Singapore

It's that time of year again! Considering the 1 daily view our blog has had these past few months (hi Mom), I think it's about time we get another entry in. And as I've probably repeated too many times before, nothing gets me in the mood to write about our travels quite like some homemade Vietnamese coffee. Bringing me back to good eats...beautiful views...cheap travels...except wait, nothing here is cheap, everything is actually really expensive. I can't afford to eat! Where am I going to sleep?? I thought I was in Southeast Asia, my safe haven for getting a lot for a little, my go-to for people who are poor but still want to travel (i.e. anyone in their 20's). But we're in Singapore now, a country that Laura aptly described as "roughly the size of this table," a thimble on the tippy-tip of Malaysia. But with such a small size, its economy couldn't be more opposite. Booming ahead early in the game to rival all surrounding cities with its ports, it now sustains itself entirely through its marketing since it has no natural resources to fall back on. It's consistently ranked as one of the least corrupt countries in the world, which is quite impressive given its location; it's a dot of yellow in a sea of red.

One of my favorite quotes from our trip was about the red light district and how it thrives in Singapore: "The Singapore government said what you cannot stop, you should regulate." To me, if anyone asked how Singapore is able to thrive economically, politically, and socially, I would say this quote. Yes, as a result of this policy, many people refer to Singapore as the land of fines (fine for not flushing the toilet, fine for chewing gum, fine for spitting, fine for bird feeding), but 30 minutes in the city and you can easily see how successful its been. Admittedly, we were a little worried when we first landed in Singapore, making sure we didn't have any gum or food on us lest we be arrested for corrupting this otherwise clean and beautiful country. But just like when the teacher tells you the rules on the first day of class, over time it just becomes natural. You see a parking lot with a spotless floor that I could absolutely eat off of and you realize you'd choose that over gum any day.

When we first arrived, after dropping our stuff off at our hostel in Little India, we set off to explore the city. After some aimless wandering (and a slurpee in hand, have I mentioned Julia's obsession with love of slurpees?) we ended up at Marina Bay, which is where most of what you know about Singapore is located; the crazy architecture that seems to be there only to give Singapore an interesting skyline, the infinity pool, the giant ship at the top of three connected buildings, the largest ferris wheel in the world (which is about to be beaten by the newest wonder nearing completion in Vegas), the upside down light trees, the DNA bridge (okay maybe you don't know about that last one, but it's pretty cool nonetheless). It's absolutely stunning, and as I stood on the DNA bridge and looked out at the building that looks like a banana bunch to me, it looked absolutely pointless. And that's why I love it. Singapore is a place that is beautiful and weird just because it wants to be. Every building is a statement because why not? If we're going to make a theater, let's make it shaped like two durians. If we have to build a bridge, why not make it all swirly and loopy? Yay architecture! Louise, you'd fall in love with it.

So the way we saw it, there are two ways to do Singapore: 1. Spend zero money and walk around and be done in about a day or 2. Buy an iVenture card and actually see some sites while still saving money. Since it was going to be Julia's birthday, we opted for version 2, which meant our days were about to be packed. Julia absolutely loves doing research and figuring out the best ways to save money and most efficient ways to get around. I love that she likes that because I absolutely hate doing that. Thanks to her and her impeccable timing, we had jam packed days that were perfectly timed to the minute and all uncannily worked out. Day two started with the Singapore Flyer. Actually let's go back a bit more, day two started with 6 pieces of toast apiece and two eggs. You see, Singapore is an expensive place. It's a very expensive place. Yes it's still technically less expensive than America, but when you're on a Thai wage (read close to America's poverty line) and you have to spend money on food, shelter, and transportation in addition to any sites or extras, we really had to dig deep. Unfortunately for us, food is one of the first things that we're willing to sacrifice when it comes to saving money. We figured we could stuff ourselves with the free breakfasts that our hostel provided and then come lunch we would eat the trail mix that we packed. That way we'd only be spending money at dinner time, when we'd hopefully be buying the cheapest meal we could find. So day two began with enough food to last us until at least 1pm that day (by the way our plan totally worked if you ignore the fact that we probably lost an additional 5 pounds). Because we started so early in the morning, nobody was in the Singapore Flyer and it was awesome. An entire booth to ourselves as we ran around and took pictures and had an amazing birds eye view of such an aesthetically pleasing place. One of my favorite views was that of the soccer field that juts out over the water (the pictures will do it better justice). The coolest soccer field I've ever seen, though Julia said it was a bit excessive (and I'll admit she's right. But again, refer back to previous statement about being beautiful and weird just because they can). Our next stop after that was the Bird Park, which actually turned out to be pretty fun and interactive. Singapore's already famous for its three zoos (jungle cruise, night safari, and zoo) and the bird park was no lower standard. We even got to go into the breeding area where they had baby flamingos and the ugliest baby I've ever seen, a baby white cockatoo. Birds aren't just the ugliest babies of any species, they're downright horrifying. I'd like to apologize to any bird people out there reading this.

Next came Snow City, which is nothing like this and actually exactly this. Don't let the angle of the picture fool you, it's the size of a large living room with one giant ice hill. Of course we knew this going into it, what with Her Highness of Research over here, but considering that we've been living in a city with highs of 110°F and an average of 90°F for over a year, the idea of playing around in fake snow for an hour or two was incredibly appealing. It was hilariously terrible. It's the kind of place where when you first walk up, the sign is falling apart and faded. Like the flickering neon Tower of Terror sign, except in the day time rather than being spooky and intimidating, it's just sketchy and puny. Considering no one in their right mind owns any kind of clothing for cold weather, when you get there you can rent ski pants, a snow jacket, gloves, socks, and snow boots. As I said, it's mostly about the one giant ice hill that you can go down on a tube, so we did that for a few rounds. Since we were again amongst a mere handful of individuals occupying the space, the photographer took a picture of us on every single ride. We eventually discovered an igloo and spent the rest of our time making snow angels and having snow fights (but since we were too cheap to rent gloves, that involved pulling our sleeves over our hands and scooping up as much snow as we could before our fingers went numb). I should mention also that the snow is not snow-like at all. I would say it was the consistancy of sand, except it was ice, but when you touch it, it doesn't melt. Next to Snow City is the Science Center, which is huge. We unfortunately had to rush through the place so that we could get back in time to make a tour that was also part of the iVenture card, but we still got to do plenty of fun interactive sciencey things, like making a stop motion video and finding out what a composite of our faces looks like (i.e. our child). A bus and a metro back to Chinatown and we were able to make a quick visit to the MINT Museum of Toys. The Toy Museum was odd in that it was a great museum with a wide-ranging and interesting collection, it has great advertising and online presence, and it's clearly won numerous awards, but it was weirdly lacking in a way that I can't describe. Perhaps it's the odd location or just the fact that clearly not many people really visit the place, but maybe the biggest reason is that it was clearly a museum made with love and passion for collecting old toys, but it's such a specific and unique hobby that most of us probably don't understand or share the same feelings for the collection.

