The Traveling Lotus

Vietnam Epilogue: Saigon (HCMC)

travelinglotus — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 20:30:00 GMT

We arrived in HCMC, and the bus had luckily dropped us off one street over from the hotel we had booked. We walked over despite our injuries since it was so close and checked in. We ate lunch and then headed to the International SOS Clinic to get Alison's injuries checked out. I was planning on getting checked out myself just in case, but didn't when I learned there was a $120 USD consultation fee. Even though I have travel insurance, I would have had to pay out of pocket and then open a claim to get the money back. I figured the doctor would do the same thing I had been doing, clean the wounds with hydrogen peroxide and iodine, cover it up with gauze and send me on my way. Definitely not worth the $120.

Alison had X-rays and ultrasounds taken, and sure enough, it was serious. She had fractured a bone in her elbow, but was extremely lucky as it was close to being a complete break. Regardless, I felt and (still do) feel terrible even though I don't think I could have handled the accident any better than I did. Alison is a massage therapist...her arms are essential to her career, and now she has to find alternative income while she heals. Hit me up if you have a simple job you need done!

While we waited for the doctor to come follow up with Alison's diagnosis, I called the travel insurance company and opened a claim for her. Jackie and I then left to meet Sean, who had just flown in from Hanoi. We went to have a delicious Indian dinner, and returned to the hotel to meet Alison, who had been put in a half cast and given a sling. She was told she would be fine in three weeks. Yay! ....we were all thinking.

The next day we took a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. It was hot, it was sweaty, the roads were bumpy, and my knees were hurting like crazy from walking so much with the bruising, bandaging, and damaged skin trying to scar over on my knees. Alison's arm was really bothering her, and we were annoyed by the tour guide who rushed us through everything. The guide insisted we would have to crawl on our hands and knees to go through the tunnels themselves, which I was extremely bummed about, as I was really looking forward to going through the tunnel. I became extremely frustrated when I learned I could have easily crouched since I am fairly small, and would have only used my knees at one point, so I missed my chance for no reason but a thoughtless guide. The guide hustled us out to the exit and barely gave us time to use the WC or get snacks, so I was happy to return to town. I am glad I got to see the tunnels, but recommend doing it on your own if you want to do it right! The nice thing is they dropped us off close to the War Remnants Museum, the one museum I really wanted to see. Definitely a powerful museum, one that really makes you question humanity.

The museum closed, and they kicked us out, and unfortunately ended up in a fixed taxi. I recognized that it wasn't legit right away and wanted out after my experience in Hanoi, but the girls thought it would be fine. I commented on the meter, and how he drove us around the block, but it wasn't until Jackie saw on her GPS that he was definitely cheating us by going the wrong way that they wanted out, too. The fare was already up to 75,000 dong even though we were still only about a third of the way, and the full fare shouldn't have been any more than 50,000. So, Jackie made him stop. Unfortunately, I was in no mood to fight, but the girls had gotten out already, I guess thinking I was going to take care of it again, which I had no desire to do in my exhaustion and pain. I could only scrounge together 67,000 dong, although the driver saw I had a 100,000 and tried to take it. Finally Jackie found 3,000 dong, I threw the 70,000 on the seat and got out. We found a legit taxi, and made it to the hotel for only 27,000. Sigh.

Luckily, Jackie had found a great hotel, right in the middle of Backpacker Alley. The road is stuffed full of delicious restaurants, little shops, and the most exciting thing of all...convenience stores!!! HCMC is the the only city in Vietnam I traveled through with convenience stores. Anyways, we met up with Sean who had done his own thing while we were at the tunnels, crossed the street and ate a delicious Italian dinner, meandered down the street and into shops, and stopped for a drink and shisha at a major intersection to people watch. What a great city for people watching! After a while, I noticed my feet were really swollen and started to think about returning to the hotel. As a drunkard knocked over a table of wine on some girls, and they threw wine on him in retaliation, we knew it as time to go.

The next day, Jackie and Sean took off for Phu Quoc, and Alison and I decided to extend our stay in Saigon since her arm was really bothering her. She went back to the clinic, and a different doctor fixed the cast she had on, which was poorly done the first time. The doctor also told her she needed to get a permanent cast in a couple of days, and really should consider going home.

As Alison deliberated, we walked to the art museum and slowly meandered through it. We headed over to the famous Ben Thanh market because it was so close, but only lasted about ten minutes. We ended up having to taxi back because the seemingly simple day had taken so much energy in our weakened state. The second cast was now causing a lot of problems also, so Alison returned for the 3rd time to see yet a 3rd doctor. By this time, we had already decided to scratch India from our trip..there was no way Alison was going to be riding camels, etc. However, this 3rd doctor said Alison may need a pin, so Alison made the decision to go home right away, which I fully supported. She booked a flight that left at 5 a.m., and should be arriving home soon. I hope the flights were bearable with a full cast!

