Cu Chi Tunnels

Today I went to the cu chi tunnels which were where some viet cong lived and hid during the Vietnam War. It was nuts, there were three levels and it was so small, you had to crawl on your hands and knees. It was definitely not for the claustrophobic at all, I was blindly feeling in the dark for meters at a time and you don't know when it goes up or down, it was crazy!!

We also saw an old propaganda film applauding the "American killers" of the war (one woman received a medal who had killed 118 americans). It definitely is interesting to see the other perspectives of things since we probably have propaganda like that against the viet cong. In addition, we saw the old booby traps with spikes that they used to set on doors and in the ground, it was pretty grimace-worthy. After seeing all this, my impression was that there is no doubt that the viet cong were pretty clever fighters, they had amazing tactics with very little resources.

The Squeeze

Here is the a hole the vietcong used to hide in during the war, ridiculously small!

Water!!!

It's ridiculously hot and stuff in Saigon (and Vietnam in general) and since I suffered from uncomfortable heat rash for 4 days and had to be cooped up indoors, when we went to a water park yesterday, I went berserk. I got some phenomenal energy and just ran around straight for the 2 hours we were there (which is quite the adrenaline and cardiac workout). It was a bit surreal because the park was like anywhere else except I was surrounded by vietnamese, and nobody seemed interested in the big slides. I had pretty much no lines the whole time! My travel companions chilled out by the pool and I just kept racing around. The lifeguards at the slides were reading magazines the whole time since noone was coming and it was funny to see the look of surprise they had when they looked up and saw me for the 10th time. After a while, I got a good repoire with them since they started applauding me and giving me thumbs up everytime I went down which only added to my crazy energy. It was pretty funny. So all in all, the water bug in me came out and it was just a lovely time.

Another interesting park attraction is they literally had a sign that said "New Sunbathing deck for foreigners!". Why just foreigners? Because there's no chance any native in Vietnam wants to bronze since white skin is desired. I even have a hard time finding regular sunscreen without extra whitening cream added. Quite the irony.

This is the coolest moment of my rockclimbing life

Saigon

I'm in Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, whatever you call it. It was a lovely 12 hour day bus ride here (that was sarcasm) and I spent half the morning taking a motorbike taxi to and from the chinese consulate trying to get the right papers to go to China. Yep, I'm trying to go to China, but amid all the issues they're having, it seems a bit difficult. Fingers crossed! Anyways, I'm hanging out with a chilean right now and exploring chaotic Saigon. It's a bit hard to just wander around the city, it's loud, chaotic, and dirty, so it's not quite pleasant, but it's still nifty to be here.

Nha Trang

You'd never think it'd be possible to get sick of beaches since I would have killed to spend all my time on a beach last year, but really, if you spend too much time anywhere, you get a bit burnt out--beaches, temples, mountains, all the good stuff. So I guess thats why you keep traveling, because the change is what is exciting (and at times, stressful). So it sounds quite spoiled to say "oh, not another beach town", but my travel companions and I are wishing for a change of scenery. It also doesn't feel like a more authentic Vietnam, it feels like a beach town which could be in any country. It's like visiting different malls in different countries. Back when I was shattered in Hanoi, it was a quite a stressful experience, but that's when I felt most in contact with the culture since people were going about their daily lives there, it wasn't a town made just for tourists. In any case, I'm hoping to find something besides beaches and temples in my asia travels, since it all seems to blend together after a while.

Right now my group and I seem a bit busted up--one guy has a busted knee, another had a sprained foot, another with a motorcycle exhaust burn, and I have heat rash and a completely scraped up thigh and leg from an incident with coral barnacles. The anti-malaria medication makes me photosensitive and the sun is incredibly strong here so I guess it finally caught up with me despite my best attempts at putting on sun screen and staying out of the sun. So hopefully we'll recover soon, travel battle wounds!

Here are more pics:
Central-Southern
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081794&l=63c96&id=1700835
Central Vietnam
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081714&l=3e821&id=1700835
Ha Long Bay
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080883&l=5f401&id=1700835

Hoi An aka Clothes Heaven

Hoi An is a pretty touristy town in Vietnam--I think the fact that they sell many winter coats is a dead giveaway that it's not quite a market for vietnamese. It's pretty flippin hot here. In any case, it's known for having over 400 tailors that will take whatever design, picture, whatever you wish, and will replicate it for a very small price and tailor it perfectly to your body. So it's enough to make many go crazy, even the someone like me who isn't a clothes junkie. I don't even wear dresses and I ended up buying 4. The tailors are not only quite talented at their craft, but at flattery and manipulation as well, so they know how to get you to buy more. I"m leaving today, thank god.

