:12/31-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

out my guesthouse window, vang vieng laos
 vang vieng

this is not me, it's a very fucked up british lassy
 |
last day of 2002, first day of the best year of my life....
i was awakened by the psycho chicken rant this morning
and have reconsidered being a vegetarian. i am more than
happy to eat those screechy little fuckers. there were also
pigs squealing, lao people playing their traditional music
(also a bit screechy) next door, little birdies chirping
in some sort of ecstacy on my windowsill (holiday?), and
some kind of construction going on overhead. sigh.
i found robin downstairs and we decided to have ourselves
a little tubing expedition. we paid $1.50 and took a tuk
tuk with some arrogant dutch girls and a somewhat dorky
guy from l.a. to the head of the river about 5k away. the
river was a beautiful green and it was a sunny day, so we
floated blissfully on our tubes for awhile until we saw
a sign for a cave and decided to get out and explore it.
i am never prepared for situations like this in asia. i
was wearing a bathing suit and flip flops and had no light
with me. to get to this cave (we realized about halfway
there), we had to climb the cliff for 15 minutes, up the
steepest sharpest rocks i have ever seen (not so graceful
in a bikini). we get to the cave and it's huge and black
and sort of ridiculous. an old scruffy lao man had given
us candles below so we lit them but still it was mostly
blind going. there were steep mushroomy rocks on the decent,
random potholes full of banana peel mud, and the ominous
sounds of splashing water in the depths of the rear of the
cave. people had left their handprints in the moss on the
far wall. we felt stupidly proud of ourselves for having
made it but didn't stay long.
the rest of the tubing trip was rather cold, but there
were little bars at the side of the river along the way.
the lao people would pull us in with bamboo poles and feed
us beerlao, and go back to tending their five kids. i met
some more americans (ugh). i of course didn't have my camera.
for new year's eve we headed to a party on the far side
of the river. to get there we had to cross through the dark
market and over the water in the dark on this rickety footbridge
made of plywood planks balanced on bamboo poles. it was
sort of treacherous and i wonder how many people were later
on unable to make it home. the party ended up being more
of a western style rave. lots of house-y techno and somewhat
wasted people dancing (including locals). it was pretty
good for a small town like this. we sat at a table next
to an italian couple who were apparently insane. they had
this pipe called a 'cillum' (?) which was basically a huge
wooden joint and they filled it with some sort of hash mixed
with pot and puffed away behind a huge cloud of obvious
smoke next to us. i was a little worried about the possibilities
of being busted so robin and i didn't socialize too much
with them, but i did manage to snag one hit off of their
wonderful friendly pipe. i am not sure exactly what it was
i smoked but i was instantly thrown into the twilight zone
and the rest of the evening was sort of a daze. i danced
a lot, robin and i kissed each other on the cheek at midnight,
and so it goes.
|
|
:12/30-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 to vang vieng, laos
|
hopped us a minibus to vang vieng at 9:00 this morning,
hoping to get there in time to snag a good guesthouse and
scope the place out before new year's eve. i forced robin
to get his own room so i don't murder him in his sleep (i
have serious space issues). we are paying $6 each right
now which isn't so bad, though we could get one room for
$3 total if we skipped down the road (much to robin's pouting
chagrin). nana guesthouse is nice though, it's a huge modern
house with white walls and wood floors, big sunny windows,
& little kid sheets with teddy bears.
vang vieng is of course gorgeous. it's similar to pai in
northern thailand in that it's a small, quiet valley filled
with hill tribe families and (well, wanna-be) hippie travellers.
it's set along a river and overhung with amazing scraggly
black limestone karsts (cliffs) filled with caves and places
to camp and trek. there are a lot of tropical birds singing,
which is noticeable since you don't hear these specific
types of....tweets? :) in the west. lots of animals running
around everywhere. the restaurants on the main (and only)
strip play american dvds at night, serve the same rubber
stamp menu of mediocre western food mixed with asian dishes,
and have mats and pillows on the floors around the tables
on which to chill out to mostly western music. i wouldn't
say this is authentic laos but sometimes travelling isn't
so much about that as it is about taking advantage of a
beautiful place and enjoying your life amongst others who
are like you.... anyway the market here is great! every
asian town has an open air market but this one has all kinds
of weird cool things to buy ($20 handmade guitars, badminton
birdies used as hacky sacks, 'white monkey holding peach
pit' balm-my new addiction, and fresh fruits and vegetables
from the nearby organic farm. there are bikes to rent to
explore, and lots of kayaking/camping/caving/trekking tours
to choose from...of course there are probably lots of drugs
too but robin and i have been really good about smoking
just a little bit of pot and drinking in moderation.
by the way my rant on vietnam a few days back was somewhat
regretted in retrospect. one of those reflexive things.
vietnam's a weird place... i definitely have a love-hate
relationship with it. there are some things i miss about
it actually, and if you are a traveller reading this site
i don't mean to discourage your going there- it is definitely
a place worth visiting for the cultural education alone.
i loved things about it, i just don't feel like writing
them down. :)
|
|
:12/29-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |









i liked today
|
buddha park is a beautiful place that happened today in
vientiene. we passed the friendship bridge and waved to
happy north thailand on the other side of the mekong ...but
continued in a tuk tuk with wind flying through our hair
and hot sun glinting off other tuk tuks & hitting our
backs. the traffic here is entirely reasonable (maybe that
has to do with cars instead of motorbikes?). it was necessarily
silent on our ride or i would've had to pop off the infamous
and spastic robin, who tends to constantly be playing air
guitar and singing heavy metal lyrics, belching loudly,
or shouting out random bits of nonsensical dutch otherwise.
our driver was very friendly and typically shy.
we drove for 25 km and thus got a good glimpse of laotian
life. laos is not so poor, despite what i have heard. it's
one step below thailand economically, but a step above vietnam
and definitely better off than cambodia. the streets are
paved and the houses are typical wood paneled shacks with
thatched roofs, but clean and comfortable. nobody gives
a rat's ass if you talk to them or buy anything. they are
not desperate or ruthless in the least. it's a very well
put together place.
there are lazy animals everywhere and a bit of animal cruelty
as well. in vietnam it's not uncommon to see pigs and chickens
tied to the backs of motorbikes in little bamboo baskets.
but they are usually dead. in laos it's not uncommon to
see a live cow trussed to the point where it can't move
hanging upside down off of the back of a speeding truck
or a bunch of live turkeys being dragged behind a motorbike
by their feet.
the park was green and fluffy and the statues were weird
and childish, looking more hindu than buddhist.
there was a lao boy punk concert in the sun. lots of kids
jumping around with candy. girls walking around looking
sublimely bored. we ate roasted chickens (you get the whole
thing on a stick) (yick) and smiled at a few presumable
alien worshipers who had the guts to look at us (that is,
lao people are fascinated and bored by us into cultlike
worship).
sat in the grass for a while and then paid more money than
we should have as usual to get back to our guesthouse and
watch french cartoons (oui divine).
tonight we might go eat injun food and lay on mats watching
movies with irish coffees. not many interesting people around
here right now, including lao people, who don't seem to
live up to their reputation of being so effusively friendly.
but i wouldn't be friendly to me either so i'll just hope
it gets better by new years'.
taking advantage of the fast internet while i have it.
there are more pictures on this page than usual so be patient
and let it load. >>>>
|
|
:12/28-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