Anyways, I obviously chose to stay. I am in the perfect place (Saigon) to recuperate a wounded knee...I don't have to walk far for anything. There's so much good food within a 3 minute walk here! Plus, my injuries don't warrant a need to rush home. I have been pleasantly surprised by Saigon. I was expecting to hate it, but I honestly thought Hanoi was more crowded and chaotic, albeit more authentic. I do plan on heading to Cambodia soon, as I will have been in Saigon for about a week, and don't want to waste too much time.

The new plan is to take my time in Cambodia, seeing all the beaches. I originally wanted to do just this, more time in Cambodia, Thailand, and work my way down to Singapore, so I am returning to that plan. I honestly never felt right about India. I want to see India, of course, but my gut has been telling me all along it wasn't the right time for it. So, I think this accident is a way to blatantly say "Don't go to India! Slow down!"

To get all existential on you readers, I thoroughly believe everything happens for a reason. I think there's a reason I should slow down; there's a reason I should wait on India. It will be interesting to see if the reason manifests itself right away or takes time. I also do hope the reason for Alison injuring such an essential part of her body is a very good reason, too!

Life certainly works in funny ways.

They say everyone experiences a scooter accident in Taiwan...

travelinglotus — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 23:59:00 GMT

They say everyone experiences a scooter accident while living in Taiwan....

...but I didn't, not in my 28 months of living in the second biggest city of the scooter- swamped country. No, it had to happen during a trip of a lifetime, an event that forces you to slow down and re-evaluate.

Let's back up to the beginning, starting in the city of the accident, Mui Ne.

Everyone who has been there has said nothing but amazing things about Mui Ne, numerous people who said they spent extra time they hadn't originally planned just because they enjoyed it so much. Therefore, I pushed the idea of skipping Nha Trang and headed straight for Mui Ne, as Mui Ne came so highly recommended, and I wasn't really feeling the party vibe Nha Trang is known for.

We left Hoi An behind, still cleaning up from Typhoon Nari, by bus. We took a minibus that picked us up from our hotel around 5 p.m., and dropped us off at the sleeper bus that was to take us from Central Vietnam to Southern Vietnam. We were immediately ushered to board the sleeper bus and awkwardly climbed into 3 "beds" that were all across the aisle from each other. Unfortunately, we ended up in the middle of the typical backpacker crew, young college-aged kids partaking in spirits, playing music and essentially creating their own "party bus." The three of us were sleeping on the bottom "bunks," meaning everyone on the top bunks decided to get down and hang out in the aisles, which were only wide enough for one person to walk through at a time. This meant Jackie, Alison, and I had to have our conversations by speaking around bodies from the waist down, through legs, and sometimes with feet dangling in our faces.

As I was worried about the backpackers partying all night, all of a sudden, WHAM!! thump, thump, thump, thump, thump......

It sounded like either a flat tire or something had got stuck in the tire. Jackie's bed was right above the wheel well, and we could feel the vibrations of whatever it was thump around, continuing to make loud sounds, a steady beat. The driver kept going, albeit at a much slower speed, so we all assumed he was going to stop at a gas station. However, we watched as he passed 4 or 5 separate gas stations, and started to wonder if we were going to head all the way to Nha Trang at 20km an hour!

After about 30 minutes, the driver pulled over next to a tire shop. Sure enough, it was a flat, and we had to wait while they fixed the flat. We started on our way, and the party started up again. Luckily, the backpackers decided to retire by midnight, and I managed to fall into a fitful sleep. We arrived in Nha Trang about 6 or 7 in the morning, and had to wait about an hour for the next 6 hour bus to Mui Ne.

After a harrowing ride in a different sleeper bus, despite it then being daytime, we made it to Mui Ne, with the sound of the bus's horn forever ingrained in my mind. As we were barreling into the town of Mui Ne, Jackie saw the sign for our hotel, so we asked the driver to let us off, which he did, which is kind of rare for drivers to do.

After about 20 hours of buses, we had finally arrived in Mui Ne. Turns out we had booked a place in the more "local" part of Mui Ne, and had to work our way through the fishermen's boats to the beach from our hotel. We were there for a bit before some threatening clouds started approaching, and headed back just as the rain hit. We washed up, and headed out to find some dinner.

The next day, we rented scooters from hotel (dun dun dunnnnn). Jackie took the smaller scooter to herself, so that she could easily snap some photos along the way, and I took the bigger scooter so as to be more comfortable for Alison, whom was doubling with me.

