Mark, Jezzie, Dennis & Dee (Hank & Myrtle) take on SE Asia [March 15-22//April 1-18, 2010]

MARCH 15-22 and APRIL 1-18


**For the first part of the summer, my dad came to visit for a few weeks.  At the beginning of the trip my dad, my friends Josie and Mark (Josie's boyfriend) and I travelled to Angkor Wat together in Cambodia.  From there we went to the north of Thailand where we met Emily for a trek with the hill tribes.  After that we went to Chiang Mai where my dad and I split off for a bit to visit a friend of mine from college in BKK and then to see our family friend, Jacole, in Nepal.  After Nepal, my dad and I went to a small island for a night before he had to go back to the U.S.  After he left, the 4 of us (me, Mark, Josie, Emily) took a crazy adventure to Vietnam and Laos.  This details our travels together...

SCAM-bodia

March 15
530am came all too fast and up we were to check out! We met Josie and her boyfriend Mark down in the lobby (they came to the hotel last night) and headed to the train station (which luckily was right across the street from our hotel). Sleepily we slumped into our seats and headed off into the countryside. The train ride wasn’t half bad—only about 5 hrs— and it’s always nice to see parts of the country you haven’t been to before. The only frustrating thing was that this time of year is burning season in Thailand (aka the farmers burn down their land in order to prep the soil for the coming wet season/planting) which means that as you’re cruising through the fields you are getting enveloped in clouds of ash—it was reminiscent of the burning of HomeTree for those of you Avatar fans out there.

Upon arrival we were hounded by tuk tuk drivers all vying for our fare to the border. We ended up choosing the wrong one and were soon the victims of a frustrating scam! We pull up to this place on the way to the border where we are greeted by ‘officials’ with visa papers, etc. I didn’t feel right about it from the start, but it all seemed kinda legit and we were here, so whatever. They then proceeded to tell us that we couldn’t use USD to pay for the visa which should have been our signal to leave, but how can you really know? Anyway, they want us to pay for the visas in Baht which is normal (as this is what Thai people have to pay in) but you end up paying more because they give you a bad exchange rate. They kept being like ‘No no you can’t use USD at the border anymore, just baht’ and then they wanted us to pay extra for a processing fee. I looked at the guy, already a bit on edge and uncomfortable, and said we would not pay more than the visa fee in baht (which was the standard fee) and that we wanted to be taken to the border now. They got all flustered, esp when I told Mark/Josie to get their money back for the processing fee they were told they had to pay, and finally after some arguing we got our visas and headed to the border. At the border Josie and Dad went inside while Mark and I waited with the tuk tuk driver and came out telling us that USD were in fact accepted and that we had been hosed. After a mixture of yelling in broken Thai and English the tuk tuk driver refused to take us back to the place where we got our visas—so we said we were writing down his info and turning it into the Tourist Police. In reality at this point there was nothing we could do except suck it up and move on and be more wary of things like this. Lesson Learned: Trust Your Gut.

Thankfully the visas we got were in fact legitimate, just more expensive than we would have liked, and we made our way through customs, accompanied by our Customs friend: Mr. Happy. Mr. Happy helped us through the process, got us all of our stamps, put us on the shuttle to the bus station and helped us get into our shared taxi to Siem Reap (our final destination). The 4 of us crammed into the cab which seemed fine until we got on the highway and realized that we were in a British style car (which is normal for us cuz they drive on the left side of the road in Thailand). However, we soon learned that they drive on the right side of the road in Cambodia, so every time our driver went to pass he had to pull all the way over into the other lane to see if he had a clear path. Poor Dad was in the front seat fearing for his life as on more than one occasion swerving or the slamming of the brakes took place. Along the way we made a stop at some little store where the driver was like okay you can get out and get something to eat, etc and we were all like oh no that’s okay we’ll just stay in here. So, he got out and then some men proceeded to spray down the car with a hose with us inside-we’re pretty sure they were trying anything to get us to buy something, but we weren’t having it, so we just waited inside, awkwardly as other tourists were seen milling around the store.

