Back in the USA

Our last blog post while we were in Asia was about a month before we left. The last month we just kind of relaxed in some really touristy, but fun places in the south of Thailand - we were running lower on funds so we hung out on the beach a lot. We were going to go scuba diving and get our certification but we decided to save the money.


Now, we have been back in the USA as long as we were in Asia - Chelsea and I talk about it every day, remembering things we did.   In the amount of time we were gone we did so many things, we were gone about 150 days! It is fun to talk about all the really memorable events that we did while we were out there, but everyday we chat about little, less impressive things that sometimes escape the memory, but were the exact things that made our trip so excellent.  Remember when we sat with that vietnamese couple and had green tea and those little weird raw dumpling things? He was studying to be a doctor at the Hanoi University, and she sold shoe at a Vietnamese shop.

I really can appreciate the way that we travelled when we were there, it was as if we would get to a new country, and we would live with the people there. We made a million friends that we dearly miss - and they are from all around the world. (The exception to this is the first half of our second month in Thailand, when we were in the islands we lived like crazy, party going tourists)

More than anything I miss the food, then secondly I miss the adventure.  After backpacking around so much, if we were to stay in Asia longer than we did,  we would have needed to shack up in a town for a month or so, just to take a break from traveling.  When we were in the last two weeks of our trip, we were ready to go.

Anyways,  Chelsea is working at the downtown Seattle Nordstrom and I am focusing on music - gonna get my music blog going again here soon.  Finishing a solo album, and practicing the piano is my priority.  Next summer we will get married, then we will be off to the next adventure, to add more to the world traveler resume.

How will we decide where to go next? We have friends to go see in Australia, Europe, Asia, Africa and South America!

I would encourage all of our readers to follow our good friend Hana's blog, click here to see it, or get it in the link section.  Also, our other friend Stephanie.  Here is her blog.  They are both living in Cambodia teaching English and helping out, so read their blogs!

I also want to say that we are thinking about all of our friends in Bangkok all the time, worrying about their situation with the horrible flooding.  One of our friends said that the families we became close with all fled town, except for the fathers of the households, who stayed back and are living on the top floor of all of their homes, to protect their valuables from thieves.  We are keeping them in our hearts.

Mack

Return to Thailand

 

After being gone from the Kingdom for nearly three months, we flew from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket.  For the last week, we have been exploring the islands of the Andaman Sea.  We have spent time on Phuket (Patong), Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, Railay and I think our next stop is Krabi.

All the pic’s came from our friend Nick.

    Southern Thailand is much different than what we were seeing around central and northern Thailand.  It is more Muslim down here, similar to Malaysia, so there are not many temples, but the occasional Mosque which still wakes everyone up super early in the morning.  All the islands we have been on have kind of party/skeezy.  It seems less like Thailand here and more like any other tropical island resort towns in the world.

   Our friend Toby from Hamburg told me “Mack, there are not many wild places left in the world”.  We were talking about how a lot of the time people go looking for adventure in their travel, only to find some sort of domesticated ‘pet’ version of adventure.  For instance you might hike up to a cave with all of your caving gear, only to find a cement pathway and big floodlights filling the whole thing.  Oh, and don’t forget to pay your 40THB cover charge!  Anyways, these islands kind of remind me of that – although I would have to change his quote a little.  Maybe something like this:

“Mack, there are not many wild places left in the world, only girls gone wild places left.”

    I am really glad we got to spend a lot of time in and around true Thai culture at the beginning of our trip because right now the only Thai people I even meet are the ones offering me buckets of alcohol.  Mostly this is to blame on the locations we have been at lately, but also might be due to the fact that since arriving in Phuket we have been traveling with a large group – our friends from back home met us here.  I think that as six or seven people walking around you are less approachable by local people.  We find it slightly odd also to travel with a group, as we are not used to waiting for anybody this whole time thus far – the communal decision making is slightly difficult.  ALTHOUGH, we are still having lots of fun – it is just more like a vacation now instead of like the backpacking and traveling we were doing for the last few months.  Our friends leave us today and head to Chiang Mai while Chelsea and I figure out how to get over to Koh Tao to get our PADI scuba certification.  I am especially excited for this since we chartered a snorkeling trip from Phi Phi Island and went and saw all sorts of great things!  My favorite parts were finding groups of clown fish in sea anemones and swimming through a gigantic school of fish that extended as far as you could see!  I was scared they were going to touch me and I did  not want to feel masses of fish all over me, but obviously fish know how to swim in a school and not a single fish ever touched me, but they were all within centimeters.

    Koh Lanta was my favorite tropical island we visited – it was quiet and filled with some villages.  We climbed to a waterfall there (which was quite small I must say) and rode our piglets (I have been calling our scooters piglets, in reference to how people call a real motorcycle a HOG) out to the tip of the island and checked out the lighthouse and the view.  I saw the most beautiful sunset there, it was truly stunning.  We also hung out with three more fantastic people we met there, Kelvin and Stephanie who are kiwi’s (New Zealand) and Stefano from Italy.

    This last week has been hard to update the website and add pictures to facebook because we have been on these tropical islands and many places do not have WIFI.  Our camera has been dead so we have no really recent pictures, I will try to steal some from AJ and/or Nick and Tony because the views out here really are awesome!

    Oh and to top it all off, I really wanted to take a rock climbing course here in Railay, one of the climbing capitals of the world, but today I think I ruined all of that when I dropped an oak bedframe on my toe.  It ripped off the nail, and I think it broke the end of my toe and has been bleeding for quite some time.  I am happy it did not totally smash it or cut it off, but that combined with my sprained/maybe broken left pinky toe is going to make it really hard to get into climbing shoes.  Maybe Chelsea will do it, but I would be really sad and jealous…

    Oh, and after four months of being here a girl finally called me tan for the first time in my life! Woohoo

Mack

Kuala Lumpur Wakeboarding

We decided that we would go and rent a ski boat with our friend David and Dennis the other day.  Chelsea and I had never been wakeboarding before so we were really excited about it. 

