First Impressions: London

All my regrets from purchasing a wool jacket in Vietnam and carrying it with me quite uselessly for two months through equatorial Asia quickly vanished near baggage claim at Heathrow Airport. It was cold! It was even colder outside the airport and on the train-er, sorry, the tube. Here's a quick lesson in London lingo; what's the difference between the tube, train, metro, subway, underground and overground? If you can tell me I'd be happy to know. The obvious answer is that the tube, subway and underground are all the same thing since they are under the ground... except that sometimes they aren't, in fact sometimes they are elevated similar to a skyrail. And then there's added confusion that the overground is often underground! The tube/underground is not called a train even though it is a train. The overground is considered a train. Can you understand my confusion when I arrived? I'm happy to announce after two weeks, London transportation and I are good friends.

England is an interesting country in its antiquity. Everything is so old! I walked by a small church near Old London Road in Kingston which was consecrated in the eleventh century and has been under the ownership of the same school since the sixteenth century! Colombus had just 'discovered' my country at that time and here this church was already five hundred years old, yet it still stands to this day. This particular church isn't unique in London either. There are several standing examples of the history of the area. Beachcombers can be seen along the banks of the Thames River browsing among the discarded tires and broken bottles for artifacts and remnants of centuries past.

Despite the cold-which isn't the dry, windy, Wyoming type but a damp, quiet coldness-the city remains colorful. The grass and various evergreens are still green and there are flowers that still bloom. Single and double-decker buses are common and reflect a brighter, more monotonous red than the brick building neighborhoods they drive through. There is a certain familiarity to the city I've likely gained from watching television and movies. I would say it's somewhat similar to the feeling I had in Los Angeles. Although in Los Angeles I felt like everything was fake, make believe on a giant movie set. Whereas in London after walking past the London Eye and seeing Big Ben for the first time it hit me that I'm really in England!

The biggest shock was of course the price of everything. From the airport to Ben's house I'd already spent what was my daily budget in Southeast Asia on the underground and a couple phone calls. This was going to take some getting used to. Fortunately-depending on your point of view-the pound has fallen significantly in the last year and my dollars are going a little further than they would have before. Thankfully I'm staying with Ben's family and are at the mercy of their wonderful hospitality. After a couple days I came to the realization I'd have to find a job quick or go back to Wyoming. Physically it'd be easier to go back to Rock Springs, but I decided I'm not finished yet. My world tour isn't about to be over that quickly!

Indonesia Revisited

The decision to return to Indonesia was becoming more and more appealing. A part of me had seriously questioned whether to leave Indonesia back in May, or postpone my outbound ticket and spend some more time in Java and neighboring Sulawesi. In the end, I took my friend Alison's advice and left. Six months later, there I was, full circle through Southeast Asia only a ferry ride from Sumatra, my Indonesian horizon.

I was surprised at how nostalgic I became when I arrived. Even the currency I'd exchanged into Rupiah brought back a comfortable familiarity. Hearing the language again was like hearing a favorite song on the radio. My tongue said words that I knew I'd said before, months earlier, but couldn't remember the meaning. My sentences would finish automatically, and then I'd ask the meaning of what I'd just said. Indonesian food isn't anything to brag about but I found myself salivating over the thought of my favorite local foods and couldn't wait to try them again.

In Dumai, where I arrived on the ferry, an English teacher found me waiting at the bus station's office. He said he heard there was a westerner in town and wanted to offer me free accommodation in return for English conversation with his students. Who told him I was in town? I'd just arrived less than ten minutes ago! So went the rest of my Sumatran experience. Especially on weekends, tourist traps were just that, traps set by adolescent English language students hunting for English speakers to practice with. The practice consisted of poorly worded questions that their teacher obviously advised they ask such as, "Do you agree with the economic crisis in America?" "Do you prefer Indonesia or America?" I couldn't believe that any twelve year-old was interested in the answers of their prepared questions (they weren't) so I changed the subject and instead asked them about where they came from, what was their favorite music or football team. Afterwards they all huddled around to get a picture of the tourist. The danger of speaking with one group of students is it gives the other groups a chance to move in where you repeat the same cycle of unanswerable questions-"Excuse me sir. What's the difference between America?"-then pictures and signatures while another group prepares to advance. There aren't many tourists in this part of the world so students would wait outside my guesthouse waiting for me to leave in the mornings. And to think some people are afraid to come here for fear of being attacked by radical Islamic terrorists. Forget about the terrorists, but keep a keen eye out for the English students!
Poor weather kept me from staying long at either Bukittinggi or Padang and I found myself on the island of Samosir in Lake Toba. It is said to be the largest island inside an island (that being Sumatra.) The lake is a crater lake and green hills surround the entire thing. Not much happens on the island so it's a nice place to relax, eat, explore waterfalls, take a swim or play chess-all of which I did my fair share of. The owner of my guesthouse and I played a minimum of five games of chess a day. I beat him once, drew twice and lost every game otherwise. After a week of staying and eating at the guesthouse he offered a challenge; one game of chess, I win and I leave without paying my bill, he wins and I have to stay another day. He won, I paid but still left that afternoon.

