickly learned we couldn't stay on the sidewalk forever and the traffic never slows.

Here is a quick tutorial on crossing the street in Vietnam:

1. Traffic has an unspoken hierarchy. Buses, cars, scooters, bikes and finally, pedestrians. Know your place in the system and you're off to a good start.

2. Drivers anticipate the move pedestrians are going to make, so make moves slowly. Step in to traffic when there is a slight break in congestion. Don't step out in front of buses. See number 1.

3. Walk slowly and surely across the street. Wave your hand a bit to your side to indicate which way you're anticipating cars or scooters going around you, either in front or behind you.

4. Do not stop but never run! Traffic is like a river, it flows around rocks. Pedestrians are rocks. The traffic will flow around you if they can predict your location.

5. Finally, breathe! You made it across the bustling streets of Hanoi.

Some of our favorite things from Hanoi:

1. Hanoi Street Food Tours were an excellent way to start our eating adventure in Viet Nam. There is no way we would have felt comfortable ordering or trying certain things had it not been for this experience. We highly recommend this for a first or second night in Viet Nam. We even ate the infamous balut, a hard boiled duck fetus. We both cringed and gagged before finally swallowing. At least we can say we've done it. Yuck!

2. The Water Puppet Show was a silly one hour spent seeing the history of Viet Nam through plastic water puppets. While not a must-see, it was interesting. If you have an hour to burn, you'll have a few laughs and enjoy the AC.

3. You can easily put together a self-guided walking tour of the major sites including the Temple on the Lake, Temple of Literature, Hoa Lo Prison aka Hanoi Hilton, the Imperial Citadel and Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum.

Tips: To see Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum you will need to be fully covered. Shorts and short sleeves are not allowed. Hoa Lo Prison closes at 4 p.m. Do this in the morning to give yourself plenty of time. The Temple of Literature has no books. The Imperial Citadel was destroyed so many times, the remaining structure is from as recently as the French occupation of Viet Nam.

Ha Long Bay

When in Northern Vietnam, a visit to Ha Long Bay is a must. The scenery is breathtaking with the green mountains rising from the middle of the water. We booked upon recommendation from a friend with Ha Long Party cruises. This turned out to be 50% fun and 50% a terrible mistake. We should have known better by the name alone. We were on a boat with 20 raging backpackers and felt like the mom and dad the entire time. On the bright side, we met a few really amazing young people getting ready to start careers and had incredible conversations, listening mostly to their dreams and goals.

Brian and I mostly did our own thing while we were on the cruise, but got to watch the college-esq shenanigans from afar, reminiscing our own.

We are glad we didn't miss Ha Long Bay but would have picked a different tour.

Phong Nha

One of Brian's wish list excursions on this trip was to do caving in Viet Nam. These caves were recently discovered within the last five to ten years and are huge. You can fit a three story building in some. The excursion starts from a small town called Phong Nha, a one street town with a few hostels and restaurants.

We took a two-day, one-night trip with Oxalis Adventures. This was plenty of time to see the caves. We were picked up from our hotel and driven out to the gorgeous countryside. Oxalis provides waterproof bags and also has porters to take your small bag of bare necessities to the rustic camp site.

We hiked several hours up into the jungle mountains and spent the afternoon swimming through the caves. It is dark, the water is murky and I'm pretty sure I won "wife of the year" award for this excursion. No running water, a hole-in-the-ground toilet and mosquitos in full force. It is not a trip for the high-maintenance.

We woke up early the next morning to make it through three more caves, swimming and hiking through each and exiting somewhere in the middle of the jungle. We scrambled up rock facings and crossed small waterfalls as we went. It was truly an incredible experience.

Hue

We took a jam-packed bus to the old Imperial Capital of Hue, home to many emperor pagodas or tombs. We spent a long afternoon touring the Imperial City aka the Forbidden City aka the Ancient Town. There is a lot to see surrounding Hue and our one full day here wasn't nearly enough. We wish we had stayed longer.

Hoi An

We quickly moved on through the Hai Van pass to Hoi An, where we met Elizabeth. Brian and Elizabeth worked together at Beck and she's the only non-family member we had join us on our travels. Yay for Elizabeth! It was great to have a familiar face traveling with us.

Hoi An is known for its tailors and we indulged in a navy suit for Brian and a Grace Kelly-inspired black dress for me. We were fairly impressed with Ha Na Tailors. My dress was $55 and the suit was $130. Not too bad for a completely tailored article of clothing that was started at 11 am on day one and finished at 11 am on day two.

We explored the Ancient Town, which costs a 150,000 dong donation to enter. This also grants you access to five attractions of your choice within the town. The Ancient Town is pretty much the only place to eat, drink, see in Hoi An, so you can't get out of paying this "donation."