mekong
 vientiene street corner


|
vientiene, laos. it's a small town set along the mekong
river. i have no idea what to do here and today is fairly
cold, but it's so nice to be in a new country. there are
a ton of internet places with fast connections (better than
vietnam) so i will be updating today. picked up my huge
stacks of weird money... $1 = 10,800 kip give or take. lots
of little shops and weird ski-lodge looking restaurants.
very quiet...otherwise it seems a lot like thailand, even
the language is same-same. same tuk tuks, wats, and buddhist
relics...but no sex scene! thanks! ...and lots of stoned
european travellers of course. i overheard americans conversing
at the next table at breakfast and wanted to strangle them.
i am embarrassed by the p.t.a. mother, s.u.v. driving element
of my country at home and don't expect to hear them in laos
(ack). we did meet a german guy and 2 israelis, okay i didn't
like them much but they were chill-able. we bought weed
from a tuk tuk driver and sat and drank mirinda with him
for a bit. discussed our options for massage and a trip
to "buddha park". i think i will like it here.
there is some kind of curfew though...hrmm.
vang vieng will be next, in 3 days. where i can tube through
caves on the river.
|
|
:12/27-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 view from bus |
after having spent 26 days in vietnam i am entitled to
my opinion i think, and that is that vietnam sucks(!) in
general. i had a great time in nha trang and hoi an was
beautiful and fun also, but for the most part it was other
travellers who made it cool. the locals are complete assholes,
and most of the country is fairly boring and a pain in the
ass to travel through.
so there. i am a little bitter today because of the hell
bus trip i just endured. 24 hours of asinine incompetence
and rudeness from the vietnamese people. they didn't tell
us anything about our trip beforehand, so we were completely
unprepared. northern vietnam is freezing and there was no
heat, no blankets. the bus only stopped 3 times for peeing
and 2 of those were at the side of the highway, so i had
to squat in the bush and hope the entire bus wasn't watching.
:) they packed all their luggage on. (i know, these are
just cultural differences but they tend to yell and be annoying
in the process). at about 1 in the morning, instead of just
driving straight through, the driver stopped the bus, came
and unceremoniously kicked robin and i out of our seats,
and proceeded to sleep in them for the next five hours while
robin curled up on the floor and i squashed myself into
a smaller seat trying to sleep between shivers. there were
two stops for food but nothing was edible- it was all vietnamese.
we ended up choking down some ramen noodles with unnameable
parts of what i suppose were chickens. when we finally hit
the border at about 8 am they just pushed us out of the
bus with a grunt towards immigration. it was a mountainous,
foggy town smack in the middle of winter. we were so cold
by that time i thought we would freeze to death waiting
to get our stamps, but somehow we made it through. of course
the customs officials charged us to process our visas (it's
very much free) and there was nothing we could do. ack.
even robin was getting on my freaking nerves. we finally
made it to vientiene at about 4p. i was so cranky by that
time that i just paid the tuk tuk guy a dollar and told
him to take us wherever he thought was good. we did manage
to find an okay room for $10 and after a pizza and some
beer lao we passed out in front of asian mtv once again.
the scenery was gorgeous though. (from hoi an to vientiene
via lao xau). looming black mountains dotted with thick
forests and waterfalls, all overlooking the coast, huge
waves crashing into small inlets which turned into random
fishing villages with waterlogged houses. people walking
around half clothed and seeming lost. kids selling strange
food through the bus windows. we had to stop for geese,
wild boar, and an ancient, wise-looking ox of some sort
who scowled at us as he crossed slowly by. lao villages
are mountain towns with a hippy vibe. wooden airy shacks,
woven blankets, ponds and animals. families on bikes.
|
|
:12/26-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 bye hoi an |
off to laos via bus, which is at least a 24-hour ride across
vietnam and then up the coast of the mekong.
|
|
:12/25-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

"suksa vito ala pora percessa"
(phonetic)

 |
christmas in vietnam is not so christmas-y. it was just
another hung over day. robin & i haven't been hanging
out so much which is nice but we played some pool, sat in
a couple of cafes.....same same and not so different.
later on tonight though (when we had finished drinking
and dissapointedly just decided to pass out) we ran into
marcel and the finnish boys again and the party started
all over around 11:30. those boys can drink(!!!) ...we had
beer in the tam tam bar. moved to another bar and had more
beer and rum and cokes. it was full of drunk travellers
who had paid the management to stay up and keep the place
open while they stripped naked and swapped clothes and did
the limbo to disco music. a little too frat-party for us.
we decided to head to the riverfront for a little party
of our own. there we had more beer, white wine, they had
some snake wine, and we passed a couple of joints....yeah
more indulgence than i am used to but rad.
it was an ethereal boxing day night on the riverside.
we saw an eel swimming near us and this old fisherman with
no pants rowed over and snatched it out of the water and
brought it up to us to inspect. he pulled up the bottom
of his boat and added it to the supply of writhing fish
in the compartment beneath for his breakfast. we chatted
with him for a bit and he smoked one of robin's shaggies
which is always funny because they are so much stronger
than asian tobacco. robin and marcel were drunk and chatting
in dutch all night next to us so it was me and the 3 finnish
boys who stayed up- mika, heinrich and axel. mika is a little
quiet, bookish and has the most style of the 3. heinrich
has a fascination with rednecks and did impersonations all
night. axel is just weird and silly and cute. sigh... i
love them. i hope someday to run into them again. they made
our last night in vietnam exquisite. (robin says "bye
vogel").
we finally stumbled back to the hotel around 5 am with
promises to keep in touch. walking at night in asian towns
is amazing.
|
|
:12/24-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