After a series of ferry, taxi and bus rides that lasted all night into the next morning I arrived in Pulau Weh, an island off the coast of Banda Aceh at the tip of Sumatra. Pulau Weh is gorgeous! I scored a wooden bungalow with a palm thatch roof and a hammock that's actually over the ocean. And not just any ocean, beautiful, calm, warm, blue-hued ocean full of colorful fish! The area I stayed was quite cozy. If anyone arrived we all knew about it. A surprising concentration of Americans arrived but also Germans, Belgians, French, Dutch, Chinese, Italians, Koreans and Malaysians.
Most of my days consisted of, or at least included snorkeling or scuba diving. The snorkeling was amazing. Beforehand I'd only seen a lionfish on two occasions in the Philippines. I saw seventeen of them here in an hour of snorkeling. Around dusk some beautiful blue fusiliers could be found schooling around some coral heads just in front of my bungalow. If classical music could be seen, visualized, it would take the form of these schooling fishes. That's how I'd describe it.

It was this spectacle I was on my way to witness when I thought the quest for a sea snake was over. Literally right in front on my bungalow, two meters from where I knelt to rinse the spit out of my mask was a snake, banded in black and white! It was searching for food in the cracks and holes around. As I watched it I began to have doubts. After all it just didn't act completely snakelike to me. Something was off. I was right, I found a picture of one in the dive shop's book on marine life. It was a harlequin snake eel. Not reptilian at all. I didn't have to wait long though. A few days later on my last day I found one and this time had no doubt as to what it was. A banded sea krait, potentially deadly but very placid. It took no notice of me as I watched it poke its head into cracks and under coral looking for small fish. I pushed my lungs to the limit as I dove down a few meters to where it was, and gently held it while still allowing it to hunt. As much as I was enjoying myself I was freezing from being in the water for nearly two hours and had to get out.

The diving was also nice although sometimes I felt like the snorkeling was better. A bit unfair to say probably as you don't have much to think about when you're snorkeling whereas I was concerned with my buoyancy, air consumption and decompression limits while I was diving. I dove six times over the course of two weeks, including once at night. I hadn't been too taken with diving previously. It's different, and interesting but I wasn't sure if the cost was worth the reward. Here in Indonesia I better realized what diving was-which is simply breathing underwater-and what it isn't-it's not a breathtaking experience every dive where you constantly see sharks, whales, turtles, etc.-and I think now that I realize this, I've become not only a better diver, but I appreciate diving more. I'll be excited to go again sometime. I'm sure it'll be even more enjoyable with old friends and my ultimate goal would be to dive with my dad who was certified nearly thirty years ago. [So here's a formal request to my father: When are we going diving together Dad?]

Indonesia remains my favorite Southeast Asian country and a place I hope dearly I'll get to return to someday. Before boarding my flight (which only cost $40!) to Malaysia I had one last straight-razor shave in a barber shop and went around town sampling my favorite foods one last time. It was then, while I was on the back of a motorbike receiving smiles from girls in headscarves, waves and salutations from businessmen and curious friendly glances in traffic that I confirmed it; I love this place! The landscape of Indonesia is beautiful and diverse, the people are friendly, the language is a joy and the climate is pleasant. I like how sandals are quickly kicked off before entering a home or shop, how Indonesians touch their hearts after shaking hands, the faint smell of cloves in the air and the sound of a pop star singing a love song on the radio in a language I almost speak.

Indonesia coming soon!

Just wanted to say I followed your suggestion according to the poll (even before it was finished actually) and spent the last month in Sumatra. For now I'll tell you that it was amazing and Indonesia is spectacular. More to come...

10th Anniversary Caption Contest & "Choose My Adventure" Poll

Knock yourselves out guys! I chose a winner for the previous contest, Congrats Nikki! Here's the one for this month, my tenth month outside the USA! I know some people couldn't leave comments directly to this blog so they missed out, in order to keep everyone included you may leave your captions here or email them to me at terrysworldtour(at)gmail(dot)com, just write "CAPTION CONTEST" in the subject line.

I'm at a spork in the road, not a fork, but a spork. I can follow the tines to Indonesia or Europe, or I could stay in the ladle of Malaysia. The fun part is that it's up to you! In the spirit of the election I urge you to vote, not only for your next pres. but also for my next destination. Currently, I have a plane ticket from Singapore to Europe at the end of November. I have been thinking of changing it and departing during the beginning of November. The other choice would be to hop over to Sumatra, and enjoy my last days in Asia there before flying out of Singapore at the end of November, as scheduled. Voting is easy: see the poll at the top of the right-hand column? Just make your selection. I'll anxiously be waiting for your replies!

Adventures in Eating

This week I asked for chocolate milk... cold. I got a Coke. Yesterday I asked for a lassi, got a rootbeer. When asked for the soups du jour, my server rattled off a list of sounds that could have been in English, Malay or Pashtu for all I knew. I thought I heard the word "beef" in the last choice, I mumbled it back to him, trying to imitate his pronunciation.

Beef tongue soup... wonderful. But hey, I'm a traveler, I'm adventurous, I'm open to these things so I dug right in. It's not horrible, most strange food isn't, but I wished it came with bread, or rice or maybe without beef tongue! It looks hairy on one side and smooth, like squid, on the other.