Other good parts of Hoi An are the food and hotels. I'm staying in a pretty decent hotel with a pool for $12 (and I pay $6 since I split a twin room). How crazy is that? The food is also quite cheap and really great quality. I did a cooking class today with a group which consisted of me poorly constructing spring rolls, rice paper, hoi an pancakes, eggplant curry, and "decorations" (I was supposed to make a flower out of a cucumber and a rose out of a tomato, but they just looks like a poorly cut salad in the end). Next stop is Nha Trang! I'm on an open ended bus which cost about $40 and had 5 stops, each which take 12 hours, so it's quite a good way to get around. Just a bit rough, but that's part of the adventure!

Hue

I spent one last day in Hanoi, where it got so hot that I decided to head off to a pool that was open to the public with a girl in a group I'm traveling with. It was in a five-star hotel, and we asked at the counter about the pool use and then they directed us upstairs and we had a lovely time swimming and sitting outside and didn't seem to have any place to pay (tho the rate was $6 in the guidebook, so it wasn't a really large sum), so we thought we had gotten away with some lovely facilities for free. As we were leaving, we were met by a personnel who escorted up to a reception on the floor that we hadn't seen, who informed of the actual rates and that they did not allow outsiders. I'm glad I had to book otherwise we would have looked like complete nutters. It seems that they had actually been watching us the whole time because we didn't fit with the other clientale and just waiting for us to leave. The giveaways must have been that we:

-had our cheap-backpacker clothes with us
-were actually making use of the pool instead of lounging on the side
-weren't using cellphones
-actually seemed happy

So, we were informed of the "real" rates which were $30 a day (ridiculous!!), and they tried to make us pay. We talked to the manager and explained the misunderstanding and got away with pleading poor and paying $10 and then were escorted out. So that was the ugly side of a five-star hotel. Its all plush and beautiful unless you don't pay major bucks, then you get the stern manager who is unwilling to listen.

In any case, I took a bus to Hue (central vietnam) last night on a sleeper bus. The sleeping beds turned out to be beds on the bus that are so tightly together, that you get to have an involuntary one night stand with the stranger next to you because it's impossible not to spoon. So I ended up next to a posh 20 year old english guy who didn't seem creepy, so at least I didn't have to worry about being groped during the night. Other highlights of trip were:

--Carrying our luggage in sheets of rain and stepping into a puddle on the roadside that went up to my knees (no joke)
--Peeing outside on the side of a road in the rain somewhere in central Vietnam (our "toliet break")
--Stopping at an actual toliet stop which made any gas station toliet look sparkling- it had two cement blocks to squat on with just a floor that slanted a bit backwards. And almost no separating walls from anyone.

So this was the type of bus trip that you'll always remember to try to make you appreciate normal luxuries and is pretty funny in retrospect. In any case, I'm in Hue which doesn't have much except temples (which get a bit repetitive in Asia), but I'm traveling with a group of 10 people from the Ha Long Bay trip which consists of aussies, irish, and a belgian. I'm glad to be with people since it's really hard to meet westerners right here and there's not too much to do . In any case, I'm off again on the bus to Hoi An tomorrow!

Ha Long Bay

So I just arrived back from an excursion to Ha Long Bay which is in the running to be one of the seven wonders of the world. It was an organized trip so I came with a group of backpackers and got to know some good people. We came on a small boat and got to sleep one night on it which I've never done before. The next day we got to go rock-climbing on these isolated beaches which was amazing. I haven't rockclimbed in 9 months so it felt incredible to be able to do it. The highlight was when we did deep sea cliff climbing where the boat drops you on a cliff face over the sea and you just climb up it til you fall off. Only a couple people and I did it since it looks pretty freaky, but I'm so glad I did because it was such an amazing feeling! I got to about 15-20 feet up and then I just jumped since I didn't want to fall off really high at a weird angle, which would be a bit painful. Some people took pictures and I can't believe that's me! I think my entire rock-climbing career is downhill from here..

In any case, so things have looked up since feeling absolutely frazzled before in Hanoi. I met a english girl the day before I left for Ha Long Bay so we wandered the crazy streets of Hanoi together. We went to the Prison Museum where John McCain had been held during the Vietnam War. It was basically a tribute to the communists that had been held there in the french colonial period, but they also had an exhibit of the American POWs which was quite ridiculous since they stated that they gave the prisoners the best treatment possible and put up pictures of them playing sports and painting pictures. It basically looked like a club med where they forgot to mention that they fit "torture" in the itinerary between the basketball and bingo hours. They also listed prisoners there as if they were alumni, like a "where they are now!" piece. I read John McCain's description of the experience which was anything but warm and fuzzy. In any case, the Americans probably didn't treat vietnamese POWs so great, but the exhibit just seemed a bit ridiculous. In any case, I'm leaving Hanoi today for Hue!

