Vung Tau

Last weekend I went to a beach close to Ho Chi Minh City, and it was...not the greatest. Unlike Mui Ne, the beach that I went to early in my trip here, Vung Tau is a purely Vietnamese beach--it doesn't really have much appeal to many expats. It's a place where the Vietnamese go on the weekends to get away from the city. This is why, when I called ahead to book a room in a cheap hotel, none of them spoke enough English to do so. Thus, when I got there, I had to pay way more than I wanted to ($30 a night), and I was cranky about it.

The Vietnamese don't like the sun; as I've said in older posts, white skin is a status symbol. So they go to the beach and plop down under umbrellas. Also, the women don't really wear bathing suits for modesty reasons, I'm guessing, so they swim in their clothes--shirts and shorts, usually. This made me the only pale person on the beach, the only one in the sun, and the only one showing any skin. (I wore my tankini top, so as not to blind people with my tummy, and I kept my shorts on. Scandalous.) Needless to say, I was the entertainment of the day. I was gawked at, talked about, and yelled at (I pretended not to notice). Not conducive to relaxation.


Incidentally, Vung Tau is home to one of the largest Jesus statues in Asia, as well as this random abandoned mansion.



The photo album is here.

Nothing really eventful happened on this trip, except that I got very flustered and anxious and sunburned. Not an awesome combination. But hey, look, some Engrish!


Mmmmm, I love mouse chocolate, but only when it is made from Italian Chef.

Miscellany (sp?)

I'm currently at a high-stress point in my time here, with work, my personal life, etc. Lately I've been a combination of angry and exasperated pretty much all the time, and it has prevented me from having very many deep thoughts that I would want to share here.

(Side note: the most random people have "stumbled upon" my blog and talked to me about it. I guess if you put in a few phrases in Google regarding my name, my company, or the country, you get the blog. For example, my coworker Thu, whose wedding I attended and blogged about, read it with her husband--they said they had searched "Baseline" (my office name) and found it. Lucky for me, they weren't offended by what I had written. But I've also had a few random people who I've seen in bars find the blog, and that combined with the other thing is making me think more about what I post. This isn't a journal, it's public, and I have to remember that.)

So. Because I don't have any really good stories to put up right now, I have some photos:

Ginger and Chilli, being cats.

"Take a load of your feet" at a place called Texas BBQ,
where they make a really good bacon cheeseburger

A plethora of crocodiles at an amusement park/zoo--these appear to be the "reserve crocs," the ones on break while their brethren lurk around in the swamp area

Dam Sen Amusement Park

Le Pub, my most frequent hangout. During the week the have drink specials, such as $1 vodka mixers or $1 gin and tonics. Saigon Beer (which is pretty decent, in my opinion) is $1 all the time. And it's really nice, air conditioned with a patio, and the people are friendly. Whenever I go, I run into someone I know. This is also where quiz night happens on Tuesdays.

So, there it is. I hope to be more inspired soon.

How this will change me

I was out with some girlfriends last night, entertaining a woman from Paris who had come to Ho Chi Minh to work with my company, who is publishing a few books with her. This was her first time in Asia, and as we were sitting in a bar after dinner we just started talking about how different it is. She had been to Singapore before coming to Saigon, but when asked to describe Singapore, she said "It's a lot like London." I haven't been there, but I've heard it's true--the laws are very strict regarding littering and other activity that could look the least bit unclean, and there are cameras everywhere. So, it feels like London.

She then looked around the street outside the bar, at the women with children selling gum and tissues for money (to give to men probably hiding in the shadows, watching them), the vendors selling sunglasses and lighters and pot...and she was just like "I will never see people the same way again."

And it's just so true. I am glad to be here for several practical reasons, the main one being that it is waaaaay more affordable to live here than it is to live in the States right now, even on my low salary. The less practical reasoning is that, because I do know that I want and, for my vague career goals, need to go back to the States to start working my way up the publishing ladder, this experience is giving me a new set of eyes--a set that has seen this part of the world, and is learning just how different it really is.

Ok, I started writing the above paragraphs a few days ago, and then ran out of steam on what I was saying, and now that I'm going back to it I can't quite pick it up again. But there you have it--some random thoughts on living here.

Hopefully I'll have some more interesting things to write about soon.

Happy Valentine's Day from Vietnam

Why, hello!

