wow, okay, it's been a bit. i feel like a lot has happened since i last wrote, i guess, that was when i got back from halong bay. the day i got back from there we were scheduled to fly from hanoi to saigon and then bus to phnom penh. we made the flight but decided to skip the bus ride. instead, we bought motorbikes to drive there. no big deal. hahahahahah, a bit about the driving in saigon and now in cambodia. there's usually two lanes, one for on-coming and the other to go with, same same. now, there are usually shoulders as well; sometimes this shoulder is a 6 inch drop off into kind of a loose gravel shoulder, sometimes it's paved decently. the shoulders are used a multitute of ways, usually bicycling and/or walking, motorbikes ride in them as well while getting passed by other vehicles or for going slower (say you've got six live pigs on the back, you might go a little slower). now the shoulder can also be used as a start off for on-coming traffic if you can't cross the road right away to get to the right side. this is a bit fucked up. there are also, cows, pull carts, water buffalo drawn carts, people walking cows, fucking anything you can think of is pretty much using the shoulder for travel. so it's a bit dicey. i don't know, it's hard to explain, how crazily the shoulders are used. pretty much some people follow the laws of traffic, but a lot don't; so you'll be crossing a major road in town and the cross traffic will just kinda blow through, it's sounds super sketch, but they do it pretty well. turning left is sketch too, you just kind of go, red light, there's a race (the lights count down so you pretty much start into the intersection with about 5-3 seconds left before it turns green, also, sketch cuz people blow a lot the yellow/red lights. cars will take up your lane if they are passing another car/truck/motorbike/tuk tuk/etc. the cars in your lane expect you to get the fuck out of the way. no joke, you're in my lane and they'll just honk and flash their lights at you like it ain't no thang. i'll get back to the 6 inch drop off onto fucking red dusty gravel in a minute. so imagine this chaos, it's not really chaos but it's pretty crazy. and then imagine that you've never driven a motorbike. and then imagine that you decide to buy one and drive it around SEA, learning to drive it in saigon. pretty much either the dumbest or best ideal that we've ever made. so, we bought two bikes to make the drive to phnom penh. they ain't much, but they do work. two honda win's, 110cc (massive). i could barely test drive it around the block in saigon, no big deal. this dude leads us out to the highway, all we have to do is take one road to phnom penh. i've never been so tense, so clutching onto myself, head on a swivel, stalling in the middle of intersections, seeing people do all sorts of crazy shit and coming at me from every direction. it was mad. let's just say you're learning curve is pretty fucking steep there for a minute.
we made it to the cambodian boarder well. made it through customs okay. the other side of the boarder is like the vegas strip, okay, i'm exaggerating a bit, but there were hella casinos. i was blown away, i had no clue. i'll get back to the gambling in a minute. the suns going down, let's get dinner. okay. our trend of eating weird shit continues. we pull over at this place, nothing special, just a kind of outdoor resturant. these vietnamese people practically yell at us to join them. right on. we sit down, they get us beers and urge us to start eating. it's this stew with some kind of greens in it, some whole fish (neither of us had eaten a whole fish, head, eyes, bones, organs, all of it, before). it was pretty weird, not bad, not great, weird. the other parts of the soup were good. and there was some satueed squid and veggies that we dipped into hot pepper like oil that was really good. they kept giving us beers and cheersing (i think both the vietnamese and the cambodian people just cheers all the time. i don't think they even take sips without saying cheers). then they bring out the chicken feet, asking if we've ever tried. no... no we haven't. you must. um, okay. now the chicken feet are the first thing i didn't not like. maybe it wasn't so much the taste as it was EXACTLY LIKE EATING A FUCKING HAND! i mean exactly, knuckles and shit, tendons, whatever. these people were just ripping fingers off and getting after it. putting the whole finger into their mouths and then sliding it out along the teeth. i mean i've eaten chicken wings and you do the same thing. but they got meat and don't look like hands. this was basically just skin off a chicken's foot. maybe you'll like, maybe you won't; i just got grossed out.
so, it's dark; let's keep driving. we were supposed to drive all the way to phnom penh that first day, 6 hours or so. riding is fucking tiring though, and we stopped like every hour from general aches and pains and whatnot. our lights work great. we can see like 5 feet in front of us and like nothing else. plus, now the bugs are out in full force. just battering your body and face all over the place, i'm blinking like every second trying to get bugs out of my eyes. plus, we're not wearing sunglasses anymore and it's dusty as shit, so every time a car passes you going like 80 km/h you get sand blasted. the whole time i'm like: this is nuts, this is the craziest shit i've ever done; and we weren't even going that fast at that point. finally, we pull over and both of us are like, this is mad, we should get a room for the night and then continue in the morning. done. got a room somewhere on the map, who knows, no ones speaks english, we just got here so we speak no khmer.
the next day, we tried to get up decently early. we are supposed to either meet michelle at the airport or at The Spring Guesthouse. we were bothing thinking how bad ass it would be just to show up at the airport on motorbikes like a boss. driving the next day we see more weird shit on the roads, charlie almost got taken out by a water buffalo, shit is like 12 feet tall, i thought that was a wrap. we crossed a ferry, i was next to this dude hauling live pigs, fucking squealing, shitting, moving, just jarring the shit out of me in general. the dude driving them, charlie notes, has six toes and then a nub; he's transfixed by that. and the whole time i'm looking at these pigs, squealing, shitting, they're probably in fear for the their lives, and i'm like: that looks exactly like human skin. EXACTLY LIKE IT. i'm never eating pork again. yeah, that lasted like a day. so, we make it to phnom penh, probably in time to pick michelle up, but thought better of it as we needed to get a rack on one of the bikes to hold all of our shit.
