Day 63: Walt And Mickey Ain't Got Shit

Listening: Old man, don't lay so still. You're not yet young. There's time to teach. Point to point. Point observation. Children carry reservations. Standing on the shoulders of giants leaves me cold.

What's my problem? Everything becomes a double edged sword.

Seim Reap is a million times better than Phnom Penh. Really I'm only saying that because the traffic is better, the sights to see are cooler, and I've actually met some people here.

The day after I saw the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda, and the National Museum, I took the six hour bus ride to Seim Reap. The Royal Palace was cool and all, but all of the parts that I really wanted to see were closed off from the public.

But I rolled into Seim Reap at around three in the afternoon. I just wanted a tuk-tuk into the city center. It was offered to me for a dollar, but the dude wanted take me to HIS friend's guest house and wanted me to commit to having HIM drive me to the temples the next day. I wasn't having any of that, so when I said, "NO. No tomorrow. No guesthouse. Just to the market and that's it." the price went from a dollar to three. I told them all to piss off and I ended up finding a moto driver that would take me for a buck. It was a rough ride with both my pack, my day pack and being on the back of a motorbike, but I survived.

when I got to the city center, the finding of a guest house wasn't nearly as easy as I thought. There were a lot of places in the fifteen dollar range. Of course, they were nice rooms with aircon and cable TV, maybe even a balcony, but I was shooting a little lower. I'm going to be in Hong Kong next week, and I feel the need to brace myself financially.

I ended up having a tuk-tuk driver take me to a guesthouse. He said free of charge. If I like it, I stay. If not, we go to the next one. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Again, the first place I looked got as low as twelve dollars. I wanted lower. So I finally got an eight dollar room at the Green Town Guesthouse. It has a fan and a TV. Actually it's a triple room, but they're letting me have it to myself for the eight bucks. I could have had a single room for five, but it looked like a cell, had no TV and the bathroom was muggy and smelled of mold. My room is worth the extra three dollars. You think it's just three dollars, but three dollars goes a long way here in Asia if you're smart about it.

Since my tuk-tuk driver was so good, I decided to book him for my temple trips. He took me that evening to get my three day pass to the temples of Ankor Wat, which includes the sunset the evening before the pass starts if you go after five in the afternoon.

I passed by Ankor Wat, just because I wanted to save it for the last day, but I could see its greatness. Instead I went to another temple called Phnom Bakheng. It's a temple on a hill. There's not much to explore, but the view of the sunset is amazing.

****Continued on Day 64****

There were an immense number of people on this temple. People would jockey for the best possible position to take pictures of the sunset.

It just so happened that on that particular afternoon, there was a band of clouds that hovered right at the horizon. So, when the sun came down, it hid behind the clouds for the most part. You could, though, see the light of the sun burn through the clouds making a perfect ruby red circle in the middle of the clouds.

I actually went to bed early that night. It had been an early morning getting the bus at tweny past seven in the morning and spending the day on a bus with seats that were just the right size to make them uncomfortable to sleep in.

The next day, I woke up early to meet my driver (whose name is ACTUALLY Boratt) so that we could get a move on seeing the temples. Again, we bypassed Ankor Wat and headed straight for Ankor Thom.

The temple that I saw for sunset the prior night and the view of Ankor Wat from the street as we drove by gave me no real indication of what I was in for. I knew that it was supposed to be impressive, but I wasn't prepared for the sheer awesomeness that was the temples of Ankor. The first of the temples that I saw in Ankor Thom was Bayon. The sheer magnitude of this place was indescribable. There were huge towers that represented mountains, and at least a hundred faces carved into the building as tall as I am and as wide as my wingspan.

I spent a good three or four hours walking around the greater Ankor Thom area, which included other temples, the Terrace of Elephants, which was a sort of raised grassy area where royalty and special guests would watch parades and special events from, as well as the Terrace of the Leper King, which was kind of the same, but had a trench around the terrace that had walls that were covered in intricate carvings.

I spent a solid ten hours exploring different temples and royal palaces that date back to the 11th century. By the time it hit half four, it was time to go see sunset. Since I had seen it at Phnom Bakheng the night before, I wanted to see it somewhere different.

That's when my driver told me that the only two places to see sunset were Phnom Bakheng and Ankor Wat. So, I sucked it up and went to Ankor Wat. I didn't explore much at all when I was there. I was still saving it. Well, sort of. I'll get to that later.

When I got as far back in Ankor Wat as I could, there still wasn't a great place to see the sunset. And then, to top it all off, the workers at the temple started kicking people out. I asked the guard why we were being kicked out, and he said that the only place to catch sunset was at Phnom Bakheng. Oh well. So, before the sun really set, I caught my tuk-tuk driver and headed back to the hotel.