A MUST visit when in Hoi An is the now-famous (thanks to Anthony Bourdain) Banh Mi Phuong. While Tony's suggestions rarely rock our world, this time he pulled through in a big way. At the counter, order a number 9 and your drink and grab a table under a fan. This sandwich comes with roast pork, pate and just enough spicy red sauce. It was the perfect bahn mi. We tried a few others on the menu, but came back again for the #9.

Our favorite day trip from Hoi An was biking to see the small pottery village and then out to the beaches. We ate great seafood from Ca Restaurant and then lounged in the waters of the South China Sea. All the restaurants along the beach have beach loungers for use if you order food and drink.

Another must see is the My Son Sanctuary. We booked an easy bus trip from our hotel. The half-day tour was plenty of time to see the restored ruins and our guide was such a riot. He rolled his Rs and made hilarious sounds to simplify his heavily-accented descriptions of things. Say this out loud: At the end of the tourrrrrr, we take a verrrrrry, verrrrrry, rrrrrrrrromantique walk. That is an actual sentence our tour guide spoke.

Ho Chi Minh City

We flew to HCM from Da Nang, the major airport in central Viet Nam.

Our only plans were to visit the War Remnants Museum and take a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, used during the Viet Nam War by the Viet Cong. The War Remnants Museum is gut-wrenching, knowing the atrocities both sides committed during the war. The effects of Agent Orange on the people have proved to be lasting and we saw many crippled people throughout our time in the country. It was sobering.

The Cu Chi Tunnels were an unbelievable experience. The system built underground was extensive and provided a way to get to Ho Chi Minh or into Cambodia. The tunnels were so claustrophobic and hot, we couldn't believe people lived in them. We moved through the widened tunnels (for tourists) and had to exit a few times to be able to breath. We were also shown the guerrilla warfare tactics used by the Vietnamese and it turned our stomach.

In HCM, we had an "American" night, with gourmet burgers from Soul Burger and then craft beers from Pasteur Street Brewing. It was a nice break from noodles.

One thing we will not miss is the flagrant nose picking that goes on. We have never seen more people openly digging for gold in our lives. But, you just have to laugh and think, "It's Viet Nam!"

Overall, we really loved Vietnam and would put it in our top five countries visited. The people were so friendly and we never shied away from saying we were Americans. There is a "western tax" we paid from time to time, but it was so minimal, it never felt like a scam. The food was incredible, cooked fresh and cheap. The natural beauty shocked us. We even skipped a few places we would happily go back to experience, including Sapa in the north and a Mekong Delta visit in the south.

In Southeast Asia there is a phrase you can't escape. "Same, same, but different" is used by locals to describe something similar. For example, if you asked about the difference between two noodle bowls, the reply would be "same, same but different" to describe similar broth, price, but different meats. It's a really funny phrase that we still can't seem to shake out of our vocabulary even here in New Zealand.

After leaving Viet Nam, which we loved, we were really expecting Thailand to Wow! Everyone loves Thailand and we were expecting to feel similar. You know, same, same, but different.

I won't go as far as saying Thailand was a disappointment; it was just average. It has clearly become much more westernized and felt like a lot of the grit and charm has left.

We flew from Ho Chi Minh to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand and stayed near to the Old City at The Britannia. This hotel is owned by a Kiwi and his Thai wife, who we affectionately called Mom and Dad by the end of our five days there. The funniest thing about the hotel is it was built by the original owner as a "love" hotel, so in every bathroom is a picture of a naked Thai woman. I'm not talking a painting, I'm talking a full-on tile nude picture. We laughed later with Mom and Dad about this and told them they may want to give people a head's up. They just don't seem like the nudey photo type. We laughed every time we used the bathroom.

Alright, so on to what we did...

Chiang Mai- You can easily spend a ton of time around Chiang Mai area.

1. Monk Chats are a great way to learn about Buddhism and to also help a monk practice their English. Quite a few temples offer this opportunity, just be sure to check the times.

2. Elephant Nature Park is a popular attraction for tourists. ENP is run by a conservationist who has purchased nearly 250 elephants from abusive owners. It is pricey for a day-tour, but is a great way to learn about the horrific treatment of these animals and to see the happy life they now live. You also can hug them, bath them and feed them throughout the day.

3.Temple hopping leads to temple fatigue, but there are a few great ones to see in and around Chiang Mai, including the White Temple and Black House on a day trip up to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle. White Temple is a spectacle and Black House is demonic and weird. Tip: Most temples close from 12-1 pm for lunch, including both of these attractions.

4. Chiang Rai is a city that plays host to the famous Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Burma and Laos meet. Unfortunately, the Golden Triangle is about a two-hour drive away. We booked a (terrifying) driver for the day for $40 per person. It poured during our entire drive up there but the clouds parted as we arrived for a stunning view of the sun glistening off the green lands and Mekong River. Tip: Chiang Rai is also home to two Opium Museums. Go to the larger, government-funded one.