so, we get to The Spring Guesthouse, meet up with michelle; and meet savin. savin is the coolest tuk tuk driver in cambodia. tuk tuk's are like covered karts pulled by motorbike. savin is just the nicest, funniest dudes ever. if you make it to phnom penh, we can hook you up with him to show you around. i end up going on a walk by myself for a while and meet this dude, tek. tek tells me he has a niece moving to san jose soon to be a nurse and askes if i would talk to her. i'm a little sketched out but want to trust the people and help out if i can, so i say sure. i'm supposed to meet up with them the next day. i go back to the guesthouse and meet up with michelle and charlie and we get a ride to the riverfront to see the festivities of the water festival. the water festival is the biggest holiday in cambodia, and people travel from all over to phnom penh for it. basically doubles the population. when we get dropped off at the riverfront we decide to get dinner first at this little indian place. as we're waiting for dinner a light above michelle explodes and the fucking thing falls on michelle's head cutting right next to her eye. she's okay though, and they comped us 3 beers, so that makes up for it... whatever, welcome to south east asia michelle. the festivities are crazy, we see live music, all sorts of lights, millions of people, a play, food vendors, and i don't know what else. it's a madhouse everywhere.
the next day, i wake up early and go on a run at the olympic stadium before meeting up with this niece. it's a cool stadium, i don't know what they mean by olympic, but there are some people rehabbing with missing legs there, so that's pretty cool. i go back to meet up with the people and we are supposed to go back to their house and eat and talk. i'm still a little tepidatious; but i can't hold back. we get there, sit and talk to two of the sisters and have coffee while we for food and the nurse/niece to get off work. then an uncle comes and i speak with him while waiting for the girl. this is a long time, and i'm like we could have met up later, but i don't say anything. but i'm pretty okay with it now, they seem like good people. the uncle tells me he works at the casino and that he'll teach me to play cambodian blackjack. cool, it's a little different but not much. and we play for a bit and he's calling the cards as he's dealing them. i'm fairly impressed with this and then he gets to talking about how if i want i can go into the casino and we'll take the house in like 5-8 deals and walk with 200 grand. i'm like whatever. there's a test though, of course and this dude from dubai will be at the house in a minute and he might want to play me. homeboy, the uncle, will give me money and we'll take the dubai guy. it's all snowballing at this point the dubai guy is there now. by now i know that there's no niece and that it was all a ruse for this gambling shit. i'm scared to death and don't feel like i can leave now, so i play this dude from dubai. i win a lot of money, going off the hands that the uncle taught me earlier. then in some shit the dude from dubai pulls out like 50 grand starts playing that. i almost got up to leave, should have, but at this point i'm a little scared for my life. whatver, we get to the final hand, as we practiced, i have 21 on a three card deal and the dude from dubai a 20 off the deal. what a trip! we're playing for like 60 grand at this point, me on like 38,000 credit. i'm worried. fucking worried doesn't begin to explain it. but the dude from dubai now wants to see the money, he doesn't believe my credits good. it's definitely not! we package up the cards in envelopes, seal them with the cards facing each so you can't see through, and then sign them. we'll meet back up once i've got the money to cover my end. fucking crazy. the uncle tells me he'll get the money to cover it, we know i've got the winning cards, just tells me to get as much as i can. i get dropped off at the guesthouse, i'm supposed to meetup with michelle and charlie. they aren't there cuz i told them by email earlier on this dudes phone that i'm okay and having fun. that was still when i got over there and thought they were this nice cambodian family. the people are waiting outside for me. savin tells me to be careful; but i'm this smart savvy traveller by now. i get some money, not a lot, not a little; go back and win. then, the dubai guy askes to play 4 games, me dealing. i'm fucked here. i deal and win two hands, lose the third, there was all my money on the table. the fourth deal i'm given more credit to win back the uncle's money. wow, this is absolutely bananas. the pot is now like a 100 grand on this fourth deal, i have a 20 and the dubai guy has a 19, the uncle can see his cards and has been hand signalling me all four of the last deals, so we know what he's got. the dubai guy wants to see the money again. okay, tomorrow. we seal the cards do the signing and leave. the uncle says he can get the money from his work and they drop me off at the guesthouse saying they'll pick me up at eight in the moring. they never show. so, suffice it to say, i learned a lesson, didn't die, and got made in cambodia. it was a trip. i didn't lose a lot of money, but i did get knocked down a few pegs, learn a lesson, but i'm alive.
i'm pretty despondent the next day and pissed and want to go to the embassy or their house; but what can i do at either of those places. my mistake my scar. charlie and michelle are real nice about it all and console me the next day, even though i put them through some shit. we take savin's tuk tuk out to the killing fields. their a lot of killing fields in cambodia (pol pot's regime, the khmer rouge, killed millions of cambodians in the late 70's; basically crushed the soul of the country and set them back years as he had everyone but the peasants murder). on the way there we see the aftermath of a motorbike accident. just this dude laying in the middle of the road bleeding from his mouth no helmet; and all i want to do is hold his hand while he's dying. everyone is just driving by. so that pretty much sobered me up out of my funk. it could be a lot worse. the killing fields are super depressing but interesting as it's made such a mark on this country. the monument is a building, shaped a bit like the washington monument but not too tall, with glass walls and just like 4 floors of skulls and bones. you walk around the fields and there's still clothes, teeth, and bones still surfacing. it's fucked up. we ride back to the guesthouse, no one really says anything. we make plans with savin to get some food later and go to some cambodian boxing matches.