That night I ended up having dinner with some of the people that I met at my guest house the evening before. We had a good time kicking back with some good food and then a few beers afterwards. I think that the gem of the night for me was that I had the most amazing yellow lemon and kaifir lime leaf sorbet. It was the best sorbet that I have ever had in my entire life. My. entire. life.

Today, I woke up early to catch sunrise at Ankor Wat. See, I heard that you have to go every day until you get a good one. This one was lackluster, but it was so early that I've decided that it was good enough. I ran into some guys that I had met in Halong Bay in today's temples. I also saw the Landmine Museum which was pretty cool.

Since I was up so early, I packed it in at two and have spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing around the guesthouse. Tomorrow, I'm starting at half nine and I'll be going straight on through sunset.

Being on these temples make me think a lot about what it means to see the world. I have been to Disney's Animal Kingdom and I've seen how they try to emulate things, carvings and so on and so forth. But once you see the real thing in person, you realize how hollow it can be. It's a distilled, sterilized version of the real thing in 1/100th scale. I wish everyone could be atop some of these temples. I wish that everyone could walk through the maze of rooms and hallways to see the bas-relief carvings. And, I wish that these ruins could last forever, but I know that they're rapidly crumbling despite UNESCO's best efforts. I can't wait to get back to the States so I can upload my pictures. There will be some big picture payoffs once that happens.

Day 61: Lonely Planet Said it Best

Listening: I don’t need anything else to make me feel alive.

What's my problem? Traffic, long distances and pushy tuk-tuk drivers.

Oh, Phnom Penh. It's exotic, it's chaotic, it's beguiling, it's distressing, it's compulsive, it's repulsive. Every day brings a different experience, some a shock to the senses, others that bring a smile, some that confound all logic, others that wrench the emotions."" --Lonely Planet's Southeast Asia on a Shoestring

This place truly is all of that. It's disgusting and intriguing, and most of all frustrating.

I woke up yesterday morning and moved closer into town. Michelle is a weird one. I'm not going to get into it, but she's just bizzare. She caught the tuk-tuk with me to the guesthouse so she could try to exchange her Vietnamese dong (money not penis) for some US dollars to someone on their way to Vietnam. No dice. So, while I checked in, she scurried around to each of the people in the restaurant.

She only had that day to see the sights. She was scheduled to be on a flight at ten that evening. But, instead of sharing a tuk-tuk with me for the day, she chose to go out on her own. It was a financially bad decision for her. It made no sense. The only thing that I could think of was that she really had no interest in hanging out with me. If that was the case, then why did she choose to split a room with me for the last night, when she could have shared with someone else? Whatever. She was weird.

By the time I had finished all of my dealings, it was right around eleven o'clock in the morning. I had planned on going to see the Royal Palace and then to the Silver Pagoda, but whadday ya know? They're closed from eleven until half two for lunch! That's one hell of a siesta. To be honest, with this heat, I don't blame them.

I ended up sitting at a cafe for a bit, reading up on my guidebooks, and then my relaxing book (I've moved on to Alex Garland's The Beach.). I had a rather lackluster lunch, but I think I sacrificed quality for aircon. If you were here you might do it as well.

From there, I hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day and headed out to the Killing Fields, where thousands of Cambodians were killed under the Pol Pot administration and the Khmer Rouge. Three words: Mass. Graves. Everywhere. Huge craters in the ground are all that are left of some of the mass graves. It's almost like you're walking on the raised walls of rice patties, but instead of growing life in the craters, it was where life was ended. In the middle of the "Genocide Center," was a large pagoda that was filled with the skulls, bones and clothes of the victims that were unearthed from the mass graves.

After that sobering place, I went to an even more sobering place. It was an old high school, converted into a prison, where many of the people who were killed in the Killing Fields came from. Tuol Sleng, or S.21 is a five building compound where torture and false imprisonment happened. The mugshots on the walls were eerie. Some of the prisoners were hardly ten years old. They're dead, but their mugshots stare at you as if to say, "Why the fuck aren't you helping me?" Even more sobering than the mugshots were the cells that they preserved. Classrooms were turned into cell blocks, with as many as fourteen cells per classroom. Think about that. Fourteen individual brick or wooden cells in a classroom. It was dark. It was dank. And you could feel the death that happened there. It took me a good hour and a half or two hours to get through the entire compound.

By the time I got out of there, it was already half four. There was no chance that I would be making it to the Royal Palace or to the Silver Pagoda, so my drive took me to the Russian Market, which was just like the JJ Market or the weekend market in Bangkok... except the schwag wasn't as good.

After that, it was dinner and drinks with my tuk-tuk driver and some of his friends, and then a long hot night in a fan cooled room.

