having too much fun to blog :)

Don't worry about me if you don't hear much from me in the next few days/weeks. I'm here in the northern part of Australia, Queensland, which they call the sun shine state. It is hot and humid, but very beautiful and fun here. I've been in Cairns (pronounced cannes or cans, lol) for that last few days. I met up with a new group of really nice cool people who I'll be traveling with for the next 10 days or so. Everyone seems to be in their 20's and from lots of different countries and most importantly, everyone is super nice and chill. So this is all good!
Today we went out to the Great Barrier Reef for a full day of snorkeling. It was pretty amazing. I tried to be really good and put sun block on all day, but of course there are still spots on my back that got sun burned. Not too bad, though. There are also rain forests here too and yesterday we did this thing where you take a gondola down from the top of a mountain village above the rain forest. It was pretty cool. (Not as cool as the gondolas and the views in Switzerland, but I guess really you can't compare the two).
Cairns is a funny little town. Not much here really other than some hotels and bars and a few night clubs. And they still seem to be into trance music here, lol. I think it's because of all the digeridoos (I know I'm spelling that wrong) and drums and aboriginal, back to nature, dance type stuff. In Melbourne there was drum and bass everywhere it seemed like. (ok, everywhere I was hanging out). But here it's like back to Saturday night trance parties and tons of little shops selling om stuff and you know, your typical trance/hippie stuff. Ha. Yesterday at this cafe they were playing a mixed cd that I had in college. I couldn't place it, not K&D, not Tosca, but something like that. It was nice. This place has a nice mellow vibe, but if you stayed here too long, you might be bored. Although you can dive and snorkel on the reef, bungee jump, sky dive, river raft, wake board, kite board, so yeah, there's plenty to keep you busy, if you could afford it.
Things in Australia are definitely more expensive that I was expecting them to be.
And I found out that for some reason they canceled the 2 day sailing thing I was going to do. So I guess I'll just be chillin' on the beach in Long Island in the Whitsunday's, which should be just fine with me.
So yeah, you might not here from me for the next few days cause I'll be out on that island, and I'm not bringing my computer. It's another one of those things where we take a little boat there and then have to hike to where we are staying, so I'm only bringing a little day pack.
But it's only about 2 weeks now until I come home. I'm feeling a little excited about that to be honest.

Aussie slang

There is so much great Aussie slang! I think some of it might be the same as British slang. I'm trying to remember it as I encounter it, but it's hard, so I'm gonna blog it for the archives. Here's what I've got so far:

In stead of like right on, or something like that it's "good on ya".

And all the guys here will call you "love". How sweet, eh?
Or of course, "mate" is the other one.

And you don't order take out food, it's food to "take away".

And it's not a non-fat latte, it's a "skinny latte".
And there is no diet coke, only "coke light".

If someone offers you a stick of gum, they ask if you want a "chewy".

And instead of a sweat shirt or a hoodie, it's a "jumper".

And breakfast is "brekky". I love that one... "let's get some brekky."

There is so much more, but that's all I can think of right now.

on this trip I've gotten over my totally irrational fear of...

jalapenos, honey dew melon, leeks, relish on burgers, red and green peppers, avocados, tomatoes, onions, and plain yogurt or fresh yogurt (not from a little container).

wow! can you believe it? all that stuff is actually good. who knew?!

Melbourne: I <3 this city!!

imho Melbourne kicks soooo much ass over Sydney.
Sydney was just alright.
But Melbourne is so nice. I love it. It reminds me of being at home in the bay. It's a little chilly. You shouldn't go anywhere without your hoodie, but they would call it a jumper. I love the style here, and there are so many great places to just chill. Little bars and cafes and tons of good coffee everywhere! And no flies. I haven't been here long, but I can already tell that I love this place. And I've already found a few cool things to do tonight. So I'm happy!
But you know what is weird... they don't have Kettle One here. Grey Goose, and that will do just fine, I guess. But what is up with no Kettle One? strange.

Sydney: man, what is up with all the flies?!

What an amazing freakin' city this would be if it weren't for all the little flies. Seriously, you guys... it's like you are walking down the street and 2 or 3 little flies will just buzz all around your face and head. They'll land on your arms and follow you all the way down the block. I felt like pig pen. (Is that the little dirty guy's name from the snoopy cartoon?) At first I thought it was just me. I thought that maybe my perfume was like a fly magnet or something, but then I noticed that everyone was trying to swat at these bitches. Gross. A city full of flies. Why?
Anyway, I had a lovely afternoon in Sydney. I walked to the Opera house and had a fabulous cocktail and mixed greed salad at the opera bar watching the sun set over the harbor bridge. Then I walked around some more... and some more, until I found exactly what I wanted to eat for dinner in this little French cafe that, of course, had some very good wine to compliment the meal. The perfect compliment to my meal.
And I know it's lame to be going to bed so early, but I'm freakin' exhausted from Hong Kong and from the plane ride and from walking all over the place today!
(and I have to get up early for my bike ride tomorrow.)
(oh, and these mosquito bites on my legs are out of control! what can I do?! they are red and if I touch them at all they start itching like crazy! does benedryl work to make them stop itiching? I bought this mentholy stuff in HK that kind of worked, but then I lost it some where. Doh! ugh... gotta not think about the itchies... it's so hard!)

made it to Sydney

phew. that was a long and very full flight. I didn't sleep much. Then it took forever to get out of the airport. I got in at around 8am, and got to my hotel around 10am, but the room wasn't ready yet. So I just wandered around the neighborhood a bit and there is this really nice organic grocery store across the street and a bunch of little book shop cafes. I haven't been eating hardly any salads or fruit in Asia because I didn't want to get sick, so that is what I'm super craving. I think it should be no problem to find some good healthy food around here, though.
I got into my room around 11am and had to sleep for a few hours, but now I'm up, showered and ready to go wander around some more. I think I'm gong to head down to the center of town and check out the opera house. Tomorrow I'm doing a bike tour that starts around there, so I better figure out my way. Then tomorrow afternoon I think I'm either going to head to Bondi beach, or take the ferry to Manly.

HK... I love this city!

Hong Kong is so fun. I really love this city! The MTR, their subway, makes it so easy and fast to get around. And the busses and ferries are also super cool and easy to use. Of course I did the touristy thing and took the tram up to Victoria Peak to see the view. I did it on Saturday and it was soooo freakin' crowded. And then you get up there and look out and it is so hazy. You can't really see too much. I'm still not sure if it's smog or what, but it's pretty unpleasant. I guess that is how it looks in LA, too, huh? Gross. We are spoiled in the Bay. I'm sure we have some pollution, but it never looks like that! There is so much shopping to do in this city, but unless you are in the markets, everything is really expensive. Food here is also expensive. I've spent as much in Hong Kong in the last 2 days, as I did in Vietnam and China in the last 2 or so weeks. Doh! But I got some good knock off stuff, lol. It's the going out for food and drinks that kills you here. But we found a surpriseing wicked decent Mexican food restaurant last night with a huge tequilla selection. It was heaven, after nothing but asian food and rice wine! Hong Kong is not a place you'd really want to stay too long, though because it is so expensive. Hotels are really expensive too. But I guess there are some good hikes and parks and stuff you could do other than shopping.
I leave for Sydney tonight and I'm sooo excited to be going to Australia. Although, I just found out that they have 9 out of the 10 most deadliest snakes in the world and they have some kind of common deadly spider. Great. Right now I have like 20 mossie bites on each leg from my knees down to my ankles and they itch sooo freakin' bad. I think I was scratching them in my sleep, cause they are getting worse not better. Argh! That's gonna be real cute when I finally get to start wearing shorts again. It will be so nice to be in a country where you don't have to worry about keeping your shoulders and knees covered. And where they eat cheese! And have Kettle One!! w00t!

