Asia Blog

Notes from the Road

2005-01-06T19:56:00.000+08:00

Hey all:

It`s been a bit, and I should have sent this right went I arrived in Europe, but now I`m sitting down so everyone will have to take what I can give :) I`m currently in Milano (Milan in America), on my way to Copenhagen in the next couple of days. My time in Africa ended more in a fizzle then a bang, but I still found the experience worthwhile. I didn`t personally like the last email as much as the one before (India), so I`m going to revert back to the personal interactions format, although I may lose a bit of the actual trip`s flow in the process. Today`s sections will be: Normal Neil & Colored Clayton, Randy Ruth, Party Pizza, Sauced Stefan, Daddy Domingo, Ms. Mia, Cheery Cy & Christina, Cousin Carla, Amicable Amanda, Quality Qi (took me a little while to figure out any possible q work), Terrible Tsunami, and European Exploration. Thankfully I don`t have as much ground to cover as the last one, so maybe I won`t babble for as long. After writing this email, I`m much happier with the final product. If anyone didn`t like the last email as much, give this one a shot, the return to a people oriented format proved fruitful in my estimation.

Normal Neil & Colored Clayton: Friends, Race, Politics, and Religion

Being in South Africa turned more and more into what I imagine a flashback to America 50-150 years ago might have been like. The racial tension is thick, although hardly anyone discusses it. People openly use the word `colored,` which still catches me off-guard. I`m only using the word now because Clive`s son, Neil, and his good friend Clayton, self-identify themselves by that word. I guess the term would be mixed or mulatto or something along those lines in America, but Americans would simply call those people black. But Black means something entirely different there, and Neil & Clayton would probably take offense were they to be grouped in that sub-sect. Regardless, I found the whole racial dynamic in South Africa somewhat frightening. Neil lives in a compound here they scan his fingerprint every time he wants to get through the gate. His complex is surrounded by electric fence. If a guest visits, the guard calls him and Neil can open the gate at his discretion from the keypad on his cell phone! Does America have these inventions? I mean, I`m sure they exist somewhere, but still, scary.
Neil and Clayton were wonderful. I stayed 3 nights with them, thoroughly enjoying myself. They took me out on the town and exposed me to life in Johannesburg. Some of the highlights included: drinking wine in a friend`s neighbor`s hot tub (after we had to scale the wall to reach their house) introducing them to Jagerbombs (Red bull & Jagermeister), being introduced to Springbok (I have no idea what goes in that drink), clubbing Jo`burg style, biting the hair of the dog in the morning, and various other activities. I immediately fell in with Neil and felt like old friends. We liked the same music, played the same video-games, and watched some of the same sports. I felt openly accepted and believe he and Clayton are true friends.

One of the most enlightening moments came during a brie (South African barbecue) we had at Neil`s with Clayton and Neil`s cousin. I quickly learned how far America`s international image has fallen when we began discussing the Zimbabwe question (for anyone who doesn`t know, Robert Mugabe is running Zimbabwe steadily into the ground. People are fleeing the country and world opinion is firmly against the Mugabe regime. He has ruled there for quite a while, turning bad over the last ten years. By now, he`s possible schizophrenic and definitely evil. The Economist argues that his regime only exists due to South African support. Last year he became so upset with inflation he banned money, until he realized it propped up his regime and then he quickly reinstated it). I asked Neil`s cousin about why South Africa supports Mugabe. He said that Zimbabweans are welcome to immigrate to South Africa and plan Mugabe`s overthrow, much like Mugabe allowed South African citizens to do during apartheid. Just because they don`t like Mugabe doesn`t mean they can assassinate him. He asked me if he should be allowed to assassinate President Bush because of the level of international Bush hatred. While I didn`t (and still don`t) find his analogy very applicable, it does speak volumes for America`s dismal international image.

The brie ended on a two hour discussion of religion, something which caught me entirely off-guard. South Africa`s colored community is apparently EXTREMELY religious. These people were all one denomination of Christianity (can`t remember the name) that had originated in Western Europe and had been very popular among Nazi members. Neil`s cousin was surprised to hear I was Jewish, and began asking me bizarre questions. He asked me if Jews ruled the World\America, and if Jews had killed Jesus (I denied both questions, but the table seemed in positive agreement on at least the second issue). I don`t want people to think of the discussion as offensive or off-putting, South Africa`s religious climate cannot be compared to America. Neil`s cousin actually didn`t even consider me Jewish since I didn`t keep kosher and couldn`t remember the last time I`d been to shul (it took me a while to even understand what word he was saying, a fact that must have helped him access my apparant lack of `Jewish` credentials). Religion is very different in Neil & Clayton`s circle. I`m happy they let me into their lives to view a glimpse of colored life in South Africa.

Randy Ruth: Peace Corp Life in Lesotho

Mia & I traveled down separately to meet Mia`s old high school friend Ruth, who happens to be serving concurrently (sounds a bit like prison) in Peace Corp Lesotho. I enjoyed myself in Lesotho. Seeing another Oak Person was fun, and we compared notes on mutual acquaintances. We cooked good food. I think we cooked as much in 48 hours in Lesotho (twice) as I cooked in a year in Korea. My personal highlight was a national park we visited. Lesotho is a small, mountanious nation, completely surrounded by South Africa. The national park had water flowing down the mountains, and we frolicked in it. The water cascades down the mountian in quick river flows, with small waterfalls and nice underlying pools. We found a natural water-slide they went down an 8-10 foot waterfall, spewing into a nice sized pool beneath. Ruth`s boyfriend Bryan led us there, and we all took part in the entertainment. Peace Corp Lesotho bares many similarities to Mozambique. I was introduced to the chamberpot and the bucket-bath baby pool at Ruth`s house (many PCV quarters don`t have running water, so buckets are brought into the bathroom and you pour the water over yourself in the `shower` with cups). Ruth`s house had some pleasant amenities like: cd player, couch, that`s all I can think of :)

Party Pizza: Christmas Mozambican Style

Traveling from Lesotho to Beira (where I delayed my flight to finally leave Africa on the 28th) turned out to be quite a process. Mia and I left Ruth`s on the morning of the 22nd, getting into Jo`burg on the morning of the 23rd. We promptly got stuck in the train station until the night train, having to kill maybe 15 hours amongst little fanfare. Finally caught a train to near the Mozambican border, only to discover that the train has been completely OVERBOOKED. We had people sleeping in the aisle and under the seats. I caught about two hours of shut-eye myself. Reached the border on the morning of the 24th, to quickly discover we were re-stuck. I`m not missing African transport (or communications for that matter) one bit. Mia finally begged us a ride from a passing car. I slept in the truck bed while Mia practiced English with the friendly Portuguese drivers in the cab. We reached Maputo (capital of Mozambique) on the afternoon of the 24th, and decided we couldn`t safely reach anything farther north. So I celebrated Christmas Eve in Maputo, over a Feta pizza with Mia. While it certainly wasn`t my tastiest Christmas Eve, I`m happy I stuck around Africa for the holidays. Since it isn`t very safe to stay out after dark in `big` Mozambican cities, Mia and I scurried home after our meal.

Sauced Stefan: Mixing Rides With Liquor

Our ride to Maputo was only one example of the many parts of our journey we hitched through Mozambique. When telling friends about the hitching in Europe, many people seem concerned. Hitching is THE way to travel in Mozambique. Obviously one has to be careful how and who one hitches with, but we caught many wonderful rides. The only real alternative is packed minibuses, that are only arguably safer (and maybe not even arguably) and erratic, outside of cramped and somewhat expensive. Anyway, after getting back into Vilan Kulish on December 26th, Mia and I ate a nice fish dinner and were on our way towards town to get some drinking water. A truck pulled over and asked if we wanted a lift. We agreed and quickly became acquainted with Stefan and Azel through the window connected the bed with the cab. They were both from a smallish town in Northeastern South Africa, vacationing in Mozambique for the holidays. They were probably in their early twenties, and neither looked as old as us (23). Stefan made this email because of the funny comments he made. Later in the evening, when we were hanging out, he had us guess his profession (I had asked and he wondered if I really wanted to know). Mia was closer then I, but neither of us hit it on the head exactly. He`s a funeral home operator, who adamantly explained to us how he`d never seen a dead body (and apparently never wants to see one). While I found this exchange humerus, my favorite by far was slightly after we`d originally climbed onto the truck bed. When stopped at a gas station, he explained how he and Azel had been out to a beautiful tropical island all day. They`d drank the entire way there, they`re entire time on the island, and the entire trip back. He then explained how, if we saw anything big coming towards them when driving.... I said what, yell? At which he responded, hell we`re way past yelling, JUMP OFF! (I can`t find the quotation marks on this stupid keyboard so everyone will have to use their imagination). The generosity of people towards me continues to inspire awe and admiration.

Daddy Domingo: The `Real` Mozambique

One of my favorite experience in Mozambique stemmed from a pretty boring\bad day. We spent all of December 27th traveling to Beira, where I was supposed to fly out of the next day. After being extremely lucky in hitching, everything dried up all day (after a very friendly initial ride). We had to take chapas (public mini-bus taxis) all day, which I`ve previously complained about. To top the whole thing off, we caught our last chapa (the third) into Beira in the late afternoon. As also previously mentioned, one doesn`t really want to explore bigger Mozambican cities after dark. We were cutting our travel close time-wise, but didn`t really have other options. Mia didn`t have any contacts in Beira, so were going to have to find somewhere to sleep like a hotel or hostel or whatever was available. Our last chapa completely stunk. The conductor (money taker who rides in the back) was pushy and we stopped every 10 minutes. Mia and I kept our bags on our laps, so the journey was turning somewhat excruciatingly hot and cramped for us. Then our mini-bus beeped twice and suddenly stopped; we`d run out of gas! Unbelievable. After an hour of sitting on the side of the road, the conductor still hadn`t returned. The hazy dusk had promptly turned to pitch-black night, and we were becoming `concerned` over sleeping accommodations. The driver finally told all 20 odd people that he`d front bus tickets for us to travel the last 30ish minutes into town. We all climbed into the back of a truck and were off. After maybe 15 minutes, the truck stopped and a bunch of people climbed off. Mia asked a random family if we could stay with them, and after some initial confusion, we had a place to stay. I cannot thank Mia enough for imposing herself on these people, b\c I have no idea what we would have done otherwise. Just like that, Domingo entered our lives.

Domingo and his wife both looked younger then us, similar to Stefan and Azel; the similarities stopped there. He`s a black Mozambican carpenter, who was 7 CHILDREN! We walked maybe thirty minutes till we finally reached his small house. They began moving all the sleeping mats outside, I think b\c they assumed we`d sleep in they`re house while they slept outside! Mia quickly assured them that we would sleep outside, although she didn`t know the word for tent in Portuguese and had to use `mobile house.` :) Although we hadn`t eaten, both Mia and I collapsed on a sleeping mat while Domingo`s wife began cooking. An hour later, around 9 pm, Domingo woke us up to eat dinner. According to Mozambican culture, we had to eat since we were `guests` (although we`d essentially invited ourselves to their house). They gave us tons of rice and bits of chicken. Domingo sat on a stool while everyone else ate on ground mats (I felt like one of the children, kind of nice and accepting). We got water and cups but I had to pass on the water; I`d made it that far, didn`t want the water to catch up with me the day before I left Africa! In the morning, Mia insisted they take money for being so kind to us. I really enjoyed Domingo and his family. We both took pictures of everyone. Mia jotted down their address. She took a picture of Domingo and his wife, because they probably don`t have any photos of themselves. Mia`s used to that experience, but I was really glad for the exposure.

Ms. Mia: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

What can I say about Mia, she`s great. Visiting her was a wonderful excuse to return to Africa. She enabled me to travel in a place where travel otherwise would have been extraordinarily difficult (if even really possible, b\c it was difficult enough even with her around). I played many roles throughout the trip in relation to Mia: brother, boyfriend, husband, villain, protector, but in the end I was never more or less then a friend. We definitely had our differences. I do feel she`s changed quite a bit between pre-PC and now. Mozambique has brought something of an edge to her personality. Maybe she`s just become less patient due to the crap she has to deal with on an everyday level. I felt more tension with her then any of the boys I traveled with in SE Asia, but I also feel our friendship has deepened due to the extended time we spent together. Living with someone for six weeks can really clarify things. I know Peace Corp is a great cause, and give her and all the other PCVs tons of respect for taking on such a difficult task. Many people have asked me if I`m interested in it after my last email, and I want to put down a firm no. As amazing as the work is, I don`t have a real desire to spend 27 months of my life in that manner. I`ve become accustomed to certain creature comforts like running water (even if it`s not quite drinkable) and flushing toilets. Safety is another concern I don`t like being overly concerned about. But for people who are willing to take that plunge, they have access to more of an immersion experience then anything I`ve ever done. Mia`s fluent in Portuguese where I still struggle to put a sentence together in Korean. To tell the truth, I`m not sure if Africa is the place for me. I`ve been pining more and more for Asia recently. It`s simply a lifestyle\life-path choice for me. When all is said and done though, I really can`t thank Mia and her family enough for enabling me to join their family circle.