Since I didn't get to the Royal Palace or the Silver Pagoda, I decided to stay another day. So that's where I am now. Still in Phnom Penh. I'm going to the National Museum, the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda today. I'm also planning on booking my bus to Siem Reap. I was told recently that during dry season, the boats can get stuck in the mud, and that they really overcrowd the boats as well. I have a feeling that it wouldn't be as pleasant as the Slow Boat to Luang Prabang.

Oh, and I forgot to give you my final impressions of Vietnam. Hmm.... Vietnam was kind of a mystery to me. I had some really good times and some really bad times. I got good vibes and bad vibes too. Overall, I liked it a lot. It definitely got better as I traveled south, but I also think that it had a lot to do with the fact that I met people in the north and kept bumping into them all of the way down the country. It was a beautiful thing.

Here in Phnom Penh, I'm alone again. I have a mere nine days before I fly to Hong Kong. I don't want to stay in Phnom Penh for much longer, but I sure would like to stay traveling in this part of the world for a lot longer.

Day 59: A Rush Through the Delta

Listening: And we learned fast to travel light. Our arms were heavy, but our bellies were tight.

What's my problem? I need a massage, but I'm holding out for Thailand.

Well, I've left Vietnam. I spent two days in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, one day in the Mekong Delta, and I spent the greater part of today in transit to Phnom Penh.

I got to Saigon early in the morning. It was probably half six, and things were already bustling. I didn't have a room, but I knew where a good place was supposed to be. Across from the Yellow House, a hostel that a lot of backpackers go to, is a hotel called Tan 58. John from Nha Trang/Switzerland had recommended the place. When I got there, the metal gates in front of the door were closed and the lobby behind it was dark. It wasn't strange though. Everywhere was still locked up tight. It was early.

In front of Tan 58 was a little coffee stand. So I sat there with my bags, talked with an Aussie fellow, and had a bit of white coffee (coffee with condensed milk for all y'all not in the know). In about a half hour, the gates opened and I asked about vacancies. No such luck. They were fully booked for the night and this meant that I had to do some serious legwork.

Luckily I was in backpacker central for Saigon. There were about a million independent hotels (no exaggeration) on that street.I saw about four different rooms, all with prices ranging from $8 to $25, but I settled on staying at Hung Loi Hotel for $10 each night.

The room itself was adequate. It was small, but had aircon and cable TV. It did not, however have hot water. When I brought it up to the owner, he said, "Why you need hot water. It 37 degrees today! It hot every day. Aircon important. Hot water no important." He had a point, and I never did miss the hot water.

Since I was there so early, I first headed off to the market to find myself some breakfast. I ended up getting a bowl of glass noodles for twenty thousand dong, or a buck twenty five. It was actually recommended to me by a couple of Australian Vietnamese girls who were already sitting and eating. To be honest, they were okay. They weren't the best noodles that I have had and they were hella hard to eat. They kept slipping out of my chopsticks and spoon.

After that, it was off to the internet to do a little bit of research. I needed to know how I was going to go from Saigon to Phnom Penh. Do I do it by myself, or do I do it with a tour? Do I choose an expensive tour that seems to have a lot of really cool things or do I do a cheap tour? Do I do one night or two nights? I actually spent a lot of time gathering information. I went around to different tour places seeing what they had to offer. By the time I had finished collecting information, it was noontime and I was drenched in sweat.

So, I kicked it back to my room for an hour. I knew that the sights would be closed for the next hour or hour and a half, so I chilled out and enjoyed a shower and the aircon.

In the afternoon, I hit the sights. I first started at the Reunification Palace. It was the place where the tanks crashed through the gates and Saigon fell. Everything was kept as it was when Saigon fell, with the exception of some plaques being put up detailing what each room was for. Overall, it was a little less than impressive. I thought that it would be like the White House or something, but it really wasn't that big. It was four floors and all, but just not impressive. There were hoardes of school groups there making a racket and just generally being unruly, but who am I to talk. I was that way when I was a kid.

After the Reunification Palace, I headed over to the War Remnants Museum. That place was intense. After walking through the gates and seeing all sorts of old war vehicles and weapons, I went into a room that was dedicated to all of the photojournalists who died in the war. There were a lot of prints of their last photos and stories about how they died. It was very sobering.

From there, I went into the "tiger cages." The tiger cages were prison cells where they used to keep war criminals. They were tiny little cells where anywhere from five to fifteen prisoners would be kept. They talked about how the Americans tortured the prisoners and even had paintings depicting the torture methods. That's when it got grim. There were pictures of the victims of Agent Orange, and crayon drawings that Vietnamese kids made asking for peace. It was a rough place to be an American.