China is crazy! (link to some pics)

The contrast between the rural villages and the cities is just amazing! We went from staying in a guest house out in the country side with no heat, no hot water, to staying in a city the next night where the side of the on ramps for the freeways are lit up in neon lights.
And the people here are crazy too! Some of them are so rude you can hardly believe it. Is it just a cultural difference? I don't know. But they will crowd you in line, pretend you don't even exist. And the spitting is just really too much for me. Last night at the cultural show, there were 3 middle aged Chinese couples in front of us and they did not stop talking for more than 1 minute during the entire show. They didn't even lower their voices or anything. They were practically shouting at each other the whole time. And they were in the 2nd row, and at one point there were all these little girls on stage right in front of us singing and these guys were like mocking them and pretending to sing like them, hella loud. I just couldn't believe it.
But of course not everyone here is rude. There are plenty of people with manners, and it tends to be the younger ones, I think. Because of the Olympics they have these commercials that try to show people waiting patiently in line and being courteous to each other, sharing their umbrellas and stuff like that. But I don't think they are having much of an impact so far.
Anyway, here's a link to my China pics. (I might try to take some more later today.)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18446987@N00/sets/72157602380254266/

Yangshuo (my last real stop in China cause Hong Kong doesn't really count)

This place is cool. I like it. But I guess so does everybody else, because you can tell it is turning into the backpacker hangout of China. From here you can do a bunch of cool stuff like rock climbing, kayaking, cycling, hiking, visit caves, mud baths and there are lots of little shops and bars popping up all over. There is a main little pedestrian street where most of the touristy stuff is, and the town is small enough that you can pretty much walk everywhere, which I love. Today we did a 5 hour bike ride, and even though it was pretty much all flat, it was along these super rocky dirt roads and it was really rough riding. But it was fun. And you ride by rivers and all these limestone karsts, which are really cool and unusual. And it's not cold here! The weather has actually been perfect.
Tonight I'm going to see a light show / cultural show that was put together by the guy who is doing the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. They promised me it wasn't going to be cheesy, but I have my doubts. I usually don't like doing these super touristy things, but it is outside against the karsts, and who knows, maybe it will be good. I hope so.
I have all day tomorrow to wander around and I'm going to try to get my pictures sorted and posted and get a little more laundry done.
Then tomorrow night we take a 12 hour night train into Shenzen and then cross the boarder over into Hong Kong. Supposedly there is good Mexican food in Hong Kong, and a Ben and Jerry's. Gonna check that out for sure! So far I've only had fast food once on my trip, chicken tenders from Burger King in Phuket at the airport cause I was starving and wasn't going to be able to eat for a long time. I haven't had coffee since Chaing Mai, almost a month ago. (There is also Starbucks in Hong Kong, and I don't think I will be able to resist.) To be honest, if I never eat Chinese food again, I think it will be just fine.
I think I might look into buying a camera in Hong Kong, if I can find a good enough deal. Other than that I'm done with shopping! I've managed to get everything I ever wanted and much more! Shopping here is so fun. It's not like shopping at home where you're like "I want to get that but I can't afford it, or I shouldn't." It's more like, "let's see, what else can I spend my money on and any little thing that looks cool, your like, yup, I'll take it." But I have been bargaining too and I'm getting pretty good at it. Although, when it gets down to the end, I usually just give in cause you start to realize that you're arguing over like a dollar, if even.

Life in a rural minority village in China...

would suck soooo bad! Maybe that is culturally insensitive to say out loud, but oh man, that is sure what I'm thinking. Be thankful people, be so thankful that you were not born here! The majority of rural China seems like an absolute hell hole. I know I'm not suposed to say that but, I can't complain to say these things to anyone else around me, so I'm sharing my inner most thoughts with you. The privledged few. Seriously though, I thought growing up in Wasco was boring. There is nothing out in these villages. From 7 - 16 you go to school. Then after that most kids go to the city to work and send money home to the village because there is no real work in the villages. If you are a girl and you go to the city you can get a job in a store or a restaurant or hotel or something. If you are a boy it's pretty much going to work in a factory assembling cheap, made in china, stuff or construction. Everything in China is under construction. Then when you're ready to get married, so early 20's you come back to the village. And get this... they only get married on the Chinese new year. So on new year's eve, every family with a daughter that is marrying age opens their door and invites the marrying age boys to come over and visit. Often the boys get really drunk first and travel in packs. They go around and talk to the girls and their families for one night, and then if the conversation or whatever goes good, they propose and get married the next day. The next freakin' day!!! How crazy is that?! The girl does have the right to say no if she doesn't like the guy. But I'm like what happens if a week later your like, actually, this guy is a jerk? I guess your screwed.
Today was horrible. We had to take 2 public buses, very public and it took hours longer than we thought it would. On the first bus there were like 5 guys who chain smoked the whole way. One guy in the back who was like coughing up a lung the whole time. And this other guy who kept spitting, sometimes out the window but sometimes just on the floor of the bus. Lunch was the high point. I had noodles and veggtables, and they were a little spicy but not too spicy and it was 5 yuan, which is like .75 or something. The 2nd public bus also had chain smokers with rotting teeth but in army uniforms this time. That somehow made it even more replusive for some reason. Just like walking through the morning market in Laos made me want to be a vegetarian... traveling on public busses in China makes me want to become a lesbian. Ha! Just like the vegetarian thing, it's not really going to happen, but these Chinese men are so freaking gross you guys! Lots of them have long nails for some reason, and I think a lot of people here just never wash their hands. In the last 2 guest houses we've stayed at, with only squat toilets mind you, they don't even give you any soap. How is that ok? How can you live without soap? Gross! Now I know you're not supposed to say something is bad, just "different" but I'm sorry not washing your hands is bad. Spitting on the bus, spitting inside the elevator, that's bad! There is no culturally sensitive way around that, I'm afriad. The women are way less revulting and actually smile and seem nice, but it's really only because they want to sell you something I think. (I'm in a foul mood, can you tell?) Oh yeah, so on the 2nd bus, we are on these crazy dirt and rock windy roads up in the mountains and with each turn I keep thinking we are going to plunge over the cliff and die. Then this big truck in front of us blows a tire, and my first thought is that it is a road side bomb. I'm like oh great, they have those here too! But of course it wasn't. But a rock did fly up and hit this lady in the chin and she was bleeding and some other lady was holding her stomach. It delayed us for a bit. Then we get 5 minutes from our destination and there is all this road construction and we have to sit and wait for like 30 minutes or more. It was so annoying. If it weren't for my ipod, I'd be ready to kill people right about now. So anyway after all the adventures on the bus, we finally get to the base of the Longji Valley, and we have to hike about an hour uphill, up these rocky uneven steps, through the rice paddies to our guest house. The hike was actually really nice. And the terraced rice paddies are pretty amazing. I wanted to stay pissed, but it was kinda of hard. It felt really good to finally be outside and seeing something beautiful. So far, everytime I think to myself, ok this river is actually nice, it is pretty here, then someone will come along and throw a huge handful of trash out the window of the bus, or out of their store front window and ruin the whole thing. It really seems like people here could really care less, about their health, about their teeth, about common courtesy, about the environment. It's nuts. Anyway, enough of my complaining. Then next few days we are trekking from one guest house, through the hills and rice paddie fields to the next guest house. It should be nice. I only wish the accomodations weren't so crappy once you finally get to your destination. Still only squat toilets. They put the shower head like right over the toilet, which I don't understand at all. The sink drains right onto the floor right by your feet. It's just insane. I can't wait to freakin' get to Hong Kong. I'm really not cut out for this shit. I know I know, it's an adventure, but let me tell you, not one that will ever need to be repeated.

