Siem Riep, Cambodia

Quick note that I forgot from the previous post: on our drive back to Hanoi from halong bay in Vietnam our van was pulled over by the police. Why were we pulled over? Apparently for no reason, but that didn’t stop the police from forcing the driver to give him $40 in order to not go to jail. Basically, we were pulled over b/c there were a bunch of white ppl on the bus and therefore, we must have a lot of money. The driver paid the $40 (which is about ½ months salary, which is actually really high for Vietnam) but then everyone on the bus decided to chip in $1 so he got $16 back and was very thankful. It was pretty interesting though being stopped by the police for literally doing nothing wrong and then being forced to pay a bribe or go to jail… don’t see that very often in most other countries. On to Cambodia…

Siem riep, Cambodia, is famous for it’s temples which were built by kings roughly 1,000 yrs ago or more as a testament to both the kings that built them and different forms of Buddhism, depending on when it was built. I decided to do the smaller temples first to sort of build up to the larger ones, which includes Angkor wat, which is what siem riep is famous for. First thing I noticed about Cambodia was that there are a ton of beggars, most of them little children and they all have a routine. For the kids between 3-5 yrs old they will come up to you and try to sell postcards and say “hello sir, you want postcard?” they will then count from 1 to 10 in english and say that it’s 10 for $1. If that doesn’t work they count to 10 in Japanese, if that doesn’t work 10 in Spanish, then Vietnamese, then Cambodian and then Chinese. Then they ask what country you are from and start listing random facts. So I say I’m from the USA and the little girls automatically go: iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, florida, population 300 million, st Louis. It was kind of bizarre but I guess it sometime works. And I guess it’s better than vendors in Vietnam who just yell “hey you”. It was clear the kids didn’t even know what was going on and there would be times when I’d keep walking and the kids would just keep talking to themselves trying to see if they could remember 1-10 in all the different languages and doing their whole routine even though I was 50 feet away. Once they’re over 6 they get a little more complicated and start reciting only the capitals of various countries and say “if you buy magnet for $1 I tell you capital of USA” as if them telling me the capital of the US would be some incredibly joyous occasion for me. But then after not buying their magnets they will say “ok, ok, capitol is washington DC” as if I had won our battle and I suckered them into telling me for free. Once they’re over 10 they start selling serious stuff like scarves/food/clothing and are more pushy than they are cute and will follow you for a few hundred feet. It was kind of annoying and sad at the same time, but hey, It’s Cambodia and I believe their unofficial slogan is “shit happens”.

I started going around the temples and they were pretty cool. A lot of them looked like what you’d expect to see in some ancient movie that had temples in it and I later found out that they filmed parts of Indiana jones and the tomb raider movies here. Anyways, there were various temples as each was built by a different king but I didn’t find the temples on the first day that incredible in retrospect (b/c at the time I thought they were incredible) b/c compared to what I was going to see the next day it was nothing. At one of the temples I met an cool girl from philly and we decided to grab a few drinks that night which was fun and decided to go out the next night as well. In between drinks we had gotten a foot massage from fish which I had never seen. Basically, there are a ton of little fish in a large tank and you stick your feet in and they bit off all the dead skin. It was a really odd sensation but it was $3/hr and came with a free beer.

The next day was crazy. I rented a bike to get to the temples which were each about 7km away from each other, but the bikes in Cambodia, shockingly, aren’t exactly like the bikes in the US. Mine was meant for a child and wasn’t meant to be ridden more than 5mph. I figured I could take the heat b/c it was only about 100 at the hottest part of the day whereas I had just gotten back from hanoi and halong bay where it was about 125. I started out going to bayon which is a temple that is made up of 216 smiling faces that are Buddha like faces but molded after the king. Each of the towers has 4 faces on each making 54 towers in total. It was pretty cool and a really massive structure. Walking up and down these stairs was absolutely insane as not only were they completely worn, slippery, and sloping downwards, but Cambodians (and apparently all s.e. asian countries) have incredibly small feet and so I could barely get more than my toes onto the stairs. I read in a guidebook for Cambodia that I bought in Vietnam for a little over $1 that i “wouldn’t be the first person lost to the stairs” and I could see why. Anyways, after that I went to ta prohm which is more of the jungle temple and there are some absolutely massive trees that grew on top of the temple and it’s roots came down 10 feet or more to touch the ground. It was also really cool. Then for the mother of them all – Angkor wat.

Angkor wat was absolutely massive and I was def glad I saved it for last. It was about 1.5 square km’s which, in comparison, is larger than the entire old city of Jerusalem. It had a massive moat about 600 feet wide and then a really high wall so there was only one entrance and five main towers. It also had a huge walkway leading up to the temples which felt pretty grand as you were walking on it b/c it led up to the temples. It was not only the largest but also in the best condition out of any of the temples. The carvings were still pretty clear on the wall. You could climb up to the tops of the towers (via staircases they put in b/c even when it was brand new, they made the stairs hard to climb b/c it was supposed to be like ascending to heaven which isn’t supposed to be easy), walk around the place and really do whatever you want, absolutely nothing was off limits. Some of the younger kids there decided to walk off the side of the walkway and go swimming in the moat and the guards didn’t care at all. It was pretty cool seeing such a monumental structure that’s been so well preserved as usually there’s only a small piece of it left (such as w/ the temple in Jerusalem) but this was almost entirely entact and absolutely massive. Describing it really doesn’t do much and after looking at my pictures, neither did they but it’s better than nothing. That night i went out w/ Isabel again and this time we were a little more adventurous as we bought a small bottle of rice whisky (which has cobra’s and scorpions in the bottle). We had a few drinks after and got to see the town a bit more as we walked around after dinner but for $0.50 beer you don’t even realize how much you drink. I was planning on taking a 9am bus ride to phnom penh which takes about 7 hrs, but I woke up completely hung-over so I decided instead to go back to Angkor wat and I ended up taking an elephant ride to various temples near Angkor wat. It was pretty awesome b/c what could possibly be bad about riding an elephant and it was definitely a hilarious experience. One last note about the temples - b/c we’re in asia there are a million Chinese tour buses and Chinese tourists are sooooo annoying. Not only do they take pictures of everything, including the normal stuff like temples etc. but also: grass, trees, dirt, gravel, rocks, hats, every single staircase ever built, food stands, clothing stands, little children, adults, anything with water, any insect or small lizard. Also, they are all professional photographers and therefore decide it’s ok to stand there for 10 minutes taking a picture of a few trees. I got into a little argument with one or two of the chinese bus groups when I walked through a picture that took 15 min to set up, but thankfully I am 6’3 and had a solid foot over anyone that was going to take on and we didn’t have a language in common so the altercations ended pretty briefly.