the boxing matches are cool. after michelle and i talk about how we've never seen any live fights. we get pretty much front row sets and call out who we think will be the winner every fight, there were about 4 or 5 that we watched. it was pretty incredible. they play music at the begining and the fighters kind of do a dance around warm up, that's pretty much badass, practing kneeing, and kicking and punching all slowly to this cambodian music. it was cool. afterwards, we go get dinner and drinks and play pool and foosball with savin. the next day we are driving to sihnoukville, taking the 4 if you want to look it up.
the four is the road with the 6 inch drop into gravel, it's one of the main highways in cambodia; so why there isn't really much of a shoulder is beyond me. by now, we've had a rack made, and my bike is loaded with mine and charlie's packs and charlie's bike with him, michelle, and her pack. my bike is heavy in the back, it's got a lot more travel after a bumps. whatever, i'll learn to ride it, just like before. here's where the shoulder comes into play though. the on-coming traffic, i told you, EXPECTS you to move and WILL take up the whole lane if they are passing a big truck or something. it's fucked up. but like i said all the time paying attention, usually you can slow down and not have to bale off the road into this gravel shoulder, but sometimes it's that or die. so here i am with this bike loaded down and everytime i hit a bump this thing is all over the place and then having to careen off the road into gravel where i'm scared to death my tire's going to hit and slide all over, it does, but you deal with it. i mean, there really isn't much else you can do. you get pissed a little, and want it to be like driving in the states; but you're not in the states and you can't do shit about it. the four is scary, trucks pass you going hella fast, fucking cows and water buffalo's all over, shit's just crazy, good winds, on coming traffic. charlie and i talking at rest stops about how tense and scary and how you've got to be on point the whole time, but then both of us saying and thinking that this is one of the coolest things we'll will ever have the chance to do and reminding ourselves to enjoy it and that we are seriously motoring cambodia and the scenery is beautiful, all rice fields, and palm trees and mountians in the distance and rest stops where no one speaks english and haven't probably seen a ton of white people and they are so happy to see you and thrilled when you get food and watch while you eat it and bring their kids to say hi and how proud they are that their kids can say hi english and just all the things we would never ever get to see on buses. all of us agree that it's hard work, but that it's rewarding and amazing, and are thankful for the opportunity to just be able to see and do this. today, i was like, i'll be home at some point and whatever i'll be doing will be cool and great sometimes and then just life at others; but i'll be able to look back and think of the year i turned thrity and how fucking cool and amazing it was that i motorbiked through SEA with two of my best friends and just be blown away by remember the experience. fuck, i can feel it now, and i'm just writing about it.
anyway, we made it to sihnoukville and spent a while looking for some bungalows to stay in but got so tired and grumpy looking for places that we eventually settle on a not bad guesthouse for like 6 bucks a night. we stayed there for two days, not really into it as the beaches (ocheteul sp?) were cool but crowded with white people and just busy. michelle and charlie found THE place that we were all looking for. in sihnoukville, go to otres beach. it's just a few bungalows resorts on the chillest most laid back beach ever. and that's where we all fell in love with the place. we didn't get a bungalow but you can. we stayed at Dany's. Dany's is run by the coolest nicest cambodian people alive. there's the old man, just this dude who knows how to do everything, work on the rest, fix shit, he helped us change the oil on our bikes one day and fix em up. then there are 8 kids, 5 girls and 3 boys. kim ang, just kim for short is the oldest and runs the place. kim is the coolest broad ever, she took us to the markets, talked to us about her daughter sunny, told us about cambodia, her dreams to buy the place, how she had one before but it was taken away by the government. just all around good people. da lin is the the youngest daughter, super cool, in school, wants to be a doctor, always had to stay up the latest taking care of guests. the youngest sons, chet and joia; chet always walking around with this half grin and a kinda swagger, playing cards and dice with us. he won cards one night and was beside himself, couldn't keep the grin off his face. joia was a bit shy but would talk to us and we would always fuck with him. nareen, who was preggers when we got there and had the baby (i went to the hospital one day and saw him and her). shmi and another who cooked and then one who would do the dishes. the food they made was amazing. every time they saw me and they were eating they would call me over and ask if i wanted to taste some khmer food, and of course i had to. it was always delicious, mostly seafood, but they love chicken too. one day kim took us to the market and we bought a shit ton of tiger prawns, and this aussie josh bought crabs and they cooked it up and we all sat down and had dinner together on straw mats on the ground. it was seriously fucking cool, and fun and the food was out of this world. it was then we decided we wanted to cook them Thanksgiving dinner.
so the day Thanksgiving rolled around, i went to the market with kim and picked up 2 ducks, and 3 chickens for them (the family doesn't eat duck), a whole bunch of potatoes and sweet potates (of course!). i picked out the chickens and the ducks still live and they killed em and cleaned em right there in the market, it was nuts. we ended up cooking dinner for 5 americans (inclucing us), a german, and like 18 cambodians. it was out of this world. kim and i cleaned the foul again and chopped em up, i bbq'd the duck, one brother the chicken, charlie and michelle made the potatoes and string bean dishes, one satueed and the other mixed with cream of mushroom soup (tastey deliciousness). kim and the family made crab and some other khmer food. we ended up spending like 75 dollars on all the food but had the other travellers pitch and it was just so awesome to be able to share and feed the family on Thanksgiving. we all sat around after and played chicken head. don't ask, just stick the cooked chicken head on a plate, cover it with a bowl, shake it and then lift the bowl up, whoever the chicken beak points at has to drink. what a trip. after a while this khmer dude was challenging charlie to feats of beer drinking, drink your whole beer! wild.
