July 23, 2008
So . . . we have been home for a bit and I have not sent my last email! I guess I will do it a bit backwards and mention what has happened since we got home.
Our flight was crazy delayed and we got back at 4am on a Weds. By noon someone had stolen our car!!! It sucks and was very frustrating. Tom had some of his favorite books in the trunk and it is a major bummer. *sigh*
Anyway- I have been working at Ivymount as a sub and starting my work as a private therapist and tutor. I got business cards and everything :) It is hard working for myself . . . clients cancel at the last minute and then I can't eat haha but overall I am enjoying it. I am working with the same families as I was last year and have added a few news ones.
Anyway- When I last emailed, Tom was hours away from getting very sick. The poor guy got Dengue Fever! He had a super high fever and major vomitting . . . it was terrible! We went to the hospital and the doctor said "Oh, it is not too serious. It is like bird flu. 70% of people who have it are fine." *ah!* Dengue is transmitted by mosquitos and there is no treatment and no prevention . . . ugh! He was sick for a few days so our time in Phom Phen was low-key. We stayed near the hotel but did go see some of the genocide sites.
We traveled to Seim Reap when Tom was well enough and it was pretty amazing. We saw the Temples of Angkor and they were incredible. We hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us throughout the ruin complex and he nearly burst into tears when he told us about some bad luck and his wife threatening to leave him over lunch. It was intense. While out we saw temples that were used in tomb raider, incredible wall carvings, and huge stone buildings with giant faces carved on them.
When we arrived at the temples, there was a monkey. The monkey jumped at a guy and started jumping on his leg and biting him! The guy just let the monkey bite him and laughed as people snapped pictures. Tom and I did not want any part of a potentially rabid monkey so we split up and went separate directions down the stairs. The monkey ignored me but attacked Tom! As it lunged for Tom, Tom jumped off of the temple platform (like 8 feet!) and handed not so gracefully on the ground. I turned around and saw Tom in the air . . . followed by the monkey!!!! The monkey jumped off after him. When Tom landed and got up from his fall he ran away from the monkey which then chased him!!! It jumped onto Tom's leg and he had to kick it in the face to get away from the evil beast. It was crazy! He was nervous about monkeys for the rest of the day (with good reason)!
After spending a day at the ruins we tried to watch sunset but the sky was too cloudy. So, we went home and went to bed.
The next day we went to a silk factory and a wood working factory which was staffed by disabled people from the community. It was cool to see how the silk was made from the silk worm cocoons. I had no idea that the boiled the moths in the cocoons and then used the cocoon for the silk. It was pretty neat to watch. We saw the whole process, including 2 moths mating!
After the workshops we took a plane back to Hanoi. Our last few days in Hanoi were nice. We shopped, saw puppet theatre (which was great!), went to museums, and walked all over town. Best of all we got several massages (including one where I was essentially beat up with hot stones by 2 women!) We went to a night club one night which we quickly realized was a house of prostitution. We had 5 very friendly waitresses and their were gogo dancers doing a pretty fancy dance routine on a huge stage. It was bizarre but sort of fun. We also enjoyed a jazz club with a great singer and tried Vietnamese KFC.
Overall we had a very nice stay but decided that we liked HCMC much better .. . we would love to go back there.
When we left Hanoi we went to Japan and had a great time in Tokyo! I had a pretty bad migraine but I pushed through and we saw shrines, gardens, homes, sites, and walked all around. It was fantastic! The best part of the Tokyo trip was a visit to a fish market. The market sold something like 2000 tons of fish every day! There were tuna, an octopus, and tons of other fish. We saw a huge muscle and it spit on me! It was so neat to see the fish. We saw people selling, buying, and butchering fish. It was great!
Now we are home . . . getting back into the swing of things . . . and it is nice to relax a bit.
Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/564210272KfbOUV?vhost=community
July 1st, 2008
We have a little more than a week left in the trip and have been doing a lot of fun things!
We really enjoyed HCMC (Saigon). We volunteered a bit (but realized continuing was more for us than for the kids, so we did less than we had planned because the place was so overstaffed with volunteers), we walked all over the town, we saw museums, we met local people, and we just took in the town. We had a lovely dinner with my uncles wife, Luyen, and visited a wonderful night life craft market . . . what fun! We also met two great American guys who we wished we could have gotten to know a bit better. It was nice to be in one place for a bit.