We headed first to the red sand dunes and stopped to take pictures, as we had read that the white sand dunes, which were further out, were better for sliding. The local kids harassed us to rent a sled, but finally gave up when they saw we were serious about taking pictures only.

We got on the road again, and had a beautiful scenic ride. We stopped once at a small "red canyon" to take pictures, and continued on to the white sand dunes. For the last stretch to the dunes, we had turned on to a 2km long rocky road. It was bumpy, but manageable. The scenery was unreal...red sand everywhere, bushy green growth, and now a sparking crystal blue lake came into view. The contrast was so lovely I slowed down in order to take a picture.

That was my mistake. Turns out the rocky road wasn't just hard clay with rocks embedded in it like I had assumed; it was actually had very loose, deep spots of sand littered with rocks. As my dad once told me, "You know what it means to assume....to make an ASS out of U and ME." Get it? Those words always pop in my head when I screw up based on poor assumptions.

As I slowed down, what I remember is us slowly tipping to the left and immediately thinking "fix it, fix it, fix it, fix it.." (meaning regaining control of the scooter). However, in a snap second I realized there was no fixing it, that we were going down. This thought came to me as I felt Alison fall towards me. My thoughts instantly changed from "fix it" to "get under Alison." I must have launched myself from the scooter at the last second to try to get under Alison to cushion her blow.

We hit the ground, and most likely slid for a bit, and then got up dazed. The adrenaline and shock instantly kicked in, and I honestly thought I was completely fine, with just a few scratches. Alison's arm was hurting, but she got up quickly, too, as Jackie turned around to come see if we were okay.

I was honestly mostly worried about the scooter at this point, because the adrenaline had me thinking I was just fine. In addition, we weren't going fast at all (the whole reason the accident happened was because I was trying to stop). I was worried about the scooter because it was way nicer than the one I drove in Taiwan. It was definitely scratched up, but it had been scratched before, so I wasn't sure if I would get charged for it. We decided to return to the intersection where we had turned on to the sandy road to clean ourselves up. There was a small local place with picnic tables and some junk food for sale. The lady, not speaking a lick of English, instantly brought Alison and I over to the spigot in the ground, had us sit in plastic arm chairs while she rinsed the red sand off of our road rash while her husband ran off to buy some medical supplies. The kindness of strangers in Asia never ceases to amaze me.

After rinsing us, I started to feel faint from the shock of it all. I couldn't believe after 2 and a half years of driving a scooter, I had my first accident in a relatively undeveloped part of Vietnam, with not a single other motorist around me. Jackie had luckily purchased Gatorade at some point and had me drink it, while the kind lady poured hydrogen peroxide and iodine her husband had tracked down on my road rash, and covered it up with cotton balls (worst mistake ever...they wouldn't come out of the wounds later!). I munched on some peanut snacks I luckily had on me while I slowly lost the light-headed, faint feeling.

During this time, an Estonian who is working on driving a motorcycle from HCMC up to Northern Vietnam stopped by and chatted with Alison and Jackie. I was feeling better from the shock, and we decided to team up with him and keep going to the sand dunes. Of course, that meant returning along the dangerous road. So we swapped scooters; I took the small one to myself, and Jackie drive Alison on the bigger one. We made it there, and stopped to eat first and chat with Manuel, the Estonian. We took awhile to eat and chat, and headed up the dunes as the sun was starting to set. Beautiful sky, but not much time for us to try sliding down the dunes on a sled.

We each went a couple of times, and had to wait while some very eager Chinese people asked to borrow our sleds. Before we knew it, it was dark, and we still had to return via the Rocky Road of Danger. Both Alison and I were starting to really ache, especially her arm. We warily climbed on the scooters again and headed back. I let Jackie and Alison go first, but the road was so bad, they had slowed down a bit, and I was catching up to them. I wanted to keep distance between us, so I slowed down, and.....

WHOMP. I went down again, as embarrassing as it is to admit. However, I had gone down because I had hit a stretch of extremely loose sand...basically like I was trying to drive on the sand dunes themselves. Because of this, it didn't hurt at all; it was actually a very soft landing. Manuel, who was following me on his motorcycle, stopped to help me upright the scooter, a challenge with the soft, beach-like sand, and continued on. I am pretty sure we all breathed a sigh of relief when we hit the solid, paved roads. We decided to stop and have dinner together, which was a good distraction. Manuel was very interested in learning English slang, so we had some good conversation. It was getting late, so eventually we decided to head back. Before leaving, I visited the restroom...and couldn't go. I have used some pretty terrible bathrooms before, but I couldn't do it there. First thing I saw when I entered the stall..a gecko running across the floor.