Our next stop, and one I was really looking forward to, was the "Secrets of the Red Lantern" tour, which is as it sounds. I haven't really been on too many tours in foreign countries but I'm certain the tour guide is really what makes or breaks the tour. We had an adorable tour guide who told jokes and stories like about how she was in Geylang, which is where one of Singapore's red light districts is located, eating dinner with her husband when one of the ladies of the night ran up and asked in Cantonese, "Can I borrow your husband?" Because it turns out the police were doing a raid of the area. Though there is a specific designated zone, the multitude of regulations makes it so there are inevitably a handful of women who carry out their job in that area but outside of the law. For example, women are not allowed to solicit on the street; they must stay inside of a designated building. Also, all women have to get monthly checkups and carry a card on them at all times that says that they are healthy and clean. Women (other than these women) are not allowed inside the buildings at all because if there is a random police raid and any woman inside the premise is found without the card, the whole business can get shut down. The Red Light District in Geylang is so extensive that some houses in the area that aren't brothels specifically have a sign over their door that says "Private Residence" after receiving too many unwanted visitors (I just think that's hilarious). Our final activity of the day was a boat tour of the Quays, which--despite the drunken Japanese businessmen hitting on us, falling down, stumbling around, and generally being drunk Japanese businessmen--was actually quite beautiful. I told you how awesome the Singapore skyline is during the day, well it's even better lit up on the water at night.

With that, we had officially gone to 7 FREE things on our iVenture card. It was an incredibly packed day that was timed perfectly and really couldn't have gone any better.

I still have to cover Days 3 and 4 in Singapore (which include's Julia's birthday!), but I'm going to post this for now so that we can all calm down about the pending blog entry. ;)

Cambodia Through Pictures

From L to R: Ariel, Julia, Sarah, Haleigh in front of one of the faces of Bayon

Angkor Wat just after sunrise

An example of anastylosis. The original on the left and a recreation on the right.

A great picture by Julia at the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh

The bracelets at the Killing Fields

Some of the sculptures inside Wat Phnom

One of the classrooms turned crude jail cells in S-21

No caption necessary here.

Adorable kitty gets pets

Jules and I with our 3-day passes to the temples!

More adorable puppies being adorable

Courtesy of Sarah's camera.

As you can see, I loved Bayon. Also Sarah's picture.

I like Sarah's pictures

At the rally for candidate 4 (Credit: Sarah)

Credit: Haleigh

Julia being silly at the Royal Palace

Capturing ancient with modern. Looking more and more like an Indiana Jones movie set to me.

Trying to depict the emptiness that is the Killing Fields

School turned prison

Julia's great picture of the skulls inside the stupa

Credit: Haleigh

Staaaaiiirsss

Tarantula in threatening position (Credit: Sarah)

Plastic bag o' spiders

Credit: Sarah

I also made a video of the trip just for fun if you want to check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntDbbCyrf_8&feature=youtu.be

Cambodia

Julia and I have lived in Thailand for almost a year, which means that we're starting to have repeat experiences (like the school Sports Day that's coming up, which I'll save for another entry). It's crazy to think that we're coming up on our second birthdays and second holiday season here. This also means that I may start repeating things in my entries that I'm not sure I've said before. So forgive me for anything that's been said a thousand times already. And with the usual disclaimer, Cambodia here we come!

Fortunately or unfortunately, flights to virtually anywhere in the world are cheaper out of Bangkok than Chiang Mai. As a result, most out of country trips involve a 12 hour bus or train ride down to BKK, and while it's apparently the world's most visited city, it's actually not a fun place to be if you 1. Don't live there or 2. Have been there before. And 1. is just me throwing Bangkok a bone because even that is a bit of a mystery to me (I'd like to emphasize that this is also an extremely biased view of someone who has lived in Chiang Mai for a year now, which is scenery that is completely the opposite of Bangkok's bustling city environment). Many of us here in CM have independently come to the conclusion that the only thing to do in Bangkok during the time between the arrival of our bus and the departure of our plane is to stay in the air-conditioned shopping malls, possibly seeing a movie. But even that is a hassle because the buses don't drop you off anywhere convenient, like near the metro. You have to take a taxi to get to the main part of the city. Additionally, the cheaper of the two airports in Bangkok is about an hour outside of the city center, which of course is where the malls are. So the idea of taking a taxi then metro to get to a shopping mall at 6 am after a groggy night's bus sleep was quite unappealing when we could just take a cheaper taxi to the airport and sleep/eat/rest there. Hence, the beginning of our Cambodia trip was spent sleeping, eating, and resting in a remote part of the airport until we could finally check in 3 hours prior to our flight. We also played around with the slow motion video on my camera, which makes everything seem either majestic, weird, or gross. We touched into Phnom Penh around 5 pm and were immediately consumed by the political rally for candidate number 4 (Cambodian People's Party), which included a lot of blue, a lot of cheering, crazy motorbike driving, and large groups of people standing in the truck beds of moving trucks. Even though Julia informed me that we'd be traveling there during the week of the elections, I soon realized how little I knew about the current politics of Cambodia, something I made sure to amend later with some trusty googling and conversations with a local. After securing a fairly cheap hostel, we set off to find a delicious dinner, which didn't take long since there was an awesome street food/restaurant combo right on our corner. Julia and I ordered the barbecue, which tasted oddly sweet. Jules summed it up perfectly when halfway through the meal she realized it tasted like beef dipped in pancake syrup. We also tried one of the local beers, Angkor, which admittedly tastes exactly like all other local beers in all of Southeast Asia. A good night's rest and the next morning was a tuktuk tour of Phnom Penh.

The day started off heavy with a trip to The Killing Fields, which are about half an hour outside the city. An audio tour really helped me to attempt to grasp what it may have felt like to be a political prisoner brought here in the '70s. Something I have to constantly remind myself is that some of the harrowing history we learn about today hasn't happened that long ago. It's difficult not to feel pain or regret when I'm only one generation away from the time when this was occurring. The tour through the field was mostly empty save for the signs and structures that were added when the area became a memorial site. When I say empty, I mean that it is mostly nature and trees, rather than buildings or pathways. This is perhaps the most chilling part; knowing that there was and still are thousands upon thousands of unidentified bodies piled into mass graves, and nothing else. The one building the prisoners were housed in when there were too many people and not enough executions was quickly torn down after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. I realized it's easier to commemorate something with something else; a statue, a building, a museum. But it's so difficult to understand and to acknowledge when the reminder is that there is nothing there. Not only are you surrounded by emptiness, you are also surrounded by nature, a conflicting feeling of beauty and pain.

