My SE Asia Solo Trip! (Part 2: Vietnam)

From Bangkok I flew into Hanoi, and I have to say that my first impression of Vietnamese people was already great! Even at the BKK airport, I observed that the ladies were all wearing skirts (reminiscent of Barcelona) and the guys were all very talkative and jolly while waiting for our flight. When I got into my hostel in Hanoi, the owner invited me to family-styled dinner the next day, and was extremely helpful with setting me up with a self-guided walking tour map of the city, telling me where the train station was, and recommending a cruise for Halong Bay. The receptionists I had at the hostel were very cheeky (in a good way), and it was a fun first intro to local Vietnamese people.

Some obligatory tourist pictures from Hanoi:

 
The city of Hanoi has always held my curiosity, because one of my high school friends who had set out traveling/volunteering through SE Asia had decided to stay there for more than a year. I could only describe the city as vibrant and crazy. The sidewalks are treacherous; there are numerous motorbikes haphazardly parked on the sidewalks, and the pavement would be randomly missing entire chunks of tiles and having dirt and rocks sticking out of the ground. I tripped several times walking along while admiring window displays, before I realized that if I didn't start looking down, I could actually hurt myself walking! Sometimes, randomly you would also see motorbikes riding on the sidewalk (god knows why), and they would honk at you because you're in their way. On the sides of the streets, there are many places to eat and drink, and very uniquely, people sit on tiny stools, very close to the ground, when they stop in these street food establishments. During my daytime roaming I thought it didn't look that comfortable, but at night when I headed out with some other travelers from my hostel, it was actually really fun to sit on the little stools on the curb, only inches away from heavy traffic, and drinking their delicious local brew (costing 10000 VND, or 50 cents USD) in front of one of the mini-mart type of stores. It was actually weird to see full-out pubs in Hanoi, because I think those cater to the Western travelers. At the stools places, a typical "table" shared by multiple people is another small stool; only when we went across the street to grab a second drink did we get upgraded to a low plastic table (still low to the ground, but bigger in area).

After a day in Hanoi, I headed off to a two-day cruise in Halong Bay. I feel that I should mention that I went with a very budget cruise called Fantasea, and had an absolutely terrific time.

Beforehand, I had read sosoSO many things online about choosing a Halong Bay cruise from the many, and in the end I just went with my hostel's recommendation. It was for the best, because apparently all the young and single and fun people decided to choose the same cruise (we are all cheap -- cheaper than people traveling with their families, anyway), and together we had a fantastic time aboard. On the first day, we went to a cheesy cave, canoed in the ocean, hiked a bit, swam, and returned to the boat to enjoy the sunset and have yummy dinner.

 
THE FOOD WAS AMAZING! And the cruise boat rooms had hot showers and real bathrooms; more than I could have hoped for considering it was a budget cruise. That night, we played a fun drinking game called Ring of Fire; since we were all from different countries, it was half in English and half in Danish, and all parts crazy. The next morning, my roommate and I rose up early to do yoga on the deck at sunrise, and it was sooo relaxing! What an amazing experience to be able to see those beautiful islands both at dusk and dawn.

Here, by the way, is a picture representing the sweltering heat of Halong Bay; the "manly" boys from Denmark decided to cave in and buy fans; I had been using a fan which I collected for free in Singapore throughout my trip, and believe me -- in 35 or more degrees of stifling heat (Celsius), you are grateful to have even an ugly tourist fan to use.

After Halong Bay, I took a night train from Hanoi (in the north) to Hoi An (in the middle of the country), that lasted about 14 hours. I was relieved that there were no bed bugs on this train, because I had heard some horror stories from fellow travelers about finding hundreds of bed bugs in the seams of their train mattresses, and I was pretty anxious about this. But, the train I took was great and seemed clean, and there was even a flushable toilet and hot water on board! Once I got to Danang (which is where the train stops), it was a bit of an adventure finding the local bus that would take me to Hoi An. I learned to sign "bus" by drawing a big rectangle and (more importantly) signalling a wide steering wheel. After signing to a few people and writing down "Bus to Hoi An" on a sheet of paper, I managed to find my way to the bus stop (unlike my unlucky Spanish friend, who arrived a day later and was taken for a ride by a motorbike taxi, taken to the middle of nowhere, running into "a mafia guy", and eventually forcing her to pay to go all the way on the motorbike to Hoi An).

I had no idea what to expect in Hoi An when I arrived, but I learned during my short stay there that: It has a nice beach, "the nicest in Vietnam." I went to the beach and thought it was OK. Hoi An has amazing shopping, as I can attest to personally. Westerners flock there to get clothes tailored, apparently, because it has over 600 tailors in town, and some of them (the recommended ones) can make very nice suits for very cheap. I will say that I did not know this going in, but I noticed immediately that each store only has one size for each dress, and if it doesn't fit you perfectly, they offer to make another one to size, for the same price, overnight. A dress runs typically 25 USD, even though you can get it a bit cheaper if you bargain. I bought 3 dresses in Hoi An (I couldn't help it; the shopping was too good). Two of them I am supremely happy with, and one of them not so happy with. What this means is that tailors and shops can differ substantially in quality, and even with multiple fittings prior to pickup, it's still a hit-or-miss when it comes to quality and fit. But, if you can get the right stuff (ie. I had a work dress made, of nice material and design and looks "formal", for 25 USD), it can be very worth it. I also bought some rice-paper paintings and a vintage Vietnamese propaganda poster home.