Chengyang (a Dong minority village)

Not sure what happened to my last blog because the power just went out. So here goes attempt number two. Right now we are in Chengyang, which is a Dong village in the Guangxi Autonomous Region. We are staying in a very basic guest house with no heat in the rooms (and it is chilly!) and only squat toilets. They say there is hot water, but I think it takes about 15 min. to come on. All of our meals are served banquet style meaning they just bring out about 4 or 5 dishes and some rice. So far the food has been pretty good. I even ate eggplant today at lunch and it wasn't half bad.
All morning we walked around the area and visited a bunch of little villages and walked through the rice paddies. There is a Wind and Rain Bridge that was completed in 1916 after 12 years of construction and there isn't one nail in the whole thing. During the day local ladies set up shop on the bridge and sell their handicrafts. This afternoon we tried some oil tea, I think it was called. It was sweet and good, with little like rice crispy things floating in it. They grow a lot of green tea around here up on the hillsides and rice down where it is lower. They can't get a good price for the rice so they just grow it for their families for the year. Here the men basically plant rice or help build houses. When they are too old to do those things, they spend their days in the Drum Tower smoking tobacco and playing cards. Today we stopped and had tea in a drum tower with a guy who is 78 years old. He is really hunched over and has almost no teeth left. Here they don't go to the dentist because they think it is too expensive to go to the proper dentist in the nearest town. So instead they wait until the toothache gets really really bad then they pay just a few Yuan to get the tooth pulled in the local market. So most old people have almost no teeth and they ones they have seem to be all rotted. It's no good. And Tim, our local Dong guide who took us on the walk this morning, said that 90% of the men here smoke. He said the young people sort of know it is bad for them, but they do it anyway because they see all the older people doing it, and of course to look cool. He said he has cut way down on his smoking, though. He also said that unlike in the west, where they have tons of warnings on cigarette boxes, here their boxes say things like, "smoke these cigarettes and you'll be able to fly." I don't know if that is true or not, but the Chinese government basically owns or heavily subsidizes the tabacco industry and so instead of discouraging people to smoke, they are still encouraging people to smoke. I think it's part of their population control plan. Just kill off all the people by encouraging them to smoke. In the afternoon we saw a cultural dance performance, and someone in the village had a baby today so there were a bunch of men in the square eating and forcing each other to drink rice wine. I took a shot and it wasn't that bad. Kinda sweet, actually. We saw some other tourists, but they were Chinese tourists and they kept wanting to take pictures of Anne and I. It was weird. But I guess we really stick out around here.

attack of the bed bugs

Argh... bed bugs again. This time the tiny ones you can't see, which is far less traumatic, but the bites itch bad and are super annoying. And I realized it in the middle of the night, so then I had to try to get back in that bed and sleep and it was horrible. I really don't like these bed bugs.
Now we are back in rural China, up higher in the mountains staying in a Dong Village, and it is freakin' cold. I didn't really bring any warm clothes. Just one pair of jeans and one long sleeve shirt and a sweat shirt and a wind breaker. So I guess I'll be wearing all that stuff for like the next 4 days. Fun. We are off to do some trekking though, so I'm sure we will warm up. And I have my silk sleep sheet which makes it pleny cozy at night.
One week left in China.

link to Vietnam pics

I didn't take that many pictures in Vietnam.
But here is what I got:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18446987@N00/sets/72157602383411995/

enjoy!

My first public bus in China (Ningming to Nanning)

OMG… you guys! Ok this was a 2 hour bus journey. We get on the bus and I’m thinking that it’s not too bad, decent seats, just a regular bus. It is an express bus, which is a little more expensive and goes straight there instead of stopping whenever someone flags the bus down. So as soon as we get on, Pete looks out the window and goes, “oh no, I hope that lady isn’t getting on our bus.” Turns out he’d seen her puking her guts out a few minutes earlier. So she is standing outside, and then a dad and a baby get on and sit in the seats right in front of her. The at the last minute right before the bus starts moving the pukey lady gets on and sits next to the dad and the baby (right in front of us).
Now in China, they don’t put their babies in diapers, which is probably a good thing, because can you imagine the mountains of disposable diapers there would be if they did. So instead of diapers, they either put their babies in these pants that have big wide slits down the back and their asses just hang out and whenever they need to go, they just squat and go, or they get held out and just go or whatever. But not all the babies seem to wear the slit pants, especially if they are taking a bus ride, I’m guessing. So in that case, I guess the parents just try to pay attention and as soon as the kid starts going, they rip his pants down and hold him over a trash can or outside or something.
So the bus ride starts and everything seems to be going ok. The baby seems happy. They play this horrible, cheesy, violent movie about corrupt officials vs good officials and some lady getting raped and her whole family killed and then her getting framed for it by her attacker who happens to be the navy captain’s son. I was hoping to be able to just ignore it but it had English subtitles, so I’d find myself watching it even though I totally didn’t want to. Anyway, the parents start feeding their baby candy. A lollipop, and this si just a baby. He is slobbering sticky slobber all over the place. Then he starts to shit, I guess, cause the dad jumps up, pulls his pants down and tries to position him over the trash can in the front of the bus. The bus driver immediately pulls over and the dad jumps out with the baby so he can finish the job, I guess. As soon as they are out of the bus, the mom starts puking in a plastic bag. (Thank goodness I had my ipod on so I couldn’t hear any of these, but believe me seeing it was enough). So she is puking repeatedly, but doesn’t get off he bus. Dad and baby get back on and she hands him the bag of puke to deal with. I’m also amazed that none of this smelled bad. I usually have a sensitive nose and puke smell totally makes me gag, so I was looking away trying to pretend none of this was happening, but just waiting to smell it and to be sick too, but it didn’t happen, thankfully. So they settle back in their seats and we are off again. Then the baby starts crying. Then screaming. They seem sort of frantic and are trying to the baby to stop crying. They put it on their back, take turns holding it, but nothing is working. So then the dad smacks it a couple times. Not too hard, like child abuse, but still, I’m not used to seeing a little baby, who can’t even talk yet or anything, get slapped. So it goes on like this. I just try to zone out to my ipod.
Then this guy moves his curtain thingy and I see what I’m pretty sure was a cockroach, fly out of the curtain and land on the seat, head rest thing in front of me. I’m like, oh shit. And it crawls the other way out of site, and then all of a sudden it’s back and it like jumps in between Anne and I. We both sort of scramble to try to smash it or flick it away or something, and I think Anne brushed it off the seat, but I have no idea where it went. And to me that was worse than the shitting baby and puking mom, an unknown cockroach crawling somewhere right around me. So I’m just trying to sit still, keeping my eyes peeled for the cockroach.
Then we get to Nanning and we are driving through the city and we turn this corner, and I see all these people, like maybe 20 on scooters, just stopped and looking. I look closer and I see a motorcycle or scooter in the road, and a person laying face down in the street not moving at all. I think the police had just got there or something, but it must have just happened. And everyone was looking, but it didn’t seem like anyone was doing anything or making any movement towards this person that was laying (dead?) in the road. Holy Crap! What a freakin’ trip! What could possibly be next?!
So we get into the bus station and we get tickets for our next bus (also public) that leaves in like 15 minutes. Anne tries to go to the bathroom, but it’s a mad house and there are tons of ladies in there, and they keep crowding her and won’t let her go. After like 10 minutes I went in to check on her and she was standing there. I tried to tell her to be assertive and just use her elbows, but I think she is too nice. I went out and then a few minutes later went back in and she was still in the same place, so I told her we had to go, and we did. So neither of us got to pee. (I didn’t even attempt it, it was too gross in there for me anyway). And we haven’t had any food other than the few biscuits and cookie things we bought before we got on the first bus. (Again, so glad I have my stash of energy bars!).