From there, I walked around town some more and ended up back at my room around six so that I could have another shower before dinner. When I got to my hotel, I ran into Paolo and Craig, two Indian fellows from London who were on my Halong Bay trip. I had run into them in Nha Trang as well. They said that they were going to eat at the Rainbow Cafe down the street, but when Lydia, a girl I met in Hue and ended up hanging out with in Hoi An, turned up and we went to meet them, they weren't there.

Instead, we went to meet some of Lydia's friends that she had met in Phu Quok. It was a good thing we did too. One of her friends had lived in Saigon for the past six months or so and knew the terrain quite well. We met her at this great barbecue restaurant. By barbecue, I mean like Korean barbecue, not southern barbecue. The menu had a lot of great stuff on it. We just sort of ordered everything and shared. It was a lot of fun and the food was good to boot.

By the time dinner was over, Lydia and I had to rush back to our part of town to book a Cu Chi Tunnels tour. Somehow over dinner, she convinced me to do the full day tour which included the Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh.

Cao Dai is a sect ov Vietnamese who believe that we all worship the same god and proceeds to combine a number of religions and philosophies such as Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity and Islam. It's pretty hokey. I did, however have the privelage of seeing a ceremony of theirs. It was cool seeing all of the monks and nums bowing and singing. I dunno if it was worth the three hour bus ride, but it was something to see.

The Cu Chi Tunnels were quite an experience as well. Talk about communist propaganda. They talk about a girl who has to pick up a gun to avenge her family who was killed by the "crazy devil" Americans. I got to see a bunch of the different types of traps that they used to hurt and kill American soldiers. I went into the tunnels for about sixty or so meters. They were hot as hell. I can only imagine how they were in the hottest part of the season. I was sweating balls.

That night, I went to Pho 2000 for dinner, a place that President Clinton went to on his visit to Saigon. I have to say that it was some damn good pho.

Oh, I totally forgot. The day before, I went for pho for lunch and ended up meeting an older couple from Malaysia at the pho stall. We talked for a while and he said that his neice, who lives in Saigon, would be going to do some work at Mass General Hospital. He wanted me to get together with her to tell her about the city. I told him that I would try to meet him the next day, but that I wasn't sure what would be going on with my tour and with my friends. Unfortunately, since I went on the full day Cu Chi Tunnels tour, I didn't get to meet his neice.

Yesterday, I checked out of Saigon and hopped on my Mekong Delta tour. Everyone that I have talked to has said that it can be done in a day, so I opted for the Sinh Cafe two day/one night tour to the delta, exiting in Phnom Penh. It was quite a whirlwind. First, it was three and a half hours in a minibus. Then, it was onto a boat, where we saw people making coconut candy, rice paper, and puffed rice. Then, back on the boat to the place for lunch. After lunch it was a four song traditional music performance followed by taking the boat to a ferry. Once on the ferry, we rode to the other side of Can Tho, and hopped back into the minibus. The minibus took us to another bus that we transferred to and rode to Chao Doc.

(If this sounds rushed it's because it was)

We overnighted in Chao Doc, and I shared a room with another American. Her name was Michelle, and she was a Vietnamese American. She spoke the language and everything. We got along well enough and all, and we're even sharing a room tonight in Phnom Penh. It was included in our tour.

This morning, we were woken up at half past six, had breakfast and got on some rowboats and headed up the Mekong. We saw a fish farm and a Cham village, and then took a boat up river to the border crossing.

The border crossing was pretty crazy. We were waiting forever in this god awful heat. The restaurant that they brought us to was wikkid overpriced and though I ate a bowl of pho there, I ended up getting a second lunch at another stall for a quarter of the price. Bastards.

Literally the rest of the day has been spent on that loud ass uncomfortable boat. It was only like the slow boat to Luang Prabang in that it was on the Mekong and it was slow. Other than that it was totally different because it sucked. I don't know if I would have liked to have taken the bus more, but I know that the ride was rather unpleasant.

From the boat, the crowded us into another minibus and brought us to Phnom Penh. I actually only had half a seat to myself. The other half of my ass was over a wheel well. It was like being in the back of a very uncomfortable place. It was an hour and a half before we reached Phnom Penh. And, actually, I'm on the outskirts. I'm going to have to find another hotel to stay in tomorrow night. Hopefully it won't take up too much of my time tomorrow morning. I plan on going to see the Killing Fields and some of the other sights around town. I don't know how long I'm going to stay in Phnom Penh, but so far it hasn't made a great impression. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Day 55: Farewell Dinner

Listening: Please forgive me, girl, if I say the future is not bright. But please take my hand and we'll have one last dance in the place where we first met eyes.

What's my problem? I only found the fish lady today!