Though the fields are pretty far away from the nearby town, there were still farmers around the area. That, and the fact that guns and ammunition were expensive during the war, meant that the soldiers used other methods to execute the prisoners, including blunt weapons, axes, thorns from branches of trees, trees themselves, you name it. And to avoid the neighbors' suspicions, they played music over loud speakers to cover up the screams and cries of the people. At one point during the tour, they play the sound of a generator paired with the sound of the music they most likely heard while they were unknowingly waiting for their death. That was the second most chilling part of the journey for me. As an auditory person, that sound was all I needed to make me feel like I was there, cramped in a cold dark room, wondering my fate and the fate of my family, and all for what? For being an academic? For being falsely accused by a neighbor? For breathing? The tour also reminds us that we may think it could never happen in our country today, but they never thought it could happen in Cambodia either. As with anything, it starts slow and picks up speed. What begins as an attempt by the government and the people to improve the economy eventually becomes a "weeding out" of anyone who doesn't "support the cause," which leads down a chaotic and dangerous path. We learned that there were a handful of foreigners amongst the prisoners as well; another connection that makes it all the more difficult to process what occurred there. Finally, a haunting image that I had difficulty getting through, was that of the Killing Tree, which executioners used as a post against which they'd beat young children and babies. They would grab them by the ankles, swing, and then toss them into a nearby mass grave. Even typing this makes me shake a little, perhaps moreso now than when I was there, because it's just too much for the brain to process. Too much pain to know that this happened and that you are standing where it happened. Throughout the site, there are bracelets made of thread or beads. I'm not sure where all of them come from, but I had one on my wrist for quite a while that I received from a monk in a wat in Chiang Mai. It somehow never fell off after almost a year. I felt that was where I should leave it. So I hung it on the tree with the rest of them. My small prayer. My acknowledgement. There are still many pieces of clothing, bones, and items left to be discovered around the site. While some graves have been excavated, some remain undisturbed. About 5,000 of the skulls that were found are now inside of a multi-leveled memorial stupa, organized by gender and age. A sign on the outside reading, "Would you please kindly show your respect to many million people who were killed under the genocidal Pol Pot Regime." One of the final facts they tell you in the journey is that Pol Pot went on to live a long, healthy, and happy life. Unlike a handful of the guards who are being prosecuted for their crimes, Pol Pot himself never had to feel remorse or truly face consequences for his leadership of a mass genocide in his own country. It hurts to hear someone who has directly suffered from the Khmer Rouge tell you about their loss and Pol Pot's gain. Yet another bitter pill to swallow.

A quick lunch at a nearby restaurant, some iced coffee, and we were soon on our way back to the city to go to the Security Prison S-21, a school that was taken over by the Khmer Rouge, turned into a prison, and is now a genocide museum open to the public. Since the prison was a former high school, it was even more eerie walking down the halls that were once filled with children learning. Some of the levels had rooms that were turned into crude jail cells made of brick or concrete blocks. There is an exercise bar in the courtyard of the school that was turned into a torture device to get the prisoners to confess to their crimes. Like the Salem witch trials of the 17th century, anyone could accuse anyone and the torture was designed to force people to confess for crimes that they probably didn't commit. Another unsettling part of the genocide was the letters that prisoners were forced to write. A section of the museum contains booklets of copies of letters from prisoners that all follow the same construct: True facts about the person's birth and life, including information about their parents and where they lived. Then about why they were in Cambodia and what they were doing at the time they were arrested. And only the last paragraph or line or word, it will say something relating to how they are a part of the CIA or how they planned to overtake the Pol Pot Regime. Perhaps the strangest one for me was that of an Australian expat who was arrested and most likely taken to the Killing Fields. His letter talks about his parents and his loved ones, how he lived in San Diego and moved to Los Angeles. It describes a life that could have been my own and only at the very end, as its own paragraph, it says CIA agent number 324 (I made up the number, but you get the point). It made it that much clearer about how the Khmer Rouge forced these "confessions" out of people. Many of the foreigners who went through S-21 were merely traveling on a boat to somewhere else when they accidentally drifted into Cambodian waters. Of all the prisoners that went through Tuol Sleng, only 12 are known to have survived. Because of the extensive record keeping of every prisoner, there were many, many, many pictures lining the walls of the museum, every one as anonymous as the last.

Thankfully, the weight of these two sites was gradually lifted off of us as our next stop was the royal palace, which looked a lot like Bangkok's royal palace. It was filled with the usual gilded throne halls, libraries, silver-lined floors, shrines, and artfully detailed architecture. As it started to thunderstorm when we were here, we decided to cut our journey short and finish the tour the next day.

Refreshed from a night of margaritas and delicious food, we set out the following morning to Wat Phnom which is on "a tree-covered knoll" that is "the only hill in town." I love any place that is called a knoll. When does a knoll become a hill? We'll never know. Though I've seen my fair share of wats/temples/mosques by now, this beautiful, cozy wat actually had a little uniqueness to offer, my favorite being the sculptures of Buddha inside.

From here, the combination of getting slightly lost and being incredibly cheap meant a 2 hour walk to finally arrive at one of my favorite parts of our Phnom Penh trip: Eating tarantulas. The restaurant, Romdeng, is part of the TREE alliance and Friends International which sets out to train street children in the art of hospitality, cooking, and all skills needed in running a restaurant. I got more and more excited as I learned about the various components of the program, which is extremely successful and only getting bigger. I'm going to go on a quick side-rant here because programs like TREE, Friends, and Global Medical Brigades (which I had the opportunity to participate in while in college) have always reminded me of exactly what I want to do with my life. It's something that I haven't otherwise been able to explain and it's also something that's not easy to find. Learning about self-sustaining programs that work to improve the lives of communities, not by coming in and telling them what's what, but by working with them and through them to better them. I never find myself more inspired or more excited than I do when I hear or talk about these successful programs that implement innovative and genius strategies to get communities interested and be successful in revolutionizing a city or country for the better. Again, difficult to explain, but at 22, I'm happy to have even the vaguest ideas of where I'd like to go in my career.

Okay, back to the spiders. You can order the fried tarantulas, or you can get a salad with red ants. Opting for the crazier choice, the four of us readied our stomachs and our minds to consume something I never thought I'd learn the taste of. If you're more of a Type B and don't desire to do this yourself, but kind of wonder what it's like, it tastes like french fries that are a little bit fuzzy. It's actually pretty good, if one can overcome the fact that they're eating a tarantula. Of course right after we ate them, the waiter came out with a live one, which, when I held it in my hand, immediately went into a stance that looked really threatening. Maybe it smelled its brother on my breath? (ew) As if that wasn't enough, after we asked where they get the tarantulas from (we were debating about whether they caught them or bred them themselves), he asked if we wanted to see. And that is how I found myself staring at a plastic bag filled to the brim with creepy crawly hairy live tarantulas. Just a plastic bag. With tarantulas. That are about to be cooked and eaten. If I could only keep two memories of Cambodia, this would be one of them (the second, if you haven't guessed already, would be Angkor Wat, but that's a different story for a different city).

At night was when we finally got to see the main opposition party to CPP (number 4), which is candidate number 7, the Cambodian National Rescue Party. Meeting up with a friend of a friend who was born and raised in Phnom Penh, we learned a lot more about what the two parties mean to the people. CPP has been the ruling party of Cambodia for about 30 years now and has been successful in uniting the country and moving forward. That being said, the CNRP is the Obama of Cambodia. In fact, their main motto is "Change or no change? Change!" The CNRP is more likely to be supported by the youth, who have not had to feel the pain of having a regime in power that destroys your people from the inside out, and feel that change is what will spark the economy and create jobs for the people. The CPP is more likely to be supported by the elderly, who rightfully feel that it has been good and stable, so let's keep it that way. We also learned that the CPP is government funded, and people who rally for them get tons of free swag to support the campaign. CNRP on the other hand is only supported by the people, which explained why they had much fewer t-shirts, hats, flags, and, well, people driving around on motorbikes. At the end of the day, I'd probably be voting for 7.

