There’s No Place Like Home

This posting is very late, but I am home. Flights were smooth, my luggage was underweight, and everything was on time. It was amazingly the smoothest journey for me, other than a minor hiccup at immigration in Dallas. Note to everyone, Green ink is not okay when filling out your forms. Live and learn, people.

Since returning home, what do I do, you might ask? Well, I sleep alot and apply for jobs.

What is my next step? Well, folks, that is unclear, but there will be a move. That’s about all I can say at this point until a job comes to fruition.

What do I know? I know that I am enjoying some down time at home until the next step becomes clear.

Some things I am enjoying stateside:
*Mexican food
*my laptop
*not having to pack and lug my backpack
*having more than 5 outfits to wear
*drinking tap water
*driving my car

Some habits that are hard to break:
*looking the opposite way when crossing the road
*when turning, having to consciously think about the correct side of the road
*realizing I have a cell phone with lots of minutes
*giving up the sleepsack
*constantly checking for my passport

Top 10, Japan

1. FRIENDS

2. SUSHI

3. HARAJUKU

4. TSUKIJI FISH MARKET

5. PLASTIC FOOD

6. CONVENIENCE

7. TEMPLES

8. LOVE SHRINE

9. CUTENESS

10. MODERNITY

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Shibuya Street Crossing

The fun of Japan is all the craziness and all the people. Shibuya is a hip, young neighborhood with an incredible street crossing.

Singapore Sling Time

After much time spent in developing countries, Kelly and I ended our trip with a few days in Singapore. What’s different here? Well everything costs a heck of a lot more here, it’s a whole lot cleaner, I haven’t really seen many motorbikes, and you can’t buy gum. Just to name a few.

All in all there isn’t a whole lot to do here except to go out on the town or go to the zoo. We did both.

Our first night in town, we were both dying for some Mexican food, so we headed over to Riverside where we hit up Cafe Iguana, home to delicious margaritas. Luckily we hit happy hour (it is until 9 pm) and our jug was half off.

Back in the developed world, we had to brave public transport to get there.

We checked out some neighborhoods including the super cute Arab Street area.

We also partook in the famous Singapore Slings at the Raffles Hotel. These things cost $22, but when in Singapore…I am not sure what the drink is, but I think it has gin and whole lot of grenadine.

Once we had our expensive drink, we headed out to other bar scenes including Clarke Quay, home to an odd bar called The Clinic, which is decked out like a hospital and you can consume drinks in IVs. Weird! We also went to a backpacker favorite…the Prince of Wales where we drank Hoegaardens. Yum.

Throughout our time we saw some odd things…
A Dengue Fever Alert

Fish Spa, where you can pay to dip your feet in a tank and have the fish eat the dead skin off your body.

On Sunday Kelly and I met up with a friend of my mom’s from her quilt guild and her husband, who kindly offered to shuttle us to the Singapore Zoo for the day. This zoo is awesome in that it has free roaming exhibits, which means you enter into a habitat and you are right with the animals. Obviously, they don’t let you enter the tiger’s cage, but we got to be up close with sloths, flying foxes, lemurs, and more. Plus the orangutan exhibit is literally in the trees above you. You could even get pooed on by an orangutan. Sweet As!

After the zoo, we headed back to Sue and Dave’s

where we got to swim in the pool.

AND we got to have a dinner party/BBQ with their Aussie neighbors, which was fantastic.

They had adorable kids.

They also had a GREAT fishtank.

THANKS SUE AND DAVE!!!

On my last day we did the Flyer, which is the London Eye of Singapore and currently the largest Ferris Wheel thing in the world. Although this isn’t for long, as China is building a bigger one.

Singapore was fun and now Kelly and I have parted ways, which is sad. What will I do without my travel buddy?

Welcome to the Jungle…Taman Negara

After KL, I met up with Kelly in the Taman Negara Rainforest for a 3 day adventure in the wilderness. While not as intense as our Gibbon Experience, we did get to be out in the elements and see cool stuff.