1 Night's accommodation at Backpackers House Hostel: $6
1 BGI Beer at the Red Apple Bar: 15,000 dong ($0.80)
1 Deck chair at the Lousiane: 25,000 dong ($1.50)
4 lobsters, 4 tiger prawns, 3 crabs, 8 scallops, 2 conch grilled: 200,000 dong ($11.25)
1 last meal with your best travel buddy in Asia on the beach with the salt filled air and the aroma of shellfish as the sun goes down while Vietnamese women shout in the background: Priceless.

Day 55: Surprise, Surprise.

Listening: I did my best to notice when the call came down the line. Up to the platform of surrender, I was brought but I was kind. And sometimes I get nervous when I see an open door.

What's my problem? Only fifteen days left on the mainland.

They say that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. There was no preparation on my part. It was just the normal flow of traffic. There was no opportunity. I had to come here either way. My hands were tied. But, lucky, I was.

I took the night bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang with Julia three nights ago. We were both ready to leave Hoi An. We had both been there for four or five days. We had seen the sights, had our clothes made, and have had the local food. We had strolled aimlessly down the quaint Chinese/French streets and heard the touts of tailors and vendors saying, "You buy something from me?" It was time to move on.

Our night bus was a little bit late. It was supposed to pick us up at a quarter to six, but ended up picking us up at twenty past. To be honest, I was getting worried. The bus pulled up to the hotel, though and we hopped on. We chose two sleepers in the back row, thinking that if the bus wasn't filled to capacity, we would have more room. The back row consists of five sleepers across, whereas there are two sleepers on each side of the aisle all of the rest of the way up to the front. With the five across, if there is one person missing, you can just sort of spread out a little more.

That wasn't my our luck that night. Instead, there were three Norwegians, two girls and a guy, who talked extremely loudly the entire night long. Do you know what loud Norwegians sound like? They sound like a fjord is pouring water into your brain. It sounds like a viking is having a vasectomy. It's nothing nice. Or maybe that's just what it seemed like for at least seven hours of the twelve hour bus ride. This all could have been compounded by the fact that I hadn't found dinner before I hopped on the bus and the bus didn't stop anywhere that had any sort of food until around ten at night. It was bull, wait for it... shit.

After the bus ride that wasn't quite from hell, but was from at least one of the seven circles, Julia and I arrived in Nha Trang. Apparently, we got there on the right day, because the day or two before, there was a big rugby tourney that Ireland won. So, there was a big party in the room at Backpacker House that Julia and I were put in. Apparently there was a naked girl who showed up and proceeded to sit on one of the ladders of the bunk beds and urinate all over the floor. Lucky for us, it was all clean, couldn't even tell it had happened, by the time we checked in. To be honest, everything in the dorm looked great. It was near immaculate.

After dropping our bags and getting into our swimmers, Julia and I headed over to the Louisiane Brew House/Relax Club. Louisiane is kind of like a bar/restaurant on the beach that has a pool, deck chairs, a stretch of beach, cabanas, and so on and so forth. It costs 25,000 dong ($1.50) for a chair for the entire day, which is a small price to pay for the luxury that you feel.

We sat at the Louisiane all day long. All. Day. Long. It was brilliant too. I read, wrote a postcard, listened to some music. It was totally relaxing after running around in the heat of Hoi An. The sea breeze was refreshing, as was the pool water. I made some friends at the pool, took a nap. How much more could you ask for?

Prior to coming to Nha Trang, I had heard awful things about it. I heard that it could be any beach town and that it was crazy touristy. I heard that it was a lot of party and that it could be skipped. Truth be told, all of that is accurate. The thing was, it was what I needed right now. I needed some beach days. I needed some relax time. I needed to catch my breath after the Sapa->Hanoi->Hue->Hoi An stretch.

After a day at the luxury club, Julia and I met John. He's a guy who just finished University in Switzerland, and has been traveling around for about four months. He joined us for dinner and then some drinks at the Red Apple Bar next door to the Backpacker House.

It was ladies night that night, so Julia got a bunch of discounted drinks. I was just drinking beer all night. I saw a bunch of people that I knew from different places. There were the Norwegian girls who sang me happy birthday at Halong Bay, along with a couple of British blokes from that trip as well. I saw Annti from Finland, who I had met in Hoi An, as well. It was a good time. I spent a lot of time bouncing from table to table, meeting new people and hanging out with the "old" friends.

The next day Julia and I split. She went on one boat cruise and John and I went on another. After comparing notes, they were exactly the same (including in price). We all had a pretty good time, but, for me, it could have been a lot better. The food was pretty good and plentiful. I think what got me was all of the hidden charges. You had to pay to swim in the Marine Protected area. You had to pay to lay on a beach in a cabana. You had to pay to get into the aquarium. You had to pay for your beers. I miss the days of all inclusive or, at least, just pay for your own booze. I think that the fact that I was shelling out and additional 120,000 dong ($6.50) for all of these activities made me not want to drink as much on the boat. I had heard that it was a booze cruise, but not a single person was even tipsy on the boat.