First, David jumped on the board and made everything look so easy.  Eventually it was my turn and damn, what a reality check I had!  I had a really hard time getting up, but eventually I made it.  We were in the middle of the lake and a giant thunderstorm was approaching.  Lightning was everywhere, and finally when I was sure we were all going to be electrocuted I got up on the wakeboard.  Then we had to all bail and run for cover because of the electrical storm. 

A few hours later it cleared up and Chelsea was up.  Check out the video below.

(our internet is too slow here, the video will be up as soon as possible)

We have been in KL as they call it for about a week now, we fly out in a few more days.  It is really cool here, and we have made some great friends that we will keep forever.  David the tycoon chef, Antony the talent agent from Dubai and Singapore, Leah from Australia (your crazy girl) and many others.  We have all made plans to work with each other in the future, so these are real relationships we are making in the dorm!  It is quite fun.

Other than hang out with our new crew and eat our way around the city with our friend and master chef from Singapore David we have been watching movies, bowling, sight seeing, looking at the Petronas Towers for hours on end, partying, not sleeping, trying to catch ghost planes and all sorts of crazy stuff.  In two days we fly to Phuket Thailand to meet our friend A.J.

Best Chinese and Indian food in the world, all for $3…

 

M

Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

 

Singapore and KL have been the most expensive cities we have been in this whole trip, so me and Chelsea have taken to staying in dormitories and hostels.  The benefit?  We get to meet totally cool people who are all really nice, and hang out with them!  Right now we are staying with David (professional Chef, has a restaurant in Manhattan and his family owns a bakery chain in China, and much more), Antony (Business man who has lived and traveled all over the world.  Has been staying in this dorm for two weeks, looking for a room or apartment), Bubba (Cool dude from Mali, he currently lives in Morocco) Yuki and Hiro from Japan on a year long stint around the world, Emma from Australia and Erica from Ottawa (We met them a few towns back…) Our Kurdish friend (I cannot remember his name right now…) and some other people!  It is really fun and we really like all the people we have been hanging out with.

The downside of the dorm style is that we have nowhere to retreat to.  When we get up and get out at about eight in the morning, by two in the afternoon when it is well above a hundred degrees Fahrenheit  we really want to go hang out in our own air conditioned, private, room and take a nap, watch tv, read a book, or do whatever we want.  This is just not that possible in a dorm – I mean, it kind of is but its not the same to sit in basically public room and try to get rejuvenated as it is to have some privacy. 

Thus being so, and due to the fact that Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are some crazy big, space age cities, Chelsea and I are exhausted.  Tomorrow we re-meet up with our friend Joel (a link to his blog is on the right of this page) and explore some caves.  Then I think we are going to try to secure another Thai VISA so we can travel overland into the country and stay for a month.  If that works out, we will take the jungle train through the worlds oldest rainforest (130 million years old – it was unaffected by the multiple ice age’s that plagued most of the earth) for a few days and wind up in Thailand to meet our friend AJ and start our SCUBA certification. 

 

ssooooo tiirrreeeddd….. sllleeeeeeeefppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp 

Questions leaving Cambodia

Though we are now in Malaysia, i think we will try and bring everyone up to speed.

Cambodia...

We had such a great time at the beach. It was the perfect break from phrases like "tuk tuk?" "ladieee" "Buy Bracelet?" "Marijuana? Coke? opium?" "buy my book help my business" and so many more! People yell at us all day every day, and though we are used to it a break was nice.

Upon returning to the mainland I was reminded of some things about Cambodia that I do not understand. prostitution, child prostitution, children begging, LITTERING. I really do not think littering is even the word, people throw everything on the ground, in streams, in the ocean... What is the next step for Cambodia I wonder? What would it be like if Pol Pot hadn't killed 3 million of the smartest people in the country?

I left Cambodia confused, and also curious about other countries and how they tackle these big problems.I met a Canadian girl who works in Cambodia, she said that Cambodia's govt. is corrupt... isn't everyones?

I really appreciate my own country so much more after being on this trip.

We found a paradise!

After weeks of travel, we finally arrive at a beautiful beach and the sun is out!

    After we were in Phnom Phenn for two nights we took a two hour bus to Sihanoukville on the southern coast in the gulf of Thailand.  The bus ride was actually five hours long, and we started to get gloomy because although it was supposed to be nice, it started to look stormy the closer we got to the coast.  Thailand has actually been flooding the last week, and everyone is confused because this is supposed to be the dry season.

   We arrived in Sihanoukville and it was dry, but heavy overcast.  You could see out in the gulf that a large storm was approaching.  The good thing was, at least in this bad weather it was still 85 degrees F out. 

    I made a promise to myself that I would try to keep my spirits up, at least it was hot and rainy.  So I booked us a boat out to a island off the coast of Cambodia – Koh Rhong.  The morning we boarded the boat the weather was terrible, and we were actually setting sail into a low level tropical storm, but the captain of the boat did not seem to think it was a problem.  Three hours of an extremely unpleasent boat ride later we arrived.  It was like heaven.

   The island is huge, and about 2,000 villagers live in five separate villages around the island.  There are no roads, there is only generated electricity.  SOMEHOW there is a continual break in the storm right above our bungalow.  It is seriously ridiculous, black clouds all around us and the bay that we face is totally sunny!  There is a small village at the end of our beach, ten bungalows, and then three kilometers of untouched, white sand beach.