In Ho Ch Mihn City we visited the Cu Chi tunnels (a networks of tunnels that the VC used). We moved through the tunnels, but they were so tiny there were parts that were tough to get through. It was pretty touristed, but it was interesting to see the bamboo spiked booby traps and the like. They had a firing range where people could fire Vietnam era weapons. Tom fired an AK-47. It was interesting being in the tunnels and hearing the shots from the firing range . . . . with the re-planted jungle and leafy shelters it was almost possible to imagine how terrifying it must have been to be a US army personnel walking in the dense jungle . . . uncertain what could happen at any moment . . .
We also visited the War museum which was VERY one-sided and filled with slanted propaganda against the US . . . it was still interesting to see though. We also saw a broader history museum which covered all of Vietnam's history. Tom was particularly enthralled with the exhibit which catalogued Vietnam's defeat of one of Genghis Khan's son's army.
We were able to book a boat into Cambodia that would take 3 days and travel through parts of the Mekong Delta. It was a shabby tour with a guide who kept promising ""city tours"which really were just walks to a hotel he was affiliated with and our hotel the first night lost water. But, overall, it was an exciting trip.
We traveled by motor boat, speed boat, canoe, ferry, bus, and horse drawn carriage. We saw a coconut candy factory, a noodle factory, and a rice paper factory (really just sheds with hard working people making the treats). We also visited a crocodile farm, floating markets (boats where people sold mostly produce), and houses over the water with holes in the floor where they kept fish farms. At times we left we were in tourist-land and at other times we felt like we had been plopped into Apocalypse Now. It was pretty neat. We traveled with differet people who came and went but spent the entire 3 days with a Brazilian, a European, and 6 people from Malaysia.
We we got to the Cambodian border everything went badly! We did not have a full page empty in our passports for the full page Visa we needed to get into Cambodia. We have had full page Visas before but never from a border crossing. We had assumed it would just be a stamp like we got in the 25 or so other countries we have visited. But, we could not! They told us we had to go back to Saigon and get a new passport. It was terrible! If we had gone back we could have lost our time in Cambodia AND had to waste 3 days or more traveling by bus back up Vietnam . . . we had a flight booked out of Cambodia too and we would have wasted all of the money. I cried, Tom yelled, then we pleaded and after an hour they finally gave us the Visa. I am not sure what changed their minds, but the border officer was not happy about it.
We arrived in Cambodia last night and stayed in a gross hotel with a moth the size of the hand hiding in the bathroom. The 2 block walk to the main strip in town was filled with trash and homeless people . . . . a very sharp contrast to the essentially litter free Vietnam that we had just experienced. The main strip was dribbled with prostitutes, cross-dressers, and dirty old white men soliciting them. However, that was nearly camouflaged by the huge number of scantly clad-club-hopping Westerners. We felt totally safe but did not enjoy the atmosphere at all!
Today, in the day light, things look a bit better. People have been nice to us and we did some sight seeing. We went to see the Killing Fields Memorial and a school house that had been converted to a prison where mass executions and torture took place during the genocide . . . . what a terrible occurrence! It is somewhat evident that all of the older generations intellectuals were killed. Young people all speak English and seem to value education (from our brief glimpse into the Capital culture) whereas older people seem poor and dejected. Cambodia is going through an artistic resurgence of sorts and it is an interesting time ot be here.
I am also struck by the difference in the level of infrastruture and progress in comparision to a country like Rwanda who suffered a similair genocide so much more recently. Rwanda is modern and clean and beautiful. Cambodia is not. It is beautiful in a way .. . . there is some amazing arcitecture and some lovely aspects of the surroundings . . . . but it is not beautiful by classic standards.
Anyway- sorry for the rambling!
We head to Seim Reap tomorrow to visit Angkor. We are excited for that. We fly to Hanoi on July 4th and head home on the 7th . . . spend a day in Tokyo . . . and arrive in NYC 20 minutes before we left! Our trip to South Korea had to be canceled . . because flights were CRAZY expensive! Hopefully we can visit Amy some other time!
I will write again from Hanoi.
June 24th, 2008
Wow! This is an incredible country. I will start this email with a few over-gernalizations:
1. People are generally honest here
2. Services can be spotty but it appears to be lack of expereince rather than a concerted effort to screw us
3. Many tourists assume they are being cheated when they are not
4. Travel is generally easy and reliable
5. Even the pushiest people are still friendly and loveable
6. Vietnemese people as a whole do not hold the war against American travelers and seem to be on the mend towards forgiving the actions of the governement (ie agent orange etc). However, Vietnemese people do not seem to learn about the tortures their people committed . . . one tour guide said that in school he read a book written by an American POW who talked about how wonderful Vietnese War-Prision camps were . . .