There was a Vietnamese family on the boat, as well. There were two adorable little girls. I kept trying to make the younger one smile, but she was having none of it. She just sat there staring at me, looking at me like I'm crazy. I even tried to reason with her, telling her that she was a kid and that she was supposed to smile and laugh. Clearly she didn't believe me. I ended up running into the family on the way to dinner in front of a shop. I kind of got a smile out of her then, but I don't think it really counted. That kid could have been classified as a tough crowd. I don't think that even Mike Wazowski could have made that kid smile.

That evening, Julia, John and I walked around town for quite some time. We found ourselves outside of the tourist area and happened upon a restaurant that was PACKED. I mean this place was hopping. It was all locals. So, what do we do? We decide to have dinner there. Not a single thing on the menu was in English. One of the servers, who I think was the owner, spoke very little English. I tried to order grilled lobster, but ended up with grilled squid. Not what I ordered, but really fucking tasty. This stuff was fresh and perfectly grilled. John got some beef noodles, and Julia got some sort of clam and rice soup. To be honest, for two nights in a row, I have won the dinner competition. I ordered the best dishes. The night before, it was beef in boiling vinegar.

After dinner, we kind of got lost. We ended up running into a couple of guys who work at the Backpacker House. They were eating dinner at another restaurant and looked at us like they were wondering, "What the fuck are you doing in this part of town?" Luckily, they pointed us in the right direction, and we made it back okay.

The rest of the night was filled with drinking and dancing. Julia, John, two of his friends and I were all out until three in the morning. It was one of John's friends' birthday, so we whooped it up a bit. I ran into Mikey from Canada/Chiang Mai. He hung out for a while. We all just had a blast. So much so that I'm the first one out of bed this morning.

On the way back to the hotel, I was walking with John and Julia, and what happens? John and I are accosted by prostitutes. Luckily, I just get a back massage, but John gets the full on cock grab, and breaks his flip-flop as he tried to get away. Julia grabbed my camera and tried to take a picture of the action, but the hookers were having none of that. I was afraid at one point that my camera would get smashed. Luckily that didn't happen.

So that brings us back to today. Julia and I are going back to the Louisiane Club to chillax for the day. I'm going to be hopping on a night bus to Ho Chi Minh City tonight at eight o'clock. I think Julia may be getting a job at the Backpacker House for a little while. I don't blame her. If I could do that I would. Maybe next time. Maybe next year. We'll see.

But, much to my surprise Nha Trang has been awesome. I've had a lot of fun and I've relaxed quite a bit. Now I'm off to the heat and the bustle of Ho Chi Minh. Hopefully, I'll meet some more great people there. It'll break my heart to leave Julia. She's been a fantastic travel companion. Hopefully I'll see her on the trail somewhere else, or maybe she'll even visit me in the States. Until then, fuck Facebook. I'll just e-mail her.

Day 52: I Don't Need No Stinkin' Sun Creme

Listening: Yes, I'm jumping like a jumping jack. Dancing, screaming, itching, squealing, fevered, feeling hot hot hot!!!

What's my problem? My lips don't feel like my own.

The way I usually work with the sunshine is that I burn my first time out in it, and from there on out, I tan until the end of the season. So, as I hopped onto the back of Leo's bike and he asked me, "Do you have sun creme?" I nonchalantly answered, "Nah. I don't need it." Ha. Right.

Off we went, straight out of Hoi An. At first, I thought we'd never get out of populated areas. There was small town after small town. I'm not talking about multiple street towns. I'm talking about stretches of shops and buildings alongside the road we were riding on. But, before long, they all disappeared. There we were in the mountains riding along.

About an hour and a half in, we stopped for coffee at a little roadside cafe. I think it was the only place for at least a few kilometers around. I had some killer coffee and watched four Vietnamese guys play cards. I tried to figure out the rules, but once I thought I had it, I saw something else that just kind of blew out the structure of the game in my head. From there, we headed deeper into the mountains.

Since we left at around half past seven in the morning, I hadn't had breakfast, or ingested anything besides that miniscule, but very tasty and strong cup of coffee. So when we pulled up to the pineapple farm at around ten in the morning, I was famished. I don't know if it was that I was hungry, or if it was because the pineapple had been harvested minutes earlier, or if it was the fact that it was grown by an ethnic minority, but it was probably the best pineapple that I have ever tasted in my life. It was soft and juicy. It was sweet, and just exploded with flavor in my mouth. I ate the entire pineapple myself.