We finally made it to Siem Reap after a 2 hr drive through the dry Cambodian countryside where we were dropped at a tuk tuk stand- again being skeptics we weren’t happy that we were being left here. It turned out to be okay as we found out the taxis/tuk tuks are part of associations (sort of like a mafia) and work together to support each other and give each other business. We got a free ride to our guesthouse and then ended up working out a price with our driver to pick us up in the morning and drive us around Angkor Wat for the day. Tanei Guesthouse was really nice and most importantly had a pool which we was more than necessary in the grueling heat of this country. We headed to Pub Street for some dinner (I had a traditional Khmer dish called Amok—a coconut curry) and some 50 cent beer. Fading quickly as we’d been up since 5am we headed back for a quick swim before heading to dreamland in our a/c rooms!

ANGKOR WAT (Day 1)

March 16
Tanat greeted us right on time with our tuk tuks in the morning (Dad and I in one, Josie and Mark in the other) and we set off to see one of the wonders of the world: Angkor Wat. I’ve actually been counting down the days ‘til I got to see this place and it really didn’t disappoint We started the day with Angkor Wat itself which is indescribable. It is this expansive, beautiful, symmetrical, architectural phenomenon surrounded by kilometers of moat and dense jungle. It’s made stone and the lower level walls are covered in bas relief carvings depicting various Hindu and Buddhist lore (depending on who was ruling the kingdom at the time). Its endless column-lined hallways are designed in such a way that you can look down one and see the light at the end of the tunnel over a km away. You continue across a massive courtyard with a central promenade that leads you to the inner temple. As you approach it looks like 3 peaks all next to each other, but up close you realize that there are actually 5 peaks (4 corners and 1 higher middle peak) that are spaced out in perfect symmetry giving it the illusion of a straight line until you see it’s actual depth. Sorry if you’re completely lost, but it’s a really difficult thing to explain without actually seeing it—pictures don’t really even do it justice as they don’t capture the depth and are fooled into falling for the ‘straight line’ illusion. How a civilization could build something like this by hand without modern technology and in only 47 years will forever boggle my mind.

After a couple hours we sweatily hopped in the tuk tuk to Prah Thom, a temple literally overtaken by the jungle. You had to crawl over tree roots and ruins as you made your way, imagining the whole way what life must have been like when this place was at its peak.
After lunch we made climbed the steep steps of Ta Keo and went to explore Angkor Thom (the center of Khmer civilization before Angkor Wat). At Angkor Thom we climbed on the Terrace of Elephants, hiked up the remains of the old palace of Baphuon and ended up at Bayon. Bayon is one of the more unique buildings in the complex as its beautiful spires are carved with face after face of Buddha. At this point in the day we were all getting a little loopy/delusional having been dehydrated under the beating sun, but we decided to soldier on and make it through the whole day (as it would have been an insane amount of $$ to go back to the hotel and come back). It was seriously so hot that we drank four 1.5liter bottles of water each and never went to the bathroom once AND were still thirsty. Good thing there was no shortage of water though as in front of every temple there were hordes of people screaming at you to buy from them: “Meeestaa, Laddyyy you want some dlink? some wataaa? my wataaa cold! good plice fo you!!”

The last stop was the hill of Phnom Bekang for a view of the sunset over the ruins, which turned out to be kind of a wash. Due to burning season there was a haze over the sky which blocked what would have otherwise been a nice sunset, but it was all worth it to watch the throngs of Asians literally fighting and pushing each other out of the way to get a photo of the lackluster sight. It was hysterical as people were making shape with their hands around the sun, pretending to hold the sun up as though it were Simba in the Lion King and one pair even acted as the Person A was dropping the sun into Person B’s mouth. Yes, definitely worth it. A haggard bunch, we hopped into the pool upon arrival back at the guesthouse, gorged ourselves on some amazing kebabs for dinner and fell asleep before the lights were out.