 |
christmas eve. we woke up late of course and had our usual
cappuccino and played with the little vietnamese kid on
the porch of a place i have yet to learn the name of. went
and picked up our tailored clothes, which were somewhat
disappointing to me... they did not make them look like
the pictures i showed them in the least. also the pants
are SO tailored that i look super thin in them and feel
somewhat conspicuous. but still it's cool to wear something
designed exactly for my own body. i like my lace-up pants.
in the evening robin and i went to the tam tam restaurant/bar
and had a weird candlelit christmas steak dinner. it was
sort of festive- the waitresses were dressed in red with
santa hats and there were christmas songs playing. it all
seemed like a joke. we drank wine and had a couple of cordials
so we were drunk by about 8p. we took a walk by the river
and shouted "ya sin vui va" to the old ladies
on the boats (merry christmas). bought some hats from a
kid and his mom.
later we wandered around drinking at random bars and ended
up at the champa bar later with the same group of people
from last night. marcel from amsterdam has travelled extensively
since his first solo trip at 12 and is a cool record label
guy, and i am in love with every one of the five finnish
boys he hangs out with (guess i'll be paying finland a visit).
i have never met a group of such laid back people that i
liked so much so instantly. they just came from china via
the mongolian express train.
the danish boys were there also & passed out bottles
of champagne. their accompanying danish girls were lacking
in personality but they more than make up for it in looks.
scandinavia must be some sort of aesthetic heaven, the people
are absolutely perfect. (between the porcelain-skinned scandinavian
girls and the perfect-bodied asian girls here a gal like
me can feel pretty damn mediocre)...
anyway we drank until the bar kicked us out again and ended
up later in the evening drinking more (! some sort of almond
vodka) at a roadside stall with some vietnamese people,
more scandinavians, and a french guy. it's strange to be
the only american in a group- i have to answer a lot of
trade center questions. at about 4am we were invited to
go smoke up in the finnish boys' room but robin was passing
out so i went back to the hotel with him.
it was a merry christmas indeed.
|
|
:12/23-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

 |
hoi an's the center of custom tailoring in the country
so even though i could go get an entire new wardrobe made
for about $100 i had been trying to restrain my space-limited
greedy self. i gave in and found myself in a tailor shop
today getting measured for clothes, after i realized that
i have lost a few more pounds here and none of my pants
fit me any longer. i am wracked with guilt at the $40 it
will cost me, but i ordered 3 pairs of custom-made pants
and at the last minute one shirt to go with them. robin
also took in his favorite pair of pants to be copied so
i don't feel so alone in this. i have to say it's fun. they
let you look through big catalogs, pick out what you want,
choose the material from stacks of rolls, and then they
measure you and have it made for you within 24 hours. i
can also get shoes made which is tempting since i will need
them for trekking....eventually.
'x' wrote me
to tell me how many girls he is getting for $4 a night in
phnom penh. guess he's over being sick. phnom penh is sort
of a wasteland and the only westerners who stick around
there tend to be the pathetic ex-pat sex tourist types (the
ones we saw in corners of bars). good riddance i am thinking.
it is one thing to experiment with the sex scene in asia
and another whole can of beans to let it become a part of
you to the point where you lose a gal like me. :) i won't
bother to go into the moral implications or the dangers
to his health... they speak for themselves.
and yes, i am jealous, but it's really nothing new to me
either. stupid ex love. :(
ahem...tonight ended up being one of those amazing nights you
don't anticipate and thus are all the better. we have been
drinking at the champa bar for the past couple of nights
with the same people every night. there is a group of rather
pompous (rich kid) danish boys and impossibly beautiful
danish girls. there is another group of five super cool
boys from finland and their friend from amsterdam. there
is a group of guys from vancouver, and there are robin and
i. we all played pool and drank a ton (the danish kids paid
$9 for designer shots while the rest of us wisely stuck
to cheap local beer) until they finally kicked us out of
the bar at about 1 am. we didn't know where to go because
everything in vietnam closes early, so we ended up camping
out at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere (all
20 of us). we passed a couple of joints spiked with a wee
bit of smuggled opium, a few bottles of warm beer, and a
couple of the guys played guitar and sang for us all until
about 4am while the rats dodged in and out and people passed
slowly on bikes. robin and i stumbled back to the hotel.
there was a weird tv show on in our room, just still pictures
of nature (a waterfall scene, flowers, a mountaintop) with
soft music playing behind them, which was the perfect thing
to be entranced by when trashed like we were...ack. we also
watched some interesting claymation. it's really the only
time i have enjoyed vietnamese tv. it was a gorgeous night.
|
|
:12/22-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 new haven |
we had been staying in this awful pit of a hotel room (a
literal shithole if you took the smell into consideration)
just out of miserliness (it was only $8 a night between
the two of us), but this morning we decided to fuck it and
got up early to move to another hotel. we are now next door
in the thuy duong hotel and paying $10/night for a gorgeous
room. it has clean sheets and towels, a big window overlooking
the town, hot water, a/c, a fridge. and even better, about
an hour after we moved in they knocked on our door with
a brand new satellite tv. i figured if we are spending christmas
here i could afford to splurge the $5 a night for a good
place. robin and i were so happy that we didn't leave the
room for most of the day. i read an entire book (i am a
voracious reader)- 'damage done' by warren fellows, the
true story of a man imprisoned in the bangkok "hilton"
(a notorious prison) for a drug crime in thailand. it was
a good story but it made me very queasy to think i had crossed
the border with robin carrying weed in his pocket. also
it was yet another story of the unbridled cruelty innate
in people which sort of depresses me. human nature sort
of...sucks. anyway besides that we watched scooby doo in
vietnamese (hilarious) and an mtv special on bon jovi and
napped intermittently.
later on we went to this restaurant on the river called
cafe de amis owned by a mr. kim and very famous for it's
food. there is no menu, just a set meal at a fixed price
that changes daily. he is some kind of internationally renowned
chef but you wouldn't know it to look at the place. mr.
kim is smiley and has books and books of declarations of
love and devotion written to him by past customers which
he likes to pass around. there were a few different courses
to the meal- some sort of dumpling stuffed with sprouts
and shredded crab and topped with french onions, a squid
and vegetable stir fry, and fish steamed in banana leaves
with a delicious lemony dipping sauce and slices of papaya.
it was really, really good and only cost us about $5 each.
i would have gone solely for the creme brulee-ish dessert.
|
|
:12/21-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 |
we have decided to stick it out in hoi an through christmas,
and then make our way overland to laos, which sounds increasingly
divine, for new years. this is a peaceful little town and
everyone gets to know each other quickly so i won't be so
alienated in asia at this time. there are christmas trees
up and at night it's cool by the river, and with the lanterns
lit and top 40 christmas songs playing in the bars you can
almost believe it's really the holidays.
not much happened today, same same. the beach was windy
and the clouds were rolling in so we escaped back to the
city and had an early pizza dinner. while we were sitting
there we heard an engine stall and suddenly all the vietnamese
people were running out to the street. we followed them
to see what was going on and saw that there was a fairly
traumatic motorbike accident in the rain. this was something
inevitable that i fully expected to see in this country
but it was still kind of shocking to see the twisted, broken
body of an old lady laying under her bike. of course there
are really no emergency services or facilities here so after
about 10 minutes of standing around staring helplessly,
someone picked up the body, threw it over the back of a
motorbike, and raced off with it, presumably to a doctor.
'god' forbid i get hurt here.
later on in the evening robin and i played pool with yet
another english couple and got fairly drunk. we had called
it a night and were on our way back to our hotel when we
saw a guy we'd met in dalat in a nearby lantern shop, playing
his guitar for a group of people. we yelled his name and
they invited us to join them. the shop was owned by a very
friendly vietnamese family who sat in a circle with us and
a few other western people, showing us pictures of their
friends, telling us about their lantern business, and serving
us endless amounts of puffed rice chips, cigarettes, tea,
and more importantly, their local rice wine. the wine is
extremely potent and no sooner do you put down your glass
than it is refilled again. we couldn't escape before we
were trashed, but everyone in the group was fairly trashed
at that point. it was really interesting and i suppose "authentic"
to sit with the family, and i had a great time. i am really
starting to get used to and even like vietnamese people.
|
|
:12/20-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

