The longest, hottest, dustiest day EVER: Part I

Crossing the border into Laos (Dien Bien Phu ---> Muang Khoa)

April 14

We should have paid attention to the omens from the previous day and just turned back; not us though, we just had to keep going :) We got to bus station a little early (thankfully) and got some of the last real seats on the bus-actually a large minivan. Just our luck though that the van (with a capacity of 15 people) had extra seats that flipped down in the aisles so I got to ride shoulder to shoulder with a huge Dutch guy. As we're going along the misty road we stop to pick up a bunch of local hill tribe people: picture full on garb and bags upon bags upon bags upon bags of goods and wares that were all piled on top and inside the bus. You couldn't help but smile, but then you realized how tired you were and how loud they talked and laughed at 5am!

We made it to the Vietnam checkpoint with no trouble and did all the necessary stamping and whatnot. We walked through and were met by our van to continue the trek to the Laos border check. As we were scaling a dusty dirt road up the side of a mountain we stopped. The drivers told everyone to get out (well we inferred that's what they said as all the locals made their way.) Unsure as to what was going on, we grabbed our carry-on bags and followed suit--turning around was a worrying sight as our van was parked with our backpacks on top. In the end we found out that we had to stop because they were doing construction on the dirt road (we assumed they were putting in some effort to make it travelworthy for those who decided it was a better idea to make the land passage.) So here we were, vagabonds roaming the mountains of Laos and literally walking across the border.

The Lao border was a bit slow in processing information, which didn't matter because we had to wait a couple hours anyhow until the construction guys took a break. It also didn't help that they wanted US $ to pay for the visa and if you used any other form of currency they gave you a horrible exchange rate. Somehow we, the 4 Americans, had the least amount of American currency between us. Finally our van pulled over the mountain (with our bags!) and we began the treacherous journey to Muang Khoa. What would have taken a couple hours on a paved road took over 5 as we meandered our way through jungles, small villages, and every other sort of terrain you could imagine. It was an unbelievably beautiful trek that was tarnished by the conditions on the van.

Here we were on an overcrowded bus (sitting 5 and even 6 across a normally 4 person span) without air conditioning. To make matters more uncomfortable for about 93% of the time we were NOT able to have the windows open. As it was dry season the dust from the gravel/dirt roads was unbelievable and would envelop the bus the second we went faster than a slow crawl. We would sit and pray for some reason to slow down (usually another car that needed to pass, a shallow river that we needed to ford, small children running through the streets) so we could have some form of relief from the eternal, suffocating sauna. Emily literally sat with her fingers on the window and would throw it open at the first sign of dust dissipation. Despite the window closing efforts, dust had infiltrated to the point that everyone on the van was breathing through a scarf, t-shirt, mask, etc. to avoid coughing up a lung from over inhalation. Imagine being put in an oven and then having your face dipped in a pile of sand and told to breathe--for 5 hours. Misery loves company and we had plenty of it!

Finally...FINALLY we reached Muang Khoa. Well, sort of. We were dropped off on a road on one side of a river and Muang Khoa was on the other side of the river-and there was no bridge; therefore, we had to pay a small, shallow, dugout boat to motor us across. We were all quite the sight when we deboarded. We were all Covered in dust to the point that one man looked like he was made of clay and the rest of us looked like we had aged about 70 years with dull, graying hair and caked on dirt that accentuated our wrinkles. It was pretty hysterical and nice to have a good laugh after our experience!

Dien Bien Phu--more like Dien Bien Brothel

Hanoi --> Dien Bien Phu, NW Vietnam (border with Laos)
April 13, 2010

We made the executive decision to traverse the land border crossing between Vietnam and Laos rather than fly as the flights were very expensive and, although the land crossing is pretty recent and much less frequented, we had read posts and blogs/articles stating that it was in fact legitimate and doable in a day. That being said after the experiences we faced over the 13th and 14th of April (notice 2 days) I would strongly encourage anyone to front the money and fly (unless you're looking for some stories for the kids.) This marks day 1 of the journey: Hanoi to Dien Bien Phu.

