Rounding up the trip but the adventure continues

Hello, Hello

At the moment I am back in Chiang Mai. I have decided to give it a go and try to stay/work for at least a year. On Monday I am going to Chiang Mai University to find out information on their teaching english program. If all goes well, I will be starting the course on April 6. I would like to come home in May, but as of now that is tentative.

With that being said, let me tell you a little more about my travels. My last blog left off with me enjoying the serene islands of Laos. From here my traveling companion and I went back up to Pakse where we caught a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. This is the home of Angkor Wat. We checked into a hotel recommended by Lonely Planet which was described as "gay friendly". The men in our group seemed hesitant, but for me after living in San Francisco, I knew that this would be a great, clean establishment. Not to toot my own hornor anything, but boy(=0) was I right. The place is humorously named, The Golden Banana. This by far was one of the best places we stayed in all of SE Asia. We made friends with the bartender there and he ended up taking us to Cambodian clubs, taught us a lot about the culture, and basically served as a mini guide to us. I would come back to Cambodia just to stay there. Don't get me wrong, Angkor Wat was amazing as well=). It is easy to see why it is a great wonder of the world.

From Siem Reap we headed down to Phnom Penh. This city can be described in many different ways. The poverty is overwhelming. The killing fields and S21 could only be described as heartbreaking, sobering, and left us speechless. We were all in tears by the time we finished the tours. Although Cambodians have a terrible history, they still remain upbeat and gracious. Not to say there isn't your run of the mill bad seeds(my SIM card was stolen by a phone company there that charged $3,650 on it). The country is still beautiful. It was such a different experience then the rest of the countries that I visited. Cambodia is a bit of a conundrum. I haven't yet been able to wrap my mind around it. This seems to be the consensus with the other travelers I talked to as well. By the time we left, everyone was VERY ready to leave.

We did manage to travel all the way down through Cambodia though. Hit a beach town called Sihanoukville which I hated. Tons of foreigners littering the beach with flyers as compensation for room and board. I was disgusted with them. They should know better then to come to another country and be so thoughtless. This beach was a real party beach and I couldn't wait to get out. We ventured down to Kampot and finally Kep where we crossed the boarder into Vietnam.

Vietnam was GREAT! So many other travelers were telling us it was the worst place in SE Asia that they had been to, but I disagree. If you stayed aware, everything was okay. We got ripped off once right after the boarder crossing but that was the only time, and it was only $10. We traveled to the island of Phu Quoc. Beautiful place, very romantic. Seafood was lovely and all we did was eat, snorkel, and lay on the beach. We met some great guys from Finland and ended up spending most of our time with them. We had one miss hap on a motorbike. We T-boned our friend. Everyone was okay but I now have a substantial scar running down my inner right calf. Hopefully it will go away. Looks better already!

After we lazed away on Phu Quoc we headed north for Saigon. It felt great to be in a lively city again. We met up with some friends we met in Seam Riep who live/work there. Saigon had some of the best food in Vietnam. Another highlight was the bia hoi places on every corner. Bia hoi is fresh beer they make with no preservatives. Smells a little like vinegar but goes down very smooth. Couldn't go wrong with the price of 8 beers for a dollar(hmm...and now I'm wondering why I've gained so much weight).

Another highlight of Saigon was visiting the war museum. This was unbelievable. The actual museum is not that big but we spent about 3 hours in it. There was a section which displayed and memorialized the photographers in the Vietnam/American War. This proved to be another tearful and moving moment for us. I highly recommend going there for anyone who is planning on going to Vietnam. We also visited the Cu Chi Tunnels. These were the underground tunnels that the Viet Cong created to elude its enemies. The tour included real traps that were used to capture/kill soldiers. Very brutal. This again was a very sobering experience. Something that I found distasteful there was that they had a shooting range. People could pay money to shoot weapons that were used in the war. How discusting! I couldn't believe the idiots who were getting off on shooting a weapon that had murdered hundreds/thousands of people. Although disturbing, I found this place interesting. I almost felt like I went back in time. I imagined myself as an American soldier walking through this dense jungle, having just left home, and having no familiarity to my surroundings. I physically felt frightened. My heart and stomach dropped and I found myself wanting to leave.

After finishing with Saigon, we traveled by train to Nha Trang. This is another beach community. It reminded we a lot of Honolulu, Hawaii. Hotels everywhere, water sports, etc. The town was nice and they had a great mud bath/hot springs place, but other then that I found it more industrialized then I had planned or wanted.

Next stop for us was Hoi An. I LOVE HOI AN!!! I spent my birthday there. The town is gorgeous, laid back, friendly, etc. The look is very Vietnamese, meets french, meets Cuba. Did a cooking class on my bday, then was taken out for a fantastic dinner. We met up with a couple that we met in Nha Trang and spent a lot of our time with them in Hoi An. They were so lovely.

From Hoi An we headed up to Hanoi to hit Halong Bay. Hanoi was another crazy Vietnamese city but was also lovely. There is a french quarter that has just about anything you could possibly ever need: shoes, clothes, food, appliances, hardware, etc. We went and saw Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum which was quite creepy. Hundreds of people line up a day to get a glimps of his preservated corpse.

Another highlight of my whole trip was Halong Bay. It was absolutely breathtaking. Hundreds of limestone karsts jet out of the water. We slept over night on a junk and went kayaking the next day. There are whole communities that live on the water(reminded me of the movie Waterworld). Here we visited the biggest cave I have ever seen. It was truly massive! Past travelers signed there names there and they dated back to the 1800's.
After the Halong Bay tour, we headed back to Hanoi to chill out for a few days before flying back to Bangkok.

Bangkok was pretty uneventful except for seeing a few wonderful friends. Had to head back to Laos after realizing that my 90 days in 6 months allowance in Thailand was almost over. I picked up a proper visa there and headed back to Chiang Mai. This leaves me in the present day. I wish I had kept up my travel blog so that I would be inspired to go into more detail, but I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles, or maybe now I should say, that's the way the rice...hmmm not feeling inspired enough to finish that phrase =). A little help?

Well I guess this is technically the end of my travel blog. Maybe I'll start another one. I'll call it, An American living in Thailand. I would probably have to be more of an interesting person though for that one to fly=)

I love you all, and I am really excited about my future. Hope all is well with everyone and I would love to hear from you. Start making plans to visit me in Thailand. BTW-Dad I am going to talk you into retiring here so get ready=).

laa kawn(goodbye) for now.

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