No problem. I like geckos.

Then I saw a giant cockroach crawling around the tissue in the garbage can.

Sigh, but again, no problem.

Walked up to the squatter.

And saw a frog swimming happily in the yellow water.

Nope. No way I would pee on a frog, especially when Manuel had just eaten 2 frogs of the exact same size for his dinner.

I shook my head and backed out of the stall. What a day.

We got on our scooters after the owners kindly hosed all the sand off of them, and immediately missed our turn, which means we drove around lost for about 20 minutes. We headed back the way we came after realizing we were headed the wrong way, and I recognized the turn we should've made earlier and headed back to our hotel. Before getting there, we stopped in a small parking lot, covered our legs with sarongs, and I put on a jacket to cover up any evidence of being involved in an accident. We dropped off the scooters with the night guy, gave him the keys, and headed in to the room to evaluate our injuries.

Turns out I had gouged a decent amount of skin out of my left knee and right shoulder, and more minor cuts and scratches on my right wrist, and from my right knee up my right thigh. This corroborates my memory of launching myself under Alison: we went down on the left side, where my deepest wound was, but The majority of the cuts and scrapes were on my right side, which would have only happened if I launched myself off.

Despite my attempt to get under Alison and protect her, she still got pretty beat up on her left side... road rash on her left leg, and her left arm was still bothering her a lot. I painfully tried to peel the cotton out of my knees and and shoulder in the shower, and Jackie played nurse for Alison and I with the medical supplies she had luckily stashed somewhere in her magical Mary Poppins bags.

The next morning, the scooters had already been rented out to some other people, and no questions were asked. Regardless, we decided to move next door to a nicer hotel with a swimming pool that Jackie could use while Alison and I rested up. The day was a wash for me, but we did make plans to head to HCMC the following morning as it was clear Alison's arm injury was of concern, and there was no appropriate medical care in Mui Ne (i.e, equipment like X-ray machines). Despite not getting to enjoy the nice beaches of Mui Ne I had heard so much about, we caught an early bus and headed to the legendary Saigon, which I will write an "epilogue" of sorts in a separate blog post.

Taxi Scams and Tam Coc

travelinglotus — Wed, 9 Oct 2013 23:59:00 GMT

The day started when we arrived in Hanoi on our overnight train from Sapa very early- around 4:30 am. We blearily headed out of the train station, and found a taxi who said he would use a meter, one of my stipulations when traveling in Vietnam. However, I noticed that the meter had started jumping very quickly...it started at 10,000 dong (about 0.50USD) and within two minutes, it was up to almost 50,000 dong (about 2.50). Sure enough, while I was watching, the meter jumped again to around 55,000 dong. I told the taxi to stop, because the meter was broken. He spoke practically no English (or was pretending not to), so we got out of the cab and grabbed our bags. I was very angry, but tried to give him 10,000 dong which was the base fare, to be fair. He was extremely upset, and wouldn't take it as he wanted the entire 55,000 dong. I was also quite infuriated and was not about to give in as it was obvious the meter was fixed. I did start to get a little nervous when some locals came to watch the fuss; I wasn't sure if they would take the taxi driver's side against me, but I stood my ground. Finally, after I said "take this [the 10,000 dong] or take nothing, we are leaving now!" the driver snatched the money out of my hand. It took me by surprise as it was actually a bit violent (don't worry - I wasn't hurt), so I immediately started walking away, telling the girls "Let's go!" before the driver could change his mind. We flagged down another taxi, whom was thankfully honest, and headed back to the hotel we had initially stayed at when we first came to Hanoi.

Thankfully, the service at the hotel was more than amazing, and it totally made up for the bad start to the morning. Even though we weren't checking into the hotel, nor had booked our Tam Coc tour through them, they gave us a room key for free, and we were able to all shower and reorganize our bags during the time we had from about 6 to 8 a.m. We left some laundry with them, and they gave also us some free croissants for breakfast while we waited to be picked up for our trip to Tam Coc.

The bus to Tam Coc arrived, and since it wasn't full, we spread out and relaxed for the few hours the drive took. We stopped at Hua Lu first, one of the (many) ancient capitals of Vietnam. All that was there was a couple of temples dedicated to the kings who ruled there when Hoa Lu was the capital. I was underwhelmed, but that's to be expected as I have seen hundreds of Asian temples by now, and they are all more or less the same in my opinion. I did encounter a new tourist trap though: locals followed us snapping pictures with their nice DSLRs and tried to sell the photos as souvenirs. I quickly learned to put my hand up to block my face so that they wouldn't have any decent photos of me to offer, so I wasn't bothered with them trying to sell me my picture. It was weird, though, almost like be followed by paparazzi in rice hats! We stopped for a decent buffet lunch before heading out to the river for a rowboat ride through Tam Coc (which is nicknamed "Inland Ha Long Bay"). Since there were only 2 people to a rowboat, and 3 of us, I volunteered to share a boat with an Italian guy who was traveling by himself, and Alison and Jackie went on a different boat together.