Halfway through with being halfway through, I had the following thought; in the past months I've had crocodile, kangaroo, monkey, dog, durian, duck embryo, fermented taro root, grasshoppers and water beetles, cobra, intestines of all kinds, dried squid, live ants, century eggs and I'd happily try rat if given the chance. I don't think we need anymore evidence that I'm an adventurous eater! So I did something that I rarely ever do, and paid for my food and left with uneaten food at my table. From now on I'll enunciate when ordering my drinks, and better yet, ask for a menu!

Best-Case Scenario

"I've heard climbing near Krabi is good." "Oh yeah! Tonsai is where you want to go."
"You've been?"

"Yeah. Couple years ago. Meant to spend two weeks there and stayed for three months."

"Three months! Haha. It's that good huh?"

"Wait 'till you see it."

"But I don't have any gear."

"No problem, just meet other climbers. Everyone's cool there."

The conversation I'd had three months earlier in the Philippines was fresh in my mind as I walked down the beach. Nobody. Beautiful rock, but no one to climb it with. Unwilling to shell out the cash of a guide I'll move on tomorrow-another disappointment.

I went back to my book, which I'd put down hours earlier in order to go find some climbing buddies before I gave up, and picked a beach chair next to two girls who were also reading. Slightly disappointed I dove back into the plot of an African boy destined to be the welterweight champ of the world. And then she moved. It wasn't her movement that was significant, but what she moved, a pair of blue, lace-up, Boreal climbing shoes.

"You're a climber?" I tried to sound more impressed than facetious. My tone landed somewhere in the middle.

"Yeah, but we're taking a rest day today." She pressed an index finger onto her skin and waited for the color to return to where she pressed, the international test for sunburn. "You just get here?"

"Yeah."

"How long you staying?"

"Well, I planned on a couple weeks, but I'm not sure. How long've you two been here?" Their eyes turned up and their mouths hung open like they were thinking about a math problem, trying to count the days before answering in an air of disbelief that it's really been that long. I would ask a lot of people that same question over the following days and they would all answer the same way, some people's math taking longer to compute than other's.

"We're going to try the traverse at the end of the beach. You want to come?"

That was how I met the M's; Emily and Emma. And how, less than four hours from arriving on the beach, excited to climb the surrounding limestone that was everywhere but feeling dejected that I'd fail to make friends in time, I was bouldering ten feet away from the Indian Ocean who's horizon was extinguishing a golden sunset behind me. The best part being, I wasn't as weak as I thought I was, the technique hadn't left me, my hands weren't bleeding and I could still climb! We made plans to climb together the next day and I just then realized, I was living my own best-case scenario.

The M's and I climbed together the next day, then took a trip to Ko Phi Phi, an island whose infrastructure was completely destroyed by the 2004 tsunami, and climbed there before we split up and I went back to Tonsai. The scene in Krabi is quite diverse. There are four main beaches in the area; Tonsai, Railay East, Railay West and Pranang Beach. Pranang is the nicest beach but there's nowhere to stay apart from a few resort style hotels. The Railay beaches are back-to-back, facing in opposite directions so the accommodation is basically the same, but East's beach is nearly non-existent and has a muddy bottom whereas West has sugary white sand and a view of the sunset. Railay West is the posterchild. Through the jungle, or over the hill or around the rocks at low tide are the three ways to get to Tonsai, where I stayed. The sand is coarse and the point offshore hides the sunset before it dips into the sea, but it's quiet, it's cheap and it's where most climbers decide to stay.

It seems everyone is a climber to some degree on Tonsai. During evening meals and over an apres climb drink, patrons are physically recounting the day's climbs with their hands in the air, grasping invisible pinches, sidepulls and slopers of invisible limestone at their dinner table.

There are loads of climbs suitable for every level of climber as well. To my climbing buddies I would describe it like this: Imagine Wild Iris (that's near Lander, WY to my non-climbing buddies,) increase the vertical, take away the mountains towards South Pass and insert the Indian Ocean, replace antelope with monkeys, increase the humidity, decrease the summertime heat to around 80 with plenty of shade trees and add a sleepy town within walking distance of the crag where there's plenty of food to shove down our necks when we're done! Then you'll be getting close to what it's like.

The deciding factor of where to climb in the morning is usually related to which climbs are going to be in the shade. The first day with the M's I asked if we really needed an entire bottle of water for each of us. They assured me we did and by ten o'clock we were all quickly finishing the second halves of our bottles. It didn't take long to realize these girls could climb. Although I'd been climbing longer than them, they had a clear mental edge when it came to lead climbing. They led everything without batting an eye while I was more hesitant and decided to let them have the first go before I would then lead. We climbed all day that day and I cleaned our gear off the final route in the dark by headlamp! We couldn't possibly have climbed anymore.

The fact they invited me to Ko Phi Phi was actually quit nice since, we'd be going as a group and be able to share a room and climb together. The ferry departed early the next day. I think we were all shocked at the amount of people, stores, bicycles and noise that was on the island. The funny thing is that Ko Phi Phi isn't any more loud or crowded than any other popular island in Thailand, but after being in Tonsai where there are only two trucks in the entire village (and one's broken) you take for granted the stillness of that place. We all instantly wished to be back in Tonsai!

