Cambodia & Bangkok, Thailand

Well I finally met up with my old roomate Nick in Siem Riep, and immediately we started having a great time. We spent a full day touring Angkor Wat (<-the 7th wonder of the world), Angkor Thom, and Ta Throm and hired a tour guide & tuk-tuk to drive us around all day. It was awesome, but its like 105 degrees and by the end we were so sick of ruins and just wanted to go to a pool or something.. Also, our tour guide, Chun, told us he would take us to the floating villages and then take us to his own house in a village and introduce us to his family and get drunk, etc. the next day if we wanted. Soooo we said what the hell and decided to do it...and man was it epic.

Started off by hopping on the back of him and his friends motorcycles, and we rode for about an hour through a ton of villages, and ended up at the edge of a lake. Hopped on a boat and saw floating houses, which was really cool and ill have to upload pictures, but then the real fun began when we went back to Chun's house. Met his family, then went to his friends house where we sat in hammocks and watched the family cook us lunch. They had chickens and pigs just running around the backyard, and they just grabbed a chicken, slit its neck open, drained the blood, plucked its feathers, and then chopped up EVERY part of the bird and put it in a bowl and cooked it... When we were eating the chicken we found the balls, the brain, the beak, the feet, etc. etc. and our guide Chun would just crunch right through every part.. We were trying to be culturally respectful and all that but as soon as Chun started eating & crunching through the beak Nick and I lost it and could not stop laughing.. Also they were serving us "Black Panther" beer which is 8.4% alcohol volume per can (American beer is what like 3-4% ?) so we just got absolutely tanked. And then they brought out rice wine which tasted like straight vodka and they were all getting sloshed with us...We learned how to count in Cambodian and they gave us Cambodian names and then shit started getting weird. They lifted up my shirt and told me they loved my chest hair and then grabbed my nose and told me they wanted it, and pointed to our white skin and told us they wanted to skin us, etc. etc. It was all in good fun and we were all having a drunken good time, but at the same time we were wondering how we would get back into town (our tour guide & friend were falling over drunk) and made sure we had our wallets close by. We ended up just trusting them, as they told us they drink 8am to 8pm and are always drunk and great drunk drivers... We really had no other option so we hopped on and although it was really stupid and dangerous, riding on the back of a motorcycle drunk through the villages of Cambodia with no helmet and feeling all the wind and smelling the countryside was absolutely amazing. My face hurt after as I smiled and laughed for a straight hour on the way back into town. I couldn't have been happier. We have a ton of funny pictures but you have to go to the villages and have the true experience to really appreciate it.

After another fun night out at "pub street" in siem riep, cambodia, we woke up and took a 7 hr bus to Bangkok, which is where we are now. At the border, we saw families hopping from Cambodia into Thailand, but they do it right where the border crossing is! At least in the California-Mexico border the mexicans go far away into the desert. It was sad actually to see the crying babies and kids crawling through this hole in a fence in the dirt. Anyways, Bangkok is a big, modern city, and we are staying on Khao San Road which is a backpacker ghetto. The street is packed all day and all night with people and theres cheap shops and bars and its such a good time! Bangkok is everything I expected..loud, dirty, fun, HOT (like we get sick from the heat every day) and a good time but ready to get out. However we hate the damn tuk-tuk drivers... They all have tricked out tuk-tuks (3 wheeled motorcycles) with loud mufflers and they speed and drive like maniacs.. I get carsick and we are scared for our lives every single time we take one. Its the weirdest thing though, they will drive you around all day showing us the famous temples and stuff for a really cheap price (like $1), but we have to get off in suit shops (like a place to buy a man's suit) and pretend to be interested in buying a suit or tie like once every hour.. At first we just went with the flow, but by the time we had walked into the sixth suit shop we were just laughing and so confused. We told the driver a million times we weren't gonna buy a suit, but he insisted we went inside and humored the employees. We finally found out from a brazilian chick that the suit shops will give the tuk-tuk driver money for gas if he brings westerners there...even if they dont buy anything. We must have gone into 8 shops within a 4 hr period... I never want to see a suit again.. Ahhh Bangkok, its such a interesting place.

Oh and another thing, we went to the actual Thai government agency for travel and tourism to book a 3 day trip up north in the Thai jungle and to get there we will be taking an overnight train. However, the lady told us the train was fully booked, so she had to call the Mafia! She told us the Mafia buys every single seat on the train, then resells it for a higher price! We could not believe it, the government relies on and works with the mafia to get things done and its no big deal at all.. She was like "yep, everyone here is corrupt.. Kind of like Mexico". Man that was a big reality check. So we did get our ticket, and we paid the mafia price. So tmrw night we take an overnight train up north to Chiang Mai where we will then leave on a tour group for a 3 day, 2 night trip through the jungle. We are going white water rafting, riding elephants, visiting more villages, sleeping in bungalows, and hiking to waterfalls. We're pretty excited, but pissed off we got overcharged (due to mafia train prices and legit government trips as opposed to these dodgy street guys selling trips with their jenky companies.) Anyways, Thailand has been great so far (although much more expensive than Vietnam & Cambodia..) and we are looking forward to our jungle adventure..then from there its all beaches then Australia!