 

    The water is clear and it is like bath water, and this is only one of 86 beaches on the island or something like that!  So now we chill, we might go snorkeling later and in a few hours we are gonna go trek inland through the island to the other side and see what it is like.  There are some reefs around the island, but  not in the bay out front of our bungalow.  It is $15.00 to rent our little cabin (more of a shack with two mattresses and two chairs on a porch, oh and a hammock.  No real sink or running water, but a private ‘bathroom’) and the restaurant has mid range Cambodian prices on food and stuff (this is where the business really makes money, not to many options here!).  I might go into the village later and pick up some fruit though.

 

Puss and Scabs.  Two puppies from the Island.  Puss (left) is probably not going to make it, he is very weak and does not eat, has no fur, and is covered in puss and infectious wounds.  We tried to make his last days a little more comfortable by giving him some rice, chicken and water.  Scabs on the right is cute, but got attacked by a bigger dog on the island and severed one of his neck muscles so he walks with his head tilted.  Me and Chelsea and some of the others on the island revived this dog – he is going to live now!  He was walking around and acting like a real dog again when we left.  Both sweet dogs, it is a shame that they do not neuter their animals and that puppies get born into terrible situations.  At only a few months old these two have had a very hard life.  Puss, if you are dead now RIP.

We also met many friendly Germ’s, Holl’s Aussies and a Fin on the island, as well as a friend from Vancouver!

Killing Fields

Me and Chelsea went and saw the Cheung Ek killing fields and S21 – the main detention/torture facility for the Phnom Phenn region.

It was really upsetting, if you are unfamiliar with Cambodia’s bloody recent history you can read about the Khmer Rouge online.  I also have heard a lot of people recommending a book entitled, “First They Killed My Father” by Loung Ung.

The killing fields themselves are located in what was once an old Chinese graveyard.  It was a beautiful sunny day out and all sorts of birds were singing.  Quite the contradiction to the 9,000 of 20,000 unearthed skulls, teeth, jawbones, femurs and other old body parts we were literally walking on at the killing fields.  After every rain, dozens of bones and pieces of clothes from the victims wash up to the surface.

The twenty thousand that were murdered at the killing fields were all detained before hand at S21- an old high school turned prison.  Here the prisoners were tortured until they confessed to crimes they did not do, then they were sent to the killing fields for liquidation.  Dutch – the commander in charge of running S21 was in the headlines TODAY.  For directly ordering the mass murder of twenty thousand people he has received……… wait for it…… wait for it…..   35 years in prison – 17 which have been knocked off because of time already served.  Oh, not to mention that prison for him is basically house arrest.  After the accused was sent to the killing fields they would take three hundred people at a time to the edge of a trench and kill them with knives, spades, shovels and clubs.  They were not to waste ammunition.  Babies and children were all murdered to prevent revenge, often killed by bashing their heads against a tree. 

The most disturbing thing I saw was the magic tree – a tree which they would hang a big speaker from and blast music to cover up the sounds of the dying.  Also the fact that they had to sprinkle chemicals on the bodies before they covered them up to finish off anyone who was being buried alive and destroy diseases made my stomach churn.  The murderers were often between the age of fourteen and twenty.

Over the course of the Khmer Rouge reign (five years), they estimate that three million people were murdered.  They killed all students, teachers, monks, people who wore glasses, politicians, musicians and anyone that could be considered an intellectual.  This was because the KR wanted Kampuchea to be an agriculturalist society – they only wanted people they could boss around to live there.  They even killed thousands of their own men, women and children as punishment, as well as all the foreigners and travellers that were in the country at the time of the take-over.

It really put a damper on the few days after for us.  We almost were sick at the memorial.  Something about the situation in Cambodia strikes me as more evil than what was happening in Nazi Germany because the Khmer Rouge were just killing EVERYONE…  Think if this did not happen, there would be 9-12 MILLION more people living in Cambodia today!  AND, those 9-12 million people would be the “intelligent” ones!   How different would it be here?  Would it still be one of the poorest countries in the world? 

If you go to Cambodia you MUST go to the Killing Fields and S21.  It is necessary for all people to see things like this to keep it from happening ever again, and to learn about it since it is left out of school curriculum’s and media in the United States.

 

 

On a happy note, we ate bugs today – lots of them, all sorts!  They were great, and hands down if you can make a plate of beetles, ants, flies, termites and wasps taste good, you are the best damned cook on the planet.

Look at all those birds! I just liked that picture.  On the right is me wearing official Cambodian relics.  I tried to tell the girl that I should not touch priceless swords and gold crowns but she really wanted to make some tips by letting me wear the treasures for a photo – if anything ever goes missing from the Cambodian relic storehouses, that is probably the reason!

Cu chi cu chi coo… the end of Vietnam.

 

    The last few days we spent in Saigon – what a relief it was too.  For almost the entire length of our stay we have had terrible weather, and our whole plan was to hit all the beaches and do some surfing and other water sports.  After three weeks of failing weather, we decided to spend our last days in the city knowing that we could do indoor things like…. shop, shop, shop, not buy anything, bargain with some crazy ass Vietnamese, still not buy anything, watch movies, bowl, and sight see around town.  Oh and don’t forget all the eating. 

 

    We went up to the observation deck of Saigon’s biggest tower, it had great views of the city.  Only problem was it was expensive for what you got.  In a city where everything is 1$, we paid $10.00 each to go up.  It was a good view and all, but the price seemed a little high.  It was  not even as tall as the space needle, but it was close.  Advice:  If you go up, make sure to grab a free water bottle or two (get your money’s worth!).

    Chelsea and I also tried out a chain of restaurant’s from Singapore called Kichi Kichi ‘Rotary Food Express’.  Essentially it was a hot-pot version of Blue-C Sushi except it featured fancy foods such as fish fins, wonton’s, noodles, frog parts and lucky eggs (fertilized goose eggs).  On the right is a frog leg and ribcage.  Taste? Not bad, it actually does taste like chicken.  Thought of eating the meat off of something that looks like a muscular human leg?  Rough.

