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Published: August 20th 2015
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Burger in HCMCHello everyone I FINALLY made it out of Asia to bluer skies, MUCH better food and different colored people (Normalcy is amazing I must say) I flew from the city I was working in in Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh City via Jetstar it was a smooth and easy hour and a half ride and accompanying me was my boss of all people lol. We found out we were on the same flight the before we were going to the airport in Vinh. It was a nice sendoff as he was really the only helpful and cool person there and not to mention he speaks English. We landed and they didn't have any checked baggage and I had to wait for mine to come around so I gave him a hug and told him thanks for everything in an honest way. Even though I seriously busted my ass for the time I was there he was the only person who showed any appreciation for the work I did which made me feel good. We said our goodbyes and I got my bag and headed for the taxi to a hostel I stayed at the year before called Eco Hostel in the
backpacker area. I was really only paying for storage as I arrived in HCMC around 9pm and my flight to LA was at 5:30am the next morning so I checked in and put my bags away so I could wander around the area a bit and for sure get me something with cheese on it lol! I stopped at my favorite place to sit and eat on the backpacker road which was Universal Bar, where I got me a nice cheeseburger and fries along with some cold beers!
I remember sitting there and thinking "WOW this is the last time I'm ever going to be in Asia" ..I can't lie, a sly smirk of happiness showed :-) I finished my beers while watching some street performers do their thing to get tips from the packed restaurants along the road. I mean, I understand it's something that they actually do for a gig, I get it, it's just that people act like its the first time they have ever seen a fire breather or a break dancer...I just shook my head in annoyance of such buffoonery. I headed back to the hostel, belly full and a nice buzz
My first pizza in a LOOOONG while!going at around 12am and just figured ehh why not just go to the airport early so that's what I did I got my bags and checked out and headed to the airport to catch a cat nap before my plane was ready.
Around 4am I checked in and checked my bag making sure it would go straight to LA as I had a layover in Beijing for 4 hours and they assured me it would be...wrong! after my 20 hour flight to LA and CRAZY immigration lines in my own country I passed through to find my bag and several other peoples' bags did not arrive (Fuck China Air, but you get what you pay for I suppose) so they filled out the form and told me they would deliver the bag to my friends house when it was located, I was too tired to argue at the time. That night they called and said they found it and it would be delivered the next morning..........3 days later, the day before my next flight they called and said the delivery guy will be there in 10 minutes. I signed for my bag and checked it to
Love at first sight!make sure my coffee and cartons of cigs were still there, they were so I said thanks and went inside to have some coffee 😊. When I got to LA I weighed myself because everyone said I was thin, I guessed 170lbs they all said hell no, I stepped on and it was 151.8 lol I was shocked! I commenced to gorge myself on a whole pizza, I made baked Ziti and Nachos 2 times lol..by Monday morning before my flight I weighed in at ......... 152.8 lmao! I gained a pound! incredible!
On to Oaxaca and the AMAZING country that is Mexico! It has been 5 years since I was last here and I never got a chance to come to Oaxaca so I figured before starting my journey back down to Colombia why not start here and DAMN I'm so glad I did! The food is just INCREDIBLE and the reason that I still rank Mexican food #1 of everywhere I've been. I got to my hostel really late around 1am (Don Nino hostel) which is right next to a great park which at 1am was still flourishing with street vendors so I checked in
My foot long Cold cut!! and found I was the only one in my dorm which was cool I put my bags away and ran over to the first stall I saw and got 10 Tacos Al Pastor which are my favorite! I don't think I've ever had a better taco ANYWHERE in my life, maybe it was just because it's been a couple of years since I had one I'm not sure, but FUCK! I was on cloud 9 honestly. I go to that same family every night and get 10 tacos. The hostel is really chill it's only me, a couple of Chinese girls, an Aussie and a couple of Brits along with a really strange old guy from the US who we all think is some sort of pedophile by the things he talks about, there's always at least one weirdo hanging around in hostels wherever you go so that's normalcy when traveling I guess. Most of everyone here is younger than me and in that party mode so there are some rumblings of moving to another hostel which has more excitement, they asked me but I declined, I'm totally comfortable here and prefer the chillness of this place. My first full
Nachos! day I walked the whole city the markets, The Zocalo and downtown as well as some parks and took pics. I came here for #1 the food, #2 Monte Alban and #3 it's Mexico!!
I will do a separate blog on Monte Alban, but for now this is about the journey from Asia to Oaxaca. I went to the Market to specifically find chiles, dried chiles so I can get the seeds and smuggle them south for my farm in couple of years. These chiles are unavailable in South America so my only hope is I can get them safely south without harassment from the "fuds" on why I'm bringing chile seeds south. I found 12 different kinds today and bought a couple of each and brought them back to the hostel to clean out and bag up the seeds. JUST AMAZING really. I've been so long without these smells and flavors it was great to smell the chiles when I ripped them open to clean out anyway enough about my fascination with chiles and growing things. I will be here 2 more days before going to Tapachula to get a Ticabus ticket and the 4 day
Made some Guacamole too!haul to Panama! I'll post my Monte Alban blog today or tomorrow. Thanks all and buen viaje!!! Thanks for reading!
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Congrats on your escape!
How fabulous that you landed first in LA--very impressive those massively cheesy creations (oh, I can hardly wait, she says from funky cheese Peru!) and then Oaxaca with its excellent cuisine. My favorites there were the ladies that appeared on street corners in the evening with their big pots of steamed tamales! Brilliant to smuggle chili seeds to South America if you're going to have a farm down here. That Tica bus looks pretty luxurious--enjoy!