I took the bus to phnom penh in the afternoon and was more or less what you’d expect from a $6 bus ride that takes 7 hrs in Cambodia. It was incredibly bumpy, the top of the bus swayed like no bus ever should and the driver didn’t slow down when he picked ppl up on the bus. I always thought that when ppl try to drop you off somewhere and say “we’ll slow down and you just jump out” was a phrase, but apparently they take it quite seriously in Cambodia. I got on at the first stop and off at the last stop so I was fine, but for anyone didn’t they would have to run to jump on the bus b/c the driver refused to slow down to anything under 6-8mph and while one girl and her mother where jumping on the bus, they almost died b/c the mother couldn’t carry the child and run quick enough to catch the bus. This wasn’t the fancy bus though b/c by the time I booked my ticket, the fancy bus ($8) had already been booked. Gotta love Cambodia!

I’m in phnom penh tomorrow and then I leave for china the next day.

Pictures in order:

1. sitting at bayon

2. jungle temples

3. angkor wat from outside the moat

4. some pictures on the wall in angkor wat

5. angkor wat

6. a delicious dinner, i love the few pieces of lettuce mixed in with the bugs to make it appetizing

7. me and isabel

8 & 9. Riding an elephant

10. getting a fish massage

11 & 12. Angkor-wat

13. Bayon temple (one with all the faces on the towers)

14: ta prohm, the jungle-y temple

15-17. various smaller temples

Halong Bay and gbye to vietnam

Explanations for the pictures at the bottom, as well as a video of me jumping off the boat from the top deck which was the 3rd floor and about 30 feet high (the woman filming and laughing in the video was one of the german ladies on the ship).

I decided that there’s no way that I could spend any more time in Hanoi so I went to the Vietnam airlines office and booked a flight to Siem Riep, Cambodia. Flight was around $100 cheaper at the office than I could find online which was great. I booked a 2 day 1 night trip to Halong Bay not really sure what it was but a few ppl had recommended it to me.

We left the next morning at around 8:30am for the 3.5 hr drive to Halong bay. It was only 170 km (a little over 100 miles) so it prob wouldn’t take more than 2 hrs in any civilized country but there are very few highways so we had to go through the local villages in order to get there. It wasn’t a great ride as the air conditioning we were promised barely worked and it was about 120 again so everyone was sweating like crazy. When we got there, we got off the van and got onto a tiny ship that transported us to the main ship which was actually pretty nice. We checked into our rooms on the boat and I had a shared room (since I didn’t feel like paying the extra $12 for my own room) and when I looked at the room realized there was only 1 bed and considering the woman I was supposed to be sharing the room with was a 65 yr old Australian lady, that wasn’t going to work. After a little yelling we both got our own room and all was well. The other ppl on our tour were pretty interesting (more on that later). There were 2 german boys that were about 20 yrs old, 2 middle aged german couples traveling as a group, 1 young dutch couple, 1 polish guy and his Vietnamese girlfriend (very perplexing couple) and 2 british girls. I started speaking w/ the 2 british girls, Jacqueline and Charlene, who were both really cool girls and the 3 of us pretty much hung out for the next 2 days straight. It was surprising how different we spoke considering it was the same language and it happened relatively frequently where they would have to repeat themselves 3-4 times b/c I had no idea what they were saying w/ their accents (which were awesome btw). They were in law school and they had gone to Clossacks for undergrad, but alas, I had obviously never heard of Cossacks. After about 10 hrs I realized that they were actually at Oxford and they had studied Classics (which when they said sounded like Clossacks to me). I mentioned that I had gotten into Cambridge for law school but that I wasn’t going and they seemed happy about that since Cambridge is the enemy.

Anyways, Halong Bay turned out to be one of the most incredible places I have ever seen and after this tour, going down the Mekong river in Ho Chi Minh City seemed like a waste b/c this was so much cooler. It is hard to describe but halong bay is basically gigantic rocks/mountains that are sticking out of the water and they are incredible. The rocks are sort of what I think about when I of the mysterious far east and are better described by looking at the pictures above. The boat took us to some caves which were ok, but nothing special, basically, it was just nice that the caves were so much colder than the outside temperature. After that we got to go kayaking.

One of the interesting things about halong bay was the floating villages. People had built houses pretty far out in the water in order to have better access to the fish so I was able to kayak through one of the villages which was pretty cool. After that we got to go swimming off the side of the boat. I actually jumped off the top of the boat which was about a 30 foot drop (although in the video it looks like much less) and just swim around in the water which was beautiful and refreshing.