I don't really believe in Valentine's Day, as holidays go. My hippie views push me towards believing that if you love someone, you should express that every day. I know the day started as a Saint's day, but now it's just a reminder to do something that we don't do enough of in our daily lives.

That little disclaimer aside, I'd love to wish all of you lots of love today. I love you. Yes, you. Sitting in front of your computer, reading my little blogeroni. I'd hug you if I were there, but because I'm not I'll just pretend like I have super powers and squint my eyes and mentally send you a hug, mk?

Mk.

I hugged an elephant and I liked it

After standing under the waterfall, my tour guide took be to a smaller temple that is supposedly a great sunset spot. It was, in fact, a great sunset spot, but the most exciting thing was that I hugged an elephant. Here's me being awkward about it, because every time she shifted her weight I flinched. Elephants are huge, and kind of daunting.

Also, these pictures are all slightly blurry because I didn't want to use the flash and possibly scare her.

Ok, and here's a sunset photo. Just for you.

There are more photos added to this album, and I just made an album here of the last temple, which was very Indiana Jones-esque. The only way to really see the temple was to scramble over the ruins, climbing over stones that are hundreds of years old. Hundreds. Of. Years. Old. Crazy.

Me vs. the Waterfall

So, I have a story to tell. On day 2 at Siem Reap, I decided to go to some temples that are more off the beaten path. One of these was the temple of Banteay Srei, whose photos appear at the end of this album. It is one of the most detailed temples in the area, known for its intricate carvings and blah blah blah. Sorry, I'm just not up for talking about that one right now.

The "temple" that really got to me was Kbal Spean, the "Temple of One Thousand Lingas," which was created some time between the 11th and 13th centuries. Now, for those of you not up to speed on your Hinduism, the linga is the phallic symbol. This "temple"--which I keep putting in quotation marks because it wasn't really a temple--was actually a stream bed covered and surrounded by carvings of religious figures and symbols, including the linga. Like this:


All of those raised circles are lingas, and have been there, in that stream for around 800 years. It's a bit insane to think about. Because the water runs over these carvings, it is considered sacred; at the time, people from nearby villages would come here to bathe themselves when they were sick or, in the case of women, when they wished to get pregnant but were having trouble. These people would bathe in the water, and then carry buckets of it back to their villages for others who could not hike the 1500 km up into the forest to get it. This practice is still somewhat in effect today, and when we got there, there were others already bathing. (You can see all my photos here.) Some tourists had decided to try it, and I thought "Why not?" However, I started overthinking it, and the water was cold, so this is as far as i got:


Lame, huh? So. I did this, and then me and Thon, my guide and moto driver, hiked back down. All the way down the mountain I was thinking, "I should have gone under that waterfall. That would have been an amazing experience." But I had chickened out--half-assed it, in a way. And I started feeling really bad about it in the pit of my stomach, thinking about how I didn't want to have any regrets from this trip. It was nagging at me, that I should do this.

Thon and I got to the bottom, and had some late lunch. After much thought, I turned to him and told him that I wanted to go back up and go in the waterfall. I assured him I wouldn't take that long, since this time I wouldn't be stopping for tourist information, and I had a clear goal. He laughed and shrugged and said ok. So I went back, because I wanted to.


I know this isn't really that big of a deal, but to me it was, because it was a moment where I had initially acted based on reservations--I was worried about getting wet, about looking silly, there were lots of people there...but then I thought that all that was stupid. How many chances will I get to bathe under a sacred 800-year-old waterfall? Just one, maybe. So going back was me making a clear decision (which, as most of you know, is not my forte) to go after something that I wanted. And afterwards, I felt great about it.


So, I got soaked, got some photos, and hiked back down. Thon had sat at the cafe with the cafe lady, and they both laughed at me when i trekked back down, dripping wet. Thon was like, "You did it!" And I felt fabulous.

And then I went and hugged an elephant. But more on that later.

Arielle Datz, Tomb Raider

On the first full day in Angkor, the day that I rented the bicycle, I went to see Ta Prohm (full photos here), which is a temple that has not been fully restored like many of the others, but rather has been reclaimed by the forest. Many people call it the "Tomb Raider" temple, because parts of that movie were filmed here; Angelina Jolie's character entered a doorway in one of the trees, and entered some sort of magical world, i.e. movie set. I think it's kind of sad that this temple is now considered cool because of this action movie, and not because of its history and architectural prowess, but that's just me.