And here we set out to Siem Reap with a morning bus ride through the lusciously green countryside. [Side note: Siem Reap means "Siam defeated" in Cambodian. That's just hilarious to me. A big middle finger to good old Thailand.] The bus ride also included some Cambodian TV, which involved a lot of people talking on stage and pulling really weird stunts that usually made fun of children. For example, I spent 5 minutes watching two kids break dance and then freeze when the music stopped and the host would put them in embarrassing positions, often with sexual innuendos. 5 minutes of that was enough for me. Since pretty much every person traveling through Cambodia either goes from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap or vice versa, many hostels have connections in both cities. It's one of those systems that is set up to hook a tourist from the start, but it's not actually shady or annoying. Everybody wins. So we had a tuktuk waiting for us at Siem Reap to take us to the sister hostel of the one we stayed at in Phnom Penh and since Siem Reap is the size of a thimble, the location was perfect (it takes about 5 minutes to walk just about anywhere in the city). Our trip to the supermarket for snacks and water was what led us to discover the glory of cheese cupcakes. Yes. Cheese cupcakes. Now I don't know if you're the type of person who's immediate reaction is intrigue or disgust, but 3 of the 4 of us on this trip responded immediately with the former. Which is why I can tell you now that they taste like the best version of a synthetic cheesecake topped cheese frosting filled vanilla cupcake that you'll ever have. Also, alcohol is incredibly cheap in Siem Reap. The lowest prices we've seen in all of Southeast Asia. I was half tempted to buy a Corona (oh how I miss those), but resisted and stuck with the local Ankor beer.

With the multitude of tour books, tour guides, and sites on the internet talking about the Angkor Temples, it's easy to get overwhelmed by all of the stories and suggestions of the best way to explore Angkor, including the time of day (Should you see the sunrise or sunset? Which temples should you go to for each? Should you try to avoid the times when all the tour groups will be there? What about cloudy days?), the order you should see the temples in (Should you jump in head first and go straight for the Angkor Wat? Or should you start small and build up to it?), the transport you should use (Should you do the small circuit by bike and the big circuit by tuktuk? Should you get a tuktuk in town or hire one later on?), right down to what you should wear (Are these ruins or active temples? Should I bring footwear I can climb in? What about shorts are those okay?). Times like these I remind myself that a little bit of planning is good, but sometimes it's better to let things fall where they may. Luckily for me, that's exactly how it happened. I finally decided that it would be best to start small and get big (I got this idea from the time I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with my friends who had season passes and they took me from the smallest ride to the biggest and the day ended up being the best ever), because after seeing Angkor Wat, I'm sure every other wat will be uneventful and small. As I mentioned, there's a small circuit and a big circuit. Since Angkor Wat is on the small circuit, which can be biked to, the next decision was obvious: We'll take a tuktuk tomorrow for the temples on the big circuit, then do the early morning bike ride to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat on the small circuit. The group was on board and I think it turned out to be a great plan.

You can buy a 1-day, 3-day or 1-month pass to the wats. The pass is super official and includes your picture. Coming from someone who loves to collect movie stubs, this was an awesome souvenir. I won't go into too many details about each temple itself, since that can be looked up online. Instead, I'll describe what it was like to visit all the temples in general. One of my favorite parts about the temples of Angkor is that every single one is different from the last. There are some that are high above ground and look out upon green trees and forest. Others remain on the ground but are covered by the shade of the trees and have more of an Indiana Jones feel to them. Some have huge pathways that are lined with immense sculptures that tell stories with their expressions alone. And still others are surrounded by water, an oasis of history. With no two temples alike, it's easy to get lost in the ruins, imagining buildings where there's rubble, climbing on stones that represent years of an ancient history of kings and battles. With multiple rulers and varying religions taking over the area, some temples will have a Buddha that was added later. One of my favorites include the Lingas, which are a phallic representation of the Hindu deity Shiva. One of these replaced a sacred Buddha in the temples. My other favorite is the god who had an appetite so ravenous, he ate his own body. His face is often seen above the entrance or exit of the walkways. And lastly I love the apsaras, which are mostly prominent on Angkor Wat itself, more than 3000 unique "heavenly nymphs" with a multitude of hairstyles.

After the first day, we went back to the city to get some "Traditional Cambodian Massages" which is about as much of a marketing ploy as any "Traditional (insert Southeast Asian country here) Massages." It ended up being a woman kind of doing whatever on our backs, legs, arms, and neck for an hour. It didn't really seem like they had a plan while they did it but it was still pretty fun because it was the four of us with four Cambodian women all together. So there was a lot of, "Oh do you have a boyfriend?? Why nooot? You are beautiful!" If you are not a girl or if you haven't lived in a foreign country, you should know that, at least in my experience, this is a very common way that locals and expats try to relate to each other when either party knows little of the other party's language.

One thing that comes with tourism is locals trying to sell you things. Depending on my mood, I either feel frustrated that such relics are being taken over by modern-day consumerism, or intrigued by the idea that, though these temples were once sacred, they're now something I can freely roam around in as someone who has no relation whatsoever to their history, and that comes with people trying to make a living. At the end of the one of the temples was a group of children, about 5-8 years old, with their trays of postcards, keychains, and other kitschy items. One of the girls came up to me and in what seemed like one breath, asked if I wanted to buy postcards and proceeded to count to me in English, French, and Spanish. When I tried to turn her down, she asked if I wanted to play tic-tac-toe in the dirt with her. She was one of the more persistent children and it was clear that she easily gets customers with her cutesy appeal. There were a lot of places in Cambodia that had the children working instead of/in addition to the parents. With a population of almost 40% under the age of 14 and 60-70% under the age of 30, the amount of children in general is astounding. I felt an immediate response of feeling like these children should be in school instead of working; the immediate white man's burden of witnessing child labor and wanting to change it. But I realized that I probably have it backwards. Not only are these kids getting real-world experience in the field of tourism and hospitality, they're doing it in 4 languages. They know more at age 5 than I probably do now. Not only that, but it's clear they aren't suffering it all. In some cases, they obviously enjoy it. They've learned by now how to choose someone to sell to, how to schmooze them into buying your items, and how to make a profit. If anything, Cambodia's figured it out more than much of India has. The children of India can fend for themselves, but in a very different way; one that involves more begging than working. And sometimes it felt like Cambodia was happier because of it. Their poverty does not mean they're struggling to have things, they're just trying to have nicer things. They don't need a roof and some food, they just want a TV and maybe some toys. It's poverty, but it's different poverty.

The next morning we left around 4 am on $2 bikes we rented the night before in order to make the sunrise coming over Angkor Wat. This may have been one of the crazier things I've done, since the bikes didn't have lights or reflectors, and sometimes the road didn't either, and it was definitely still very dark outside. Luckily the route is as easy as it gets, go down the street and straight on 'til morning. It took us about 40 minutes to get there and we made it just as the sky started to get a little lighter blue. And though the road was fairly empty during the ride, when we got there, as my dad always says, "Heeeeere's everybody." There were probably about 150 people or so, but this is during the low season. I easily imagined what it could look like during the peak of traveling season. We got some street sandwiches (isn't it great when the French occupied a place? Always delicious food left behind) reminiscent of Vietnam and made our way to a lake in front of the main entrance to the Wat. We've had a few, "Get up for the sunrise you don't want to miss it" attempts in our lives, Julia more than I, and this one was definitely one of the best, if not THE best I've experienced. The gradual change in color from purple, to midnight blue, to the orange color of the twilight hour (the time when everybody's eyes look as beautiful as they'll ever be, and everybody's skin is a glowing gold color), to the sunny yellow and blue of day. All while the Wat is reflected on the water. The wat itself has an insane amount of detail. Every pillar, stone carving, bas-relief, and ceiling was intricately worked on. My favorite story, and the most popular, was the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, which showed up throughout the temples of Angkor, particularly along the walkways to the entrances (gods on one side, demons on the other). The Bayon, another wat that's part of the small circuit is awesome (used in its original sense) in its own right. It's covered in faces pieced together with the stone and makes you feel like you are in a Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones movie. We hung out on the third tier for a bit, people watching the weird tourists and snacking on pineapples.