From there, we hit the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a network of roads used by the Viet Cong to transport supplies, weapons, and personnel down into southern Vietnam during the war. The landscape itself was beautiful. I could see how fighting on that land would be extremely difficult. It wasn't that it was all jungle. It was jungle and mountains and brush.

One of the more sobering sights that I saw were large black expanses on some of the mountains around the Ho Chi Min Trail. Napalm. The effects are still apparent today, thirty years later. The land is still completely scorched. The earth itself is black as coal and there are hectares and hectares of flattened black land. Apparently, nothing can grow there anymore.

If there's any wonder why the Vietnamese hate the Americans, there's your reason. And it's so funny thinking about how many Americans hate the Vietnamese because of the war. We were on their land. We were napalming their mountains and fields. They killed some of our people. We killed some of their people. That's a score of three to one. I feel bad that my country did this. I feel bad when I see the amputees still on the streets here in Vietnam. I know that my people did this to them, and I'm pretty powerless to do anything about it.

We had a long ride from there. We followed the Ho Chi Minh Trail up through Snake Road, which winds precariously through the mountains, back and forth, uphill and downhill.

On that stretch of road, there's nowhere to really stop for lunch. We stopped at a few minority villages so that I could see the longhouses or see how they live, but there was no chance for food until we hit Danang at around three in the afternoon. We ended up having lunch at China Beach.

China Beach was where one of the firs US army bases were in Vietnam during the war. Unfortunately, and fortunately, there is no longer any evidence of the occupation. China Beach is now a pretty pristine stretch of beach with resorts popping up all along it.

For lunch I had the frog with chili and lemongrass. I have to say it was pretty yummy. However, by the time I sat down to eat, I noticed a red line on my skin around the bottom of my shorts. Yeah. I'm a moron.

To be honest, my sunburn isn't that bad. It's no worse than the one that I got in Koh Tao. I'm sure that my nose and legs will start peeling in a couple of days and it'll be all good.

From there, we went to Marble Mountains where it's just one giant tourist trap. And I got trapped. See, Leo's family is from Danang. Coincidentally, they live at the base of Marble Mountain where there are numerous shops selling marble sculptures and so on and so forth. Are you seeing where this was going? Yep. I got the sell. And I got the sell hard. Not by Leo, but by his family. Yeesh. So, I ended up buying a small marble buddha. It's supposed to bring me luck on my trip. We'll see how that goes.

After I got back to Hoi An, I checked into the room that Isa had gotten earlier in the day and showered off the dust of the day. Since Isa wasn't around, Lydia had left town, and I didn't know where Julia was at the time, I set out looking for dinner.

Of course, I was in the mood for some local specialties, because I knew that I wouldn't be in Hoi An forever. So, I went to Miss Thahn's. Miss Thahn's is a little food stall among about ten other food stalls. Each food stall has their own row of tables. They all try to hawk their menus and get people to sit in their row of tables. The action takes place when someone beckons someone over to sit in their area and then they end up sitting in another. Sometimes it gets heated, and sometimes, there's a downright yelling match. It can get kind of amusing. I saw a couple the day before when I had lunch there.

For dinner, I had two orders of "white rose" and an order of cau lau bo. White rose is a sort of open dumpling. The meat in it is pork and shrimp and the wrapper is translucent white, kind of like the wrapper of har gau (if you're familiar with dim sum. Cau lau is a local specialty. It's a thick noodle with a little bit of broth and some veg. These noodles are specific to Hoi An, as that the water used to make the noodles must be from a specific well. These noodles are about a quarter of a centimeter by a quarter of a centimeter thick and aren't soft or white like pho. They're a little bit brown and they're much more firm. I have to say that I really enjoy it. I have had at least one bowl of it per day that I have been in Hoi An.

As I walked around town, I bumped into Isa. We walked around for a bit, ended up going back to the room to chill, and then headed out for some snacks for her and a drink for me. While we had been walking around before, we noticed some people eating some eggs on the street. They were eggs right? Yeah. They were eggs... half developed eggs.

On our trip out, Isa got the idea that we should try them. I thought about it for a second. I thought about the massive amount of food that I ate for dinner, and... I went for it. So there we were, Isa and I, sitting on plastic stools on a dark street in Hoi An. The silk Chinese lamps glowed red down the street and we had balut (the filipino name for the half developed chicken egg) by candle light.

We had an audience as well. There were a couple of old Vietnamese ladies who watched us eat. First, we had to crack the shell at the top and drink the broth from the inside. Oh yes. These eggs were warm/hot, so they were cooked in some way/shape/form. The broth on the inside tasted like chicken broth. It was actually quite delicious. The "meat" inside was truly like a cross between a soft boiled egg and chicken. It tasted like a really great piece of chicken, but had a texture softer than a hard boiled egg.

