South East Asia 2006
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The following is a series of entries as entered into an online journal. <
Thursday, March 23, 2006
I'm
back. The trip was good.. We visited three countries.
Then back to
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
I
finished working my pictures over from my trip last night. They were a lot
easier
to do than my
left, after having deleted 150 or so bad ones. I'll start posting the best of
them soon,
kinda like I did in January. Hopefully that wasn't too annoying for all of you.
Also, I guess I could have done this while I was there, but I'll also post my
"I'm still
alive" emails I sent out to my family. Here's the first one from Ho Chi
Minh. Looking
back, it seems we managed to stick to the plan more or less.
Hi Guys,
I'm in
pretty nice here, though pretty hot and sticky. We arrived the day before
yesterday late at night. It was a long flight, but pretty okay. The big plan is
to
do a big counter clockwise circle from ho chi minh to Mui Ne, then eventually
to Hue, then into Laos, then to Cambodia, then back to Ho Chi Minh, and then
back to San Francisco.
sachin
Oh okay, I can't resist. Here's one from a pagoda in Ho Chi Minh.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Ho
Chi Minh is in the south of
both, though maybe slightly more by HCM. So first off, it's pretty hot and
humid there,
and they seem to love Disney. Here's me and what I think might be the Lady and
the
Tramp?
We found a park in the middle of HCM, as well as some flowers, people doing
Tai Chi, some modern art, and a bench. It seems that a lot of the benches are
bought by people elsewhere, and the person who bought it gets their name and
city engraved it.
While in HCM we managed to find one of the lamest pagodas in the city. Trust
me, of
our whole trip this was the smallest and lamest.
Later in the evening we went for a 'hot pot'. This one was of the sea food
variety.
Then we went to go see a battlefield an hour or so out of HCM It was a place
where
the rebels lived in an underground city made of tunnels. Not cool tunnels where
you
feel like you're in a cave. Like hamster tunnels. Crazy small tunnels. This was
someone
in the tour group.
Then we went down into one. It was about twenty yards long. But only about two
and a half feet high the whole time. It was awful. I just about had a panic
attack half
way through. I'm not generally claustrophobic, but this really brought it out
in me. It
was pitch dark, and super stuffy in there, especially considering that it was
already
pretty hot and humid outside. We went in one by one and it was just people in
front,
people in back, and dirt wall around. I just can't imagine what it must have
been like
with B-52 dropping bombs, and soldiers with guns running about overhead. This
really
sent chills through me. And I couldn't get it out of my head for weeks.
Later on we found a much better pagoda.
And I took at least twenty pictures of these guys.
They even had turtles.
One neat thing about
don't what it is, I guess they're just a cultured people. It's interesting,
because if
you look inside, a lot of them are knockoffs, and better yet you can sometimes
seem them painting them.
I took that picture on the way to a swanky coffee shop where we hung out until
our
bus that night.
Next time, I'll show some pictures from Mui Ne...hmmm, actually, now that I
think
about it, if I just go city by city with this, it's will take forever!, so
we'll see what's next,
well--whatever, here's a Mui Ne teaser. This is from the hotel restaurant.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
I
realized that the pictures are much larger than they usually are. I'll make an
exception for
the next few days....and another thing, what's up with this photo journal thing
taking
forever!? I took waaaay too many pictures on this trip, but man, that's no
excuse. I must
resolve to wrap this up by the end of the week. Sigh. Okay, here's some more
pictures.
Here's the scene in Mui Ne. Pretty nice, eh?
In
meal was a mango shake, possible followed by a custard apple shake, or a
pineapple
shake. And each one for about 30 cents, oh it's great. Here's a plate of dragon
fruit,
watermelon, lychee, and mango. And they put ice on top to keep it cool. Nice.
Then we went on a walk up a river, towards a waterfall. At first the water
looked gross
because it was all red and brown, and we thought it was just sketchy water, but
then we
found out it is just red sand from these cliffs. It was really cool.
Then we found the waterfall which really wasn't all that spectacular, but we
were tired, so
we sat for a while underneath a coconut tree. How often do you get to say that?
Then we came back, had some Vietnamese coffee, for 60 cents, and sat in
hammocks,
because it was hot and humid. Maybe like 90 degrees? What do I look like, a
weatherman?
Ho hum, sunset in Mui Ne.
The next morning, the fisherpeople were out fishing, I guess. I didn't see them
actually catch
anything, but we had to catch our bus, so I guess we're even. (That's a joke).
And lastly, we hit the road again.
from above were so lush and green, but this one reminds of the desert here in
and even more of Baja.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Alright,
now where were we? Ah yes, just leaving Mui Ne. Next we were on to Da Lat,
which was a city in the mountains of
around it. It also rained for a little part of the walk, but luckily that was
then only rain we
were to see on our whole trip. ( That's a good thing )
Oh, and by the way, have you ever had Vietnamese coffee? It's pretty different.