After an evening of shopping and eating in Hanoi's busy, Communist flagged streets we retired to our hotel only to wake up soon thereafter for our 430 a.m. alarm. We made our way downstairs to find the front desk guy asleep on the couch cushions on the floor, not awake like we had discussed so he could call us a cab to the bus station. Startled he woke up and made a groggy phone call to the cab and off we went (Cya Hanoi.) We got to the bus station and found the bus to DBPhu, but were a little unsure about it as we thought it was supposed to only take a few hours and this one was scheduled to take 11. We spent some time using our language guides in the back of the Lonely Planet to try to understand when we were going to get to our destination and if there were other buses. In the end, after boarding several buses and not really getting any definite answers, we just bit the bullet, paid the driver and got on.

Well, the bus turned out to be fairly comfortable for most of the ride. It wasn't full and I actually had my own 2 seats to myself until about the last hour. We passed the time sleeping, talking and looking at the beautiful Vietnamese mountains and countryside; it's literally straight out of a book--rolling green hills, cone-hatted people working in rice paddies, small hut villages, etc. At one point we even got the whole bus to watch the movie UP (we couldn't get the subtitles to work, but there isn't a whole lot of dialogue, so everyone seemed to enjoy it.) Nothing like bonding with a bunch of Vietnamese over a Disney movie on an 11 hr bus ride to the Laos-Vietnam border!

We stopped once for a bathroom break early on and then spent a little longer at our stop for lunch. We found ourselves inside of a large concrete building at a table with a bunch of our co-passengers grabbing for food from the same bowls with our own chopsticks and just sticking them right back in the mix! I guess it goes to show that not everything has to be SO strict and sanitary at home, plus it's another great way to get to know eachother. The last hour of the ride before our final stop was a little more like we were used to: stops about every 5 minutes to pick up random people on the side of the road and just cramming them all in regardless of the heat and/or space. Thankfully we all had seats and didn't have to stand up for the duration.

We were dropped at the bus station in DBPhu, which literally looked like some old mission in a ghost town on the border of Mexico, and went straight to the ticket counter. Just our luck--there was one bus a day that crossed the border and it didn't leave until 5am the next morning. We had to stay the night, but where? DBP is literally dust, a bus station, a couple of seedy restaurants and, as we discovered, 2 hotels that were actually the same price. Sort of twilight zoney. We booked 2 rooms and were really happy we were only there one night. Josie had to switch rooms because there was a red 'prophylactic' floating in her toilet and my room was covered in a fine layer of ash (as it was still burning season in SE Asia and they decided leaving the window open was a good idea.) Not to mention when you opened the bathroom door it smelled as though a small animal had died and was currently decomposing in the shower drain. Why didn't we switch hotels you ask? Well it was pretty obvious we would have the same service at the other hotel in town as it was owned by the same people.

We immediately left to find food and realized there were only 2 options nearby and they only served 1 thing: Pho--the Vietnamese national dish, which is okay, but not my favorite. Oh well, food is food and it was an excuse to get out of the hotel. We weren't sleepy and didn't really want to lay amongst the remnants of the burnt crops, so we played some cards in the lobby; we may have slept better had we not done this. After a bit a man came into the hotel with a scantily clad woman and checked into a room (this is about 830p) We didn't think a lot of it, although it is rare to see women dressed as such in this part of the world, especially in rural Vietnam. Cards continued. Then came in a group of about 3-4 men carrying metal briefcases, with who knows what inside. They were followed by a string of ladies dressed in similar attire as the one we'd seen before and, upon seeing us, got really embarrassed and tried to hide behind the only pillar in the lobby. We couldn't help but laugh at the scene, but were also a pretty grossed out as they all checked in for the night and the front desk ladies smiled at us awkardly. It was time to go upstairs (when we saw the first couple check out about an hour after they'd checked in) and try to sleep as the sounds of stilettos and high heeled shoes echoed through the halls of Hotel Brothel, Dien Bien Phu.

I'm on a Boat (well actually it's called a Junk)

Halong Bay, NE Vietnam
April 11-12, 2010

We awoke early after a much better night's rest at the Rose Hotel and got our gear in order for our 2 day/1 night excursion on a junk sailing through Halong Bay- a Unesco World Heritage site a few hours from Hanoi. Upon arrival we were split up into different groups based on which tour package we were doing--I think for a total of $30-35 we got transportation, meals for 2 days, admission to the park, cabins on the boat and any other activities fees!