We had dinner and after that I went fishing w/ the Charlene and Jacqueline. When we went to ask the guides for fishing rods they almost giggled at us b/c there was a 0.001% chance that we were actually gonna catch something but wtvr, we had nothing else to do so we figured why not. After about 20 minutes, Charlene got a bite and when she pulled her fishing rod out of the water, there was a squid attached to it. We had absolutely no idea what to do so after a few minutes of thinking about it I went upstairs to get a bucket to put the squid into. The tour guides were absolutely shocked that we had caught some (as were we) and they gave us a bucket but by the time we put the squid into the water in the bucket it was already dead. After that, we went to hang out on the roof w/ one of the german boys. Turns out that both boys had just finished their service to the gov and the one we were speaking to was about to start school (which is paid for by the company that he’s going to work for when he graduates, which in this case, was airbus). I mentioned my last name was Kestenbaum and it turns out that Charlene actually knew one of my cousins who used to live in england which I found pretty amusing.

The next morning we had breakfast and our boat took us on a tour through the mountains, it was really cool and everyone went up on the deck and we were talking to each other. I had spent pretty much the entire previous day w/ Jacqueline and Charlene so it was nice to get to know the other ppl a little bit. It’s also nice talking to other travelers b/c pretty much my entire trip has been possible b/c of tips that I’ve gotten from ppl that I’ve met along the way.

The boat took us back to land and we had lunch at about 12:30, and then got back on the bus (the van on the way back was much nicer than the one we had going there). We picked up 4 new ppl to take on the bus, 3 vietnamese women and one little white girl who I thought looked about 10-11. Charlene, Jacqueline and myself were really curious as to what the deal was with the little white girl (where the Vietnamese women her babysitter, mother, etc?). Anyways, eventually the 3 of us started talking to the little girl and it turns out that the Vietnamese woman was the little girl’s grandmother and although we didn’t quite get it out of her, it sounds like the white girls grandfather was fighting in Vietnam and took this Vietnamese woman home and had some kids so she’s ¼ Vietnamese (although she didn’t look it at all) and the grandmother was traveling w/ her 2 friends and granddaughter. The grandma and little girl lived in the middle of nowhere in Utah (a few hundred miles from salt lake) and the little girl was so bored and thrilled to talk to ppl that were at least relatively close to her own age. She was a little odd and at first I thought she was home schooled as she was interested in pride and prejudice, sense and sensibility and not gossip girl and some boy at school but wtvr.

I didn’t book a hotel for that night so I just went back w/ Charlene and Jacqueline to the hotel they stayed at which they said was relatively nice and pretty central in the city and I didn’t really like the hotel I was staying at before. They were leaving late that night and I was leaving the next day so the 3 of us went out to an amusing dinner where we basically talked shit about all the other ppl on our tour. We didn’t quite understand the 2 dutch ppl (who were both beautiful and at first glance seemed like a perfect match) who we assumed were a couple but they seemed to hate each other and so we decided they were fighting. The middle aged germans were quite normal (although one of them was british originally and a little strange) but the polish guy and his Vietnamese gf were perplexing b/c they didn’t even speak the same language so there’s clearly something odd going on there. The 2 young germans also seemed pretty normal. Anyways, after a few drinks we left and went back to the hotel where we hung out for a little while before they left and then I went to bed. I just flew into Cambodia (never imagined I’d be saying those words) and I’m going to walk around the temples of Angkor wat tomorrow and everyone I’ve met that has been said it’s incredible so I’m excited about that. I took a motorbike into siem riep which is the town adjacent to Angkor wat (surprising the motorbike could hold my suitcase, which went between the drivers legs) since it was only $2 and a cab was $7 and my driver was really nice and wanted me to hire him so maybe I’ll do that for 1 day here, I shall see. Anyways, I don’t think I did Halong bay and my experiences there justice b/c it was really very cool but wtvr, hopefully the pictures will get it across a little more. Also, I really liked the ppl on my tour which obviously made it more enjoyable.

1 and 2. Halong bay

3 and 4. me at halong bay

5. floating village

6. me swimming in water

7. halong bay - view from one of the islands

8. hut that was built into the mountain

9. woman from floating village selling fruit

10. floating villages

11. me, jacqueline and the dutch boy

12 and 13. me, charlene and jacqueline

Mekong River, Hoi an and Hanoi

Explanations of photos at bottom of this entry as well as a few poorly shot videos.

I spent another day in ho chi minh just walking around and then I decided to do a tour of the Mekong river. It’s about 2 hrs south of ho chi minh city and we went down there in a motorboat-ish type boat. It was actually a cool ride down b/c at first you see metal shacks that in the US, would be considered too disgusting and filthy for a homeless person, but in Vietnam are home to multiple families. Once you get out of the city you see the natural landscape which is more or less what you’d expect – very thick jungle. I believe that no one calls it “the jungle” anymore b/c now we are supposed to save the environment and so it’s transformed into a more pleasant sounding “rainforest”, but Vietnam is definitely still a jungle. After about 3 hrs we arrived and got off our boat and were taken out to a little area where they make honey tea and we were served some Vietnamese dried fruits and honey tea. They actually make the honey there and they had an entire bee colony and the guy let us hold one of the little screens that has honeycomb and about a billion bees in it. It was funny holding the bees and he said ppl usually don’t get stung even though one guy did. After that he took a 12 foot python and asked if anyone wanted to hold it. I obviously obliged b/c who could possibly pass up the opportunity to hold a snake in the middle of the jungle, but everyone on our tour seemed to be afraid of snakes and 2 ppl refused to even take the picture b/c the snake was in it and they didn’t want to come too close. After the guide gave me the snake, he went back to the area where we were drinking tea to get a snack. This was fine, except he just left the snake on me and as I just stood there, it began to wrap it’s body around me. The bottom of it went through my legs and the top wrapped around my neck and went down my arm. After the longest 2 minutes of my life, the tour guide came back looked at me and said “hmmmmm” but after hitting the snake a few times it loosened its grip and he took it back.

