Thailand

I visited Thailand in two segments, both about a week each. I didn't write about it before because Thailand has sort of been my recuperating zone, where I arrange visas, flight tickets, grad applications, and did blog entries. I also responded to the emails that piled up while I was in Burma and Cambodia, where the internet quality is lacking. We also slowed down our pace, and I think I spent 10 of my 14 days in Thialand just in Bangkok. As a result, not only did it feel like I was not doing much, but I also didn't have the energy to write about it.

Despite this, I have enjoyed Thailand. I think I had the wrong opinion of it going in, and as a result, did not give it a chance. I was worried about scams, annoying hordes of tourists, and survining Bangkok itself. Like anywhere else, there are scams, and there are also large number of, in my opinion, the 'wrong' kind of tourist; the type who think because they are on vacation, and because they are relatively rich compared to the locals, they can act like A-holes to the locals, walk around the business district with no shirt, etc. However, there are lots of great tourists to hang out with in Thailand too. As for Bangkok, I actually found it quite relaxing. It has a great public transit system, including a fun taxi-boat system and modern sky-train. I just ahd to ask for the routes at my hotel, and double check every time I switched lines with at least two locals :-). In the tourist area, you can also get delicious and cheap street food and fruit shakes. Plus, there are message parlours everywhere. In retrospect, I should have planned to spend more time in Thailand. Oh well, I gues I'll just have to go back.

While in Bangkok the first time, we visited the Royal Palace, which is very well-kept and beautiful, and has great murals all over its walls. We also visited Thailand's biggest reclining Buddha, which impressed me immensly at the time, but after seeing two larger ones in Myanmar, its not such a big deal :-). We visited a lovely night-market, which has a beer garden frequented mostly by locals, who go for the free Thai-pop shows.

We left Bangkok for Canchanaburri (probably spelt wrong) eventually. It is a quiet little town where we rented a bungalow that floated on the water. I stayed there two and a half days, and Nika for a week I think. It is know as the sight of the 'death railway', made famous by the movie 'the bridge over the river Quai', which runs through Cabchanaburri. The Death railway, which the Japanese built to bring supplies from Thailand ti Burma during WWII was constructed under extremely harsh conditions by POWs and forced local labour. Its building let to thousands of deaths. There was a great museum there that taught us all about the death railway. We also thought it appropriate to smile for a picture when visiting the famous bridge.

The highlight of Canchanaburri for me was the great waterfall nearby. It had 9 different levels, lots of spots to swim, some rocks you could slide down like a waterslide, and a disturbing number of fish whick nibbled at my toes as soon as they entered the water. It was a great place to relax and swim in the March heat of Thailand.

The next time I was in Thailand, I met up the first day with Eva, the German girl I had met in Burma. We made plans to leave for Suhkothai the next day, but I backed out because it is 7 hours away and I had to return to Bangkok to catch a flight in 4 days, and didn't want to be worried all the time about getting back. Instead, we visited the 'golden mountain' in Bangkok, which offers nice views and a park-like setting with lots of shrines and gravesites, and a nearby temple with very interesting architechture and a name I forget. Even left the next day for Chang Mai, and I returned to the National Museum for a free guided tour the next morning. The English tourguide didn't show up, so I joined the French group, and I think I did alright in understanding.

I am now in Ayuthaya (spelled wrong also), Thailand. A world heritage sight, it was the former capital of Thailand until the Burmese did a great job of sacking it, leaving a few minor ruins. They are nice, but after visiting Angkor and Bagan, I am kind of a ruin snob, and don't find them very impressive. I have been hanging out with 5 English guys and two german girls who are more into the partying than the sight seeing, which is a change for me. Last night, after a bar, we went to a Thai club where our group was the only foreigners. There was no real dance floor; the dance area had tables all through it with groups sitting at them, and then occasionally getting up to dance around the table.

Tommorow I have to figure out how to get back to Bangkok in time for my flight, and then I'm off to the Philippines, where I may see Nika again for a couple of days...