I mentioned before that no two temples were the same, but if I had to pick one common thread that united them all it was so. many. stairs. It felt like the stairs kept getting steeper too. For some of them I had to use my hands to climb my way up. Each temple has at least two levels, but more often three or four. Angkor Thom, which is North of Angkor Wat, was once a bustling city, which means it has an endless amount of buildings that you get to walk up and down. With the bike ride there, the walking, the STAIRS, and the bike ride home, I had had enough exercise to last me for some time, and the legs of a Tour de France champion. Since the temples in Angkor are a UNESCO world heritage site, there has been a lot of restoration to reinforce the structure as well as recreate some of the sculptures to show how they may have looked when the temples were in their prime. They're using a method called anastylosis (in Greek, "to erect again") which restores/reconstructs a ruin by using the materials that were used at the time it was built, or the closest thing to it. It's a compromise between not rebuilding at all and rebuilding completely so that nothing resembles what it would be today. I have to say I highly approve of the process. Every once in a while there will be a statue that is in ruins on one side and its counterpart will have been restored. You get to walk on the ruins while easily imagining what the site once was.

That evening we set out to explore the Siem Reap night life which consisted of a lot of 50 cent beer and briefly entering but quickly avoiding places like Angkor What? Which is a bar that sports the motto "Promoting irresponsible drinking since 1998" and has artwork that is just graffiti all over its walls. Definitely a backpacker's heaven.

The next day we were able to explore the town a bit more and do some shopping. Some places on the outskirts of town have the same annoying vendors constantly yelling for the 5 minutes it takes you to pass them, "Hey lady! You buy my stuff! Lady! I have bags for you!" But once you get into the main market area, you can quietly wander the aisles to find the usual t-shirts, trinkets, and gaudy jewelry.

I hope I didn't miss anything! While writing this entry I made sure to go back and enter any details I could remember along the way, so you definitely got a thorough entry. And there you have it, my take on our Cambodia trip.

What's Happening Now

Every time I go to blog, I've tried finishing up our Vietnam trip, but it's been slow going and I wanted to give updates about how things are going right now for us. Plus, I miss writing/story-telling in general.

The school year has started and we're now in our fourth week of teaching. As you know, Thailand's school system breaks down into Prathom 1-6 (equivalent to grades 1st-6th), Lower Mattayom 1-3 (equivalent to 7th-9th), and Upper Mattayom 4-6 (equivalent to 10th-12th). Julia and I co-teach Mattayom 1 (which was coincidental; originally I was supposed to teach Upper Mattayom, but we walked in the first day of orientation and found out we were both teaching M1). We teach 10 classes twice a week. The time slot for each class is supposed to be 50 minutes, but of course the Thai way makes it so assemblies end late and other teachers let out their classes late so that class can end up being cut to be as short as 20 minutes. Luckily, this has made us more adaptable. We can now come up with lessons that can still work in a 20 minute time period or can be expanded to fill the full 50 minutes. Unlike in America, the children's have classrooms and it's the teachers that move from class to class. This is incredibly inconvenient because if we ever have any supplies (our main one usually being a Powerpoint), we have to carry it and take time to set it up in each classroom. This includes hoping the computer works, hoping the monitor works, hoping it recognizes our flash drive, hoping the projector turns on (trying to get a student to stand on a desk with a broom handle to physically turn the projector on, since there's supposedly a remote, but it's impossible to find), and hoping the keyboard and/or mouse work so that we can open and actually use our Powerpoint. It's an adventure every time. Unlike our other school, the classes don't seem to be organized according student intellect. It's supposedly random, but there are definitely classes where it seems students are of similar caliber. For the most part, we only have three classes that are troublesome and difficult. This does however change from week to week, depending on the time of day and how the students are feeling. Our favorite classes (1/7 and 1/9) are ideal in every way. Lessons go perfectly and we always leave them feeling like we're amazing teachers. For our troublesome classes (1/1 and 1/3), we try to go in with the mindset that we'll be able to teach them, but usually end up hoping we can make it through without losing our voice from trying to talk over them or get them to quiet down. Because we don’t speak Thai, we have had to come up with multiple strategies to communicate to the kids what we want; saying “please quiet down” or “just give me 5 more minutes” makes no sense. And a 7^th grader’s natural reaction is to ignore you and talk to their friend, somebody they do understand. Some of the teachers have tried barking like a dog, which startles them into silence, others have tried implementing a “yellow card,” “red card” system similar to soccer, which ends in a child being ejected from the classroom. Julia and I have started the silence game, which involves the kids being quiet for one full minute. If anyone talks, the clock starts over. We believe that part of the reason some of the classes can’t be quiet is because they don’t quite know what quiet means. They think they can’t be heard or seen so if they continue to talk to their friends, it won’t interrupt the class. So if we convey what actual silence sounds like, then they’ll remain actually quiet for the lesson. This surprisingly works, though it takes up about 5-10 minutes of class time, since it takes four or five attempts before the kids can be quiet for a full minute. Unfortunately, we’ll probably have to come up with something new soon since I have a feeling this will wear off.

Outside of school, Jules and I have been going on lots of Chiang Mai adventures. One of the things that makes Chiang Mai such a great place to live is all of the wonderful things that are just an hour or two away right outside the city. There’s a great rock climbing site that was built and is maintained by Chiang Mai Rock Climbers. It’s a beautiful area that definitely makes me want to pick up rock climbing as a hobby. We’ve also been to Huay Tung Tao lake, which is a great relaxation picnic area. We have a membership (which is really just a buy 9 get the 10^th free punch card) for a swimming pool. There’s also the floating houses, which is exactly as it sounds, where people eat, drink, and are merry in a house on the water. Some other things I’m looking forward to are the botanical gardens, the hot springs, Mae Sa Waterfall, the Golden Triangle, and other beautiful scenic routes and hikes. We’re going to start taking Thai language classes soon, which I’m super excited about because as I’ve said before, it’s near impossible to learn the language by just listening to it and trying to pick it up. We also volunteer at a nearby dog shelter, Care For Dogs, though we haven’t been able to stop by in a while since we can only go on weekends and things have been hectic with the school year starting up.

It's monsoon season now, which is actually really fun, both getting caught in the rain (depending on where we're coming from) and being inside while it storms outside. Plus the nights are a cool 85 degrees sometimes.

Our big break will be in October and Julia are deciding whether we should go home (since it will have been over a year since we’ve visited America) or travel to more countries in Southeast Asia. We’ve also talked about our various plans for after this year, since if either of us are looking into grad school, we have to start researching, taking the GRE, and applying soon.