ANGKOR WAT (Day 2)

March 17 & 18

Today we had a much needed later start to our day as we headed back to some of the less visited ruins. Tanat took us first to Phrea Khan where we explored another perfectly symmetrical temple where part of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was actually filmed! Next was Neak Pean, which was interesting as during the rainy season it becomes an island, but you can walk to it when the weather is dry. Our last two stops were Ta Som and East Bayon (a less impressive version of the Bayon we saw yesterday. At this point we were all pretty much ‘ruined’ out and decided to head back to soak up some sun and chlorine. Looking back it is so fascinating to think of how many different people and different rulers there were over the time of the Khmer era and how they continued to build and change and redevelop the Angkor area. What else, the fact that it sort of sunk into local legend for a few hundred years until someone randomly decided to explore it and start its restoration. How does something that huge just disappear into the vines of the jungle?

After some afternoon R/R we went to dinner and saw some traditional Cambodian Apsara dancing. Dad went back the guesthouse while Josie, Mark and I went to explore the night market a little. After some professional bartering we walked away with some cool souvenirs and decided to cap the night with a $3 foot massage. It turned out to be a hilarious experience as the girls massaging our feet were all 18 and giggled the entire time all the while pointing out how white our skin was.

We got up on the 18th and made our way from Cambodia to Northern Thailand via multiple modes of transport. 1st a taxi back to the border, then a bus to Bangkok and then an overnight bus from BKK to Chiang Rai. I gotta hand it to you Dad, not many parents would be up for an overnight bus, let alone enjoy it!

Chiang Rai

March 19

We arrived early to Chiang Rai after surviving the pinball ride that was our overnight bus. It's always an adventure when you are roused from your slumber by sounds of falling luggage and the elbow of the person next to you in your side as you are being slammed into the aisle while flying around a midnight mountain switchback. Nevertheless, we roused our bruised and tired bodies and made our way to Baan Bua which was a quaint little guesthouse in the city and had some breakfast.

Our first stop of the day was to Wat Rohn Kuhn (White Temple) a little outside of Chiang Rai. We were (per usual) the only foreigners on the local bus and had some fun trying to describe where we wanted to be let off--thankfully the bus lady helped us out (once she found out we could speak a little Thai she warmed right up to us and was chattering away as though we were fluent). We were greeted by the beautiful gleaming White Temple which is really unlike the rest of the temples in Thailand. Yes, it is still big and guady and over the top, but there is something about its stark whiteness and glistening mirrored tiles that is sort of magical. However, it is also very strange. It's supposed to represent the equivalent of heaven in it's purity and use of white, but as you walk up to it you cross over a bridge surrounded by sculpted hands (apparently reaching out from the underworld--which represent temptation). The highlight is probably the one hand that has it's middle finger painted red amongst the sea of white. Inside the temple (unfortunately you can't take pictures) is a modern depiction of the transition from the underworld to the enlightened one. I say modern because the muraled walls have images of Spiderman, Neo from the Matrix, cell phones, Star Wars, etc. My only guess is it symbolizes the evils of the world coupled with the 'superheroes' who are trying to defeat them? Strange, but beautiful and interesting. The complex itself is also unbelievable as it won'tbe completed for another 50 or so years; it's crazy to think that the person who started this project won't even be alive to witness its full completion!

Our next stop was to Baan Si Duhm (the Black House) which was created by a friend of the White Temple creator and is a little less unknown. At first I thought it was the weirdest place on Earth, but the more time we spent there the more peaceful and interesting it became. It was sort of like an artist's commune in that there were art installations littered about the grounds inside various black houses, shrines and domes in addition to the many artists who were working on various projects at the time. There was a series of 3 dome structures that had bizarre animal skins/furs/skeletons and furniture made from horns and wood, but were designed with the most incredible acoustics. You could hum a single note and the reverberations echoing from the walls literally enveloped you in a sea of overtones--in laymen's terms: it was awesome!

After our trek around Chiang Rai we made our way to the Night Bazaar for some bartering and some good eats before heading off to bed--how nice it was to have a bed after sleeping on a bus all night!