There were bits of "anatomy" in the egg, such as a head and some feather like things. They didn't make much of a difference in texture or taste. It took a little while for me to look at it and get the nerve to put it in my mouth, but I did it and I didn't gag. It took us a solid ten minutes to down the eggs. Isa said she thought it was okay, but didn't know if she would eat another. I thought it was okay as well, and if I were in a place that had it, I might get one every so often. I really do think that it's worth trying, for everyone.

After that, we ran into Julia and one of her friends. They were headed to a bar that was kind of noisy, so Isa and I opted to go to a more quiet bar. It's amazing how much you can learn about someone over a drink if you're listening. I learned quite a lot about Isa that night, about her dreams and aspirations, about her insecurities, and about her past.

By the time we finished our drinks, it was half past eleven, and I was knackered. So, we retreated back to the room and I fell asleep almost immediately.

The next day, Isa headed off to Hue so that she could catch another bus to Laos, and I headed to Julia's hotel so that I would only be spending five dollars a night instead of fourteen by myself.

Julia and I ended up going to My Son, a Cham ruin just outside of Hoi An. Sure, it's a UNESCO World Heritage site, but then again, so are the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois. They were much more Cahokia Mounds than they were Mesa Verde. There were some ruins of some temples and it just wasn't as impressive as the photos made it out to be. Leo had told me that if I planned on going to Ankor Wat, I should skip My Son. He was right and I haven't even been to Ankor Wat.

The weather was blisteringly hot, and steamingly muggy. It was so hot and muggy, forget about frying an egg on a car. You could steam a lobster in a shoebox, and melt the drawn butter right on top. Also, there were just so many tourists. I know that it'll be like that in Ankor Wat, but, shit.

By the time we got back to town, it was one in the afternoon, so I went to get another fitting for my chef's coats. They had it wrong again. *sigh* The first time, they made it double breasted, but they didn't have it for both sides, so you couldn't switch panels. This time, it wasn't even double breasted. So, now I have to go back today and get them fitted again. Hopefully, they'll be ready by five in the evening, so I can catch my six o'clock bus to Nha Trang. We'll see.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about the dinner on the night before I went on the Easy Rider tour. Leo, my driver, took Lydia, Isa, Julia and me to a local restaurant outside of Hoi An proper. We were away from the tourists, and away from the people trying to sell you this, that and the other thing. Dinner was simple and delicious. Of course, there were home made spring rolls, but the main course were kind of like spring rolls as well. There was rice paper, some greens, some pickled cabbage, sliced cucumbers and baby bananas, some meat on a stick and some shrimp omelette. You roll it all together in the rice paper, dip in a sweet chili sauce and enjoy. Oh man, I must have had at least twelve of them. They were definitely delicious and definitely something that I want to have again.

Anyhow, that's all for now. I'm sorry about not uploading any pictures lately. The connections have either been way too slow or the machines have blocked USB drives. It kinda makes me sad, but not too sad to keep on truckin'.

Day 49: I Should Just Hand Over My Wallet

Listening: Well here we go again. You've found yourself a friend that knows you well. But no matter what you do, it always feels as though you tripped and fell. So steady as she goes.

What's my problem? Clashing personalities.

A brief update. So I am getting five chef's coats made. One long sleeved, two three quarter length sleeved and two short sleeved. I'm also getting two reproductions of one of my favorite shirts. The shirt I'm reproducing I got at the Garment District for pennies. Unfortunately, it's falling apart and I'd hate to lose the shirt with that cut. So, altogether, I'm dropping two hundred US dollars.

Tomorrow morning, I go on an Easy Rider tour. It's me and a motorcycle driver going out to the Ho Chi Minh trail, then to a ethnic minority pineapple farm, and finally to Danang where China Beach is. After that we're going to go rock some local food. I spent about two hours last night talking to this guy about the Easy Riders. He was one of the originals who started in Dalat and then opened up the one here in Hoi An. He showed me the website and everything. There he was. So, I'm paying a hundred US dollars to take the two day tour in one day, plus go rock the local food with the dude. He had breakfast with Lydia (a girl I'm sharing a room with) and I this morning too.

Well, I've been hanging out with German girls. There are two that are a pair and one that's a little awkward. The pair are leaving Hoi An tonight, and Lydia is leaving tomorrow night. Luckily, I met a girl from Shanghai at breakfast this morning who might share my room with me. Grandma would be proud. She speaks four languages and is Chinese.

Oh well, I have to meet the German pair for lunch tonight. I have dinner with Lydia and the Shanghai girl, Isa, tonight. Hopefully Julia will show up as well. She just got into town too. Man... me and my women.