To escape we went to Long Beach at the other end of the island. We were saving ourselves to go climbing the next day and dedicated this day to finding a sea snake and working on our tans. I grabbed my mask and rented some fins and set out to find my reptilian friends. The visibility was about nine meters and I was swimming in about ten meters of water. So I could just make out the bottom and still have a nice view of the coral formations that rose up closer to the surface. I didn't see much and slightly regretted not waiting for the others because now I was alone, bored and about two hundred meters from the shore in ten meters of water. I was thinking about swimming back to shore when the biggest reef shark I've ever seen made up my mind for me! I've seen sharks before while SCUBA diving, but never snorkeling. And it should be mentioned that whereas I'm not afraid of much while I'm diving, I'm afraid of everything when I'm snorkeling; trash, jellies, seaweed, you name it. This shark was over eight feet long and swimming off to my left. He didn't seem too interested in me, but I suppose that's what they want you to think. My first reaction was, O crap a shark! then the biologist in me thought, O cool a shark! and I started swimming towards it, not necessarily to get closer to it, but I felt more comfortable when I could see it than when it disappeared which it didn't take long to do. I turned around wondering if maybe I should go back when another one came out, a little bigger, looking a little hungrier and I decided my mind was made up. Forget the sea snakes, bring on the tan!

The next day was a lot of fun and like the time before, we were finishing the day in our headlamps. The view from the top of the climbs was amazing and Emily and I decided to do a multi-pitch climb to take advantage of it, but when she climbed up to meet me at the top of the first pitch I couldn't feel my legs anymore due to the hanging belay cutting off my circulation, so she finished the second pitch and I rappelled down. Emily was the most adventurous that day, especially when she was climbing the hardest route of the day, just between the last bolt and the anchors and was attacked by monkeys! I'm not kidding, they climbed up the tree next to the rock and went to attack, I don't' know how she kicked them off and stayed on the rock, but we had a good laugh about it afterwards!

When I got back to Tonsai I met Rob, a Canadian climber from British Columbia. We climbed the following day alternating between easy and more difficult routes. I was belaying him on the first route of the day when it started raining. Fortunately for him the rock was overhanging enough he wasn't getting wet. As for me, I was pressed up against the rock trying to stay dry and the neighboring monkeys, excited from the rain were running through my belay area! Fortunately they were nice monkeys, unrelated to the thieving mongrel monkeys of Ko Phi Phi. After climbing all day and successfully climbing a route I'd fallen on earlier we headed for our daily meeting with the Fried Chicken Lady who sells delicious, grilled chicken (Grilled Chicken Lady doesn't have the same ring to it) and mango sticky rice for a little over $1.

The following day was going to be a rest day. I woke up late, read a few chapters of One Hundred Years of Solitude and then went to a leisurely breakfast. I was halfway through my iced coffee when Emily showed up with her friend from Bahrain. They had only arrived the afternoon before and were going climbing that day, would I like to come along? Sure! Rest day or not, I wasn't about to miss a climbing opportunity. We went around to East Railay and spent the day climbing there. We found some really fun moderate climbs that afternoon and I was happy to see another part of the area where I hadn't climbed yet. Then, at the end of the day, after we raced the incoming tide back to Tonsai I met Rob over some grilled chicken.
"You climb today?"
"Yep, we were at 1, 2, 3 Wall all day."
"Are you tired?"
"You mean do I want to go climbing tomorrow?" he shook his head yes. "Yeah, I'll go with you tomorrow!" I laughed.

Just then a newly arrived couple came to browse the delicacies of the Fried Chicken Lady. Rob and I voiced our approval of the food and after they ordered they sat down on broken plastic chairs and asked us, "You been here awhile?"
I furrowed my brow, looked up at the sky with my mouth open as I calculated my own silent math problem. "Yeah, I guess it's been two weeks now." And the circle was complete.

Caption Contest

I thought it would be fun to have a caption contest in which you think of a caption for the picture above. Whoever I find to have the wittiest or most amusing caption will win something (nothing major, think postcard, foreign currency or small souvenir) from wherever I'm from. In order to post your caption just leave it in the form of a comment at the bottom here and after a week or two I'll decide and announce the winner. NOTE: It's important you give me some sort of clue who you are so I'll know who the winner is.

Have fun!

Cambodia

As I sit here in Siem Reap, this morning's tour of Angkor Wat fresh in my mind, I can't believe I'm about to leave this country as quickly as tomorrow. That's the exact opposite feeling I had when I arrived a week ago in Phnom Phen and wanted to leave as soon as possible. It had been a relatively pleasant bus ride from Saigon, I finished reading Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, and the puker on the bus-there's always one-wasn't sitting close enough to me to matter. Still, after nine countries in nine months I get a little nervous and excited crossing borders. Especially borders to countries I've never been to. It was simple enough and we arrived in Phnom Phen at night. I was dropped off at the backpacker part of town, which seems to always be the most seedy part. After checking out the local accommodation options, I was nostalgic for the comforts I had in Vietnam. There was a small riot in the street during my first night. Apparently someone through a bottle at someone else, that started a Khmer (Cambodian) versus Westerner and then Khmer vs Khmer brawl which started with fists and evolved to include bottles, knives and a broken guitar handle before it was all broken up and exhausted. I didn't see much as I'm not one to consort with such violence, and the throngs of anxious-looking tourists running my way told me I was just fine where I was. I waited to see the blood splattered on the street the next day. Strangely enough, a few girls ran into the bar where I was watching the Liverpool vs Manchester United game (those are two huge European soccer teams for all you back home) and one of them was a girl I'd met nearly 3 months earlier at a rooftop pool party in Manila! What a reunion. We met up later and had a chat and we ran into each other yet again a couple days later in Siem Reap.