Hoi An looks something like this, historical, bustling, and quaint:

Speaking of which, in Hoi An I started to learn about the horrible things Americans did during the Vietnam War (besides Agent Orange). In Hoi An I took an amazing bike tour of 3 islands nearby (see pictures below), and because there were only 2 of us on the tour, the tour guide opened up and told us all kinds of things about herself and Vietnam. One of the horrible things I learned is that because American soldiers used to rape Vietnamese women, the old ladies you see today with very black teeth are actually ladies who used very strong chemicals to darken their teeth in order to look unattractive and to protect themselves. Unfortunately, the chemicals stain permanently. Also, in the mountains near Hoi An there were hundreds of land mines, up until 3 years ago when the Vietnamese government finally went in and cleared them all. Up until then, about once a year there would still be innocent deaths from the land mines. In Hoi An, there is a shop just beyond the Japanese covered bridge that sells vintage propaganda posters, and most of them say to kill Americans and to free the country of invaders. The posters were very interesting to see, because they were the other side of the war story, which we didn't learn about in school. I ended up buying a generic Communism propaganda poster that has these huge hands holding a field and machines, and at the bottom it says in Vietnamese: "Labor. Happiness. Abundance."

Hoi An also happened to have a full moon ancestor celebration during my stay there. I bought a candle to release into the canal, and you can see from a distance many floating candles, which matched the beautiful lanterns everywhere. They also lit incense for their ancestors and put them out near the trees and corners of buildings.

During my day-long bike tour to the islands, we passed by a local wedding, visited a noodle-making lady (and her pigs), and rode through ridiculously beautiful rice paddies with water buffaloes and floating bamboo bridges (which had attached toll booths, also made of bamboo!).

We also visited some people who made straw mats, seeing the process of cutting, dying the straws, and finally weaving.

 
And, the MOST memorably, we visited a lady who weaves circular basket boats, which back during French occupation was a way to evade taxes on boats because they didn't look like boats when the inspectors would come around. Here is me trying to row the basket boat; it is NOT EASY! The old lady made it look mad easy, but you have to row in a C formation in front of the boat, else the boat would just spin in circles instead of moving forward. When I finally finished, the cute old lady was so happy for me. :)

By the way, the basket boat has an advertised capacity of 3 people. But, as it turns out, that probably means 3 small Vietnamese people, and the tour guide said that one time a huge European man had gotten into the boat, and as soon as he sat down, the boat sank so much that it was barely above the water line. As he rowed, water started to come in over the brim, and the boat started to sink halfway through the stream. That's both tragic and funny; never judge yourself by Vietnamese capacity standards, I guess!

 
All in all, it was a glorious day. We also visited another pearl-inlaying workshop, an ice-making shop, and a fisherman boat-building workshop. It was all very interesting to see how this little community self-sustains in their traditional way of life! And, from that day I made a very lovely friend Tara, whom I hung out with the next morning as well.

My last morning in Hoi An was another early one; I went to check out a Cham temple in the mountains at 5am. We were able to see a gorgeous sunrise en route, and the ruins were empty except for our mini bus. (There are not that many people so eager to wake up so early, I see.) Our tour guide was fantastic -- enthusiastic, funny as hell, and full of knowledge. He kept pointing things out and was genuinely infectious in his joy for the work. He also kept saying, "Same same," which is adorable. (Vietnamese people I guess have this running joke that things are "Same same" when they are in fact totally different. For example, "Guess what my favorite animal is." "Tigers?" "No, hippos. But same same.") It was a very lovely way to wrap up my stay in Hoi An!

After Hoi An, I made a decision to take a night bus to Saigon (aka. Ho Chi Minh City, but Saigon is easier for me to type and say, so I'll stick to that), because I didn't want to press my luck with the bed bugs aboard sleeper trains. Well, these sleeper busses are quite a sight; there are 2 height levels, and 3 rows of beds that recline all the way down. The seats are of plastic cover, so it's less likely to be bed bug-infested, I guess. The ride is quite bumpy, as the busses drive only on local roads (like all Asian long-distance busses I took). Because there are lots of backpackers on these trains, mixed with locals, it has an interesting vibe. As the busses I've taken before, they make pit stops for food and bathroom about every 6 hours, so it's a good idea not to drink too much water if you have a small bladder like me. On the bus, I saw another sunrise, but otherwise it was not very exciting. I think from Hoi An to Saigon was 23 hours, broken up into two legs. (Only I and two other Brits on my bus did both legs consecutively. Most other sane people hopped off at Na Trung or something, for the beach.)