We did a night jungle walk where we saw all kinds of crazy insects.

Ｔhe next day we got to use the canopy walk, which is a series of bridges high up in the trees. It was used for research back in the day, but now it is used for tourism. It is pretty fun and high.

We supposedly shot the rapids in these crazy wooden boats, but mostly we just rode against the rapids to a village.

The village lived in these huts and did demos for the tourists, which is pretty lame, but I did get to shoot a dart out of a bamboo post with my breathe.

The town where our tours were based out of was right on the river complete with floating restaurants and bars.

I took a boat ride in and out. It was not the most comfortable ride in the world as I sat in a wooden boat for 2-3 hours with a very thin cushion to pad my bum.

Our resort where we stayed was decent and came complete with AirCon. We did not rough it in the jungle this time around.

A Day in Kuala Lumpur

After Vietnam, we hit Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

First stop was the Petronas Twin Towers, the most famous landmark of KL. If you get in line early enough you can actually get free tickets to the skybridge, ie the bridge connecting the 2 towers which is 43 floors up. Besides getting up early (all the tickets are gone by 10 am), you do have to watch a 7 minute movie on ‘glorious’ Petronas petroluem. Hey, the tix are free, so I can a watch a movie.

Petronas Towers

View from the skybridge

Inside the skybridge

Up

Down

Another thing I was intent on seeing were some mosques.
Masjid Jamek

We actually went inside the National Mosque, Masjid Negara, where we were evangalized to by an Islamic man. The mosque was quite beautiful and I had to wear a purple gown covering my head to be able to enter.

Me and my gown

Other women worshippers at the mosque

Following the mosque, we went home to Bukit Bintang which is apparently where all the hip high school kids hangout. Check out these kids.

KL is quite cool. I like it.

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Vietnam War: Cu Chi Tunnels and War Remnants Museum

A trip that can be taken from Saigon is a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, an extensive network of tunnels dug underground by the Viet Cong before the Vietnam War. The experience at this site was more than a bit unnerving especially with the guides dressed in Viet Cong uniforms and a shooting range nearby, so shots ring out as you wander the tunnel system.

The first thing we did at the Cu Chi Tunnels was to watch a major propaganda piece on the evil US and the heroic VC. We were actually called “crazy devils” in this movie, which was bit unsettling.

Following the video, they took us to a hidden entrance into the VC tunnel network. The tunnel entrance was a wooden board camoflauged by leaves so the US troops wouldn’t find it, but even if they did find this entrance it would have been difficult for them to enter because the tunnels were so small. The tunnels were built for Vietnamese people and I fit in, but it was a tight squeeze.

I went all the way down into the tunnel, but it was so small in there I immediately popped back out. I felt quite claustrophobic to be in such a small, confined space underground.

Next we saw the awful homemade non explosive booby traps made by the Viet Cong. These made many of us feel queasy as they demonstrated how they worked. One of the traps was a window trap where troops would fall onto bamboo spikes laced with poison. An interesting “fact” told to us by our guide was that US dropped cobras (snakes) from planes onto the Vietnamese, but the VC were happy about this because they caught the snakes, used their venom, and then ate them for food.

All over the Cu Chi Tunnel grounds were these horrible mannequins depicting the Viet Cong. They were quite scary especially because some of them moved and when we all went down into a bunker they turned them on and scared us all.

Eventually everyone has the opportunity to climb through the tunnels, which have been enlarged to fit our giant western bodies. These tunnels are actually 2 times the size of the VC ones and after being down in them I cannot even imagine crawling through a tiny VC tunnel. As it was, I had to be doubled over to be able to maneuver through the tunnel.

Overall, the experience was unsettling, hot, and dirty.

Following the tunnels, we headed off to the war remnants museum to see the Vietnam slant on the war. The museum is home to many relics left over from the war and some quite interesting propaganda.