These trees are enormous. And still very much alive, and still growing. As I was walking around the temple, I started imagining a dialogue of sorts:

Temple: (booming voice) I am a symbol of the greatness of King Jayavarman VII, the living evidence of his power and his devotion to the Gods!!!

Trees: Yeah, well, I'm thirsty. Shove over. (Grows directly over walls)


It's just evidence that nature wins. And it was incredibly beautiful, the kind of thing that makes people feel very small. In a good way.


UH-mazing.

Temples, temples, and more temples...

So, on day one in Angkor Wat I rented a bicycle for $2, and decided to ride around the inner cluster of temples.

After seeing Angkor Wat, I biked over to another smaller temple, and started talking with this guy Brian (pictured), and we stuck together for the day, biking around together. It was nice wandering aimlessly around the temples with someone rather than on my own.

The photos are here, of the Bayon with all of its faces, and of a few smaller temples. Also, there were macaque monkeys all over the complex, and they were super used to having people around. This one guy asked me to take a picture of him petting one of them, which took courage--you don't know what diseases those little guys can carry. The guy also gave one of them some food, which the monkey then tasted and then threw down on the ground. It was hilarious and adorable. "No! I reject this!" and then he turned his back.

Enjoy the photos. This weekend I'll put up photos from Ta Prohm, the temple that is overrun by trees.

Siem Reap

On Monday I took a bus from Siem Reap, and arrived in the evening. I went up to Angkor for the sunset from Pre Rup, and to buy my hugely expensive (but worth it) three-day pass for the temples.

On Tuesday, I rented a bike for the day to do the "small circuit" of temples--Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and the Bayon (the temples adorned with heads of Avilokiteshvara, a bodhisattva), and Ta Prohm, the "Lara Croft" temple with the trees going over it.

I took many more photos from this day, but I'm only uploading one Facebook album at a time, and trying to blog accordingly. So the photos here have Pre Rup and Angkor Wat in them, and the next batch will have more.

Phnom Penh

So, after the 2 day/1 night boat trip from Saigon, we landed in Phnom Penh. By "landed," I mean "arrived by van." The tour included one night in a hotel, but the catch was that you couldn't have a single. I was the only person traveling alone in the tour group, but a lovely family from Melbourne invited me to share one of their rooms--there were 4 of them, so the hotel was giving them 2 double rooms, but they didn't each need their own bed, so they gave me one. It was super nice of them.

The next day I moved to another hotel (the one included in the tour package was too pricey for me), and took off wandering. Here are the rest of the photos from Phnom Penh.

This photo is from the temple of Wat Phnom, which is a small temple on the only hill in the city. I also went to the Golden Palace and the Silver Pagoda, where the Royal Family used to reign (I think they still do, and that's why many parts of the complex were barred to the public, and why you couldn't take photos inside the buildings). They made me rent a pair of pants to cover up my legs, since I was wearing shorts. They were bright green, and looked smashing with my bright turquoise top. Check out the photo album.

While there I met a guy named Jeff, and we wandered around the city together for the rest of the day. I also went to the Killing Fields, where Pol Pot sent many people to be massacred during the Khmer Rouge regime. That was...bright and cheery. I decided to pass up the Genocide Museum, which is more graphic than the Killing Fields, from which most of the bodies have been removed. So...I opted for one depressing tourist destination, instead of two.

On Sunday, I did my souvenir shopping at the Russian Market, which is called that because the Russians used to shop there. Then I went on the Hash, because I had run out of things to do. It was an adventure--40 km in the back of a truck, and then we got on a ferry to go to an island, where the runners got lost. Good thing I don't run.

Anyway, that's that. More pictures coming soon!

From Saigon to Phnom Penh

...on a boat.

This was a many-legged voyage. We started in Saigon, and took a bus for 3 hours to get to the Mekong. Then we were on this boat for about 2 hours, stopping to get a tour of a coconut candy factory and a rice paper factory. Then we made a lunch stop, got back on the boat, then got back on a bus to go to Chau Doc, the town where we stayed for night 1.