I need a traffic guardian angel

Hanoi is absolutely ridiculous. There's about 89% motorcycles on the road with no traffic lights and no sidewalks (well slight sidewalks, but blocked with motorcycles). You just need to cross basically in the motorcycle stream and they go around you..barely. Having a fear of busy traffic since my near-death Greece experience has made this incredibly stressful, just walking three blocks gets me all anxious. I guess this is the stuff to make you feel alive, when you're ducking in and out of traffic and parked motorbikes. Also, you constantly feel like you're being ripped off since Hanoi is the capital of scams and bargaining, so you always have to be on your toes and be a stringent bargainer but you still always feel ripped off in the end. With the traffic and the bargaining hassles, I'm absolutely shattered after an afternoon.

Its not very easy to meet people, you really have to put in some effort and approach people at cafes and such. Everyone I've met so far has been leaving Vietnam the next day or in a couple hours because they started in the south and worked their way up north. I give myself credit for trying at least, I approached about 10 people total today, asking about what to do around here and what's the best way. I met some nice people but they were all leaving, but I at least learned a lot. I arrived last night and approached some people about where a cafe was and ended up eating with them at a nifty vietnamese restaurant (I paid $2 for two plates of food and drinks), and then a water puppet show which was interesting. Unfortunately the people were not quite my type, but at least it worked out well that I got to experience two places that I would never have found myself. Another exciting point of Hanoi is I get around by going on the back of motorbikes (the Vietnamese taxi basically), it's nuts! I got an "asian tattoo" which means I burned the side of my leg on the exhaust pipe. Crazy. In any case, I'm going to go lay down, my brain is still spinning...

Here are Laos photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080076&l=66c55&id=1700835

Vietnam photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080358&l=ce968&id=1700835

Daily Life Quirks in Laos/Cambodia Asia

Since there are so many little things that make this experience in Asia unique, I thought I'd write them down before I got used to them and ignored them:

-Tuk-tuk drivers and motorcyclists at every corner, normally with three times the capacity
-Squatting toliets, work those thigh muscles!
-Geckos on every room corner
-fun diseases like malaria, japanese encephilitis, and dengue fever (hopefully not to be experienced)
-straw huts with tv satelites outside them
-backpackers with all the same $2 clothes and accessories from market stands
-bargaining with everyone, about everything, and doing the classic-walk-away-and-pause-while-they-pull-you-back-and-agree-on-price
-Extremely adorable and charistmatic kids who beg or try to sell things with either an adorable puppy face or a cute english saying that they learned, who totally know how to work tourists
-Dodgy looking men with their asian "girlfriends" (an unfortunate common sight)
-Having a love-hate relationship with profuse sweating (so cooling, yet so disgusting).

Luang Prabang

I'm in a small town in Laos which is a bit less touristy and has a much nicer atmosphere, so I'm a bit happier. Nice to get away from the Friends soundtrack. It is surrounded by a pretty river and mountains. I arrived alone and the town was completely empty, so I started getting that feeling of dread of "how the hell am I going to pass two days here?". As my friend Laura said though "When you are traveling alone, you know you will be alone for a while, but you don't know for how long--it could be a few hours, or a few days til you meet some decent people". So that was going through my mind when I was wandering around, and luckily within a few hours, I sat next to some people at a 50 cent vegetarian buffet and hung out with them all night and then took a tuk-tuk with them to waterfalls today. I hung out mostly with a canadian and an aussie, but we stuffed the tuk-tuk (more of a truck with a bench in the back) full of people to save money, so it was filled with people who were french, german, dutch, and swedish--quite a mix. I ended up on the floor of the tuk-tuk with a guy hanging out the side--we were doing it Laos style!

Tourist City in Laos

I somehow thought southeast Asia was this far-off undiscovered wonderous place, and I'm sure that it is like that somewhere, but it seems that there is a very beaten path (more like beaten to death) around Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. I hardly know any americans that visit this area, but it seems like half of England and part of Europe settled in here a long time ago. This is just my frustration at being in a small touristy village in Laos which is populated completely by tourists and has the series Friends playing non-stop in every restaurant (no joke, I can hear the laugh track from this internet cafe). It kind of feels like a tropical transplanted english village, with a mix of asian and english cuisine. It's strange, and nothing feels very authentic. In any case, I'm heading out of here in a day after doing some trekking, who knows how that will be.

I came here from Vientiane, the capital of Laos, which also was a bit surreal. I saw tons of foreigners (and creepily enough, tons of dodgy-looking lone males), and ate a recommended cafe which could have easily been in the States. We even went bowling. So, still quite beaten path. In any case, what I did get from Laos is that it has incredibly chilled out people, and it is a communist country, but it seems more capitalistic when you walk around. Welp, those are my thoughts.