Last time I wrote I was in Nha Trang, Vietnam. There I unfortunately could not equalize my last day of diving so I had to get a small refund on my diving course and will have to finish it once I get to an island off of Thailand.
We then travelled to Dalat, Vietnam. A beautiful town up in the mountains with cool weather reminiscent of fall days in New England. We took an Easy Rider motorbike tour through the surrounding area, which showed us the beautiful countryside, the coffee plantations, flower farms, the blacksmith who searches the woods for pieces of metal leftover from the Vietnam War-some unexploded ordinances are found as well- and creates knives out of this metal, the crazy house (a hotel with themed rooms that overall looks like you're in Alice in Wonderland), sitting buddha, happy buddha and a beautiful waterfall. A great tour overall. I came down with some strange rash-nice huh so we had to skip the shore side town of Mui Ne and head straight to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).
I really liked Saigon. Really cool, international city. Great medical care by the way. The hotel we stayed at was right across from a Bar that was open until 5 am and managed to make me think that it was 9am even in the middle of the night-it was a great hotel besides that. We met some cool people, took a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels, and went to the War Remnants Museum. The latter two made me feel sad for what my country did during the Vietnam War-the aftereffects of Agent Orange were and are devastating for some families in Vietnam. I also felt strange watching a propaganda film at the tunnels that called Viet Cong war heroes "American Killer Heroes."
From Ho Chi Minh City we took the Mekong Express Bus (12 hrs) to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We passed through Phnom Penh (the capitol) but did not stay more than the 10 minutes it took to switch buses. The bus ride was comfortable. We arrived at Siem Reap late around 8 pm to find that a lot of hotels were full. Angkor Wat (one of the seven wonders of the world), ancient city of temples, appears to be a HUGE tourist attraction unsurprisingly. The city was nice, but expensive for SE Asia. We paid a whopping $15 a night for our room when we have been paying between $8 and $10 for the most part in every other place we've been.
Today we took a 4 hr. taxi ride to the Cambodian border and crossed into Thailand. The road to Thailand is infamously bumpy. It turned out to be better than I expected, though it is clear the condition of the road when I say it took us 4 hrs to travel 100 km. The border town of Poipet, Cambodia was the muddiest place I've ever seen with children grabbing at me as I tried to enter the line to get into Thailand. John had to physically push them away-a terrible feeling. I gave them my coke and water which I believe they were asking for, but unfortunately I cannot allow even children to be grabbing at my things. It's really sad because I know that this is not the children's fault-they have either been taught to do this or are desperate. Cambodia overall appeared to be the poorest country I have entered thus far. Their history alone is devastating. It was not that long ago that millions of people were murdered their by a regime that was trying to cleanse the population of the urban dwellers, intellectuals, educated, and government workers. This happened between 1975 and 1979-it's frightening what people do to each other.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Diving Vietnam- I saw some Nemos!
Today was my third day in an Open Water Diving Course. It was my first day in the ocean. The last two days have been classroom time and afternoons in the pool. I had a good experience today. I was relaxed in the ocean which is probably one of the most important things you can be while diving. I equalized well (cleared my ears on the way down), and was enjoying my first look at really bright corals and beautiful fish. When I got back today, John, who went with a different diving school to do his Advanced Course said he thinks he saw me at the first dive site underwater, which seems funny.
Tomorrow will be my second day in the ocean. I will go down twice-the same as today. I have to complete more skills testing to pass the course. This includes filling up my mask and clearing it, recovering my regulator, breathing off of a buddy's tank, and making a controlled emergency ascent, which means that i have to take a breath and go up breathing an AAAAHHHHH sound all the way to the surface..among other things. I don't love the skills, but it's necessary to make sure you're diving safely and know what to do if anything goes wrong.
Tomorrow will be my second day in the ocean. I will go down twice-the same as today. I have to complete more skills testing to pass the course. This includes filling up my mask and clearing it, recovering my regulator, breathing off of a buddy's tank, and making a controlled emergency ascent, which means that i have to take a breath and go up breathing an AAAAHHHHH sound all the way to the surface..among other things. I don't love the skills, but it's necessary to make sure you're diving safely and know what to do if anything goes wrong.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
As I said-Vietnam is Hot
I forgot to say that in Vietnam it is so hot and humid that I am sitting at a computer with a fan on me, sweating-yuck. Hah. It's especially hard when I'm trying to try on the suits I just bought which are cashmere wool. Tomorrow night we leave for Nha Trang. Once I started travelling, I now get restless whenever we stop for too long.
