2016 Travel

Ho Chi Minh/Saigon 2016 part 2

dougecox — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 21:54:00 GMT

these are in no particular order.

the first thing i did when arriving in Saigon was go to a meetup for couchsurfing with my lack of sleep i remember little. there was 5 of us in total. 2 dudes and 3 chicks i think everyone was new to saigon, and we had beer that were $15000, per i had three and then made it over to the hostel for the pub crawl. they ended leaving at 11 and i got there around 9:30 so afterwards i was a little tired, we went to one place by that time i was starving so i got a veggie burito and Nikko and jamaican / london dude came to hang out with me guess he tought i was being solo. where i was scarfing down my food and enjoying the view of the major traffic, and glamouring lights that surveyed the street. at one point i was enjoying and expat negotiation or at least chatting with girls that hang outside looking for men to come in. the girls were wearing white with a pink apron, and the man white hair with a black shirt. he chatting with them for like ten minutes afterwards the conversation with Nikko got akward as we starting declaring out sexual orientation. my guess was he secretly liked dudes, but i've been viewed as queer before so who cares. left that crawl early and then walked into another, talked to this chick for a few minutes wished it was longer but i was dead tired, from lack of sleep, and jet lagged from travel earlier in the day. i did go to a couple more pub crawls hosted by the hostel from which it just wasn't my scene as they went to one bar and then would call it a night. the second one i went to they had NO2 which i tried, for the second time was better. being more prepaired to go out ended up staying out late watching some boxing match with europeans. my opinion is okay for every once in a while. i did end up going to a pubcrawl sponsered by Hideout which i must say was much better. each bar they had pour in your mouth shots which consisted of a jagar water down drink. 3 clubs/bars.

the botanical garden and the zoo.

there were many animals from tigers, elephants, monkeys giraffe, wildabeast. this was a little depressing as the animals are in captivity. the gardens might have been the entire area as their were lush green in this weather. my favorite was a garden of bonsai tree for which there were many