Cheery Cy & Christina: A European Couple

After sitting around various airports for hours, I finally boarded the plane from Jo`burg to Zurich. By simple happenstance I climbed onto the plane first and found my seat was in the emergency row (a welcomed discovery b\c of the extra leg-room). As people piled on, a man walked up to me and started looking around. He then asked what language I spoke, and explained how he and his wife had been separated. He wondered if I would mind moving across the aisle so they could sit in the two seats together. I gladly complied, and so met Cy and Christina (his name is actually longer then Cy, but I suck so bad at pronouncing things that he shortened it to Cy for me). Cy and Christina were returning to Switzerland after their two month honeymoon in South Africa. I hit it off with them immediately, and kept up a friendly banter throughout parts of the flight. He`s French and she`s Belarusan. They met when she`d been waiting tables and had run over him when flying down a staircase (a story that rivals my parents famous pink bike\pink car meeting). He`s an engineer that had lived in Chicago (I knew we`d get along when he told me Chicago was one of his favorite cities). In the vein of extremely friendly people that I`ve met everywhere, this couple instantly started looking after me. I received some funny looks from the ground crew when I de-boarded in Zurich with shorts on when there was snow on the ground! :) They waited for my bag and we all went through immigration together (where the bastards don`t even stamp your passport anymore! I wanted the European stamps...). Then they helped me take the train to central station with them. Once again, my faith in general humanity shined through. We all took the same train and I got off after a bit, after at least changing from sandals into my New Balance shoes.

Cousin Carla: From New Friend To Old Friend

I arrived in Europe with no real plan of attack. After regrouping at the train station, which took me a while to find, I decided to arrange my contacts. At the top of my list was Carla, my God-parents daughter who is working in Rome. I grabbed some Internet (very welcome after the awful African access) and quickly found her number. Thankfully, I didn`t wake her up when I called around 8ish. She sounded super excited to hear from me, and immediately agreed to meet me at the Rome train station. I threw myself on the train people to figure out how to use my previously purchased Euro-rail pass and to reach Rome. The process was easier then expected b\c the train assistant spoke excellent English (something many Europeans surprisingly don`t seem to do). I didn`t struggle with the trains much, outside of almost not departing Switzerland when the ticket checker explained I was in the wrong car! I`ve found the trains pretty confusing, but haven`t gotten lost yet :)

Two of Carla`s University of Iowa friends, Diane and Sara, were visiting. We all toured Rome together for a few days, which I found very enjoyable. They initiated me into their personal sorority (only had to answer a long questionnaire, which I managed a 75% pass ratio). We saw tons of things, most notably the Colosseum, St. Peter`s Cathedral and the Jewish Ghetto (all the visitors are Jewish and Carla is Jewish by association). I stayed at a very central hostel that enabled me to move between the multiple groups of friends I had in Rome.

Amicable Amanda: lemoncello, Pizza, Wine = New Years

My other group of friends in Rome centered around Amanda, Mia`s sister that I`d traveled with for a few weeks in southern Africa. Amanda works in London but happened to be traveling through Italy around the same time as I arrived. We met up multiple times in Rome, and I quickly fell in with her group of four friends there (Gulshin, Peter, Virginia, Alessandro). We went out for the festivities on New Years Eve. After a glut of pizza (best priced meal I`ve probably had in Europe, a few beers, multiple appetizers, and tons of pizza for 7 euros a piece!) we began drinking. I hadn`t been able to let loose since traveling in SE Asia, and really enjoyed a night out on the town. We visited multiple bars, where everyone stands at the bar and takes shots. I was introduced to Italian lemoncello (which I don`t believe is significantly better then what is available in the States) and various other drinks. We celebrated New Years in a square where music had been planned and then canceled due to the tsunami. Instead of music, we watched silent movies while live ballet dancers flew around the screen and classical music played in the background. I can truly say that New Years was unique, and I enjoyed myself (outside of being freezing cold; I jumped in circles throughout the night).

Amanda and Gulshin arrived in Italy before me, and had already rented a car and visited some southern sites. I joined the two of them for exploring a little north of Rome. We visited Siene (difficult to navigate but still a beautiful old city), Florence (big, old, good), Bologna (particularly nice, good colors) and Verona (small, intimate, only ok). They are absolutely addicted to shopping, but luckily I managed to opt out of almost all of it. We hit the low point of the trip when we were towed in Florence :( The high point had to be when I insisted on seeing the David the morning we were leaving Florence. They reluctantly agreed to wake up early with me, and we arrived at the museum before 8 (opens its doors at 8:15). We rushed into the museum, but couldn`t find the statue. Finally, after asking multiple attendants, we stood in front of two David statues sculpted by Donatello. We were in the wrong museum! HA After recovering from my error, we laughed all the way to the `right` David. :) I`m looking forward to catching up with Amanda & Gulshin when I eventually get to London.

Quality Qi: It`s Simple Logic My Dear Watson

Visiting with my various groups of friends in Rome led me to some later evenings at the hostel. When getting back around 1:30 on the 30th of December, I expected most people in my six person room to be asleep. Surprise surprise when I opened the front door to find this friendly girl texting on her cell phone. She started a conversation and feel into a good talk. Qi`s (pronounced chi) is currently on a Watson fellowship to study the use and abuse of antibiotics around the world. She`s from Shang-hi and just graduated from Grinell. We flew through topics quickly and I realized we had much in common, from a love of liberal arts to a mutual respect for history (even if she chickened out and took the bio-chem route). We met up again late on New Years Eve, and toured Rome all day on the 1st. I`m about to meet her in Copenhagen, where she`s presently studying that societies stance towards antibiotics. But best of all, she might be able to travel in China with me, which would be absolutely amazing b\c of my complete lack of language skills. Sometimes nice things can simply hit you on the head; I guess it`s important to just recognize opportunities when they present themselves.

Terrible Tsunami: What Can I Say?

Many people expressed worry over my location when the tsunami hit. I wanted to allay any fears, as I was safely in southern Africa. That said, I`m mortified as much as the next person with this horrid natural disaster. I can`t help but wondering if some of the amazing people I recently met (most notably my father like figure Ali in Colombo, Sri Lanka) survived this awful event unscathed. Strangely enough, my travel provides somewhat of a news bubble, so I`ve read hardly anything about the waves. While I`m currently unable to do much at my present location, I`m planning on providing some type of assistance when I reach America. If Ali`s family needs anything, I hope I can provide at least some minimal help. My heart and tears go out to all the people effected by this disaster.

European Exploration: Travel Continues

Europe has been good to me so far. Everything is absurdly expensive. I still haven`t readjust to the cold climates. But I`m looking forward to traveling to Denmark, France, Ireland, and England. I`m still planning on reaching Chicago on March 1st. My parents and I both separately had the thought of planning a big birthday party for me, seeing as I haven`t been home for my birthday in maybe six years. So everyone, please take this as your first invitation to my twenty-fourth birthday party on (or possibly around) March 31. I can`t wait to share more stories and hear about everything I`ve missed in the last almost two years abroad! I always love getting replies. Sorry if I don`t reply immediately, but please know that I read everything that comes into my in-box.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday season,

Ben

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Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh wait....

2004-12-16T03:43:00.000+08:00

Hey all:

It's been a little while, and for that my apologize. To sum it up quickly, Internet access in Africa is less then perfect (to put it politely). I've finally found a place that's down to 20 rand (about $3.33) an hour. This computer is giving me some fits though, so we'll see how well this works out.

In my mind, most people head to Africa to escape luxury living. Surprisingly enough, I've been living quite high on the hog here. Life is treating me very well; some old good karma must be coming around to me. Let me explain my travels since Mumbai (which feels like a lifetime ago). On a side note, while I liked my people oriented last email, my African experience doesn't really lend itself to that approach. I'm forced to return to a more traditional, time driven explanation of travels.

I arrived in Africa with limited expectations (in my opinion, one of the best ways to travel, minimal expectations=minimal disappointments). I've had a very different experience then I expected, but a good experience none the less. This email will cover: Hostel Hunt, Touch-down, Savannah, Rhythm &; Blues, The Family, Bushing-It, Sweet Sugar, Thumbing-it, Thanksgiving, Visas Part 2, Jurassic Park, Lightening Shows, A Korean Interlude, George, Jack-asses, Christmas Lights, The "Tablecloth", and Clive. Once again, my plate looks full so lets get moving.

Hostel Hunt: Wake-up Call

I arrived in JoJohannesburg (Jo'burg) in mid-morning with no plans. I'd sat next to a friendly Jo-burg resident whom I thought might be acaccommodating but then I discovered his Jehovah Witness side and quickly rethought my situation. The progression through customs and immigration was very easy. No real hasslers in the airport. I immediately withdrew South African rand from the atm and broke the big bills at a bank within the airport (very concenient I had no place to stay and didn't really feel like being taken by the taxi drivers. I found a mediocre bookstore, and searched through their travel books on South Africa. A backpackers hostel presented itself, not far from the airport. I astutely (or cheaply) memorized the number and left the book in the store. They picked me up and lodged me in a dorm room for 100 rand (around $16). AH! I'm not in Kansas, or South-East Asia anymore... $16 for a communal room. Everything worked out though. They had a pool, that I unfortunately didn't get into. I arrived and then realized I may have given Mia, my friend in Mozambique that I used as an excuse to return to Africa, the wrong arrival date! On top of that, I had no idea how my arrival/meeting in Mozambique would happen. So I spent the day hunting for phone cards and talking with Mia, along with airline receptionists. My major worries about a lack of Mozambicans turned out to be found-less

Houston, We Have Touch-Down

The flight to Beira, Mozambique (not the capital for anyone wondering) was adequate. I flew on my smallest plane ever, they didn't ask me about seat preferences since I was guaranteed an aisle or window. The plane had three seats across TOTAL, one on the left of the aisle and two on the right. When we approached Mozambique from the air, I started getting really excited/nervous. Visa processing assuaged my fears, with only a slight blip. I had to cough up $25 usd, could have been worse, but then the immigration official was yelling at me. It took me maybe a minute to understand what he was complaining over. He just repeated "BIG HEAD, BIG HEAD" to me until I realized the $5 bill I'd forked over was of the older variety, before the Lincoln's head had been enlarged to bobble-head proportions. Luckily I had another 5 that satisfied his "Big Head" requirements :) I quickly passed through my style of customs, where the official asks "Do you want to declare anything?" I say "nope." He says "bye," and that's that. Meeting Mia and her boyfriend Dan was simple, because they met me at the airport. I had visions of being stuck in a little airport somewhere outside of the middle of nowhere, but they grabbed me immediately.

Savannah: Mozambicans

My life of luxury did not begin upon arrival, thankfully. Mia and Dan quickly introduced me to traveling in Mozambique (Moz), which is remarkably similar to how I remember travel in Ghana, enter the minibus. We boarded a mini-bus for 5 minutes, walked for 15 and then met another Peace Corp Volunteer (PCV), Kara. We all hopped on the back of an open truck bed, and were off to Savannah, a nearby island retreat. Unfortunately we didn't get far, because our truck ran out of gas! We sat in the back with a group of Mozambicans for maybe an hour, until another truck came and we caught that one. The new truck had apparently just finished transporting fish though, so our forty minute odd ride to the island wasn't exactly pleasurable...at least we arrived. The island itself was marvelous. We swam in the warm Indian Ocean that reminded me of bath water. We ate amazing seafood, highlighted by crab so soft we pulled it apart by hand. A few other PCV's met up on the island and I really enjoyed myself. Kara and I turned out to have very similar literary tastes. The PCVs have really impressed me, but I guess the organization is quite self-selecting. I read for hours on the beach. At one point, a gecko-style lizard crawled up my body and rested on my back for a while. Our transportation back ended up well but started on shaky ground. We got ferried off the island only to hear we'd missed the latest truck by a few minutes. The locals thought the next truck would leave when the fisherman finished, in 4-5 HOURS! (welcome to Africa). I fell asleep on a concrete floor when Mia spotted a couple leaving who were more then willing to drive us back. They were Australian missionaries who treated us very well. So I went from gripping the side of a truck bed to stay on the car to sitting in a cushy seat in the back of a private van; life can be funny like that sometimes, especially here.

Rhythm & Blues

Mia and Dan took me to a PCV going away party for two volunteers about to finish their 27 months in-country. I found the whole experience quite eye-opening. Really living in a country is so different from what I've seen/felt on the road. Even in Korea, I never immersed myself anywhere near what PCVs do. The party was dominated by Mozambicans, with PCVs and other randoms sprinkled about the dance floor. I was awed by peoples dancing skills for a few hours before I took the plunge and asked one of the Mozambicans to dance. Mia and Dan asked a girl to dance the Posada with me, which I really stunk at. My favorite memory from the evening is the woman saying "uno, dos, [pause] thres, quatro" over and over again in my ear. :) I guess those dancing skills in Korea don't translate well to the real floors of Africa.