The town was filled with all sorts of posters for festivals and other celebrations, all drawn up in the old propaganda style.  This one on the left was a popular one. 

It was interesting to experience the difference between the capital city of Hanoi and the economical capital of the country, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).  It is pretty clear that the south lost the ‘American War’ as they call it out here – it is overloaded with reminders everywhere.  In the north there are museums and statues, but not like in the city formerly known as Saigon.  I think that because the south was defeated by the north they felt like they had to gloat and have all of these reminders all over the city.  In Hanoi there was not much of that, which I am grateful for.  It gets a little overwhelming as an American seeing all this stuff.  In Hanoi it seemed the focus was on winning victory from the French, whom they battled for independence for decades before the ‘American War’ even started. 

 

    The French occupied Vietnam for one hundred years before they won independence through years and years of war.  You can see evidence of the occupation in the architecture, and in the fact that this Buddhist country is covered in Catholic cathedrals.

   Our last day in Vietnam we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels.  It is a war history monument, and it pays tribute to the members of the Viet Cong who controlled a small town called Cu Chi by using an endless maze of underground tunnels.  As my friend Chris Stewart put it, “Go to Cu Chi tunnels to see some Full Metal Jacket shit.”  That was exactly what we saw.

    It is never entirely happy and enjoyable to go learn about the brutalities of wars past, but to visit from the side of the enemy, who lost the dirty, highly protested war to a very poor, communist country is even less enjoyable.  It is not that it was not interesting – it just put an even fouler light on what we already knew was a dark part of our countries history.

    The cool things? Here they are:

1. Learning to shoot guns from some ex-Vietnamese soldiers.  Chelsea shot a M1 Garang (sp?) and I shot an AK47.  Chelsea shot a big ass gun for being her first one – the biggest one available!  The AK47 was fun because I use that gun in Call of Duty (nerd 8==> ) and I got to put it on fully auto!
   
2. Learning about the guerilla fighting techniques that led the North and the Vietcong to win the war.  Booby traps, the tunnel system, the fighting style. 
   
3. Learning how they outsmarted all the American attempts to get them out of the tunnels.  American’s sent in German Shepherds to kill the VC and you know what they did?  Wear American clothes and use American soap.  When the dogs found them in the tunnels, they wagged their tails and laid on their backs!  Then the VC ate them because they were starving.
   
4. Understanding what it took for 16,000 people to live underground for years.  About 7,000 of them lived until the war was over.  At the memorial, I crawled a hundred yards through one of the tunnels.  It was dark, very cramped, extremely claustrophobic, and hot as hell twenty-thirty feet below the surface. AND, they widened the tunnel %50 so white tourists could fit in it AND added the lights.  Imagining it without that makes me quiver.  One of the tunnels was an escape tunnel that went all the way to Cambodia!  A hundred km or more!

    The not so cool things?

1. Being the victim of all the jokes on our tour.  Not many American’s visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, mostly Europeans and Vietnamese.  We were the only people from the USA out of probably fifty people – and I don’t think that anyone knew we were American.
   
2. Seeing pictures of dead Americans and cartoons of Americans caught in booby traps.  I would not say this if it was not more than would be necessary at a war memorial – obviously some is okay, but it was a little much.
   
3. Learning about all the ‘American Killer Heroes’, people who killed fourteen or more Americans single handedly – mostly by placing booby traps and land mines.  One was a twelve year old girl who’s father died in the war.
   
4. Learning that the majority of the landmines that ravage Vietnam today were placed by Vietnamese, contrary to popular belief.
   
5. Learning that because Vietnam is communist (or, socialist might be a better fit) nothing is free.  School for children?  $10 a month for school, $10 a month for school supplies, $10 a month for transportation to and from school, $10 a month for uniform upkeep and $10 a month for lunch.  That is $50.00 USD a month to have your kid go to school in a country where the daily wage is $3-4.00  Because of this, %60 of children do not ever attend school.  This is just one of many things that might be different had the South won the war.

   Chelsea and I talked about it and the thing that left a bad taste in our mouths is this:

    In the USA if you go to a War Memorial Museum I feel like you get a semi fair view of what happened.  Obviously this is not totally true, but it is much more true than it is in Vietnam.  For example, last year we went to Pearl Harbor and the Arizona monument.  I felt it was equally welcoming to Japanese and Americans wanting to pay their respects.  Although the majority of the monument is recognizing those who fell in the Pearl Harbor attacks, and more so, those who died trapped in the Arizona, it also mentions the bravery and the skill the Japanese had in pulling off one of the greatest attacks in modern war history.

   In Vietnam, it was welcoming in a sense.  All of the people were nice to us.  The problem was that there was an overwhelming sense of how evil America was, and how all the demon American soldiers needed to be killed.  What was going on in Vietnam during the war was wrong – that is an accepted fact by most Americans.  The big problem with our experience at the monument was that the America ‘bashing’ got in the way of any real history.

   The whole memorial is talking about how the Vietnamese defeated the evil Americans and killed and shot many Americans, who could not outsmart the VC, and had to resort to using huge bombs and agent orange to fight them.  The Cu Chi Tunnels were just another way to ‘kill Americans’ – they did not mention one time anywhere in the monument/museum that the tunnels were dug seventeen years before America had its political foot in the door, while Vietnam was fighting the French.  It did not mention one bit that Vietnamese were killing Vietnamese before America decided to get involved.  It seemed like the monument was trying its hardest to hide the fact that any sort of civil war occurred at all.  It was merely the American war.  And judging by the pictures and videos, Vietnamese truly loved shooting Americans and were not in any way subject to any PTST the way Americans were.  Hell, in one video a little kid is laughing and shooting her machine gun!