It rained a lot while I was in Phnom Phen so I took advantage of the free DVDs at my hotel and watched a couple I hadn't seen yet, before writing in my journal and reading some more. I was fortunate enough to find a church to go to on Sunday. The speaker was the daughter of Bob Pierce who is the founder of both Samaritan's Purse and World Vision. The latter being the largest Christian based relief organization in the world. She was a crier and not the least bit ashamed of it. She recounted her father's past and some events that prompted him to start World Vision. Before the service I was a little bummed that I hadn't heard from some friends whom I'd been emailing and was planning on meeting with. I knew something would work out and it did. After the service I asked the two girls who sat next to me what they did and it turned out they work with the very people I was trying to meet! Before long we were all having lunch and I had a place to stay should I need one. Which I did one night before coming to Siem Reap. It was nice to get out of the backpacker area and see a more normal part of the city.

The city is actually a lot further along than I'd expected. It's full of casinos and has all the comforts of home if you're willing to pay for them. I was happy to see peanut butter and jelly in the convenience store and instantly started a three day long PBJ diet. My mother would be proud.

On the way to Siem Reap I finished George Orwell's Animal Farm, I remember reading it in high school, but it makes much more sense now. At one bathroom stop during the trip were an assortment of fruits and exotic foods. I found a bowl full of tarantulas, another with brightly colored grasshoppers and a lady carrying around a pan of skinned frogs too. I had tried some water beetles back in Phnom Phen and so decided to opt out of trying anything new and had some grilled bananas instead.

I woke up this morning at 4:40 am and my motorbike driver was waiting out front. We arrived at Angkor Wat before the sun showed up and I'd hoped for a clear morning. It was too cloudy for much color to arrive in the sky behind the temple, but I was happy it wasn't raining yet. As a whole, Angkor is huge, the largest religious building in the world so they say. However, now it's really just a bunch of temples within a fairly close proximity to each other. I recognized the temples as the backdrop to some movies, Laura Croft: Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat two of the most familiar. Hey, I never said they were good movies! You know that temple you see in National Geographic in the jungle with all the tree roots covering the walls? Yeah, I saw that one today too. I've seen too many temples within the last six months to get too excited, but still, this is Angkor Wat, one of the seven man-made wonders of the world. I don't want to sound uncultured but I did notice I showed more fascination with a giant millipede and later with a trail of ants than I did with the temples themselves. Still, they make for good pictures!

I'm planning my return to Bangkok tomorrow on the bus. It's supposed to be a bumpy, miserable ride and getting stuck in the mud isn't uncommon. Let's hope I won't have to push. This entry puts you currently up to date with my life. After Bangkok I'm going down to the south of Thailand to hopefully do some rockclimbing in Krabi and chill out for awhile on the beach in Phuket. Then it's off to Malaysia. I'm not sure what I'll do in Malaysia but I can't imagine leaving this part of the world without some good snake stories so I may try to find a python or two. Perhaps easier said than done. A few people have asked when I'm coming home or where I'm off to next. It's good to be missed, but if all goes to plan I won't be home for quite awhile yet. I fly to London in November. I'm looking for work somewhere in Europe. I have a desire to learn French while I'm there so, preferably in a Francophone area and, finances permitting, I'd like to stay for around a year. Then, since Latin America was the whole reason I went on this trip I can't imagine staying any less than a year there. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's see about this bus trip tomorrow.

Good Morning Vietnam!

It felt as if I'd been transferred back in time when I arrived in Vietnam. Finally, I had arrived in a place that fit my picture of Southeast Asia. Thailand, Laos and Cambodia are all very similar and it's easy to generalize among the three, but Vietnam stands out. I said it over and over again, "I finally feel like I'm in Asia!" I'm sure it's because of the popularity of the Vietnam War (referred to as the American War here) in television and movies that gave me the impression of what I thought Southeast Asia should look like. It makes sense then, that that's what I felt when I arrived. It's strange too, because many people told me to either miss Vietnam altogether or if I must visit, do so quickly and get out. "It's a beautiful country," they'd say, "but the Vietnamese..."