We finally boarded our boat which was a beautiful wooden schooner with a dragon figurehead on the front. It had 3 stories--the cabins, the dining/common area and the upper deck for relaxing. It was kind of cloudy when we got there, but it made for an amazing picture as through the clouds and mist arose these enormous emerald karsts for which Halong is so famed. Everywhere you turned you were surrounded by these stellar limestone mountains appearing to swim in the deep green waters of the bay. Once you got past some of the litter (a quick clean up would do a world of wonder) floating in the water you realized that this really is one of the most beautiful settings you have ever seen.

After a filling lunch we made our first stop of the day: Surprise Cave. Now, we've been to a few caves during our time in SE Asia and weren't really expecting much, but it turned out to be expansive and beautiful. Our guide was really entertaining and was sure to spend a good portion of time describing the meaning of the cave's name and showing us the reason for it--the surprise turned out to be a noticeably 'excited' phallic rock protrusion that was very obviously lighted. I guess it gets a little boring studying rocks and caves so a sense of humor is a must. I can't imagine how many times our guide has seen this rock, but he still couldn't stop laughing during the tale of 'surprise cave.' We spent time exploring the different rooms of the cave and seeing the magnificent limestone formations throughout.

Next we made our way to a floating village (literally houses floating on empty barrels in the middle of the bay) where we went from our junk into 2-person kayaks for a couple hours of exploration and paddling. We got out at a couple cave spots and even discovered a small shrine/temple area in one. It turned out that kayaking is actually a lot of work, especially when you're trying hard to ram into your friends and tip their kayak or paddle away from them as they try to tip you. We decided to go around the other side of the village to get a different view and as we were doing this we realized we had no idea how their plumbing systems worked. They are floating in the water, but where does their toilet flush to? Well Emily and I soon encountered the answer to this question as we found ourselves paddling amidst a few 'Baby Ruth' look-a-likes. Needless to stay we found an energy reserve and speed raced our way back to the docks :)

Aboard the junk again we toured around a bit more until our captain told us we had reached the place where we were going to anchor for the evening. After soaking in some more of the scenery some of the other passengers, Mark and I decided to go swimming (the girls chickened out.) We decided go big or go home and jumped off the top of the highest deck on the boat which turned out to be much higher than I anticipated. Rule of thumb: If you have enough time to realize you're falling and that the water is still far away, you probably should jump from a lower altitude! If the impact from the water didn't snap you back to reality, the temperature sure did--it was FREEZING! And if it weren't for the fact that you had to muscle your way up a rusty ladder that was only reachable to you in the water when the boat tilted your way in the waves, I probably would have immediately jumped back onboard. However, we decided to endure the cold and spent a good amount of time swimming and treading water with our fellow boatmates (a British girl, some Dutch, some French and some Chinese.)

All the activity (including having to hoist our large, older Chinese friend onto the junk's deck) had worked us up quite the appetite and we couldn't wait to shower and head into dinner. The only added expense on the boat was if you wanted a 2nd beverage (after the one they provided.) Well naturally-we were on a boat- the prices were a bit hefty in SE Asia terms, and they told us that we couldn't bring our own with us. As this must be the rule on many boats there were these little gypsy boat ladies who rowed around the bay selling goods to passengers. All you had to do was head out of your room and wave or make eye contact and she would sneakily make her way to the side of the junk where you would negotiate a price and she would use a long pole with a basket to quickly hoist your purchases up and over the rail. It's a really hysterical process as you feel like you're smuggling something illegal over the border when in fact you just want a beer or a can of soda!

We spent the evening on the top deck mingling with our new friends and laughing about various experiences, etc. When it was dark we went to the 2nd level and played cards with our British friend, Nicole, and our Dutch friend, Celia. It was really funny teaching them the rules to some of our American games and also them teaching us rules they had to similar games in their countries. It's amazing how cool and friendly people can be even when you only met them earlier that day! The next day found us further exploring some of the famous formations in the bay and lounging on deck chairs catching some rays. It was sad to leave behind such an easy life on the junk, but at least we had another night to look forward to at the Rose Hotel back in Hanoi!