The Family

When arranging this part of the trip, I knew it'd be different then the rest of my journey. Originally I understand Mia's parents and Dan's Dad would be traveling with us for a major segment. I later learned that Dan and his Dad were breaking off almost immediately, and Mia's sister was also coming: I'd essentially joined Mia's family vacation. I've known Mia's family for 7 years, and we've always gotten along well. But getting along with people over a card table and traveling with them 24/7 for a few weeks is a different thing entirely. I can't say enough for her families kindness/inclusiveness. I fit in immediately as their third child. It actually became a somewhat regular practice that I passed as their son, which was much easier then explaining the long relationship. Mia's family opened doors for me that I certainly would have never managed to open on my own (especially with my bank account). The hardest part of staying with them is how easily I fit in, and how much they reminded me of Oak Park. I don't think I was really conscious of how much I missed my immediate family until I spent a few weeks back in a healthy family environment. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to thank them enough. Dick, John, Amanda, and Mia, thank you for letting me join your family for a few weeks, I really enjoyed myself.

Bushing-It: Van Damn, nope, Van Dousey

We all met up in Beira and traveled the three odd hours to Van Dousey, where Mia and Dan call home. I wasn't sure what I expected, but Van Dousey wasn't exactly it. I have to applaud Mia and Dan for really living in Mozambique. It seems like many people travel somewhere but still manage to surround themselves with home. I saw it in Korea all the time, tried to avoid it sometimes, but never had to deal with such differences like Mia and Dan must everyday. They have electricity most of the time and a water pump next door. But no couches, no entertainment, no computers (Mia's father just brought her laptop), no foreigners around (except Zimbabweans who have fled Mugabe's Heart of Darkness). Mia and Dan are really fluent in Portuguese, since they both have to teach 8-10 grade Biology in it every day. They're school is entirely different then Korea, 50 kids a class with lesson plans and real tests. I found Van Dousey impressive and humbling, mainly because I think it'd be so much harder then South Korea. The food situation would actually drive me insane. I'm not sure if I could ever live in Africa for an extended time, simply because I don't like the food that much. Van Dousey has one restaurant that serves chicken (or disgusting beef) with rice, and that's it! South Africa's food has been better, but still not extremely impressive. We slept in Van Dousey for a few nights. Amanda and I slept in a tent on the floor to avoid the silver-dollar size furry spiders that creep around Mia's floors at night.

Sweet Sugar: Cashews Were A Bad Choice

We visited a sugar plantation with a group of PCVs who are friends with a wonderful South African couple that work there. Everyone stayed at their house and had a nice time. My biggest problem was I ate tons of cashew nuts before we left. People sell cashews all along the sides of the road. I was hungry and they tasted good. Little did I know that cashews can give you stomach problems. I spent the majority of the sugar cane night in the bathroom, with the worst stomach problems I've had in 16 months abroad. Thank goodness I brought anti-diarrhea medicine from Korea (thank you for all the help Angela!).

Thumbing-it: Hitching Beats Driving

Amanda, Mia and I had to hitch from the sugar plantation outside Beira to Vilin Kulich, our next location. Dan's father rented a car, but three parents and Dan, with baggage, filled up the little sedan pretty quick. We set out relatively early due to the minimum of six hours that were staring us in the face. Kara (the PCV) explained the art of hitching to me: mostly maximize the number of women on the road, minimize the men, and put your hand out with somewhat of a limp wrist. It took thirty minutes to get our first ride. The truck let us on and was going past our stop, but it moved so slowly we had to eventually depart. We then sat on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere for an hour. A bus wanted us to pay for passage, but it was both expensive and slow. Buses in Mozambique don't leave until they are full, meaning when you buy passage you simply sit on the bus while it fills up. Not joining that bus was an excellent decision on Mia's part. An Italian guy stopped for us and opened up his truck bed for our trip. He absolutely refused any reimbursement and got us there quick (he happened to be going to the exact same place). Funny enough, we made it to Vilin Kulich in around half the time it took the parents and Dan to get there. They ran out of gas, having stopped at four progressive stations that were all empty! After the gas truck came, complications erupted between the transfer of gasoline to the car, forcing them to receive it at a trickle. They finally got gas and were on their way, later in the evening, when they got TWO flat tires. Cell phone coverage kept going in and out. Finally Mia and a very nice woman from CARE went and picked up all of the car's occupants. It was to late to tow the car so Mia hired a man to guard the vehicle. Our guard was maybe 5 feet tall and arrived with bow and arrow! The next day Mia's family went out to the car with repairmen, who simply beat the tires until they stopped bubbling under water; fixed! HA No wonder they break all the time.

A Turkey-less Thanksgiving: PCV Paradise

I forgot it was Thanksgiving, never having been a big fan of the holiday. We met some Americans traveling through Vilan Kulich who wanted to have a big celebration. These two women had just graduated from Brandise and were looking for Americans to eat with. We put it on the dinner and met lots of random people. By the end of the evening we'd separated from all odd amalgamation of travelers and had moved back towards a core PCV (plus me and Dan's Dad) group. The PCV in Vilan Kulich were both remarkable. I immediately hit it off with Juliet and Erica. They both work with CARE in the health branch of Peace Corp Mozambique. I'm not sure if I've ever intellectually connected so well with anyone like I did with Juliet. Meeting both of them was quite refreshing. Peace Corp really does have some amazing volunteers. Juliet is a temporary project manager at CARE, working in a job I can simply drool over.

Visas Part 2: A Tale of Two Countries

Mia's family and I bused down from Maputo (pronounced Mu-pou-tou). The ride was uneventful except for the border crossing. Leaving Moz was quite a process. We sat in a line for at least thirty minutes, probably much more, until our bus driver finally expedited the process by grabbing our passports and getting the exit stamps for us. We then walked over to the South African immigration office, what a difference! I'd been given a free, six-month visa upon arrival in Jo'burg previously. The visa is bar-coded, so the immigration officer simply scanned the old visa and gave me a new entry stamp (apparently my visa is multiple entry). I found the whole process quite impressive. I don't think anywhere I've traveled has completely computerized the immigration process. Kudos to South Africa. Oh yeah, then we had to do one of the strangest things ever. While waiting for the South African authorities to check our bus, some people pointed us forward. We eventually reached this box, where everyone passing into South Africa stepped in and then out of. In the box was some type of liquid, my guess is chemical, but who knows?!? No one said anything and we never got an explanation. We all wondered if they wanted to see how many suckers they could get to step in some box, if so, they got all of us!

Jurassic Park: Enter The Animals

I've generally avoided animals on my trip. In trying to experience culture, I haven't made animal viewing a priority (I told Juliet and Erica that animals were somewhere slightly above museums towards the bottom of my list). But the first few weeks of my Africa trip were completely out of my hands, me simply trying to fit into Mia's family's vacation. Exceptions must be made to any principle, and visiting Kruger National Park and seeing animals in their natural habitat was a worthwhile exception. On our first morning a pack of wild dogs walked past our car and we spotted a leopard lounging in a tree. While we thought these were relatively normal spottings at the time, I've since learned that there are only three packs of wild dogs in the park and leopard are extremely difficult to find. I mean these animals are in their homes, and we're only allowed to drive on the assigned roads. I couldn't help but think of Jurassic Park, where the tourists can only view the animals from their cars. The park officials are very adamant that you aren't allowed to leave your car. We did go on a nature walk with two park guides, who were both fully armed. Mia, Amanda and John (Mia's Mom) were charged by elephants on our walk. As cool as the live elephants were, the highlight was undoubtedly hearing lions roar right nearby. I still think I spotted them running away, but we never got a good look at them. Their roar is overpowering, I can't verbalize the power and beauty we witnessed that morning (and it was the morning, we had to get up around 4:30 for the walk!). In our three days at Kruger, we saw lions, a leopard, boars, hippos, tons of elephants, impalas, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, ox, etc. etc. After three days I was finished with animal watching, but they were a special three days. We saw the small pack of five lions on our last evening, really putting a capstone on the experience.

Lightening Shows: Flashback to Car Vacations

The next week centered on our rental car. We traveled down from Kruger through Drakensburg and ending in Jo'burg. Amanda and Dick were the only drivers on the rental, so I'm thankful for their long hours behind the wheel. I couldn't shake the feeling throughout the trip that I was on a family vacation to Colorado or something. South Africa's geographic diversity has been my biggest surprise. We drove through rolling green hills and heavily wooded forests, up mountains and over water, meeting nice South Africans at various bread and breakfasts along the way. We couldn't find accommodations in Ermelo, this random town we stopped at once it started getting dark one night. The local hotel receptionist called around everyone, finally finding a little availability Hawk's Nest B & B. We arrived and I went to check out the situation. The owner asked if I was part of the party that had just called. I said yes and she asked how old my three children were! HA I got a good chuckle out of that one. Her husband espoused his fears for South Africa's future in a five minute monologue over breakfast the next morning. Having been exposed to all different walks of life of people in South Africa, I still can't decide where this country is going. While I do believe it has potential, the level of violence and insecurities oftentimes frightening That's one thing I can say I never fully appreciated about Seoul, it's such a safe country. I got sidetracked. We ran into many lightening storms and a bit of rain (luckily missing most of the rain although we traveled through the thick of the rainy season). We stayed at a very nice B & B named Ant Bear, where the owner reminded me of my backpacking days of old. He traveled for 7 years! Going up from Cape Town to Cairo hitching, simply awe inspiring. I'm not going to do that anytime soon, but he snapped me back into my $1 a night days in SE Asia.

A Korean Interlude: Ahn-yea-ha-say-yo

We stayed at The Cottages in Jo'burg with Mia's parents. It took us a few hours to find it the first night, but the lodgings were well worth the wait. When discussing my travels I mentioned to someone that I'd taught in Korea. They got very exciting, saying that three Koreans were staying in one of the cottages whom spoke little English. The next morning they all came to breakfast. I wasn't sure how to break the ice, but finally said Ahn-yea-ha-say-yo (an awful englishization of hello in Korean). Before I knew it we were off in a full-fledged conversation, or as close as we could get to it with my limited Korean language skills. I found the whole situation so enjoyable, I spoke with them for maybe an hour that day. Later on I helped them checkout and split the bill properly, and then helped one of the women move next door the next day. Speaking and dealing with Koreans brought me back to the good old days of Seoul. The woman I helped move at breakfast with two knives because they didn't have chopsticks for her! My Korean was rusty but started to come back after a little while; I really hope I can learn it properly at some point in the future. The hotel staff was very appreciative and commented at how much brighter their Korean guests looked now that they had someone to communicate with. The Koreans were ridiculously gracious, taking photos with me (I took a photo too) and be very thankful. It was a very nice all-around experience.

George: Waterfront Movies

Mia's family departed bit by bit, eventually leaving Mia and I to travel on to Cape Town. In Korea I'd worked near Claudia, a really nice woman from South Africa. On my last night in Seoul we'd sat down over a few pints and dreamed about Cape Town, from her memories and my fantasies. Claudia's father still lives here, and she told me to look him up when I arrived. I had no ideas what to expect, but quickly realized I'd moved into another family. George's two children are both grown, but he immediately welcomed us into his home with open arms. He insisted on picking us up from the airport and gave us our own set of keys to his waterfront flat. We've stayed with him for nine days now, and his generosity continues to amaze me. He taken us out for multiple meals, my favorite of which was last Saturday at the wine gardens. After tasting various wine for thirty minutes, we had a pleasurable two hour leisurely meal. I'm gaining back some of the weight I'd lost of the trip after eating with Mia's family and now George for the past three weeks! While his apartment isn't exactly centrally located, we can still hop on the train and be downtown in 45 minutes. The joys of staying in a real house also can't be underestimated. He has glorious things like leather couches, real beds, a functioning kitchen, POWERFUL SHOWERS, a dvd collection/entertainment system. Our stay in Cape Town has been different then the rest of my trip, really nice in a new way.

Jack-asses: Adorable Penguins

Who knew penguins lived in South Africa? Visiting the penguins overlapped both Claudia and George's must-do lists. We first saw the funny creatures at the aquarium but a few days met saw them close-up at Boulders Beach. These penguins just lay around the rocks, wobbling around. They are absolutely adorable. I think they've become somewhat acclimated to humans, sort of like pigeons because they didn't really run away when people approached. The Jackass penguins are so cute, I can't get over it.

Christmas Lights: In Search Of A Real Pint

After climbing a medium sized mountain outside of George's back door Mia and I went for a pint down the block. Unfortunately, the bar didn't have any draft beers (what kind of bar doesn't have any draft beers!?!). When getting the bottled beer list, this guy next to us asked us twice if we wanted to go for a "real pint." We considered it and said why not. Before even getting names Mia and I were in the back of his A.J.'s car with his girlfriend in the passenger seat. They showed us around Cape Town that night and the next day, getting to some of the local spots we never would have found without guidance. They both do a few too many drugs, but still showed us a good time. We all got blitzed the next night and we stumbled home the few blocks from his house to George's place. They couldn't believe we hadn't seen the Christmas Lights downtown yet, and took us downtown that first night to remedy the situation. The Christmas lights are a ridiculous joke, I mean like 3 or 4 scenes lit up in lights. :) So funny. Talking to A. J. and Cheryl was enlightening, just to see how some Boer people think/act. They both speak Afrikaans with her first language being Flemish. He's a chef and she's a bar manager. They were the most openly racist people I've probably ever met before. While I don't agree with their beliefs, being exposed to their viewpoint was eye-opening.