 |
i was sick with stomach cramps and paranoia all day today
so didn't do much other than a quick tour of hoi an given
by my maniacal motorbike driving travelmate. we sat on the
beach for awhile later in the day. on vietnamese beaches
you are typically allowed no peace whatsoever. there are
hordes of people walking around trying to sell you pineapples,
massages/manicures, books, postcards, art, you name it.
as i mentioned before they are ruthless salespeople and
they get really damn annoying after awhile, but some australian
kids on the beach came up with the idea of having a competition.
they set up some makeshift goalposts and told the touts
that whoever could score a certain number of goals in a
futbol match would be completely bought out by their group.
the intent behind this was apparently to bring a little
fun into the lives of people who work very hard for little
pay in the hot sun all day. it was great to watch them running
on the beach in their flip flops and rice hats. they had
a great time. one of the ladies must have been 90 years
old but she was scoring goals left and right and having
a blast. in the end i think she won and the kids bought
the lot of pineapples from her and they all had a little
picnic.
at the bar later on i drank sprite and was bored with the
drunk pool playing western crowd. someone had brought their
baby to the bar and was letting it wander around in diapers.
it's funny the effect a baby has on travellers. they all
moon and purr and drool all over it but when it comes down
to it i don't think any of us have any desire for one of
our own- or ties at all for that matter. it's nice to be
among my people! bored as i might get with the travellers
around me at times, they sure beat the people in my real
life who have no understanding of my lack of inclination
to settle or be "normal".
|
|
:12/19-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 hoi an, vietnam
 |
robin escaped me today which was nice for a change. i wandered
around hoi an and have decided this must be the most beautiful
city in all of southeast asia. had a capuccino and muffin
and listened to good chill-out music on the front porch
of a cafe on a side street. street life here is fascinating-
from wrinkled old ladies in rice hats chewing betel nuts
and spitting through red teeth to men working like oxen
to pull overladen carts to barefoot dirty children selling
handicrafts to reticent artists who paint quiet masterpieces
to old men playing iron drums and smoking bamboo pipes....
vietnamese are very gruff, never smile, seem very untrusting
and untrustworthy. it's strange to watch their social interactions.
when i first came to vietnam i thought they were yelling
at me at times, but i have learned that their short barking
is just a way to get their point across. it's a bit disconcerting
still and i must say i am not so fond of vietnamese people.
it's an us vs. them mentality and like in so many parts
of the world a traveller is nothing more than a walking
dollar to them... though i have met one or two who were
great so of course i can't write off the entire population.
my favorite part of hoi an is that the trash trucks sing
as they roll through town- a tinny, scratchy music box sort
of song, so weird and so very asian. otherwise hoi an is
sleepy, protective of it's autonomous worth, and sort of
otherwordly feeling. i am intimidated by it, not sure what
to do with myself here. i took a walk to the covered japanese
footbridge, took some pictures, strolled through the market
and bought a silk bag and a tailored skirt, and finally
ended up at an internet cafe for a wee bit of sanity in
the ol day.
for the full moon tonight robin and i rode at 2am to the
beach with natasha (the english girl from nha trang) and
her irish friend sharon. the beach was deserted except for
the fisherman in their round bamboo basket boats floating
on the water lit up with lanterns. we smoked a couple of
joints and made strange conversation which made us avoid
each other the next day.
|
|
:12/18-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 |
oh horrid stagnation. some days i should just stay in bed.
last night was a two beers and i puke sort of night and
i had nightmares for hours, sweating and rolling all over
my platonic bedmate. woke up irrationally irritated at robin
and unmotivated to see the city i am in.
thus robin and i did a whole lot of nothing today. we had
a vietnamese banana split (weird mystery flavors in the
ice cream), played 8 games of pool all of which i won (not
sure where that lucky streak arose from), walked along the
riverside and had a vietnamese dinner (spring rolls, cao
lau which is some sort of pork noodle dish, and papaya juice
for me), and ended up at a bar later in the evening chatting
with the english girl we had met earlier in nha trang along
with another english couple we ran into who told tales of
drinking snake wine and seeing piles of dead dogs tied to
the back of vietnamese motos, presumably for lunch.
|
|
:12/17-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

