Tiger Balm

Vietnam...after Cambodia...was tiger balm, for me, most of the time.

(Tiger balm: not made of tiger. Soothing balm for headaches, joint aches, and, as we had to learn through experience, sand flea bites and other varieties of bug bites. Oh, and sunburn! It's kind of magic).

Maybe it sounds cheesy, but Vietnam was tiger balm for my soul. It was my spoon full of sugar to swallow Cambodia...okay, it felt like one giant party.

We started by cruising down the Mekong, landing in a scary border town followed by a scary border bus ride to a scary motorcycle taxi to an absolute OASIS of a hostel--breakfast, television, hot SEPARATE shower, air conditioner. After a lovely night of sleep, we walked through some lovely parks to the educational (albeit horrifying) war museum, which gave me a completely new outlook on the Vietnam War. Of course, it was skewed towards their point of view, but it's fascinating to be able to see a war from both sides.

We also stopped for ice cream that day, and were able to make our way pretty well around the city. However, neither of us particularly loving cities, we hopped on a bus the next day to the lovely little beach destination of Mui Ne. The bus we hopped on just happened to be the best bus we rode in Asia...empty, upper bed-seats, clean bathroom ON the bus. It was heaven, and to top that off, I had a good book and some chips...yep, paradise.

Paradise continued when we found a little bungalow to stay in, right on the beach. We spent several days swimming in the glorious water, watching the kite surfers crash, walking around in the beachy rain, eating Indian food, and shopping for beachy jewelry. After we got sick of the attack of the sand flies (Court was co-VERED) and after we rented a motorbike (love it) and went sand-duning and hiking with some kind (and eventually greedy) boys to "Fairy Springs," we hopped on another bus up to Nha Trang.

On this bus we met Arthur, a young Californian who had also visited his brother in the Peace Corps in Thailand and was now travelling through Vietnam. So began our party days--lots of fun in Nha Trang in the evening, an accidental trip on a Booze Cruise through Nha Trang Bay (we signed up thinking it was a snorkeling cruise...about three minutes of snorkeling, a random visit to an aquarium, and lots of wine, swimming, and karaoke) and then, planning to get up to Ha Long Bay by Court's birthday on December 13th, we hopped up the country, stopping briefly in Hue to wander along the river.

Vietnam is really (yet another) gorgeous country. Even though we shot quickly up the coast, we got some nice glimpses, and we really were having so much fun. And suddenly, we were on the long-awaited sojourn to Halong Bay (Dragon Bay--so named as all of the islands look like parts of a dragon's back). I really love the Vietnam coast--and despite bratty tourists, stressed out tour-hunting, the crazy streets of Hanoi and SO. MUCH. RAIN, I loved Halong Bay. It was so fun to sail the bay, kayak in the bay, meet some actual NICE Americans and some more fun Austrailians, and accidentally hop on another Booze Cruise (the Halong Party Cruiser, baby!)

We spent an overnight on the boat, and woke up on my cousin's birthday to a somewhat sunrise view of the bay. While much of the people on our boat had a rough night, accompanied by rats and no water, we had a very nice night in our little berth! I loved staying on a boat!

After breakfast, we sailed to Cat Ba Island, the only inhabited island in the bay, and ended up on this random, strenous, occasionally terrifying hike through the national park on the island to some truly breathtaking views.

We detached ourselves from the whiny tour group (we were planning to stay on the island for a few days), found a hostel with a fantastic view (and smelly bathroom) and wandered around for the beaaaaaaautiful beaches. It was way too cold for ME to swim, although that didn't deter many, but I was very happy to wander the cliffside trails, and I think my cuz had a good birthday!

That night, we ended up going out and having a fantastic time with some Israelis we met at a bar, while we were having the birthday drink I convinced Court she needed. It was a fun, crazy, night, and the next day, we definitely needed to recover. We ran into Arthur and his climber friend Nick, and we all had dinner with a nice South African couple, where I discovered Vietnamese dinner rolls, my latest favorite food.

After my our stay in Cat Ba, and an eventful trip back to Hanoi, the capital, we suddenly only had a week left of our adventure! At this point, we were getting a little nervous about the military situation in South Korea, where we had another ten hour (ick) layover, and about our visa situation (we had already overstayed, and were given a lot of conflicting advice, most which was we'd simply bribe the officers at the airport and be on our way).

After a quick stopover in Hanoi, and seeing the Chronicles of Narnia in the theater (gotta love that Western world influence sometimes) we spent a few days in the beautiful mountain city of Sa Pa, via train. The overnight train ride was rather unfortunate as we'd gotten ripped off (thanks for all that magic, Asia) but it still was kind of cool! Nothing like the trains in Europe sadly...but not bad.