After that we went on a boat tour down various rivers in what is basically a Vietnamese canoe. It fits 4 ppl plus 2 ppl driving the boat (there’s no motor on the boat so they just drive w/ 2 really long sticks that reach the bottom of the river). I had become friendly with a dutch couple, sven, a pilot and caroline, a flight attendant both for KLM, and one Canadian guy, rob, who said he was a cop. Anyways, we made sure to all be in the same canoe and after the canoe ride we went for lunch. We found a table for the 4 of us and ate an uneventful lunch except for the dogs that kept coming up to us. Obviously none of the dogs were neutered but the female dogs looked really nasty with their nipples pretty much hanging down to the floor. After that we had some free time to tour the island that we were on and we all took bikes and biked around the island. It wasn’t a very touristy island which I thought was kind of cool b/c we were just biking through random towns that didn’t have any tourist shops and were just real Vietnamese towns. There were a few problems with the bikes though, mainly that the bikes were made for midgets, they were at least 30 yrs old, and my brakes didn’t work at all. This nearly caused a serious accident when I almost fell into a river b/c I couldn’t stop on a long, continuous downward slope but thankfully, since the bikes were so small, no one was going that fast anyways.

After a little while we stopped at a local store and sat down to have a drink. The Canadian guy wanted to be a bigshot so he bought us all a round (total cost for 4 drinks: $2). The guy whose bar it was sat down with us to chat and immediately asked if any of us were Americans and said that he loved Americans. He said he was a translator for the war in the US but his English was so incredibly bad that I can’t imagine it’s true. Nothing he said made sense but I said I was American and he said that he loved America but that it was very cold. He then went on to explain that he lived in Arizona, California and texas so he was probably lying about having ever been to America or just had no clue what was going on b/c of the language barrier. He also pointed to the girl serving us the drinks who was his 16 yr old niece that he was taking care of and he said that her father (who was his brother) had died and he pointed to the grave right next to the restaurant. When we asked what yr he died he said 1969 but considering that his daughter was 16, there was clearly a language gap. We all started cracking up and it probably was really impolite to do when he was talking about his dead brother and this young girls father but wtvr, he didn’t seem offended at all and kept telling us how much he loved us and america. After a few more drinks we stumbled back on our bikes, hopped on the bus and went home. It is funny how much every Vietnamese person seems to love America b/c all of the museums there are so incredibly (and understandably) anti-american. I also don’t think they’re lying b/c even ppl who aren’t trying to sell u something still love America. We got home at around 8 and I just packed that night and went to bed since I had booked a flight the next morning to hoi an and had to wake up at 4:30am.

The dutch ppl that I met on the Mekong had recommended a hotel to me and said that it’s 25/night but you can just ask for 15/night at the front desk and they’ll oblige. After getting to the hotel they let me have a room for 15/night (surprisingly nice hotel) and the first thing I did was go to rent a motorcycle. A block away was a bike rental place and the woman gave me the bike for $8 total for 2 days. It was a little odd though b/c when I rented the car in Australia I filled out a bunch of forms, gave them my passport etc., but here all I did was show up and take the bike. I didn’t even pay until I returned it. If I wanted to I just could’ve driven to the next town and sold the bike and she would have had no way of tracking me, and if I had crashed the bike, she also would’ve had no way of getting it back, but wtvr, I guess not many white ppl have swindled her before. After she gave me a 10 minute tutorial on how to ride the bike (I couldn’t even figure out how to turn it on) I was off and drove into town. The reason I rented a bike in hoi an was b/c it is a much quieter city than Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi b/c driving in either of those cities would literally be suicide. But when I got to town I was still kind of unfamiliar with riding a motorbike and so I decided to take the 5km ride to the beach which was relatively empty. Granted, this bike isn’t exactly a Harley, it’s more of a mix between a motorcycle and scooter although the speedometer did go up to 180 km/h and on the road to the beach I hit 100 km/h a few times w/ no problems although slowed down immediately b/c it was too windy. Most of the way there traffic moves at about 50-60 km/h and in the city at about 30-40.

In the morning I mostly just drove around and went about 30km out of the city and explored random villages. I thought it would be cool to see the more authentic areas but really, I was loving driving around and I just wanted to stay on the bike and it was a good way to keep cool b/c the wind is pretty strong when ur going about 60 km/h. In the afternoon I went shopping which is what hoi an is known for. A lot of high end western companies like lacoste, polo, nike, etc. have places in hoi an or nearby so the ppl living in hoi an get extras and make a few extra dollars selling them to tourists. Also, the town is lined w/ tailors who will make everything from a 3 piece suit to a winter coat to a pair of jeans and it’s supposed to be relatively high quality and since there’s soooo many tailors the prices are really low. I bought 3 lacoste polo shirts for $9 and 3 polo brand polo shirts for $12. I have gotten used to the haggling and I think that was relatively cheap even for Vietnam b/c other ppl I spoke to payed way more (and at first the women in the stores wanted $6 each for the shirts). They also have a million shoe stores where they’ll custom make you a shoe so I decided that was a good idea. I couldn’t buy any of the shoes off the shelf b/c in Vietnam they don’t make shoes larger than a 42 (equivalent to a size 8.5 in the US) b/c again, everyone here is a midget. So, I had my feet measured and the women all laughed at the size of my American feet and then they made me some nike sneakers that I can’t decide if I like but we shall see. I did get into a slight accident on the motorbike and my foot is pretty badly scratched up since the bike sort of fell on my foot but other than that I’m fine.