Once in Saigon, I only had 2.5 days. I really wanted to go to the Mekong Delta (a big mistake in hindsight), so I booked a two-day tour to the Mekong, and booked a half-day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. After having come from the north, I was sorely disappointed that the Mekong Delta tour was so touristy -- there were like 50 to 100 tourists at every stop, and every 30 minutes they were asking us to buy stuff. Otherwise, what we saw could have been quite cool. (Visiting a bee far, seeing how coconut candy is made, being rowed in a boat through a jungle canal, and eating tropical fruits.)

 
The best part was when we visited, on Day 2, a Vietnamese floating market. After having been to Bangkok, I was particularly curious how this one would differ. IT WAS TOTALLY DIFFERENT! The floating market in the Mekong Delta is actually a wholesaler produce market, and they signify what they sell by sticking one of their products on the top of a long pole and hoisting it up. I got to hang out with an awesome elderly Australian lady for the day; she has traveled the world and was setting out on a 5-month journey, mostly solo. We caved into temptations and bought a fresh pineapple to share, and it was delicious right off the cob.

On Day 2, we also visited a noodle making "factory", which is a much larger-scaled operation than the little noodle-maker we had seen on the bike tour.

When we walked through a local market, we were keeping our eyes peeled for opportunities to try eating a snake, but when we did eventually find them, there didn't seem to be a way to cook them on the spot! When Geoff heard this story, he said that 10 years ago when he took a bus from Laos to China, there was a man next to him carrying a bucket of these water snakes for the entire trip. Amazing.

And, on my last day in Saigon, I had a most excellent visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels, during which I asked the tour guide lots of questions about the Vietnam War, and learned that it is going to take Vietnam over 100 years to clean up Agent Orange, if each year it spends 100 million USD in that effort. It's just so sad. We went to a handicapped handicraft workshop, similar to many others around the country, where the government trains disabled people (many of them are results of Agent Orange) to do one step in creating a handicraft that can be sold. To see how the Vietnamese government is trying to help, to know that the American government is responsible for some of these people's physical conditions, and to get an opportunity to buy their handicraft, was something I didn't anticipate going into the Cu Chi tour. I know that history is always told on two sides, but I feel strongly that it is the duty of every American to go at some point to Vietnam, and to ask the difficult questions of what happened.

Here are some pictures of the tunnel, the food the Viet Congs used to eat, and the weapons on showcase there from the American side. At the Cu Chi Tunnels you can also see old booby traps that were placed inside the tunnels so that American soldiers who tried to get in would get trapped. Back then, Americans had the AK47s and machine guns and bombs, and the Vietnamese only had their brains and bamboo-made weapons. Considering this, they did amazingly well in the war! You cannot help but admire their cleverness and resourcefulness when you see the remains of what they made.

At the Cu Chi Tunnels, the tour guide told me that the Vietnamese version of the story is that Americans went in and started the war, due to fears of the domino effect of communism. They say that there was never a full division of North/South Vietnam, much less a civil war, until the Americans went in to set up a puppet government in the South. Even in the South, Viet Congs (communist sympathizers) were about 40% of the population, and the Americans bombed their villages (for example, the area near the Cu Chi Tunnels) daily, and guillotines were used to publicly execute some people who were suspected of being Viet Congs. Living in Germany and thinking about how the U.S. had handled the Vietnamese communist politics very differently from how it had handled the German communist politics during the Cold War, I feel the palpable differences between where those countries are today. I feel strongly that as Americans we are responsible for going to Vietnam to get a local version of the story (whether or not you think it is "true"), because they still refer to us as "The Enemy" when they talk about the past, and it is amazing that they say there is forgiveness and "now everything is OK...", because if someone came over to the U.S. and dumped toxic chemicals all over our land, I can tell you that in 30 years things will not be OK with that country. So, if you get a chance, go to Vietnam, because when they talk about how they felt about us 20 or 30 years ago, you can easily imagine that that might be how Iraqis and Afghans feel about us today.

In the end, I decided that I really loved the Vietnamese people. Everyone I met was so absolutely great and genuine, and they are obviously a very industrious people. One of the tour guides told me that Vietnamese people work 16 hours a day, 360 days a year. I don't doubt it, as you can see shops still open till about midnight, and if you get up early in the morning, they're already up and about. If you want to go to Vietnam, go now before their country gets overrun and spoiled by tourists. I came home full of stories about Vietnam, and I told Geoff that together we have to go back at some point to this absolutely gorgeous country!!!

Next: On to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore!

My SE Asia Solo Trip! (Part 1: Thailand)

HI! I am back!! And, definitely a more relaxed and tanned version of my previous self. :) My solo trip was, in short, unforgettable. It was everything I had hoped it would be, and more. I think I am going to write down something about this experience, so you can either hang along for the ride, or just skip the next couple of blog posts and come back once school starts up.