Science Day: An Excuse for BBQ and Fashion

Satit Bangna School: Science Day
August 24, 2010

August 23, 2010: (ding dong ding over the PA system) 'สวัสดีทุกคน พรุ่งนี้จะมีชั้นไม่มีเพราะเป็นวันวิทยาศาสตร์!' (Hello everyone. Tomorrow there will be no class because it is Science Day!) Cheers erupt from the teacher's office once we've had this translated for us by T. Oil. We had no idea what to expect, but we knew if Science Day was an all day affair we were going to be in for some great surprises. Per usual, it did not disappoint.

August 24, 2010: We arrived at school as usual (actually a little bit earlier as we usually have EP Staff meetings on Tuesdays, but it was cancelled due to Science Day--of course we weren't informed of this.) Anyway, we spent part of the morning on our laptops getting things ready for later in the week until we heard the music cue from the stage downstairs. We grabbed our cameras and were greeted by a crowd of students watching, with eyes glued, as a group of M5's (11th graders) performed a less than conservative dance on the stage. Ah yes, what would Science Day be without some booty pops and body drops.

After the show I spent a while wandering through the various exhibits and activities. It was actually a pretty cool set up. There were projects that the kids had done displayed all over (posters, drawings, diagrams, crafts, etc.), older kids showing the little ones how to dissect a heart, a laser and lights show, crazy gooey stuff, rocket races, things to do with air/propulsion, and the list goes on. It was really cool to see the older kids running the various stations and working to get the younger kids excited and it was equally hilarious watching the little ones in awe of some of the experiments. After releasing my inner science nerd I made my way to the next section of the festival: the food section.

Now, I'm thinking that this was supposed to be some sort of application of the food sciences? I'm not really sure how selling cups of Coke or Sprite are science related, but maybe the use of carbonation is something they studied. Anyway, the food was amazing and had everything from Thai sweets to Japanese takoyaki to pad thai to bbq to smoothies to pretty much anything you can think of that can be poured, cooked, grilled or eaten. I spent a good amount of time with some of the Thai teachers who I've gotten to know pretty well (Pe Den, Pe Naeng and Pe Nok)--the Pe in front of their names is a sign of respect you use when addressing your elders in Thailand. Anyway the 4 of us stood around over a ceramic tub filled with hot coals and talked in broken Thai and English for a long time, all whilst grilling some kebabs and little octopi (yes octopus is actually really tasty on the grill.) It's really a cool feeling to know that I've been here long enough that I've established some great relationships with the other teachers and can just stand around and shoot the breeze with them even if we can't always understand each other--which usually makes for some great laughs. I've learned a lot about Thai culture from them (including that Thai men still pay a dowry to get married--an amount determined by the woman's family and that it is the woman's family's duty to give the newlyweds an amount of money for the future. This confused me as I don't understand why the man doesn't just keep the dowry and use that for the future, but I guess it's just a cultural thing.)

After full stomachs we parted ways until the afternoon's festivities. The signal that something was going to happen soon was the projecting of Madonna's Like a Virgin over the school's PA system followed by some Beyonce and and other 'school appropriate' music! As I left my office I was met by groups of my students dressed in various costumes of plastic bags, cardboard and other recycled goodies. One of my ladyboy students (who asks on a regular basis if we can get married) was dressed in a halter top garbage bag dress complete with giant homemade butterfly wings reminiscent of the ones used by the Victoria's Secret Angels. This place never ceases to amaze me :)

We found out shortly that the costumes did in fact serve a purpose (whether it was related to science of not is still up in the air.) A boy and a girl (or a ladyboy and a girl) from each of the high school level classes were paired up and competed in the Mr. and Ms. Recycle runway fashion show. I have never seen something like this before and man was it entertaining. Some of the kids looked ridiculous covered in plastic and newspaper while others actually had some really well crafted and stylish designs. There were cheers and screams and struts and hair flips and crossdressers and everything else you would expect to see at a Science Day Fashion Show--that has to be an oxymoron. I guess if nothing else it was a good use of recycling and got the whole school banded together (and got us out of teaching classes!)