The "Tablecloth": Screaming Legs

A few days ago Mia and I scratched off another must-do when we climbed Table Mountain. The climb takes about ninety minutes, and is quite tiring. The views from the top are rewarding though, and I'm personally glad we walked up and down (you could cheat and take a cable car. The backs of my legs aren't as happy as I am about the climb, but they'll recover and be all the stronger for the journey. Table Mountain overlooks Cape Town and the Oceans that collide around the city (Side note: the Atlantic Ocean is COLD. The Indian Ocean is pleasant, bordering on hot tub level in Vilan Kulich). Locals call the cloud cover that occasionally engulfs the mountain as the Tablecloth. Being surrounding while the midst flies through you is really an experience. Our only complaint was the lack of a promised restaurant on top of the mountain; some extra water would have been really appreciated when we hit the pinnacle. Outside of the restaurant, the temperature on top was cold. I couldn't stop walking for long or risked shivering. Mia turns blue when cold, so neither of us stuck along on the top.

Clive: Contacts Continued

One of my Dad's friends emailed us to say he had a nice Cape Town contact. We had our lodgings covered, but thought meeting another person would always be nice. Clive took us out around Cape Town yesterday. I ate some excellent line fish (self explanatory). We went shopping in a real mall, and I bought tons of books (which I now need to pack!). While Clive couldn't help up with Cape Town accommodations, he immediately volunteered his place in Jo'burg for us. I swear there must be something in the water in Cape Town. We're going to get picked up and stay with Clive's son tomorrow night when we reach Jo'burg. My friends network continues to simultaneously expand and awe me all the time.

Future=Unknown

I'm not sure when I'll be able to email again. I'll be in Mozambique for Christmas, after having traveled to Lesotho for a few days. It looks like I'll be in Rome for New Years and then need to work out my plans after that. France and England are definitely in, with a possible trip to Ireland fit snug in-between those two. If anyone will be around Europe in January or February, let me know; I always love meeting friendly faces on the road.

It's great hearing from any of you whenever. I can't wait until I get back to the States for a quick reload before my travels begin anew. Feel free to email me with any questions/comments/concerns. Sorry about the length on this one, the lack of Internet access backed me up a bit.
Have a happy holiday everyone,

Ben

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From Soot to Silk

2004-11-16T22:43:00.000+08:00

Hey all:

My notes from the road continue, today coming straight out of...Mumbai (better known as Bombay), India! I'm completing my 2 1/2 weeks here tonight, when I head out for South Africa. India has forced me to tighten my trip's focus. I've decided to change the format a bit from the last emails. I love recording everywhere I've visited, but it's not the most important aspect of my journey. Personal interactions are paramount to my cultural immersion. I'm going to highlight individuals, with a few interludes and toss in a laundry list of visited cities (which anyone may question me about at any time). Let's see how this works out. Today's topics will cover: Meet the Parents; Discovering Faith In Humanity; Examining My Birth Certificate; The Mortality Struggle; Agra Part 1; Agra Part 2; The Pink Guide; Coming To A Head; Lights & Crackers; Redemption; Taking A Dip; Resolution; Mosque Markets; Agra Part 1 Redux Bombay Style; Trip Definition. I've been slightly sick recently, so I hope we can make it through everything.... Here it goes!

Meet the Parents: A Favorable Match

I left Sri Lanka feeling good. I had a very random contact, a few degrees from me, who has family in India. The family contacted me the day before my departure from Colombo (capital of Sri Lanka). They sounded very friendly and upbeat. I had no idea of what to expect. All I hoped for was a friendly face, maybe a place to crash, any recommendations about travel, etc. Before I knew it, I had a guesthouse setup, a family house setup, specific airport instructions, multiple phone numbers/email addresses, essentially the works in terms of travelers security for my imminent arrival in India. The email also mysteriously said, "Your trip has been planned." Planned? I've never met these people before in my life. I don't even know what I want to see. It sounded like an unbelievable deal....

Discovering Faith In Humanity: A Crazy Coat

I sat around the somewhat crummy Colombo International Airport; much more relaxed then my last flight from Bangkok. I had newfound friends in India, no need to be anxious. A woman went by with a huge leather coat, with these crazy cream tassel-looking threads coming off in all directions. I must admit that at first, I thought she was insane; Sri Lanka and India are HOT. On the bus from the airport to the plane, she happened to be standing right next to me. I wasn't even sure that it was a coat at first, but upon inquiring she confirmed my suspicions. Actually, the coat turned out to be really cool looking, and I complimented her on it. We started chatting and it turned out she was traveling to India for her wedding! Her name is Bec and she's an Aussie. While very friendly, she also seemed a bit cracked-out, due to her 24+ hours of travel. We talked but then had long separated seats, so we thought we'd catch up upon arrival. Little did I realize that halfway through the flight, she was sitting one row behind me. It turns out some sleazy drunk guys harassed her on the plane. It's a long story, but thankfully she extradited herself from the situation. We passed through immigration together and grabbed our baggage. My written instructions specifically noted I should grab a pre-paid taxi from the airport to my guesthouse. When I told her how I planned to travel, she nonchalantly told me "Raman will help you." Raman turned out to be her fiancÃ©. If I went with her, I wouldn't be able to return to the pre-paid taxi both inside the restricted arrival area. I had to make a snap decision, and I went with my gut. Following her out of the arrival area, we quickly ran into Raman. Bec introduced me to Raman and told him what was up. I gave him the address of the guesthouse. He accepted me point blank, and told us to wait while he grabbed a cab. Before I knew it, we were all in a taxi and I had about zero control of the situation.

The Resolution

So how'd it work out? You can probably tell from my verbiage, but think of this situation in America? My Dad and I think on similar wavelengths, and when I told him he said, "So you got screwed." Nope, we got almost all the way to the guesthouse when I remember I was supposed to call the family when I got in. It was already past midnight, but I figured they'd be waiting so I asked to borrow Raman's phone. I reached them and couldn't understand what their instructions, outside of that the guesthouse was out and I should go to the family house. Raman grabbed the phone and thankfully took charge of the situation. Sure, he knew the area around their address; we could be there within 20 minutes. We pulled up to the house and they refused to let me pay a PENNY! And so went my indoctrination into being a guest in India....

Examining My Birth Certificate: My Last Name's Wood, Right?

This family accepted me into their home like a long lost son. I don't know how to write about it, how to explain to (most) people from a Western culture about being a guest in India. I feel like it's so foreign of a concept, many people I know might dismiss it out-of-hand. I continue to struggle with it now. But before I get into the struggle, let me do my best to paint the picture. I show up after 1 am, at a family's house in a foreign country that I've never met and have the slimmest of connections too. Thankfully it's a Saturday night so they don't have to work tomorrow, but I'm not talking about a 20 something household. I show up at 1 am wondering if anyone's was awake, if I'd kept anyone up, how in the world this would work. In yet another great oddity, Raman knows Vijay, the father of the household, b/c he's a famous political journalist. Regardless, Raman and Bec left in the taxi after I had safely arrived. Not only was this family up, they were talkative! Their late 20-something son and daughter-in-law soon arrived. They asked me about my trip. Wanted to know my trip's "purpose," hhhmmm, how to define a "see the world journey." They rambled off names of various sites on a "must see" list of India. I had a miniscule two weeks, but agreed to let myself be guided by their hands...little did I know what that entailed.

The Mortality Struggle: "De-Godding" Myself

There's a famous saying in India, "the guest is God." Doesn't that sound nice? I've heard it many times here, even on the tv yesterday when an Indian bride's father matter-of-factly explained spending $50,000 USD on his daughter's wedding (in India!). When Indian's say "guest is god" they aren't lying or talking about some ideal, they literally put you up on a pedestal as high as they can fiscally manage. My trip suddenly transformed itself from buses to planes and roach motels to marble palaces. My host family has a cook, maid, and driver. I spent my first full day in India being driven around to various "significant sites." I accepted the kindness at first, but it worried me. What a foreign concept. I don't know these people. I had no way of repaying them. This became important when I discovered my itinerary included multiple flights around the country. When I explained how I'd be traveling, they quickly assured me I didn't have to pay for anything but my entry tickets and food throughout the trip. What?!? Why? It's something like an endless holiday. But it made me uncomfortable. Accepting generosity was one thing, but this was something else. I felt like it was too much. But no one would listen. My discomfort would continue for much of India, making this leg of travel one of the hardest bits (even when living in some of the easiest conditions).

Agra Part 1: Meet Bombay Family #1

My first trip outside of Delhi happened to be one of my best. I went to Agra, mainly to see the Taj Mahal. But in the spirit of this email, I'll write about possibly an even better part of the trip, where I befriended an amazing Bombay family. Muhendra and Rutuja have two children. I first talked with Mrinal, their young boy. They were up from South India to tour a bit, and I just happened to be seated next to Muhendra on the tour bus. While we were only cordial at first, our friendship grew. I shared lunch with them, and found myself joining their small four-person group. We traveled together all day, and their family treated me wonderfully. They let me pay for my own food (which I appreciated) and demonstrated how to eat it. Eating with my hands has proven difficult at times, especially RICE, but they were supportive through their giggles. They also helped guide me a bit through TajÂ.

Agra Part 2: Taj Stands Alone

The Taj Mahal is magnificent. I should end this section there, but donÂt have the guts. Similar to Angkor Wat, this is a MUST SEE. I can't verbalize the experience. Pictures do it no justice. Strangely, being directly beside or inside it doesnÂt do it complete justice either. The best possible angle I saw is upon arrival. You look up and there it is. Tons of guides hound you at the entrance, but theyÂre utterly unnecessary. The Taj Mahal stands alone in magnificent beauty. It can take your breath away. Anything outside of periodic discussion would take away from the impact. Complete marble. Unequaled craftsmanship. Supposedly the artisans all lost their hands afterwards to ensure its uniqueness, all participating knowing their final destiny. While I could explain its historical facts (as I know them), they are unnecessary. The Taj Mahal hit me like a ton of bricks. All I can say is see it, and then youÂll understand.

The Pink Guide: Arranged Marriages

While in Jaipor, I met my first good guide. When I say good, I mean the first guide who treated me as a fellow human being. I was allowed to do crazy things like: open my own door, hear my own name (instead of sir), skip things that didnÂt appeal, avoid shopping, eat real India food, meet some of his friends, etc. etc. I call him the Pink Guide because Jaipor is the Pink City (itÂs former ruler decided that main street should be entirely pink). I have his name & address somewhere, to send him a copy of the picture, chai (Indian tea) cups in hand, we took with his friend, but I donÂt know where it is. So instead heÂll be known here as my Pink Guide. He made it into the email, outside of his friendliness, because of our discussion of marriage. After my not-so-entertaining experience in Tamil Tiger land, IÂve been a little hesitant about discussing my marital status. Amazingly enough, my marital status constantly comes up (not because everyone wants an escape-to-America marriage). ItÂs just a natural topic people discuss around here. Almost everyone IÂve talked to for over 10 minutes has delved into the Âare you marriedÂ discussion. Most people IÂve met here of marriageable age are married. Most weddings seem to still be arranged. After many discussions with friendly Indian acquaintances, IÂve learned a lot about the traditions of Indian couplings. The parents generally decide when children should be married, and thereÂs a whole marriage industry that exists to help them find the proper mate. Many different concerns go into the correct marriage partner: caste, religion, astronomical signs, habits, resume, and profession, just to name a few. Once a match is proposed, the parents meet and discuss the possibility. If all parties (parents) agree, the ÂchildrenÂ meet and decide if they want to proceed. The decision period can last a day to a few months, and if agreed, the wedding will come on the earlier possible astronomically auspicious date. Most Indians find it somewhat shocking that no, IÂm not only not married, but I donÂt even have a girlfriend! Why not!?! My Pink Guide and I discussed his family, and then naturally turned to mine. His wedding was arranged. When I explained I was to young for marriage (my usual excuse in these circumstances) he quickly inquired when my parents planned on arranging my wedding! I couldnÂt help smiling. I kindly explained that Americans donÂt generally have arranged weddings, but I hoped to eventually get married and have kids when the time was right. He seemed okay with that answer. I found the whole situation amusing, and still do to this day.