5. Sammy's Thai Cooking School was suggested by Mom and Dad. It was a great day spent learning six basic recipes of Thai cooking. Sammy himself is a bit of a nut job, but thankfully it's his wife who does the actual class. She is a kind and easy-going woman and we enjoyed nearly everything we learned to cook.

6. Pa's Smoothies located across the street from the Chiang Mai gate were the best smoothies we had in Thailand. This energetic lady whips up a mean $.71 smoothie. The hike to the gate was worth it every time.

7. Chiang Mai Food Tour wasn't as great as our Hanoi Food Tour, but it still offered a great sampling of local cuisine.

Bangkok

Some people shrug Bangkok off as just another big city, but let's be clear, Bangkok isn't a big city. It is a HUGE city. As far as the eye can see is a sea of buildings. It's simply overwhelming.

We spent time in a few different areas, including near the Khao San Road and the Grand Palace's more touristy area. The Grand Palace is massive and has strict modesty policies, including no tight pants, no shorts and no short sleeves. It was also boiling hot under the covers they give you for a deposit fee.

Worth a visit:

The famous SkyBar offers over-priced cocktails at nearly $15 per cocktail, but you're paying for the view. Go on a clear night to take in all of Bangkok. It's a spectacular view. Don't buy into the hype to head right first, go left and order a drink from here.

Muay Thai is intense and if you want to get a lesson, Bangkok is the place. Off of Kho San Road is a gym that offers classes at 8 am and 5 pm every day. Be prepared for a total butt-kicking in this two-hour long training session. I don't think I've sweated so much in my life and we had just come from Viet Nam! Totally worth it and be ready for sore everything the next day.

Kho Phangan

Phangan is known for its infamous Full Moon Parties, where white trash from around the world converges for an all-night rave once a month (or more as there are also half-moon and quarter-moon parties.)

We spent 12 days on Phangan, skipping all said parties and just enjoying hiking around the island, snorkeling, paddle boarding, swimming and eating. Thailand has beautiful beaches, but they are similar to Viet Nam's Ha Long Bay. We loved spending so long here, especially because we needed the time to get the ball rolling on our return to the good, ol' USA and plan for New Zealand and Australia. It wasn't a bad place to set up an office.

Thai Food

Thai food is delicious but spicy! If you want "normal" spicy, ask for it with only one pepper or "nick noy" meaning a little.

An absolute MUST visit in Chiang Mai is a tiny lunch spot called Khao Soi Khun Yai. Tucked between Wat Mo Kham Tuang and Wat Monthian, they are only open from 11 am until 2 pm every day. Get there early and order two bowls, one chicken and one pork, along with a refreshing tea. You will not be disappointed by this subtly spicy Burmese style curry served with red onions and crunchy noodles.

Definitely take a food tour for insight into more than just the standard pad thai, which we found to be fairly bland.

Overall, Thailand didn't blow us away like we had thought it would. We even had our trusty travel buddy, Elizabeth to confirm the sentiment. I really think we would have loved it more had we gone there first instead of Viet Nam. I also think we laid low and skipped a few of the bigger attractions like Kho Phi Phi due to not wanting to deal with the crowds. Thailand is not as inexpensive as people would lead you to believe and certainly caters more to tourists than ever before.

Getting to Cambodia from Thailand is known for being the toughest border crossing in Southeast Asia. It turned out to be fairly easy and our experience and how-tos will be on a forthcoming post.

After making it across the border via the direct bus, we were welcomed into Siem Reap by a gazillion tuk-tuk drivers hounding us. There is even a shirt for sale that reads "no tuk-tuk, not now, not ever." The biggest ploy to be aware of is hotels sending tuk-tuk drivers to pick you up from the bus station and then they "offer" to take you to Angkor Wat the next day.

Cambodia is on the dollar and the riel, so you're guaranteed to get a terrible exchange rate, as you pay in dollars and get change in riel. However, even though things really aren't "fair," you can hardly feel ripped off because for us, it's $1-$2, but for locals it's all they might make in a day.

All this set up to say, as a Westerner, you will live like a king in Cambodia. We stayed at the wonderful Angkor Hollywood Hotel and it was luxury for $30 a night.

Siem Reap

Visiting Angkor Wat is the main reason people visit Cambodia, but it's not well-known that Angkor Wat is actually only one of hundreds of temples in a 400-square kilometer complex. Consider it the New York City of its time. There are three loops you can do, each taking about a day. If you're super in to temples, you can buy a 3- or 7- day pass. We decided to just go for the one day, traditional Wat loop. Tickets are purchased the morning of your first visit, at a ticket window just outside town. Your tuk-tuk driver will stop there. Bring cash.