anyway, we chilled on the beach for two weeks, couldn't be bothered to do much. read, listen to music, take a swim, take a drive to the end of the beach where there's no one, the biggest and hardest decision of the day was what to eat for dinner. play cards after dinner. otres was just this chill beach. sihnoukville was half the greatest place on earth, the other half was the skeeziest place on earth.
as like this blackhole of travelling, most people get there and plan to spend a couple days there. then they stay for two weeks, a month, some people like a year. others have to leave but either move back or come back for months at a time. there were old expats who would rent khmer girls, a day, a week, maybe they would get married and keep other khmer girlfriends on the side. victory hill, is the skeezy part of town, hooker bars and places where girls would act like your date for the night. then there is the chicken shack area of town on the other side of the port, i was taken there by this kid that had a khmer newborn with a khmer girl. he got a hooker at the chicken shack for 5 dollars. later on that night, he passed out on the side of the road on me. i tried to wake him up for hours, but couldn't call for help as it was 3 in the morning and i was afraid i would get robbed or killed (we had heard about a white girl winning 100 grand at the casino found dead the next day in a ditch). finally, it was dawn and i hailed some people to help, we got a ambulance and he got taken to the hospital, still passed out. i was told by the cops to go get my passport so they could take a copy. i thought he was going to die and i was going to go to cambodian jail. the second scariest night of my life. he woke up though and made his police report. it was definitely some real shit.
anyway, i'm sure there's much more i need to add but wanted to get this up because i've made it out of the black hole, we are in phnom penh headed to siem reap to check out the temples, taking the 6 if you want to keep track. later i'll try to add some pictures but for now you can check out charlie's and michelle's on his google+. i've good mad photos of the family which i am excited to put up so you can have faces with their names. they love when you take a pic and show it to them.
out for now.
nick, charlie, and michelle
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
halong bay
pictures are being uploaded as we speak! four hundred and eight of them, i'll probably need to delete a few of those though, just crap shots or multiples. in the mean time i thought i would relay my trip to halong bay.
it was amazing! super, the place is absolutely stunning and picturesque. the tour was so-so, just meeting the other people on the boat (2 germans, they brought chocolate, 4 swedes, 2 aussies, 1 belgian and portugese couple, 4 italians, a brit, and an italian and kenyan couple; a bag of mixed nuts) and just floating around halong bay was worth it though. it started out as a four hour bus ride from hanoi to the bay. i got a two night three day tour with all the food included, which was nice; but we had to pay for drinks. i remember we got there and pretty much threw our crap in our rooms and had lunch, it was good, seafood, rice, some tofu dishes. a little better than i expected. then started our trip to a cavern. trip was beautiful, all of us were on top of the boat taking pictures and just reeling from the ethereal aspect of this other worldly place. the cave was so-so, it was cool, but packed and everyone was just bunched up taking pitures. so, i kinda just charged through, took some choice shots and got back outside for some air and just to gaze, transfixed. next, we boated over to an area where we could swim, which was awesome. i jumped off the top of the boat first thing, had to, didn't have a choice... i had to do a flip as well. we all swam around for a little bit and then went over to a sea village to kayak. the sea village felt kinda contrived like the cave; but it was neat to be able to just kayak at the bottom of these giant mountians of rocks just breaking up out of the water, and going through other little caves to bay enclosures and soaking it all in. we got back to the dock and i made friends with a dog and when i would try to walk away but he would put his jaws around my wrist like plumas does whenever i she her. it was a nice moment because i really would like a dog when i get home and also made me miss home a bit. the captain and our tour guide picked out some fish we would take back on the boat and cook up for dinner. dinner was excellent, we had a spring roll making class, and had the fish and some other dishes and some ha long beers. things were mellow after that for a bit, we all sat around talking and bullshitting and drinking beer. that is until one of the dudes on the boat came in and introduced himself to everyone and said it was karaoke time. the sounds of crickets filled the boat. there aren't even crickets there. so, this is it, this is my time. be brave, i'll never see these people again... i pound my beer, get up and tell them to put, "genie in a bottle" on. hahah, apparently i have great forsight as i was driving around reno in the week leading up to my leaving and that song came on. i thought, this is such a shit song, it's like four lines repeated for three or so minutes of the worst shit imaginable; and that's when it hit me that i HAVE to use this as my karaoke song. and i made my mind up right there that it would be and i have never even sang karaoke. hahaha, so i did it. it wasn't great, fuck, it wasn't even good; but i had a great time and there is something releasing about being able to face that particular fear and put yourself out there. other people started to sing and they announced that if you scored a 100, you could get a free drink. so, what do you know, i had a little competition with the vietnamese and this uruguayan that was my roommate. i won't come out and say i had a definitive win; but, i did. it was blast. after going to bed i had a great conversation with the uruguayan about his life, and how he'd been in new zealand for the past year and how it was time for him to go home and find a wife and start and family and how he had been feeling pressure from his family for this and also that he wanted to, was ready. it was cool, i just listened and weighed in when i had something to say.