6. It is hot as hell here!!!!
We are really enjoying this trip. It is difficult not speaking Vietnemese in that it limits our access to many of the local people. However, we are finding that many Vietnamese tourists are doing the very same little trips we are doing. This is exposing us to a small piece of Vietnamese culture.
Last I left off we were leaving Hue. We did go listen to the traditional music (a woman played the tea cups!) and we were the only people in the audience! It was beautiful and Tom bought a CD. We took a morning bus to Hoi An and spent the afternoon looking at local sites. We saw a beautiful assembly hall, an old home, more live music (this time with acting!), and a lovely pagoda. It was a nice leaisurely afternoon. After we finished the walking advenure, we decided to buy some cloths. Hoi An is know from its amzing tailors (thanks for the heads up Matt!) We went a little crazy but got some beuatiful clothing made. Tom got a suit, 5 shirts, and a winter dress coat. I got a suit (with pants, jacket, and skirt), a shirt to go with it, a wonderful winter coat (I have needed a new one for 2 years!), 4 sun dresses, and one more formal dress. It was great fun and did not cost us too much. It was neat to have things tailor made. We had great fun bargaining our price down and had to work harder than usual! Later we also found some incredicble art that i can't wait to get home and hang.
The next day we went to My Son where we saw some fantastic ruins of the Cham Dynasty that had been bombed in the war. We left at 5am and returned at 10:30am. That gave us time for a shower and then for our fitting for our clothes. Then we took a cooking class where we learned to make spring rolls, fish, and the best salad i have ever had (papaya and shrimp with a garlic oil dressing). We ended the day with a final fitting and rushed to shower again (it was soooo hot!!!!) and caught ouy 6:30pm over night bus to Nha Trang.
Nha Trang was a busling beach town. Tom and I have never been big beach people. We love the ocean and beaches but get bored just hanging around on the beach (yes yes crazy i know). We decided only to spend one day in Nha Trang and booked another overnight bus for that night (yesterday). We opted for a cheap tour ($5) that the tour book suggested and we assumed would be filled with white people. It was to take us to several islands and then snorkling. We grappled with with agency to book it through and eventually settled on one. At the last minute we tried to change it to go to a mud-bath natural spring but we could not.
When we arrived at the boat we found we were the only westerners (save a US immigrant from Vietnam and a recently divorced woman from new Zealand). Everyone else was Vietnemese. This was a pleasant surprise! We ended up having the most fun we have had in a long time partying with everyone of this random boat cruise! The trip started with a boat ride to an acquiriam which was formed like a coarl Pirate Ship. On the way our crazy boat guide introduced himself as "Phook no F**K" and did a hilarious bit where we pretended to be Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. He was a really hilarious fellow. We saw all sorts of fish, sea turtles, and sharks! Then we rode to a snorkleing spot. We jumped from the boat and saw beautiful coral and colorful fish. We even saw jelly fish! Tom and I were so scared we swam back to the boat to ask our guide to rescue us! haha. Turns out they were the non-stinging variety. After we snorkeled we had a feast on the boat and the Phuk and 3 other boat crew made a "boy band" and sang karokee-style songs. It was great! They had everyone dancing on the chairs (which had been folded down to make a stage) and made us do Conga-lines. It was pretty great that there were so many local people on board, otherwise it may have felt somewhat exploitative to have this man making such a ham of himself. As it stood, it was just really great fun! Next we had a floating bar, where they plotted a man in an innertube with local wine. We had to put our feet on the tube and he made people chug wine who said the word "no". It was really funny. We ended the boat trip on a beach where we swam and laid in the sun for about 45 minutes and then had a great fruit spread as we rode back. It was very different from anything Tom and I do when we travel and was great fun! Though, I will share that the toilet exploded all over me at one point and I had to dump buckets of water on myself and then jump into the sea!!!!!! yuck!!!!!!!!
We were so glad we skipped the mud spring but were still feeling like it would have been neat. As we were discussing this, someone beckoned into their massage parlour and we ended up getting massages and mud bath. It was not the same as the Springs, but it was wonderful! All in all, it was a pretty fantastic day.