    I am glad we went and saw everything, it was quite the experience, although I have to say I was relieved when we got out of there.  In my opinion, the Cu Chi Tunnels could use a few exhibits about how horrible war is, and how it destroys families and ruins lives.  Vietnamese did die in the war, and the Cu Chi Tunnels being one of the biggest war memorials in Vietnam should have something to  commemorating their own fallen soldiers.

       

  The infamous tiger trap.  The caption said that after an American would step through and get stabbed (the pit was actually deep) it would take hours for them to die in ‘agony’. 

    I wish I would have taken more photos of the stuff that put me off!  Oh well.

 

Chelsea, climbing out of a tiny underground tunnel!

Here is a short clip of our shooting range experience!

Dark days

 

    The weather has taken a turn for the worse.  It was bad in the north of Vietnam, then in one of the central towns we were in (Hoi An) it got nice for two days, now it is back to thunderstorms.  It has been kind of a bummer since we are at one of the worlds greatest stretches of sand – Nha Trang.  We had big plans to do some diving, snorkeling, kite surfing, standard surfing, spear fishing and other tropical ocean things but I must say that plans have changed. 

    Since the ten day forecast says that thunderstorms are expected for the next 7-10 days in Vietnam me and Chelsea decided to forego some of the beaches we were going to hit here and push on to Saigon, then move in to Cambodia.  I think that we could have more fun away from the beach, rather than be here and be taunted by what ‘we could have’ if the weather was only better. 

    On another note:  Since we have been in Vietnam the traffic has been much more crazy than other places in Asia.  This country has the biggest number of motorbikes per capita than anywhere else in the world.  The traffic is not necessarily as fast as it was in Thailand, but there basically is no regulation as to where you can drive.  Because of this, in Hanoi we saw a guy on a motorbike get hit by a taxi driver.  They were going around a round-a-bout when the bike zipped into the blind spot of the taxi and they collided.  Nobody was hurt, although a big fight followed – the taxi was fine, but the bike was destroyed.

    When we were traveling from Hoi An to Nha Trang, the sleeper bus we were riding collided head on into a motorbike with two people on it, killing them.  It was so dark, nobody could tell what happened.  The impact on the bus seemed very small, just a jolt.  Most people on the bus were just snoozing or chatting, or reading their books.  Me and Chelsea watched the whole thing unfold, and we knew that it was not good from the beginning.  People were destroyed, collapsed on the ground crying.  Fights were breaking out between people, the mob was trying to get the staff of the sleeper bus.  Pretty soon there were probably a hundred people out there surrounding the bus.  The police showed up faster than I would have expected, and with them came two ambulances with body bags.  They loaded a body into each ambulance, then put family members and people who had lost it in with the bodies, then they turned on the child locks to hold them.  It was really rough to watch.    Eventually two hours after we pulled over someone came on board the bus and let the front six people know what had happened, then they drove us a short distance where we transferred to a new bus, the front corner of the original bus was destroyed and the lights did not work.

    After witnessing that, I have to say I have been in a very fatalistic mindset the last two days.  In an instant so many lives changed.  It was hard to have a good time knowing what those families are dealing with.

      Busses drive like they are part of the Indy 500, and motorbikes ruthlessly cut people off, drive on the wrong side of the road, and ride incredibly fast.  Because there are no driving regulations (at least enforced) there is no body to blame for what happened.  (At least in a ‘right of way’ type of blame – the friends and families of those killed had no problem blaming the bus crew.)  I checked the newspapers and the internet these last few days and there was nothing written about the accident.  Things like this must happen all of the time out here. 

    This experience has led me to think that the driving and traffic control is one of the top problems with SE Asia.  If busses were not passing little motorbikes at lightning speed in the middle of the night just to maintain their raging pace who knows how many people’s lives would be saved each year.  Obviously something like this would be a huge overhaul in government and law enforcement, not to mention a cultural change for all of the people here.  I have not seen a single car pulled over by the police in three months here, and I have seen the drunkest people get on their motorcycles and drive off down the street while holding their horn down yelling at people to watch out.  I believe that it would be a very worthwhile endeavor to try to model rules of the road here after those at home.

    The crazy traffic here has stopped being amusing to me, or interesting, or different.  Now I just see how it is totally insane.  I am thankful for the yellow line in American roads, and the no passing signs, and some of the law enforcement to keep people in check – our accident would not have happened in the USA or Canada.   

Mack

Train, train, train!

    

    We spent three days after Hanoi with our friend Viet in his home village.  It was a great experience to be thrown into the ‘real’ Vietnam, Viet said that he cannot remember having any foreigner’s in his village.  You could tell we were a spectacle.  People were stopping and staring at us with no shame.  It is pretty funny how blunt everyone is here, one time a woman stopped her motorbike and took her helmet off to stare at me.  “Hello” is usually enough to scare them away – even though people learn English they are often too nervous to try to use any.

    After hanging out with Viet and his crazy friends and family we jumped on a train.  The train left at 5:30 pm and arrived in Danang, where we are now, at 10:30 am.  We bought tickets for a ‘sleeper train’ not knowing what that entitled.  Our tickets were 4k VND and titled ‘foreigner ticket’.  Once we jumped on the train we found out what we were in for.

    There was a small room, maybe eight feet long and five feet wide.  On each side of the room were three bunk beds that could fold up against the wall.  Grandma ( probably 80 yr old Vietnamese woman ) slept on the bottom bunk opposite another middle aged woman.  Two people slept on the middle bunk on the left side, and a man slept on the middle rack on the right.  That leaves me and Chelsea, the biggest people by far on the entire train, sleeping on the top bunks.  It was super hard to get into the bed, the ceiling was maybe only a foot and a half above the bed – it was kind of claustrophobic. 