Ho Chi Minh/Saigon 2016

dougecox — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 20:39:00 GMT

today is the 14th of September. I've just arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. Didn't make time to write in this as i've been enjoying Ho Chi Minh city / Saigon , Vietnam very much. Will be telling about my advertures backwards as the recent past is easy for me to remember. Yesterday the highlight of was the night street food tour. to start it was me and two tour guides which made it a very private type of tour. We went to district 3 first where i made my own vietnamese pancake. this was tricky as my right shoulder still recovering from nerve issues, and mobility on my right arm isn't 100%. the tour guides went right into the kitchen and started showing me all the ingredients that were around and touching everything. oh and did i metion this was a motorbike tour @night which was fun. the guides new about the various herbs, and plants that were being used. after that we're off to district 5 where we had a pork noodle soup. then to a place in district 3, probably getting someof this a little mixed up. however there is a photo of this. next to district 3 where there was residential housing in giant concrete apartment buildings. this area i was told was low-income housing, and the area i was being shown was where some buddhist go and when there they were chanting and ringing a bells every so often. the walls were yellow, and the buddha pictures they had were amazing. driving through this residential area there was a boy maybe 9 or so naked and pissing on to the street while dancing, more specifically shaking his hips back and forth, quiet funny. Next its off to get some coccnut icecream. the owner cracked on in half poured the juice in cups and the half cocunt was used as a bowl for the icecream. an assortment of toppings were provided ranging from corn, fred coccunut, sticky bean/rice green/bown, and i think i'm forgetting something. the flavor was great, and the toppings not being sugar-ary helped with the over flavor and text. next it was pho, getting there was quiet fun as we took the highway and went over some overpass. this pho was of full flavor, more than i've tasted in the States. the owner had been making it all of 5 months and we spoke a little as i guess not many foreigners go there. the location was near the Saigon river, with the city skyline in the background. after this is to district four or more commonly known as mafia territory. i got a look from a woman as we made our way to the next food stop, that made me feel scared. the look was like you must be crazy to come here, and my eyes are wide and stare stern so be on your toes, as you may just be missing your kidney in the morning if you happen to be the lucky one. the vibe was cool, passed many hundreds of people, and i was the only foreigner. this got me thinking that these two guys for the tour all speaking a good game, my actually be after my kidneys and balls, because this four hour tour all across Saigon, food included was under $40. which is ten bucks more than a pack of smokes in Melbourne, so how is this tour even a thing. the tour guides name are Vinney, and Lee. Vinney being more friendly and talkative which i took for knowing english better. Lee was my driving, informative, but had only one emotion which was apathy, so is no emotion an emotion? i did see him laugh later and smile. he's from the MeKong river area from being on a Cu Chi Tunnel tour earlier and can only assume was bombed the fuck out of during past wars, but will get to that later. so Lee brings out this rice wine that is family and or lets get Doug passed out and take is kidney shot ready for the 3 of us. me i wasn't paying attention to the shot glass of which there are three and now there is one in front of me. they all came out of the same bottle, and Lee drinks either all of it of half of it right away. Vinney takes a sip, but the volume doesn't appear to go down in my chaotic mind. well can't be rude so i take a sip, its easily the strongest potent flavor rice wine i've had. taste like hard whiskey alcohol, but has like a nice rum flavor. super strong. Then Lee's appears a little sad/worried that i didn't drink it all. this is the 3rd emotion i've seen from him all night. He then proceeds to talk about how i should drink it for like 5-10 minutes. it cures sickness, increase labedo, makes you pass out so we can get your kidney. seriously ten minutes. i've already said no, and the vigor of him wanting me to drink all of the shot, lingers in the air. then they ask what my plans are later. ofcourse i lie. "got people waiting for me at the hostel we are suppose to go to a Sax N Jazz club tonigt" , "everyone knows where i'm at", "please don't hurt me". we drive back to the hostel i'm safe, have them almost a 1mill in the currency which is like $44 usd. talk to some of the people from the hostel, and then try to pass out for my trip to Bangkok the next day.

hostel living - the place was great Rachel an irish lady my favorite, she worked there and was very friendly. there was Lugi a Canadian who looked Italain, and a challenge to have him warm up to you. Tyson who i hung out with for like a day or two, will get into that later super cool Aussie. then Ben, Dan, and many other i meet throughout my time there.

War Remnant Memorial

this place was hard to go. many photos on the travesitys of the war that happened in Vietnam. on the way to the Cu Chi Tunnel i heard of a photographer who was allowed access to the VietCong side of the war and took photos. he saw a family or group of people about to be executed took a photo, and as he walked away heard gun shot. the photographer did not look back. many of the images captured war's effect on family live and struggle. their was one where a marine is holding part of a human who's body was in pieces and the part being held barley recognizable a human if not for the part of a face. another of note was a photo of a chopping leaving Saigon, with clearly not enough to fit everyone as the Vietcong making their way through to center of the city. Agent orange photos were grewsome. photo's of this chemical remnant left on the population being deformed with varing degrees. personally being a twin seeing two babies joined to gether at the hip of which neither had feet, amazing they were alive in the photo, but i suspect life was short. outside the museum there were a bunch of tanks airplanes helicopters. needing time to gain my composure after seeing images that invoke fear of the travesty that humans created, i got some coffee and just chilled. some of that time was spent playing pokemon go where i took over a gym briefly.

Cu Chi Tunnels

to start there was a man talking about the region. how the tunnels initiatlly were built during the french war when they came, around like ~1800. and it expanded drastically for the Vietnam war as american know it. then there was a short video i can only guess it was made in 1967, at this place in addition to the war remnant musuem did portray American in a negative light, specifically bombing of which i believe of 5MM were dropped are said to have been done by Washington DC. for which people yearly stilly die from the explosion.