Originally, I had planned my trip as such: I would fly into and out of Singapore, because to there the flights were the cheapest from Berlin. (Around 900 USD round trip.) I would spend about a month in between, because any less than that, it simply wouldn't be worth it going so far, and any more it would just be cruel and unusual to Geoff. I had hoped to meet up with some friends in SE Asia, considering that I knew people who are living in Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. As it turned out though, flights through South Korea and Taiwan would add too much cost to my trip, so I decided to keep it local and travel only by train and busses in parts of the contiguous SE Asia. The week before my trip (after the in-laws finished their recent visit), I laid out a very rough itinerary as such:

Singapore --> Phuket --> Chiangmai --> Bangkok --> Hanoi (including Halong Bay) --> Hue (maybe) --> Hoi An --> Ho Chi Minh City --> Kuala Lumpur --> Singapore

I say it is a rough itinerary, because even after brief researching, I already realized that it would be ambitious to cover so much distance in a month, especially because the only legs I would plan to fly were from Bangkok --> Hanoi and from Ho Chi Minh City --> Kuala Lumpur. Both intra-Asia flights were determined by the fact that I didn't want to spend more time going through Laos and getting another tourist visa. (Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand do not require advance visa for U.S. citizens, and I already mentioned in a previous post that I had gone through the process of getting a Vietnamese visa in Berlin.) But, as my trip rolled on and I learned to pace myself, I found to my delight that it was actually indeed possible to go through all of those spots in a month (even though it is admittedly rushed)!

Some logistics first, for those of you who might consider traveling / "backpacking" through SE Asia in the future and would have limited time to do so: I figured out quickly that if time is an issue, then I needed to think ahead always one city in advance. As soon as I got into a new location, I would spend the next morning buying train or bus tickets for leaving that city. Even though this sounds like a hassle, this is a good idea because often those train/bus tickets would sell out a day in advance, and this way you can be sure that you're not wasting time idling in a city when you already wish to move on. It also helps you to plan concretely how many full days you will actually have in the current city, in order to book tours or to plan/extend your lodging. Also, I know that extended travelers tend to feel OK with rolling up to a new place with no hostel yet booked, but I found it easier to just always book a hostel bed for the next city, the last day prior to leaving the current one. It saves you headache and you'd have better luck taking public transit (saves some money) instead of haggling with motorbike taxis, if you already know exactly where you are going and roughly how to get there.

Now, the fun stuff. I'll try to highlight the best of each country, starting with Thailand. Keeping in mind that I only spent a little over a week in Thailand, so I only saw the most touristy parts of the country, I thought that the Thai backpacker scene was amazing. The country has a lot to offer, from the beaches and islands in the South to metropolitan Bangkok to the jungles in the North. I was fortunate to meet a lot of good people when I stayed in Phuket (even though most of them partied way harder than me), and even met up with a friend from Klingenstein who just happened to be traveling through Phuket at the same time!

One day trip I took in Phuket to Phang Nga ("James Bond") island was particularly memorable; it was super relaxing to float through low caves in a sea kayak, and the caves were so low that we had to actually lie down and the local kayaker pushed gently against the top of the caves in order to get us through!

And, the same day we also visited a "Sleeping Buddha" temple, located inside a cave. Outside the temple there were tons of monkeys just hanging out, waiting to be fed by tourists! I didn't feed them, but it was fun to watch the kids do it.

It was a lovely experience, and I wished that I had more days to spend checking out the local beaches. The only thing that bothered me tremendously about Phuket was that the sex tourism there (or at least in Patong beach, where I stayed) was ubiquitous. There is a street filled with bars where every table inside most of the bars had several prostitutes waiting to pick up clients, and everywhere you turned you could see foreigners hugging local prostitutes walking off into the night; the sheer prevalence is indicative of how tourism is harming the country and how there are many serious social problems in Thailand that lie just beneath their smiles.

I think I should mention that in order to get to Thailand, I had taken a train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (about 7 hours), followed by a bus from Kuala Lumpur to Hat Yai (about 11 hours), followed by a minibus from Hat Yai to Phuket (about 4 or 5 hours), followed by a tuk tuk from central Phuket to my hostel (about 30 minutes). Altogether, including waiting time, I think it was about 27 hours, and it was my first experience with such a long commute by road. We also had to get off the bus at the border of Malaysia and Thailand and hold all of our luggage while waiting in line for immigration/customs at about 5am. Pretty grungy experience, if you ask me. They did make toilet stops after about 6 hours on the bus, and the toilets are squatter toilets that you flush by hand using scooped water from a nearby bucket. My first experience flushing toilets by hand! (I think this is still eons more advanced/developed than the toilets we had in Panama though, where the whole island village shared two "toilets" that were just holes cut out of a piece of wood that hovers over the ocean.)

Anyway, I thought I should mention this because again between Phuket and Chiangmai, I had to take a bus. I think altogether it was about 27 hours between Phuket and Chiangmai, with only 1 or 2 hours of layover in Bangkok. Good thing I had a friend (Chilean girl whom I had met in Phuket) to keep me company during the first leg, and anyway I slept for most of it. But, in hindsight, I wish I had taken the train, because another traveler I met later on told me that the Thai trains are awesome because you get to sit between train cars and hang your feet over the edge, while the train passes through tunnels and over bridges.