    So me and Chelsea climbed in and just hung out in our bed’s for the trip.  Let me tell you, it was kind of boring, but it sure beats sitting in an uncomfortable chair for fourteen hours or so.

    Last night Chelsea had to get up to use the bathroom.  She had to climb down everybody's bed to get out of the room, then wasn’t allowed to use the restroom because we were stopped at a station and you could only use the toilet when the train was moving.  She came back into the room to wake me up and shook my leg several times to find out that she came back to the wrong room!  She was in a different room filled with six different Vietnamese people and was shaking some strangers leg trying to wake him!  Somehow, he stayed asleep though, and Chelsea made it back to our room.  The Vietnamese people sleep so hard here, nothing can wake them up!

    At 6 am we woke up – the sleeping men in our room had transformed into a bunch of girls that were coming home from selling cosmetics in the city for several days, that was a surprise.  So this morning we hung out with them, they could speak a little English.  At one point grandma farted on Chelsea, although she couldn’t speak any English we definitely knew what that meant!

How to make pork rice soup.

It is so good we just had to learn how to make it!

From mildly cold Hanoi to freezing my ass off in Halong Bay/Cat Ba Island!

    Now granted, it might not be the cold that we are used to in the Pacific Northwest, but after the severe heat of the previous two months of our trip, and the even more severe heat to come in the next two months, 48 degrees F sure seems really freaking cold.

    We are currently on Cat Ba Island, off the coast of Vietnam.  It reminds me a lot of the San Juan Islands, except with palm trees.  Interestingly enough, they really have seasons here also.  Everywhere we have gone on our trip thus far has had weather patterns, not really seasons.  Hot – hot and rainy – hot and dry – hot.  Here, in the northern section of Vietnam it is definitely winter.  Pure overcast, just like back home.  Only problem is that we brought only ‘hot weather’ clothes.  I have a small jacket and a scarf, no socks (but I bought some from a street vendor, and she promised me Vietnam quality was much better than American quality.  I think she was full of shit though, these socks are pretty thin…).  Chelsea has a sweater and some jacket things we bought her, but her socks are wet as well.  There are no heaters in the rooms because although it gets cold, it does not get that cold.

    The island is great though.  It is in a bay of several hundred islands, Cat Ba being the biggest one.  We went on a hike today and we got to see a great view of the whole area.  Honestly it is like home here, or like the southern parts of Alaska.  Super beautiful. 

(Ferry look familiar?)                                  (Floating town/fishery)

    When we arrived in Vietnam we stayed in Hanoi for four days.  What a great town, totally busy and crazy.  We went to some war museums and saw a lot of sites, mostly around the Old Quarter.  We went to the Opera house and saw the spring jazz concert by Japanese pianist Yamashita Yosuke.  Pretty fun.  Amazingly, the Japanese ambassador and the director of the Hanoi symphony donated all proceeds from the weekends concerts to the relief fund for the earthquake in Japan.  Yosuke performed a tribute, a traditional Japanese song entitled Sakura.  It was very touching.

(This 13 yr old smoked us at billiards… bad.)    (This is our friend Viet.)

Here is the latest video, water puppets in Hanoi!

Water puppet performance in Hanoi, Vietnam. March 10th, 2011.

 

Really topographical landscape! Up and down and up and down.

(Opera house!)                                           (More islands!)

   (This picture on the left is at the top of a sixty year old rusty watch tower, at the top of one of the peaks on Cat Ba island!  It was pretty nerve racking to climb up an old decaying tower!)

    Tomorrow we return to Hanoi for the evening.  We are going to stay with our friend Viet and his family at their home.  His family fought in the Vietnam war, and they do not get visitors often and are excited to meet us and have us stay over.  Then we are off down the coast by train, hopefully to some warmer weather!

New pictures from Hanoi, Vietnam

Click on this link to see our latest pictures from Hanoi, Vietnam.

She was eating my yogurt.

    While we were out in the jungle outside of Vientiane, we had a really great time doing nothing.  There was hardly anybody at our resort, so we just got to hang around at the eco lodge, swim in the one of a kind ‘river pool’ (see below) and hang out with each other.  We have mentioned him a few times before, but we recommend everyone take a look at Tim Hodgson’s blog, it is on the ‘other places’ located to the right.

action shot

our river pool! fast current

    Anyways, when you are sitting around, with no plan, doing nothing for several days you open your self up to all sorts of possibly unique situations. 
    International women’s day is a big deal in Laos.  It is a federal holiday, there is no work, there is no school.  On this particular women’s day, a group of ten women from the village near our jungle resort came to the restaurant at our resort to hang out for the day.  Once the ominous BeerLao started flowing, the one incredibly drunk man came over and hustled us over to their table. 
    It is interesting to meet a large group of partying women when you cannot speak to them.  There was a thirteen year old girl that could translate for us somewhat, but the adults had zero english capabilities.  So at the restaurant Chelsea boogied with the girls to some Lao synth/pop hits and Tim and I sat and drank a large BeerLao each trying to assess the situation.  We were kind of a novelty on womens day, two handsome western men!  That was not happening to all the girls in Laos! 
    An hour slipped by, then they invited us back across the Nam Ngum river to their village.  The village was quite large compared to the ones that we have observed before, this one had about two-hundred cement homes.  It was much nicer than some we have seen.  Anyways, we got to the home (which housed seven people) and surprisingly it was really big.  Because Lao people tend to sit on the floor, the main room which is used as a dining room/living room/dorm style bedroom is usually very large.  It was covered in tile, and compared to a western home it would be empty.  In one corner was a television and some chairs/couches against the wall that nobody used.  In the other corner was a GIGANTIC stereo system, with a very old dvd player and cd player attached.  This was used so much that it was basically falling apart.  You could really tell what was important to them in their homes! 
    Anyways, for the next four hours we boogied with the ten women in their home.  Every dance move Chelsea could pull out was a hit with the girls, and luckily Lao guys don’t dance that well so I thought I looked pretty good.  Our friend Tim was afraid for his bachelorhood that evening, fearing that he would not be able to escape without a new Lao wife!
    Then they made us Duck Soup which was absolutely fantastic.  We sat on the floor Lao style and ate it on
steamed rice.