Photos of Cambodia & Thailand so far:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2150739&id=10808601&l=8029e1804b

Photos from Vietnam:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2150325&id=10808601&l=78dce1b109

Cheers!

The $3 diesel jacket & bye to Vietnam

Well shit really hit the fan.. As I mentioned, I only had $80 to last me 5 days or something like that. Nha Trang is a beach/party city, and i met these aussies and immediately started drinking. We drank all day and bodysurfed the waves of the Indochina sea, then at night we went to Why Not bar and somehow wound up in a penthouse suite of some Danish couple where they had great views of the city and a lot of Danish people were there as well. The clubs here are hilarious, because the sign on the DJ booth says "We play every song".. and then you look behind the booth and yes, they DO play any and every song because they hook a laptop up to the sound system and play songs from YouTube! We could not stop laughing! The next day in Nha trang we did a snorkel and boat trip, which also included a lot more drinking, and then we went back to Why Not bar again the next night..

SO, that is where I start having problems.. I took a bus from Nha Trang to Mu Nei, an isolated village, and on the way the bus stopped to get lunch, and when the time came to pay the bill i realized i only had about $3 USD and the bill came out to $5.. so i put down what i had and bailed when the server wasnt looking and went back into the hot bus and hid until we left..sat in the damn bus sweating my ass off for a good 40 minutes. Once i arrived in Mu Nei, which was an easy 105 degrees and 100% humidity, I figured I would go to a western union wire transfer and get $.. this place is a village and there is no western union, and the closest city (13 miles away) had one but it was closed as it was sunday!

So I sold Falco's Diesel jacket (he was just gonna leave it so i decided i would bring it in case i would run out of cash and needed to sell something... oh and he left me in nha trang so im all alone at this point in the story..). I figure this Diesel jacket costs, ohhh,. $200? So i tried to sell it to a motorbike guy for $60..as this place is damn hot every day of the year and the only people who use/have a jacket are the motobike guys. (its january and 105!) He laughed, and the best offer I got was a whopping $3.. Sorry Falco, but I sold your jacket for $3 to a motorbike dude in Mu Nei.. I went to a ton of cheap motels, but no one would give me squat for $3. Except this one place called Nhat Thi. For $3 they gave me a bed...Outside...Right next to where the grandparents of the family sleep.. Shit. It was the best they had, so I said yes. It was about 3pm, so i jumped in the ocean for a while and then came back and they were cooking dinner about 7pm. This one french guy was cooking for the family, and his deal is that he teaches the family english and cooks and in return they give him a place to stay and immerse him in the vietnamese culture. Thankfully, he invited me to eat for free with them..again i had no cash and no card so was just not gonna eat.

I end up meeting the whole family (9 of them in total, including a 6 month old, 5 yr old, 10 yr old, four mid-30 yr olds, and the grandparents.. plus the french guy who is 56 and really hippy-ish). I played soccer with the 10 yr old and helped set the table and clean up and helped teach english as well. They introduced me to "their" dogs..which were actually 4 street dogs that always hang by their place. It turned out to be a really cool situation, and later in the night we all drank beer and they brought out like 6 hot crabs and dried squid to eat. I woke up a million times from barking dogs, snoring grandparents, honking motorbikes, mosquitos biting me, and the roosters at sunrise cock-a-doodle-doo-ing. In the end they didnt even want the $3, and even offered me money. I couldn't accept it though, as they make on average $3-7 a day. I went to the beach and swam more, and watched all the kite surfers, then caught a bus at 1pm which i had already paid for back in Hanoi. What started out as a really crap situation ended up being one of the highlights of my trip thus far. Its really cool to see random people help you out when things go wrong, especially considering the fact that im an American and Im sure the grandparents remember the Vietnam war very vividly. Mu Nei is in southern vietnam and very close to lots of battle sites.

Anyways, arrived via bus in Saigon and found a western union and got money! Did a day trip to all the major sites in Saigon, and then today I went to the Cu Chi tunnels, which include 200km of underground tunnels where the vietcong lived, and were hidden from U.S. troops. Parts of the tunnel goes within a football field of a US base! It was pretty cool, and really interesting to hear the tour guide talk about how everything changed overnight in 1995 when they opened vietnam up to westerners and trading, etc. Prior to '95, the vietnamese would get coupons and go to a place and be given food for the month based on how many family members you have. Their was no currency, and no ATMs. Today, Saigon is a big bustling city. There's skyscrapers and bright lights and designer shops (Gucci, Prada, etc.) however their is still cheap street vendors selling food and all the usual things found in vietnamese towns. To be honest i think i like Hanoi more..? Saigon is just really modern and not as big as a culture shock as Hanoi was. Oh and last night was cool as well. Met a british guy and we got drinks at a bar at a district with a lot of nightlife. We were sitting on the outside patio and could totally picture U.S. soldiers doing the same back during the war.