Day 2: We got up super early and had a tour by row-boat of the floating village and the Cham village (Cham is a Muslim minority group in Vietnam), and then headed toward Cambodia. Many more hours on a boat, followed by a few on a bus, and we were in Phnom Penh.

Sorry to not be more descriptive, but I'm a bit tired today. Here is the first photo album. Enjoy!

Jambo, Cambo!

So. I just got back from Cambodia, and realized that I took 800 pictures. That's a LOT. So I'm in the process of figuring out the best way to get them online--Facebook is currently being a petulant child and only uploading select photos, while relegating the others to tiny black and white icon status, Picassa only allows the upload of 5 photos at a time, because my Mac is old, and I simply cannot post 800 photos up on this hear blog.

Moreover, I had a fantastic time, and cannot decide whether to be verbose or short-and-sweet with my retelling. It'll probably be a mixture of both.

Here are the highlights, and perhaps tomorrow I'll write more about the opening days:

First, I took a 2 day/1 night boat tour up the Mekong Delta, which made a few stops and finally ended up at Phnom Penh. Stayed there a few days, then went by bus to Siem Reap and spent Monday through Thursday exploring the temples of Angkor Wat and the surrounding areas. After that, went further north to a city called Battambang, where I stayed for a day before returning to Phnom Penh for another weekend. Caught an early bus today (Monday) back to Ho Chi Minh City. And here I am.

This trip has left me tanner (an unprecedented occurrence, although I am weirdly tan: ring line, necklace line, sock line, shorts line...), bruised (from knocking myself on rocks, etc.), sore (from biking 20 km and hiking around all over, mosquito bitten (although not that much), and generally exhausted.

However, on this trip I met tons of really interesting, really nice people, biked 20 km around the 1000-year-old temples of Angkor Wat, climbed over some of said temples in true Indiana Jones style, hiked into a mountain site covered with religious carvings and doused myself under a sacred waterfall (see above photo, post-dousing), hugged an elephant, chatted with some monks, read a bunch of novels, and generally felt great doing it. I wrote in my journal a lot, had a lot of time in my own head, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

So, that's the run down. As far as photos go, I am determined to share my experiences with you through them (Hello, I HUGGED an ELEPHANT and I have proof), just as soon as I figure out how to handle it. I will probably put a batch up every day, so as not to completely overwhelm my computer/the internet. You'll just have to stay tuned.

More tomorrow.

A

I'm not in a black hole...

...I'm in Cambodia. Back in Saigon on Monday evening. I took a TON of pictures, so much so that I had to buy a new memory card to accommodate them, so I'll be posting way more when I have reliable internet access.

K bye!

OMG I fed an elephant!

This morning I went to the zoo with Julia and Wallace, and it was a pleasant morning. I will put more photos up on Facebook as soon as it works again, but for now I shall just give you this:


Needless to say, I wanted to take her home and name her Fluffy.

Stuff from all over, and Vietnamese nightlife

The pictures in the post are slightly irrelevant to what I'm writing about. Just so you know.

First, a picture of some miniature pancakes that I made. One was shaped perfectly like a fishie. I was rather proud. And, of course, I ate it first.


I took a walk to the backpacker district to buy my boat ticket to Cambodia, and started thinking about the way nightlife works here. There are plenty of streets with shops on them, and giant markets where you can go and buy everything that you could possibly want, and yet...shopping happens mostly at night, out on the street.


For example, there is a street near my house called Nguyen Trai, which is lined mostly with clothing and shoe boutiques. These remain largely empty during the day. At night, these and other vendors spread out big tarps on the sidewalks and sell their wares--handbags, shoes, clothes, helmets, jewelry, wallets, belts, etc. And the street gets packed! On my walk back from getting my ticket, I had to a) walk in the street because the sidewalks were full (not an uncommon occurrence in this city) and b) be extra careful because people were cruising by on their motorbikes to check out the merchandise.

(This is an ox made of San Miguel cans, btw. It stands next to the Coke Castle pictured below.)

Moreover, in places like Ben Thanh Market, which is an ENORMOUS market that sells everything, the market itself closes at 5, but then all the vendors move their stuff outside to tents. That's when the market gets really busy, is when the shopping moves outside at night. I suppose this makes sense, if everyone is working or at school during the day; the only time they would be able to go shopping would be at night. I don't entirely understand why the markets don't just stay open later, but...maybe people just like buying stuff when it's "off the street" then when it's on a mannequin in a store window.