the next day, i woke up a little slow from being karaoke champion. heavy is the crown, as they say. breakfast was so-so but it was food, and then we boated over to cat ba island. cat ba island is this giant national park, conservation, and study area. we had a choice, go on a hike or do a bike ride. i chose the hike. the hike, like all the ones i've been on here is straight up. i don't think they believe in switchbacks. but then again, that is pretty hard to cut into the jungle and all the rock that is here. so straight up it is. i wore my flip flops, a swedish couple and gonzalo (my roommate); were all laughing and asking if i was gonna be alright. they don't know this is the same kid that use to climb moutains barefoot at jamison and get chewed out for it. i was good but it was kinda sketch at the top with all these smooth stones worn from usage and then the slick hard packed clay trail on the way down too. but i made it! when we got to the top it was amazing. miles and miles of these rock structures. you would think, awe, the same thing; but it's just breath-taking. and then there was this fucked up, like fire tower above it like 40 ft, with a narrow stair case and steps the are so tiny. and then, the shit is hella old and rusted through in places to boot. but i had to. i climb this death trap, and the fucking stairs and wire, so your just looking through them as you climb and get higher and this gives you a little dizziness and you're not looking at where you put your hands when you hit a rusted through spot and cut yourself and get tetanus. hahha, i'm kidding i didn't cut myself; but there's a high probablity of it happening. so i get up, almost to the top, and i look at the platform... and shit you wouldn't believe it but i'm staring at peoples' feet and legs. i shouldn't be seeing that i'm thinking there's wood there. hahah, some wood. hella planks are missing and cracked and basically all of us up there are sticking to where we can see the metal below that. i'm shitting in my pants, some bees have built a nest up there, there is a ferocious wind and too many people on this questionable platform. but it's sick. i can now see the other side of this island and it's just unreal. we take some pics very quick like and get the fuck off of it. we hike down, i get a drumstick at the bottom of the hill and it's awesome. my shirt is sweated through twice over and this ice cream is the best thing i've ever had. we meet back up with the rest of the group and head over to monkey island. monkey island is this little resort with bungalows about a twenty minute boat ride from cat ba. it's really pretty cool, but not in an over extragant way. our bungalow is pretty spartan and there is a giant rock coming up in the bathroom floor but this adds a little something to the place. we get the lunch, some more good seafood and i get the best lemonade of my life. we get the afternoon to do whatever we want, kayak to where you can see the monkeys, chill, swim, play volleyball, read, whatever. i go swimming and do some yoga on the beach, it was pretty nice since i haven't taken the time to do a lot of it here. i read for a bit on the beach, just staring at this mountians, take a nap, play volleyball with some other kids, take pictures of the sunset and then get back in the water for a minute. it sounds like a did a lot there but it was so relaxed and so chill that it felt like nothing. it was seriously a great afternoon. i didn't kayak over to see the monkeys as i'd heard their kind of aggressive and basically just didn't feel like it. dinner was awesome that night, we had some two different kinds of muscles, some barbaqued chicked and beef, a cucmber salad, and something other than sticky rice. after i played shithead with a couple of the kids, bought some oreos to share and the germans broke out their chocolate, which i don't even have to say was hella good. anyway, i had an early night, read for a bit and went to sleep. we woke up at seven, had breakfast and then boated back to the docks. it was great boat ride back in, staring at the rocks, appreciating everything, doing some yoga and a little half work out. it was nice.
anyway, that's it for now. i just met back up with charlie and we are headed to cambodia in da morning. that's only in da morning.
lates.
p.s. pics posted on google+. here's the link:
https://plus.google.com/100425108117169097988?hl=en&tab=h#photos/100425108117169097988/albums/5672576968041058465
it was amazing! super, the place is absolutely stunning and picturesque. the tour was so-so, just meeting the other people on the boat (2 germans, they brought chocolate, 4 swedes, 2 aussies, 1 belgian and portugese couple, 4 italians, a brit, and an italian and kenyan couple; a bag of mixed nuts) and just floating around halong bay was worth it though. it started out as a four hour bus ride from hanoi to the bay. i got a two night three day tour with all the food included, which was nice; but we had to pay for drinks. i remember we got there and pretty much threw our crap in our rooms and had lunch, it was good, seafood, rice, some tofu dishes. a little better than i expected. then started our trip to a cavern. trip was beautiful, all of us were on top of the boat taking pictures and just reeling from the ethereal aspect of this other worldly place. the cave was so-so, it was cool, but packed and everyone was just bunched up taking pitures. so, i kinda just charged through, took some choice shots and got back outside for some air and just to gaze, transfixed. next, we boated over to an area where we could swim, which was awesome. i jumped off the top of the boat first thing, had to, didn't have a choice... i had to do a flip as well. we all swam around for a little bit and then went over to a sea village to kayak. the sea village felt kinda contrived like the cave; but it was neat to be able to just kayak at the bottom of these giant mountians of rocks just breaking up out of the water, and going through other little caves to bay enclosures and soaking it all in. we got back to the dock and i made friends with a dog and when i would try to walk away but he would put his jaws around my wrist like plumas does whenever i she her. it was a nice moment because i really would like a dog when i get home and also made me miss home a bit. the captain and our tour guide picked out some fish we would take back on the boat and cook up for dinner. dinner was excellent, we had a spring roll making class, and had the fish and some other dishes and some ha long beers. things were mellow after that for a bit, we all sat around talking and bullshitting and drinking beer. that is until one of the dudes on the boat came in and introduced himself to everyone and said it was karaoke time. the sounds of crickets filled the boat. there aren't even crickets there. so, this is it, this is my time. be brave, i'll never see these people again... i pound my beer, get up and tell them to put, "genie in a bottle" on. hahah, apparently i have great forsight as i was driving around reno in the week leading up to my leaving and that song came on. i thought, this is such a shit song, it's like four lines repeated for three or so minutes of the worst shit imaginable; and that's when it hit me that i HAVE to use this as my karaoke song. and i made my mind up right there that it would be and i have never even sang karaoke. hahaha, so i did it. it wasn't great, fuck, it wasn't even good; but i had a great time and there is something releasing about being able to face that particular fear and put yourself out there. other people started to sing and they announced that if you scored a 100, you could get a free drink. so, what do you know, i had a little competition with the vietnamese and this uruguayan that was my roommate. i won't come out and say i had a definitive win; but, i did. it was blast. after going to bed i had a great conversation with the uruguayan about his life, and how he'd been in new zealand for the past year and how it was time for him to go home and find a wife and start and family and how he had been feeling pressure from his family for this and also that he wanted to, was ready. it was cool, i just listened and weighed in when i had something to say.