Into China – Hua Shan

So today we crossed the boarder into China. And the China side of the border, their passport control and everything, was sooo much nicer than Vietnams. At the desk where you give your passport to the guy and he checks it out and asks you a few questions, there was this sign that said you can comment on my performance. And there was this machine on the table with very satisfied, satisfied, unsatisfied, very unsatisfied. And there were little happy faces or sad faces under them, with captions like “took too long”, “bad service”. And they were very nice and very efficient, but I was afraid to push any buttons.
We stopped for lunch at what seemed to just be some people’s house, but maybe it was a guest house too. Anyway, it was one of those lunches where they just bring out some food, whatever they decided to make that day. And yuck city. Tofu with tomatoes, eggplant, pork and potatoes (all I really ate was some rice and potatoes), and fried pumpkin (which I tried and ate one whole piece of, but…), oh and some more of that mystery green stuff, which is slimy and also gross. Good thing half of my back pack is full of power bars and I stocked up on biscuits and ritz crackers, otherwise I’d be starving here, I think. And dinner tonight is the same kind of deal, although our trip notes say the food is very good. Hmm… we’ll see about that.
So after lunch I was in a bit foul mood because the food was gross and this cat wouldn’t leave me alone and bees and huge bugs kept buzzing all around me and I had to keep jumping up from the table and causing a scene during the icky meal. So when I couldn’t stand sitting at the table anymore I sat across the yard, listening to my ipod and this is what I wrote in my notebook:
What the fuck am I doing in southern rural China?! Ugh, the cats and the bugs and the dog don’t want to leave me alone. It’s like they can sense that I hate them and they are just trying to fuck with me. And then on top of that they always play the worst, I mean WORST, cheesiest karaoke cover songs that I have ever heard. Celine Dion must be like a god here in Asia because everywhere you go they are playing that “near far, wherever you are…” crap song, and most of the time it’s not even her singing but some horrible cover. It’s really bad. If I never hear another Celine Dion song, it will be too soon. “I’m your laday…” and all that shit. Ugh… it makes me want to kill myself. And my ipod is crapping out and I can only get about 5 hours out of the battery but it’s 5 hours I will cherish of absolutely no cheesy love songs. I’m so glad I have so many good mixes and good music on my ipod or I would be going insane right now. No wait… I’m already going insane. How can these people be so ape shit over music that sucks sooo bad?! Like that alone is almost enough to make me write off the entire Asian culture all together. I’m sorry, but your taste in music is just too awful to tolerate. Your cheesy love song covers ruined it, people. You’re done. (JK) I’m sure my music drives other people insane, although no, there is no fucking way it is as bad as this crap they are playing right now. Don’t come to Asia without an ipod and some ear plugs! You’ll die. I wanna get a big henna tattoo that says, “fuck Celine Dion, she suck!” They’d probably have a heart attack and drop dead in the streets. Tattoss are still pretty taboo here so when they see someone with a tattoo, they stop and stare and point and stuff. Ha ha… ok maybe not a tattoo, but I at least want to make a shirt that says Celine Dion, with one of those big red circles with the slash through it, meaning NO Celine Dion. Yes, I think that is a must for my next Asia trip. Another reason I’m realizing that Asia and I don’t gel 100% is that I absolutely hate karaoke. Not that I’ve ever actually been, because I can tell already that I would hate it, but if I was forced to go, the only way I could deal would be to make the biggest joke out of it possible. And here you can’t even joke about karaoke. They take it way to freakin’ seriously. It’s not fun and games at all, it’s like a life long passion. (Are you kidding me with that crap?!) And all they want to sing are cheesy, often sad, love songs. Why?! There is no way in hell I would ever enjoy a night of listening to that. Puke city. Just go ahead and kill me now, please. I’d never live through a night of that, let alone a life time! I don’t see how they can be so into it. It truly is the one cultural different I just can’t get over. Go ahead and eat kittens or dogs, spit and smoke cigarettes everywhere you go, fine, whatever. I can get used to that I guess, or I can at least close my eyes and pretend it’s not happening. But I will never be okay with the cheesy love song karaoke bull shit. I feel so bad for all the young people who grow up thinking that is cool. But I guess its their choice. They fucked up. There has to be something else out there they could be listening too, doesn’t there? Maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s all there is. No, that can’t be possible. They truly like it and choose it for some unexplainable reason. Anyway, back to me wondering what I’m doing here. We are going to spend our whole time in China in the Guangxi Region, which is the Southern most and poorest part of China. It is mostly rural and agricultural, with a lot of ethnic minority villages, which we will be visiting and saying in. (The exact opposite of the kind of stuff that I tend to like, great!) It is a much slower pace of life in this region (aka boring as hell). And seriously, I’m wondering what am I doing here. What was I thinking? Well, I know what I was thinking… I need to get myself back to Hong Kong, I’ve always wanted to go to China and the dates of this trip worked out perfectly. So here I am. Oh, and I haven’t told you about our new group yet. It’s down to just 4 of us. Anne and myself. Then this utterly typical German guy, Andreas, and our “guide” Pete, who is a 26 year old from Colorado who has virtually no sense of humor or personality, and although he totally doesn’t, likes to sort act like he knows everything. He’s not afraid to say “I don’t know” when you ask him a question, but he’s got that sort of George Bush air of confidence about him, when he does try to talk, that makes me want to throw my shoe at him. (That’s how I feel about George Bush anyway, it hasn’t gotten quite that bad with Pete yet). Pete’s run this trip about 5 times and knows a little Chinese, what he’s been able to pick up in the 6 months he’s been here. But it is definitely different to have such a small group. The good thing is we certainly don’t look like a tour group, we just look like 4 white people traveling together. The bad thing is that these are not people I would have really ever chosen to travel with, except Anne, who is super cool and I’m thankful every single day that she is here with me otherwise, I’d really be pissed off right now. And I’m not really pissed off right now, I’m just realizing this isn’t going to be my dream trip through China. But that’s ok. It will be an adventure none the less.
And even though this isn’t really the part of China that I’m most interested in, I’m sure there are going to be really cool things to see here, and it’s good that I’m seeing it now, because at the rate that China is changing and developing, this could be an entirely different place in a few years. Sort of like Laos. We are in Huashan right now, which is just a tiny tiny village that sees almost no westerners. Nobody really speaks English in the whole place, even at the one hotel, and at the one restaurant. We are here because along the river there are these minority rock paintings that are about 2000 years old. A farmer reported the paintings to the government in 1954 and a little research has been done on them, but not much. They don’t know who made them or what they mean exactly. We took a boat to go see them this afternoon. And they were pretty cool, but it’s hard to get super excited about a few red paintings after having been to Egypt and seeing all that they build around the same time period. But whatever, it was still cool, and like I said hardly any westerners come here to see it. There were 2 other Chinese tourists on the boat with us, though. This region, Southern China, is becoming a big tourist destination for local Chinese people, that is why it will probably be ruined. Because they will come in hoards and won’t check their development, and soon they’ll turn it into their own disneylandish type of place. While I was in Thailand I saw this program that was talking about development in the Longji Valley (which is exactly where we are going and the first time I had heard anything about this place). It basically said that a few years ago the town of Longji was this pictures perfect place with tons of old buildings and traditional everything, exactly the way it had been for a super long time. And in the local culture there everything in the family, property, business ect… is handed down along the women’s side of the family, not the men’s. So they had their own culture and it was just a really interesting place and there were family that had lived there for a long long time. Then the tourists started coming and they opened night clubs and bars in the little traditional city. And the market in the city stopped selling daily staples and started selling only tourist crap. And soon, the local people had to go to another city to buy basic groceries, and couldn’t sleep at night in their houses that their families had lived in for years and years because of the noise from the night clubs. So the traditional families are now basically be driven out by the tourists, who come to look at their traditional little town. I was like man, that sucks. And now I’m about to be one of those tourists. Shite! I think Intrepid is even considering not taking any more trips through there like maybe next year because it has gotten so bad and they are all about trying to have as positive impact as possible on the places they visit. But I guess it’s also just one more reason to see it now, before it gets totally ruined. I just hate to think that I’m part of the problem. Oh well. I’m already here, not much I can do about it now. And I had so much stuff going on in my life before I came on this trip, that I didn’t properly do my research and I had no idea what I was going to see on this China part of the trip. I only recognized like 2 cities we were going through (one being Hong Kong, lol) and I didn’t know anything about the Longji Valley or any of the minority tribal villages we are visiting or any of that. (I still don’t really).
And I didn’t bring a guide booking, hoping I could just borrow one from someone else and nobody else brought one either. So I’m totally clueless, and so far Pete’s explanations about things have been like 2 sentences max. (He’s busy constantly texting his new girlfriend in Sapa, Vietnam.) Oh and I found out that at a lot of boarder crossings in China (not the one we went through cause it is a pretty small one that hardly sees any western tourists), but they will confiscate your Lonely Planet China book because it does not include or consider Taiwan to be a part of China. Crazy!
So since we are getting into a part of this trip that is going to be pretty boring… well, I shouldn’t say that but in these villages, there is lots of time to read or just wander or whatever. And I already read the book that I brought, which was really good by the way. It was called Fluke by Christopher Moore (thanks for the recommendation Amanda!) and it was funny and interesting and I really liked it. Anyway, done with the book, so my ipod and this blog are my only friends and my only time wasters. I feel so bad for all you blog readers as you try to sort through what is really just my random lucid thoughts. On the plane from SFO-EWR I was typing furiously and when I got off the plane the guy sitting next to me said, “what, are you writing a book?” And I said, “yeah, sort of.” But I’m so sorry dear reader, what a horrible book this must be as there is absolutely no afore thought (is that a word, I don’t even know), no editing, no theme, no plot, no characters, no nothing. Just the random ramblings of a confused mind. I guess that would be the title then: Random Ramblings of a Confused Mind, (as recorded while traveling solo through Egypt, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, China and Australia). Yeah, I don’t think that’s ever gonna get published. (Especially if I keep using words like gonna and lol, lol). So yeah, just want to apologize for all my randomness. Definitely don’t feel like you have to read on. I’m just wasting time, letting my mind wander. I can type just as fast as I think, which lets these words just flow. Hence, the rambling, I guess.
So dinner tonight was alright. Better than the food yesterday or the day before and way better than lunch today. But still, I’ve had better Chinese food at Grand China in Bakersfield! Tonight we did have something I’d never had before and it was actually good/ok. It was Taro, stuffed with something (maybe like minced pork or veggies, or like what would maybe be in the middle of a pot sticker, but only a thin layer of it) and the the Taro thing was fried on the outside. Of course anything fried is always good, right? He ordered sweet potato something, and this is what we got. It wasn’t a sweet potato and seemed kind of like a reg. potato but not quite. Pete says it was Taro, but I thought Taro, like the kind from Hawaii at least, was all pinkish purple, and this was not that. So I guess I don’t really know what it was but it was pretty good. Then we had beef in oyster sauce, cashew chicken and sweet and sour pork and bok choy and rice. Pretty standard stuff, and not bad, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying good either. Just edible, which is more than I can really say for the last 3 meals I tried to eat. (I’m so glad I brought a million cliff bars with me!)