We then hopped onto our final overnight bus and arrive in Ho Chi Mon City (Siagon) this morning. We found an orphanage to volunteer at and it is in amazing condition. The children are well cared for and there were many volunteers. We spent the day there and will go back on Thursday. They were pretty over-staffed though. As a result, we may not spend as much time volunteering this trip as we had planned. There are about 6 volunteers who have been here 2 weeks and will stay another month. Because of that, we are almost in the way. We will see how it goes on Thursday. We are also looking into helping out at a nearby school, but are unsure what they want us to do. So, we will see.
Anyway- that is that. Please excuse the typos . . . I am in a rush as always when we travela nd my internet time is almost up :)
June 20th, 2008
Hey there! Wow! What an amazing time we are having! Here are the blow by blows:
We started the trip with a nice night in NYC with Al. He let us sleep in his room and found a great burger joint for me. It was pouring rain and the trains were delayed, but we made it and it was a nice visit. Terry Godlove drove out the JFK and had breakfast with us before we left (which was a real treat!).
After a 14 hour flight we arrived in Tokyo. The subway system is extensive . . . but very overwhelming! We found a nice woman at the ticket office who rushed us onto a train and we made our way into town. We stayed at a cute hostel, had Japanaese showers, bathed in the public bath, and searched out sushi. We had an amazing dinner and about halway through a very drubk Japanese man started to talk to us in broken English. When his food arrived he kept sending it our way. After a few attempts to give it back we sampled some new foods. He even overheard us ask the sushi-man if there was incecream and sent icecream our way. We tried to return the favor but he declined.
After we left the sushi place, we wandered around town and took in the city. It was really a beautiful place. We soon encountered a little old man who began chattering is English (we think!) for a good 5 minutes as we walked. We have no idea what he was saying, but think he worked in Canada sometime in an autofactory.
We ended up sleeping early, and the next morning, ate breakfast that we ordered from a vending machine (but was cooked in the kitchen). We made our way back to the airport with ease (but feared most of the ride that we were on the wrong train)
When we arrived in Hanoi, we immediately fell in love. It is dirty and loud and wonderful! I imagine it would be overwhleming to someone new to traveling, but it is so much clamer than places like Cairo and Delhi.
There is a pretty common scheme that the tour books always warn about involving taxi drivers that take you to the wrong hotel. That has only happened to us once in the past. When we arrived in hanoi it happened for the seond time.Had we not been seasoned travel;ers we would have fallen for it, but I had known to pull out the book and track our progress. We weren't even near the correct street! The taxi driver was angry but eventually took us where we needed to go.
We tried to find a place to volunteer but realized it was not possible in Hanoi, so we booked a trip to Halong bay for teh next day (planning to spend some more time there at the end of the trip).
As we walked around we noticed that there were many many motorbikes on the road and the only way to cross the street was to slowly move across no matter how many motorbikes were in your path! A new law says all motorboke riders must wear helmets. the helmets are great! Many wear war-style head gear made into all sorts of designs (classic green, floral, etc). They even have hemlets shaped like baseball caps. People look very western in dress and we even saw one woman text messaging while riding her moto bike!
The trip to Halong Bay was amazing! We took a van to the harbor and hopped on a ship. It was raining so we had to wait about an hour but then we set off. It was so beautiful! Hundreds of tiny islands jutted from the sea covered in green. We were able to kayak through a cave filled with bats as well! We finished the boat trip at an island where we stayed in a beach bungalow. We had teh option to do more kayaking but were too tired.
The next day we went by boat to another island and biked across the island! Some of you may know that I had previously forgotten how to ride a bike . . .well . . . i have now relearned and my tush is still sore from the seat! While biking we stopped at a cave that had been turned into a hospital for VC soldiers during the war. it had 3 floors and was incredible! We then took a loud speed boat back to teh main land, arrived back in hanoi 3 hours later, and took an overnight (terrible uncomfortable!) bus to Hoi An.
The bus arrived late in Hue, so we missed the Hoi An bus. But, as it turned out, we were glad to have teh extra day in Hue. What a treat! We saw some tombs along the river, a pagoda, and the citadel which are all World Heritage Sites.
Tomorrow at 8am we leave for Hoi An and will spend 2 days there.
This has been a busy beginning of the trip but we are loving it! We are heading to dinner to hear live tradition music now