As a sidenote, one admirable thing about Vietnam is that despite being a poor country, everybody works. There has not been a single person who asked me for money for no reason since I got here. Granted, everyone tries to sell u something and rip u off, but that is expected. I have found it impressive that there are no beggars considering the average person makes $1.25/day.

Early this morning I arrived in Hanoi, which is the capital of Vietnam. I assumed I would like this as much as ho chi minh city and so this morning I started to walk around the city but it was incredibly hot. It’s been hot wherever I have been in Vietnam thus far but nothing compared to this. The weather here cannot be described. I left my hotel at 9am, at 9:05 u could see beads of sweat, by 9:10 everything was damp and by 9:15 I was sweating so profusely that I had to take off my glasses b/c sweat was dripping off my head at such a fast rate that my glasses were getting soaked and I had to take them off every 30 seconds to clean them. When I shook my arms to get the sweat off, it looked like a sprinkler. It was insane. I came back to my hotel to see what the weather was and according to weather.com it was 114 degrees. Remember, by the time I got back to my room it was around 9:30-9:45am. The heat here is really like nothing I have ever felt and I walked to see the sites that Hanoi has but while I was outdoors there is absolutely nothing you can think about other than the weather. I contemplated taking one of the motorbike taxi’s but I figured I’d rather be hot then dead. It is also impossible to cool down since, even in America air conditioning would have a hard time keeping a room cool in 120 degree heat but in Vietnam? No chance. Usually a fan is the best you can do. Also, NO ONE here wears shorts, everyone wears pants and the women even wear long sleeves and hats when they’re outdoors so that they don’t get tan b/c white skin is attractive and they don’t appear to sweat. One thing I have noticed is that the entire city of Hanoi is a great big shrine to Ho Chi Minh and I found it odd that they changed the name of Saigon to Ho chi Minh City rather than leaving Saigon as-is and changing the name of Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City but who knows. Anyways, the main theme of the day was the heat as it was probably 120-125 during the heat of the day and I was outside all day but thankfully, a 1.5 liter bottle of water is between $0.40-0.60 so I stayed pretty hydrated. Right now it’s about 6:45 and I’m in my room waiting for it to get a little colder so I can go outside. I just checked the weather and it has cooled down to a chilly 110 but maybe if I’m lucky it will get down to about 95 tonight. Also, the I thought the heat was all in the humidity b/c it was cloudy this morning when it was 114 but when the sun came out at around 1pm it was the strongest I have ever felt. You couldn’t stand in the sun for more than 10-15 seconds without being in pain. I am pretty sure I am forgetting some stuff, but it is impossible to think in this heat although I believe this is most of it.

Random sidethoughts: i have been to 5 places in vietnam so far: ho chi minh city, (previously saigon) mekong river, Hoi an, an hoi (island off hoi an) and Hanoi and i think it's time vietnam started naming places with words that don't have an, hoi or han in them, it is very confusing.

Also, i can't imagine how rich these ppl think i am as every meal that i buy is roughly 2-3x their daily salary. So if an avg person in the US makes $50k/year, which is $1k/week or roughly $200 per weekday. That means that the equivalent in the US wouuld be ppl coming and spending about $400-600 per meal and constantly raving about how cheap everything is. Just occurred to me when I gave someone an extra 10,000 ($0.50) and she nearly crapped herself.

Pictures in order

1 and 2. Me on motorbike

3. huts in hoi an

4. ppl working in the field

5. me, rob, caroline on canoe

6. on canoe going down river

7. having a drink w/ crazy vietnamese guy on island in mekong river

8. random shot of the island on mekong river

9. guy fishing on mekong

10. floating gas station

11. houses on mekong

12. snake after it wrapped around my neck

13. snake just beginning to go through my legs, before it was around my neck

all videos are me attempting to go slow and film while on the motorbike but it clearly didn't work very well as it's really bumpy.

Look at old posts b/c i've updated them w/ pictures

The land of many dongs

Vietnam, and more specifically ho chi minh city, kicks ass - but i will start from the beginning. I landed in the airport and realized i didn't have my ticket w/ me that proved I was going to be leaving the country, but wtvr, the customs guy didn't ask me for it so went right through w/ no problems. When i got outside there were literally thousands of ppl just sitting at the airport and i have no idea what the hell they were doing. after about 0.004 seconds, five or six cab drivers all ran up to me to grab my bag out of my hand. after narrowing it down to one i asked him how much it would be to my hotel, he said 700,00, i said 150,000, we agreed on 150,000 (i knew this was the price b/c i had looked it up online during my layover in darwin, australia for 2 hrs). The extreme bargaining that the vietnamese use would be a theme throughout the day. a little friendly bargaining is expected but i can never tell if the price they first offer is 5x the actual price (like it was for the cab ride), or if it's just slightly more. As a side-note, their currency is called Dong, which is obviously hilarious and needs no explanation, and the exchange rate is $1=18,900 dong. But everyone seems to want dollars over dong.