the next day, i woke up a little slow from being karaoke champion. heavy is the crown, as they say. breakfast was so-so but it was food, and then we boated over to cat ba island. cat ba island is this giant national park, conservation, and study area. we had a choice, go on a hike or do a bike ride. i chose the hike. the hike, like all the ones i've been on here is straight up. i don't think they believe in switchbacks. but then again, that is pretty hard to cut into the jungle and all the rock that is here. so straight up it is. i wore my flip flops, a swedish couple and gonzalo (my roommate); were all laughing and asking if i was gonna be alright. they don't know this is the same kid that use to climb moutains barefoot at jamison and get chewed out for it. i was good but it was kinda sketch at the top with all these smooth stones worn from usage and then the slick hard packed clay trail on the way down too. but i made it! when we got to the top it was amazing. miles and miles of these rock structures. you would think, awe, the same thing; but it's just breath-taking. and then there was this fucked up, like fire tower above it like 40 ft, with a narrow stair case and steps the are so tiny. and then, the shit is hella old and rusted through in places to boot. but i had to. i climb this death trap, and the fucking stairs and wire, so your just looking through them as you climb and get higher and this gives you a little dizziness and you're not looking at where you put your hands when you hit a rusted through spot and cut yourself and get tetanus. hahha, i'm kidding i didn't cut myself; but there's a high probablity of it happening. so i get up, almost to the top, and i look at the platform... and shit you wouldn't believe it but i'm staring at peoples' feet and legs. i shouldn't be seeing that i'm thinking there's wood there. hahah, some wood. hella planks are missing and cracked and basically all of us up there are sticking to where we can see the metal below that. i'm shitting in my pants, some bees have built a nest up there, there is a ferocious wind and too many people on this questionable platform. but it's sick. i can now see the other side of this island and it's just unreal. we take some pics very quick like and get the fuck off of it. we hike down, i get a drumstick at the bottom of the hill and it's awesome. my shirt is sweated through twice over and this ice cream is the best thing i've ever had. we meet back up with the rest of the group and head over to monkey island. monkey island is this little resort with bungalows about a twenty minute boat ride from cat ba. it's really pretty cool, but not in an over extragant way. our bungalow is pretty spartan and there is a giant rock coming up in the bathroom floor but this adds a little something to the place. we get the lunch, some more good seafood and i get the best lemonade of my life. we get the afternoon to do whatever we want, kayak to where you can see the monkeys, chill, swim, play volleyball, read, whatever. i go swimming and do some yoga on the beach, it was pretty nice since i haven't taken the time to do a lot of it here. i read for a bit on the beach, just staring at this mountians, take a nap, play volleyball with some other kids, take pictures of the sunset and then get back in the water for a minute. it sounds like a did a lot there but it was so relaxed and so chill that it felt like nothing. it was seriously a great afternoon. i didn't kayak over to see the monkeys as i'd heard their kind of aggressive and basically just didn't feel like it. dinner was awesome that night, we had some two different kinds of muscles, some barbaqued chicked and beef, a cucmber salad, and something other than sticky rice. after i played shithead with a couple of the kids, bought some oreos to share and the germans broke out their chocolate, which i don't even have to say was hella good. anyway, i had an early night, read for a bit and went to sleep. we woke up at seven, had breakfast and then boated back to the docks. it was great boat ride back in, staring at the rocks, appreciating everything, doing some yoga and a little half work out. it was nice.
anyway, that's it for now. i just met back up with charlie and we are headed to cambodia in da morning. that's only in da morning.
lates.
p.s. pics posted on google+. here's the link:
https://plus.google.com/100425108117169097988?hl=en&tab=h#photos/100425108117169097988/albums/5672576968041058465
Saturday, November 5, 2011
from hoi an to ha noi
so, i guess the last time i write was in hoi an. a lot of shit has happened since then and some miles have been put up. we are now in ha noi by way of ninh binh. our last day in hoi an we had some tailored pants made, i had some like hippie pants made and charlie had some like parachute pants made. they are pretty cool and comfortable plus we talked the lady down quite a bit. she originally wanted to charge me something like 400,000 dong; but we talked her into 420,000 for two pair, so it was like 12 dollars a piece. not bad for some custom shit. anyway, we were glad to get out of hoi an as it had too much of a touristy feel to it, even though that marble moutain was sick. so we caught the bus to ha noi. charlie was so cramped and uncomfortable within a few hours and we spoke with this kid from belgium who said he was getting off the bus in ninh binh and we had heard about some cool shit to do there so that became our new destination en route.
we got there about 5 in the morning after about a 15 hour bus ride with no place to stay and pretty much no plan. luckily, there are usually like 100 motorbikes and taxis waiting. here, one dude, saying we could rent in his motel across the street for 5 bucks a night. worked for us. the cool shit we had heard about was that it was like halong bay on land. halong bay is a crazy bay full of islands that just jutt out of the water, with apparently a bunch of caves as well. the particular national park we went to was call Trang An. charlie's got a bunch of pictures here:
https://plus.google.com/100425108117169097988?hl=en&tab=h#photos/103796131705116769000/albums/5670695812952437393.