In Sapa, I started to get really excited for Christmas, as it was freezing and we spent many joyful hours around fires with Vietnamese pho (chicken soup basically, delicious) and coffee. Sapa is also a fabulous place to shop, so we loaded up on some gifts and beautiful scarves, purses, and knock-off Ray Bans.

We also hiked around a beautiful little park, way up on the hill, and got a great view of the valley, lost each other, found each other, and saw lots of rice hats. (Yes, a true stereotype that I absolutely LOVED). We also went to a church, sat on the wrong side of the church (the men's side), got surrounded by another tourist family for pictures, and were flummoxed by the service. I expected Christmas carols and a service I knew...nothing, ha.

On our way down from Sapa, we met an awesome Italian named Marco who convinced us to journey to the border of China and try to step through. We couldn't--we started walking up to the bridge when guns were waved, and that was it for me!--but it was a grand adventure in any case.

Our last final days in Hanoi included more shopping, ice cream, a traditional water puppet show (a real art form which was pretty sweet) and samples of pho, Indian food, and Vietnamese weasel coffee, which I also loved. (Yes--that is the coffee that is passed through the intestines of a weasel...tastes like chocolate, no joke). We visited temples, had coffee with an old Vietnamese Frenchman (born in Vietnam, raised in France) who let me practice my pitiful French, and spent a lot of time exploring the city. We also spent about an entire day trying on beautiful Vietnamese silk, I bought a dress and my cousin a shirt as a late birthday present. It took a lot of convincing to get her to accept it, but I think she ended up liking it. :) Another highlight of our last few days was a trip to visit Ho Chi Minh, or "Uncle Ho" as he is still called in Vietnam. It was our second mummy--although he was so well preserved and so ridiculously protected that I got shooed and glared by the soldiers at for staring at the little old man who seemed to be napping (in a giant mausoleum in a giant park).

Before we knew it...we were on our way out of the country! Our trip was at a close...and we got to the airport, unaccountably nervous due to our visas. And was that an adventure...the guy was a jerk, he had the nasty mole-hair, and he threatened detainment if we didn't provide more moola.

Let me just say, I was NOT being detained in Vietnam two days before Christmas. So, we smiled determinedly (well, I did) having learned that if you yell at a man in Vietnam, they unforgivably Lose Face and the situation will grow progessively worse (as we witnessed on our ill-fated tour in Halong Bay). Although we had to pay a little more than we thought, I had pictured detainment and huge fines, so I was relieved at the 30 or so dollars we lost...I hate being ripped off, but I was so grateful he didn't break out the handcuffs I saw, and I was so grateful to be going home for Christmas!!!

Ok, going to California to be with my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandpa for Christmas...but close enough. :)

Hard on the Heart

"Leave all your love and your longing behind;

You can't carry them with you if you want to survive."

(Florence & the Machine)

When we were traveling around Thailand, we met two German girls who had traveled for two months in India. One remarked that, whileamazing, it was also "hard on the heart." While I'm sure India might be much worse, Cambodia was very hard onmy heart--it is one of the poorest countries in the world.It's also a beautiful country: we spent several days in Siem Reap, while not my favorite city in the world, Angkor Wat was really amazing.

Despite the insane amounts of tourists (Chinese and Korean and Australian and Japanese and...) sunrise at Angkor Wat was a breath taking experience...I felt like Aladdin looking at the Taj Mahal from him humble abode.I also liked a temple called Na Phrom, that had been overtaken by trees. The guidebook said something about this temple showing the "awesome power and fecundity" of the jungle, and it's true. It reminded me how much I love ruins and archaeology: it just boggles my mind how much history is in these stones. I liked just sitting on some of them and soaking it in, imagining the lives that had gone by these very rocks and woods.

The ruins were awesome, the people, not so much. Not just the tourists (although they were difficult, but also amusing: one time a group of young Chinese guys surrounded me, each wanting an individual picture with me. One was particularly scandalized when I was taller than him, and made me stand a few steps down. I felt kind of beautiful, haha); the locals too. Constantly being swindled, begged for money, yelled at, called "hey lady" and seeing the many victims of the still-present landmines was hard. It was even harder to see all of this surrounded by such beauty.

After Angkor Wat and the downright stress of Siem Reap (which for me was made worse by a persistent cough, an unfortunate experience with couch surfing i.e. the floor and a nasty cockroach-ridded bathroom along with a puking roommate, being lectured by little kids on how much money I have, and the constant threat of being ripped off) we set off for a rural province called Ratanakri.