We went with a recommended driver for our day visiting the traditional loop including sunrise at Angkor Wat. We paid $25 for the day for three people for a 5 am pick up and 11:30 am drop off. The days get hot quickly, so it's a good idea to get started early. You can contact Sok here: sokmeneatuktuk@hotmail.com

Listen to your driver. They do this everyday and will take you where you need to be. Be aware though, if you want the traditional Angkor view, you need to enter the gates across the water. One more comment, your chances of getting that postcard shot are about 10 of 365 days. Nearly all days in Angkor Wat start out cloudy. If it's raining, sleep in.

Following Angkor Wat, we headed for Bayon, with the gazillion faces and then Ta Prohm, famous for the filming of Tomb Raider. Ta Prohm was our favorite. You can walk into the center of the complex where the trees are surrounding fallen rocks. We were the only people in the serenity except for a woman making offerings. It was an exceptional experience.

Some tips for your day at Angkor Wat:

1. The complex is seriously massive, so if you want to go to the landmine museum or other lesser known temples you will need to schedule another day of site seeing or pay extra for doing it all in one day. BUT, temple fatigue is a real thing. They don't look the same, but you definitely start to feel "meh" about the latest stop.

2. Many temples are still active places of worship. Wear modest clothing. I wore a Columbia fishing shirt and zip-off hiking pants. This was perfect.

3. Bring a lot of water. You won't regret it.

4. There will be many children trying to sell you knick-knacks. Do not purchase from them.

5. Bring breakfast with you to see the sunrise at Angkor. You will be sitting for awhile and then can hit the road while the tour groups stop for breakfast.

Siem Reap is extremely touristy, but you can still find street food-esq places. We ate at a place called Lim Kim Cheng, which was cheap and had good traditional khmer curry and fish amok. We also dined at Khmer Kitchen on the corner of Pub Street and had a fancier meal at Aha Wine Kitchen, where the service was outstanding.

Tip: Catch the free (with drink purchase) traditional Cambodian dance show at the Temple on Pub Street.

Battambang

Many travelers advised us to skip Phnom Penh and we decided to take them up on the advice. While I know most people visit to see the Killing Fields and S21 prison, I knew I just couldn't do it. It would wreck me mentally and emotionally for weeks. Fortunately, the same travelers advised us to visit Battambang as a replacement. This turned out to be an incredible decision.

Battambang is nothing like Siem Reap. It is not touristy; it doesn't cater to tourists, period.

The one fabulous thing about bus transportation in Cambodia is you are always picked up from your hotel. We took the 2 pm Mekong Express bus between Siem Reap and Battambang, a three hour journey. Note: there is also an 8 am bus every day as well. During wet season, you can take a day-long boat trip along the river.

Brian was nervous about bus travel in Cambodia, but the Mekong Express was a breeze. The driver was safe by SEA standards and the roads were only rough for half the trip.

We were picked up by Rich, who would become our tuk-tuk driver the next day. We would HIGHLY recommend him and you can contact him here: obpengan@yahoo.com or Cosmictuk-tuk.weebly.com

Rich picked us up at 10 am and we headed to the infamous Bamboo Railroad. After the demise of the train system, locals continued to use the tracks to transport goods between villages. Not having enough money for motors, locals used bamboo shoots to push bamboo slatted platforms along. Now this has become a tourist attraction and uses lawnmower engines. The ride is a bumpy one along the dilapidated tracks. When you arrive in the village, you can walk down to the old brick factory. Be prepared to be accosted by many young girls selling bracelets. They each latched on to a tourist and demanded we "pinky swear" we would buy from them upon return. It is very intense and you have to be firm.

Following this we went to the Killing Caves, a series of three caves used to murder intellectuals, teenagers and infants during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. As we stood in a cave where the intellectuals were hit on the back of the head and then tossed to the bottom of the cave, Rich told us the story of his family. We looked at each other with tears in our eyes as he told us his grandfather was murdered in the place we stood. It was overwhelming.

While the day was sobering, it also gave us a great opportunity to ask questions and listen to Rich talk about his family and future. Later in the day, we met his five year old son, who wanted to come with us to the Cambodian circus. It is incredible to see such a strong character continuing on from such tragedy and making a new life for his family. I hope you will reach out to Rich if you are in Battambang and hear his story for yourself.

Our final stop in Battambang was at the local circus. There is one in Siem Reap as well. Local children are trained in acrobatics, music, stage production and audio-visual to provide them an outlet, as well as a skill utilized world-wide. This show was incredible! Think Cirque-du-Soleil with teenagers. All the proceeds go back to the program and it was well worth the $12 for the show.

Cambodia was a place high on my list to visit and we are both so glad we did. One week would be plenty in this country, but I strongly recommend it for an adventurous traveler wanting to get a true sense of Southeast Asia. The people were lovely, the food was a pleasant change and the history will bring you to your knees.