it was seriously cool, amazing, and beautiful. what was also really great is that we had a canadian from vietnam in our little boat for the tour. he kind of interpreted everything the lady rowing the boat spoke about. it was pretty cool. the area had been used 3 times in the history of vietnam as a place of refuge for the emperor when the mongolians attacked. being that the place is surrounded by massive rock moutians and swamps, i'd say it was a good place. we were sure to be told that the vietnamese defeated the mongolains all three times they attacked. each time they made refuge, a different emperor would build a different base camp and temples to pray at. these left some pretty cool ass temples surrounded this surreal landscape. we learned that some of the temples that we were seeing were about 1000 years old. pretty cool stuff. check out the photos, as i can't even begin to describe what it looked like. as i walking around the place, i kept wandering off, into keeping pace with the walking, what i would eat later, and all of these banal thoughts; i had to stop myself and really take a look around. this is what i had come here for to see this different and strange landscape; row boating through caves under enormous rock mountians and seeing far east buddists temples. it was really amazing and i was so glad that i could get out of my own head and just appreciate where it is that i am and are doing and really be happy in the moment. check out charlies photos, is all i can say; i'll try to post some later but for the time being i have no way to get them up.
so after this tour, we went and got some lunch. hahaha, it was just a normal lunch of chicken and rice, not some weird shit this time; and went to hoa lu. hoa lu is one the ancient capitals of vietnam and was pretty cool. it was in the same landscape as trang an so surround by the same type of moutains and swamps. i am not sure of how old it is and there were not many people to guide you around as it was pretty shit weather out. we did get to climb another mountain to look over the whole city and that was pretty cool.
as we got back to ninh binh and it was rush hour. our motorbike skills had to quickly engage as it was pretty mad. luckily we made it through and had to have a few beers to amp down. after that we went to go have noodle soup at a place we had breakfast at the day before. the dude running it was crazy and loved us because we had hit his tobacco bong. seriously they are all over the north, at kiosks, at shops for sale and people just ripping them all over. we had to tried it, right, we're here. so he loved us and was teaching us how to hit it the best and just straight speaking vietnames at us. we had no clue but kept laughing and smiling because he would and he was so full of enthusiasm. so we were gunna go back for dinner. dude feed us pho and both of us were thinking how jealous christian would be that we're just macing pho day after day and how delicious it always is. this was super good and we learned that the old dude ran the shop with his wife and two sons and was so proud of his family. it was really pretty cool. we hit the pipe again, just to make sure our technique was okay and then he was trying to rush us out; we thought saying he was going to shut down and sleep for the night. we had shots of rice wine with his son and then broke out... to chuch with this old dude. now, here we are in vietnam after a crazy day doing this sick tour, motorbiking our asses off, putting back some beers, hitting the tobacco bong with this dude, taking rice wine shots with his son and this guy takes us to saturday night mass. it was a trip. we had no clue what was going on, where he was taking us... and it's to mass. hahah, we both stayed as we felt out of respect and spoke about how it had been years since we'd been. it was sobering, like the moment i'd had earlier at the park; here i am and i can't believe what i'm doing. it was cool though, and we were both pretty happy that this old guy had shared that with us.
we left the next day to catch the local bus to ha noi. the local bus was pretty scary. dudes trying to pass like 4 trucks with another semi heading straight at us and motorbikes on all sides. i've said it before and i'll say it again, i am waiting to see a crash. i don't want to, but i think it has to happen. i see like 15 near, and i mean near, misses walking two blocks. haven't seen it yet though. it had been pretty hazy in ninh binh and we both commented on it but couldn't decide what from. on the way to ha noi we saw some massive strip mining on the sides of the freeway (if you could call it that) and some concrete plants, maybe. anyway, a shit ton of people drying rice in their drive ways straight on the asphalt on the side of the road and all i could think was i'll probably be eating that later. garbage fires on the side of the road as well, blocking out all site for the drivers. bathrooms with no toliets just holes in the ground, the shower and the toliet with no divider, construction workers in flip flops, for a while on the drive all i could think about were the bigger differences between our cultures. by the time we got to ha noi, i had decided the haze was pollution. it's pretty hazy here as well. it might be gross, but i know by the fact that my buggers are black. now i know why they are all wearing face masks when they drive.
despite that, i am enjoying ha noi. i went for a good run around the big lake in town, hoan kiem; and we both got lost for hours on our own. we haven't been doing too much here, just walking around and taking it easy. drinking bia hoi's for 5000 dong a piece, so that's like a quarter. there is a whole section of the tourist part of town were you can go to all of these kiosks and drink them from kegs. charlie is getting his india visa from the place here in town; that takes like 5 days, so i am breaking off to take a tour of halong bay while he holds it down here for a couple of days. i'm pretty excited, it's like a 3 day/two night tour where one night i'll get to sleep on the boat and another in some bungalows on monkey island. it's weird walking around ha noi knowing my parents were here only a few years ago and maybe they have walked down the same streets or ate the same street meat, i know pops would. but they both really wanted me to do halong bay so there i'll be tomorrow and i'm sure it'll be great.
hopefully some fucking pictures soon!