Road Trippin'

Hua Hin (South Thailand)
August 13-14, 2010

Hua Hin is a beach town a couple hours south of Bangkok and is a fairly popular destination with Thai families and expats. We checked into our hotel, a place owned by a friend of Jade's friend. I'm finding that it's definitely worth it to spend a little bit more at night for a room with a/c, soft beds and other amenities rather than slumming it to save a buck or two--really makes for a much more relaxing experience. After check-in we made our way to the beach where we read and napped for a while before heading back to shower and get ready for the evening. We ended up at the night market for some shopping and some devouring of a great shwarma before going out to a local establishment where we sat and enjoyed the people watching for most of the evening.

Later we went to a place where we could lounge on pillows and watch and/or play pool. We ended up running into this girl who we'd seen earlier in the day on the beach that we'd taken notice to as she made some bizarre to a Thai waiter (which I wish I could remember) that we overheard. Anyway, let's just say this girl was a little strange: clearly American, clearly travelling alone and clearly a little strange. She was wearing some clothes that didn't really flatter her figure: an extremely low cut tank top, a super tight skirt and these boots that were reminiscent of Peter Pan--now I think you can wear what you see fit, but it just really helped with her persona. She turned out to be an amazing and extremely entertaining pool player. After each shot she would seductively look her opponent in the eyes and strut around the table all the while dragging her finger along its edges and when I say strut I mean like catwalk style around. Then when it was her opponent's turn she would either get reallllllllly low over the table and kind of sway back and forth making really awkward eyebrow raises and such or she would hold the pool stick between her arms behind her back thus projecting her front side for the world to see. For those of you Always Sunny fans, picture Artemis. There was a family at the table next to us who were getting just as big a kick out of this as we were and the mom leans over in a European accent: 'do you speak Eeenglish?' "yea we do" "dees girl is CRAZY!"

Saturday marked check-out and the trek home. We stopped for lunch at a local noodle shop where the owner kept yelling 'gai gai gai' to me and Josie (which means Chicken, chicken, chicken.) After we went across the street to a quaint outdoor cafe overlooking the ocean and is known for its cheescake and its chocolate pudding cake. As we were enjoying our sweets the heavens opened up and we were in the middle of a deluge. Thankfully there were some tables under the roofed in area (even though there was a bit of a leak above us) so we could finish and head on our way. Due to the rain we decided to nix the beach we were going to head to and made made our way to an outlet mall; when I say made our way I mean we legitimately forded our vehicle across lanes of traffic as though we were a covered wagon in Oregon Trail The mall turned out to be kinda lame and definitely priced the way American outlets are -->not that cheap.

Next we paid a visit to the grounds of one of the royal summer palaces built by King Rama VI. The palace is on set on a beautiful nature reserve right on the water and is spotelessly painted in pale yellows, blues and reds. We spent the afternoon exploring the grounds and learning about life in Thailand past and seeing the flawlessly kept grounds--pretty interesting to see where the servants slept (hard wood floors in a tiny little room) and what everyone's job was (including a page who would run from his house to dinner before the king got dressed based on a system of flags that were raised and lowered.) We also made our way through the mangrove forest and got a taste for the local wildlife (aka some birds and a bunch of mudskippers)--if you don't recall they are the part fish, part snake, part prehistoric critters that slither and jump and skip and slide through the muck: not something you'd want to land its way onto your lap in the swamp.

After our cultural excursion we were pretty beat and made our way back to the big city (not without some car games and sing-a-longs to pass the time!) All in all I'd say a pretty successful road trip.

Wedding Crashers: Thailand

Baan Kruud (South Thailand)
August 12-13, 2010

So this past week we had a 4 day weekend due to the Queen's Birthday on Thursday (and then the government subsequently deciding that Friday should also be a day off)--works for me! So, Wednesday found Me and Josie at one of our places, RCA, for one of our friend's birthdays which turned out to be a fun night of good food and dancing.

