katetheyak
katetheyak
katetheyak
DECEMBER 2009: for the sake of sentamentality, im simply unable to eraze my original profile entry i wrote in 2008 before i caught travel bug. While looking at it now makes me cringe at all the evidence of my innocence and (verbal flatulence), I have an equal sense that were it to be updated/edited it would no longer represent the truth. Have a look at the map for more information as to where i travelled during/after my time in Nam and where I ended up! Enjoy!
AUGUST 2008:
friends, you have come to the right place
woohoo my very own travel diary! this will solve everything!
after weeks of listening to people asking me if im suitably scared of travelling solo thousands of miles (in a big metal tube 30000 feet up) to a distant, alien land (Vietnam) with strange foreign customs (no patting people on the head)- its apparently X100 worse than mentioning the war to the Germans) and even weirder food (sticky or dry rice - the interminable question), i have succumbed to their infectious terror. I leave in four weeks time, i have my giant rucksack which i can nicely squeeze into AND zip up, most of my jabs (tetanus is the worst, which is surprising - i thought rabies would be), im about to order my US dollars to bribe the custom officials for a visa (Im in a dodgy, uncomfortable situation where the people im going to work for as a teacher (ILA) are sending me a letter in Vietnamese to give to the friendly man weilding a gun at the immigration desk in Saigon).By the way, tieng Viet is possibly the worlds most difficult language due to it being tonal, i.e., if i said the last sentence in wrong pitch in said language it would probably insitunate bad things about your mother.... But hey Im Irish right? The Vietnamese and the Irish are brothers...sorry... comrades in arms right? we all experienced the oppressive hand of the colonial machine and triumphed, finally selling out to fiendish capitalism. surely we have lots to share.
follow my blog updates to track my journey into the wild. i promise surpassing all of your expectations and destroying my misconceptions about this fascinating country. Included will be:
possible prison photography if they let me keep my camera
satanic-driven ramblings about teaching 6-17 year olds
yakkings about my biggest concern in any travel i undertake: food
details of any other trips i make once deported