People complained about their aggressive selling tactics and the requirement to haggle over the price of everything. I found it all to be either exaggerated or mostly untrue. Yes, you do have to bargain for nearly everything, which was difficult for me since I'm such a pushover when it comes to things like that. I made a point to learn though, and after a couple weeks I'm a much more confident negotiator. My first experience was a warm morning in Hanoi when I passed a lady selling baguettes on the street. Knowing that bread couldn't be much I held up one finger and gave her 10,000 dong (the local currency, 16,000 dong=US$1.) She gave me the bread, took the money and watched me slyly from the corner of her eye as she clutched her money purse. I stood there a little confused, certainly this bread didn't cost that much. When I didn't walk away she smiled a mischievous smile and gave me 5,000 dong back in change. "That's more like it," I thought. I was really glad I didn't walk away without getting that change back, I'd hate to be charged double for something, fifty cents can go a long way here. When I got back to my hotel I asked the receptionist how much he'd pay for the bread on the street. Two thousand dong was the answer! Ah ha! She got me good! Armed with this new knowledge I bought another baguette later that day from a different woman. I paid with 5000 dong, she waited for me to leave. I motioned that I needed change so she gave me 2000 back, then I held up one finger and she gave me the remaining 1000 dong. Success! It was a little work to get to the base price but the feeling was great, then I looked at the bread... MOLDY! I marched right back across the street and before I could even say anything the woman had a fresh piece ready for me. What cheeky women these bread sellers are! I had to laugh at myself later when I realized I'd saved just pennies in the whole debate. Those were my first, albeit not my last, experiences in cross-cultural negotiations here in Vietnam. I got better at waiting out a lower price, feigning non-interest and expressing astonishment at all their starting prices. Once I got to Saigon I'd say, "I be in Vietnam long time, no give me tourist price, give me local price." Sometimes they would and sometimes I just thought they did.

I thought Hanoi was beautiful. I stayed in the Old Quarter most of the time where narrow alleys hid unknown culinary concoctions just around the corner. The French-style colonial buildings rose high above the street and were built right up against each other. The streets are narrow and crossing the street required a new strategy than waiting for a gap and running to the other side. No, here you can cross at almost any point, but you do so slowly, very slowly in order to allow the motorbike drivers to anticipate your presence and go around you. That being said I still got hit by two motorbikes. It's not uncommon to see someone in the middle of the street, surrounded by traffic whizzing by in both directions. It's more impressive in Saigon where the streets are much wider, but crossing the street anywhere in Vietnam is not to be taken lightly.

I stayed in Hanoi for a few days, mostly walking around the Old Quarter, trying any new street food I came across. In the evenings, well-established yet impromptu restaurants form on street corners selling bowls of noodles. People huddle together in groups of two or three around plastic tables and chairs big enough for a three year old child. I never had to eat at restaurants, the street provided enough food to keep me intrigued and satisfied. Baguettes in the morning, glazed sweetbreads in the afternoons and noodle soup and dried squid in the late evenings were my staple. There were also good fruits to eat like guava, lychee and banana.

I visited the Prison Museum, most commonly known as the Hanoi Hilton where John McCain was one of several American pilots who were imprisoned during the Vietnam/American War. It was a bit strange to see pictures of the pilots playing soccer, decorating for Christmas and smiling during a movie night. To someone ignorant of the events at that time, they'd think this was a country club over a POW camp. I fail to imagine McCain's inability to lift his arms over his shoulders occurred from a volleyball injury!

I took a tour to Halong Bay lasting three days and two nights. Vietnam is big on organized tours and it's almost the only way to see Halong. What makes the bay so special are the thousands of jagged limestone islands within it. It's pretty and reminded me of El Nido in the Philippines although, after seeing them both I would vote for El Nido over Halong Bay. Here the islands are a long way away from the mainland and the only things that outnumber the huge jellyfish are the tourists. It was a great time though and I even saw a small water snake while trekking on Cat Ba Island.

Afterward I went south to Hue on September 2 which is Vietnamese National Day so all of the temples and tombs in town were free to enter. I took advantage of that and hired a motorbike and driver to take me to them. It was a nice half day excursion and afterward I decided I'd seen enough of Hue so went to Hoi An that evening. People say good things about Hoi An, people are weird. I don't mean to be negative but the streets are crap, filled with potholes and dust, every other shop in town is a tailor (Hoi An's claim to tourist fame) begging for your business and the main attraction-besides the tailors-is a covered bridge that spans nary a river, I'd call it a canal, an irrigation ditch even. I didn't even take a picture of it I was so uninspired! Haha. On top of it all it's downright scorching hot during the day. I wish I would have made it down to the beach, that may have changed my perception a bit but I was too busy getting fitted at the tailor. I ended up getting a wool overcoat, jeans and a shirt. It all fits very well... that is, until I wash it I'm sure.

Nha Trang was the beach stop I'd been waiting for. I wanted to hang out at this beach town and catch up on my reading and my tan. Fortunately I got to do one of those things. The first day was beautiful but it rained every day after that. I spent a lot of time in my room reading and watching the news. The accommodation in Vietnam is a little bit more expensive but it's filled with luxuries like air-con, phone, hot water, mini-bar and cable television. All amenities I'd gone without in previous countries. The Republican Convention was just finishing, hurricanes were pelting the Gulf Coast, Russia was in Georgia, Mugabe was stalling in Zimbabwe and Mythbusters was on the Discovery Channel. The rain was a bummer, but I didn't care that much! I had an interesting culinary experience while I was there. I met some local guys who were keen to practice their English so we started talking. Somehow we got on the topic of food and the fact some Vietnamese eat dogs. Once they found out I was willing to try it we were off! They brought me to a street where every restaurant sells the same thing and only the same thing... man's best friend. I thought I was going to get to try dog. Like, take a bite of it. But noooo, I had dog soup, grilled dog, boiled dog, dog pureé and dog intestine! They just kept bringing it out! To answer your questions, no it doesn't taste like chicken. A little gamy, the grilled dog was a bit chewy and the boiled dog just dissolved in my mouth. I'm glad for the experience, but I'm really glad I don't have to do it again!