Hill Tribe Trek: A night with the Akha

March 20

The five of us (Josie, Mark, Emily, Dad and I) got up early to meet our tour guide, Poo, and get on the road to begin our 2 day/1 night expedition into the mountains of Chiang Rai complete with a homestay with the Akha Hill Tribe people! I couldn't wait as our songteaw (pick up truck with benches and roof) pulled out and began the winding course up the mountains.

Our first stop was at an Oolong tea plantation on Doi Mae Salong. We were seated at a counter and got to try some of the different teas produced at the plantation and learn about the differences between them. The area we were in was part of the opium trade back in the day and as a way for the refugees who lived on this land to stay in Thailand without being deported they were made to quit farming poppies and were taught the ways of tea cultivation. We learned that some teas are made from baby tea leaves and are harvest every 3 months or so while others are left to grow longer and cultivated less often. It's an amazing setting looking out upon row after row of tea plants stretching to the bases of the surrounding mountains.

We stopped for lunch in Sanctikili, a small town made up entirely of Chinese refugees from the Yunnan provice. We were treated to a traditional Yunanese lunch consisting of various noodle dishes, pickled veggies and soups as well as some dried/candied fruit which we bought by the kilo from a smiling old woman. After lunch we headed to the highligh of the trip: the Akha village where we would spend the rest of the day/night and the next day.

We were greeted by Acha, our dad for the trip along with Milu, our sister, and Chai (Acha's nephew) would would serve as our local guide. The company we went on the tour with works hard to get the locals in these villages involved in the toursim (ie having them assist with the tours) rather than exploiting them like many organizations do. On our first walk through the village we ran into Bupay, our host mom, dressed in traditional Akha garb with a big smile (her teeth covered in a red juice from the Betle nut which is supposed to be good for your teeth--but makes it look like your mouth is bleeding!) The village was small and fairly simple: wooden shacks linked by dirt trails, smiling and curious people going about their daily chores, chickens running amock, etc. Our house was pretty nice with wooden boards on the floor and walls and a few rooms. The kitchen was off to the left and across the hall were the bedrooms/living room. Out back was deck made of thick grass that somehow managed to hold all of our weight even without dropping us to the ground below. There was an interesting parallel between their traditions and the modern world as we took note of the many satellite dishes installed on the straw roofs of the homes. At first you kind of think it takes away from the experience seeing these modern amentities, but after a night with these people you come to the realization that just because they have these things doesn't mean they lose their identities as Akha people (more on that later).

After the tour we spent some time at our new home talking and learning more about their lives.Then we got to spend some time working on traditional handicrafts--Acha showed us how to make wood carvings while Bupay taught the girls how to make bracelets with beads made from seeds they find in the hills/river. Chai invited us to go play Takal with some of the local guys and, having never tried it before, we agreed happily. It turned out to be one of the hardest games I've ever tried. We played 3 vs. 3 and it consists of bascially getting a small woven ball over a badminton size net. It has rules similar to volleyball only you can't use your hands-and what do you naturally want to use when the other team has just roundhouse kicked at a ball at your face? Yes, correct, you want to use your hands! Needless to say we had a great time and I only got kicked in the head once (Chai was yelling 'Boi Boi Boi' as the ball was coming over the net and not knowing that this was the word for 'move' in Akha I thought he was telling me, 'Boy,' to get the ball. Anyway he went up for a full body windmill kick complete with backflip only to be stopped mid rotation by my head and we both ended up laughing, and a bit disoriented, on the ground.)

Dinner proved to be a feast as they pulled out all the stops for us (endless bowls of veggies, chicken and mountain rice--they they grew!). We were all being polite at first and taking little bits of each only to realize we had better get it while it was there because Acha and Bupay were wolfing it down; Emily and I started laughing hysterically as we watched our house mom lean back in her chair without batting an eye and let our a hearty belch. After dinner the whole family and some of the extended family was there and we spent a couple hours just sitting around talking. We learned about their customs and they asked us about America (they were floored by the fact that we have rice that is black and grows in the wild while they work so hard to grow their rice in terraces on the sides of near vertical mountains). We were able to communicate fairly well Chai (who gave us his thoughts on his future and how they perceive love) and Milu (who were both around my age and had learned English in school/from working). To talk to our host parents we had to speak in English to Poo who spoke in Thai to Milu who repeated what was said in Akha.