Chiangmai was everything I had imagined it would be. I stayed in the "old city", which is the center of the current Chiangmai, surrounded by a moat that can still be seen today. It's the first time I've seen a moat! I was pretty excited, especially because you can still see parts of the old gate. In the city, there are a few temples, and my favorite one is one of the lesser famous ones, because it has a big Buddha outside! I also feel fondly for Buddhas in general, since my mom is a pretty devout Buddhist and we grew up with Buddha statues around the house. The Thai Buddhist temples are interesting; they have a triple-roof very traditional to their culture. I also learned that Thai men/boys are obligated to serve as monks sometime during their lives, the same way other cultures have obligatory military service.

In Chiangmai, you have a lot of choices of things to do. Many tourists I've met do a multi-day trek that takes them through the jungle, through some traditional villages, and then lets them ride an elephant. I did some talking to other backpackers and then some internet research, and I think a problem with these treks is that they are both harmful to the villagers and the elephants. Basically, one of the popular villages to visit is a long-necked village where women wear necklaces that elongate their necks. There are some people who say that this traditional practice is very cruel because if the ladies remove those rings, they would asphyxiate because their neck muscles are not strong enough to support their elongated necks. So, they basically wear them as shackles and stay in the village for all their lives. Other people say this is not true and that they can still survive without the rings, but in any case I find the practice oppressive and I find it pretty horrible that they're continuing the practice on little girls mostly because they can earn income from the tourist visits. So, instead of going to a village like this, I went to see a traditional Thai dance show at the cultural center. It was pretty great. My favorite parts of the Thai cultural show were the long-nailed dances and when the kids came out to do a synchronized sticks dance. Even young kids were stepping in rhythm as the sticks clapped open and close at a syncopated rhythm. It was so neat! It was clearly a game that they play from a very young age.

I also went to an elephant farm in Chiangmai that specializes in rescuing elephants. As it turns out, it costs 1 million Thai Bahts (about 25000 USD) to rescue/purchase one elephant, and each elephant eats between 300 and 400 kg of food per day. The elephant farm I went to was called Baanchan Elephant Farm, and although I had some skepticism prior to going there, after asking them some questions and watching them interact lovingly with the elephants all day (more importantly, watching how the elephants are loving towards their caretakers), I was very impressed with their sincerety in helping to rescue working elephants. There, you hang out and feed/bathe the elephants for the morning, and then you only go on a very short bare-backed walk on the elephants on their property. You don't sit on chairs (which are harmful for the elephants because they're very heavy), and the elephants don't work 8 hours a day carrying people the way trek elephants do. As I said, I had been pretty skeptical going in, but in the end I was so glad that I had this experience!!

The next day was my last in Chiangmai, and one of the girls at my hostel had recommended me to go to the Tiger Kingdom. Again, this place is a bit controversial because their tigers are so well-behaved that people say it is because they are drugged. But, I have to say that when I was in there with the tigers, they were very playful and alert, not like they were drugged at all. They are well-behaved, as I can tell, because their trainers were there luring them with a piece of wood as their biting toy, and they're constantly drawn to their trainers and the toy. Anyway, I read that in this place, after the tigers turn something like 22 months old, they get sent away into zoos, which is quite sad. After I interacted with these beautiful animals, it really makes you think that human beings are bastards for hunting and caging them in the first place. (As you probably already know, they are endangered and the ones bred in captivity can never be restored to the wild. So, it's really a catch 22 and a depressing predicament for these regal animals.)

But, anyway, here was me patting a tiger that was I think 14 months old. He's still a baby, actually, not nearly fully grown in size, even though he looks pretty big already. They like it when you pat their tummies, like dogs do. So, when you touch their backs, they tend to roll over for more tummy affection!

After Chiangmai, I went to Bangkok for just a day. I didn't even have time there to catch a cabaret show, which I really had wanted to do. (The Bangkok shows are, of course, world famous. There are even these "Ping Pong shows" in which you can see objects like turtles, birds, and razor blades come out of the nether regions of the performers. But, anyway, I didn't see any of the shows during my brief stay in Bangkok.) I did go check out a traditional Sunday floating market in Bangkok, called Taling Chan, which serves up fresh seafood made in boats. This is not the touristy floating market because it only opens on Sundays; although I did see some tourists there, there weren't many. There were tons of locals sitting on the floor around low tables and eating the grilled fish there, however.

I had taken the public bus to the market, and it was a really neat experience. I noticed that monks not only did not have to pay fare for busses, but they also have a reserved seat in the front of the bus, probably due to their highly revered status. On my bus, there were two monks, sitting one behind the other (and the people who were sitting there previously let them have those seats when they got on). At some point, when the first monk got off, the second monk actually moved up to take the head seat. It's a sign that that seat is special for them, I think. The ride to the market took about 2 hours because of traffic, but on the way back it only took 30 minutes. If you go to Bangkok, I would highly recommend making a visit to Taling Chan Floating Market.