The Golden Rock and back to Yangon

From Bago, I decided on a day trip by motorcycle to visit Kchychtio (which is definitely spelled wrong), a.k.a the Golden rock stupa. I went by day trip to ensure I would reach Yangon in time to celebrate the Passover Seder with the country's minuscule Jewish community of 8 families, all living in the capital. We left Bago at 4:30 AM for the three hour moto ride, and arrived around 8 at the base camp. The Golden Rock is at the top of a mountain, and hangs precariously off the side of a cliff. It looks as though, with a good push, it will tumble down the mountain. Luckily, a hair from the head of the Buddha holds it in place. After taking a pick-up most of the way and then climbing the steep last 45 minutes, I arrived at the top. The rock really is quite something to behold. I don't understand how it has been standing for so long. unfortunately, I only took vertical pictures of it and don't know how to flip them on this blog :-).






On the way down, I had a seat right in the middle of the back of the pick-up, which was painful, but super fun. There are about 8 rows of six people sitting on wood boards crammed like sardines in the truck on the way down. It is probably goos we were so tightly packed, otherwise, with nothing to hold onto, I might have gone flying out. It was like going down a tame roller coaster, but with your hands in the air and nor restraints whatsoever.

The next morning, I booked a ticket for the 2 hour long 11:30 train to Yangon. They wouldn't let me on the train because I was a tourist, and instead made me take the very late 1 PM train which got to Yangon at 6:30. I rushed immediately to the synagogue to see if I could find out about the Seder, but no one was around, which was very disappointing. I went back to the Shul for services the next morning, and found out that there hadn't been a Seder anyway (and there weren't any services).

I spent the last couple of days going to the markets and back to the Shwedagon pagoda, and talking to locals who kept stopping me on the street. I will soon leave for a couple days to visit the nearby ruins of Ayathaya, and then on to the Philippines, my last foreign stop. My South East Asia adventure is almost finished!

The Tingyan Water Festival in Mandalay

We arrived in Mandalay on the second day of the five day Burmese water festival called Tingyan. It was so fun!! Basically, there are people standing everywhere with buckets of water to drench you, especially if you are a tourist (or a women, but I don't want to get into that right now). On the main roads surrounding the Mandalay palace there are stages set up with dancers and Burmese pop govers of Western music playing. From the stages, people with hoses splash all the men dancing beneath and the motos and pick-ups cruising tghe strip. By this point, Myanmar was brutally hot, with average temperatures of 40 celcius in the afternoon. As a result, being drench all day was quite a relief for me.

Unfortunately, me and my other tourist friends all got stoack problems from something on the boat. For Michael and Eva, this meant they didn't leave their rooms for a few days, and I got off the easiest. The afternoon we arrived, me and Daniel went to check out the partying, and some local guys our age insisted we join them on their motos. We then spent the next couple hours driving 5 minutes, getting of at a stage, dancing for five minutes, and then driving to the next stage. In the evening, we met them again to watch a soccer game, but I was feeling too sick so had to leave early.




The next day, we had made plans to visit the Ancient capital cities surrounding Mandaly by taxi. Unfortunately, I was the only one in any condition to go, though I shouldn't have gone anyway and felt pretty sick the whole time. The highlight for me was the first stop, the Paliek Snake temple. It became famous when the three original snakes that lived there died, and shortly after three huge, and friendly new ones slithered out of the woods to replace them. The interesting part was not so much the snakes themselves, but the hordes of local tourists and their excitement at getting to bathe and feed the snakes. One of the other highlights was the longest teak wood bridge in the world, at Amarapura, which was swarming with local tourists celebrating Tingyan. Many were doing so in cafes located in the water.



The third day, I met a local women my age named Chan Mye Thu, who I had originally met in Yangon and wanted to show me around. I told her I was too sick to go, but she looked so dissapointed I went anyway, which worked out well because I was fine once we left. We rode around with her cousins and visited some of the sites of Mandalay as well as the Tingyan celebrations. Tingyan was damppened, unfortunately, because after dancing a bit some jerk tried to grab Chan and kiss her, so we left.




I left Mandalay ny overnight bus, which was the only non-plane transportation I took between cities that did not break down or arrive late. Instead, it arrived really early, which was worse because I got to Bago at 4 in the morning. After sleeping awhile, a did a day tour of the Myriad of Buddha images and religious sites in the town, including the highest stupa and largest reclining Buddha in the country, and maybe the world?