Coming To A Head: Holiday Marble

I regrettably reached Kujarajo (sp?) by plane. The ticket cost over $100 USD, which I was not allowed to pay (not that I wanted to pay that much money). But Kujarajo was a must see. The Karma Sutra temples are there. How could I miss the legendary temples carvings? Obviously I couldnÂt but I should have. I arrived and knew things were amiss. On the plane IÂd met a really friendly couple, and offered to share my lonely car & driver with them. They gladly accepted but the driver wasnÂt so happy on arrival. Of course everything is already paid for, so whatever. Anyway, the whole thing turned into somewhat of a mess. Ali and his girlfriend went with the flow. I eventually got to the hotel, only to discover my previously to luxurious digs had suddenly been upgraded into the outrageous price range. I stumbled blindly into my assigned Holiday Inn. I know what youÂre thinking, Holiday Inn doesnÂt sound expensive, but this Holiday Inn more closely resembled an Intercontinental. I found all marble everything, all foreigners everywhere, all AC rooms, all huge rooms, all multi beds, all private bathrooms, all nth expensive. And yes I wasnÂt paying for it. And yes, that made me even more uncomfortable then if I had paid for it (which I never would have at this stage in my life). It upset me on multiple levels. Not only was I uncomfortable with the expense, but also I was effectively cut-off from the local population. Slowly a definition of my trip began to develop. I reached my climax of unhappiness in Kujarajo.

Redemption: Biting The Bullet

I finally decided I had to stand up and command my position. IÂd written to travel agents and told my host family what I wanted, but no one seemed to respond. How could I possibly feel for the pulse of India when I was shunned from the common Indians room, from an all-consuming fear that if we shared the same air I may get sick? I called the travel agent and told him to cancel the hotel in Varanasi. He dithered and dathered like everyone here seems to do when you want something they donÂt agree with. Finally I just said, ÂI donÂt care. Get any money back you can. IÂll find my own hotel. IÂll pay for it myself. And it will be under 500 rupees ($11).Â And with that I lifted the grindstone of guilt and unhappiness off my chest temporarily. Varanasi glowed beautifully for me, partially because of my decision and partially because of my guide. Varanasi claims to be the oldest living city in the world. ItÂs super religious and I saw amazing things. I had my best Indian guide by far, Munindra. I saw HinduÂs taking their traditional dip in the Ganges River. I saw laundry people beating the absolute hell out of laundry on rocks setup beside the water (Munindra claimed that this method is the same as a washing machineÂI remain skeptical). I saw a body being traditionally cremated in public, and another being prepared farther up the river. I saw where Buddha preached his first sermon. And best of, I made a new friend in my guide Munindra. After the tour was over we got chai and talked about our lives. HeÂs yet another person who explained the Âguest is GodÂ theory of Indian beliefs. Varanasi was one of my favorite spots in India by far. He also introduced me to an Indian charity, where I could direct some small monies without directly rewarding the infinite beggars.

Taking A Dip: Meet Bombay Family #2

Jaisman and his family were on my tour bus to Haridwar. I loved the Panicker Tour Buses because I could escape all the foreigners. This one only had 12 Indians and me. We drove all night through the FREEZING COLD (I could have used BecÂs crazy coat) and reached the famous temples in the morning. The trip was great. Eventually I befriended JaismanÂs family over breakfast when I asked his son what was good. The son immediately responded ÂChinese,Â which made us all chuckle since his parents knew I was inquiring about Indian food. They welcomed me into their fold, and I witnessed many Hindu customs presently. They took a dip in the Ganges, and I followed! All Hindus are supposed to wash in the Ganges once. I couldnÂt resist their friendly overtures, and soon found myself washing in the very pure waters (they had re-opened after a cleaning three days previously). This emails getting super lengthy though, so IÂll leave it at that.

Lights & Crackers: Delhi Devali

I happened to be in Delhi for Devali, one of the biggest annual Hindu festivals. ItÂs a festival of lights. The country turns crazy. IÂd equate it to a cross between Christmas and Fourth of July in the States, with the fireworks being set off by individuals instead of professionals. And weÂre talking about some HUGE FIREWORKS. Indians call fireworks crackers, a slightly amusing phrase. Anyways, crackers go off for days, and literally create an intense fog throughout the city. Some of these personal pyrotechnics blow up into massive multi-colored umbrella stars. I canÂt believe some people do this with liters, and some must do it drunk! While the crackers side was slightly scary, the other parts were really enjoyable. I met tons of family, most notably an Asian film journalist whoÂd judged at Cannes twice previously! My host familyÂs daughter and thirty-month old grandson arrived from Hong Kong. Kabir (the 2 Â½ year old) is absolutely adorable and we really hit it off.

Resolution: Good Times in Delhi

I had to make good with my host family in Delhi somehow. I met up with Raman and Bec again before leaving, where they thankfully let me take them out for dinner. They also helped me indescribably by finding the very nice present I wanted for my host family. The family was completely shocked and somewhat upset with the large size of the present. I kindly welcomed them into my last two weeks in India! J But overall my experience with them was unbelievable. I still feel like part of their family, and am glad I came. Their generosity turned into one of the hardest things IÂve encountered on this trip. But I eventually came to terms with it in my own way, and feel happy with the eventually resolution. I feel I gained a set of life-long friends in my host family, and an amazing friend in their son Kulin. I left Delhi very satisfied (although both exhausted and sick from a complete lack of sleep).

Mosque Markets: Masses of Humanity

My host family set me up with their extended family in Bombay. I met up with my host MomÂs nephew and his cousin, both of whom are Muslim. They took me out to see BombayÂs beautiful mosques, and their packed accompanying markets. Many of the mosques bathed themselves in green light, amplifying their gorgeous architecture against the night sky. To call the markets crowded would be an understatement. IÂve been in big markets before, but this was something else. I would get separated from these two guys almost immediately. They were VERY conscious of me though. Even with my willingness to push and jostle, the crowds were overwhelming. Part of the reason for such masses of humanity was my timing. Today is Ead (sp?), the festival after yesterdayÂs breaking of the Muslim Ramadan fast. Three days ago was Devali. I was in the markets yesterday. The whole country is crazy; what fun! J

Agra Part 1 Redux Bombay Style: My ÂGod-shipÂ Continues

I called Muhendra yesterday to tell him I was in Bombay. He was ecstatic. He picked me up from the YMCA today, wondering why I hadnÂt called him earlier. I actually wasnÂt physically able to call him though, because I needed to sleep so badly. Bombay had been a rest and recovery city for me. Muhendra took me out for amazing Indian-style crab, which I wasnÂt allowed to pay for (I peaked at the bill though, and my whole crab, that had been shown to me live beforehand, cost under $7 USD, welcome to the good life). But I was prepared to accept his generosity, and really enjoyed our time together. He showed me part of the city, and then I eventually pooped out because IÂve still a bit sick.

Trip Definition: A Working Definition

IÂm traveling to meet people, experience culture, discover the world and taste the food. I almost always prefer people to buildings, and generally find museums remarkably boring. While my revelations are actually much more deep then those quick two sentences, IÂve been writing way too long and my plane leaves for South Africa soon. This working definition will have to do for now.

My laundry list of visited places: Delhi, Agra, Udaipor, Johdpor, Jaipor, Kujarajo, Varanasi, Haridwar, and Bombay. I visited some smaller towns near Agra and Haridwar, most notably a temple and mosque within inches of each other near Agra which extremist Hindus have vowed to demolish, but I donÂt have the time to grab their names.

IÂd like to thank all of you that email me; it really keeps my enthusiasm up. Sometimes I find it hard to sit down and write these big letters home, but it sounds at least some of you truly enjoy them. With BushÂs victory, I might stay away for a while (just kidding, kind of). Korea does sound appealing though, if I could find an interesting job. Hope to hear from you all soon. Go BEARS!

Missing everyone,

Ben

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Photos and Contact info

2004-11-06T22:00:00.000+08:00

hey all,
First, I've added another album of photos from my
trip. These are courtesy of Tom's digital camera.
Again, they're in chronological order and are labeled.
The rice wine party photos are in there as well.
Here's the link:
http://www.ofoto.com/AlbumMenu.jsp?

Second, I'm back in Washington, DC. Same house, same
phone number as well. 202-390-2924. This may confuse
some as I briefly switched to AT&T, but they stunk.
My house number is still the same as well,
202-543-2978.
Hope to hear from you/see you all soon.
Casey

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A Hitchhiker's Guide to Laos

2004-10-17T18:04:00.000+08:00

Hey everybody! Unless something really stupendous
happens, this will probably be my last annoying,
tedious, spite-inducing email from SE Asia. The last
week or so has been pretty eventful, filled with bus
rides, endangered species, bus rides, hitchhiking, bus
rides, chance encounters, bus rides and a surprise
visit to Cambodia. Let's play the Feud!
So we left Hanoi a while ago headed into Laos on our
way back to Bangkok. Laos is pretty difficult terrain
to travel around, so we knew a long bus ride was ahead
of us but, as they say on MTV, "you think you know,
but you have no idea!" (My pop culture's rusty) We
left Hanoi at 7:00 PM and got in to Paxse in Laos at
9:30 the next day, a quick 26 hours of bus travel.
Big buses, small buses. Dangerous buses and even more
dangerous buses. Women throwing up and babies peeing.
It was good times. At one point we had 22 people in
a twelve person bus...that's just gangsta!
Laos was great! We headed to the very southern tip,
an area known as the 4000 Islands. It's where the
Mekong River widens to Great Lake proportions and
islands begin popping up. It's a very laid back area:
no electricity, very few fellow travelers and,
surprisingly, some of the best food we've come upon to
this point and at the best prices. With Sean leaving
later tonight, it was a great way to emotionally wrap
up the trip. Just relaxing, spending a lot of time
reminiscing, eating, journalizing and reading.
We had a chance to see the endangered Mekong River
Dolphins. We took a small boat to an island to watch
for them, and I couldn't help noticing the flag on the
island changed. "Here, Cambodia?" I asked our
boatman. He nodded yes and slipped a little cash to a
Cambodian official. The borders are, how you say,
fluid. The dolphins were beautiful (not as visible as
in Ko Phi Phi) and being able to say I've seen some
freshwater dolphins in the wild is, well, wild.
We stumbled on a bit of adventure on our way back
north from the islands. Having tearfully bid adieu to
our lovely little hamlet, we took a boat back to the
mainland to catch a bus. Upon arrival we found the
prices were about 5 times their original price. We
were shocked and indignant and, in keeping with the
entire trip, chose to blaze a path rather than let the
scam artistes (French accent on the "st") have their
way. We got ourselves to the main road and decided to
wait for a local bus heading North. I'm pretty sure
we'd still be waiting for that mythical "local bus
North", laden with Elvis, the Loch Ness monster and
the money to pay for both candidates Medicair Plans,
were it not for our Knight In Toyota Pickup. We
flagged him down and he was more than happy to let us
jump in the cab for the 2 hour ride to Paxse at no
charge! With our backpacks as seat rests and the warm
glow of saving a buck or two, we had one of the most
comfortable rides of our trip. Plus we served as
rolling entertainment to all the locals who laughed
and pointed at the silly white people traveling like
non-silly Laotians(?).
Upon our arrival we checked into the same guest house
we'd used previously, were about to head out for a
bite, when Ben Wood's eagle eyes spied a familiar name
in the register, "O'Connell, Brendan". We knew it had
to be our very own college house mate Brendan, he even
made his "O"s into little faces of Frank Zappa, just
like Brendan! It was complete coincidence and it was
great to be able to hang out with him one last night
before we lost him for another 7 months to the black
hole of international travel.
The next morning Ben, Sean and I bid farewell to Lao
(and the best beer in SE Asia, Beerlao!) to head back
to Thailand. We caught a train headed for Bangkok,
with Wood and I getting off in Karot while Sean
continued straight to Bangkok, having to catch an
earlier flight. It was your standard 3rd class, 3 to
a seat, guys selling dried squid in the aisles affair,
and while Ben and I were able to leap off after a mere
6 hours, Sean was in for the whole 12, arriving in
Bangkok at 3:00 AM. But, always the optimist, Sean
noted that he'd be arriving during "the massagin'
hour" when things get "a little blue." I don't know
what that means.
Anyways, Ben and I really like Karot. It's Thailand's
2nd biggest city but has very little tourism, so we
have none of the hassles tourism brings. The vendors
don't choke us and prices aren't inflated. Ben and I
wandered the night market last night, and they even
had a live band playing. They were pretty rockin!
Like a Thai REO Speedwagon (but I guess that's what I
said about Pearl Jam, Blink 182 and Tupac, so that's
not very helpful).
So this is pretty much for the trip. We'll head to
Bangkok tomorrow morning. I'll fly out late on the
20th and Ben leaves for Sri Lanka the next day. I'll
be bringing back a wicked tan, no intestinal problems
(knock, knock) and presents. If you get one, I like
you. If not, I hate you. Simple enough?
Well, take it easy folks, I've gotta go buy some
Rolexes!
Casey

Around Southeast Asia in 60 Days

2004-10-17T17:32:00.000+08:00

Post Try number two.... sorry if it repeats this email... the blogger can be pretty stubborn

Well the day has come... I have parted from Casey and Ben and will be heading home soon. While I can't beleive it is over, I really can't beleive it's only been two months since I got off the plane in Bangkok. I am sure I will be telling a lot of stories when i get back, but I really can't express how much I have learned about everything I always never knew about and things I though I allready thought I knew. (if that makes sense :) ) I couldn't have asked to travel around with better travel partners or even gotten anything more out of the two month trip had I done years of planning. After hearing about so many travel blunders from everyone, even our friends that we met up with in Vietnam, ours seemed almost scripted in its ease, yet it was only a rare occasion that we were forced to follow the bland, layed out, tourist route that most went on. By often straying off the beaten path I feel we maximized our interaction with the amazing cultures we have been surrounded by.