I’m sure there are things I’ve forgotten, but I hope this gives you somewhat of an idea of how/where we are now. J

Barely Legal

In light of recent events, I think it's finally time to do that post we've been mentioning for ages - i.e. how to become legal in Thailand. Warning: this isn't meant to be entertaining! Skip this one if you prefer the anecdotes. This is just meant to help clarify the process to those who have found our intermittent updates confusing.

[Sidebar from A: And if our blog ever becomes famous then maybe people living and/or working in Thailand can use this as the guide that we never had (unless everything changes in a year, which it probably will).]

1. The Tourist Visa. 
 - You can technically just enter Thailand by air and get a free 30 days in the country, but that's typically not long enough to leave enough time for finding a job and getting the paperwork done for your new visa. In reality, it's smarter to apply in your home country for a 2 month tourist visa. Luckily, one of 3 Thai embassies in the US is located in LA (the others are Washington D.C. and Chicago), so that's where we got ours.

 Time commitment: Next day processing.
 Cost: $40 (1192 b)
  
2. Non-immigrant B Visa Paperwork.
- After securing a stable and well-paying job (this part was a breeeeeeeeeze, of course), your respectable business should get a start on your non-immigrant B visa paperwork. Honestly, I have no idea what it entails, but it all seems very complicated and, to my understanding, often falsified. The whole process takes anywhere from a week to months, and you just kind of have to hope it's happening and being done for you. The paperwork has to be dated for the day you plan to get your visa and addressed to the embassy you're planning to visit (in our case, Vientiane, Laos). After receiving this, you need a couple hundred photos (okay, like 6) and several copies of everything you have that proves you're human and American and a graduate of some sort of school.

Time commitment: Anywhere from 1 week to...months. 
Cost: None, unless you have to bribe someone to do it all faster.  

3. Trip to Laos.
- Unless you're really good at navigating the Thai/Lao bus system and want to save about 200 baht, it's best to stop in at any number of small tour agencies and book a "VIP bus" to Laos (see previous posts about Laos, where this experience was described in painful detail). You'll need to also buy a Lao visa upon entry (good for 30 days, but only used for 2, typs). The first day, you submit your paperwork and hope that your school didn't forget anything, in which case you would have to go all the way back to Thailand and start again (whiiich happened to the guy in front of us). You pick it up the next afternoon and head back to Thailand. 

Time commitment: 2 days/3 nights (not including the day of your return, which is lost due to sleep deprivation)
Cost: Bus (1900b) + Lao visa ($35/1043b) + hotel (500b) = 3443

4. Non-Immigrant B Visa.
- You can choose between a single entry and multiple entry visa. Before going through the process, it was almost impossible to know which one we were supposed to get. So we guessed, went for the cheaper one, and hoped fervently that we weren't wrong and wouldn't have to return to Laos. As it turns out (we think) they end up having the same cost/effect, but with drastically different mechanisms of operation. With a single entry visa, after entering Thailand from Laos you have 90 days to complete your paperwork or you must leave, and your visa will be cancelled. After getting your work permit, your single-entry visa can then be extended to a full year. However, leaving the country at this point will void both your visa and work permit, so you have to get a re-entry permit (see below). With a multiple entry visa, upon entering Thailand you again have 90 days to figure out your paperwork. However, if you leave the country during this time, you may do so and then return without cancelling the visa. You can do this 3 times, which essentially makes this a year-long visa wherin you must leave the country every 90 days. 

Time commitment: Next day processing.
Cost: Single entry (2000b) or Multiple entry (5000b)

4a. Visa Pages.
- At this point, becoming legal had eaten up about 5 of my passport pages, and I had a total of 0 left. If you think using up all your visa pages sounds ridiculous, in southeast Asia it's really easy. A combination of poorly-placed stamps and unnecessary visas will do the trick pretty quickly. Additional pages used to be free, but alas, no longer. Annoyingly enough, the US consulate only has appointments to add pages on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and as these tend to fill up weeks in advance, this can really put a spanner in the works for a while.

Time commitment: 2 hours
Cost: $82 (2444) :[  

5. Work Permit Paperwork.
- After getting your non-immigrant B visa, you have 90 days to get your work permit paperwork in order, receive your work permit, and then extend your visa. Again, various Thai documents are procured from some official location, and that tends to take a couple weeks. You will also need to go to the hospital and get a syphilis test and be told, in writing, that you're not dying.

Time commitment: About a month of waiting (paperwork); 2 hours (hospital tests)
Cost: Syphilis test (320b)

6. Work Permit.
Paperwork and 1,000 more photos and copies in hand, you need to head to the labour department, get very lost, and eventually submit your paperwork for a work permit. You can pick it up 7 business days later.  

Time commitment: 7 business days
Cost: 3000b

7. Non-immigrant B Visa extension.
- This is where the fun starts: in the Immigration department. Basically, a very very tiny crowded building with lots of queue signs with red numbers that don't seem to correspond to anything. Our first trip, we spent a while wandering around and going inside and out trying to find somewhere to get a number. Eventually we just asked for help at the front desk, but we were told it was too late to be helped (it was 2pm; the place closes at 4pm) and we would have to come back the next day. A week later, we came at 1pm. We should mention that on weekdays we could only go after work and Immigration is closed on weekends, so we were lucky that school had ended early this day. Again too late, but we managed to plead our case and get a quick appointment. Boom! Visa extended to one year!

Time commitment: 2 hours (if we had done it right, 5)
Cost: 1,900b

8. Re-Entry Permit
- When it came time to head to Vietnam, we had to get a re-entry permit so that leaving the country wouldn't void both our precious visa and work permit. Unfortunately, back to the immigration department. This time, we headed there at 9am (it opens at 8am), heeding the warnings that we were too late to be served last time. We were laughed away and told to come earlier the next day. Bewildered, I went home to do some more extensive research on the Thai expat forums, as the Thai immigration site itself is completely unhelpful. Apparently, if you want any hope of being served, you need to arrive between 6 and 7am. Unexpected. The next day, we arrived at 6:30, received a paper number (later determined to be useless), waited until 8 when the doors opened, received a printed paper number, waited for that number to be called and received a plastic number, and then waited until that number was called. Once called, we handed in our forms and more pictures and copies and waited another 2 hours. Finally, we had a stamp in our passports saying we could leave the country and return.

Note: You can get a single re-entry permit, good for one re-entry, or a multiple re-entry permit, good for the entirety of your visa's validity. (1000/3800b). So it's a gamble - if you think you'll leave the country 4 times on your visa, it's worth it. If not...you're stuck doing this process every time you want to leave, but you might pay less. 

Time commitment: In theory, 5 hours.
Cost: 1000b

9. - until you leave the country for reals. 90 day check-ins.
- If you don't want to get deported, you have two choices - either leave the country every 90 days (after getting the appropriate permit), or check in at immigration every 90 days. The timing has been right, so we have yet to need to worry about this. We'll let you know in...50 days. It's going to be fun!