Bagan and Katha, Myanmar

From Kalaw, I tooke the ten hour bus to Bagan. The only hitch was 45 minutes in the bus broke down, and we had to wait 4 hours by the side of the road for them to fix it, so got into Bagan a bit late :-). Bagan is famous for the thousands of ancient temples built there. They are not as impressive, large, or intricate as Angkor in Cambodia, but the sheer number of them in such a small area is staggering. Furthermore, the area is very flat with few tall trees, so if you climb up on a higher temple, the views of the plain are great. I spent two and a half days temple hopping, and one morning making a trip to Mount Poppa, a nearby sacred spot with a temple on the top. It is a shrine to a female Nat (spirit) who wished herself to appear like an Ogre so as not to be observed while praying to the Buddha.



There are also many local tourists who come to Bagan, including this group of monks, who asked ME, (no tht eother way around) to take a picture with them. I fit in well with my red shirt :-).



I wanted to catch a train on a certain day in order to catch a certain ferry, so to save some time, I flew from Bagan to Mandalay. The problem is the taxi ride from the airport into town costs $18. Luckily, a asked a young looking guy if he wanted to split a cab. He said no, he had a driver waiting for me, but they could drop me off at the train station no charge :-). Unfortunately, the train was sold out at the station, so I had to spend the night in Mandalay and take the train the next day. That afternoon, I met another guy from Toronto who also just finished an economics in Ottawa (creepy, no?), and a German brother and sister who were also thinking of going upriver, and I told them my plan and they decided to join me. The plan was to take the train tp Taba, the short busride to Katha, and then the ferry back. We bought our train tickets seperately, however, so I had sitting class, while they had sleeper, and shared their car with a Burmese man who spoke very little English.

After the train, which left two hours late, got moving, I went to join them in their car, where the Burman and his friends had already ordered them all beers, and proceeded to try to get us drink for 8 hours while getting drunk themselves. Due to the heat and fear of dehydration, however, I more or less refrained. The Burmese man loved me, however, because I said hello and no thank you in Bamar. For about twenty minutes, he stated that I spoke Burman, to which I replied only a little, accompanied by showing 'a little' with my fingers. He would then laugh, tell me I was his son, and repeat the staement. When I left to go to sleep in my chair, he told me he would think about me every day and told me his phone number. Back at my seat, I was surprised to find a monk already sleeping in it. What do you do when a monk takes your seat? While I was standing there pondering my dilemma, however, some other people on the car woke up the monk for me and got him to move. I aso learned that, even though trains move, it doesn't mean mice don't live on them. As soon as it got dark, tens of mice ran back and forth along the floor.

We arrrived at Taba around 2:30, hopped on the bus, which broke down for an hour, and arrived in Katha at 4 Am. The only guesthouse with beds was the worst place I have stayed so far. It did not have walls that reached the ceiling or a mattress, never mind a bathroom, AC, or breakfast. What was worse, knowing that he was the only game in town, the owner charged us 7 dollars each, which normally gets you all of the above in Burma. I was furious and walked out to find a place on the beach, but then returned because I didn't want to get any locals in trouble for illegally letting a foreigner stay on their property.

Because I had missed the train the day before, I only spent 12 hours in Katha, but there wasn't much to do, so it wasn't so bad. What was cool was that while in Katha I wa reading 'Burmese Days' by George Orwell, which he wrote while stationed in Katha, and which takes place in the town. I did a short sightseeing tour of the places mentioned in the book.

At four, we got on the two night ferry back to Mandalay, which was one of the highlights of the trip. We bought deck class tickets and plastic mats, so slept on the deck under the stars at night and strung up hammocks to block the son in the afternoon. We basically just read, played carsds, and hung out with the locals. My German friend Daniel said "Its like an all inclusive cruise!! All we're missing is a pool and an actual room."






The locals loved our cameras, juggling shows, card games, music, and post cards, and we had a great time with them. Michael, the Torontonian (to add to the creepiness, my middle name is Michael) had UNO, and some of our new friends figured it out by watching and joined us, which was very entertaining. We were all pretty sad to say goodbye when we got to Mandalay.

Yangon and Inle Lake, Burma

I am back in Bangkok today after 4 weeks in Burma, and will break up the posts so I don't go crazy trying to write about my amazing four weeks. I just got back from watching Rambo IV, which I purposely didn't watch before leaving so I wouldn't scare myself. I don't recommend it, its not a very good movie, even if you consider it just for the action.