Take for example take just three days ago while we were in the 4,000 islands in southern Loas. We decided to leave a little later in the afternoon instead of buying a 7 am tourist bus home, and enjoyed the relaxing morning looking over the Mekong and playing with a puppy and kitten while we ate a long breakfast. When we finally made it on a boat ride across the river and to the bus station we found out that while busses leave every hours from Pakse to the 4,000 Islands, they only leave in the morning at 7 or 8am back. (the same tourist bus we decided not to take) We found ourselves with the option of paying literally 2,000 % more to get back in a the same bus meant to catch late comers and swindle them out of money or trying to go to the highway and catch a bus on its way back buy ourselves. We chose the path less followed, waited for about 2 hours on the road, and then met two guys who even after we offered money, gave us the 5 hour ride for free back to Pakse. We were still stunned by our luck when upon returning to our guest house in Pakse, Ben noticed that Brenden (Casey and Ben's roomate from school who we had purposefully met up with back in Vietnam) was also their on the guestlist of the hostel. We found him staying fifty feet from the front desk and had one more night sharing stories over an asian barbeque. I doubt we could have even planned another meeting like that as our itineraries were exactly opposite in Vietnam. Him going south towards Ho Chi Minh and us north to Hanoi, with no set plans.

This is just one of the reasons we had put so little emphasis on planning and more on experiencing and playing it by ear and guts instincts at times. Don't worry Mom, we were smart and never found ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place, but we could definately write our own enriched version of Lonely Planet. We have had many discussion about the book and the level be able to experience it gets into. In my words and I think all our opinions it provides a great skeleton for someone to build a trip off of. If some of the amazing places that we made it to in our trip were in the book, they would no longer be as amazing on so many levels, not just our "discovery" level. Everyone who is tavelling seems to have a version and thus our trips secrets would be revealed and become higher priced, no longer secluded, or even worst... saddled up by tourism in a way that makes it feel rehearsed and fake.

Well sorry for the slipshod entry, if you made it this far I am as proud of you and I am myself for earning your attention. lol

Can't beleive it is over and will definately do something similar again, perhaps even longer next time... I can't recommend it enough to anyone interested...

Sean

PS See everyone soon!

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60 days allready?

2004-10-17T17:19:00.000+08:00

well the day has come... I have parted from Casey and Ben and
will be heading home soon. While I can't beleive it is over,
I really can't beleive it's only been two months since I got
off the plane in Bangkok. I am sure I will be telling a lot
of stories when i get back, but I really can't express how
much I have learned about everything I never knew and things
I allready thought I knew. (if that makes sense :) ) I
couldn't have asked to travel around with better travel
partners or even gotten anything more out of the two month
trip had I done years of planning. After hearing about so
many travel blunders from everyone, even our friends that we
met up with in Vietnam, ours seemed almost scripted in its
ease, yet it was only a rare occasion that we were forced to
follow the bland, layed out, tourist route that most went on.
By often straying off the beaten path I feel we maximized our
interaction with the amazing cultures we have been surrounded
by.

Take for example take just three days ago while we were in
the 4,000 islands in southern Loas. We decided to leave a
little later in the afternoon instead of buying a 7 am
tourist bus home, and enjoyed the relaxing morning looking
over the Mekong and playing with a puppy and kitten while we
ate a long breakfast. When we finally made it on a boat ride
across the river and to the bus station we found out that
while busses leave every hours from Pakse to the 4,000
Islands, they only leave in the morning at 7 or 8am back.
(the same tourist bus we decided not to take) We found
ourselves with the option of paying literally 2,000 % more to
get back in a the same bus meant to catch late comers and
swindle them out of money or trying to go to the highway and
catch a bus on its way back buy ourselves. We chose the path
less followed, waited for about 2 hours on the road, and then
met two guys who even after we offered money, gave us the 5
hour ride for free back to Pakse. We were still stunned by
our luck when upon returning to our guest house in Pakse, Ben
noticed that Brenden (Casey and Ben's roomate from school who
we had purposefully met up with back in Vietnam) was also
their on the guestlist of the hostel. We found him staying
fifty feet from the front desk and had one more night sharing
stories over an asian barbeque. I doubt we could have even
planned another meeting like that as our itineraries were
exactly opposite in Vietnam. Him going south towards Ho Chi
Minh and us north to Hanoi, with no set plans.

This is just one of the reasons we had put so little emphasis
on planning and more on experiencing and playing it by ear
and guts instincts at times. Don't worry Mom, we were smart
and never found ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard
place, but we could definately write our own enriched version
of Lonely Planet. We have had many discussion about the book
and the level be able to experience it gets into. In my words
and I think all our opinions it provides a great skeleton for
someone to build a trip off of. If some of the amazing places
that we made it to in our trip were in the book, they would
no longer be as amazing on so many levels, not just
our "discovery" level. Everyone who is tavelling seems to
have a version and thus our trips secrets would be revealed
and become higher priced, no longer secluded, or even
worst... saddled up by tourism in a way that makes it feel
rehearsed and fake.

Well sorry for the slipshod entry, if you made it this far I
am as proud of you and I am myself for earning your
attention. lol

Can't beleive it is over and will definately do something
similar again, perhaps even longer next time... I can't
recommend it enough to anyone interested...

Sean

PS I can't wait to see everyone soon!

motorcycles, trains, buses (many), bicycles, and boats

2004-10-17T00:32:00.000+08:00

Sorry, this is about a week old. Didn't go through last time....

Hey all:

Life on the road continues to go well. Many things have happened since my last email. I'm tried to shorten this update for everyone, but the experiences kept on flowing. I've separated the email into into Vietnamese geographic sections including: Central Highlands/Ho Chi Minh Trail, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi, Cat Ba Island, Hanoi Redux, and impending Laos, so please feel free to skip to any interesting sections.

Boys on Bikes Part 1: The Central Highlands

When last writing, I was about to embark on a four day motorcycle tour of the Central Highlands. While being slightly apprehensive about riding on the back of a bike for four days, the trip was extremely pleasurable. We were on big bikes, using our plastic-encased bags as back rests. Although pricey, we all concluded the was worthwhile upon completion. The first two days were spent going through Vietnam's Central Highlands. We stopped numerous times to view silk worm plantations, rubber trees, coffee plants, pepper farms, and various other growing commodities. Many questions that I never asked, like how does one extra silk from a silk worm (the worm is separated from its cocoon, extracting the silk from the outside and selling the worm for food) were promptly explained throughout the trip. I believe a saw a grand total of one Western person throughout the four days, a refreshing change to daily life on the road in SE Asia. While visiting the myriad of memorials to different wars was enlightening, the first two days were simply ok. I did have the best coffee I've ever tasted before in my life. After trying the three different blends of coffee locally produced in the Highlands, I can easily see how someone could become addicted to the product. This was hands down the richest and most aromatic coffee I've ever encountered (the richness in flavor is partially from the condescend milk all Vietnamese restaurants use in their coffee). After the first 2 days we were wondering if we'd really been taken for a ride on the American pricing we paid for the trip.

Ode to Music Interlude

I would like to go on a slight tangent here. Before leaving Korea, I was quite conflicted on whether or not to bring a disc man. On one hand, I thought traveling meant immersing oneself in the country/culture, with a disc man causing the dirrdirectosite effect. On the other hand, I was looking at multiple 10+ hour plane rides that a disc man would be particularly useful on. In the end I chose to bring the cd player, which has become a better and better decision the more I consider it. Not only do I use the disc man for planes, it is also wonderful for most other forms of long-distance travel (most notably buses that chose to blast Asian kakaraokeor the entire length of the trip). On top of that, I have found music to be a welcomed retreat from the engulfing culture of my various destinations. Before leaving I thought of a disc man as a cop out, but on the road I've found it to be a nnecessity In places where you can't walk 10 feet without multiple merchants trying to sell you something or grab your attention, oftentimes completely uundeterredby a "no thank you," my cd player can occasionally provided me welcomed ssolacefrom everything. Not to say I oftentimes use my disc man outdoors, but occasionally everything can be quite overwhelming. On top of that, music is a instant reminder of America, averting some of the inevitable homesickness I sometimes feel. I'm also pretty unscrupulous when it comes to burned cds, allowing me to probably double my music collection in Saigon where cds sell 1 for 66 cents or 5 for $3.33. Ok, enough about portable music devices.

Boys on Bikes Part 2: The Ho Chi Minh Trail

The real payoff came on the last two days, where we actually went through the recently paved Ho Chi Minh Trail (HCMT). I don't know if one could accurately describe the beauty which is the HCMT. We got off the bikes and walked parts of the actual trail. I couldn't even wrap my mind around how people had carried heavy artillery and tons of material along this simple road to the South. I got a picture of myself in the bottom of a bomb crater. When viewing the actual trail, I immediately understood how insurmountable the American task of destroying it truly was. The HCMT runs through what I can simply call a Rain Forest with little rain. I've been hiking through the Montana/Wyoming/Isle Royale (Michigan) but I've never seen anything like this. You couldn't count the number of trees if you had a video camera and calculator. Sweeping forests as long as the eye can see. A narrow stream that quickly turns into a raging river (Casey & I both had thoughts about the amazing potential that existed for a kayaking/canoing trip). Mountain landscapes broken by our one singular, relatively unused road. Meeting a few of the many minority populations that live in these areas was definitely one of my best experiences. Our Vietnamese guides spoke good English, and helped us interact with these people how must rarely encounter Westerners. I'm sure the pictures I took of the trail & the people will do it no justice. The landscapes pristine condition is probably due to the fact that the road is only 2 years old, and tour buses are apparently not allowed on it. We ate copious amount of food for $1 per person. While we can normally eat for aaroundthis price, having food left on the table afterwords is not an everyday ooccurrence While our aaccommodationswere slightly more annoying, our guides never chose to understand our tight budget, we managed to always stay below (often well below) our $3 per person per night level.

Lonely Planet Syndrome: Hoi An

The Lonely Planet, for anyone unfamiliar with its many publications, is uundoubtedlythe most read travel resource of today. It couldn't stop raving about Hoi An, so we arranged for our motorcycle journey to end there. It's written up as a sleepy Vietnamese town, that has UNESCO backing to preserve its old architecture. I personally found the whole town ddisappointing We didn't make it over to the UNESCO area, which might have been part of my problem, but I remain unconvinced. I believe that after all the attention, this town has blown up with tourists. All the visitors have inflated prices on every single thing you could possible desire to purchase (I was quoted more then 50 cents for a Lipton Ice tea by a street-front store. When I asked the lady for the Saigon street price, she looked at me as if she wouldn't sell to her own child at that level. We finally agreed on Saigon hotel price, which she seemed quite unhappy about). Our hotel negotiations turned into a large back-and-forth, and people made money on countless things like bicycle parking. We rent bikes and visit a ggorgeousbeach. Ended up passing on an opportunity to visit China Beach (instrumental in the Vietnam War for any of you war buffs). The beach was beautiful & calm, but I got burnt from failing to apply multiple coats of suntan lotion (being burnt in October...welcome to the good life). Our second trip to the same water was completely opposite, with waves that rivaled Thailand and ran pouring down on a forty-five degree angle. My personal highlight was meeting up with three Carleton College friends who had all been teachers in Korea with me (including one of my best friends Brendan O'Connell, Carleton roommate of 3 years and fellow Oak Park & River Forest High School alum). We had many moving discussions and cleared some old air, making me very happy. Our two main debates would take pages to explain, but the second one briefly centered on the appropriateness to negotiate for lower prices in a poor country. We decided to stay in Hoi An for an extra day to see them longer, finally departing after 3 nights. Oh yeah, we saw bat and rat being roasted for sale...quickly passing up on both.

Travel Time: The Long Road to Hanoi

Leaving Hoi An was easier said then done. We caught a nice bus to Hue, another major battleground in the "American War," as it is often termed in Vietnam. Next we booked a train for Hanoi, which is around a 15 hour trip. We had a 6+ hour wait before the train left, which Casey and I used to explore Hue. Hue (pronounced Hway) is a quaint town with impressive aarchitecture We walked through the Old Quarter. I crossed the street to take a picture of this beautiful "mmonastery" and quickly found myself in the middle of a group of Asian people. Before I knew it, they had me in the middle of their group picture! I found the whole experience both nice and hhumorous since I had no idea what the picture was for or who the people involved were :) The train ride was uneventful since I eemployedmy ability to sleep anywhere to pass out for 10+ hours. The worst part of it being the uunavailabilityto book sleepers, since they were full. The air-conditioned soft seats were nowhere near as comfortable as our previous sleepers to Malaysia.