Vietnam is hot
I am in Hoi An, Vietnam now, which is basically the tailoring capital. John and I both got some suits made. This is a strange stop on our trip as I don't really like to spend time shopping, but when you can get a suit jacket, skirt, and pants for $75 then I guess shopping you must do. We are in the process of planning out the rest of our trip since we have learned from many other travelers along the way which places are the must gos and which we can pass by without missing out on much. I am thoroughly enjoying Hoi An. It is a much quainter city compared to Hanoi. While my guidebook gave me the impression that Hanoi is a romantic city, I must disagree and tell you that Hoi An is the romantic city of Vietnam. The buildings are old and have an old French look to them. Our room is $8 a night with A/C, TV, and it's own bathroom. Pretty nice. We have been spending about $2 each on meals. As you can see, money goes far in SE Asia. I hope to post some pictures soon. The only problem is a lot of the internet places I have been to lately are just way to slow. We will be leaving to dive in Nha Trang within the next couple of days. I am going to do my Open Water Certification course. Wish me luck!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
VIETNAM
I am in Hue, Vietnam right now waiting for my bus to FINALLY leave again at 1:30pm. We were on a bus all night from Hanoi, and then apparently it went too slow and we missed the bus we were supposed to jump right on at 8am. Go figure.
After calm Laos, Hanoi was a slap in the face. We arrived in steaming heat, with motorbikes flying around us every which way, about 15 men on motorbikes vying for our business-i was not able to hop on the back with my huge bag, which they didn't seem to notice, and honking galore. The driving in Hanoi is hopefully the worst in the world. There seems to be no real system for driving except for if you honk at someone they better move out of the way. Honking seems to mean, well I warned you, even if I was two inches behind you, so now it's your fault if i hit you. The way of crossing the street is to slowly inch out and slowly walk as motorbikes continue to zoom around you.
There are fruit ladies everywhere with a pole over their shoulder, on each side hangs a basket. It's actually pretty heavy and I know this because one woman threw hers over my shoulder as I passed and would not take it off until I had John take a picture of me with it for which she then wanted money---ooohhhh. At least I got to wear the pointed hat that everyone thinks of when Vietnam is mentioned. These hats are definitely allll over the place here, not so much in Laos or Thailand. The Thais just had huge circular ones.
The book sellers are incredibly amusing. They go around with a box of copied Lonely Planet's and other books travellers would want. The books are wrapped in plastic so you cannot see the quality of the copy. They try to charge what it says on the back of the book. Yeah right. The funniest book seller zoomed by us on the back of a motorbike and stuck the books out to us "Book??" he said as he went past. Hah they never stop! It's actually incredibly amusing when you stop to think about it.
We stayed in a room in Hanoi one night that John alikened to the ones in Saw, which I never watched because I can't stand horror movies. After that one night, we escaped to Halong Bay, which was quite beautiful. There are more than 3000 islands in Halong Bay. Many are too small to live on but beautiful nonetheless. We went for a trek one morning, which was verrrry hot, think sweat pouring off of everyone and not stopping even when we sat for a good 10 minutes. It again was pretty however. We stayed on Cat Ba Island at a hotel the first night and then on a boat the second night, which was cool. One of the workers on the boat was not so nice. She got very angry very easily. I got yelled at for buying a drink from one of the women floating by on row boats selling things-how was i supposed to know!! She also had a hard time understanding why i did not want the hot tea or hot coffee that was free in the a.m. I had to say no a couple too many times-again providing amusement. I have found Vietnam thus far to be incredibly interesting, at first a big culture shock even after having already been in Northern Thailand and Laos. Until later, Brittany
After calm Laos, Hanoi was a slap in the face. We arrived in steaming heat, with motorbikes flying around us every which way, about 15 men on motorbikes vying for our business-i was not able to hop on the back with my huge bag, which they didn't seem to notice, and honking galore. The driving in Hanoi is hopefully the worst in the world. There seems to be no real system for driving except for if you honk at someone they better move out of the way. Honking seems to mean, well I warned you, even if I was two inches behind you, so now it's your fault if i hit you. The way of crossing the street is to slowly inch out and slowly walk as motorbikes continue to zoom around you.
