Pancake & Dewey

A few days ago, while riding around Koh Chang, Kevin and I stopped to ask for directions and discovered a charming little cafe called “Lanna’s Cafe”. It is located at the southern tip of Kai Be beach, right before the road becomes steep and winding leading to Lonely Beach. The place is run by a Thai-Japanese couple who offer organic Arabic coffee grown in the North of Thailand. All the coffees and teas served can be bought in beautifully designed packages. Due to some inexplicable health streak we’re on, we opted for organic tea instead of coffee and it was excellent!

The cafe is a very cute spot for chillin’ in the afternoon. We stayed for drinks and a chat with Uta (one of the owners) about life in Koh Chang. Uta and her husband also have a cute kitty named Pancake (I suspect he got that nickname since his daily regiment consists of 22hrs laying flat on his belly, 2 hrs for eating). Pancake happens to look a lot like Dewey, the hero of a book I got as a gift from a friend for this trip. I just had to take a picture of the two of them!

In case you missed last year’s post about great airfare deals in New York’s Chinatown it’s worth another mention this time around. This is the third year in a row that we’ve been customers of Wa Minh Travel on Grand Street. It’s still run by Happy but her cousin, Susan, is no longer in the office with her. However, the deals are still there and they’re about as good as one can expect with today’s taxes and high gas prices.

Tamar got a round trip ticket to HCMC, Vietnam on Japan Airlines for $1,440 including taxes and the additional $70 for weekend travel (both ways) with only 1 stop over in Tokyo. This fare was on sale for a limited time and would normally cost over $1,800. The taxes alone are over $700, half the price of the entire ticket. FYI: Weekend travel is Friday to Monday and costs an extra $35 each way if travel begins on one of these days.
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Today we celebrated our two year wedding anniversary and for the occasion we booked a couple’s package at the fanciest spa in town called “L’apothiquaire”. We were picked up from our hotel in a 60’s looking lavender car and taken to the French villa in district 3 where the spa is located. We spent 4.5 hours in a gorgeous setting getting body and foot massages, facials, mani/pedi and eating a wonderful meal by the pool. It was INCREDIBLE.
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One of Laos’s treasures which for the moment seems to be off the beaten path for large masses of tourists is Si Phan Don near the country’s southern border with Cambodia. We made the journey to Si Phan Don from Luang Prabang in the North by flying to Vientiane in the evening, staying overnight and flying from there to Pakse early the next morning. We then continued by bus to the main island of Don Khong. Our next destination was Siem Reap, Cambodia and, since I personally dislike backtracking while traveling, we wanted to find a way to cross the border and continue on by land or by river without taking the bus back to Pakse for the direct flight to Siem Reap.

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This is the second time in the past year that I’ve looked into airfare from the US to Vietnam, specifically from New York. I’ve tried all of the usual online places like Expedia, Travelocity and Kayak.com. However, the best fares I’ve found both times have come from taking a little trip to New York’s Chinatown to visit Wa Minh Travel on Grand Street. This small agency is run by Happy and her cousin, Susan and is tucked away just up a flight of stairs on the second floor. Happy and Susan are friendly and very helpful and their prices are cheaper than anything I’ve found online, usually by a couple hundred bucks.
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