Firstly though, there was a truly incredible exhibit honoring war photographers, many of whom also lost their lives over there. It was a quite moving exhibit with incredible photos capturing the horror that was the war.

The next section was the “War Crimes” section, which contained a lot of anti-american sentiment and propaganda. Apparently, the museum actually used to be called the War Crimes Museum, but the name has since changed.

At the end of the museum was a section on all the protests that happened all over the world against the war.

There were also leftover planes and tanks sitting on the grounds.

Overall, the museum was a bit over the top with the evil slants toward the US placed on the war photos, but the war photographers exhibit was really well done. Also, the museum did end in a more positive light with a letter about how Vietnam is glad to have ‘good’ relations with the US once again. Whether that is true or false I am not able to discern.

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Saigon Sightings

Saigon (as people in the south still call it) or Ho Chi Minh City is a large, busy, and noisy city. Mostly I am impressed by the amount of traffic and how few accidents I see. At the roundabouts the amount of traffic is absolutely incredible.

In fact to cross the street here you just have to step out into traffic and slowly make your way to the other side. You do NOT look at the on coming traffic and you do NOT run to the other side. The slow gait allows the million motorbikes to swarm around you or part like the Red Sea. It is a bit unnerving but if you ever want to get across the road this method must be undertaken. Otherwise you’ll be stuck to one city block just making a right at every corner.

In addition to my awe at their traffic conditions, I am constantly surprised that the city just doesn’t catch on fire at any given moment. The sheer number of powerlines piled onto a single pole is unbelievable and must be quite a nightmare the power fix-it man who has to re-connect you when your lights go out.

Also, I am continually surprised by the stuff toted on a motorbike. This guy thought it was a good idea to transport an extremely large piece of glass or plastic on a motorbike. I guess a delivery van is a silly idea.

Traffic lights are fascinating here as well. They have them at different heights and there are even ones specifically for motorbikes.

There are also proper sights to see in Saigon besides the antics of the motorbike drivers.

Notre Dame Cathedral

The Post Office

I survived Saigon.

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Motorin’ Through the Central Highlands

What’s the best way to see ‘Real Vietnam’? On the back of a motorbike, of course.

According to backpacker lore, many trips are taken through the central part of Vietnam on tours with a gang of drivers called the EasyRiders. The original EasyRiders are based out of Dalat and began their tours 25 years ago, but, as is the culture of Vietnam, many copies have arisen. Finding a good driver amongst all the EasyRiders is a difficult task, but luckily Kelly and I met some girls in Laos who directed us to a group of fantastic drivers based out Nha Trang. Hence how I ended up cruising through rural central Vietnam on the back of a motorbike driven by a man named Mr. Hau.

His contact info:
mobile #s: 0934 073813 or 0934 4073813
home #s: 058.524354 or 058.3524354
email: haus180752@yahoo.com

For 3 days I rode on the back of a motorbike with my wonderful driver Mr. Hau and my friend was riding with a crazy man named Teo. Both were amazingly kind and adept drivers, but more than that they showed us the ‘Real Vietnam’. We spent time in cities where we were a novelty for the kids because we were foreigners and when you ride on the back of a motorbike you get to see the scenery up close and personal. For anyone coming to Vietnam, you gotta do an EasyRider tour and you MUST do it with Mr. Hau of the Nha Trang EasyRiders. You won’t regret it.

Day 1: Nha Trang to Lak Lake (Central Highlands)
Departing Nha Trang

Fishing Village

Incense Making

The Central Highlands, Agent Orange Bombs were Dropped Here

Sites Along the Road

I made a New Friend. This kid was so excited to take a picture with me. Maybe he thought I was someone famous.

The scenery

Journey Ended at Lak Lake near to sunset

Day 2: Lak Lake to Dalat City
Elephant Riding through the lake. We rode an elephant all the way across the river, which was slightly unnerving. I kept thinking, What if this elephant decides to take a bath and lays down in the water? How do I save my camera and passport?