I got into the boat, and Alessandro (the Italian) got in after me. Then the rower started rowing us down the river...with his feet! I was surprised, as I hadn't known before that this was the traditional way to row in the area. They sit in a legless chair bolted to the boat, and use their legs to row...they looked like frogs! It was very fun to see something new.

The scenery was beautiful, gliding down a river with limestone karsts around us, but it was too hazy and bright to really get any decent pictures. So while we rowed around and under karsts through small caves, I chatted with Alessandro, who has traveled extensively, so it was fun swapping travel stories to pass the time while we admired the view. After a couple kilometers, some locals rowed over on their boats, trying to sell us snacks. Oh, the persistence of venders in Vietnam! After we refused several times, our rower turned us around, and we rowed back the way we came. We gave the rower a tip, and waited for the others to return so we could get on the bicycles for the next part of the trip.

At this point, I wasn't overly impressed with Tam Coc, but getting on bicycles changed that. The 3 of us girls and Alessandro got on bikes with the tour guide while the other German couple in our group waited behind. We pedaled off down the street, and quickly turned off into a little neighborhood, and within minutes, we were in nature. We were riding along a raised dirt path, and turned along a small creek that some locals were rowing along. I watched while a dog jumped in the river and paddled across to the other side. The river opened up to bigger ponds, although I am not sure that's an appropriate description. They were almost like flooded, very deep rice paddies, with no rice growing. The effect was amazing because by this point, the sun was setting, there were no vendors, we were peddling at our own pace, and enjoying the sunset in an incredibly beautiful environment. I am sure our tour guide was frustrated with us taking forever as we stopped to take pictures at practically every turn we rounded. Once, we even had to stop for a large duck crossing as they left one "pond" and crossed the road to get to another. Reluctantly, we returned to the small city center to return the bikes, and board the bus back to Hanoi.

After returning to Hanoi, we still had some time to kill before heading to our overnight train for Hue which didn't depart until 11 p.m. So, we decided to try a Lonely Planet recommendation for dinner, Highway 4, for some catfish spring rolls. On the way, we stopped to buy some postcards from a friendly vendor, who showed us one of the postcards of a bridge in Hanoi and told us a story about how he could see sharpshooters on top of the bridge from his window during the war. We continued on and found the restaurant, which was actually very nice and classy. Alison and I decided to order a glass of "wine" which turned out to be disgusting. I am not much of a drinker, so I am not sure of what the technical term for the drink is, but it tasted like port and whisky mixed together. Normally, I can finish a drink even if I don't like it, but I left half the drink untouched. It was only $2 though, so I didn't feel bad about it. We ordered the catfish spring rolls, which were just as delicious as the Lonely Planet had promised. Yum!!

After we finished our dinner, we returned to the hotel to grab our bags and headed to the train station to catch the overnight train to another one of the ancient capitals, Hue, in central Vietnam, concluding our travels of the awesome northern region of the country.

Stunning Sapa

travelinglotus — Tue, 8 Oct 2013 23:59:00 GMT

On Monday morning, we woke up to a knock on the door of our train cabin about 5am or so. We gathered our bags and got off at the Lao Cai station where we had a driver pick us up for the drive to Sapa town; about 45 minutes to an hour. The scenery on the mountain drive was beautiful, but I was fighting so hard to keep my eyes open, it being so early. The van stopped at a hotel in town to drop off some other guests, and a large crowd of local Hmong women crowded around the van door, all chattering at the same time in their own language. I am sure they were trying to convince the people getting off the bus to hire one of them as a guide for the treks. It was quite entertaining for us as they sounded just like the minions from Despicable Me. Hmong women will forever be associated with minions for me after this experience!

We got dropped off last at a guesthouse where we left our bags. We went to the rooftop cafe breakfast, where we had a stunning view of the valley. We then packed our day bags as we were going to be doing an overnight in a local village, and didn't want to carry our big packs. Then we met Zao, our local guide, and started on the trek towards Y Linh Ho. Immediately, 3 Hmong women latched on to our group, one with a traditional basket on her back, another with her baby strapped to her back, and the last an elderly lady. Soon, we were sweating from the heat, but it was worth it as we had perfect blue skies and a clear view of the valley; especially lucky considering Sapa is known for its fogginess.