There are fruit ladies everywhere with a pole over their shoulder, on each side hangs a basket. It's actually pretty heavy and I know this because one woman threw hers over my shoulder as I passed and would not take it off until I had John take a picture of me with it for which she then wanted money---ooohhhh. At least I got to wear the pointed hat that everyone thinks of when Vietnam is mentioned. These hats are definitely allll over the place here, not so much in Laos or Thailand. The Thais just had huge circular ones.
The book sellers are incredibly amusing. They go around with a box of copied Lonely Planet's and other books travellers would want. The books are wrapped in plastic so you cannot see the quality of the copy. They try to charge what it says on the back of the book. Yeah right. The funniest book seller zoomed by us on the back of a motorbike and stuck the books out to us "Book??" he said as he went past. Hah they never stop! It's actually incredibly amusing when you stop to think about it.
We stayed in a room in Hanoi one night that John alikened to the ones in Saw, which I never watched because I can't stand horror movies. After that one night, we escaped to Halong Bay, which was quite beautiful. There are more than 3000 islands in Halong Bay. Many are too small to live on but beautiful nonetheless. We went for a trek one morning, which was verrrry hot, think sweat pouring off of everyone and not stopping even when we sat for a good 10 minutes. It again was pretty however. We stayed on Cat Ba Island at a hotel the first night and then on a boat the second night, which was cool. One of the workers on the boat was not so nice. She got very angry very easily. I got yelled at for buying a drink from one of the women floating by on row boats selling things-how was i supposed to know!! She also had a hard time understanding why i did not want the hot tea or hot coffee that was free in the a.m. I had to say no a couple too many times-again providing amusement. I have found Vietnam thus far to be incredibly interesting, at first a big culture shock even after having already been in Northern Thailand and Laos. Until later, Brittany
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Vang Vieng
Today marks my 4th day in Vang Vieng. The big draw here is the beautiful mountain scenery and the river that runs right by the town. Tubing is the big deal here, which costs $4 a person for the rental tube and the tuk-tuk that takes you the 3km to point where most people start their tubing adventure. The river is a great place to view the sharp mountains, they look very different from any mountains I have seen before. The river is lined with bars, some play different music from different eras and most have different types of swings or jump off points or ziplines. It's pretty chill.
They play Friends reruns at a couple of the restaurants here and Simpson's or Family Guy reruns at others. It's kind of funny how often I have heard the Friend's theme song. "I'll be there for you..when the rain starts to fall...." too bad it's going to be stuck in my head forever! We're having a good time here and loving the place we're staying at for $5 a night which is our own bungalow-made out of bamboo, but no, it's not really roughing it, it has it's own bathroom and though we do have to use a mosquito net, I actually haven't even seen that many mosquitos here in Laos, at least not as many as seemed to seek me out in Thailand.
We'll be leaving here for Vientiane in the next day or so and then flying on to Hanoi, Vietnam. We were supposed to bus it to Hanoi, but we've heard that the 24 hour bus ride has been titled by travellers as the "bus ride from hell". Therefore, we're sucking it up and purchasing the more expensive plane ticket.
It's funny how not scary it is here. I never would have even thought to come to Laos and was not even planning on it until the last second, but it is a beautiful, rather untouched country. It's weird to think that some of these places that I am going will probably not be seen by a lot of people that I know. That's why I am taking really good pictures so that you all can see.
They play Friends reruns at a couple of the restaurants here and Simpson's or Family Guy reruns at others. It's kind of funny how often I have heard the Friend's theme song. "I'll be there for you..when the rain starts to fall...." too bad it's going to be stuck in my head forever! We're having a good time here and loving the place we're staying at for $5 a night which is our own bungalow-made out of bamboo, but no, it's not really roughing it, it has it's own bathroom and though we do have to use a mosquito net, I actually haven't even seen that many mosquitos here in Laos, at least not as many as seemed to seek me out in Thailand.
We'll be leaving here for Vientiane in the next day or so and then flying on to Hanoi, Vietnam. We were supposed to bus it to Hanoi, but we've heard that the 24 hour bus ride has been titled by travellers as the "bus ride from hell". Therefore, we're sucking it up and purchasing the more expensive plane ticket.
It's funny how not scary it is here. I never would have even thought to come to Laos and was not even planning on it until the last second, but it is a beautiful, rather untouched country. It's weird to think that some of these places that I am going will probably not be seen by a lot of people that I know. That's why I am taking really good pictures so that you all can see.
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