Anyways, i get in the cab with one other couple (they paid 250,000 for the same ride which obviously made me feel good) and as we're pulling out of the airport i ask the cab driver which side of the road they drive on (we were on a one way street pulling out so i couldn't tell yet), and he replied, mostly right but sometimes left - and he wasn't joking. the streets are absolutely incredible. the motorbikes outnumber the cars about 100-1 and there are no rules on the street other than try to stay right if you can. He told me that my hotel was a good deal, and i knew he was telling the truth b/c he told the other couple that their hotel sucked and was too expensive. When we finally get to my hotel it was around 10:30 and i decided to go out and get something to eat b/c i hadn't eaten since b-fast b/c i knew that once i got to vietnam food would be 1/5 the price so i saved up. but, i encountered a problem walking out of my hotel... i couldn't cross the street. I had no idea what to do. i stood at the corner for literally 10-12 minutes waiting for traffic to stop or even just slow down so i could run across, but it didn't. So i just kept standing at the corner. twice while i was standing at the corner, a woman driving a motorbike, with another younger woman sitting on the back of the motorbike, came up to me and said "fucky fucky?". I kept wondering why they say it 2x but either way, they were pretty aggressive and wouldn't leave me alone until i stepped into a store to get dinner. I had to step into a store on the same side of the street b/c i still hadn't figured out how to get across. Finally, after watching traffic for a few more minutes what i noticed was that ppl crossing the street would just walk across the street at a slow pace, not stopping, and motorbikes would just manage to avoid them so i decided to try. I started to cross the street and all i could think was - shit shit shit shit shit shit. I stopped once in the middle of the street b/c a guy was going to hit me, but he had clearly planned on me continuing to walk slowly and then swerving at the last second and he almost ran into me because i stopped and that threw him off. basically, after crossing a few streets, i realized that you have to just walk slowly, don't make any sudden movements, and essentially close your eyes and you will be fine. Without a doubt, crossing the street for the first time was one of the most exhilirating moments of my life.

this morning i woke up, showered, got dressed and then realized after 5 min outside that there was really no point in showering. the streets are incredibly dirty and it's so hot outside that everything you have is immediately damp. The heat wasn't as bad as i thought it would be, i think it was about 95-100 today but wtvr, it doesn't bother me so much and i'm just wearing a t-shirt so i'm not worried about ruining my clothes. i first walked to ben thanh market which is the big market in ho chi minh city. It is awesome. It is hundreds of little stores selling everything. Food (alive and dead), t-shirts, shoes, hats, etc. There is one main alley through the market but other than that, every alley is about 4 ft wide with stores on both sides of you and through certain aisles, women in the shops literally grab your arm and say "hey you, want t-shirt?" so at any point you could have as many as 3-4 women on your arm. The thing is, my arm is covered in sweat, as is theirs, so their hand kind of slips right off your arm. Also, in the food areas of the market, the smell from the restaurants and places selling fresh meat is so incredibly disgusting and strong (b/c the market is both inside and crowded) that u immediately lose your appetite. the bargaining, as i mentioned before, is quite confusing. I needed a nail clipper (since i forgot one and haven't cut my nails in 2 weeks, i'm sure you all wanted to know that) and so i asked how much it cost. The woman said 50,000 so i offered back 5,000 and then she refused to deal w/ me. But on other items like a hat I was looking at, the woman started at 500,000 and i offered back 100,000 and then she said 140,000, so clearly, i was well within the realm of reasonable bargaining. It's really unclear what % of the original offer i should offer and it varies greatly, or so it seems. Anyways, i bought a backpack for 290,000 (although i could've gotten it for 250,000 and i kept thinking about it all day).

I also went to the war museum and the people's palace in the afternoon and what i learned was, the vietnamese government didn't like being attacked by america. who knew? it seems like they're still pretty pissed though even though americans made up half the attendees in the museum. they had a bunch of american helicopters, tanks, warplanes on display and then some exhibits about how terrible america is/was and how much they've suffered.

things are really cheap, but a little more expensive than i thought. i needed a backpack b/c i was carrying everything for carry on in a plastic bag so i bought a north face backpack for $16 (this was a top of the line one, they had other ones for about half that price but i need one for school also so i figured this was a good thing to buy). main courses are about $2 and drinks are about $0.50. also, at least once every block i get stopped by motorbike drivers who ask me if i need a lift. i am tempted to try one just to see what it would be like to ride one and i don't think it'll cost more than $1. Overall in vietnam i am spending a similar amt that i spent in australia (not including cairns where i spent a lot of money) b/c i buy pretty much everything i see. I ate 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches and prob spend $5 on water/soda not to mention each museum here costs money (although only about $0.80 each) and my total dollar amt here is similar to australia. Even my hotel is roughly the same price (although here it's a nice hotel and in australia they were nasty hostels) but it is totally worth it. I am loving it here. It's a really fun and exciting city.

all in all, i am loving vietnam and i'm really sad i only have a week to spend here. I could easily spend most of that time in saigon alone. One last thing, this is the noisiest city i have ever been to and a side street is louder than times square at new years b/c of all the motorbikes. There is a constant roar in the city and it is really cool.

The pictures in order: power lines in ho chi minh, the main aisle in ben thanh market, me at independence palace, me at independence hall, random street (not a main road) in ho chi minh, guy at ben thanh market cutting up fish.

Long post about melbourne, brisbane, cairns

So I got to Melbourne and I walked around the city a lot… everything was very cheap compared to Sydney which was nice. Melbourne is a beautiful city and probably a really nice city to live but it is small compared to Sydney. One of the things that I liked about Melbourne was that a lot of things were free, for example, there was a tour bus that you could hop on that would give u a tour of the entire city in about an hour and a half and you could hop on and off at different stops (there were 13 stops in total) and just get picked up by the next bus. There was also a free trolley that went around the city which was cool. However, the coolest thing in Melbourne was the arcade walk.

What one of the guys told me was that other than the main city streets, Melbourne – for the locals at least, is made up of a bunch of connected arcades/walkways. Basically little alleys that are closed off to cars similar to 3^rd street promenade in LA or ben yehuda st. he told me that the best bars/coffee shops/restaurants are found in some of the dingiest alleys in the center of town. He gave me a small map and when I got to the beginning of the tour it took me about 20 min to find the entrance to the alleyway b/c it was so narrow, and I would’ve never even seen it w/out the map. Walking in was so cool, really like being in a totally diff world. Grungy looking shops lined the way (some of the shops were so tiny that it was just a counter) but they were some of the coolest places I have seen. Also, the people changed from very business-ey to trendy. After walking through that alley you come to a different one which looks like you are in the middle of an English palace, with marble floors, arched ceilings and cool statues on the side next to the fanciest shops imaginable, tiffany’s, Gucci, etc. to get to the next alley you had to walk downstairs and it was a little asian alley (separate from Chinatown) selling food and massages. Anyways, I don’t remember the rest of the alleyways but it was really cool. As a side-note, Melbourne was freezing cold and I really had to push myself to go outside b/c all I had was a zip up long sleeve shirt to wear.