street in hoi an, vietnam

hoi an market

hoi an ladies |
a day of total disorientation. every major city in vietnam
so far has been completely different so you don't know quite
what to expect. we caught a cab with two dutch men from
the train station in danang to hoi an a half hour away.
hoi an is a small seaside town that's like a cross between
new orleans, pictures i have seen of morocco, and the stereotypical
picture of asia you have in your head as a child. it's an
absolutely stunning city. the streets are very narrow and
convoluted (but with the same insane traffic) and the buildings
are old and low and dark (some chinese). everything is painted
and there is a definite ton of art.
robin and i wandered around the market, rode a motorbike
to the very airy and dry beach, ate some italian food guiltily
and ran back to the hotel room to escape the overwhelmingness.
our hotel is dirty and smelly but cheap and polite. than
binh, $4/ night. there is a tiger beer poster on the wall
which is my favorite.
oh, if anyone has been paying attention, 'x'
(still in cambodia) has typhoid (!!!), along with some kind
of parasite. holy crap i should have gotten shots.
|
|
:12/16-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 bye nha trang
 bye minh the postcard boy
 train compartment |
a nice rainy day and our last in nha trang. i don't want
to leave but i don't want to get stuck either. we hung around
in the hotel all day trying not to enjoy it too much so
we could leave easier. watched vietnamese soap operas if
that's any indication of what we put ourselves through.
said a weird goodbye to the hotel (the mother patted us
on the back, said "we love you", and gave us some
bananas for the train), caught a grief stricken minh for
a last minute goodbye on the way out to the train station,
and took the night train at 7:30 to hoi an.
the trains in vietnam are claustrophobic. you share a cabin
with three people. there is no dining car and the sheets
and bathroom (more appropriately "the pisser")
were dirty. robin and i had two vietnamese drug enforcement
officers in ours. they slept early. we had to be quiet.
but it was supposed to take 14 hours and it only took 12,
and we managed to get some sleep even though we were laying
on our bags, so it ended up swell.
|
|
:12/15-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