Each of the Hmong women used local flora to fashion fun little bouquets for us. I unfortunately lost mine before getting a picture of it. We realized later that these little "gifts" were a way of "marking" us. The elderly lady gave me her "gift", then proceeded to help me along some of the more slippery parts of the trek. Looking back, it was quite funny that an older woman walking in plastic slippers was helping me, a fairly fit 29 year old in good runners. In all honesty, I felt her to be a hindrance more than a help because I prefer to find my own footing, but it was all a part of the experience.

Regardless, the views were utterly stunning, and I couldn't help grinning like a fool throughout the experience of it. I am a mountain girl, so being in mountains always puts me in a good mood, but Sapa's sheer beauty made it that much more amazing!

When we stopped for lunch at Lao Chai, before we could even sit down, our kind "helpers" moved in for the kill, pushing their wares on us, something that persisted (unfortunately) through the remainder of our visit in Sapa. They wouldn't leave us alone, and I finally bought a cheap bracelet for Alison and I because I did want to recognize they trekked a few hours with us. After that, these 3 particular women that did the morning part of the trek with us disappeared. However, as soon as we sat down for lunch, some girls came to our table and chanted over and over "Buy from us. Very cheap price for you, 3 for 50,000 dong." (About $2.50.) My response was "no, go to school instead" and one girl was apparently trained to say "school in morning" which I doubt was a true statement. The girls would not leave, and they kept chanting the same thing over and over, so we finally had to get a waitress to make them leave. We also had to wait awhile for our food, but luckily it was very good.

After lunch, we hit the trail again and made our way to Ta Van village, where our homestay was located. On the way, we stopped to pick up Zao's young son from school, and he walked with us to Zao's mother's house, a very primitive shack you would picture in Africa. We left Zao's son with his grandma and continued on. Jackie decided to purchase some candy, and passed it out to all the children we saw on the way. Oh, the smiles! Jackie really brightened a lot of kids' day! We also saw so many babies. Baby humans, puppies, cows, ducklings, etc. It was like spring seeing so much youth!

We made it to the homestay where the hostess, Dahm, prepared some Vietnamese tea for us. She also made us some delicious garlic French fries. We then walked down to the river. I stepped in a huge puddle of mud only wearing flip-flops, so it was slow going for me. Alison and Jackie had already made it to the freezing cold water and got in, but as the sun had almost set, I contented myself with just soaking my feet. We headed back to the homestay for dinner, which unfortunately I had little appetite for as I was still feeling the after-effects of Ha Long Bay. I felt so bad not eating more food, but I just couldn't do it.

Then, Dahm has us take a couple shots of the local rice wine. Ugh. It reminded me of soju, which wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been recovering from seasickness still. However, we did get to practice our Vietnamese toast: "Mot! Hai! Ba! Yo! Hai! Ba! Yo! Hai! Ba! Hwong!" Dahm's English was extremely basic: she knew about as much English as we know Vietnamese, so dinner was a little awkward. Luckily, she was focused on the TV which was playing a Mandarin drama, but dubbed in Vietnamese. What was entertaining is there was only one lady doing the dubbing, so when a man was talking on the show, you'd just hear a lady's voice.

Anyways, we were exhausted after an overnight train, trekking all day, and still recovering from Ha Long, so we showered, crawled up to the loft, set up the mosquito nets, and passed out on the mats on the floor by 8pm, and didn't get up until 8am the next day. We had delicious banana crepes for breakfast before Zao picked us up to start the second day of our trek.

We had a lot of uphill paths, so it was a bit slow going, especially because we kept running into groups of other trekkers on the path. Zao then gave us a choice of walking through more rice paddies or going through a bamboo forest. We opted for the bamboo forest because we figured it would be good to do something a little different, and also have some shade on the way. It was difficult though, as the main path was deep mud. We had to keep grabbing the bamboo trees as grips while we gingerly tried to avoid falling into the mud. By this point, a couple of younger local girls, maybe 8 and 10, had joined us, hoping to do the same thing as the ladies had done the day before. However, when it was made clear we weren't going to buy anything at the end of the trek, they disappeared.

After the bamboo forest, we arrived at a beautiful waterfall where we relaxed for a long break, taking pictures, and admiring the view of the valley. After our break, we hiked down to the valley, crossed a river, and started hiking up the other side to get to our lunch destination. By then, the sun was beating down, so it was hard getting up the last steep incline to lunch, but we made it. After lunch, we each got onto the back of a motorbike for a drive back to Sapa town.