Vietnam- Cat Ba Island and Halong Bay

To me Vietnam is a very cool and yet crazy place full of contradictions. For one, it is still a communist country, but very much driven, economically, by capitalism. It’s economy has been growing at like 7% a year for the last few years (Not sure how many exactly). You can get pretty much anything and everything here, but people still can’t really speak their mind or be critical of the government (no freedom of speech or of press or any of that stuff.) And yet the internet is everywhere and is available to more and more and like I said, you a free to buy and sell just about anything (including endangered animals ect…) and it just seems weird to me that those two things can coexist and that the people seem to be ok with it all. I honestly have no idea if the people are ok with it or not. What’s also weird is that their communist government actually seems to be doing a pretty good job. (I’m totally ignorant to Vietnam’s recent political history and I don’t know if they, like China, have been accused of human rights violations and all that, so I don’t really know if they are doing a good job or if they are totally scary or what). But they’ve got a bunch of money from their growing economy and they seem to be using it to build their infrastructure, roads, bridges, schools ect. (I read that maybe this is just an attempt to appease the people and keep them from raising questions about all money and corruption and the legitimacy of the government), but no matter the motive, they seem to be getting things done. (Although their passport control offices at both borders were totally filthy and in way worse conditions than China’s).
What was also crazy to me, was that I was watching a local Vietnamese news program the other day, and it was just after things had started to settle down after this typhoon that had rolled through central Vietnam, which I think we caught the tail end of on that drive that one day. Anyway, during that typhoon a bridge collapsed and like 20 or so people died. And this government man came on the news and said that the government was taking full responsibility for the bridge collapse and that is was totally unacceptable and they were looking into making sure whatever happened never happened again, and they were giving scholarships to all the children of the people who had died so that they could stay in school. Basically, the government was saying, hey that accident was our fault and we’re really sorry and we’re trying not to make sure it happens again and here’s something to help you through this tragedy. And I thought man, that’s so much further than our government has ever seemed willing to go. Now granted it was only 20 people, or whatever, not nearly on par with Katrina or anything, but to hear a government official on live television say that he was accepting full responsibility for something, was like an amazing to hear. In the US nobody is willing to accept responsibility for anything or admit to their mistakes. (especially Bush). No matter how big the blunder and how obvious it is, US politicians will just stand up there pretending nothing is wrong, that the problem doesn’t exist, or make some kind of excuse for their inaction or just pretend they are doing all that can be done when they’re not. (And when all else fails, just check yourself into rehab and then declare yourself cured in 30 days). Like even after that bridge collapsed in the US and I’m pretty sure people died, right? But nobody stood up and took responsibility, cal trans or whatever they have in that state, or the engineers, or the local government. That would just never happen. And I guess the reason it would never happen is because as soon as someone admitted fault, they’d be sued for millions or billions of dollars. That’s why nobody in the US and ever take responsibility or can admit liability for anything. Because as soon as you do, you’ve just opened yourself up to getting sued. It’s such bull shit. It’s created a society of people who can’t take responsibility for their actions, and instead just claim temporary insanity and check themselves into rehab. Give me a break! Our country is just and weird and crazy as any other place I’ve ever been, just in our own messed up way.
Anyway, back to Vietnam… I like it here. I definitely want to come back and visit Ho Chi Minh in the south. I bought a lot of cool little things here and it is definitely a good place to shop. The food isn’t as good as in Thailand, but it’s ok. And it is easier to deal (for me, at least) than it was in Laos. The people here seem really nice and there is quite a lot to see. So all in all, a good place for a vacation.
Cat Ba Island is the biggest island in Halong Bay (I think) and that is where we stayed for a couple nights. Wait, I think I blogged about it already. It’s a cute sleepy places with some nice beaches and good places to swim. There’s one good restaurant, from what I can tell (The Green Mango). And I can’t really see why anyone would spend more than a couple days here, even if you did all the optional trekking and kayaking and stuff, but it was good for a bit.
Today is our last night here. We had a long day that started out cruising around Halong Bay. We went to this really big cave where there were tons of huge stalagtites and stalagmites. It must have been really old and it was touristy, like they had it all lit up with colored lights and there was a walkway all the way through it, but it was still cool. Then we went to this weird little beach to swim on one of the random rock islands. I didn’t want to get all the way wet cause it was kind of windy and I didn’t want to deal, so I was just walking barefoot along the beach. Due to prior experience on the dirty beaches in Panama, I’m always super careful about where I’m walking, cause you wouldn’t want to get a foot full of glass or anything, so I’m watching carefully and right there in front of me is a hypodermic needle, with the needle part just sticking out. I freaked out! How freakin’ uncool is that! I don’t know if it just washed up on shore, or if junkie boat people camped on this beach at night to do their drugs or something. Anyway, not cool! And Anne was in the water so instead of coming up the beach she swam around to where the boat was and came up some steps. But then the steps were covered with broken shells and she ended up cutting her foot and her hand. Doh! I knew my instinct to stay out of the water was a good one. After that we had to go to he super busy touristy dock where all the Halong Bay cruises leave from to catch our bus. To get off our boat, we had to cross over 2 other boats with all our stuff. (Remember I have a huge bag that is super heavy and a big pain in the ass unless I can roll it). There was definitely no rolling it. And the walkway on the side of the boat we had to go down was so narrow, I couldn’t even put one foot in front of the other. I had to shuffle along, carrying my bag in front of me. It was such a pain in the ass, but it only lasted maybe 5 minutes.