It was really an amazing experience seeing how much you could understand someone through just body language and facial expressions even before the coversation had been completely translated. I can't imagine a more genuine and sincere group of people who welcomed these strangers into their homes and tried so hard to make our stay comfortable. It was sad to learn that a lot of times they feel like 'animals' (is the word they used) as tour groups come traipsing through the village to see the 'hill tribes' in their costumes and take pictures before leaving after 20 minutes. At the same time it was so cool to see how happy they were that we would take the time to get to know them and learn about them. What an adventure.

We were more than ready to crawl into our mosquito net tent in the living room and under our thick blankets when it was time for bed. It was such a nice change to sleep with windows open and have it be chilly instead of the heat and humidity of southern Thailand and, despite the multiple sets of alarm clocks (aka the roosters below our floorboards outside crowing at 3am, 4am, 5 am and 6 am) we slept really well.

Hill Tribe TREK (Day 2)

March 21

I was finally roused from my sleep to the sound of wings flapping and feathers rustling only to find out that what I was hearing was the sound of breakfast being 'prepared.' We had a wonderful rice porridge complete with meat from a black chicken (really special to them and believed to have healing powers). Speaking of sacrifices we learned something really interesting about this particular tribe. Many tribes were Animists, meaning they believed in animal spirits and sacrifices and multiple gods, etc. but were converted to Christianity by missionaries not, they said, because the necessarily believed one way or the other in the religion, but because it was much less expensive to be Christian as they didn't have sacrifice all their livestock and animals to the gods whenever something went awry.

After breakfast (and the coldest shower from a bucket I've ever taken) Bupay and Milu and Milu's sister, Ami, got out all their traditional clothes and started transforming Josie and Emily into Akha women. It was hysterical how much stuff they had to put on and how ornate every detail was. They were so proud to have these two Americans in their outfits and couldn't stop laughing at how they looked (neithe could we!) We then gathered our things and followed Chai and Milu for what we thought was going to be a simple trek to some nearby waterfalls. Simple was not the right word!

We walked for a while through the hillsides, learning about how they farm their crops and taking in nature, until we got to a small stream and waterfall. We were all set forthis to be our lunch spot, but Chai said we should walk a little farther upstream. So, we're walking and pretty soon we're having walk in the water a little which was cool and then we're walking some more and Chai says we can go swimming cuz it gets deeper. So, we all pile our stuff and plunge into theFRIGID mountain water--Chai then tells us we should hold our stuff over our heads cuz we need to keep going. So, Mark and I being the tallest formed a sort of assembly line where we carried all of our belongings over our heads to a series of waterfalls that Chai had scaled and handed him up the stuff before we all tapped into our inner monkey and made our way up the slippery cascade . It was really cool to be actually trekking through the water and not on some overtravelled trail.

We then reached a point where there was basically just a sheer wall and thought we were done until Chai pointed out a single shaft of bamboo bridging the gap between two walls. Naturally he just scampered across the pole and shimmied his way up to a small space where we were all to come and climb up farther to another set of waterfalls. We looked at him like he was out of his mind, but really having no choice we formed a line and started making our way up. The bamboo was shaky and not secured and you felt like you were going come crashing down only to be greeted by the Agrocrag (for those of you Nickelodeon Guts fans out there). It ended up that my dad had to stand as a base for the us to push off of to reach the ledge Chai was helping from--it was a process and I thought we were going to lose someone, but at the same time it was such a rush to be doing this all completely free-base with no ropes or hooks or anything (not something you'd probably be able to do back home).

