Why Vietnam Is "CER-AAZY"!

---

Alright. So. Feeling refreshed after walking around the city a bit and paying a visit to the U.S. embassy for more passport pages (a surprisingly easy endeavor.. not to mention it was free), I'm ready to attempt to put into words the reason why Vietnam is so... strange.

Vietnam can best be summed up in a trip we took to a cave during our Halong Bay tour. Firstly, this cave is attempting to be nominated for one of the world's 7 natural wonders. Just keep that in mind.

We get off the boat and start walking towards the steps that lead up to the cave (which are very well manicured and.. well.. fake - as in not natural at all) and we hear music similar to something one would listen to at Disneyland. ...There were literally wires throughout the cave entrance playing this music. Anyway. We walk up to the cave and when we walk in, we look around at each other with these dumbfounded expressions on our faces. The first thing that popped out of my mouth was, "This isn't real..." The cave literally looked like something Disney would produce for the area people stand prior to going on a ride at Disneyland. It seriously looked SO fake. I think a lot of it had to do with the lighting (which was technicolor) and the fake fountain (yes, there was a fake fountain in a cave)... it also had to do with the penguin trash cans (one of which had red paint coming out of it's eyes, making it look like blood), the fake-marbled walkways, and the masses of people. ...In essence, that is our experience of Vietnam. A ton of people (read: tourists), absolutely random things such as penguin trash cans (read: Crazy House, chicken villages, eating snake hearts, etcetc), ridiculous tours that include guides with microphones, and lots and lots of alcohol (yes, we even managed to have a beer at the cave).

I just audibly sighed. SO ready to get some culture into the mix!! We're planning on going up north tomorrow or the next day and do some trekking and hopefully stumble upon some random villages. I'm crossing my fingers. I've been reading a lot about Borneo (the Eastern part of Malaysia) and Indonesia though, and I'm starting to get reaaaally excited about both places as well. I think Laos is going to be great and I'm definitely looking forward to the silent meditation retreat!! Unsure of my internet access in Laos, but will try to update as much as possible.

Lots of love to everyone back home =)

---