    One of the funny things that happened to me that evening occurred when I decided to take an old beat up bicycle to go get more BeerLao.  Let me tell you, they do not ever see a giant American guy riding a little bike down their village streets.  I could have been a clown at the circus, everybody was yelling and laughing at me and inviting me over to hang with them.  The store was a block away but it took me half an hour to get there and back.  Every house was having a similar women’s day celebration (minus the white people) so when I arrived at the store, they were not going to let me buy any beer until I danced with all of the women (one at a time) and drank some Lau Lau with them (rice whisky, very strong!).  It was pretty funny, but the second time we had to go get beer I made sure to bring Tim with me – he danced with the other women while I tried to sneak into the store and buy a crate* of beer from the men. 



*When you buy more than four beers in Laos, they give it to you in a large plastic crate.  This is because BeerLao comes in a gigantic bottle, not in the typical 12-16oz bottles from America.
    Then I was supposed to drive the motorcycle back to the house and one of the girls was going to hold the crate on the back.  “I cannot drive a motorcycle!” I exclaimed, and that got even more laughs than a 6’3 white male on a pink ‘clown’ bike in the middle of the village.  So she drove, I rode on the back with a gigantic crate of beer and held on for my life.  Scary.  And, it was only a block!


  At one point, five village girls came over and sang us some songs a capella which was very interesting and cool.  It reminded me of something I would have done when we were seven years old. 
    All in all, we had a great women’s day.  It was a special experience that not many people get here in Laos, a lot of travelers tend to keep a distance from the people that live here.
   
    Also, see the video below for a Green Papaya Salad experience!


Below is a boring video we made of why we couldn’t sleep in Vientiane.  It seemed like it would be more interesting, but it is long – feel free to fast forward on it if you need!



We took a cooking class as well, and we video taped it so stay tuned for the video recipe’s!

Cheers,

Mack

Virginia

This week Mack and I have been in the Capitol of Laos. We have been a little bored, but there has been some interesting moments. 2 days ago we went to the community pool.

Upon walking into the Lao aquatic Center a very drunk Laos man decided he wanted to be our friend, and as you all know Mack and I love new friends, so we let him sit down. He talked…and talked…and talked and talkED!! after 2 hours of trying to understand what he was saying Mack jumped in the pool.Instantly the Laos man turned his game face on. With a flick of his eyebrow, and smile on his face he asked if he could possibly stick his penis in my Virginia. Then he went on saying I was curvy with probably a very small Virginia. HA! I scolded him, and the luckily Mack came back,but then the man asked Mack if he wanted to see who had a bigger penis. Mack declined his offer, just as I did. Shortly after the mans family (yes his 3 kids and wife were there) picked him up.

After being in SE Asia for 2 months, I have learned that many men here have mistresses. They have a BIG wife (wife  number one), a little wife (girlfriend), and also women that they just meet and sleep with. The BIG wives do not like it, but they say that men have needs. Our resort owner also informed us that after women have children they often stop having sex with their husbands completely. After learning this bit of information, I can see why the man propositioned me with such ease. He had probably done it many times before!

Now Mack and I are in the jungle, on the Mehkong river rooming with our friend Tim. Tim is 49 and doing a year long trip around the world. Mom, Steve, Janice, and Dave; you can do it too! here is his website http://heartstorm.org/ and here is his blog http://www.exploretheadventure.com/.

the picture above was taken of mack, he is still sleeping. Wait, now he is up, yay! adventure time!

Heart of Darkness Ch.1

 

    Me and Chelsea spent way to long in Vientiane, and we have four days until our plane flight still, so we went to the jungle.  Right now, as we speak I am sitting in a little hut in the jungle with Chelsea and our friend Tim – his blog is featured in our links section to the right.  It is burning hot, there is no fan, there Is no A/C.  Somehow there is wireless internet though…

    Anyways, if I survive a night of jungle noises, animals, bugs, and extreme heat, me and Chelsea will post some pictures and whatnot tomorrow of our new home away from home.

Love,

 

Mack

Lao Massage

 

    We got to experience our first Lao massage since arriving in Laos three weeks ago.  I do not know why we have not been getting those every day, they run about $8.00 an hour.  Although a lot of the techniques they use in the Lao massage are similar to techniques used in Thai massage, there are some big differences as well.  First difference I noticed is that you do not strip down for a Lao massage, you get into a ‘massage outfit’.  It resembles something the Genie from Aladdin would wear, big baggy pants and a matching shirt.  The fabric is kind of rough, which kind of feels good on your skin when they massage you.  In a Thai massage, you typically undress and lie under a sheet.  I imagine the reason is that the people of Laos are much more sensitive to showing any skin.  In Thailand, people dress pretty modern, jeans, tank tops, dresses, etc.  Here in Laos, people still where traditional skirts and blouses.  Most of the people exposing any leg are tourists (and most of them are out of shape!).

    The second main difference is that the Thai massage was super rough, where as the Lao version was just pleasantly rough.  In Thailand I had several women standing on me, pulling on my legs, pulling me backwards over their knees, twisting my body around.  Of course, I thought it felt great – but then again a great massage to me is being smacked around with a 2x4.  The Lao version was a little lighter on the wrestling, and more about getting deep in there with their fingers.  I swear, those girls are 5’4, but they have a grip of iron.