Saigon was my last stop on the whirlwind Vietnam tour. I thought it would be my favorite place but it didn't rub off on me like Hanoi did. Perhaps I didn't see enough of it. I went to the War Remnants Museum which has on display some weapons, photos and information about the war. In some of the displays there are a few not-so-slight jabs against the seemingly evil Americans which I would experience at the Cu Chi Tunnels the following day. The museum was good, but I expected more. They have an extensive exhibit of what Agent Orange did to the environment and it's Vietnamese inhabitants, as well as a good tribute to the photo-journalists on both sides of combat.

The Cu Chi Tunnels are some of the remaining tunnels the Viet Cong used to escape, organize and execute attacks against the anti-communist forces. The tunnel system was extensive and very impressive with underground wells, kitchens, air vents camouflaged by termite mounds and even a system of air chambers which released cooking smoke far away from where the kitchen actually was. There is a shooting range on sight for anyone willing to shell out the dong to fire a few bullets from an M16, AK47 or 50 caliber. It adds a surreal element to the experience to hear gunshots in the distance during the tour!

My last day was spent at a small water park lapping the water slides, floating in the lazy river and relaxing in the sauna. I would highly recommend Vietnam as a place to visit and I'm very glad I decided to come. It's probably the most photogenic country I've ever been to. Children sleep on water buffaloes while their older siblings work nearby in the rice fields, bent over and wearing conical straw hats, old men sit on the sidewalk in Hanoi watching the world go by while smoking a giant wooden pipe, women walk all over town carrying all kinds of edibles on baskets suspended from a piece of bamboo across their shoulders, a family of five passes you on a motorbike-the youngest child comfortably asleep and perfectly balanced amidst the heavy traffic, and a group of schoolgirls ride their tall, vintage bicycles to school, their white dresses flowing behind them, wearing the iconic, conical straw hat, their faces covered with decorative cloth masks . This is Southeast Asia, this is Vietnam.

Straddling the tourist trail in Laos

A bacon cheeseburger, fries and mustard-oh mustard!-awaited me back in Chiang Mai. I instantly felt better knowing I was going onto something new and celebrated by browsing the local bookstores for something to take on the two-day long trip to Luang Prabang in Laos. I arranged to travel via longboat down the Mekong River from the Thai-Lao border to Luang Prabang. It's a popular route by travelers and I met a couple interesting backpackers and I finished both of my books during the two days! The river trip is everything people say it is; it's great for meeting people, for reading books, it's relaxing and you get to see how life operates around the great artery that is the Mekong River. On the other hand, it's also noisy, crowded, hot and slow. Sometimes you've got to take the good with the bad.

In Luang Prabang my new found friends and I visited a nearby waterfall and did some hiking in the surrounding forest. We enjoyed a makeshift picnic between taking dips in the cold water and afterwards walked through the night market back in town. I moved on to Vang Vien soon after which is famous for both the plethora of caves around town and for tubing down the local Nam Ou River. It's similar to tubing back home in that you get a tube and a bunch of friends and cruise on down the river taking in the scenery and basking in the sun. The people of Vang Vien have capitalized on the potential of this by building bars next to the river and they excitedly reach out a bamboo pole or liferope for you to grab onto as they pull you into their establishment.

Apart from the drinking, which is the main draw for many people, the entertainment options are great. High, wooden towers rise over the banks for you to hurl yourself off of on a trapeze or zipline into the river below. I can't think of anything more dangerous than getting drunk, climbing up a tree and throwing yourself into a swift current. The lack of liability is supremely apparent and not surprisingly, drownings occur way too often. I may have been the only one not to consume a drop of alcohol on the river that day. But like a kid in a candy store I ran laps up to the trapeze and zipline. There are seven bars along the river and I tried four trapezes (perfecting my backflip as onlookers applauded,) a zipline and a mud volleyball game that quickly turned into mud wrestling! It was a great time on the river and I'm glad I didn't miss it.

The rest of the time I was in town I toured the local caves. My first cave was great, and I'm not particularly impressed with caves. It was lit up and had a walkway through it to guide you around the stalactites and other formations. At one point the lights stop but the sidewalk continues into the darkness. I whipped out my headlamp and beckoned my friends to follow along. We walked to the end of the walkway and turned off the light to experience complete darkness. It was a humbling feeling to think we'd be completely vulnerable if we didn't have that light. At the base of the cave is a beautiful blue lagoon where we swam with the locals. It was a lot of fun to joke around with them and take pictures with each other. I kept saying how much fun I was having.