To get to Burma, you must fly; tourists cannot enter overland. I arrived in Yangon and spent the first day walking around the city. They people in Burma are so friendly!! I had to keep stopping because people would ask "excuse my brother, where you from?", and it would begin a conversation. It was also eerie seeing so few tourists around. I would literally walk for hours and not see anyone. At some of the 'sights', and at the hotel you would see the tourists, but in between there was no one. Their tourist industry has really taken a hit since the demonstrations last September. I met up with a local woman my mother had met when she visited named Phyothaya, and her daughter Chan Chan. They are lovely people, and took me to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred religious site in Burma. It was incredible. It is so beautiful and is surrounded by other pagodas, shrines, and temples. After dark, you can see the diamonds at the top glittering and changing colour depending on the light. I ended up going back there again on my last day.



I left Yangon pretty quickly, and flew to Heho airstrip, which is kinda in the middle of nowhere. From their, I took a pickup with locals followed by a moto to reach Inle Lake, and stayed at the best guesthouse of my trip so far, Queen Inn. For seven bucks I had a huge room, hot water, and all you can eat breakfast and dinner. Inle lake itself is beautiful. It is famous for its floating villages and gardens. The gardens are staked to the bottom of the lake with bamboo poles and fertilized with lake bottom dredged up by the farmers. The inhabitants are also famous because they often row with one hand and one foot so as not to tire as easily and to get a better view of rocks in the shallow lake. It also has a very colourful market where I saw many diffrerent ethnicities trading their wares.





From Inle, I did a four day trek to a town called Kalaw. It was another great opportunity to see georgeous views and meet villagers, though it got a bit lonely with no other westerner to talk to in the evenings. The highlight for me was spending one night sleeping in a monastery. Waking up to the sound of novice monks chanting beats any alarm clock I've heard.

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

The river trip from Buttumbang to Siem Reip was long, but fun. It started with a death-defying ride in the back of a pick-up, along with 15 other passengers along dirt roads, fields, and small dips. It was probably the highlight of the trip. The boat started out super slow, because of the water levels, but eventually picked up speed as we passed through riverside villages, fishing areas, and beautiful scenery.



Angkor Wat is amazing. I don't know how to describe it. Even with the blistering heat, and the hordes of tourists and Hawkers, the scope and size and detail of the temples is unbelievable. I dont know what else to say about them, really, hopefully the pictures will help. Or you could go read what my mom wrote in January, 2007 in this same blog: http://waldmansworldwidewoyage.blogspot.com/2007/01/siem-reap-cambodia.html









In Siem Riep, I also did a great cooking course, where I learned how to make Mango salad and Amok fish. Interestingly, I have also seen five of the people from the class here in Bangkok, where I am now.

A couple last tidbits about Cambodia. There are four kinds of roads in Cambodia according to the locals" dusty, muddy, bumpy, and slippery. The sides of the roads are all covered in 'Cambodian snow' meaning anything within ten metres of the road is red with dust, uncluding all plants and houses. They also often travel with huge groups in a vehicle, as shown in this picture:



Sorry about this small post, but it took along time to load all thes pictures, and I'm tired. I am leaving for Burma soon, so will not be able to add anything for a month probably. Enjoy the end of the school year if you're still doing that, and I'll update you later.

Phnom Penh Pursat and Battambang

The rest of Our time in Phom Penh was great. The highlight occurred for me at the Tamao Mountain wildlife sanctuary, where animals rescued from poachers are kept in a zoo like atmosphere, but with lots of space. The first crazy thing that happened was at the crocodile pen. I missed most of the action, but as Nika watched, a monkey swinging in the trees slipped and fell into the water. Well, maybe not fell into the water, because Nika couldn't tell if the crocodile jumped in the air and ripped it apart with its teeth before it hit the water, or if it got it as soon as it landed. It was so cool!! As soon as I can, I'll post a picture of the Crock chomping down on its catch.



Later, we went to the tiger cages, and started talking to the keeper. After a while he asked us if we wanted to pet the Tigers!!! I pet a Tiger!!!! One of the highlights of my trip so far.