We were all a little tired at this point and were happy to see a nice pool for a swim at the top of the cliff we just climbed only to see ANOTHER set of falls gushing before us. Being not Asian we just aren't born with the same agility that their little bodies can handle and as such were seen slipping and falling back into the pool below as we tried to climb up. Chai and some of the local guys who had met up with us found a bamboo rod that they held down to us and basically pulled us from one level to the next. At this point we were exhausted (yet still filled with adrenaline) and were relieved that the next stop was lunch, which was made by cooking food (including rice, fish and veggies) inside of bamboo. Filled and rested we completed our trek up the side of steep hill and through more countryside before making it back to our home and, unfortunately, packing up.

You wouldn't think that saying goodbye to people you just met the day before would be hard, but it kind of was. We were so lucky to be placed in the care of Acha, Bupay and Co. and had really made some cool connections while being able to share our cultures with each other. After some group photos, email exchanges and many goodbyes we hopped into our songteaw to head back to Chiang Rai. Before we finally pulled away, Bupay reached in and grabbed each of our hands saying Thank You and Goodbye in Akha--this gesture was a really big deal as this tribe is generally uncomfortable with touching anyone they don't consider family.

Chiang Mai and a quick trip to BKK

Mar 21-23

After retrieving our things from Chiang Rai we hopped on a bus and made our way to Chiang Mai in time for the Sunday Night Walking Street for some good bargains and some good food. Dad headed back to the room while the 4 of us decided to hit the town. We ended up having a blast sitting at the counter of this bizarre VW microbus-converted restaurant for a couple hours chatting with the local lady who owned it and then made our way to Spicy, our favorite after hours dance club where the famed Spicy Lady was the (she's a lady in her 60's who we met last time we were in Chiang Mai and who goes out on weekends and literally dances until dawn). It was hilarious to see her there and even funnier that she recognized us!

The next day we went on a walking tour of the city to check out some of the temples which actually seem to outnumber people (they are everywhere!) and headed to the massage salon where the women's correctional facility inmates work after they are released from prison! It sounds strange, but it is a really nice place and it's a great cause as they work to rehabilitate these women after release and get them reacquainted with society/the working world. After this it was time for Dad and I to split off from the pack and make our way on the overnight bus back to BKK.

**The other 3 stayed up north for a little bit until April 1st, when we all met up to embark on what would soon become one of the best/most hilarious/amazing trips of our lives

Gooooooood Morning Vietnam!

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

April 1-3, 2010

So after Dad and my adventure in Nepal we spent a couple days on Ko Si Chang (an island close to BKK) relaxing and unwinding. It was the perfect way to end our trip with Shu, our personal tuk tuk driver, carting us around as we soaked up some sun and swam in the crystal blue waters. I was/am so lucky to have had the trip I had with my dad and still am processing everything we did together, especially since he left the night of March 30th and I had to immediately repack and get ready for a 7am flight to Ho Chi Minh City the very next morning!

HIGHLIGHTS

Madame Cuc's 156 (Apr. 1-3): This hotel turned out to be a welcome escape from the sweltering heat of HCMC. For about $10 a night we were able to bask in the a/c and were also given breakfast and dinner each day...talk about getting the most Bang for your Baht! (well they use Dong in Vietnam, but same same). The staff was also extremely nice and helpful and was able to get us booked for some tours/transportation. BONUS

War Remnants Museum (Apr. 1): This mostly photo-based museum was extremely eye-opening. In all honesty I don't know a whole lot about the specifics of the Vietnam war (I feel like most of our history classes always ran out of time before we got there), but it was so interesting to see the other side's view of the American War as it is called. It's so rare that you have the chance to have both viewpoints as they say that history is usually written by the winner, but in the case of this war it just doesn't seem like anyone won anything. The photos of the affects of Agent Orange and decapitated bodies and bombs and pain and anger and life and death and moments of happiness were informative and well presented. They also had a replica of the prison camps where US soldiers were kept and I can honestly tell you I would have wished for anything but to be put in one of those places--they even had a guillotine that was used (seriously?!) and these small barbed wire boxes called tiger cages where 2-3 men would be forced to lie flat on the ground or risk getting cut up by the barbs. I really liked the exhibit on all of the anti-war campaigning from around the world--seriously posters and photos from the far ends of the Earth all asking for it to be stopped; it's amazing the parallels between then and now huh?