Next, I was off to Brisbane which is where Joanna and Ken live. For those of you that don’t know, we know Joanna because she babysat me and Alex when we were young and lived with our family for a few yrs. since she’s awesome, our family has remained in touch with Joanna (as much is possible w/ someone that lives in Australia) over the yrs. Anyways, my flight from Melbourne was delayed and I had planned to walk around the city in the morning and then make my way over to joanna’s in the afternoon, but instead Joanna and her younger son, zach, just came and picked me up from the airport which made it simpler for me. Joanna’s house is awesome and looks like something straight out of a Disney movie. When we got to the house we were greated by yogi, a really cute labradoodle who gets so excited when ppl come home that he can’t contain himself so he runs around the yard, then comes up to you and stands on his hind legs and tries to waltz with you. It was soooo nice to have ppl that I knew, home-cooked meals and my own room/bathroom that I didn’t have to share w/ someone else. I needed to do a lot of research about Vietnam b/c I hadn’t booked anything yet for it (more on that later) including hotels/flights and I wanted to make sure I had all that. I hung out w/ Joanna and ken (after ben and zach went to bed, ken taught me a little about rugby so I wouldn’t seem like such a retard w/ the locals and then went to sleep. All my flights have been at 6am so I’ve had to wake up at 4:30 which really kills me for the day, but flights are cheapest early in the am so it’s worth it.

The next day was awesome, we went to zach’s little league rugby game (I slept through ben’s game which was at 8am I think) and it was hilarious! I have no idea what happened during the game, but zach kicked ass during the game (I think) and scored a try (aka, touchdown). After the game, we went to lone pine which was a koala sanctuary. They had a million koala’s that you could get within a few feet of touching them w/ just short fences in between you and the koala which was really cool. They are really cute/weird looking creatures but they’re the face of Australia so I’m glad I got to see it. However, the highlight of the trip was definitely getting to go to the “kangaroo fields”. It’s just a large area where there are maybe 40 kangaroos relaxing and you can literally go up and sit down next to them. Joanna bought us some food and then they all came up to us to get a little bit, although a lot of them were clearly well fed and didn’t bother getting up. The big male in the group just sat there flashing his gigantic balls at us, not sure if he was trying to impress us or not, but we were def all impressed. Or at least I was.

Joanna served me some pretty sweet dinners, even more so considering the crap that I have been eating, and we watched some rugby and went to bed. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I got to sleep in my own quiet room that was pitch black… I think I slept at least 10 hrs every night. The next day (or the first day, I don’t remember the order of which day was which) I went to the downtown area while Joanna, ken and the boys went to a communion for one of joanna’s nieces who is also her god child. The city of Brisbane is really nice although not very different from many other small to mid-size cities. It had a nice, charming downtown area and then an area called southbank which is the more artsy and cool area. One really funny thing they had was a beach in the middle of the southbank area (not on the water, it was completely man-made) where they just set up some sand and water that went up to 10-15 feet deep and ppl were playing volleyball and swimming as if it were the regular beach. That night me and the whole family went to a bbq for zach’s school which was pretty funny. All the kids were running around doing their thing and the parents were sitting on the side drinking/eating and listening to the band or just playing rugby. I had a catch (we stuck out like a sore thumb playing baseball) w/ ken and ben for a little while and pretty much ate the rest of the time. It was great seeing joanna/ken and co. and if you’re reading this… thanks so much, you guys rock.

The next morning I left to cairns which is the main spot for the great barrier reef. Unfortunately the reef isn’t on the shore, it begins about 30km out into the ocean and the really good part doesn’t start until even further out. I decided to do an all day snorkeling thing with one free scuba dive with a tour group that was at least somewhat reasonably priced and got good reviews from everyone I spoke with. It was about a 1.5 hr trip on the boat to actually get to the reef and I was put in the first dive group (meaning that when we first got there I was going to dive rather than snorkel first and then dive). I got all my stuff on and dove and it was pretty sweet. We went about 20 feet under the water and got to see the reef pretty far down. You don’t realize it but often when it feels like ur really deep b/c of the pressure, u are actually only a few feet deep and there was one point I thought I was really deep but I stuck my hand up and the tip of my hand was above water. It is cool though when ur deep under water and u flip over and look up and there’s someone that’s 15 feet above you. After that I went snorkeling which was also really cool. I think I may have enjoyed the snorkeling a bit more b/c when ur diving ur concentrating real hard on making sure ur ears are ok and they don’t explode and trying really hard to breathe and making sure ur deep enough, etc. and it’s hard to concentrate on what’s actually there. But when you’re snorkeling you can really just look at the fish and the reef and it’s really cool. The boat left at 8am and at around 11:30 they served us lunch (all you can eat buffet where I obviously forced myself to eat and then got a little sick later) and moved the boat to a different reef. The second reef was way better b/c the reef itself was much more crowded w/ fish and was only about 2-3 feet deep so you could float over the reef and literally touch it (although you’re not allowed to touch it b/c it’s delicate and I think some of the stuff might be poisonous). There were some really cool fish, some that were really colorful and 4-5 feet long. We also saw a ton of stuff that you see on places like planet earth (the show, not the planet). Some ppl saw sharks (not dangerous to humans) and the big sea turtles but unfortunately, I didn’t see any. Either way, it was pretty cool and def an awesome thing to do.