I'm usually too tired during the week to venture out and actually shop here. In general, shopping in this country is overwhelming and exhausting, simply because they don't really understand the concept of browsing. As soon as you approach a vendor, or walk into a store, you will have 3 or 4 salespeople bombarding you will "Hello! You want this? Or this? Or maybe this?" and if you even glance at something specifically they will be like "Oh, you like this?! We have it in a million colors and sizes! Here, try!" and I just want to run away.

One of these nights I'll muster up the energy to go out there and seriously check it out.

What Saigon smells like

Here is a list, made in my head while walking from place to place, of the things one can smell in the streets of Saigon:

exhaust
sewage
fish
barbecue
waffles
cigarettes
dirt

I will probably update this later, when another odor strikes me.

Chúc mừng năm mới!

That means "Happy New Year!" in Vietnamese, if you hadn't guessed.

I have no pictures from New Year's Eve or Day, really, because my camera has begun sucking batteries dry while it's off. Which gives me the lovely surprise of turning on my camera after putting in fresh batteries the night before and having it immediately turn itself off and greet me with a "please change batteries" message. Thank you, camera. I'm thinking of replacing it with a better one if I save up some money. We'll see...

So, I had a luxurious New Year's Eve, very low-key, drinking champagne and eating cheese and tapenade and scones with Julia and Emilie. For New Year's Day we went to a pool to swim and lay out, then had a late lunch (for me: steamed clams with lemongrass, and a North Vietnamese noodle soup with beef and herbs), followed by a nap. Feel completely relaxed, and do not want to go to work tomorrow, but will suck it up.

I hope everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable 2008, and I wish everyone an even better 2009. Happy New Year!

As Promised

From Sunday night:




L'haim, everyone!

The Holidays in 'Nam, continued...

Just sharing a few more photos to show how insane the Vietnamese get with Christmas decorations. This is Le Loi Street, which is one of the main streets in Ho Chi Minh City. All lit up, I would call it Vietnam's answer to the Champs-Élysée. Except that the Champs-Élysée is classy, and Le Loi looks like the Christmas spirit vomited all over it. I know this picture is blurry, but it shows both the lights and the traffic:


And this is Saigon Centre, which is a big mall on Le Loi. The square in front of it was filled with people taking pictures in front of the lights, as well as many Vietnamese Santas selling things like light-up tiaras, Santa hats, and other miscellaneous goodies.


It was pretty blinding, that's for sure. Also, I took a picture of my menorah yesterday, the last day of Hannukah (and yes, I realize that I'm spelling it different every time. Sue me.), but I can't be bothered to upload it yet. When I do, I'll post it.

Cheers!

Shots from my holidays

Here is my homemade menorah, from a few nights ago. I put it in the foyer of our house, since everything is tiled and there's nothing that could catch on fire out there. Plus, it means people passing by can see it through our front gate.

For Christmas day "dinner," a few friends and I went to a big fancy hotel on the river for a Christmas brunch buffet. This was an absolute feast, complete with a million kinds of main dish (lobster, duck, goose, ham, steak, turkey, sushi, salmon, etc.), and unlimited wine. Needless to say, we started drinking champagne at about 11:30 a.m. and didn't stop until 6. However, we were eating a lot and frequently chasing down a tiny child, so we didn't really have the opportunity to eat or drink ourselves into oblivion. I think that this is a good thing.

Here is a shot of part of the buffet:


In dessertland, there was a little village made entirely of chocolate cake.


And the lobby had a gorgeous tree, which Wallace adored. That's her, in her new Christmas dress (you can't see the chocolate all over the front).


All in all, a great day. We stayed at the hotel for about 5 hours, eating and drinking and talking, then went to a restaurant nearby for happy hour, and continued our sparkling wine revelry. Around 7, I went with Julia and the Walrus back to their place to put the little one to bed, and Julia and I watched Hot Fuzz on HBO and finished a bottle of red wine that she had. It was great.

Unfortunately, today (Friday the 26th) I have work. I will do my best (or...almost my best) to be productive.

Hope all of you had wonderful holidays, spent with friends or family or both, surrounded by love. I'm sending you some from over here; hope it makes it all that distance.

Hugs and Kisses,

A