Once back in town, we decided to explore after saying our good-byes to Zao, whom seemed very tired. The local Hmong women walking around town trying to sell their wares were extremely pushy, and unfortunately ruined the town for me a bit. Once we got off the main drag and to the small lake, it was a little more peaceful. Sapa town itself was lovely, and reminded me of any mountain town in the Rockies. We had dinner and headed back to catch the minibus back to the train station. We got on the train, and ironically the 4th berth in our cabin was the same man who was in our cabin on the way to Sapa. He was a local tour guide, so he was a very good roommate as he didn't bother us and had the train's routine down. After trekking so hard for 2 days, I quickly fell asleep, despite the fact the train was rockin 'n' rolling all night.

Ha Long Bay and Seasickness

travelinglotus — Sun, 6 Oct 2013 23:59:00 GMT

On Saturday, we got up early and got ready to be picked up and taken to Ha Long Bay. We were the last to be picked up and squeezed in the back of a minivan. We stopped halfway for a long break, then finally made it to Ha Long harbor after a few hours. We got to our boat and got checked into our rooms. We were upgraded to deluxe rooms, which meant we had small balconies, but oddly, the toilet was in between the room and the balcony...and only a shower curtain separated the toilet from the rest of the room. Jackie didn't even have a key to her room because the previous guest had taken the key with them. We got our bags into our rooms, explored the boat, and sat down to lunch, which was actually quite good. We headed to Surprising Cave, which was an impressive cave (good pictures from my DSLR to come later; only uploading photos from my iPhone for now). The "surprise" was unsurprisingly phallic, nothing unique there. The rest of the cave was cool, though, so a worthwhile visit. Afterwards, we got into kayaks and explored a lagoon for a bit. Alison and I weren't very good at maneuvering the kayak, but got better by the end. We saw monkeys jumping around on one of the karsts; they were quite large and acrobatic. After kayaking, we headed back to the boat, and jumped into the water and swam for a bit. By this time, it was getting quite dark, so we went in to get ready for dinner. First, we made fresh spring rolls ourselves, then got ready to sit down for the main dinner. Luckily, we were with a group of really awesome Europeans (Brits, Germans, and Dutch) that we got along really well with, so we sat arranged by birthdays. I still ended up by Jackie, but was also sitting near a girl from England who works as an advisor for David Cameron; quite impressive! The meal was served in courses; they made unique shrimp cocktails decorated with tulips made from veggies, a plate of rice made to look like the Hoan Kiem Lake turtle, and fries with veggies cut out to say "I Love You." All very entertaining. After dinner, they gave up a cup of uncooked rice and one chopstick. They then instructed us to pick up the glass of rice using the one chopstick (and nothing else), without spilling the rice. We worked for awhile trying to figure it out, but couldn't. Finally the bartender showed us how. One guy was able to do it on his own, and Jackie and I were able to do it together, but not everyone could master it, even knowing the trick. I won't tell you the trick; see if you can figure it out yourselves! After dinner, the group hung out on the deck. Some of the braver souls did some karaoke for a bit, and then we all chatted until I headed to bed.

Unfortunately, that night turned out to be the worst night of the trip thus far. The a/c was freezing, and there was a terrible smell in the room. I thought it smelled like something had died in the room; Alison thought it was sewage; and we both agreed it smelled like rotten eggs whatever it was. Later, when I told the tour guide, he suggested perhaps a rat had been trapped somewhere on the ship. About 3am I couldn't handle it any longer and had to sit on the balcony for fresh air. I was planning on joining the yoga session at 6am, but couldn't do it as I ended up regurgitating everything in my stomach. Unfortunately, I felt awful for the rest of the day, as did Alison. I did manage to make the morning climb up Titop Island (400+ stairs) to see a beautiful view of Ha Long from above, and spent some time hanging in the water, but as soon as we had to return to the boat, I felt increasingly awful again. We all went up to the sun deck to cruise through the more famous parts of Ha Long Bay, but I couldn't keep myself upright long enough to enjoy the view or snap more than a couple poor photos. After that, I ended up not eating lunch at all. Luckily, I started feeling better as soon as we hit the land, even though we transferred to the van right away. Back in Hanoi, we got dropped off at the travel company's office and left our bags there while we did a little bit of shopping, got dinner, and had a foot massage. We caught a taxi to the train station, where we got to sit in a reasonably nice lounge while we waited to board the overnight train to Sapa. Once on the train, I pretty much immediately fell asleep as I was exhausted from having slept so little and having been sick all day long. So my first experience on an overnight train was quite uneventful!