When I got back I wanted to rent a car b/c I thought driving on the other side of the road would be fun and b/c I wanted to go to cape tribulation. Basically, it is a beach that is in the middle of the rainforest. I met 2 girls in the car rental place who were also going to cape tribulation (a 2.5 hr drive) and so we decided to all go together to split the costs. The cars that they rent out after 4pm count for the next day so we rented it on Tuesday night and had to bring it back by thurs morning and only had to pay for one day. We decided to leave in the morning. That night I got a free dinner b/c my hostel had a deal w/ some restaurant and I met some german guy at the restaurant, we hung out for a little while but he was really weird and I think trying to hit on me so I left. The next morning I picked up the girls at about 630am at the place we had arranged to meet and we left for cape tribulation. They were cool ppl, one was living in Thailand helping refugees get into the US and the other was living in DC but they were from Utah and Illinois originally (which is how we met b/c we heard each others accents and realized we were all American). Anyways, the girl who lived in thailand loved it and the one from DC was going to visit her in thailand but b/c of the violence there they decided to meet in australia instead. After a little while of driving we were in the rainforest. It looked exactly like what you’d imagine. There was just a 2 lane road cut through the forest and it was so dark at the bottom b/c the canopy was covered in trees and plants that during certain parts of the drive, we had to have our headlights on b/c there was so little light. It was really awesome. Also, at one point we stopped to get a snack and when I got back on the road without even thinking, I got on the right side of the road (there were no cars around to remind me they drive on the left). After a few minutes of driving a car came up and we all almost died but thankfully I was able to swerve out of the way and not die but it was pretty exciting. Other than that one near death experience, the driving on the left was fine.

We got to cape tribulation at about 10am and went to the beach. If I hadn’t met the girls I was planning on just relaxing at the beach and maybe walking through the rainforest a little bit but they seemed more intent on going through the rainforest so I was happy to do that and we did a few walks through there. I got the shiiiiiit bitten out of me and I have mosquito bites all over my body. At least 20 of them all up and down my arms and legs but maybe more. The beach was insane and looked like a screensaver since it’s maybe 20-30 feet of sand and behind that is a lush, mountainous rainforest. It turns out that teaming up w/ the girls prob saved my life b/c I would have gone swimming in the water (and tried to convince the girls to go as well, but they didn’t want to) but it turns out that the shallows are patrolled by crocodiles that are btwn 10-15 feet and weigh between 500-1500 lbs that kill ppl frequently so no one is swimming in the water. The beach was completely deserted and there were no signs to warn you but we found that out when we were eating lunch a little later. Once we found that out we decided to go on a river boat tour looking for crocodiles, which we did and was awesome. We saw a few crocs, the biggest of which was about 12 feet long and weighed about 700 lbs. however, during lunch they mentioned that they had met while living in salt lake city and I asked if they were mormon and they said that they were. I didn’t think much of it until before the river boat tour we were offered a cold beer for free (it was really hot outside) and they declined and took a luke warm drink. Now, even if you don’t like beer you would’ve still drank it just b/c that was the only cold drink they had at this place and we were all thirsty. At that point I realized that they were prob pretty religious since they don’t drink so on the way home (which took about 4 hrs b/c we took some detours to stop and look at a few beach towns) we discussed Mormonism which was pretty interesting to me. When I told them I had never met a mormon and everything I knew about the religion was from big love they laughed. As we got more into it they were clearly relatively devout ppl and had even gone to church the week before when they were in Australia. The girl living in DC was one of 7 children and the girl in Thailand was one of 14 children. 14!!!!!! I asked what her dinner table was like and she said that by the time all 14 children were born some of them were out of the house (so it was only 10 children at a time instead of 14, pfft, easy). Anyways, I grilled them about being mormon and beign a part of such a big family and they had really funny answers. It was really cool hearing about it, I did feel like a retard though quoting what happened in big love (to the regular ppl, not to the family that has 3 wives) and they were like… ya, that’s not Mormonism at all, it’s all inaccurate. One of them actually watched the show and knew exactly what I was talking about.

That is where I’m at now. I fly to Vietnam in a few hrs, into ho chi minh city and I plan on staying there for a few days, then going up to hoi an, then to Hanoi and then flying back down to ho chi minh so that I can take a bus to Cambodia. I was going to go to laos and kuala lumpur in Malaysia but flying out of Vientiane is nearly impossible and to get to china (the next stop) would’ve been an 18 hr layover in Kunming, china, which I don’t feel like doing. Also, it’s cheaper b/c I can take a bus from Vietnam to Cambodia and I would’ve had to fly to both laos and Malaysia. In Cambodia I think I’m going to do phnom penh and angkorwat (which I’ve heard was cool) but I haven’t bought any tickets yet so it can change at any second. Also, I don’t have an outward ticket from Vietnam b/c I’m taking a bus and the buses aren’t very high tech so u have to buy a ticket in person, so what I did is book a ticket out of Vietnam on Vietnam airlines but say that I’d pay later in-person (within 24 hrs) and now that I haven’t paid it has been cancelled, but I was able to print out proof of my ticket while it was still valid so hopefully they’ll let me into the country (since you need to have an outbound ticket in order for the visa to be valid for Vietnam). If not… then that would suck.

I’m leaving Australia but it has been awesome. Next time I come back I’m going to explore the outback more than the cities. The cities were cool but if you’ve seen one you’ve seen em all.

I didn’t have time to proof-read this so if it doesn’t make sense, too bad. Pictures to come in the next post hopefully.