we got there about 5 in the morning after about a 15 hour bus ride with no place to stay and pretty much no plan. luckily, there are usually like 100 motorbikes and taxis waiting. here, one dude, saying we could rent in his motel across the street for 5 bucks a night. worked for us. the cool shit we had heard about was that it was like halong bay on land. halong bay is a crazy bay full of islands that just jutt out of the water, with apparently a bunch of caves as well. the particular national park we went to was call Trang An. charlie's got a bunch of pictures here:
https://plus.google.com/100425108117169097988?hl=en&tab=h#photos/103796131705116769000/albums/5670695812952437393.
it was seriously cool, amazing, and beautiful. what was also really great is that we had a canadian from vietnam in our little boat for the tour. he kind of interpreted everything the lady rowing the boat spoke about. it was pretty cool. the area had been used 3 times in the history of vietnam as a place of refuge for the emperor when the mongolians attacked. being that the place is surrounded by massive rock moutians and swamps, i'd say it was a good place. we were sure to be told that the vietnamese defeated the mongolains all three times they attacked. each time they made refuge, a different emperor would build a different base camp and temples to pray at. these left some pretty cool ass temples surrounded this surreal landscape. we learned that some of the temples that we were seeing were about 1000 years old. pretty cool stuff. check out the photos, as i can't even begin to describe what it looked like. as i walking around the place, i kept wandering off, into keeping pace with the walking, what i would eat later, and all of these banal thoughts; i had to stop myself and really take a look around. this is what i had come here for to see this different and strange landscape; row boating through caves under enormous rock mountians and seeing far east buddists temples. it was really amazing and i was so glad that i could get out of my own head and just appreciate where it is that i am and are doing and really be happy in the moment. check out charlies photos, is all i can say; i'll try to post some later but for the time being i have no way to get them up.
so after this tour, we went and got some lunch. hahaha, it was just a normal lunch of chicken and rice, not some weird shit this time; and went to hoa lu. hoa lu is one the ancient capitals of vietnam and was pretty cool. it was in the same landscape as trang an so surround by the same type of moutains and swamps. i am not sure of how old it is and there were not many people to guide you around as it was pretty shit weather out. we did get to climb another mountain to look over the whole city and that was pretty cool.
as we got back to ninh binh and it was rush hour. our motorbike skills had to quickly engage as it was pretty mad. luckily we made it through and had to have a few beers to amp down. after that we went to go have noodle soup at a place we had breakfast at the day before. the dude running it was crazy and loved us because we had hit his tobacco bong. seriously they are all over the north, at kiosks, at shops for sale and people just ripping them all over. we had to tried it, right, we're here. so he loved us and was teaching us how to hit it the best and just straight speaking vietnames at us. we had no clue but kept laughing and smiling because he would and he was so full of enthusiasm. so we were gunna go back for dinner. dude feed us pho and both of us were thinking how jealous christian would be that we're just macing pho day after day and how delicious it always is. this was super good and we learned that the old dude ran the shop with his wife and two sons and was so proud of his family. it was really pretty cool. we hit the pipe again, just to make sure our technique was okay and then he was trying to rush us out; we thought saying he was going to shut down and sleep for the night. we had shots of rice wine with his son and then broke out... to chuch with this old dude. now, here we are in vietnam after a crazy day doing this sick tour, motorbiking our asses off, putting back some beers, hitting the tobacco bong with this dude, taking rice wine shots with his son and this guy takes us to saturday night mass. it was a trip. we had no clue what was going on, where he was taking us... and it's to mass. hahah, we both stayed as we felt out of respect and spoke about how it had been years since we'd been. it was sobering, like the moment i'd had earlier at the park; here i am and i can't believe what i'm doing. it was cool though, and we were both pretty happy that this old guy had shared that with us.
we left the next day to catch the local bus to ha noi. the local bus was pretty scary. dudes trying to pass like 4 trucks with another semi heading straight at us and motorbikes on all sides. i've said it before and i'll say it again, i am waiting to see a crash. i don't want to, but i think it has to happen. i see like 15 near, and i mean near, misses walking two blocks. haven't seen it yet though. it had been pretty hazy in ninh binh and we both commented on it but couldn't decide what from. on the way to ha noi we saw some massive strip mining on the sides of the freeway (if you could call it that) and some concrete plants, maybe. anyway, a shit ton of people drying rice in their drive ways straight on the asphalt on the side of the road and all i could think was i'll probably be eating that later. garbage fires on the side of the road as well, blocking out all site for the drivers. bathrooms with no toliets just holes in the ground, the shower and the toliet with no divider, construction workers in flip flops, for a while on the drive all i could think about were the bigger differences between our cultures. by the time we got to ha noi, i had decided the haze was pollution. it's pretty hazy here as well. it might be gross, but i know by the fact that my buggers are black. now i know why they are all wearing face masks when they drive.
despite that, i am enjoying ha noi. i went for a good run around the big lake in town, hoan kiem; and we both got lost for hours on our own. we haven't been doing too much here, just walking around and taking it easy. drinking bia hoi's for 5000 dong a piece, so that's like a quarter. there is a whole section of the tourist part of town were you can go to all of these kiosks and drink them from kegs. charlie is getting his india visa from the place here in town; that takes like 5 days, so i am breaking off to take a tour of halong bay while he holds it down here for a couple of days. i'm pretty excited, it's like a 3 day/two night tour where one night i'll get to sleep on the boat and another in some bungalows on monkey island. it's weird walking around ha noi knowing my parents were here only a few years ago and maybe they have walked down the same streets or ate the same street meat, i know pops would. but they both really wanted me to do halong bay so there i'll be tomorrow and i'm sure it'll be great.
hopefully some fucking pictures soon!
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