Hello, Hanoi

travelinglotus — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 02:28:00 GMT

Yesterday, I woke up at 3:30am in order to give myself plenty of time to cook breakfast, shower, finish packing and cleaning out the last of my apartment. I dropped off my keys to the guanli (doorman) and hopped in a taxi. From entering the taxi to arriving at my gate, it took 40 minutes. I love flying out of Kaohsiung!

I arrived at Hanoi International Airport, and was shocked at how small it was. I was able to walk right up to immigration, and didn't even have to fill out an arrival card. Luckily, since the airport was so small, I was able to spot Ali, my travel partner who had flown in from Denver to meet me, quite easily. The driver we had arranged wasn't there when we got through customs, so we got some Vietnamese coffee to kill some time until he arrived.

My initial impression driving away from the airport and on the highway was it looked just like Thailand. As we approached the Old Quarter, however, the view became a new experience for me. The architecture has a very unique style, and the streets became increasingly chaotic as we drove deeper into the Old Quarter. I am used to crazy Asian traffic with scooters darting around every which way, but even I am intimidated by the traffic here. Unfortunately, our driver didn't handle the traffic so well and hit and knocked over a motorcyclist! The motorcyclist wasn't injured, but was quite angry. As our driver tried to pull over, the motorcyclist started pounding on the window, thinking our driver was going to flee. The driver pulled over, got out of the taxi, helped upright the motorcycle, and consoled the motorcyclist. Perhaps there was also an exchange of cash? For we were moving again within a minute. When we got to the hotel, the first thing I saw was Jackie, my other travel companion who had arrived a day earlier, getting ready to return her bicycle she had rented. Perfect timing!

We got checked in, and headed towards the Hoan Kiem Lake, which we slowly meandered around. It was very peaceful and beautiful, despite the chaos enveloping the lake due to the crazy traffic on the encircling roads. We looped back in time to catch a water puppet show we had bought tickets for, which was highly entertaining. There were some very funny acts, but we were all tired so we were glad when it didn't last too long. We went back to the hotel and mustered enough energy to go out for the legendary bia hoi. Bia hoi is a beer that is made fresh every day, so it has no preservatives. The best part is it's only 5,000 VND, the equivalent of about 0.25 USD. We found a spot on the street, where we were given plastic stools to sit on while enjoying the beer, which surprisngly wasn't bad! After one drink, we decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel.

This morning, Friday morning, we got up and had breakfast. We changed rooms so the 3 of us could be together, and discussed plans for when we return from Sapa. We unfortunately spent a lot of time discussing the plan, and didn't leave the hotel until after noon, despite an early start. We meandered our way (very slowly) to the Temple of Literature. We stopped to arrange a tour to Tam Coc on the way, and had some delicious street food. (The food is so amazing here! Will definitely be taking a cooking class.) We made it to the temple, which was nice, then relaxed at a cafe before walking back to the hotel. Due to our very slow meandering, it was evening by the time we returned. We got some dinner down the street and checked out the weekend market, which was quite crowded, which is par for the course for Asian markets.

All in all, I like Hanoi, but feel like the two days here was enough. I am very excited for the next five days, as we have planned Ha Long, Sapa, and Tam Coc, all known for stunning scenery. Definitely looking forward to escaping city life for a bit!

Goodbye Taiwan

travelinglotus — Thu, 3 Oct 2013 01:27:00 GMT

All the good-byes have been said, I am almost packed, and I leave for the airport in 6 hours.

As with all my good-byes, it is bittersweet. I've lived longer in Taiwan than any other foreign country, and will always have a fond place in my heart for it. Life in Kaohsiung is incredible, and I often have to remind myself how amazing my life is. I have lived abroad for so long, I am not sure I can ever be "normal" and live on American soil, but I am looking forward to giving it a go.

Luckily, before I face the nightmare of the American job market, I get to do what I love most: travel! Even though I have done extensive traveling here and there, I have never traveled for longer than three weeks. To top it all off, my good friend, whom I haven't seen in almost 5 years will be arriving in Vietnam just minutes after me!

Hence, the bittersweetness. I have been so lucky with coworkers, students, friends, and other acquaintances here in Taiwan. I will miss so many people, and regret not having more time to spend with some of the newer friends I have made. However, my upcoming adventure proves there is always an opportunity to reconnect with the friends you make along the way.

Traveling opens so many doors, and I can't wait to see what is waiting for me on the other side of this door right in front of me!

So for now, I am signing off with not only a "good-bye" to Taiwan, but a "thank you."

Thank you for making the last two and a half years of my life an adventure in its own right. It may be time to close this door of my life, but the memories will remain.

Photos: Taiwan

travelinglotus — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 20:54:00 GMT