Time commitment: 5 hours/1+ days every 90 days
Cost: None/re-entry permit (1000b) + trip away (at bare minimum, 1000b) = 2,000b

Time span: 6-9 months and then every 90 days
Absolute minimum number of days on which you must miss some work (if you don't make any mistakes), because nothing is open after school hours: 8 days (so in reality, more like 12).
Total cost: 15,299b ($513)

If $513 doesn't seem like a lot of money to pay to stay in Thailand legally for a year, well...in many ways, it isn't. But for some perspective, here's some other things you can get with that money here: a gently used motorbike, 4 months' share of rent and utilities, 382 delicious Thai lunches, 5 laptops, 15 gently used guitars, 100 skirts ideal for teaching.

But wait! I forgot a step!
...
10. Transferring the work permit and visa to a new job.
- I tricked you! This isn't possible. That's right; all this must, essentially, be repeated, despite us having only really finished it a month ago. But here's the catch: before you can begin the process again, the work permit needs to be returned (a trip to the labour department and some forms), and the extension of stay on your visa needs to be cancelled (a trip to the immigration department). It would be difficult to get these done on the same day, owing to the aforementioned limitations of the immigration office. Once the work permit is cancelled, though, you have 24 hours to leave the country. Every day you stay over will cost you 500b. In practice, people tend to ask immigration for an extension period of 7 days (1900b) and then head to Laos as soon as possible, but you need to have all your paperwork ready and waiting.

And so, the adventure begins for us again...luckily, we think we'll be able to hold onto our work permit indefinitely, and wait until October (when we may return home) to get a new visa in America.

If this post was boring, confusing, and made you feel uncomfortable and tired, it should have. While writing it, I reminded myself of about 5 more things I need to do in the coming months to stay legal. We haven't even dipped into what we've had to do for our motorbike, bank accounts, and phone service. Though I'm not that aware of the process in other countries, I can definitely say that this experience has made me far more sympathetic to immigrants and expats in other countries. Red tape is exhausting, and sometimes the whole process just seems aimed at making sure you don't want to stay another year.

Next post to come: more about our amazing new job!

Vietnam: Nha Trang, Dalat, and Ho Chi Minh City

Darn, we're out of the catchy "H's," but luckily the trip itself just keeps getting better and better.

Nha Trang is a beautiful stretch of beach in South-Central Vietnam. While there are a few sites to see here, the town is mostly about the activities you can do in the area and of course, lounging around on the beach. Julia and I did more of the former than the latter since we're terrible at relaxing for relaxing's sake. It was here that we finally took a cooking course, which we've always wanted to do (and actually still want to do in Thailand if we ever find the time or money). We took cyclos, which are like reverse cycle rickshaws and look like wheelchairs with bicycles attached to the back, to the morning market where they taught us how to pick good fruit, vegetables, and meat. Since it was more of an elementary cooking course we mostly worked on basic techniques like selecting ingredients and cutting, but they throw in some fun extras like flambé and trying out cool Vietnamese dishes (we'll get into those gruesome details later). Though we have a local market near us in Thailand, this trip to the market was quite eventful due to its massiveness, its popularity, and the parts that included chopping up meat and de-skinning frogs. I'm going to warn you right now, if you're at all squeamish or feel like you could be disturbed about any animal, be it fish, cow, or frog, being harmed in any way, then you absolutely should NOT read what I'm about to describe. I'm 100% serious. If you're wondering why I would even put this in the blog then, my only answer is the same answer I would use to explain why anything goes in this blog, because I'm sharing my experiences. (You can continue reading after the break). Are you ready? Have I given you enough time to, at the very least, brace yourself? Okay. Well first of all this image accosted us quite suddenly as you turn a corner and there it is, a bucket of live frogs jumping around right next to a woman who is preparing them for selling (if I were to use the world's biggest euphemism). She grabs a frog and swiftly hits its head against a rock and it instantly stops moving. Not just a frog though, she does this with a couple frogs in rapid succession. She then cuts it along the stomach and somehow (I actually wouldn't be able to tell you the specifics here since I myself am watching this through half-glances. Similar to watching a scary movie through the slits of your fingers, but not wanting to be rude, I just did a lot of looking to the left and right while attempting to passively watch the ordeal) she takes the skin off in one quick motion and throws them in another pile. At this point they're still alive, which is probably the most horrifyingly difficult part to watch. I thought at first that maybe they were just contracting their arms and legs as a biological reaction after death, but then Julia saw one hopping. They're actually like this for a minute or so as she does this to a few more frogs. Then, and I'm telling you it just gets harder and harder to watch, she takes scissors and cuts off their heads and legs, just like that (to be completely honest, I'm getting a little shaken as I write this). Of course, the legs still twitch for a good long while after this, even when they're in our pots hours later for cooking, but this part, thankfully, truly is just a biological reaction. I'd say the most interesting part of this is the woman's manner while performing her job. What else can she be but passive and neutral? She has probably been doing this for her entire life. And she probably will pass this on to her kids. And even if this is too much of a presumption, even if she only came into this profession later in life, she has clearly been doing it for some time. Her and everyone around her who has to complete similar tasks look the same as if they're just doing some laundry. You take the clothes, you put them in the washer, then the dryer, then you fold them. You take the live frog, you hit its head on a rock, then cut the skin off, then you cut its head and legs off. I have a video, but maybe I'll save that for sharing my experiences in person. Surprisingly, due to the life experiences I've had up until now, I think I did a fairly good job of remaining detached as well. Yes I was shaken and yes I still get a little frazzled even now, but compared to some other reactions and compared to reactions I'm bound to get from those who haven't been in similar situations, I'd say I can actually understand a bit more of the Asian perspective on animals for sustenance. In America we've been able to distance ourselves as much as possible from the living creature to what ends up on our plate, often completely unaware of what happens miles away in an automatized cattle or pig farm. I might only be speaking for city folks here, but I myself don't often see the animal from beginning to end when using any kind of meat to prepare a meal, but most people here do that every day (this obviously applies more to frogs and fish. They don't just herd pigs and cows in the market, it's not that big.).

The market trip took a few hours and when we got back we got to make spring rolls, a clay pot dish, and as I mentioned, we set stuff on fire for dessert. If we wanted, we could try a Vietnamese delicacy for dessert: balut. A fertilized duck egg with a nearly developed embryo inside, which is boiled and eaten in the shell. Julia and I were actually willing to try this when we were first asked at the market, but they didn't bring it out until we had already finished our three-course meal and they took one completely out of the shell just to show you what it looks like (since you technically eat it by just cracking open the top of the egg and using a spoon). Needless to say we didn't end up eating it. We also got some fun goodies at the end: a cookbook, a wooden spatula, and a grater. To most people I think this was just a fun cherry on top to the cooking class, or even just an inconvenient addition to their luggage, but for us it was actually an incredibly valuable and useful gift since we're lacking in proper cooking supplies at home.

We also got a mud bath here, which they work up to be a sort of spa experience. It involves a short drive to the getaway area in the mountains, a mineral cleansing shower (which is really just a normal shower that you would find on a beach), the mud bath itself, a sun-baking area, and a hot tub to finish off. The mud bath was actually quite fun and though we paid for the cheapest package, which meant we could be in a bath of up to 12 people, we arrived there a couple hours before closing, so we got to do everything for an unlimited amount of time with just the two of us. The mud itself is more silty-water than actual mud, but it feels like taking a bath in a fancy herbal scrub. If you lie down you can float without trying at all, even though the bath is only a few feet deep. We didn't get any pictures since we were worried about bringing the cameras into the area. Even though it was all fake-spa-ie, it was a really fun experience that I would definitely do again.