While very impoverished, it was so beautiful--we saw waterfalls, elephants, mountains and crater lakes, all marred by the Red Dust of Ratanakri (which still is present in my pack, somehow) and the little kids with distended stomachs on the side of the roads. Although it was also more exciting by the fact that we got lost while navigating our own little...wait for it...motorcycle! I made Courtney drive; she has experience from her 4-wheelers at home, and I can barely handle my mountain bike so I thought it would be safer.

Travel around Cambodia was always an adventure: one time, my pack got soaked in fish sauce, leaving me with wet spots in the exact place where pit stains would be; my cousin's packed got completely covered in the Red Dust; we were constantly being shuffled from bus to bus; on one bus every time we moved the other passengers (all Cambodians) laughed hysterically and got a huge kick out of watching us eat the weird food they offered; at a bus stop we watched a slave monkey; another bus stop we ate rice out of strange tubes and played with little girls whose teeth had rotted out (my heart still breaks). Don't even get me started on the bathrooms we had to endure.

After some time spent in Kratie, watching the most beautiful sunsets on the Mekong, and another day in Phnom Penh, we sailed down the Mekong towards Vietnam.

Cambodia was the most stressful time of the trip; it was heartbreaking, and I went through a small personal crisis brought on by (my new favorite book) Three Cups of Tea. As an English major, I know the best books will make you laugh, cry, and cause an existential crisis, or at least make you think--and this book sure did. So I think the poverty I saw was even worse in my eyes after that.

Unlike most of the other countries I've visited, I didn't feel much of an emotional wrench when I left Cambodia. The food was okay, the people, while friendly, were still scarred by the recent Khmer Rouge, as was the landscape. Even Angkor Wat was not immune to the Khmer Rouge, and as a result much of it was irreversibly damaged.

Seeing the scars of such a recent war also kind of woke me up, and visiting Vietnam would do the same thing. Living in the Western United States, all of that seems so far away--civil wars, wars fighting for freedom, lost boys...

I know poverty and all that exists in the United States, but it was startling there. People all over the world are still fighting for our freedom while we stress about what college to go to. It's very illuminating, and let's just say I was VERY grateful this Thanksgiving! (Which incidentally took place while we were in Cambodia--and I managed to get both my siblings, both my parents, and our pets on the web cam via skype!)

I sound like I've never travelled before; I'm not even sure Cambodia is the poorest country I've been to. The other countries certainly had their issues; Thailand is still being inunduated by protesters, as was Peru and Ecuador while I was there. And Vietnam, while generally peaceful, is communist, which seems to enhance corruption in the state (you'll read more about that later, aren't you excited?).

Looking back, I was kind of glad to see the end of Cambodia--Vietnam, despite the troubles with our visa (we were only given a two-week visa rather than the standard 30-day; thanks to being too trustworthy and getting ripped off), felt like a fresh start.

Stay tuned for our Vietnamese adventures!