Thursday found us awake and ready for a roadtrip South. Josie, our Thai friend, Jade, and I hopped in Jade's car and made our way about 340 km (4 hrs) down the gulf side of the peninsula to a place called Baan Kruud. It was a really beautiful area nestled up against a mountain, amid a forest of palm trees, along an expanse of light sand beach. Reason for Baan Kruud? Wedding Crashing--Jade's best friend from university was getting married. Yes, Josie and I were living out a much desired dream ever since Owen and Vince presented the idea in everyone's favorite wedding movie. Well lemme just say that wedding crashing does in fact start out a little awkwardly and is made even more awkward when you are the only white people at an all Thai wedding. So, we decided to abandon our plans of creating fake names and fake backstories and trying to a do bit more blending than being the life of the party :)

It turned out to be a great night, a little different than an American wedding, but really nice. It was at an outdoor venue overlooking the ocean and the sunset that night was beautiful. The wedding had a white and blue theme, so all the guests were wearing some of one or the other and all the decor was of the same scheme. The eveneing was pretty much spent at one's table watching video montages and listening to some speeches (Josie and I clapped with everyone else and even conjured up a couple fake laughs when someone told a joke--aka we didn't understand what was being said.) Others braved the karaoke machine which projected over the sound system and at one point a really 'good' singer had the dogs barking nearby! We were seated at a table with 2 couples of Jade's university friends so we had fun getting to know them and of course, what would a Thai wedding be without immense amounts of food and drink. I think we had 10 different dishes brought out with everything from fish stomach soup to noodles to pork shins to sticky rice and taro. Not everything was our favorite food in the world, but with so much variety we definitely did not go home hungry.

The next day we woke up and enjoyed the hotel's free breakfast and made our way to a gorgeous temple at the top of a mountain with an equally stunning view of the ocean's green water as it blended into the palm tree expanse. There was an enormous golden buddha statue and, as you walked up a set of long and never-ending stairs, you were greeted by the wat and it's red, green and gold adornments. It was a really cool experience not only because of the view, but because we went with Jade and his friends from university and got to watch them going through the motions of paying respects to Buddha and the different subsets of the temple. After this we made our way north to Hua Hin (but not first without a stop at a road side eating spot with amazing grilled fish and chicken!) It's nice to travel with a Thai person who knows the best things to order and the best places to go.

Can't rain on my parade

Phuket, South Thailand

July 24-27, 2010

If you had told me last year even that I would have spent my 23rd birthday on an island off the coast of Thailand at my friend's dad's house with 9 amazing people I would have probably laughed uncontrollably. Yet, somehow life has a way of surprising you with amazing opportunities and well, my birthday did in fact take place on a Thai island at a beautiful house complete with infinity pool in the mountains with a view of the ocean and 9 of my friends. We left on an overnight bus on Friday evening and made our way to Phuket for a long birthday weekend (I lucked out that my bday also happened to occur on a Buddhist holiday this year!) at Jenny's house.

We arrived tired and a little sore from being jostled around on the bus, but you can't help but get into a good mood when you arrive at a house you've been to before and are greeted by smiling faces, fresh fruit and the prospects for an incredible weekend. First stop was the grocery store to stock up on supplies--we had our own kitchen, grill, etc and had every intention of utilizing them and indulging on comfort foods from home! It was so nice to be able to buy what we wanted and even better that the bill got to be split by so many of us! I was feeling pretty exhausted so I napped and woke up in time for the welcome bbq we concocted: burgers, marinated chicken, fresh Thai fruit picked off the trees in Jenny's yard, veggies, chips, etc. etc. I think we were all in a euphoric state.

As it was rainy (actually it rained the whole weekend) we laid low and enjoyed the comforts of a spacious and air conditioned home; there was much lounging and game playing and movie watching. The first night we headed into Phuket Town to get some local atmosphere and ended up having a blast. We picked a random spot (after having some great conversation over 7/11 sandwiches with the Thai employees--we even got free chips out!) and ended up hanging there all night. There was a live band who played everything from traditional Thai music to Maroon 5 and by the end of the night we were all singing and laughing together (they even passed the mic around our table during the English songs!) It was so much fun that even after they were supposed to close they let us stay and jam. It's spontaneous nights like this that really make being in a foreign country so much fun--we could hardly communicate with them, but you never would have known!