Then we got on a bus and drove for about 5 hours, maybe less, stopping once at this handicraft place where most the people are disabled to do some shopping for a good cause. (I’m all for that!) Along the way I saw lots of agricultural stuff including fields of marijuana plants. I don’t know if they were just using them for the hemp or for the sticky green buds. Probably just hemp, I’m guessing. But it still looked crazy to see that growing in fields on the side of the road. Hanoi and the cities seem as modern as any, but the countryside seems to be stuck in time. There are still horse drawn trailer things, and today it looked like they were cutting hay or straw or something and piling it in big like hay stacks and bundling it up, all by hand. There were people out using a hoe in the field and all bent over picking things or chopping things. I mean I haven’t seen one tractor or anything like that. They do it all the old school way and it looks like so much hard work! And tons of people really do wear those straw cone shaped hats (even in the city). The other thing that seems crazy to me is that all the women are so afraid of the sun and they try to stay covered up all the time. They all wear hats. Lots of them wear these cloth masks that cover their chin, mouth, nose and cheeks. At first I thought it was like to not breath the pollution or something, but no, it’s to keep the sun off their skin. They mostly wear long sleeved shirts, and some of the girls driving motor scooters even had long sleeve shirts with these mitten things at the end of the sleeves that covered their hands, so that the sun didn’t hit their hands when they were holding onto the handle bars. It’s so crazy, how they really want to be pale, and we spend our time out soaking up the sun trying to work on our tans. They buy creams to bleach their skin and we buy self tanning lotion. What gives?! I guess you always want what you don’t have. (And the cosmetics industry is great at figuring out how to make us feel like we need to spend a bunch of money on some kind of cream or another to achieve that desired look.)
So yeah, Vietnam was great and I hope to be back someday to see the rest of it and if you get a chance you should come here. Although, I was thinking about it, and if you have food allergies, especially the peanut thing, you would have a hard time here. They cook with peanut oil a lot of the time you don’t really ever know what is in your food, and it would be really hard/impossible to try to make sure you food came without peanuts or soy or something like that. (So dad, I think you better say out of South East Asia, sorry). Today I ate tofu, cause it was that or the shrimps that are like still whole with all their legs and their little eyes looking at you and there was no freaking way I was eating that. But tofu is super icky and spongy and rubbery and gross even though I guess it tasted fine, I still only ate one piece and wished I hadn’t. Spring rolls and French fries were mainly my lunch. Sucks that the only things I can eat half the time are the fried, super bad for you foods. I did eat some green vegetable stuff that I’m not sure what it was. Maybe bamboo shoots… I don’t know, and rice. I’m kind of excited to try the different food when we get to China. There are a few little towns we stay in where there aren’t even menus in English and you just have to point at what you want or they just bring out whatever they’ve made for you. That should be interesting. I guess I’ll let you know how it goes.

bye bye Hanoi

So we left Hanoi this morning and I'm now on Cat Ba Island. I really liked Hanoi. I think it is a great city. I talked to a lot of people who didn't like it though. They think it is too hectic, and it is definitely hectic, with all the scooters and cars and people on bikes and eating on the sidewalks and everything. But somehow it all seems to work. And as crazy as it is, it is super easy to walk all over the place, and there is a lake to orient yourself and so even if you get lost it's really easy to sort of find your way. Streets are clearly marked and with my little photocopied map I did really good. I even got us home after our last dinner, because Yo was so tired, and did my classic move, of immediately taking a first wrong turn outside the restaurant, and after we walked for a bit she finally said, she didn't know where she was and wanted to get a cab. But we just looked at the map, and it was easy to figure out. (And I usually have no sense of direction, so this is saying a lot!) So yeah, I definitely want to come back to Hanoi someday.
So today we drove for 2.5 hours and then got on a local ferry for another 3 hours. The ferry was so freaking hot and uncomfortable. It was like wooden benches and we had all our stuff to deal with. You could go outside on the deck and then there was a breeze but that just made it even hotter when you came back into sit down. And the boat was this big old rusted thing. It seems like all (ok, most) of the Vietnamiese guys are sooo skinny. This guy's belt wrapped around him like a full one and a half times. I think they just smoke cigarettes instead of eating.
Anyway, we finally made it to Cat Ba Island, which is the biggest island in Halong Bay. It has a main little street with some hotels and little restaurants, and a few beaches about 10-15 min. away. It's a cute place and our hotel is nice, so I'm happy! Tomorrow I plan on just chillin' at the beach and maybe walking up to the market to check it out. There aren't many people here and it seems like a sort of sleepy place, which is fine after being in Hanoi for the last few days.

link to Laos pics

When the sun isn't shining and it's all gray and rainy, my camera doesn't seem to do so good at picking up the colors. And most of Laos was just a mash of brown and green and gray, so a lot of these pics are kind of boring.
But I like the market ones and there are a few interesting ones.
Hope you like em.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18446987@N00/sets/72157602248645743/

Laos (recap)

I just have to clarify something from my post the other day… it’s not that I’m looking for a starbucks or mcdonalds while I'm traveling or anything, it’s just that I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a country before where there were none. Like there are absolutely no western chains what so ever in Laos. That is a first for me. And I guess it is because the Lao government has banned those kinds of businesses. It was weird in Thailand, there were 7 11’s everywhere, but there is none of that here in Laos. I mean it’s cool. It’s really cool. It’s just crazy.
I’m trying to remember if there were any western chains in Jordan, and I don’t remember seeing any, but for some reason I feel like there must have been. There are definitely western hotel chains like the Radisson, (that get bombed, lol) so there must be mc donalds. And I think that maybe in the airport in Amman there was a dunken donuts or cinibon or something like that, but I can’t really remember. There was definitely all of that stuff in Egypt. And Guatemala and for sure in every other country I’ve ever been to. So Laos is a first on that front. I guess it is still a communist country and they are still trying to keep a lot of western influence out.
Most people I've talked to, (that actually knows where Laos is) have said they wanted to come here. But there are plenty of people who don’t even know where Laos is. The older Australian couple said that whenever they would tell their friends they were going to Laos, they would all say, “oh yeah, I’ve always wanted to go to Vietnam.” But the backpacker types and those who know go, “oh yeah, Laos, cool, I really want to go there. I’ve heard it’s great.” And the reason they all want to come here is because not very many people have been here yet. Everyone wants to do that thing that no one else has done so they can feel so special or whatever. I only know of one other person who has been to Laos. Pretty much everyone that works for STA Travel has been to Thailand and Vietnam and lots of people have been to Cambodia, but nobody ever mentions Laos. And in my 6 years of working at STA Travel, I have never flown one person into Laos, or booked a hotel room here or anything. I’m sure some of my customer’s have come here, and have probably just taken the train or the bus from Thailand and booked it locally, but the point I’m trying to make is that Laos is still not a very touristy place and still feels pretty far off the map and under the radar.

