9.17.2010
6.22.2010
6.12.2010
Home Sweet Saigon
For me, Saigon was definitely NOT love at first sight. It's hot, humid, loud, overcrowded. There's a constant layer of smog hanging over the whole maze of winding streets. Like most big cities in this part of the world, foreigners are treated either as a nuisance or as a dollar sign, or quite often, as both. But, like most places that you linger long enough to sink beneath the surface, it starts to grow on you. We've been here almost a month now... (sorry for the horrible slacking on the blog front! Quick update: we decided to settle down in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), moved into a house and are chasing careers as English teachers) ...and intriguing mysteries and endearing quirks abound.
For example. The other night Christian was chauffeuring me home from my new tutoring gig in some far reach of the city. (The chaotic motorbike traffic continues to terrify me and I haven't sucked it up enough to get my own motorbike. When I'm feeling really brave I drive,but this usually only happens in the middle of the night...) Anyways, we decided to try to find a shorter route home. About an hour later, that plan landed us on some dark street in some unknown district, nowhere near home. Totally lost and disoriented we made an amazing discovery: inner-city shrimp fishing!
Picture this: next-door to a soccer field, a manky-looking swimming pool rimmed by Vietnamese men, women, and kids- fishing poles in hand, staring intently into the murky water. Every now and then someone reels in a huge prawn and throws it into a hot-pot on the table or skewers it and puts it on the grill. Naturally, we had to try. Sadly, we failed miserably. After two hours we left with seven shrimp, five of which were generous "gifts", aka pity donations from our fellow shrimp-fishermen. Considering how utterly lost we were, chances of finding this gem again may be one in a million, but we will definitely try!
Of all the things we could have ended up doing that night, I never would have guessed we'd be posted up at a muddy pond trying desperately to catch shrimp for dinner. It's for reasons like this that I find little cracks appearing in my initial dislike for this city. I have a sneaking suspicion that as time passes these cracks will just grow wider and wider. Only time will tell..
XOXO, Em
For example. The other night Christian was chauffeuring me home from my new tutoring gig in some far reach of the city. (The chaotic motorbike traffic continues to terrify me and I haven't sucked it up enough to get my own motorbike. When I'm feeling really brave I drive,but this usually only happens in the middle of the night...) Anyways, we decided to try to find a shorter route home. About an hour later, that plan landed us on some dark street in some unknown district, nowhere near home. Totally lost and disoriented we made an amazing discovery: inner-city shrimp fishing!
Picture this: next-door to a soccer field, a manky-looking swimming pool rimmed by Vietnamese men, women, and kids- fishing poles in hand, staring intently into the murky water. Every now and then someone reels in a huge prawn and throws it into a hot-pot on the table or skewers it and puts it on the grill. Naturally, we had to try. Sadly, we failed miserably. After two hours we left with seven shrimp, five of which were generous "gifts", aka pity donations from our fellow shrimp-fishermen. Considering how utterly lost we were, chances of finding this gem again may be one in a million, but we will definitely try!
Of all the things we could have ended up doing that night, I never would have guessed we'd be posted up at a muddy pond trying desperately to catch shrimp for dinner. It's for reasons like this that I find little cracks appearing in my initial dislike for this city. I have a sneaking suspicion that as time passes these cracks will just grow wider and wider. Only time will tell..
XOXO, Em
5.13.2010
5.10.2010
5.09.2010
From Never Never Land to the Ruins of Angkor
After the madness of Vang Vieng we needed a bit of a cool-off period- spent a couple days in Vientiane and then headed further south to the 4,000 islands (pretty sure the name is literal). A little boat dropped us off on the deserted end of one, Don Khon, and we hoofed it into a quaint little village and found a room complete with a huge bug in the toilet and papaya tree out front. New record low: $3/night. Slowed down and passed the days bumbling around the islands on rickety old bikes, watching water buffalo and Irrawaddy dolphins (with our new German film-making buddies, Anne and Stefan, who spent three days trying to catch them on tape), and trying to escape the unbearably mean heat in the Mekong, Beer Lao and watermelon in hand. Really rough.
Meandered down to Cambodia and over to Ban Lung in the remote northeastern jungle, explored crater lakes and waterfalls and then packed up for the long ride across the country to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor...
Now, I think we've been at this long enough that I can say with confidence that there are two things about SE Asian bus travel that you can definitely count on: 1. no matter how full it looks, there is always room for more and 2. it will take at least forever and a day to get there. Just for kicks, I wrote down all the stops on our last bus ride, from Ban Lung to Siem Reap. Paints a pretty typical picture...
6:58am Depart Ban Lung (on the 6:30 bus)
7:02am Stop outside town to wait for a straggler to catch up on motorbike (10 min)
8:00am Morning snack (breaky #2?) for bus driver and crew (20 min)
9:00am Shopping for fish at the side of the road (5 min)
9:53am Pick up several large packages of charcoal (10 min)
11:01am Wait for back hoe to dig out and level a new path for bus to pass (5 min)
11:12am Pick up two stuffed manila envelopes (1 min)
11:38am Lunch (25 min)
12:17pm Drop off and pick up people in Kratie (5 min)
1:13pm Family selects and purchases 6-7 jackfruit (largest tree-bearing fruit in the world, smells and tastes like banana-flavored Laffy Taffy) (10 min)
1:56pm Drop off (1 min)
1:59pm Gas, window wash and cool engine bath (30 min)
3:03pm Drop off (2 min)
3:25pm Drop off (1 min)
3:29pm Drop off (3 min)
3:34pm Drop off (5 min)
3:53pm Change buses (5 min)
4:30pm Potty break/snack time (30 min)
5:04pm Drop off (4 min)
8:27pm Arrive Siem Reap
Grand total: 13.5 hours, almost 3 hrs at a complete stop. Can't wait for the next round!
-E
Meandered down to Cambodia and over to Ban Lung in the remote northeastern jungle, explored crater lakes and waterfalls and then packed up for the long ride across the country to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor...
Now, I think we've been at this long enough that I can say with confidence that there are two things about SE Asian bus travel that you can definitely count on: 1. no matter how full it looks, there is always room for more and 2. it will take at least forever and a day to get there. Just for kicks, I wrote down all the stops on our last bus ride, from Ban Lung to Siem Reap. Paints a pretty typical picture...
6:58am Depart Ban Lung (on the 6:30 bus)
7:02am Stop outside town to wait for a straggler to catch up on motorbike (10 min)
8:00am Morning snack (breaky #2?) for bus driver and crew (20 min)
9:00am Shopping for fish at the side of the road (5 min)
9:53am Pick up several large packages of charcoal (10 min)
11:01am Wait for back hoe to dig out and level a new path for bus to pass (5 min)
11:12am Pick up two stuffed manila envelopes (1 min)
11:38am Lunch (25 min)
12:17pm Drop off and pick up people in Kratie (5 min)
1:13pm Family selects and purchases 6-7 jackfruit (largest tree-bearing fruit in the world, smells and tastes like banana-flavored Laffy Taffy) (10 min)
1:56pm Drop off (1 min)
1:59pm Gas, window wash and cool engine bath (30 min)
3:03pm Drop off (2 min)
3:25pm Drop off (1 min)
3:29pm Drop off (3 min)
3:34pm Drop off (5 min)
3:53pm Change buses (5 min)
4:30pm Potty break/snack time (30 min)
5:04pm Drop off (4 min)
8:27pm Arrive Siem Reap
Grand total: 13.5 hours, almost 3 hrs at a complete stop. Can't wait for the next round!
-E
4.23.2010
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