Post office.

this place was cool lost of souveineers, and ofcour postcards which i mailed. the rain was strong for like a minute inside which was a spectacular view in the high archway building from french colonial times. meet a nice gay couple who used to live in san francisco, and currently reside in Austin, TX. mailing a post card cost $15000 dong.

Cooking Class with Chef Vu

this was great!, it starts out by getting picked up @ the hostel by a bicycle transportation where we go around the city to see the sights. the driver didn't speak much english, if at all but looks great with a smile on the selfie i took. while in the bike the people are friendly someone even spoke to me asking how i was and where i am from while on his motorbike. he even had a little girl i would guess was 3-4 that when i looked at her she turned away all shy as if i was the first american she'd seen or spoke to. the bicycle ended at the ben than market where i meet up with 3 other people taking the class. from here we went to get our ingredients for the night, except for the chicken and few other things for which the best time to go is during the morning. went picked tomatoes, lemon grass some pork fat, etc. then we walked to the restaurant which was a few blocks away. meet chef vu, and started chopping, smashing, the food. the knife used was really cool, and would like to purchase one back home. So smash garlic, scallions (small onions) then dice to fine. then we learned how to make small roses from the tomatoes we purchased earlier in the day. this is primarlly as a garnish or for asstetics. basically cut a roma tomato in half length wise. use half and then thinly slice afterwards proceed to roll into a rose. making the spring rolls to be fried was first, with manayise being the secret incredient. next was the pancake, mine was a little small so being sure to spread it around fast and quick to get a wide surface area is key. their was also sweet and sour soup, not my favoriate but when it Vietnam it taste better. that class was actually cheaper than the bike tour, got a free coffee make and chopsticks too.

Melbourne, Australia

dougecox — Tue, 6 Sep 2016 20:21:00 GMT

160904 - Australia -> Melbourne

its sunday night right now, lost some time on my commute here from San Francisco so on the plus i became my birthday like a day sooner, not sure what happen to the first as the plane crossed the international date line. Before i begin on the first few days of my trip, i'm writing here on the bio-illumanecse i saw earlier which was super cool. the red algae in the waves of the ocean would glow in a blue hue. when i first was observing this phenomonon my mind wasn't able to process / understand what was going on. so the perspective original was yea their waves from an ocean, then i notices the red algae, and after a few observations of waves crashing my mind was aware of the glowing that was naturally occuring, for which a few seconds ago seeing it and not processing the effect was my reality. okay so back to the chronicalical order of this trip so far.

wednesday - I arrive at the air port like 5 or 6 hours early in my excitement i wanted to get to Melbourne sooner, and was bored at home of anticipation for the trip. the flight was not horrible didn't get any solid sleep, but took a few good naps. apparently the plan was not full any a few people were able to get entire rows for sleeping. but the business class section of the flight looked super good, like getting a lazy boy on an plane that turns into a bed with nice lighting. my flight went through Sydney of which it was raining down hard. i had to go through customs and then make my way to the domestic terminal of Qantas airlines. Qantas is an Australian airline which has a kangaroo has a logo. my layover was less than two hours so i had concerns of making my connecting flight, and therefore not having a transfer ticket, no clue why i didn't get this in sfo, i decided to wait in the business class line cause its faster, and shit if i'm going to miss my flight, better to do this waiting in a line that isn't for my ticket class. anyways so yay i made it the flight was full, i guess others before were cancelled due to weather conditions. so get to the hostel taking the shuttle from the airport to shuffle board shutter port station, and a bus from there to the hostel. Got here maybe an hour before check in, so used that time to explore the city. From which i got a $6 coffee, it wasn't bad, but i enjoy a $4 blue bottle coffee more. that said this was my expectation, funny note the service was very curious to find out my opinion of there coffee. maybe not my opinion but asking for afformation that it was good. and it was but not $6, however getting that in Melbourne and experinece most definatively yes :). need the coffee as i made my zombie self back to the apartment barely awake and needing to crash. the adult in me manage to get the linen setup and then i crashed.