Afterwards my friend Aurel and I drove out from the city on our motorbike, past the rice fields where workers were just finishing their work for the day and children were walking cattle back home. We came across a sign directing us to a cave advertising a "great adventure." We were up for a little adventure so we followed the sign down a muddy road to a group of kids who charged us 10,000 Kip (about $1) to continue onto the cave. Our guide was ten years old. It was a long walk up a dry riverbed to the entrance to the cave and it couldn't have been more different from our first cave. Sure it was still a cave and had all the cavy things that caves have in them, but it was extremely dark, the ceiling was much lower and ground was covered in slippery mud and jagged rocks. There were no barriers to prevent us from slipping into one of the holes along the sides which seemed to have no bottom and it lacked the inviting blue water of the previous cave. After a few minutes inside we decided that although it may be adventurous, we weren't in for a broken leg or slipping into an abyss and we decided to leave.

Like a lot of backpacker destinations, Laos has a distinct tourist trail. It starts in Chiang Mai, continues to Luang Prabang, Vang Vien and onto Vientiane where it splits in three and travelers go East to Vietnam, South to the rest of Laos and onto Cambodia or West back to Bangkok. Therefore, the people you see on the slow boat you may see again all along the trail. Aurel was on of these people, then there were the cyclists from Spain and a couple girls from Spain and Chile. All that to say, we all met up again quite randomly in Vang Vien and decided to go out. Since we were some of the only people in the club, the DJ let us pick which songs we wanted to hear, and since all of us were Spanish-speakers we played all our favorite Spanish songs and danced the night away! Just as the day began, is how it ended, with me clarifying just how much fun this was.

I must say something about the pork I had in Vang Vien. At a street stall on evening a woman invited me to come closer and handed out a piece of meat with some forceps. Without asking what it was I popped it into my mouth (is that strange?) and I was overcome by what could quite possibly be the best BBQ pork ribs I've ever had in my entire life! Aurel and I bought a rack of ribs to share with each other and I vowed to return the next day which I did after an all-day trek to a distant cave and the pork woman was gone! Oh the disappointment! How many times had I walked by that very spot in the morning wishing she were there? I'd waited all day and could only think of how many ribs I would buy that night and how great they would taste as I ate the rotisserie-roasted goodness standing in the street and tossing the bones to the dogs. Instead the stand was replaced by a woman selling BBQ chicken, an inadequate substitute. But I bought some anyway.

Vientiane was the last stop on my Laos itinerary. I had a pleasant feeling when we arrived in town. The French influence is very apparent in the architecture and the array of French restaurants and bakeries. I immediately went to the French Cultural Center to inquire of French courses just to find out there aren't any at this time. Bummer. Aurel and I walked around the town, ate dinner along the Mekong and gazed out at the lights of Thailand across the river. We parted ways as he went back to Bangkok and I stayed on awaiting my visa to Vietnam.

It was a sincere privilege to meet some fellow believers there in town. I spent Saturday afternoon watching the Olympics and playing farkle (yes they know how to play farkle!) and on Sunday I went to their evening meeting. Tears of joy rolled down my face as we sang "It is Well," and "Blessed be Your Name." There was nowhere else that I'd rather be in that moment that right there with my eternal brothers and sisters in the presence of the fellowship of believers. We shared some great conversation, encouragement and food together before the night was over. I took the next couple days slowly and visited a couple new bakeries for lunch, rented a bicycle and rode around town and picked up my visa at the Vietnam Embassy. My Lao journey was at an end, but it would be very easy to come back.

Curiosity

Last week I administered first aid to an Israeli boy who'd been attacked by a tiger. Do I have your attention? It's true, but the tiger was 4 months old, the injuries were minor and we were at a zoo, where I worked in north Thailand.

Anyone who knows me long enough can verify how much I love cats. Which is to say, not at all! It might surprise you then to know I've been working at a zoo for the past two weeks working with Indo-Chinese tigers. Tiger Kingdom is a zoo that has recently opened near Chiang Mai, Thailand and is unique because it allows visitors to go inside with the tigers and pet them and take pictures. I was one of these visitors when I asked if they hired foreigners. Half an hour later I had a job!

I wasn't looking for a job necessarily but I was looking for something to do. Working with tigers could be fun. My day-t0-day duties included arriving at 7:00am to clean the tiger pool and pick up the leaves that had fallen and coconuts that had been ripped apart from the previous day. Then I would help bottle feed the newborn cubs and shower and eat breakfast and wait for visitors to show up at around 9:30. For the rest of the day I was one of the staff members who took tourists into the cage armed only with a foot long bamboo stick should any of the tigers get too curious. After 20 minutes, all the tigers have been petted, pictures taken and questions answered and another group came in. This went on all day until 6pm when I could go home.

There are seventeen tigers at the zoo; 2 five years old, 2 fifteen months old, 4 nine months old, 4 four months old and 5 one month old. Guests can choose to play with the 9, 4 or 1 month old tigers.

After two weeks at the zoo I realized that tigers are just big cats. Duh! And I don't even like cats! In fact, I'm allergic to cats! What am I doing here? So I quit. Actually it's a longer story than that. True, I'm not crazy about cats, including tigers. I jumped into the job before I knew exactly what I would be doing (answering the same questions 50 times a day) and would not be doing (training tigers.) Then I got very sick which not only made me miss anything familiar but made me feel even more lonely and isolated than I already was. All my co-workers were Thai, and most didn't speak English so I was unable to have conversations with them and basic communications became more frustrating than usual. I decided to forgo extending my visa and continue on to Laos where I'll be heading this week.