Really
strong, and not much of it. They float it on top of condensed milk, and then,
depending
on how much you stir, you get a little or a lot of cream.
Then we saw a waterfall.
Then we went to go see the 'Crazy' Monk. He had a whole section of his house
jam
packed with art. Paintings and drawings stacked up on more and more paintings
and
drawings. He was pretty rude, too. I wanted to get this painting for my friend
who lives
downtown, but it was $7 and his attitude was pretty bad, so I said forget it!
Then we were in Nha Trang for a few hours between buses. This is a view from
one of the
bridges in town.
Then we got on an overnight bus, and ended up on Hoi An, which is a nice little
city. Here's
the email I sent from here :
Hi,
we're in
Hoi An. We got here yesterday after a 10 hour bus ride. Fun. It's a small
little town by the beach, that's also on a river. It is the site of a UNESCO
world heritage site. We took a cooking class, and made green papaya salad,
spring rolls, and fish. I'm not a big fish fan, but it was a must for Natasha.
Also we met a fellow American while having dinner. It's unusual, it seems all
the tourists here are french, or german. We also bough knock of North Face
backpacks. Four for $30 dollars.
We are
off to
sachin
Here's a picture from the fish market we found.
And then, we went to
Hi,
we're in
sachin
It's like world class literature, huh? Anyway,
Vietnamese emperor. This is one of the meeting halls. Not bad, eh?
Friday, April 07, 2006
So
here's another picture of that seat of imperial power in Hue that I showed last
time, I just
like this picture, so I couldn't move on.
One thing that they are pretty handy with in
North Face backpacks), is original embroidery. In some places, they make
embroideries
that look just like photos. Anyway, I bought a few from this shop. In fact, the
girls in this
picture are packing up my purchases right now, as I sit and watch. I also
bought that one in
the upper left corner. It means long life, prosperity, and happiness--well
that's what I
remember, I really should have written it down.
The next day we took a boat ride down the
and having lunch. It was a hot day, so by the end, everybody was pretty tired,
(but really,
everyday was hot there), as indicated by this picture.
Then, after 24 or so more hours on a bus, we crossed over into Laos, (they seems to have
summed it up pretty nicely). We went from Hue, Vietnam to a city called Dong A,
for the
night, stayed in a room in the back of a restaurant with public bathrooms, then
got on
another bus, to cross the border. The bus, was also transporting some other
cargo besides
people. At one point, we just stopped on the side of the road, some guy without
a shirt
came, went to the back, and took out a tire. And then did it three more times.
Most
vehicles do have four tires, so I guess that makes sense...
So we finally got to
to as
pagodas, like in
preferences. We visited a few, and at this one, part of what they did there was
make giant
Buddhas statues.
One neat thing about
who helped make these Buhddas. I forget his name. Sorry, dude.
Look at him, he's all serious. I tried to get him to lighten a little bit.
We found
to see the capital. The buses in
here, the whole aisle is piled three height with 50 (or something like that)
lb. sacks of sugar.
We had to crawl to our seats.
And lastly, I told you monks were everywhere. Here's one at the top of the
victory tower in
the middle of
Almost there! I think there's maybe about a week's worth of travel left.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Gotta
keep moving...now we're in Luang Prabang,
that they would leave off the 'g' sounds and I thought it was a French name for
longer that I
will admit to. The capital of
Happy
Ides of March,
today we're in Luang Prabang. It's a UNESCO world heritage city. Which means
there are a lot of wats (basically, Buddhist temples) here. Almost one on every
block
in some parts. The streets are filled with tourists, and there are all sorts of
western
style restaurants around, like Pizza, Indian food, and even a Swedish bakery.
Though, I had croissant there this morning, so it's not really all that
Swedish.
Sometimes you have to remind yourself "I'm in
between Thai and Vietnamese food. Lots of 'eating off the street', and local
foods,
like fish from the river or ocean, depending on what's closer. Today we had
fried
river weed. Also there a lot of tropical fruits, like mango, papaya, and
dragonfruit.
In addition to lots of tourists, there are also a lot monks around. They are
all wearing
saffron colored monk uniforms, and have shaved heads. They ride motorcycles,
take
the bus, and we even saw one with all sorts of tattoos. A lot of them carry
umbrellas
to protect themselves from the sun.
As for everthing else, it's pretty alright. People are pretty friendly, and
though not
everybody speaks english, most understand very basic words, like "three
dollars."