Coming here sort of feels like going back in time (aka, boring as hell). Ok, maybe that’s not fair to say. And maybe what I’ve learned has less to do with Laos as it does with my own personal travel style. When I travel, I’m not necessarily looking to go to the place that no one else has been, where there are no western comforts and where there are no luxuries. The village lifestyle is just not for me. And Laos feels like one big village stuck in the past. I mean that’s cool. That is what a lot of people are looking for when they travel. That place that is off the beaten path and still authentic. And Laos is still that, I think. It’s different and I have never been anywhere like it. It was an experience for sure, but having been there, I’m not really dying to go back anytime soon. I’m really glad I came but I sort of feel like, ok, been there done that. Which is kind of weird because most places I visit, I’m like, “well, the next time I come back I want to do this and this and this.” Like I know for sure I want to go back to Thailand. And I saw a lot of Egypt, but not Alexandria and I’d love to go back someday. And like I said, maybe it says more about me than it does about Laos. I guess I like the chaos and variety of a big modern city. In Laos they didn’t even have surnames until like 1957, when the government made them mandatory. And even in the big cities, we weren’t even really staying in hotels but in family run guest houses that all lock their doors and gates at midnight. And we weren’t doing that just because it’s cheaper. It’s like that is pretty much all there is. And I guess it doesn’t really matter because there is nothing to go out and do at night anyway. In Luang Prabang there was a little nightclub at a hotel that stayed open until midnight and played like 60’s and 70’s music. No thanks. You can order a cocktail in Laos, but you really don’t want to. They maybe have a book that tells them what to put in a drink, but they are using who only knows, what brand of liquor and something then that should be frozen and blended comes out looking like it is (it is thick and stuff is suspended), but then you taste it and it’s warm and your like, “ick, what the hell could this be?!” Vodka and orange juice seemed like my safest option, but sometimes I’d wonder if there was even any Vodka in there. One of the American guys kept trying to get a martini and every time it caused mass confusion so he’d just change his order to vodka and ice. And the drink costs like twice as much as your whole meal, so after a few attempts I just gave up on that all together. Although everyone seems to enjoy the Lao Beer. That is really the onl way to go, but I don’t like beer, so… You’re better off just going to bed early in Laos anyway, because no matter what you’re gonna get woken up at 6am, which seems like the busiest time of day here. Roosters and other birds are going nuts, the people are starting breakfast, and starting to clean stuff and do laundry (outside with no machines) clinking and clanking things all around.
The food here isn’t bad, but it isn’t nearly as good as in Thailand and in Vietnam (not that I’ve been to Vietnam yet, but so I’ve heard). And everyone says the people in Laos are so nice, but like whatever, I almost got mugged and yesterday one of the ladies dropped her camera and didn’t realize it for a second and then turned around and some Lao woman was picking it up and stuffing it in her shirt so she had to run over there and be all, “hey, that’s my camera!” Not that I blame the Lao people for being the way people are everywhere else in the world, it’s just that for some reason they have this reputation as being so docile and nice and smiley and kind. But I didn’t really feel that. Our Intrepid guide said she has never heard of someone getting mugged in Laos or a camera being snatched before this trip, so I don’t know if it is sort of recently that this kinds of stuff is starting to happen here or what. I mean you always have to be responsible for yourself and your stuff, and you can’t blame people who are really desperate for trying to take advantage of some stupid tourists I guess. I don’t know.
One of my favorite things to do when I’m traveling is to try to see some local art and get a taste of the local culture. And here I saw a few paintings in the market and some musicians and dancers in restaurants but that was about it. The Lao traditional music and dancing is nice I guess, but it seems very similar to the Thai style. And did you know that in order for the dancers to get their fingers to be able to bend back that (in the Lao and Thai dancing they do all this stuff with their hands and their fingers and their fingers bend in ways that are not natural!) they soak their hands in hot water every morning and bend their fingers back, starting at a really young age. Ouch!
Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is that Laos didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. And maybe it has more to do with me than it does Laos. When I was planning this trip I totally expected Laos to be one of the highlights, but I don’t really know what I was expecting exactly...
Laos is super cheap! That is one thing I expected and one thing I got. Cheaper than Egypt and Thailand, for sure. You can get an hour massage for $2.50. You can eat a big lunch for $1. You can bargain in the markets and get all kinds of stuff for really cheap. So that was cool, I guess. Although, personally, cheap doesn’t always translate into the best thing for me, lol. Thailand was cool because there is a little bit of everything. You could do it on the cheap or you could spoil yourself in luxury. There is lots of historical stuff, but lots of interesting modern stuff to. And I guess that is more my style. I like to mix it up. But in Laos, there still aren’t many options. You take what you can get and that’s about it. But the nature and scenery here is really beautiful. It’s all green with limestone mountains and caves and rivers and thatched huts and outdoor markets and stuff. And it is almost devoid of all western influence, or at least American influence, and since there are so few places left on Earth like that, I’d say that is what makes Laos so special.
And I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to see that kind of stuff, but I’d suggest a slightly different itinerary than what I did. I’d skip the Mekong part all together. I’d take the 12 hour night train from Bangkok to Vientiane. Spend a few days there and then on to Vang Vieng. Spend a few days there and then on to Luang Prabang. Spend a few days there and then fly out of Luang Prabang. But like I said, I think I’m crossing Laos off my list. I’m really glad I came and got to spend a week or so, but I’m not sad to be leaving.
(I wrote this a few days ago, but just got to post it now. Also, I'll have a link up to my Laos pics in just a few.)

Hanoi

phew... made it to Hanoi. I have a big long post recapping my thoughts on Laos, but it's stuck on my lap top until I can find some wifi.
Yesterday was totally insane. We had a 13 hour journey from Lak Sao, Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam. About half way through we ran into this huge down pour. (It had been raining for the last 3 days.) It started raining really hard and it was thundering and lightening and everything. We were driving through this little town and the water just kept rising until the streets were like rivers. At first there was about a half foot of water on the roads and it was still raining and people were still out in that riding their bikes and their scooters. It was nuts. The water was starting to creep up to the shop doors and stuff. And then we got to this point where we were driving up hill and the water was just raging down the street. At this point it was like at least a foot deep and up to the car bumpers. The bikes were gone and people were having to push their motor scooters. Then we saw people pushing a couple cars and vans, and they even had to get out and push a bus. It was really freaky! I was just hoping our little bus was going to make it. But we had a really good driver and a pretty decent bus. The traffic slowed to a crawl and it took us about an hour to get out of that mess. It was scary. But we made it. Then the driver had to pull over to check out the bus, but I guess it was fine and we pushed on and finally made it to Hanoi at about 8pm, after starting the day at 7am. ugh!
Today I just wandered around Hanoi. I did some shopping in the morning and got a bunch of cool stuff for really cheap. Then had lunch over looking the lake. And then spent the afternoon visiting a bunch of different art galleries. It was really nice! Tonight we are going to see the water puppets or something. Gotta run. I'll try to post my Laos recap soon.