After leaving Phnom Penh, me and Nika headed to Pursat town, the capital of Pursat province. The reason we stopped there is because HOPE Cambodia has an office there. Nika works with HOPE in the Dominican last summer, and will be working with them again this summer, so we wanted to drop by and see if there was anything we could help them with here. As it turned out, they helped us more than we helped them. Their excellent and friendly staff showed us around the province and were super hospitable. They didn't really have much use for us, as we can't speak Khmer and don't know much about building wells or raising cows. We did help them compile 6 databases though, using the excellent data entry skills I developed at the CCAC. It wasn't as glamorous as I had pictured, but really, it makes a lot more sense to have me working on a computer than plowing a field from a productivity point of view, and i was glasd to help. The data entry was actually interesting too, because some of it was about microcredit, meaning small loans given to groups of farmers to help them develop capital and improve their business.

HOPE took us around to see their projects and it was very impressive, their main thrust, at least from what I saw, was to build wells. To decide where to build them, they contact the community and the community decides next to which houses the well should be built, usually based on who needs it most, though everyone can use it. HOPE then supplies the material and technical knowledge, and the villagers supply the labour to build the well. Afterwards, HOPE teaches them how to plant and care for vegetable gardens, which they use to eat and to sell for money. It is amazing how building a well can turn things around for a family in such a short time. For example, we met one women who showed us her house in 2004, before a well was built next to it. It was literally a small wooden shack on the ground. After the well was built, she planted a garden. From the garden profits, she bought a pig. When the pigs was big enough, she sold it and bought more pigs, as well as some wood to turn into lumber. With those profits, she bought a rice mill to seperate rice from the shells (chaff?). And finally, when we arrived, she showed us her newly built solid wooden house, with cement stilts (to keep away termites) and stairway. Help provided her with the materials for the well, but the rest was all from her entrepreneurial abilities, once she had the basic necessities to give her an opportunity. Wow!



We are now in Battambang, and leaving tomorrow. Battambang is not a huge tourist destination, though we are definitely not the only ones, but we met to guides, Hon Youn and Olas, who are excellent. They took us around for two days, and while the sites weren't particularly interesting, it was one of the best tours we've gone on because they were so knowledgeable and fun. One of our guides wa an extra in an upcoming Angelina Jolie movie, and met her. He also told us that there is a famous and beautiful Thai movie star named "Morning Star" (I forget her Thai name) who, due to her popularity was invited to an important event in Cambodia around 2003. However, she said she would not come until Cambodia gave Angkor Wat back to Thailand (Angkor Wat is in an area that was fought over by the Siams and Khmers numerous times). As a result of her impertinence, all Thai movies are now banned on Cambodian television channels, and can only be seen with cable. At the end of the day, they took us to the Bamboo train, which I thought would be gimmicky but was actually quite fun. You ride on some old rail tracks on a bamboo platform with a motor attached. It is kind of like riding the flat parts of a wooden roller coaster.



When we got back to town, we found some tasty insects from a local vendor, and chowed down on fried beetles. They were actually quite good, and where just like any other sorta crunchy fried snack.



We visited some temples and saw some nice scenery, as well as learning more about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. For those of you who don't know, the Khmer Rouge government was responsible for approximately 3 million deaths from 1975-79, either through execution or starvation. To save bullets, they often clubbed victims to death, pushed them off cliffs, sawed their heads of with the sharp edges of palm leaves, or buried them alive. Both here and in Phnom Penh large stupas can be visited house the bones of their victims. We visited a huge artificial lake and dame, which is know a popular picnic spot, but an estimated 10 000 of the forced labourers who dug it perished in the process. Moreover, the brutality of the Kmer Rouge is largly unknown in the West, and is not even taught in schools in Cambodia because Khmer Rouge leaders still have influence in the modern day government. Horrible, but true.

Tomorrow we leave for Seim Reip and the temples of Angkor Wat by boat. Until the next!

Saigon, the Mekong and Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Hi All,

The last part of my trip to Vietnam was best characterized as a series of highs and lows. First the lows.