Motorbikes (Apr 1-3): HCMC has the most motorbikes in one place that I have ever seen and they were ruthless. You actually have to take your life into your own hands and Frogger your way across the streets to get anywhere. I actually got hit by one after 5 min of being out of the cab in the city--I'm so used to being in Thailand where they drive on the left side of the road, and then I come to Vietnam where the drive on the right and while looking the wrong way...SMACK!

Nina (Apr 1): My friend Nina, whom I met up with in BKK, was travelling with her family in Vietnam and we happened to overlap in HCMC. It was once again great to see her and have her meet Josie, Emily and Mark, the people I've been living/travelling with! It's so surreal to see part of your life from home half way across the world! We walked around a night market for a little bit and then sat down at a street restaurant and just soaked in the night atmosphere of this crazy city.

Cu Chi Tunnels (Apr. 2): This was probably one of my favorite things we did in Vietnam. We woke up late and missed a tour to these tunnels, which are a little ways outside of the city, so the 4 of us were able hire our own private car from the hotel that took us! This site is a 120 km series of tunnels that was used by the Viet Cong during the war to evade and/or attack US troops and were unbelievable. We started out with a guided tour that showed us life of the Viet Cong during the war and how, as the war went on, their houses and living quarters moved more and more underground until they were basically entirely submerged (ie their roofs were at ground level with storage and hospitals, etc. completely under the earth). Each house was connected to the tunnel system for an easy escape should a bomb raid or soldiers come; as you walked through the jungle you could see huge pits where bombs had exploded all over the place. There were 3 tunnel levels at various depths underground and each served a different purpose--to get air into the channels they would hollow out bamboo poles and bury them. To hide them they would stick them in big dirt mounds that looked like anthills: GENIUS! We were also shown some of the guerilla traps that were scattered throughout the jungle including trapdoor pits with meter long bamboo spikes waiting at the bottom. I cannot begin to fathom how terrifying it would have been to be dropped in the middle of this dense jungle without knowing the terrain and knowing that these people are scurrying beneath you unable to be detected. Talk about a mind trip!

For lunch we ate tapioca root dipped in salt, sugar and crushed peanuts as well as sticky rice--high in carbs to maintain weight and energy. In order to cook the Viet Cong would wake up early so that smoke from their fires would blend in with the morning fog; additionally they rigged a pipe system which lead the smoke to an exit point above ground a few meters from their homes so troops didn't know their exact location should they spot it. Another hiding trick they had were trap doors in the jungle that lead into the tunnels and/or underground spots they could shoot from. Our guide had us search for one of the trapdoors buried inthe leaves (which was seriously impossible) and then we were able to climb inside. This hole did not look big enough for an infant, yet somehow we all fit. The best part of the day was the trek through a 30m segment of tunnels (which had been made slightly taller and wider to accomodate tourists--these people were TINY). I cannot imagine spending daylight hours trapped in a dark, cramped hole that was seriously the hottest and most humid place on Earth; not to mention it was littered with spiders and bats that were basically impossible to dodge in a place where you are hunched like Quasimodo half duck-walking, half crawling through the dirt. Needless to say I probably would have surrendered after half a day in one of those. Still, what an amazing experience!

City Life: One of the best parts about HCMC was the constant pulse of the city--any time of day or night there were people buzzing around. Our first afternoon we made our way back from the museum and stopped in a nice park to watch people doing aerobics (there were pockets of old men and women with boom boxes dancing spastically so we had to stop!). Within one minute of sitting on a bench we were surrounded by Vietnamese people: one woman telling us we needed manicures and pedicures for cheap, one guy just asking for money and another who tried desperately to give our shoes a nice scrub down! It was pretty hysterical and they were very well-intentioned so we ended up spending some time talking with them, which is one of my favorite things to do: talk to the locals.