river en route to hot springs
 dirk and robin |
robin and i were supposed to meet up with dirk this morning
to go exploring on motorbikes but ended up sleeping too
late and missing him. we rented a motorbike anyway ($4)
and drove out to a hot springs resort. nha trang is really
gorgeous though you don't see it on a daily basis when you
stick to the traveller's spots. there is a huge white buddha
at the top of a hill overlooking the river, an ancient looking
cham tower (temple), and nice little fishing villages that
we passed through on the way. the hot springs were great!!!!
we started with a bath in weird slimy mineral mud, which
we then allowed to dry as we sat in the sun, and then washed
off in a hot springs pool. my skin was very silky and it
was incredibly relaxing. we met an english girl named natasha
and ended up hanging out with her all day. at about 3pm
it rained and we sat in a hot pool under a natural hot waterfall
while the cold rain dripped on us from above and created
steam. gorgeous. we were throughly relaxed (especially since
we had woken up hung over) and very zen. we returned to
the hotel and took showers and dirk knocked on our door.
he had been waiting for us off and on all day, and sadly
had to leave in a hour to catch his train to saigon. we
took him to crazy kim's and bought him a tiger beer to send
him off. someday after i die i expect to find 'heaven' to
be a traveller's ghetto in the sky where i can see again
all the amazing people i have met on the road but never
was able to spend as much time with as i would like. occasionally
you meet someone you click with really well but it doesn't
go anywhere due to different schedules. ah well.
i called 'x'
again this morning in cambodia (another $30!) and it turns
out he is even worse off now, though he did find a good
english doctor at long last. i am giving him another day
or two to get better and if he doesn't i am going to fly
to phnom penh to help him. biting my nails...
|
|
:12:14-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 robin and dirk
 lunch
 bamboo basket boat |
today was absolutely divine. mama hahn's picked us up at
the hotel at 9 am. we had our first beer on the boat at
about 10:30. we toured from island to island all day, listening
to hippie music, hanging out in our bikinis and stopping
to snorkel and swim and play volleyball and boat around
in bamboo baskets. it was gorgeous weather, gorgeous islands...
they fed us a great lunch on the boat and there was a floating
bar with an amusing vietnamese bartender who sang 'old mcdonald
had a farm' and kept threatening to leave us on the island
to have our own robinson crusoe experience.
our group wasn't too big so by the end of the day we all
knew each other. there was a very friendly couple in their
early fifties from belgium- the man was jolly and funny
and the woman and i had a nice mother-daughter chat. there
was a really cute english guy (having none of my seductions
for some reason :( durnit), a group of guys from switzerland
(swiss accents are the goofiest), a feisty korean girl who
sang for us at the floating bar and a vietnamese chap from
new zealand who made me his playmate and was constantly
trying to throw me into the water or drag me out to see
fish and coral with him. at one stop an australian girl
with cute friends from another boat randomly asked me if
i wanted to take a walk with her so we explored the island
together and saw a bit o wildlife (a skink and a weird butterfly).
the vietnamese guy kept making jokes about marijuana but
none was to be had (none needed).
robin instantly clicked with an odd jean claude van damme
lookalike (love the arms, man) named 'dirk' from south africa
and we sort of became the notorious threesome on the boat
after that. by the end of the day we were wet, sunburned,
and drunk. but this being a hardcore day of fun dirk still
came back to the hotel with us and smoked a joint, and after
a quick nap we all went out yet again. we were drinking
and dancing and playing pool at the sailing club on the
beach and most of the people from our boat showed up. we
made fun of the swiss guys and the vietnamese girls (for
sale at the bar)....and by the end of the night (after about
12 hours of nonstop partying) we were completely wasted
and fell into our respective beds, satisfied.
|
|
:12/13-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 breakfast
 christmas? |
friday the 13th. mama hahn's was cancelled due to inclement
weather. still in nha trang which is nice.... robin and
i have been travelling fairly quickly and recklessly so
it is wonderful to just chill out in a place like this for
awhile. we have a little routine down. breakfast at cafe
de amis (baguettes with peanut butter, boiled eggs, fresh
coffee, and a happy little kitten to attack our feet and
wake us up). check email, play pool, hang out on the beach.
we found a good mexican restaurant, a great italian pizza
place (what spoiled backpackers we are not to eat vietnamese
food, but once you've had rice and vegetables you have had
it all i think), and 3 neighborhood bars which we juggle
nightly. today i spent some time alone in my room, catching
up on my site, listening to my music, reading, centering
myself a bit and worrying over my dwindling money supply(!).
met up with robin later and walked out to a pier, where
we had drinks while the surf crashed beneath us. quite gorgeous.
tonight at all the bars and hotels people started putting
up their christmas trees which is sort of amusing given
the tropical atmosphere, and the street hawkers suddenly
appeared with supplies of santa hats and squeaky christmas
toys. minh asked me to buy him one but the kid is already
getting spoiled, with the ice cream and coca colas robin
and i buy him every day. :) i bought some chewing gum from
his mother instead, which made them very happy. we ended
up at the why not? bar tonight and i talked to a brilliant
vietnamese girl named vy for a couple hours. she was way
more educated than anyone else i met here and was really
interesting. she had been working at the bar for a week,
after the government closed down the last bar she worked
at and put 40 people out on the street, jobless. she was
a very nice girl who really deserved a chance in life but
considered herself "unlucky". sadly, we found
out later that she was fired by her boss after we left tonight
for being too chummy with the customers.
|
|
:12/12--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 don't even ask
 beach at nha trang |
the sky was gray and the surf was rough today (still in
nha trang, vietnam) so it's another day of relaxing in cafes
and such which is fine with me. i love not having to make
decisions other than where to chill out next and how to
get there. robin and i have reached a happy medium.... this
week at least. :) i HATE his music (he is a heavy metal
guy though you would never know it to look at him) and he
hates mine too, but other than that and the fact that he
calls me "pumpkin" (he heard it was an affectionate
term in america, ack)... it's all good. we meet other people,
we retain our own identities despite the sometimes 24-7
contact, we can hang out and be quiet together which is
a good thing. he's a good guy. (there you go robin, that'll
be $5).
i miss some things about home. movies. books. art. style.
hot water. choice of nightlife. conveniences. in america
you have a different store for anything you could possibly
want to buy. here you are stuck with whatever the street
hawkers or the roadside huts have on hand. i miss good food
tremendously (got to avoid meat in vietnam especially as
they seem to eat anything that moves here) but nha trang
is better than most places and i have had some good pizza,
pasta, even red wine since i got here. there is nothing
like a third world country to put you in your place. why
i ever paid $2600 for a loft in new york i do not know!
i would blow through $2-400 every weekend for chrissakes.
what horrible arrogance. waste. irresponsibility. america
is a spoiled country and it's no wonder other countries
hate it (they do). it's all about excess. though i do admit
it's fun. :) anyway it's important to get the other perspective
i think in order to understand the world.
one thing though i will also say is that america is not
a free country. there are rules for every little teeny thing
you do in the states. it's ridiculous. the cops are overcautious
babysitters on power trips. the laws cover such trivial
contingincies... it's easy to make a mistake in the US and
trip onto the wrong side of the law. in asia it seems to
be based more on the honor system. it's fairly logical.
you have a problem you go to the police. but they don't
wait around every corner for you to trip up. there's not
paperwork for every stupid thing, you are not tracked like
laboratory animals. if you want to walk down the street
naked (as one mental patient here in nha trang enjoys doing)
you won't get a freaking ticket, maybe just a raised eyebrow
or two. if you want to hang over the edge of a cliff to
look at a waterfall, good luck to you, it's natural selection
here. no guardrails or posted danger signs. there aren't
even lifejackets on boats... and don't get me started on
health regulations. true, sometimes those things are beneficial,
& there's not much in the way of democracy here and
what there is in the way of law enforcement is corrupt,
but considering the circumstances of our current president's
"election", do we really have as much effect on
our government as we think we do either? do all those rules
makes us happier and safer or do they oppress us? all i
know is that poor and unruly as people are over here (and
poor in america can't hold a candle to poor in asia) they
are still happy, friendly, and manage to live without getting
all up in everyone's business, unlike my own country. i
don't really know what i am getting at and these opinions
haven't been fully formed so ....enough said.
tomorrow we have booked tickets on mama hahn's boat tour...
off to the islands to smoke pot and party on a boat all
day with a crazy old vietnamese woman (she's somewhat infamous
for these tours). until next time folks, goodnight and good
luck.
|
|
:12/11--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 painting at cafe des amis, nha trang |
i still hadn't heard from 'x'
yet and i was making myself sick with visions of him alone
on his death bed, so i spend 30 dollars (!) this morning
on a 10-minute call to his hotel in phnom penh (which i
FINALLY tracked down). poor kid has been at the mercy of
cambodian medical practitioners (a complete joke) and really
has been very sick with a consistent 103 degree fever. he
could barely make it to the phone but at least he is alive.
i am very relieved and damnit can't help but love that boy
to pieces. but the whole deal makes me feel a little apprehensive
about not having any medical insurance! i am still sick
as well but thus far have been able to keep anything too
serious at bay. we'll see how long that lasts.
robin and i relaxed today, got massages, i went and had
my hair done (it's somewhat purple) at a salon for $10 which
is spoiled and girly but was fun. we went to happy hour
at the why not? bar and played pool and drank free tiger
beer. ended up at crazy kim's bar later on. met some travellers,
had a nice chat, the usual.
people are very poor here which is not immediately noticeable
since they all seem to be doing their own thing, as opposed
to cambodia where they lay around on the street and look
poor. my little friend min was working when i woke up this
morning and he wandered into the bar tonight at about 11
still trying to hawk his postcard packs for $1.25. i gave
him $3.50 so he could relax, which he received wide-eyed
and ran out to hand to his mama. he hung out with us for
awhile playing pool and teaching us secret handshakes. he
has been wearing the same clothes for 3 days. he's a skinny
little guy and i feel bad for him, but he is just one of
many people desperately trying to sell one thing or another
at all hours of the day. what can you do.
|
|
:12/10--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 too many pics of robin methinks |
finally someplace i can sink my teeth into
in vietnam. i really like nha trang a lot. it's a touristy
beach town (not so much of cultural interest) but still laid
back, lots of good bars and cafes and of course the beach
and all it offers. it rains every night (vietnam's rainy season
just started) but during the day is nice and warm if a bit
cloudy. our hotel is the blue star hotel, $3 each a night.
we found weed right away (not mandatory to a good time but
it helps, moto drivers need to supplement their income so
we're doing a good deed as well) and we're near a great bar
called crazy kim's, proceeds of which are donated to anti-pedophilia
campaigns and with cute pigtailed waitresses with attitudes.
the people here get a 6 on the friendly scale which is good
for vietnam thus far. the moto drivers are just as fiendish
as ever though, & the number one rule of street hawking