xx

A "Lake," Elephants, and the Mekong

After bidding Liz and her village goodbye-for-now, Court and I headed across the country towards the Burma border to Mae Hong Son, to be followed by Pai and a short sojourn into Laos to renew our visas (I've quickly discovered that visas are the BANE of my existence). We stopped over for a few uneventful hours in Chiang Mai and discovered our careful plans of NOT catching the local bus and GETTING the neat little vans were thwarted, and sure enough, we got on an overnight bus that resembled a school bus, rather than the "classy" ones with seats that only recline at an awkward angle and the A/C is fully blasting you in the face all night (yes, the school bus was worse).
The night was...long. Thankfully, it was dark, so we only felt the 1800-some(no joke!) turns that the mountainous road to Mae Hong Son is famous for, rather than saw them with our terrified faces.
We did get there in one piece, and even got a little bit of sleep, but were again slightly dismayed when we were dropped off at the worst hour of the day: 4 a.m. Nothing is open, no one was awake expect our tuk-tuk driver who dropped us off in front of a closed hostal. Luckily, being bright resourceful young women, we made good use of our time by wandering the streets, peeing in the lawn of what possibly was an official building (when nature calls...) and outrunning the local dog pack.
We also found the famed lake of Mae Hong Son which is, well, kindly, a "lake" as it's smaller than our neighbor's glorified pond. But, at least it was pretty and provided some seating to a couple of freezing girls! :)
Mae Hong Son was spent walking around, getting lost, discovering the glories of the Asian night market (oh boy!) and planning our trip to Pai, where we headed the next day. This bus station was a little more successful: we snagged one of the neat little vans and met an original hippie who introduced us to his pal in Pai.
Pai immediately struck me as a fun little hippie town, full of tourists--we even spotted our first fellow Americans, a couple of drunk boys trying to beat up a scarecrow, so proud--and full of fabulous, if pricey, shopping. We were still naive little travellers and got sucked into too many pairs of fisherman pants, but it was fun nonetheless.
Our first day in Pai, we also had our first encounter with the art of Thai massage. Let me just say, it was...interesting. We picked a random shop on the street, and immediately it was different from the massages I'd gotten in America--no music, no quiet atmosphere, and we changed into clothes they provided (although I convinced my cousin we both needed to keep our shirts off and get under the blankets, which resulted in hilarity from both of our massueses...whoops). They also BEND you around and crack your back and push painful veins (mine shoved her fingers in my armpits for the longest, most painful ten seconds of my life) but we felt pretty dang good, and sore, afterwards. And don't worry, they definitely were NOT "happy ending"massages. :)
Pai was also the sight of one of our most epic adventures yet--elephant riding!!!!!!
Take a moment for !!!!
I love those elephants. I pretty much filled up a memory card on my camera with elephants. If you saw them, you could not blame me!
We started out fairly early for Thom's Elephant Camp, meeting two pairs of German/Swiss girls traveling the world, and proceeded to meet our lovely elephants. Ours, a subdued little girl, was named Bom Pen, which means...well, our guide didn't know, but we still loved her!
The elephant guides are like acrobats, leaping up and down and climbing up the trunk, while I could barely swing my leg across, my thigh-area is still sore, and I was clinging for dear life to the rope/elephant head to avoid falling...and it's pretty far, cause elephants are, you guessed it, TALL!
The ride was nice, through the beautiful hills around Pai, and just as I was getting really sore, we came to a river and swam with our elephants! It was so fun, they clearly love the water and were splashing us and each other, and one even rolled over, dislodging his riders and leaving them hanging on to avoid getting rushed down the river (and even though I loved this part, another part of me remembered how all the pipes in Liz's village dump right into the creek). After a little while longer with our Bom Pen, we utilizied the camp's hot springs. Mmmm sooo good...especially after we discovered we'd been sitting in the cold pool for ages and found the nice surprise of the hot pool, three inches away.
After another trip around Pai's night market, we hit the road the next day, bound for LAOS!!!
The scenery on the way to Chiang Khong (the border town) via Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai was quite beautimous. Lots of curves, hills, mountains, mist...then rice and corn. One thing I noticed on the bus was this young woman, probably younger than my ripe old 23, cuddling her little baby, who was seriously adorable. The Thais, I have observed, really love their kids. Everyone dotes on the children, and we have seen fewer children working than I noticed in countries like Peru. We have also seen so many kids with dads, even being taken to work with their dads, and I find this heartwarming, too.
Enough random information, or else this blog, like the other one, will never end!!
It was a long day to Chiang Khong, where we were thankfully met by another Peace Corps friend of Liz's, another Josh. Josh gave us a taste of some Northern Thai curry (delicious and spicy) and gave us a tour of his town, where we got our first glimpse of the MEKONG and LAOS, right there, right across the river!!
The rest of the night involved drinking at a bicycle-themed bar with an Ethiopian and a Swiss, a couple of guy travelers, and then a cold night on Josh's floor, all before crossing the border the next day.
Once again demonstrating the ridiculous generosity of the Thais, Josh's neighbor/landlord dropped us off personally at the border with fruit and smiles.
So we began our first border crossing...we hopped into a little boat, zoomed across the river, filled out paperwork for awhile, got our passports stamped, and got completely ripped off for an evening ticket to Luang Prabang. (Border towns are expensive--even my pomegranate was twice as much! Pshaw).
Another looooooong night bus later, 15 hours complete with flat tires, pit stops on the side of the road, and views of villages with one T.V. (although it was kind of cool to see the entire village crowded around a T.V. cheering and laughing) we arrived in the French colonial city of Luang Prabang!
Luang Prabang is one of the prettiest cities we have seen so far. Giant wats everywhere, surrounded by two rivers--one of them the Mekong--and filled with crepes. I was a pretty happy camper for the few days we were there!
They also have an incredible Hmong Night Market. I've been interested in the Hmongs ever since reading "A Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down," and it was great to buy some of their handicrafts.
Laos went by in a whirl of monks, crepes, baguettes, shopping, interesting Lao food, including some kind of "river vegetable"and lots of lemongrass, Beerlao by the Mekong at sunset, and walking a lot. It was a fun little trip, but it was also good to be back at Liz's village, which now felt almost like home! :)