The next days found us waking up late and having enormous breakfasts. We swam in the rain and spent one day at Patong Beach for some DVD buying and other shopping and I think we all did some damage to our wallets! Monday some of the girls went scuba diving and the rest of us just hung out--Emily and Joanna built a fort in the living room while Reuven, Josie and I rode razor scooters and a bike with a flat tire into the village near Jenny's house to pick up some lunch. We looked pretty hysterical: 3 farang riding absurd forms of transportation carrying chocolate milk and bags of fried rice and pad thai. We definitely gave the townspeople something to talk about for a few weeks to come :)

My birthday found us gathered around some home delivery pizza and salads; we were going to go out, but decided let's just have it brought to us and what a great decision that was. Who would have thought that a pizza party for a birthday is still fun at age 23? We were going to go to Patong for the evening, but as it was a Buddhist holiday most things were closed early so we just stayed at Jenny's, put on some tunes and played some cards. I even got to blow out some candles (they put 23 candles on a small cake they found in town which meant all the candles kinda fused together and I had to blow out a full on blow torch!)

Despite the rain and the lame weather we found plenty of ways to relax and make the best of where we were (which wasn't hard to!) I couldn't have asked for a better or more memorable birthday weekend.

Hanoi...Oh Boy!

Hanoi, Vietnam

April 9-10

So we got to Hanoi pretty late, but thankfully we had arranged for a hotel room and a van to pick us up from the airport so we didn't have any issues getting to our place. I say no issues getting there, because we had a few issues once we got there; the hotel which we dubbed Tom Thumb (due to our inability to pronounce it's actual name) was not as Lonely Planet had described it. After shimmying our way up the narrow, crumbling plaster staircase we hopped over some brooms and cleaning supplies to our room. Let's just say it felt as though we were in a musty insane asylum with cracks in the white walls, a musty odor and humid stickiness. Our bathroom door was just a shower curtain and our shower was a hose that had to be attached to the faucet in order to work. I guess we were a little better off as Josie and Mark slept in a room literally on the roof and next to the water heaters so they got to hear every sound the city made all night long.

Morning found us awake at an unnecessarily early hour, due to the boisterously loud neighbors we managed to be placed next to, and out the door to a find a new place to stay. We literally took our bags half a block to the Rose Inn which was our saving grace. A HUGE clean room with HUGE beds, tv, air/con, a real door on the shower, etc. Sold! After getting our things set up we made our way to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex. It was definitely worth seeing, but was somewhat eerie. The people of Hanoi are still in love and awe of HCM and treat him with an incredible amount of respect. We had to pass through some security and leave our cameras, etc. as we were put into two single file lines and made to walk through the mausoleum. It was basically a freezer box of granite and marble until you come to this big room with a huge communist flag and Mr. Minh in a glass casket. It was really interesting to see how much he still affects the people of N. Vietnam.

We spent some more time wandering the grounds of the complex and stopped for a minute at the One Pillar Pagoda which is a temple that sits atop a small pond supported by one pillar (clever name right?) :) Next we walked through the city a little bit, taking in the cool French-Colonial influence in the architecture and ending up at the Temple of Literature. This is a cool walled in complex that served as the first university in Hanoi and a huge Confucian learning center (dating back to 1070!) It's a beautiful area with 5 separate courtyards connected by 3 symmetrical paths that go through the whole complex: the first 2 courtyards are landscaped with ponds and trees where the scholars relaxed, the 3rd is a large ornate square surrounded by giant turtle statues (steles) that are engraved with the names of scholars who received doctorates, the 4th is where the great Confucian scholars studied and the 5th is where the pavilions and first university were located. It was a very peaceful place located in the middle of the city and provided some cool insight into the way Hanoi was hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped for a bia hoi at one of the famed sidewalk stops. Basically bia hoi is some of the cheapest beer on earth (about 25-30 cents for a pint) and is a staple of the Hanoi culture--it's brewed fresh everyday so there is no real cost in bottling/production. People meet at bia hoi stands to eat and socialize and stay in touch (much like tea houses or coffee houses) and the cheapness of the bia is denoted by the chairs and table outside the shop--the smaller the tables and the the shorter the stools the cheaper it is. Naturally we went as local as we could find and sat on a set of small children's picnic furniture whilst enjoying the people watching--I felt like Alice in Wonderland when she drinks the potion that makes her giant.

For dinner we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant that was near a big lake in a more colonial part of town. The lake was packed with motorbikes and people strolling the paths, eating and enjoying the oasis. We met up with some of Emily's friends from school and had a great night wandering the streets, sitting at a table on a balcony and exchanging stories amidst the lights and traffic of Hanoi. We didn't have any trouble falling asleep as another early wake up call was in our future: Halong Bay in the morning!