in this country is to never take no for an answer, which is
annoying. i acquired two new friends immediately- one a little
kid named min who sells packets of postcards on the street
and speaks amazingly good english. he seems to follow me everywhere
and insists that i be his "girlfriend". there is
also a scraggly calico kitten across the street who attacks
me goodnaturedly every time i walk by. i am getting very good
at pool... robin and i can play for a dollar an hour next
door and occasionally i get lucky and kick his ass. we went
out drinking tonight (back on the perpetual drinking binge
that you tend to fall into as a traveller) and shared a square
pizza with french fries on top(???) at midnight. i secretly
worried about 'x'
all night long.
|
|
:12/9--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 |
bus to nha trang. uneventful other than
a bit of motion sickness while we careened around the mountain
curves. the number one rule of driving in vietnam seems to
be to honk your horn as loud as possible every 20 seconds.
there doesn't seem to be much logic to it other than to thoroughly
annoy and deafen your passengers.
|
|
:12/8--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 yippee cay ay |
woke up feeling like shit this morning but we had made
plans to go to the "valley of love" and go horseback
riding with the vietnamese cowboys so off we went, shivering
on our motorbike the whole way. (robin drives like a madman
which doesn't help). the valley of love was talked up a
bit more in the lonely planet than it should have been...
it was a mediocre muddy lake next to a burnt out forest
with a few kitschy statues and a small flower garden. we
were hit up by the "cowboys" right away (wearing
galoshes instead of cowboy boots), and we hired a pair of
horses to ride around the lake. they led us about a half
mile along the edge, then made us get off the horses, take
pictures, and then pointed to the path and said "go".
um. okay. we walked around in the forest next to the lake
for awhile in the sun, not saying much and feeling sort
of stupid. we did find a very weird spider chomping on a
fly in it's web, it looked like a butterfly with spider
legs. but that was the extent of the adventure. we walked
back and the cowboys propped us back onto the horses and
led us back to where we came from.
i was prepared to go pass out at the hotel again while
robin went to search for a waterfall, but i got sidetracked
by an internet cafe where i learned that 'x'
is horrifically sick with some 103 degree tropical fever
in cambodia (he even gave me his pin number so i can have
his money if he dies), and my baby sister is pregnant. thus
i went to bed with niggling worries to dream about (on top
of recent dreams of being back in nyc and having to find
a job- the horror!) and it was a restless night.
tomorrow: bus to nha trang, a beach town with... could
it be? nightlife! i have found that 3 days is sufficient
for most places. glad to be leaving.
|
|
:12/7--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 "crazy house"
 room in crazy house |
dalat (the paris of the east) is rather gorgeous. our hotel
(phuong hanh, $6/nt.) is an old french building set at the
top of a hill overlooking the city. it has big shuttered
windows which open onto a balcony, hot water, and even a
tv, although all 4 of the channels are in vietnamese (have
these people not heard of sitcoms? vietnamese tv has to
be the cheesiest sappiest crap i have ever seen! lots of
choirs singing on mountaintops and the like). there are
musical birdies to wake me up on my windowsill in the morning,
and bats fluttering about at night. the city is full of
lakes, forests, waterfalls, markets... pretty nice although
none of the cafes serve food! just drinks... also there
is no nightlife whatsoever beyond an occasional karoake
joint- typical of vietnam thus far. cheesiness abounds in
that arena as well.
robin and i (both sick and sort of halfheartedly) rented
a motorbike and headed out to a place that the locals call
the "crazy house". this old hippie artist woman
made a guesthouse which looks like it's straight out of
alice and wonderland. it's absolutely cool. lots of nooks
and crannies, each room has a theme (you can have tea in
a giraffe's belly or build a fire in the belly of a bear
in your odd-shaped cavern of a room). they weren't unfortunately
being rented out but it gave me ideas for my own guesthouse
which i intend to start someday, somewhere.
we drove round the market for awhile while people stared
at us like we were aliens and we eventually sat and had
some marvelous pho with a group of vietnamese people who
kept stealing robin's cigarettes. i then escaped robin (this
is becoming more and more necessary though it's not his
fault) and passed out in the hotel for the rest of the evening
with a fever and swollen glands.
|
|
:12/6--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 dalat from my balcony |
we set out this morning on our way to pham
rang, which is a one-horse waystation town from which we were
supposed to catch a bus north to dalat. we had intended to
spend the night there and proceed the next morning, but we
were the only tourists going to dalat, so the bus driver dropped
us at the side of the highway in pham rang next to a group
of the most fiendish moto drivers and touts we have encountered
thus far. no one would take us to a hotel, no one spoke a
lick of english (and i can say "no" and "thank
you" which is the extent of my vietnamese), they were
all yelling in our face and trying to get us to pay such and
such for such and such, we had no idea where we were or where
to go... argh. robin is not so good at dealing with people
under stress (ie. he stands there staring stupidly at me :)
) so i finally decided we would take a minibus that was nearby
and just head the rest of the way to dalat. simple enough.
they made room for us, we paid the requisite double amount
that the locals pay, and off we went.... we thought. a minibus
is the same thing as a minivan, and maximum occupancy SHOULD
be about 9 people. our bus kept stopping every 3 feet and
picking up more people (more money), until we had 25 in total
crammed in. there was a little old lady laying on top of robin,
about 5 vietnamese men breathing down our necks, and we had
to put our feet on top of our bags so that our knees were
up next to our ears the entire way. the ride should have taken
2 hours, but in typical asian fashion it ended up being 4.
we arrived in dalat furious, exhausted, cold (it's a mountain
town), and beginning to be rather sick. the bus drivers refused
to take us to a hotel once there (demanding more money on
top of what they had extraneously charged already... ASSHOLE,
do you understand that one mr. vietnamese man?) so we ended
up hoofing it until we found a decent place to sleep and somewhere
to get a hot drink. and so it goes.
|
|
:12/5--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 "fairy stream" leading to waterfall |
better mood/energy all around today but
we have still decided to leave mui ne tomorrow and head further
north to somewhere with more action and charm. we decided
around 4p to head towards the sand dunes (for which mui ne
is famous) and a waterfall. our moto drivers dropped us off
at the end of the "fairy stream" and explained to
us that we needed to walk up it for 2 km to reach the waterfall.
it was gorgeous and weird. the mud was soft and deep, quicksand
in some places, and there were big crabs swimming around in
it. along one edge were huge red clay dunes and on the other
was a palm tree forest of sorts and little grass huts. we
walked along quietly, happy to be doing something new.
|
|
:12/4--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 robin mooning me at guesthouse |
bored. i know that if a person is bored then they are probably
a boring person so i feel slightly bad but i just can't
get into vietnam. it's not the laid back place seeming with
culture and excitement that i am looking for. though it
beats working in new york for now. we rented bikes this
morning from the internet cafe down the road and tried to
ride into the main town 13 km away. vietnamese bikes are
really cute but they suck to ride (especially in a sarong)...
there are no gears and you have to pedal twice as fast as
normal to get anywhere. stupidly we decided to make this
trip at the height of the hot day, so we didn't get very
far. we crashed at a small little roadside cafe and guzzled
water and watched the pet monkeys, cats, dogs, chickens,
and pigs frolic on the lawn while the vietnamese people
gave us unfriendly stares. we gave up and went back to the
hotel to play pool and hang out in hammocks for the rest
of the afternoon. i bought a book from the legless war veteran
across the street. we started drinking in our room around
7p, playing cards and listening to music, and by 10p we
were a little tipsy & we decided not to go out.
tonight in holland is sinter klaas. similar to christmas
(which they celebrate like we do in the US) but much sillier.
sinter klaas dresses just like santa claus but he comes
in a boat from spain (???) and leaves presents in the shoes
of good little children. instead of the chimney he comes
through the window. people leave carrots out for him and
they sing a cute little dutch song to him before going to
sleep. robin and i were disappointed to find only sand and
bugs in our shoes upon awaking. maybe i am a bad child.
|
|
:12/3--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 mui ne, vietnam |
i feel guilty for having left saigon so
quickly but i think both robin and i were too moody to deal
with it right now. the bus to mui ne was quite comfortable
and i listened to robin speak dutch with a couple next to
us most of the way (i am getting to the point where i understand
a lot of it). mui ne is a gorgeous little beach town a couple
of hours north of saigon but not really what i expected- it's
more of a package tourist resort with very expensive accomodations
and few backpackers. we picked the cheapest place to stay
out of the lonely planet and probably should have known better
than to do so. we got a small room with one bed (weird) for
$9, with a shared outhouse at the small garden guesthouse.
the bungalows were $20+ though and we just couldn't justify
it. we settled in and had a chat with the owner, who is swiss
with a vietnamese girlfriend. what a drunk! he couldn't get
a complete sentence out. also he gave some other people a
discount on a bungalow since they were swiss. argh. we walked
down to the beach which is gorgeous at night. the water is
very choppy and this area is perpetually windy so there are
a lot of windsurfers here. afterwards we went and had great
bbq and drinks at a little place across the road. they had
great music and kept giving us free shots so we felt better
and slept well.
|
|
:12/2--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 saigon at night
 snake wine/cobra tonic |
another mediocre day in saigon. robin and i got lost in
the hot midday, walking from one street to the identical
next looking for something interesting to do. we failed.
we bought a ticket to go to mui ne on the coast tomorrow
morning, so maybe a little beach life will lighten me up
a bit. i don't know if it's the fact that i am in a city
or if i am just due for some sort of breakdown but i am
feeling somewhat apathetic and cranky all around. i almost
told robin that it was time for me to move on and travel
alone but then i realized i'd have a lot more time to dwell
on certain things (ie. 'x'),
so together we go alas.... on another note, i have no idea
how much i am spending here. vietnamese money is the dong
and $1 = 15,346 dong. i am so confused that i end up just
throwing all my money on the counter and hoping i get the
correct amount of change back! between that and my lack
of vietnamese language skills this can be a frustrating
place to be.
i did meet a couple of guys later on in the evening who
were appalled that we weren't so keen on saigon. perhaps
they were more opportunistic than we are, or in the right
place at the right time? they had drunk snake blood, driven
their cyclo drivers around at rush hour, and had some eastern
medicine practiced on them which entailed being naked right
on the street with dozens of suction cups attached to their
backs to leech out bad energy. hmmm. it's all relative...
i suppose in the right circumstances this is a great city
to be in.
we went out drinking tonight to a place that probably would
have been very lively if it weren't monday night, and afterwards
to a little hole-in-the-wall girl bar. i have to admit i
like hanging out in the prostitute bars. it's so much more
drama than anywhere else. we watched a hilarious drew carey
lookalike from britain pick up a gal along with his friend
who apparently was married with 6 kids. played some pool,
got drunk, had some pho (vietnamese noodle soup) from a
streetside vendor, and passed out in our room.
|
|
:12/1--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