Hanoi: Land of Ho Chi Minh

Hanoi has been somewhat eventful. This city seems slower then Saigon, noticeably less negotiating, and smaller. We've visited a few of the main attractions, the coolest being Ho Chi Minh's MMausoleum How the Vietnamese justify putting Ho Chi Minh's actual BODY on public didisplayafter he supposedly left specific instructions for his ashes to be didispersedhroughout Vietnam, is a mystery to me. I think his MMausoleumis the most guarded place I've been in in quite some time. We had to pass through medal detectors, had any cameras/cell phones temporarily taken, and waited in long lines before we were allowed to view his body. Various guards were at hand throughout the process, quick to condemn any major ttransgressionslike wearing a hat or putting one's hands in one's pockets. The body itself somewhat resembled a rubber chicken in human form and behind glass. Numerous guards were in the actual body room, constantly watching the passing guests while displaying no outward signs of emotion. Afterwords we traveled to the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which was a complete and utter waste of time. The best part of it may have been getting slightly buzzed on the exit stairs, where a worker had obviously not understood the "Do not use in enclosed areas" label on the spray paint canister. We did negotiate a great $6 per night rate on our nice (slightly roach infested)hotel room. At this point, I've come to terms with the fact that roaches and rats are a part of life. We did have one exciting moment when Casey hunted down a roach and engaged in slipper-to-body combat with it; he eventual one but the roach was an admiral adversary. We've also found some great food and extraordinarily cheap beer in Hanoi. The food was coincidentally near our hotel, and packed with Vietnamese (always a good sign). The beer there ended up being 4,000 dong (around 30 cents) and tasty. Later we found 1,500 dong straight from the keg beer (under ten cents), which tastes good simply because of its price. After seeing the Vietnamese Water Puppet Show, which I found ddisappointinglyslow due to my utter incomprehension of the play, we drank 9 beers and bought a deck of cards for $1 a person (impressive in my book).

Destination Cat Ba: Island Trekking

Our friends high recommended Cat Ba Island, and so we chose to check it out. Due to our complete animosity towards and travel groups, we decided to arrange the whole trip iindependently This may have been one of those cases where either A) taking the tour or B) pouring over Lonely Planet, would have really saved us a little money. Either way, we managed alright, finding the cheaper route home and avoiding the crappy hotel rooms and group food. Our cramped bus to Halong Bay left much to be desired, especially after breaking down at our one forced "shopping" stop. And the boat to Cat Ba was probably over-priced. But in the end, we arrived, found a cheap hotel, and got beers for a slightly inflated 2,000 dong. The beaches on Cat Ba were straight out of a commercial, similar to the ggorgeoussands of Thailand. We met up with some cute Canadian women, and bummed around town with them for two days. I played more cards in those 48 hours then I've played in a long time, even getting in a few Euchre cgamesfor the first time in at least 15 (probably more like 24) months. Getting back to Hanoi was less scenic but cheaper. We caught a slow boat to Haifong (sp?) Bay and then an extremely small bus to Hanoi.

Hanoi Redo: Sick Dead Days

We've spent the last few days back in Hanoi. I woke up the last night on Cap Ba with a sore throat I couldn't kick. Casey and I have both come down with full-blown colds, which are running their course slowly. I've spent the last few days recovering, and catching up on things like postcards (which I'm more then willing to send out if you give me your address). We initiated Sean into the male love affair with Die Hard, which he had somehow survived the last 24 years without seeing (Casey bought the dvd for 17,000 dong). Our last day has mostly been taken up with reading and arranging our inevitable bus ride to Laos.

Laos Here We Come: The Big Bad Bus Ride

I can't say I'm looking forward to traveling to Laos. We leave in the next 2 hours, and will be spending at least the next 15 on a bus! Laos roads apparently suck, relegating us to slow slow movement through that small country. I had hoped to visit Luong Probang (sp?) in the north and the 4,000 Islands in the South, but transportation time is prohibitory to those plans. After some consideration, we've decided on the 4,000 Islands, which should be quite relaxing. Giving up Luong Probang was hard, with its rave reviews in the infamous Lonely Planet and its UNESCO standing, but after Hoi An those things don't mean everything anymore. It really came down to travel times for me, with the 4,000 Islands being situated quite close to our next destination, Thailand.

The End

This email has turned into a monster. Thanks again for all of you who read my rambling. Feel free to email me with questions/comments/thoughts/whatever. I love hearing from everyone.

Hope to hear from everyone soon,
Ben

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The puppets, oh the puppets!

2004-10-10T11:40:00.000+08:00

Before I address anything else, yes the water puppet
show was awesome! Puppets that shot fireworks,
puppets that planted rice, rode water buffalo all
accompanied by a crazy 5 piece Vietnamese orchestra.
And all in crazy Vietnamese talk I couldn't
understand. So strange and riveting I couldn't take
my eyes off it.

Anyways, the day after the show we boarded a bus to
head out to Halong Bay, just a few hours east of
Hanoi. The bay is gorgeous and I'm sure you've seen
pictures of it somewhere. It's one of those bays with
sparkling aqua-marine water and jutting volcanic
outcrops topped with neon green vegetation. Our boat
ride to the largest island was breathtaking, and we
even had time to stop and do a little diving off the
top of the boat. Dive of the day went to Ben Wood's
cannonball which threatened to swamp the dingy little
craft.

After a few days on Kap Ba Island, we took a less
scenic and less expensive boat to Haiphong Bay, and
then a delightful little bus ride three hours back to
Hanoi.

We'll be leaving tonight on a short 15 hour bus ride
into Laos. Laos is an incredible pain in the ass to
navigate, and the 15 hour leg will get us only halfway
to our destination, the Southern Islands (or 4000
Islands) in the expanse of the Mekong River in
Southern Laos. After that we'll slowly make our way
back to Bangkok and I should be home (in Chicago) on
the 21st of October. I think I'll be back in DC by
the 1st or 2nd of November, just in time for the huge
party Democrats will be throwing. I don't want to
miss out.

Chances for postcards are getting slim, so if you want
one, email me quick, otherwise suffer through a life
of regret.

Again, the blog is www.asialog.blogspot.com.
See you all (frighteningly) soon,
Casey

Killing a Cockroach

2004-10-05T13:31:00.000+08:00

We all experienced a harrowing experience last night
as we stood toe-to-toe against our first giant
Vietnamese Cockroach.

It was about 11 PM. We were all getting ready to go
to bed and reading. I had just finished off my
Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment) and had started my
Irving (A Prayer for Owen Meany) when Sean spotted
something between a bat and an albatross flit across
the room. After a few fearful seconds of discussion
we determined it was a cockroach and needed to be
tracked down.

We searched for a bit and finally found the vermin,
perched atop the mirror in our bathroom, surveying his
domain. Now, I've seen some big bugs before and even
killed a few in DC, but the only time I've ever seen a
cockroach bigger than this guy was behind glass in the
zoo. Around 3 inches long, his feelers were
prehistoric in length. The idea that this sucker
would share the room with us was incomprehensible.
The room, literally, wasn't big enough enough for the
both of us. It had to be us or him.

I picked up a pair of the the complimentary plastic
sandals near our bathroom door and made a decision:
the cockroach needed to die. We couldn't sleep in the
same space, and entrapment and release wasn't an
option as we had neither a container large enough or
strong enough to hold such a beast. When given such a
choice fear does not become a factor, emotion melts
away, either do or do not.

We decided that the killing must be done in the
bathroom, where there were a limited number of hiding
spots and the white tile surface limited camouflage
while providing us with a washable surface. Taking a
sandal in each hand, I stepped into the bathroom and
closed the door behind me.

First, I decided the killing could not take place
while he was perched on the mirror. I'd seen
Communist Vietnamese construction quality firsthand
and knew that mirror would come down in an instant. I
decided, therefore, to flush the bastard left, toward
the North wall, where I could bring down my second
sandal for a clean, efficient kill against the tile.
But ahhh, this was no mere field general, this roach
saw my plan and would not be outflanked. I must
admit, I grossly underestimated my opponent and his
abilities.

Instead of flying toward the wall, the cunning
pugilist came straight towards me, immediately
negating my size advantage and, in fact, turning my
superior reach against me. Like a frustrated boxer
who's allowed his opponent to get inside, I
short-armed by swings landing not a single blow. The
roach than landed right at my feet and I danced the
flamenco, swatting ineffectually this way and that.
In my mad spinning, however, I had made a critical
mistake, leaving the path to the door unprotected. My
one vow! We had drawn a line in the sand saying,
"Across this threshold you shall not pass!", and I had
let down my defenses.

In an instant he was under the crack and into our
room. Sean had been listening on the other side of
the door and was caught off guard when he saw the
bugger scurry out the door and behind our bureau. The
enemy had brought the fight to us.

My heart sank. I had failed in my most important
task, been out-foxed by a superior opponent, and now
we HAD to find him. There would be no sleep until he
was dead.

Ben and Sean fixed themselves on each side of the
bureau, stomping and swaying the piece trying to flush
the sucker out. There was no movement, no sound, no
air.

We were beginning to think he had made it past the
bureau towards the beds, an unthinkable nightmare. I
was utterly dejected. I had suffered a mortal wound
to my pride and was beginning to lose hope when all of
a sudden, in a brazen move, my opponent showed himself
once more!

He scurried out from behind the bureau, under my bags
and took to flight, again, right towards me! Fool me
once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I had
learned my lesson and was prepared for his attack. I
choked up my grip on my left sandal in preparation for
a close encounter. Sure enough, as he came straight
at my chest, I countered with a quick across-the-body
slash, taking him out of the air and sending him
towards the ground.

Now, I had also observed my opponent's speed, and
prepared myself, cocking my right sandal up in the
air, ready to deliver a quick and decisive death blow
should my enemy enter the "kill zone". As I saw his
body flutter to the ground, momentarily stunned, I
knew it was a once-in-lifetime opportunity. I brought
my sandal down with clap!

Lifting it, I saw his body. Grey puss had squirted
out and he was motionless. It had been a quick death,
and for that, I was glad. He had proved himself a
worth opponent.

In the flush of the moment we unceremoniously dumped
his body down the staircase. Not a fitting end, but
an end none the less.

Let it be a lesson to those who dare to enter our
room! We slept the sleep of the victorious.
Thought you'd like to know.
Casey

2004-10-04T22:53:00.000+08:00

Hello everybody,
I don't know if my last email was received properly,
but it didn't end up on the blog. I'll assume it was
as I am a man of means with many responsibilities to
attend to, chief among them watching my Premier League
Football. Having heard how dismal sports are in
Chicago, I've figured fancy pants European sports are
the way to go.

First of all, we had a great time in Hoi An after our
motorcycle trip. Hoi An is a nice sleepy place, the
beach there is beautiful and it was nice to feel the
sun again after having to endure a land-locked
existence for the past two or three weeks. One of my
old roommates from college, Brendan O'Connell, and two
other classmates, Leona Kwon and Jeff Doten, met up
with us in Hoi An. I hadn't seen Brendan in about a
year and a half, and it was great to see him again.
Having him sit on the bed in his boxers and plunk out
a senseless tune on his guitar for an hour in the
morning really brought back the memories...
We spent most of our time just hanging out and
catching up on lost time. The weather was
uncooperative and our second trip to the beach was
disastrous. Raining off and on with huge waves
pounding the beach, we were the only fools to jump in
the water and allow ourselves to be tossed about like
rag dolls (and no, we didn't wade out to far and you
all know my devotion to the "buddy system"). We were
the only people on the beach, but luckily being
foreigners means there's no such thing as "too
stupid", and the locals chalk up anything weird we do
to cultural differences.

We moved on North to Hanoi while those three headed
South to Nha Trang, best of luck to them.
We caught a sweet 14 hour train to Hanoi. We were
planning on getting sleeper bunks, but they were sold
out and we found ourselves in the "air-conditioned"
seated section. The train wasn't too bad: Besides
Sean's "odoriferous" neighbor, my inability to stop
eating candy once I start (while Ben fiends for "The
Economist" and Sean fiends for...well, I don't want to
get into what Sean fiends for, I crave gummy candy.
It's my one weakness next to shiny objects) and
frequent, aimless stops it was a rather pleasant ride.
Hanoi is a nice city, which comes as a pleasant
surprise. I'd heard some bad things about it, but
we're staying in a nice little place in the Old
Quarter. We'll site see tomorrow (Uncle Ho's in his
mausoleum and I wanna see his body...weird!) and we
even picked up some cheap theatre tickets! Water and
puppets have come together at last in the form of
water puppetry! If I don't come back, now you know
why.