When we got to Saigon, I went to the opera house to see if anything was going on. The lady at the desk told me that there was a free concert the next night, and it was invitation only, but I should come back and she would get me an invitation. But when I returned,the next night the new lady told me it was sold out and cost 100 000 dong, so a bought a ticket from a scalper for 50 000. WHen I went in, I found the first lady and asked her why I had to pay, and she told me the concert was free and they had ripped me off.

Also, I checked with the travel company we had booked a three day tour with to confirm. While there was no problem, we found out we baid $50 dollars each instead of the normal $36 price, because TNK travel in Hanoi is not the real TNK travel and took a $14 service charge for booking for us. We also were accompanied on the tour by a loud, obnoxious American Woman who talked at anyone who sat beside her nonstop the whole trip. Luckily, on the third day, she took the fast boat to Phonon Phen, so everyone on the slow boat escaped. We did manage to run into her again at the border crossing, where she scared us by saying there was a problem with her boat and she might ahve to go with us, and again at a museum on Phnom Pehnh. Furthermore, we met a fun Israeli girl named Miriam with an expired Visa, who had been told before leaving she would have to pay a fine at the border, but would get through. But then the tour guide said this would not be the case, and she had to take a bus all the way back to Saigon to have it renewed, and it all happened so fast we didn't even exchange emails.

But the biggest low by far was that I went to an internet cafe to back up my photos onto CD. The guy gave me back my card, saying he couldn't copy it, and when I checked, I couldn't access my pictures. It turns out his computer has given my card a virus, and he retreived about 100 of my 400 pictures, but that was it. I also had to buy a new card as the card I have is unusable with the virus on it. So, there will be no pictures in this or the last blog posting. There were some great highs though.

The first was that after getting ripped off by the scalper, the lady from the first day marched me back outside, found the scalper with me, and after some giving him some dirty looks, got my money back for me. What a great person!! The concert itself wasn't the greatest, as it was more or less pop music, but it was interesting because every few numbers were clearly communist propaganda, with a lot of Army uniforms and flag waving.

The second was that, though the extra fee left a bad taste in our mouth, the TNK tour guides were excellent as was the tour. And today, while at the Royal Palace in Phnom Phen, we ran into Miriam!! It turns out the tour guide was wrong, and when she got back to Saigon her guesthouse owner promised her to go the border and there would be no problem, which there wasn't, so she got here a bit later than planned, but only by a morning.

And the third was that, during the tour, we went to a festival where some locals walking by helped us buy food from a very busy vendor, then showed us how to eat it, and then walked away after saying goodbye, without expecting anything in return. What nice people.

As for the the camera, hopefully I can retreive the pictures when I get back, and memory cards are cheaper here, so it wasn't so bad.

I am now in Phnom Pehn, and will miss Vietnam and my five weeks there. I will especially miss the happy reactions I would get when, as a tourist, I would wish them Çhuc Mung Nam Moi. It means happy new year, and they would always laugh when I said it, often surprised that I knew how. Phnom Pehn is HOT, and today we visited the royal palace, which is spectacular. It is, in fact, depressingly spectacular, because it is so beautiful and extravagant, but at the same time there are so many disabled and child beggars on the streets. And from what I have heard, Phnom Pehn is one of the richer areas in Cambodia.



I will be off in a few days to hopefully volunteer with an NGO caled Hope in Pursat province, Cambodia, so it will be awhile till my next post, I think.

See ya.

Slow ride through the central highlands

Hi everyone,

After leaving Hoi An, we took a six day tour through the central highlands of Vietnam. But not just any tour, it was a motorbike tour,. taken with the "Easy Riders!" Its funny how things change while travelling Before leaving, I told myself I would never take a motorbike. Two weeks later, after taking a motorbike, I told myself never in big cities. Next thing you know, I'm travelling exclusively by moto for six days straight.

The tour was really fun, and the scenery and people were great, but not as interesting as in Northern Vietnam, the other area known for its mountains and ethnic minorities. We visited an orphanage, which was quite moving for me. It was interesting how much the children wanted to grab on to you. I interpreted it as a need for affection and physical contact, Nika interpreted it as a subconscious or vaguely conscious understanding that if a tourist becomes attached to you, s/he might give you some money or sponsor or adopt you.