The next day was our big "booze cruise" with Funky Monkey. Julia did extensive research about this trip to the four islands of Nha Trang and we knew exactly what we were in for for this excursion, unlike some others on the trip. They pick you up in the morning and start off with a trip to the aquarium on the first island. We already knew the aquarium was overpriced and what's worse is that, like many of the zoos and aquariums we've come across in Southeast Asia, they don't take care of their animals the way one would hope. Too many turtles in one tank. Too many species in one tank for that matter. We had planned from the beginning not to pay for the aquarium. The problem with that is since the entire cruise is just a funnel for tourist money, there's literally nothing else to do and nowhere else to go on the island. The only path is from the boat directly to the aquarium. So Jules and I sat for about 45 minutes sneaking the drinks that we brought in our backpack (give us a break, we were on vacation). Let's just say that when everyone else came back out, we were all set to be social and happy. The second island consisted of a snorkeling trip with the gear provided. The reef there was mostly dead so there were really only a handful of fish. Plus if you've been snorkeling in Belize like Julia or in Hawaii like me then this part was especially comical. Of course we knew this already, so we just had fun being in the cool water on a beautiful day. I actually spend a good 20 minutes trying to dive down to get the breathing part that I dropped since it wasn't attached to my mask and another 15 minutes or so imagining a murder mystery-esque story about how the playing cards scattered throughout the bottom of the reef got there. I'm not sure if I'm making it sound boring or fun so I'd like to clarify that both of these activities were actually really fun. It was lunch on the boat after this. But perhaps the highlight of the trip comes from the Funky Monkey band. The chef has a drum set that he's made using pots and pans from the kitchen. It's actually a really creative and almost not terrible sounding drum set. They set up a mic and a guitar and sing the most random English songs they know. They then make every person or group of people come up and sing a song from their country. Due to their limited repertoire, these songs are also songs that, yes everybody knows them, but how did that song get associated with that country when there are literally thousands that are better, perhaps even more widely known. Case in point: Our song for United States was "I Want it That Way" by The Backstreet Boys. After the concert came the floating bar, which was a guy in an inner-tube with handles on the side for us all to hold onto. Lucky thing they were there too because as the waves continuously crashed into us, he would serve us this terrible concoction of what we thought to be dirt-cheap vodka and orange Fanta. Mix that in with a little bit of sea water and you've got yourself the Funky Monkey cocktail. It was hilarious and funny and we all shouted "Yo!" which is apparently the Vietnamese equivalent to "Cheers" or "Salud." We also got to jump off of the roof of the boat and swim around a bit more. The last island was a fairly miserable beachy island that you also had to pay to go on. These Vietnamese man, they have their "let's get the most money out of these suckers" down. Naturally everybody's good and inebriated by this time thanks to that excuse of a drink served in the "floating bar" so it doesn't really matter. As we had read beforehand, if you're looking for a snorkeling adventure, this wasn't it. And if you were hoping for a little more culture, this definitely wasn't it. So unfortunately there were a few unhappy customers in the bunch, but I'd say most of us just laughed along. Plenty of sun was had that day as well so a run to get some Aloe Vera the next day added to my ever increasing medical kit, which now included gauze, medical tape, Panthenol, Neosporin, and Aloe Vera.

Our final day was spent with a few hours lounging on the beach before we were off to Dalat.

We originally were going to go straight from Nha Trang to HCMC but since the bus inconveniently ran from 7 am to 9 pm (rather than being an awesome night bus that would replace the cost of a hotel), we decided to split that trip in half. From the package we could choose to go to Mui Ne, which was described as another beach town but for more of the action/adventure tourist who enjoys water sports, or Dalat, which was described as Vietnam's alter-ego with a French vibe that was an eternal spring because of its pleasant mountain weather. Without a doubt Dalat was the best choice. Ever. We both fell in love with the place. So much so that we would without question live there if we were to live in Vietnam. It's incredibly beautiful with its greenery and flowers and the weather is just perfect. Like April 25th, it's not too hot, not too cold, and all you need is a light jacket. It's also not too big, but not too small. And it's not too overwhelming, but not too boring. It's just the perfect combination in every way.

All right, I wanted to fit all three cities into this entry, but time flew by and since work has started I actually have to go to bed at a decent hour. Hopefully I left you enough to read about before I finish it up!

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Okay here I am two months later ready to finish up my Vietnam trip entry. :)

So a bus ride up the mountain to Dalat brought us to a place where all of the milk in Vietnam seems to be from (although we did not see one cow there). It was a bit difficult to find a place at first since our few Lonely Planet choices were full. Dalat is a relatively small place but all of its streets are winding and extremely confusing, so we got lost multiple times. Eventually we found a place with an owner who looks ALMOST EXACTLY like my mom. She was basically my mom (in stature and looks) but she had rounder eyes. Julia noticed it first and when she pointed it out to me I didn't believe her. But then after that it felt like my mom was showing us the room and taking our passports and telling us about the tour options she has. I wanted to try and sneak a picture but the awkwardness was too much to try to communicate to someone who barely understands English that I wanted a picture of/with her, let alone the reason behind it.

Our first day there, we soaked up the perfect weather with a visit to the market, a walk around the entirety of the absurdly green lake (which was a mistake; the lake definitely looked much smaller than it was and every turn revealed another mile or so and we kept thinking that we were closer to the end than the beginning so we might as well keep going and anyway I looked it up later and the quick walk turned out to be 7 km [or 4.35 miles]), some Vietnamese coffee, and a night out.

There are many chances in Vietnam to get around on an Easy Rider tour, which presumably started out with one dude on a motorcycle trying to convince people that for a certain sum of money, they can hop on the back of his motorbike with all of their belongings and he'll give them the tour of a lifetime. This apparently worked and has become widespread to many parts of Southeast Asia. Vietnam is an easy place because if they catch you in HCMC or Hanoi, they can take you up or down the entire way and suddenly you have your transportation and tour guide set for the rest of your trip. Countries that are less obviously laid out for travel might have a harder time with a set route for travelers. Also, since this form of touring has become so popular there are tons, TONS, of imitation Easy Riders. When the copycats started showing up, the original Easy Riders apparently forked out money for some high-class snazzy blue jackets with the website on the back. But of course, imitators then did the same. It's near impossible to figure out which one is the legitimate original company, but it's not 100% necessary to find the OG Riders, just as long as you still end up with a legitimate company.

For most of the places we visited so far, it was more cost-efficient and made more sense to do our own tours via walking. Though you miss out on a few Wats, temples, and fields of nature, we decided to save our money for things like museums, cooking classes, delicious foods and drinks, and the like. Much of what makes Dalat a fun getaway is what surrounds the city (in Lonely Planet, the 6-page chapter is called "Dalat & Around". To give perspective, the chapter on Hanoi alone is 40 pages.). The main things to do in town are to see the lake, the market, and the "Crazy House," a Disney-like structure that I'll talk about in a bit. So we booked a full day Easy Rider and it was definitely an awesome decision. Our day started with a visit to the Dragon Pagoda, which also had a bit of an amusement park feel with its huge dragon statue looping around the majority of the garden in front.

Blogspot won't let me save this without publishing, so I guess my draft will have to be posted. More to come.