Vientiane, the big city (for Laos that is)

So I'm in the capital of Laos, Vientiane. But still the only western thing I've seen is a Novatel Hotel. Still no Mac Donalds or Starbucks or any of that stuff. Today I took an expensive cab ride out to Buddha park. It is past the friendship bridge (the bridge that connects Laos to Thailand across the Mekong) about 24k outside the city. And there were parts of it that were dirt roads almost. And then as soon as I got there it started raining. Just a little at first so I got to take some photos, but then it started pouring and of course I forgot my umbrella so I got soaking wet. So I just came back into town and went to the morning market to do some shopping. Then I came back to watch some BBC and I think I fell asleep for a bit. I haven't been sleeping very well. I wake up like every hour it seems. The bed in this hotel room is like the most uncomfortable bed ever. It feels basically like I'm sleeping on the sidewalk. But the rest of the room is nice and the shower is nice and hot, so whatever. We have a 7 hour bus ride tomorrow to a little boarder town. And then the next day we cross over into Vietnam.

Vang Vieng

Yesterday was a 7 hour bus trip to Vang Vieng, but actually I don’t think it took quite that long. We had to drive way up in the mountains on this pretty narrow, windy road, but it was just repaved and it was actually in really good condition. And our bus driver went nice and slow, thank goodness! On the way we passed through all these small villages right along the road and you would just see all these kids, little kids, riding bikes or running around half naked, playing in streams, throwing sandals, running here and there. You didn't really see any men, I guess they were all out farming or hunting. You’d see a few women washing clothes or laying out food to dry and stuff, but mainly you just saw a bunch of kids. I also saw little pigs, goats, cows and chickens running across the road, or in the cow’s case, just standing in the road. You hardly saw any old people either, and I can’t help but think that it has something to do with the fact that our country bombed their's every 8 minutes for 9 years or whatever. I don’t know. Maybe not. Maybe they were just all inside watching satellite tv, lol. That’s the other funny thing. You’re out in these totally remote places, people are bathing and doing their wash in a stream by the side of the road, their houses are made of bamboo or whatever with a thatch roof, but then right next to it is this huge satellite dish. Not by every house, for sure, but by plenty of them.
The other thing that strikes me as super funny is that they call the toilet, the happy room. Or if it's outside, they'll call it the happy bush. I'm getting pretty good at using these squat toilets. There is definitely some technique involved. See, doing a little drinking out in the country during my teenage years was a life experience that has paid off in some ways, lol. No but seriously, I understand now why guys are always peeing on the rim and the splash factor and all of that. I also totally understand, the whole take your shoes off before you come inside thing, because they happy room, the street and the markets are filthy and there's no way you want any of that near your home. But for sure the worst bathrooms were on the train and on the boat. I can't understand how people can sit around and drink beer, when you know it's eventually going to mean you have to spend more time in the disgusting happy room. What's worse is that like on the boat and in the place we stopped on the side of the road yesterday, there is no place to wash your hands. I saw the people who were cooking the food yesterday and they washed their hands by dipping them in a bowl of water for like a second and then rubbing them together. Yuck city! Not eating that food, thank you very much! And you can bet I've got my little arsenal of handy wipes and hand sanitizer ready. One of the other American guys was like, "You're a little bit annal aren't you?" And I'm like, "heck yeah I am!" But you can hardly call me miss priss! I've been showering with spiders and ants. Sleeping with geckos and crickets. Whatever, I'm learning to deal, as long as it's not bed bugs and cockroaches I'm cool. If the bugs leave me alone, then I leave them alone.
So yeah, yesterday we stopped for lunch at this super local type place just on the side of the road somewhere, and there was no freakin’ way I was eating there. I’m sure it would have been fine, (maybe) but that was the first day my stomach felt completely normal, and we still had hours on the bus, and especially after walking through that market and seeing all the meat, I was just totally grossed out by the thought of food. They had a big pot of soup and I could have just got it with vegetables, and I’m sure it would have been fine, but then they had all this chicken just sitting out and a bunch of beef and stuff that just looked all cold and suspect. No way! I ate my little pumpkin bread I got from the bakery the day before and my Ritz crackers. And then for dinner I ate a margarita pizza and it was great. Yeah, I’m in Laos and I’m ordering pizza, whatever, I have no shame. At least I’m not at Pizza Hut. Yeah right, there are no Pizza Huts here! I haven’t seen one chain restaurant or hotel the whole time we’ve been in Laos. Not even Starbucks, if you can believe it! I'm sure it's just a matter of time though. I think most of the stuff that's here in Laos, like the little wifi cafes I'm sitting at and such, have only come about in the last couple of years. Maybe 5 years at the most. Before that there was almost nothing. And there is still almost nothing, but just like any place else. Today it's backpackers, tomorrow, it's Hilton's and Starbucks.
So anyway, we are in Vang Vieng, which is a cute little town right by the Namsong River. I’ve heard there are 25,000 people here and I’ve heard 40,000. I’m not sure which it is. There are quite a few tourists and backpacker types here, because it is a good stopping point between Viengtaine and Luang Prabang and because it really is beautiful here and there is a lot of nature to explore. There are limestone mountains and lots of caves. And the river is supposedly really clean and clear (I saw it and I don’t know, it was really shallow so yeah you could see the bottom, but it was no Lake Tahoe!) Anyway, they do tubing and kayaking trips on the river. And you can swim and supposedly snorkel. You can go for multiple day treks into the mountains (but we are only here for one night) and you can even go rock climbing, which sounded really cool, but it takes a whole day and we don't have enough time. Otherwise I totally would have wanted to do it. If I were in charge of the itinerary I would have stayed here a little bit longer. You can also rent bikes and ride around to the caves and the surrounding villages. It is super hot and humid, though! Today I felt like being lazy. I'm over feeling like I have to do everything. The other's went tubing, but the sun's not even out and they had to leave early, and I'm annal and I didn't want to have to deal with a bunch of wet clothes for the rest of the day. And besides, I didn't come to Asia to do water sports. I'm saving all that for Australia. So instead I slept in and then had mulberry pancakes at this little organic cafe. (Actually, almost everything grown here is organic because they can’t afford fertilizer.) And then I found this little cafe with free wifi, so here I sit. They guy at the cafe has his hair colored really orange, and his finger nails are painted and he's like tweezing all his facial hair and wearing a bright pink shirt. Kinda funny.
Oh, also I just have to say that maybe I was too quick too judge and too harsh on the other American’s on this trip. I spent some time talking to them last night and turns out the men just got dragged along on this trip by their wives, and had no idea what style of a trip this was or what they were in for. These guys are used to traveling on 5 star cruises and stuff, so I can kind of see why they started out complaining about everything. They've quited down a bit, and toned down their drinking and their behavior and they are perfectly nice people and I think this trip is going to turn out to be a great experience for them. And the older Australian couple is so happily married and they never talk bad about each other and they are always watching out for one another and they seem perfectly happy and content together. So I guess not all marriages are doomed to the relentless nagging and griping. Some people do find a way to make it work. So I guess I have to take back everything I said about all of that too. This is actually not a bad group at all, it’s just sort of a funny dynamic. But that's all part of the adventure I guess.
Anne and I are the only one’s continuing on to China, so we will get to meet a new guide and a whole new group of people on Sunday.
Laos is getting better. I really like this little town. I think I was just in a foul mood when I was sick and everything. One of the other ladies cut her finger really bad and broke another finger trying to go off a rope swing into the water. She also had her atm card eaten by an atm machine. So actually, I'm feeling very lucky and thankful for the way things have been working out for me so far. We have the rest of this week in Laos, and then this weekend it's into Vietnam. I'm excited for Vietnam and China. And Anne has been to Hanoi before, so I'm hoping we can go off and do our own thing, since we'll be there for a few days.
My Laos pictures aren't coming out so good. They sky has been gray and my camera doesn't seem to good at picking out the contrast in this sort of light. But I'm going to work on getting some pics of Laos posted. I did take some good ones of the market that I want you all to see!