The other highlight for me was the night we spend in a wooden bungalow next to some beautiful rapids, surrounded by brushland. The resort served mostly Vietnames tourists, (we were the only non Vietnamese), and a couple of them asked me to pose in some pictures with them! I though it was a hilarious reversal, because I always ask Vietnamese if I can take there pictures, and they must think I''m crazy to think them farrming, building a house, etc is of any interest. The next morning, I went for a solo walk in the brushland nice in early. I saw some young local hunters kill a bird with a slingshot, which was pretty cool. But the best part was a bit later, when I hear a rustle, and looked over and saw an elephant eating its breakfast!! I found an elephant!!!! All by myself!!!! It was a 'free range' elephant, meaning it was clearly domesticated by the rope around its neck, but then they are left to run wild in the brushland, and then searched for when needed. I asked at the resort about the elephants, and they said they were all far away, but not too far for me to find!!

The other highlight was the great, cheap food. Travelling with the locals, you get to see the real prices and order the good dishes, so we normally spent about 3 dollars a day on food. AS for Vietnamese food in general, I really don't like it when I try it in Canadian restaurants. Buit here it is delicious. On the other hand, I did not see them use Hoi Sin Sauce once here, though it is on every table in every Canadian-Vietnamese restuarant I've been too.

P.S Anyone get the joke in the name of the post?

Hue and Hoi An

Happy New Years!

For those of you who don't know, Chinese and Vietnamese New Years, aka 'Tet' in Vietnam was February 7th this year. The new year here is the year 2008, but I can't figure out why its the same year as on the Western calender, and no one understands what I'm asking here when I try to find out. Does anyone know? Tell me if you do. We arrived in Hue, the former capital of Veitman, the morning of the sixth, and visited the remains of the citadel's imperial enclosure. What was left was quite impressive Hue was the sight of heavy fighting during the Vietnam/American war, and much of the citadel was destoyed.

That evening, we went to check out the News years concert and fireworks show. The concert, included a dubious Salsa dance number followed by an only slightly better hiphop segment. The fireworks were surprisinglly well done. However, in Veitnam, you can go much closer to the fireworks than you can in Canada, and this turns out not tobe a good thing. Firstly, it starts to hurt your neck to look more or less dierectly upwards for fifteen minutes. Secondly, the smelly smoke falling from the fireworks gets so thick it starts to obscure the view, never mind your breathing. And lastly, dodging the falling fireworks casings can be distracting. Most don't hurt much when they hit you, but Nika was lucky enough to get beaned by a nice big chunk :-).

Tet is a family affair in Vietnam, celebrated in a manner more similar to Christmas than to North American New Years. We expected to spend a quiet day in our Hotel. However, our hotel held a Dragon dance early in the morning that we got up to see. Following that, we went to visit Phung and Hue and meet their family. Phung is an artist that Nika started talking to at the citadel, and Hue is his wife, who is also an artist. He invited us to his house for Tet. We went and hung out with his family, and then they took us on motos to visit a couple pagodas and pray. Finally, in the afternoon, we went on another motercycle tour of another agoda and three roal tmobs. So much for a quiet day in the hotel.

On the third day, we did a tour of the 'Demilitarized' zone, the border between NOrth and South Vietnam during the American war. The villagers here had to build and live in underground tunnels to escape constant American Bombardments. Below is a picture of a shelter set up in case one was caught away from the tunnels as shelling started.

Incidently, if anyone is looking for avacation destination in June, central Vietnam would be a great location. The semi-annual (or bi-annual, whichever one means every other year) festival Hue is from June 3-11, I think. If you could co-ordinate it with the monthly festival Hoi An, which takes place on the 14th of the lunar month, you would be sitting pretty.

From Hue, we moved to Hoi An, know for its heritage buildings and tailors. Hoi is a lovely place to vist, but not so good to visit if you are on a tight budget. We have been spending our Dong like nobody's business. HOwever, amongst other things, I do have a custom made suit to show for it.

While Hoi An is quite picturesque, it will be awhile before I can post pictures as I am travelling to the rural areas of the central highlands the day after tommorow, so I will probably not post any pictures.

Hanoi and Area

Me and Nika spent five days in Hanoi, including a one day trip to nearby Nihn Binh. Unfortunately, Hanoi was freezing. most rooms in our price range were not equipped with heating, so we spent a couple extra dollars for a room with a space heater, which I managed with, but still was cold for Nika. WE still had a good time though. The main highlight of Hanoi is just walking around its bustling old quarter, trying to dodge the constant traffic while you eat and window shop.