Not sure if i mentioned but the flight arrived on Friday, and there's a couchsuring meetup this being my only friday i had to make it so after a few hours of a much needed nap i made my way. apparently the area of this event is like the hipster area of Melbourne. From a tour the following day i can only persive that hipsters have a greater negative conotation down under. the even was cool meet many people, but didn't last long maybe an hour or two before i had to leave being extremely tired.the bar was cool, they had a backdoor patio area of which some of it was covered. there was cool lighthing. the bars here don't keep tabs, and similar to canada are very concervative in alcohol distribution. so made it to Saturday woke up earlier so i booked a tour at the Art Centre of Melbourne which is where they put on plays like the ballet, and off broadway type shows with less than 300 seats. in total their are 3 venues large, meduim small. pretty cool as each room had a particular theme. the large one holds like 2k people maybe 3, this area is of a grand decor marble, gold, and mirrors. the middle is like a purple grey color which was a reflection of the style of the day being late 70's early 80s. and the small is kind like brown to reflect the Australian aborligine respect. oh and then later that night i went to a bar crawl. meet many nice people, and two chicks i was attracked to the Phillopean, and this black south african chick. the bar crawl consisted of 3 bars and 1 club. the free shots was called a wet pussy for which the south african was asking me if it was that and i made it into a sexual kinda joke, which was funny the first time, but then i continued and it lost flare. later on in that same bar some girl was eating a green apple and then made out with me. she was big, but not fat. i didn't pursue cause i didn't find her attractive, obvously not so unattrative that i wouldn't my rolling my tongue in her mouth. oh so on the way to the club i tried to get a cigerrate which i was eventually able to do, but not have much trails. not knowing the city i didn't want to buy a pack and then turn around and the bar crawl crowd to be gone, eventually when i head back to the hostel, i go to buy cigeratters and come to find out they are $30 so i havnet bought and may not till Vietnam. okay getting tired so summing up sunday quick. went to another couchsurfering meetup to go check out tiny pengiuns @ St Kilda beach. meet cool people, saw little pengiuns, played jinja,and now back at hostel. during the day also went to the victoria queens market but the timming was late so hopefully tomorrow.

160906 - So its Tuesday, a day has passed since last entry. Monday was very chill went and check out the Melbourne national library, and went over to the Queen Victoria market however it was closed. not sure whatelse i did during the day, as i only know i got a really good night sleep last night. the library was very beautiful it was vast and there was a free gallery which consisted of European colonial style art large paint some religious others of ships. One of the reading rooms was huge and inside looked like it was five stories up. oh and in the evening @ the hostel there was a dart game called killers. i wasn’t able to play well as my right arm isn’t functioning properly yet. made it through a large chunk of the game and was eventually kicked out. today i went to the queen victoria market, ate muscles for lunch and bought a coconut to drink and may eat later. was looking for some souvenirs nothing yet so may just buy a shirt i saw yesterday at the ngv. afterwards i went to St Kilda again to check out the coast line down south during the day. this was nice weather and got good panorama shots. followed up with a free tour at some digital museum where there was a animated art show of some weird Oscar Wild story about a red rose bird and a BOY who’s understanding of women was lacking. not sure what all he wrote but i know he famous and judging by the story a little fucked up in the head, as a female bird gave her life to provide a red rose for a man to provide for a woman he felt he was in love with. the majority of the story seemed like a man’s logical thought process of how love worked, but in the end the birds life for the red rose was discarded like time does with the past, maybe it was really about how our emotions of the present guide us only to make the descions of grander in hopes of success. for the bird woman may have died but her life until the moment was of much honor and respect, in the end she didn’t know about love nor the man who wanted the red rose. so her sacrifice may have been in vain, but with courage it was overflowing. my view trying to find the good in a crazy story. so now i’m here at the hostel bar working on java, and typing away my next journal entry. heading inside for warmth and NRG for power pc.