 

    We also took our friend Joel to the hospital, he fell and cut up his arm really bad and had to get stitches.  The hospital was the most intense place we have been in Asia.  Super dirty, mold growing on the walls.  One room with all the sick people in it, and one private room at the end.  No air conditioning, just fans.  You had to buy the supplies the doctor was going to use BEFORE he would use them (but they were SUPER cheap).  For Joel’s arm, he got stitches, a tetanus shot, antibiotics and an assortment of other pills, three ‘re-dressing’ sessions, and the stitches removed all for about $25.00 US.  Pretty intense… we took a short video, we felt strange trying to videotape in the hospital, although I am sure it was allowed, so it is just a real short clip.

Capital Punishment.

We are in the capital of Laos!  Last night, me and Chelsea did not sleep much at all. 

Those little bastards – they were not actually biting us, but they were crawling on the walls and on and in our blankets.  Nothing will keep you awake like not having a bed, and Vientiene Laos shuts down too early to have made a room change. 

Now I am super tired!  We had to get up and take all of our stuff to the laundry!  Then we got conned into paying a tuk tuk driver way to much money to take us a fairly short distance.  All the other drivers were laughing at us.  Chelsea always says “It’s only $8.50” and undermines me in my bartering.  It’s the premise!  I am a business minded man, and bartering is like a challenge to me, plus I need to practice feeling people out .  In the end though, that is comforting knowing that it was still cheaper than back home, even though in one short ride he made twice his usual daily wage.
    For about four or five days before where we arrived in Vientiene, we were in a small’ish’ town called Vang Vieng.  It was really beautiful, and super touristy.  The big draw is to go "tubing”.  Tubing is somewhat of a Laos phenomenon, and possibly my new favorite sport.  The rules?  Drink copious amounts of ridiculous cocktails and beer lao, float down the river on inner-tubes, stopping at bars and clubs all along both sides, and then prove that you are the biggest man (or have the most liquid courage) by jumping off of, swinging off of, and sliding down the biggest, most rickety looking structures to ever reach the third world. 

Chelsea rockin the trapeez!  See the giant swings they made?  Hold on tight!


Massive slide that launches you into a 20 foot back flop!

Massive jumps need massive buckets of “Lau Lau” (moonshine) and the sweetest things you can find to cover up the absolutely horrible taste.

A lot of people have mixed feelings about Vang Vieng.  First of all, it is all tourists partaking in the sport of “tubing”.  Second of all, it pretty much undermines everything about Lao culture and respect.  Third of all, it is severely dangerous.  People get too drunk and die often, easy to understand.  Me and Chelsea kept it pretty much in control but we have some big bruises from smacking the water too hard, or doing to many back flops/ belly flops.  (Chelsea has a huge, black bruise on her left butt cheek.  It looks like a hit a grand slam on her booty).  All in all, we tubed for three days!  Even though it was like the ‘vegas’ of Laos, we had tons of fun.  Fun that you could only have in a country lacking a legal system, and basically any sort of rules at all.

We made some friends!  Chelsea = Cats (who would have guessed!)  and me... I found some very strange birds!











    We also went hot air ballooning.  It was only $70 USD each, so we could not pass that up!  It was great, see the vid. below!





     Today we got some passport pictures taken (16 for $2.00!  I knew that $20 for 2 back home was such a rip off!) and tomorrow we are applying for our Vietnamese VISA.  Once we get that, we will jump on a plane and fly to Hanoi.  Originally we were coming home April 16th, but we might not get to see everything we want by then, so luckily with Korean Air we can push our plane tickets for free!
Laos phrase of the day “Suk-di pee-mai”  = Give me a good deal!
Also, I would recommend that everyone check out the 2011 Asian Beach Games.  Some cool/interesting sports involved!  I like volleyball, no hands and tent pegging.  It is a huge deal here right now!
Cheers!

Mack

Chelsea's Phonsovan, Laos slide show!

A little bit of food…

One major part of our trip has been eating. While in Luang Prabang I have taken some pictures of what we are eating. Unfortunately we found a bakery with the most amazing bread, so some of it is Western Food. (Stephanie P. I tried to set up food scenes like you do…. yours are better. Everyone go to Hostess in Rain boots and look at her blog!)
Breakfast     
 


Rice Pork Soup- We eat this a lot. The soup contains broth, rice, pig bones (though we are never sure which ones, Mack thought that this particular batch was pig knee), pig blood, and though there was none in this bowl sometimes we get sausage meatballs.
Little doughnut things with sweetened condensed milk inside. We buy them at the morning market.
Green Tea grown in Luang Prabang
Morning Market
This is where all of the people in town (restaurants included) get meat, veggies, and food for the day. This is a picture of what the meat section looks like. All of the meat is kept out in the open, This vendor used cardboard to keep her meat off of the table. The flies are in HEAVEN as you can see.

Lunch
This is the time of the day where we have been hitting up the bakery JOMA
I ordered this Reuben and I loved it! THICK slices of corned beef, and a little extra garlic somewhere, maybe hidden in the 1000 island dressing. I was pleasantly surprised. Day 2 I ordered a Tuna sandwich, SO Yummy! Mack ordered a BLT on day and chili in a bread bowl day 2.
     

after lunch…pit stop for a beer Lao, to admire the crops and watch young monks play In the river. A person can choose to be a monk at any time, these boys looked to be between the ages of 6 at 12.

 
 
Dinner
After our Beer Loas, Mack and I rode his red rider, and my pink furry down the river. We were so inspired by the young monks we jumped in! For dinner we went 2 places..
The first was a restaurant on the Mekong to watch the sunset and play cards.

here is what mack saw…

we only had spring rolls here, and I forgot to take a pic, but after that we went and had Indian food. This is the closest to India we have ever been, so we were excited because we thought the food would probably taste better than at home. It DID!