Typing numbers back and forth on a calculator are useful for bargaining. French
is
hardly used. Almost everybody here takes dollars, though using kip gives a
slightly
better rate. 10,300Kip = 1USD. Also, today the king of
today so we saw his motorcade drive by twice. I took some pictures and a movie
of
it, so we'll see how it comes out. Speaking of
tomorrow. We are taking a flight at 12:30pm on Thai Airlines, from LP to Siem
Reap.
sachin
Luang Prabang is a small and quaint town, you could say. One of the coolest
things about it
to me was the night market. All of the craft vendors would come out and set up
shop in the
street, and it was just really cool to go up and down and look at all the
stuff.
This is a picture of that same street during the day time. But it's from the
other side of the
street. You can see the same building on the left in the upper picture below,
but it's hidden a
little bit behind some trees. I think it's neat how all the monks are walking
around.
Here's one of the best wat's we went to in that city. The high sloped roofs are
due in part to
a large Thai infuence in Lao architecture. The pointy things are similar to
Cambodian style.
And here is one of my favorite pictures that I took.
This one, too. This is a carving in a door.
Then the next night we saw this girl selling these things. I knew exactly what
they were. They were fried
dumpling type things filled with coconut. I was still pretty full from dinner,
but I powered through and had one.
Then we got on a plane to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
This
is the last picture post!
I think I've mentioned most of this stuff, but here's the email from
Hello,
we are in
it's not really Angkor Wat, but instead, the Temples of Angkor. Angkor Wat is
just
one of the ridiculously big wats that are here. I mean huge. And you need a
taxi
driver to take you from one to the next they are so big. Also, I didn't know
that some
of them are Hindu temples, and the rest are Buddhist. In fact, Angkor Wat,
which is
devoted to Vishnu, was built during the reign of a king named Suryavarman II.
And
trading routes were established to
lot of South Asian type influence here. People are darker, and some do a
namaste
when thanking you.
We came here having taken a plane from Luang Prabang. And some where in
between, some piece of lettuce or something somewhere must have had it in for
me,
because I was out of commission for a day. We met up with somebody we had met
in Vietnam the next morning, and went to see sunrise at Angkor Wat, which was
nice...but then I started to not feel well, so I left Natasha and her there,
and stayed in
the hotel for the rest of the day. It's a bummer, because I wanted to see more
of the
temples, but it's probably best I didn't. Anyway, I'm feeling 100% better, and
I went
and saw the rest the next day, so it's okay.
Today we are seeing the city, then tomorrow we are taking a boat down the
Mekong River to a border town in Viet Nam, then a bus to Ho Chi Minh City, and
then a plane to Hong Kong, and then onto San Francisco. Three weeks seems like
a
long time, but believe it or not, it's the shortest vacation, (by a long shot),
of anyone
we've met here.
sachin
Okay, so first off, we took a bus from Siem Reap to
roadside restaurant for a lunch break along the way. A lot of the roadside and
sidewalk
restaurants have these plastic chairs. In fact these here are some pretty
classy plastic
chairs, comparatively speaking.
And of course, the bus was thirsty too, so it had to be watered.
True to our plans, we made it to
Museum of Cambodia. Remember that wat, in Luong Prabang that I said looked like
it was
Cambodian? This is why I thought that.
Now, you might be saying to yourself, Yes, this is all nice and good, but what
does a typical
street scene in Phnom Penh look like, oh I wish he would show me, oh I wish I
wish I
wish. Well, this one's for you--it's the road that goes along the
And it's not only
was going home to visit his family in
Dude, for reals.
So now we're on a boat--no, not a Swift boat--coming down the Mekong, into
There were some dudes towards the back of the boat, and well, I dunno, this
picture
makes me laugh.
Along the river we saw some some houses. A lot of them are built on stilts
because the
river rises during the rainy season. It was at it's lowest levels during this
time of the season.
And now...(dum dum dum!)...THE LAST PICTURE FROM OUR LAST NIGHT IN HO
Hi,
today's
our last day here. We are back in Ho Chi Minh after a 16 hour journey from
some of the delta rivers. Along the
fishermen, floating gas stations, houses, and even a floating coffee and tea
seller. At
one point we passed some people hauling some cows across the river.
The cows
were swimming behind the boat. I didn't know cows could
swim. Then we jammed
into a crowded minivan the rest of the way. There were 18 people in it at one
point.
Anyway, we're here, and today is our last day. We are taking a flight
tomorrow
morning at 6:05 am, and arriving
weather here is 90 degrees and clear, and apparantly it's 48 degrees and
raining
there, so...yay. It's been a long trip, lots of long bus rides, hot weather,
hot sun, and
hot food. I'm looking forward to some Mexican food in
sachin
That's it. Hope you had fun.