Tomorrow I take a 12 hr bus ride to Siem Riep, Cambodia (i leave at 7am, arrive at 9pm.. blah) and then the next day I meet up with Nick. Vietnam has been quite a trip, and to be honest I'm not ready to leave.. I have just been having such awesome and interesting experiences on a daily basis, and meeting so many great people. I hope the rest of my trip continues with the way its been going so far (minus the whole lost credit card and no money part hah).

Tam biet (goodbye) Vietnam, and hello Cambodia!

Heading South!

First of all I am always so busy that its hard to update this thing! But ya, so from Hanoi, I took an overnight bus with beds down to Hue, which is central vietnam. The bus left at 6pm from Hanoi and arrived in Hue at 9am the next day... rough night of sleep, but I was with my German friend Falco, who is absolutely hilarious. This guy is a cook, and he owns his own business where he drives one of those roach coach trucks and caters during movie shoots all around Germany. However, he would never eat his own food, and he eats out for every single meal! He is here in Vietnam for 5 weeks, and the main reason he came was for this one island (Phu Quac) in south Vietnam.

Anyways, Hue was like the IndoChina capital back in the day, and there is a huge citadel closed in with big walls... Then within that citadel is another citadel, called the Imperial Palace, which is where the king ruled from. I took a day tour set up by the hostel, where we learned about the history of the city, saw the citadel, saw the imperial palace, went to some famous pagoda and saw monks singing and praying, and then took a ride on a giant dragon boat through the river in Hue. Also, I met these two nice british girls my age from London, and they told me they hired a guide and were gonna ride motorcycles from Hue to Hoi An. Me and my german friend Falco had already planned on doing that, but now we could tag along with the british girls AND have a guide so we wont get lost! A win-win if you ask me! a 6 hour motorcycle along the vietnamese coast and then up into the mountains for $27 with Falco, Mr. T, and the brits...sounds outstanding to me.

So then on Tuesday, our motorcycles arrived at the Hostel, however it was pouring rain... But we all said screw it we'll go anyways, as we had already paid. "Mr. T" was the name of our guide, and he was this skinny chain smoking vietnamese dude who also seemed like he was always drunk. But really was useful to make sure we didnt get lost. So me, Falco, the two british girls, and Mr. T rode motorcycles along the Vietnam coast for 3.5 hrs from Hue to Danang through the POURING rain, but man was it fucking awesome. We saw goats and cows and HUGE oxen crossing the road. We passed through tons of villages and all the little kids would wave and stuff. Feeling the rain on my face and hauling ass on a motorcycle along the ocean of Vietnam..can't top that. Then after stopping in Danang, the rain cleared up and we headed into the Marble mountains, which was really green and misty, and the air was really fresh. We stopped at an american bunker from the vietnam war, and I took pictures while this vietnamese lady kept trying to get me to marry her... "You from America? Look America Bunker! You not marred! Me no marry. You marry me? You my friend. You handsome. You my friend" hahaha it was funny but kinda sad too. Anyways, from the tops of the mountains we motorcycled another 3.5 hrs down into Hoi An, which reminds me of a small french town on a river. The big thing to do in Hoi An is get a tailored suit where you can pick the threading, the buttons, etc. etc. all for like $80-130. I dont have space in my bag though to do that. Thought about getting one and shipping it back home (which a lot of backpackers do), but I ran into some financial trouble:

Today, I went to the ATM, took out 1,500,000 dongs, which is like $80, and then walked away and left my card in the machine. I realized this like an hour later, and have spent the last 2-3 hours calling my bank and parents. All's figured out, and I have $80 which is going to last me the next 8 days... Then on the 28th (8 days from now) I'll meet up with my old roomate Nick and he'll bring me my Dad's credit card. In Vietnam you can definitely live off $80 in 8 days...but my problem is I'm travelling rather than living in one city, so for the bus between Saigon and Cambodia i'll likely not have the money.

Also, I bought a hop on hop off bus pass for the entire country of Vietnam, however the bus tonight from Hoi An to Nha Trang (a big beach party town) was completely full...So I have to ride on the back of "Mr. Dung's" personal motorbike up to Danang, and then from there ill catch a night train to Nha Trang. In vietnam, the way to get around is hop on some random guys motorcycle and he will negotiate a price. So it would be like if I had a motorcycle and hungout in LA and offered people rides at whatever rate I wanted. Pretty nuts, but so far everything has worked out and I havent been robbed or anything haha

Easy come, easy go in Vietnam, but its still rainy and overcast so Im ready to head south to the beaches. I want to upload photos, but Facebook is blocked in Vietnam...again, Communism! Apparentally there is this way to get around the block, but its kinda nice being on my own and detached from the real world back home :) more to come soon

Good Morning Vietnam!