Mekong Delta Tour (Apr 3): So this may or may not have been one of the most touristy things I've ever done, but it turned out to be really fun; and for $9 roundtrip, plus boat trips, plus lunch how can you go wrong? We got up early and took a bus for a couple hours to the Mekong Delta, an area in the South of Vietnam where the Mekong River fans out and meets the sea. It's a lush area with a lot of agriculture and is more of how you imagine Vietnam looking than the bustling city. When we arrived at the river we hopped on a boat for a tour past some of the famous islands in the delta and ended up on Unicorn Island. Here we visited a honey farm where they make the Queen's honey (I was left holding one of those honeycombs with bees crawling over it like you see at the State Fair and was contemplating dropping it and running as the bees were getting dangerously close to my fingertips, but thankfully a guide came and grabbed it from me finally.) Along with the honey we tried some of the plantation's rice wine and banana wine which were NOT good; they tasted more or less like rubbing alcohol and felt like fire. Next we stopped for some fresh fruit and tea and for a traditional Vietnamese dance/musicshow.After our fruit we hopped in this small, flat canoe-like boats and little women in the cone hats paddled us through the mangrove canals on the island--cool. Then our boat took us to a coconut candy making factory where we saw how they take the raw cocounuts and roll it all out and turn it into sweet treats which we did our fair share of sampling! For lunch we went to a small village on the shore called Ban Tre where we had a traditional lunch and spent the afternoon biking through the back roads and lazing around in hammocks. Sometimes it pays to be a tourist!

After the tour we made it back to Madame Cuc's in time to get on our 8pm bus to our next destination: Mui Ne.

Mui (Ne) Bien!

Mui Ne, Vietnam

April 4, 2010

So Vietnam has this really awesome system of open bus with which you can book tickets to the main tourist destinations around the country the day before and just hop on and off at your destination whenever you are ready to move on. We hopped on one of these buses at 8pm and arrived in Mui Ne under the blanket of nighttime and crawled into bed at our hotel--which turned out to be a great place with a pool overlooking the sea and a pretty good restaurant.

We got up later that morning to a wonderful Easter morning sun. We decided to take it easy for a bit and relaxed by the pool; it was so hot though that we spent most of our time in the water :) That afternoon we hired a jeep to take us on a tour of Mui Ne and it's famous sites which turned out to be really awesome. The first stop was the Fairy stream which we are still unsure as to why it's named that, but I guess you could say it's sort of magical seeming. It's a very shallow stream that you walk through passing incredible landscapes until you reach a small waterfall. Looking down you see red sand maneuvering through your toes as its vibrant image passes under the sparkling waters. On your left are martian landscapes of contrasting bright whites and crimsons while a lush jungle shades your right. We went searching for the fairies in the rocks, but to no avail!

Next we drove to the fisherman's village, literally a sea of hundreds and hundreds of wooden fishing boats bobbing colorfully along the shores, on our way to the white sand dunes. The scenery was magnificent as we cruised along the coastline and then changed drastically to a beautiful red desert overlooking the water until we reached the dunes; it felt like we were in the Sahara with these sand giants looming in the distance. In all honestly it looked like that desktop wallpaper that used to come standard with Windows. Upon arrival we quickly bartered for two plastic sleds which we hauled with us on our trek to the top. While the sleds didn't exactly slide that gracefully (Emily and were covered head to toe in sand) the view was worth every grain! The sky was so blue that it looked like there was a perfect line where it met the dunes and we, being the preservationists that we are, decided to add to the beauty by writing Happy Easter in the sand.

After some more sledding attempts and running down the steep slopes we headed for sunset at the Red Dunes. I'm still not quite sure how there is so much white and so much red sand in Mui Ne, but it really is amazing. The sunset was pretty awesome over the dunes and on the drive home we got an even better show over the water. We decided to head out to Pogo for dinner which turned out to be a great decision; it's a restaurant owned by Brits and they put on an Easter egg hunt after dinner for the patrons which we dominated (I think together the 4 of us had 3 dozen eggs!) I wasn't feeling well that night--a little head cold coming on so I decided to nip it in the butt and headed back early while the others stayed to dance the night away.