Overall, I think Thai people are quite nice, especially in Chiangmai. In the south, I also met a family of Thai people who offered me safety advice (because they were concerned that I could be kidnapped, "like what happens sometimes to Thai girls if they travel alone"...) and offered to give me assistance over the phone if I ever found myself needing a translator. There are a lot of people who want to make a few extra bucks off of tourists though, and that gets old fast. But, it was definitely a great first experience of being on my own, and by the end of my trip in Thailand I felt like I could talk to anybody at the drop of a hat, and I had fully conquered my fears of traveling alone.

Next: On to Vietnam!

Preparations for going Solo

I am nervous! Counting down until my solo trip. I am nervous because believe it or not, I am a total acting-on-a-whim kind of person. I just saw some good ticket prices to/from Singapore and bought them, without having really thought through all the logistics. Once I started researching and planning my trip out in more details, it turned out to be a big black hole of logistics, what-ifs, and money! Geoff has been very helpful, but he has also helped me realize that in order to do the things that I want to do in the budget that I want, this has to be a backpacking trip.

So far, I've done these things, in no particular order:

• Gotten a Vietnamese tourist visa (Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia do not require visas from U.S. citizens if the trips are short, like under 30 days. I decided to fly from Thailand to Hanoi, and then from Ho Chi Minh City to Kuala Lampur in order to bypass Laos and to skip another visa process). Incidentally, if you wish to get a Vietnamese tourist visa in Berlin, it costs something like 65 Euros for regular processing or 88 Euros for rush processing. If you do some research on the web you'll see that the fees are not published for some reason. Some say that it's because the Vietnamese government is embarrassed by them and there is a bit of shadiness going on as well. I didn't look too much into it, but you can research it if you are curious.
  
• Gotten a thorough review of my immunization records. Berlin has a travel clinic actually (http://www.bctropen.de/ ), and they were immensely helpful. They went through my entire immunization record with me (I brought pieces of paper from Taiwan, U.S., and Peru), and recommended HepA and Typhoid shots specifically for the trip I am taking, since those are food-borne illnesses related to unsanitary food-handling. That was pretty much what I had already decided prior to going to the clinic, so I went ahead with it and the shots together costed about 80 Euros. On top of that, I also got a cocktail shot that included Polio and Tetanus, among other things, because my Polio shot was from when I was a kid and it's long expired. (Polio shots are recommended every 10 years, apparently. There are new polio outbreaks in the world, so I thought it wise to update my immunization to help prevent the spread of the once-almost-eliminated disease.) The shots are not immediately covered by the German health insurance, however, so I've submitted a reimbursement and will hope for the best.
• I talked to the doc at the travel clinic about malaria pills, and she showed me some graphs and we agreed that if I get sick from mosquitoes, more likely than not it will be Dengue Fever, and I should seek medical attention immediately as Dengue has no vaccine or pills to take. I still bought a pack of emergency malaria pills just in case (they cost about 50 Euros), but the idea is certainly to prevent mosquito bites instead of working on preventing illness. So, I got some Autun (an insect-repellent I've used in El Salvador before) and also a small net to cover my face and neck when I sleep.
•  I bought a 30-liter backpack! We went to a store called Globe Trotter for this. It's something like the R.E.I. from Seattle and it was a huge store of camping and traveling gear. Geoff and I looked for a good while and picked out finally a lightweight bag that is bigger than your normal day pack but smaller than a camping backpack. It will let me keep about a week's worth of clothes and all my toiletries in it, since I'm a small person and Asia is hot. Geoff basically forced me into this, because he thinks it would be an atrocity for me to walk around Asia with a wheelable carryon suitcase, especially if I might have to walk a couple of miles to find a hotel. Anyway, the bag from Globe Trotter is 60 Euros, and it's less expensive than their standard 32-liter bags which are 100 Euros, in case you're looking at this and thinking of heading over to the store for something similar.
• Besides that, I also went to my German bank and asked them to allow my card to be used in Asia. I'm still not sure about this; the whole transaction was sehr Deutsch, because the lady just trusted that I was the account-owner without collecting a photo ID, and she never gave me a written confirmation that it worked. She just said, "Alles klar!" and that was it. On the other hand, I activated my ATM card from the States (and tested it by withdrawing some money here in Berlin), and also called my American credit card company to allow its use in Asia. Again, this transaction did not instill much faith, as I had to call them 3 times to get them to approve my purchase of an intra-Asia flight and to override automatic fraud detection. But, I will hope for the best and straighten it out in Singapore if I have to.
• I have made a rough itinerary. Because my trip is so jam-packed, I had to research train schedules in advance and to book a couple of local flights (Bangkok --> Hanoi, then later Ho Chi Minh City --> Kuala Lampur) in order to fit everything in. I will still have some wiggle room to drop things here and there to make sure I get to make those flights in case I get delayed, but I am hopeful that I'll get to see a lot of stuff on this trip!
• I've printed out and made copies of everything. Since I'll be by myself, the worst-case scenario is if I get pick-pocketed and lose my cards, or if my passport gets stolen. I still need to read up on precautionary measures, but I already know that I cannot be too careful! 
• Along the same lines, I have been reading copiously on safety issues, particularly surrounding women traveling solo in SE Asia. It seems as though the things they are recommending against are mostly things that I wouldn't do anyway (it's hard to convince me to go out alone at night after living in El Salvador, and hanging out on dark beaches by myself is really a "Thanks, but no thanks!" type of thing). Still, it's always good to know things like I need to chain-lock my bag when I sleep, my skirt/shorts should be a certain length, and Thailand has had recent incidents of rape on beaches and the Thai/Malaysian border-crossing isn't the safest.