 cheap/amazing art reproductions |
saigon is a way station if there ever was
one. it's modern and hipper than the parts of asia i have
been in most recently but it's lacking the quaintness and
culture. i don't dislike it necessarily but it's boring and
too similar to the west for me. i can't wait to get back to
a smaller hippie town and relax. today just had a weird negative
energy about it all around. robin picked up a little vietnamese
gal at the bar last night and never came back to the hotel,
so i woke up at least a hundred times all night long wondering
if he had been drugged and robbed and left for dead somewhere
(silly). i spent the morning wandering around an area of about
8 blocks square- the traveller's ghetto (pham ngu lao). anything
beyond that is absolutely terrifying... the traffic in saigon
is mad! mad i say! instead of cars like in the US it is all
cyclos & motorbikes and there do not appear to be any
traffic laws... you have to hold your breath and hope you
make it across a street alive with a wall of speeding motorcycles
headed right for you. i checked my email to find another very
cold letter from 'x',
had a breakfast of raw eggs and grainy coffee, and gave up
trying to elevate my mood and walked back to the hotel to
pass out. robin was back so we smoked some pot and decided
to go bowling (it was that or another museum). little did
we know that the bowling alley was all the way across the
city and was $4.50 a game per person... ack. and we had to
buy socks! it was a short-lived afternoon at the saigon superbowl.
later we tried to eat a weird concoction of grease dotted
with specs of chicken and potatoes, and failing that got entirely
too drunk. we ended up at an all-vietnamese dance club, feeling
very underdressed and conspicuous. 2 coronas (forced on us
by the corona spokesmodel herself) were $5 each, but we were
waited on by no less than 6 people who anticipated our every
need and treated us like royalty (weird). robin attracts every
gay guy/ladyboy within a 10-mile radius which i find hilarious.
we have to tell people we are together but then when one or
the other of us meets someone we like that can be a problem.
it's a strange dynamic between us all around.
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