The other two highlights for me were the water puppet theatre and the Ho Chi Mihn Complex. The water puppet theatre is quite different from anything I'd seen, and not really what I envisioned with the limited description I had read before viewing it. The puppetteers stand behind a screen, and the puppet show takes place over a pool of water meant to resemble the rice paddies where they originally take place. The puppets are controlled with sticks hidden under the water and controlled from behind the screen. THe show is very colourful and enjoyable, as is the accompanying traditional Vietnamese music.

At the Ho Chi Mihn Complex, it was interesting to observe the reverence for Ho Chi Mihn by the Vietnamese. His tomb had the highest security of any location I have so far visited in Vietnam, and is directly surrounded by 6 sentinel gaurds. The majority of tourists are Vietnamese. The Ho Chi Mihn museum's exhibits were also worth visiting. They were not very infromative; most did not explain much, or just consisted of sample documents passed between either the Veitnamese or their embassies. However, there were many modernish art exhibits to signify different parts of Vietnamese history, or their aspirations, and viewed as an art gallary, it was enjoyable. Most of the art's meanings went over my head though :-).

On our second last day in Hanoi, we took a day trip to the limestone caves of Nihn Bihn. They are like Halong Bay, but the caves themselves are not nearly as impressive. However, there weer relatively few tourists, and instead of staying on a big boat, you paddle through the rice paddies to reach the limestone Karsts containing the caves, so the voyage to the caves was better than Halong bay. The rowers get tired after working all day, so often substitute their feet for their hands when rowing.

From Hanoi,we caught a surprisingly comfortable (comfortable enough to actually get a good sleep on) night train to Hue.

Vietnam-Laos Border to Hanoi

Hello Everyone,

Once crossing into Vietnam, we made our way to Mong Lay. This town will soon no longer exist, as the government is building a huge dam that will flood it. Thats fine with me though, as the only hotel in town had awful service. It took us 45 minutes to get just rice one meal!! Plus, I had an upset stomach, so I didn't get to see much. From there, we got ripped off three times by bus drivers on our way to Sinho, which is annoying, because you know you are getting ripped off, but can't avoid it as they threaten to kick you out of the bus in the middle of no where if you don't pay. Out early experiences in Vietnam made us suspicious upon getting to Sinho, which was a shame, as Sinho is lovely.



In Sinho, nobody speaks English, and we did not see another white person in our three days there. It is very beautiful, though unfortunately it was foggy. There are many ethnic minoriteies who dress in their traditional clothing regularly, making the markets a vibrant place. WE went into a small restaurant, and tried to order just a bit of food, but they brought the three of us 6 dishes. WE thought they would then try to overcharge us, but in the end, the only charged us 50 000 Dong (about 3.50) total because they were honoured to have us as guests!! The food was delicious and we went back there again for an equally good meal. We also got called over one day by a soldier, who invited us in for dinner that night, and pointed out the chicken we were going to eat on his lawn. We spent the evening eating and teaching his children English. WE also went on some spectacular walks through the scenery and nearby villages. After our poor experience the first few days, it was nice to see the good side of Vietnam.

From there we went to Son La, a newly constructed town. We ended up spending an evening with the hotel owner, who offered us some Bee wine. I thought he meant honey wine, but when it came, the bottom half of the bottle was full of dead bees. I drank it, but could help but feel that little bee wings and feet were going down my throat, which was a little disconcerting.

We stopped for an afternoon in Sapa, which was freezing!!! It was around 3 degrees and rainy, which is really cold when you have no warm clothes and no where warm to warm up in. We had to buy some warm clothes before taking the overnight train to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital. Overall, I would highly recommend northern Vietnam, but at a warmer, less rainy time of year.



In Hanoi, we immedietly joined a three day tour of Halong Bay, shortlisted for the new 7 wonders of the natural world. Though crowded, the limestone caves we visted were quite impressive. I also had my first conversations with other tourists, as we hadn't seen very many until this point. WE then returned to Hanoi, and Don, Nika's father, left us for Canada. It was fun travelling with him,, and we were sorry to see him go.