Vietnam, wow what a trip this place is. I've been having SUCH a fun time so far! The first day I landed in Hanoi and did a walking tour of the city, which is absolutely nuts. Sidewalks are packed with all the stuff people are trying to sell, and there are whole streets that focus on some random item to sell .. There's a street for tin boxes, street for fruits, for street toys, street for firewood, for street mailboxes, etc.. etc. it's really cool actually. Also, getting around is insane. There's no rules to the road, ride motorcycles on the wrong side, they all speed, ride on Sidewalks, etc. Crossing the street you feel like you will die. I paid like $ 1 and hopped on the back of a motorcycle and the guy drove me around to all the big sites for like 30-40 minutes, it was hilarious.

Ya so on the second and third day I went to Halong Bay, which was really really sick. I slept in this huge Chinese boat for the night and played drinking games till 4am with all the Aussies and Brits and Irish, which is the big three types of people traveling here. Jumped off the top of the boat into the bay, went kayaking, etc. etc. I really need to upload pictures, but even then it wont do it justice. Oh and this guy was hilarious Spanish guy was on the trip to Halong Bay as well, where there's like 1970 islands, and he was like "i want to spend a day and night on some secluded island" .. so the captain of our boat flagged down another boat and he paid $ 5 and off he went to some island with monkeys and stuff. I really wanted to go with him but im pressed for time and would rather head south where its warmer.. Also ill be seeing tons of monkeys and more beautiful islands in thailand.

Last night I went out in Hanoi, and whats crazy is that the city has a curfew of midnight .. Communism! But we were at this bar called "Hair of the Dog" which was so so packed with westerners. At midnight they just closed the front gate of the bar, and we partied on till like 3ish. Apparentally if we were to get caught all you have to do is give the police some cigerrettes and they will leave you alone. Spent today seeing the tourist sites really hungover..So im looking forward to my overnight bus down to Hue..Hopefully i can get some sleep.

Anyways, I really really need to upload photos asap. Im loving vietnam, loving all the people im meeting, and I absolutely love the freedom of traveling alone and not having a set day by day plan. Pretty sure im gonna rent a motorcycle in Hue , and ride along the vietnam coast to Hoi An, which is like 2.5 hrs away from Hue. Also I can ride to a ton of vietnam war battle sites.

Pictures to come soon!

Good Morning from Taiwan

Still en route to Vietnam, but had to fly to Tapei, Taiwan first, then from there to Kaohsiung (south Taiwan) and now I am catching a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam.

On the flight from Los Angeles to Tapei (14 hrs..with HORRIBLE turbulence..luckily I was watching movies and drinking free beer so didnt mind too much), I sat next to this funny guy Dennis who had just graduated from Cal Lutheran with his masters degree in Business. He was born and raised in Taipei, so we talked for a while about Asia and the whole Chinese-Taiwanese political issues. He tells me the asian women absolutely love white guys, which I actually have noticed :) Also, they handed out slippers on the plane flight over, and Dennis told me it was because all the blood rushes to your feet and so your feet swell and won't fit in your shoes... That definitely freaked me out, so I made sure to stand up and walk around on the plane as much as possible. At one point I layed upside down in my seat because my legs started cramping and I was worried about blood clots.. These asians really don't care what you do, no shame or embarressment. One guy on the plane two seats away started singing in Chinese really loud for like 40 minutes.. nobody cared or even seemed to notice!

Anyways, after landing in Taipei I had to fly to Kaohsiung (south Taiwan), however when I went to get my transfer ticket in Taipei they told me I was a day late! Apparentally my dad forgot to account for the one day time change when booking my flights.. I had six Taiwanese ladies (all very young..probably my age) all huddled around a computer talking fast to each other..and then giggling and looking up at me. Not sure what was said, but I got a ticket and made my flight. Same issue happened when checking into my hotel in Kaohsiung, and when checking into my morning flight from Kaohsiung to Hanoi..and Im sure I'll have the same issue when trying to check into my Hostel in Hanoi, Vietnam.. They all look at me and laugh and circle the date on my paperwork.. "Yesterday..No today"

Well I am boarding my flight to Hanoi in about 20 minutes. So far so good, but jetlagged and ready to settle into a hostel and meet some english speaking people. I'm sure I'll have more interesting stories once I get into Vietnam..

Three Days till departure

Well, I leave LAX and fly to Vietnam in 3 days. Wanted to test out this blog thingy!