Things I still might do tomorrow (Friday... the last weekday before I head off!):

• Buy a doorstop and a safety whistle (can never be too safe about being a solo female traveler; that's a recommendation from another solo female traveler)
• Possibly going to see a doc to get my inhaler prescription (I'm semi-worried about an asthma attack, even though I haven't had issues in recent months and tend to be OK in the warmer months)

So, wish me luck! I'll keep all my wits about me. See you on the flip side.

 

Road Trip with the Coxes

To blog a bit about our recent travels, the (future) in-laws have been visiting us for about two weeks. During this time, we took a 9-day road trip with them to Heidelberg and Prague, and along the way we had also stopped by the "Disney" castle, Neuschwanstein, and the city of Dresden. It was a lot of driving for Geoff over the course of 9 days, and a lot of wine and champagne and meaty German/Bavarian/Czech food consumption for all of us, but overall the trip was a really great opportunity for me to get to know the Coxes better, and definitely a rare and lovely/special occasion for Geoff and his parents to travel together in his adulthood!

Here are some pictures from Geoff's phone (therefore excuse the weird borders and stuff):

Among other things, we went to an aquarium in Berlin where you can ride an elevator up through a tube of cylindrical fish tank.When you are riding up through the fishtank, you can see through it to see the aquarium hotel that surrounds the fish tank. It's a tourist trap, but a rather nice one.

We also did boat tours in every city (Berlin, Heidelberg, and Prague). Ironically, the weather for our boat tour in Berlin was the best out of the three. Heidelberg was steamy hot and Prague was rainy on the days of our boat tours. Berlin, which is consistently rainy, was actually nice and breezy and dry during those first days of the Coxes' visit.

As one would expect, we imbibed plentifully. In Berlin, Geoff took his parents to the Hofbrauhaus, which is a chain brewery/restaurant that originated from Munich and that has huge beer halls and huge steins of beer, Oktoberfest style. His dad thought the traditional fried pork knuckle from there (Schweinehaxe) was fantastic.

Heidelberg is beautiful. Smaller than Berlin, but a college town and full of buzzing young people. There are charming houses and traditional red rooftops all over, and some random castles and fortified houses up in the hills. We were here for a few days, and it was pretty slow-paced and nice.

We took a drive down to Bavaria from Heidelberg, to visit the Schloss Neuschwanstein. This is the castle that all of the Disney castles are inspired by. The inside is only 1/3 finished because the king died halfway through its construction, but I think the parts that are done are very rustic and medieval-looking; it's worth a visit. My favorite part is a man-made cave next to the king's bedroom. Really random and eclectic interior design!

You cannot tell from this picture, but that day it was about 30 degrees Celsius. I had to strip down to my undershirt, basically, because it was so damned hot. The view from the Neuschwanstein Castle, however, was stunning. It made me really miss Utah from last summer, because there is simply no view like this in the flatlands of Berlin.

Next up, we went to Prague. In Prague, the local food was amazing -- something that I had not experienced previously when I went as a chaperone on a school trip. This time, we ate our hearts out and quite literally every restaurant was amazing. Here is me munching on a trdol, which is a hollow bread glazed with sugar. (They make it simply by slapping dough around a rotating rolling pin, and then sticking it over some coals; afterwards, they add sugar or glaze it.) The bread reminded me of the brioches from Berkeley's Cheeseboard that I had once loved so much.

 

And here is a photo of the roadside "Prague old ham" that is sold in the center of the town. We tried it; it was delicious and juicy, but (in my personal opinion) you should try the sausage from the same vendor. They have the best sausages I've ever had. In my life! The sausages are spicy and literally bursting with juice upon each bite.

Geoff's mom had steak tartare at the same restaurant 3 days in a row, because it was that good. Also very notable is the Czech style of preparing garlic bread: they first fry buttered toast, and then they serve it with raw pieces of garlic, which you need to cut and rub onto the toast. It's sinful how garlicky and buttery the whole thing tastes!


Here is a picture we took in front of an apparently famous water wheel, as seen from the Charles Bridge. When we took this picture, we didn't know that this water wheel was the subject of many artists' paintings of Prague.