More Awesome Scenery

Interesting bathrooms, pour flush squatty potties. These are all over SE Asia and you really do have to have some skills to use them properly. I am getting pretty good at them now.

We had a flat tire repair, but luckily we were in a town, so the repair was easy. It’s a hazard of these roads, which are not very well paved at times.

Market

Roadside Stops

Ethnic Minority Woman…People let me don their gear for photos as an authentic villager. The scarf outfit was the most humorous as the women thought I was so funny in my outfit. I bought a beautiful scarf from them because they were so kind and fun. Plus the scarf is beautiful.

Elephant Falls

The path to Elephant Falls was interesting. It was wet and slippery with steps just coming out of the sides of rocks.

We visited with some ethnic minorities, where the woman dressed me up in scarves (see above) and an adorable little girl was playing with her doll.

Happy Buddha

We even toured a silk factory.

Sometimes it rains, but we had full rainsuits.

For dinner we ate at local restaurants and on this night they all ate goat meat and veg grilled over a fire put right on our table. We also drank banana wine. “Khong Say, Khong Ve”…”No drunk, no go home” and “Mo Tai Ba Yo”…”1,2,3, Go”. These were the toasts we learned at dinner.

Day 3: Dalat to Mui Ne
We toured Crazy House, which is a surrealist hotel in Dalat city.

We rode a cable car over Dalat. Dalat is considered a very French or Swiss city since it is set in the mountains and has cool weather.

We are still trucking. I tried to get a picture of myself in the side view mirror.

Dalat is also a region full of farms. We caught an onion harvest.

We watched a woman make rice paper, which they dry on the side of the road.

There are a lot of HIV educational billboards.

The ride keeps getting better and better…Check out these views.

The ride at the bottom of these mountains was SO hot. We had to take a drink break and I had to recline in a hammock. Seriously, at times the heat was just unbearable and on the motorbike you are SO exposed.

This little kid was totally skeptical of me and wouldn’t come near me or wave at me.

Finally, after 3 days of riding, we ended at Mui Ne. Home to giant sanddunes, which I, of course, rode down.

Sadly, at the end of the night we then had to say goodbye to our drivers. They were fantastic and every second was fun and SAFE.

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Hanoi Nights and Hoi An

Upon our return to Hanoi we had only half of a day before we headed south to Hoi An. Our last night was spent doing 2 quite memorable things.

First, we hit up the Water Puppets, which is an old skool art form dating back to the 10th century. Literally the wooden puppets are made to “dance” on the water. They are built on these long poles, so the puppeteers remain behind the bamboo curtain manipulating the puppets to dance and perform. The performance was very cute.

Next, we hit up the street corner for some action. Not that kind of action, but some beer drinking action because the cheapest beer comes from the street corner in the form of a brand called Bia Hoi. The beer costs 3000 dong for one glass (~18 cents) and the glasses are plentiful. We were literally seated in the street, but the motorbikes only grazed us. Ha!

The following day we headed south to Hoi An, where tailors and cobblers abound.

This town is amazingly quaint with its french architecture, riverfront, and tons of beautiful lanterns.

Lantern Shops

We also made new friends with a Colombian guy named Jonathan. Incidently, we met him in Hanoi and he was on the same flight as us to Hoi An. He sussed out where the cheap beer was at 4000 dong a glass, though this time it was Fresh Beer.

We also spent some nights at the Salsa Club, where they actually didn’t play any Salsa music, but in honor of Jonathan some Shakira was played.

The Salsa Club is behind the Dragon on the river.

Additionally as a bonus, there’s a beach only a 10 minute motorbike ride away. I spent a lazy morning there recovering from my suit fitting and shoe fittings, no I wasn’t recovering from the beer although the nights at Salsa Club were quite late and fun.

Hoi An was awesome because we met cool people and I bought cool clothes and shoes. I highly recommend this town to anyone hitting up Vietnam.

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