Another view of the gate next to the famous Charle's Bridge:

We also went to the Prague castle, obviously. Here's a view of the cathedral, from outside and inside. This cathedral is nice, but not quite as ornate on the inside as the St. James' Cathedral downtown.

One night, we decided on a whim to go catch a performance of parts of Don Giovanni at an old opera house in Prague. We decided to do this because it was the original theater where Mozart himself had directed the same opera, which he had written in Prague, for the people of Prague. The music and the singers' voices were absolutely enchanting, even though the lyrics were a mix of Italian and German and we couldn't follow the storyline. The theater was magnificent, and the experience of sitting in a box seat (Geoff's parents had decided to splurge a bit, so we went along with them to stay altogether) was also unique and very luxurious. (Of course, I did not bring appropriate attire on the trip for such luxurious occasion; you can't see it here, but I am wearing sneakers.)

On our last night in Prague, we had the most delicious meal on top of an old clock tower in a restaurant called Zvonice, because Geoff's parents wanted to relive their fabulous experience of dining there 7 years ago. (It's not the famous astronomical clock tower, but another one downtown somewhere.) It was expensive, but mostly because of the awesome wines we had. I think you could have a terrific meal in this cozy restaurant with breath-taking views, for about 30 to 35 Euros per person, which isn't too bad considering the phenomenal experience you would have. You could even see in the corner of the picture below of the large bell that still hangs behind Derek in the middle of the restaurant / tower. My lamb dish was every bit as good as it looks, and so were all the other dishes.

  

On our drive back from Prague, we stopped by Dresden for a bit. Not my favorite German city, unfortunately; I don't think it has that much character, to be honest. If you are familiar with the history of Dresden, basically 95% of the downtown area was destroyed in the air raids of WWII, so what's left now is mostly a reconstruction of what the old, beautiful Dresden had once looked like.  We walked through the old town, which still has remnants of the past glory. The food in Dresden was also mediocre -- typical German fare, and a pale comparison to the complex flavors offered by the cuisine in Prague, sadly.
 

But, all in all, it was a fantastic trip! Now that I have a flip-flop tan, I am truly in the summer mode. :)

To the End of the Roaring 20s

I have been doing some thinking about how adulthood has simply snuck up on me. I am turning 30 in about a month! This trip through Asia will be my last opportunity to do something big all by myself before I turn 30 (even though it was not intended as such).

And, in the end, the 20s were more glorious than anyone could have ever told me it would be. In hindsight, I think that if you just follow your heart, there's not really any way to mess up your 20s unless you're doing drugs or setting out to hurt people. No matter where you live, what you do for a living, no matter if you party all night or decide to tell your boss 5 months in advance of leaving a job, no matter if you move across the country without knowing anyone, no matter if you are disappointed and cry your heart out, or if you end up living in a 9ft-by-5ft bedroom infested with cockroaches, in the end your life will always turn out to be better than you could have planned it out to be.

One of my most memorable grown-up moments was when I cried over money for the first (and thus far, only) time. I had always been an idealist, and I never thought that this could catch up with me. I realized sometime soon after switching into teaching, that I needed to transfer a fairly sizable amount of money out of my savings account in order to help out my parents. In consequence, I also realized that my own life choices do impact those that I love, and I cried then, with the hope that there would never come a day when someone I love needed my help and I couldn't afford to help them.

One of my biggest "growing up" realizations about myself is that if I believe that things are possible, then they become entirely possible. Sounds like BS, but it has made all the difference in how I perceive my pursuit of goals. One of the examples of this was when I auditioned for a swing dance troupe in NYC, and at the time I simply was not technical enough for it. I gave it my all and I was crushed when I did not get in, and the next year I gathered up all of my broken hopes and did it again, after first requesting a private lesson with the troupe director to fix some of my bad dance habits. And the second time, despite all of my self-doubts and feeling of absolute foolishness for even giving it another shot, I was in!

Being part of a swing dance troupe in my 20s was an amazing experience. I had to place complete trust in myself and someone else in order to even attempt an aerial, and then to pick myself up repeatedly when I kept falling on my butt or on my old injury of a bad knee. I felt like I triumphed over my fears, the same way I felt when I jumped off a 30- or 40- foot high cliff and almost hit the side on the way into a volcanic lake or when I climbed up 4 or so stories of ladder-stairs in Tikal. I know that down the road, when I have to replace my knee, I'll still think this dance adventure was completely and absolutely worth it. We got to perform at Frankie's 95th Birthday Celebration in front of swing dancers from all over the world, and I also met some awesome and passionate people through this experience. It had changed me for the better, because I got to experience something that was made possible only by leaving myself fully vulnerable.

Most of all, I will always remember this decade as one filled with love and happiness. Geoff and I have been together for almost 6 years now, more than half of the decade! I love him dearly and I could have never imagined that I would be so lucky some day to have someone like him. But, even before his time, I had the good fortune to share my life with some wonderful people, truly amazing friends, my beloved family, and even some pretty great boyfriends.

So, cheers to a marvelous decade, and I hope the 30s live up to their promise.