After a few days in N. Vietnam we'll head to Laos and
make it up from there. Hope everyone's doing well,
keep me updated on home life. Big shout out to my
cousin Jeff who's getting married soon, congrats!
Keep checking the blog.
Take care,
Casey

I'm Peter Fonda

2004-09-25T14:27:00.000+08:00

So we've made it to the charming, mountain hamlet of
Dalat. It's about 200 km NE of Saigon and a world
away. None of the pollution, half the traffic (human
and otherwise) and twice as much green space.
It's really a beautiful town and, surprisingly, not
overrun with tourists. We haven't seen that many
whiteys, which is good cause you all know how I hate
the man.

Dalat is situated in a valley surrounded by low, lush
mountains covered in conifer forests. The temperature
is about 15 degrees cooler here, and most of the
locals are sporting winter jackets. Always amusing.
Upon arrival yesterday we met up with a guy named
Peter who operates "Easy Rider Tours". You're all
smart people and have probably but two and two
together, but just in case, we're taking a motorcycle
tour up the Ho Chi Minh trail. Yeah, that's right,
Ben, Sean and I will spend the next four days
travelling from Dalat to Hoi An on the backs of
touring bikes up the Ho Chi Minh trail along the
Laotian border.

This guys seems very reliable. He's been doing this
kind of thing for years and carried a fat book of
testimonials from former clients. He wanted an
outrageous sum for 5 days, but we haggled for a good
hour or so and got the price down quite a bit for 4
days.

In the end, we were torn: Sean was leaning towards
"no", taking into account all the great things we
could do with the money if we continued on alone. And
we'd been making a pretty good trip out of things on
our own. Ben was leaning towards "yes" as this was a
once in a lifetime experience and, come on, it's the
Ho Chi Minh trail by motorcycle! My powers of
decision completely failed me as the cheap bastard and
the adventurous spirit inside me waged war. In the
end, it came down to the time tested coin flip.
We'll be leaving early tomorrow on the bikes and will
give a full report from Hoi An.

Hope things are going well. Keep checking the blog
for updates from Sean and Ben,
www.asialog.blogspot.com.
Take care all,
Casey

T and G Part 2 Delayed

2004-09-25T14:02:00.000+08:00

Sorry it took me so long to continue my story.... I am sure
you are all on the seats of your chairs waiting :)

Well after the steamy hot underground tunnel experience we
went through a small museum of sorts and got to see many
different types of traps used against the american soldiers
in the war. Some were quite gruesome. We then got to see a
few animals they had pinned up in a makeshift zoo. (last time
i was there they had a small bear but it seems something has
happened to him since then... no bear... probably a good
thing that he wasnt pinned up in a small cage anymore)

We then had one more stop before heading out of Cu Chi. The
shooting range. For a meager dollar a shot (pricey but
unique) you could shoot anything from a M16 Machine gun,
AK47, to a shot gun) The others watched me shoot a Colt 45
into metal chickens and cow targets in a field. It was kinda
wierd, very loud, but a fun part of the trip. As a remembered
the kick back from the machine guns were a little painful so
that is why i opted for the smaller weapon. Unfortunately
they had me put it on a small stand so I couldnt turn it
sideways and shoot "ganstah" style :). I will have to visit
my uncle john in the liberal state of MN for that sort of
thing...

As of now we are in the small yet beautiful mountain town of
Dalat where we actually need long sleeve shirts and pants to
stay warm at night (and it is a nice change compared to the
90 humidity the rest of the trip)

We had planned to head to Nha Trang next(beach town) but
yesterday were convinced to take a 4 day motorcycle(not
moped, Honda big tanked Motorcycle like Uncle Mikes) tour in
the mountains and up the Ho Chi Minh trail and to our next
destination of Hoi An. We are all really exited to see the
central highlands and actually ride of the Ho Chi Minh trail
on the back of an Easy Rider. We are heading out tomorrow
morning at 8am and will be in back country for 4-5 days so
sorry for any lack of updates.

Sean

Tunnels and Guns Part 1

2004-09-23T15:32:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we went to the tunnels of Cu Chi. It was a half day
trip that turned out to be a lot more exhausting then we
expected. I had been there before with my family but it seems
they had opened many more tunnels since then. Cu Chi is an
underground town that was created in the 1940's to guard
against the French. It was later used in the Vietnam war
against the Americans. The system of tunnels housed some
20,000 people for over thirty years and we were in them for
less then 1 hour and I could hardly handle that. After
watching a documentary on them made in the 1960's(rather
humorous at times and biased war propoganda :) ) we were able
to go into them. The first one we went in took about 5
minutes to travel through and it was only 3 meters deep.
The second tunnel was quite a different story. This tunnel
was barely lit in places and went to 6 meters deep in the
ground. If we didnt have a guide with a flashlight we would
have gooten lost crawling on our hand and knees and sweating
our butts off. I hit my head several times on the hardened
clay but Casey had the best experience. As we were coming out
of the tunnel at the end after about 20 minutes, muddy and
exhausted, a bat flew right into his face trying to get back
in his hole that we had disturbed. His reaction was priceless
and his words can't be repeated... needless to say I could
not stop laughing.

I have to go but will update the rest in a few hours
tonight... To come the rest of the tunnels and my Colt 45
shooting experience! :) Missing ya much Tommy!

TTFN
Sean

Saigon Kick!

2004-09-20T16:12:00.000+08:00

Hey all, we've made it to Saigon all in one piece.
Quite a bit has happened since we last spoke, so to
facilitate easier consumption by you, the reader, I've
decided to add a few sub-titles in the style of my
current read, "Don Quixote".
1. Our Hero's arrival and the conquering of Lake
Saigon.
2. On the Damsel met on the road and the Karaoke Bar
our Hero mistook for a Karaoke Bar.

Now you might enjoy the following post as a whole or
in sections as they constitute one rousing tale and
may not be easily digested in one sitting. However,
free advice is worth just that! Enough with he
Surgeon's General Warning, let's be off!

1. Our Hero's arrival and the conquering of Lake
Saigon.
We caught a $2 bus out of Phnom Penh headed for the
border (Moc Bai) and eventually Saigon. We received
our first taste of communist efficiency at the border.
To be fair, however, borders are always a pain in the
butt, but this one was made more entertaining by the
men in blue pajamas. On a side note, I hope that one
day I might rightfully lay claim to all the
professions I list on my visa applications, entrance
and exit forms, etc. I started simply enough with
"waiter", but have since evolved (as there is only one
direction from waiting tables) to "unemployed",
"roust-about", "mime", "robber baron", "dancer", "fun
guy" and "fromager". This trip has seen a steady
decline in my respect for international law and
custom, and I now make it a priority to smuggle fruit
across every border! Huzzah! (That's a joke, don't
worry)
The trip proceeded without incident, and upon our
arrival in Saigon, we met up with Sean's friend Tom
whom he met while buying a child here 4 years ago (I
think they got three, but who can keep track?). We
found a tolerable guesthouse, and seeing as HBO Crap
was showing "Lassie 6:Collecting Checks", we went out
into the night drizzle to search around. We hadn't
traveled a block before the skies opened and a
downpour commenced. We opted to "wait it out" in an
internet cafe, but after a solid 45 minutes I grew
restless. Having brought an umbrella, I ventured
forth. The streets were horribly flooded, and waves
literally lashed up against my shins as I waded along
the sidewalk. Turned down an alley advertising
several hostels, hoping to find one with more to offer
than three cots and a four story climb. The water had
risen to about the middle of my shin at this point,
and if you can imagine the streets of Saigon, you can
imagine what was now floating about my legs. The
usual cornucopia of third world trash; coconuts, bags,
bottles, Milo containers and a few rats. I did a
quick check for open sores (None on my legs!) and
forged ahead. By the time I had checked a few places
the water had gotten to my knees and my pants were
rolled up to my thighs. I'm sure I would have had to
beat the ladies off with a stick for the figure I cut,
had not the inclimate weather curbed their lascivious
desires! When I returned to the internet cafe with 5
dead leads and a nasty rash, Sean told me this was
typical for the wet season (and it has been). We
rushed back to our hostel, grabbed a quick bite and
Tom showed us around later in the evening when the
rain subsided. All in all, a memorable introduction
to Old Saigon.

2. On the Damsel met on the road and the Karaoke Bar
our Hero mistook for a Karaoke Bar.
The next evening Tom and one of his friends took us
out to see the town. We would follow national custom
and make sure that every venue we touched upon had
karaoke in some way, shape or form. I was with Tom's
friend Chom, on the back of his moped. Now, Chom
likes to talk, a lot, about his business, an
advertising firm. His job is, "to find beautiful
ladies" and recruit them for shoots. He'll expound on
this, ad nauseaum, even while driving a moped. I was
only slightly surprised, then, when he struck up a
conversation with a beautiful Vietnamese girl driving
her moped next to ours. I assumed he was trying to
get her to pull over so he could give her his business
card. She did, but he then explained to me that she
was going out with us tonight. Because Tom was
carrying both Sean and Ben on his moped, they thought
it best one of us should ride with Duag (pronounced
"yung"). As fate would have it, I somehow ended up
riding with her. She's a nice girl, 21, a student and
working part time at a Japanese restaurant. She said
I looked like "a little boy" without any facial hair
(I had shaved that day), but that I reminded her of
her favorite footballer, some 18 year old Frenchmen
named Roni. As any good American would, I chafed at
being compared to a Frenchmen, but I am a baller, if
not a footballer, and you need not have written the
book of love to understand that when any girl of any
nationality compares you to a professional soccer
player, that's a good thing.
We eventually made it to our first locale, an
out-out-out of the way bar whose door no tourist has
darkened in quite some time. They were excited to see
some white people, as Ben can attest to, as he was
offered a beer and invited to join a group of 40 year
old men right as we entered the door. Their version
of karaoke was a guy with a keyboard and a microphone.
Patrons would request a local favorite, he'd pound it
out, and they'd sing from memory. When it came to our
turn, Sean, Ben and I were at a loss as to how we
would pick a song. Not only did we know very few
entire songs from heart, we, rightly, assumed this guy
would know none of them. I made an executive decision
and chose "Tracks of My Tears" by Smokey Robinson.
The keyboardist had me sing a few lines, and before I
could reach the first "baby, baby" he decided Samba
was the way to go.
Now, if you ever owned a Casio keyboard between the
years of 1983 and 1992, you know the "Samba" beat I'm
talking about. It was the button after "Salsa" but
before "Swing". But when in Rome...
The samba beat commenced and Sean, Ben and I stared at
each other blankly. I had no idea how this was gonna
work but then, staring into the sea of Vietnamese
faces, we received a great knowledge. Like three
travelers on the road to Damascus, this truth set us
free, and a great peace descended upon us. The truth
was: no one gave a damn what we did.
Thus began the greatest karaoke revue of all time:
"Tracks of My Tears" into "The Theme from
Ghostbusters" into "Carry On My Wayward Son" by Kansas
into "Ben singing about how no one understood a word
he was saying and he loved English" into "Every Rose
Has Its Thorns" into "Brown Eyed Girl" (Sean's doing)
with a little "Here I Come Again" by Whitesnake to
finish it all off. By the end the owner was up on
stage with us, dancing, and a bunch of guys had come
up with fake plastic roses to signal their approval.
We were the bells of the ball! Everyone came up to
toast us, and I seemed to have won the affection of
Duag somewhere as well.
She was pouring my drinks, serving me food, she even
helped me put on my long sleeve shirt when it got
cold. It was really weird and I couldn't help feeling
like some nouveau colonial overlord. But it was nice
to talk to her and, after traveling with 3 guys for a
few weeks, I'd missed the civilizing touch of the
fairer sex.
We ended the evening in a "Private karaoke room",
which is Vietnamese code for "the top floor of
somebody's house where they've stuck a karaoke
machine". It was very strange: just the 6 of us (and
Duag doesn't sing karaoke, so there's no future there)
taking turns for 2 hours or so. Ben said this had
happened to him several times in Korea. All in all a
very fun night.

Anyhow, we spent the last day out in the countryside
with Tom's uncle, who, incidentally, fought alongside
the US army back in the early 70's. There are little
reminders like that all over the place. I'll allow
Sean and Ben to elaborate on that. But I do have one
more, short addendum. For those of you feeling left
out, perhaps wishing you might have a taste of Asia in
your own back yard, I give you:

The Vietnamese Bus Ride Experience!
Simply follow the easy instructions.
1. Go out and buy a Kia Sorenta with no frills, except
one, a TV in the back and a loud sound system.
2. Go to your local ethnic enclave (be it Chinatown,
Little Havana, Greektown, etc.) and make 4 new
friends. None of them can speak English and at least
one should smoke.
3. Pile them into the Kia.
4. Take the seat behind the driver, push his seat all
the way back, and stick a suitcase at your feet to
give the illusion that your right above the wheel
well.
5. Find an obscure Chinese sitcom on DVD, put it on
and turn the Cantonese soundtrack all the way up.
6. Now go off-roading...for 2 hours.
There you go, the Vietnamese bus ride experience!

Take care all, I promise the next won't be so long.
Casey

Killing Fields

2004-09-15T12:57:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we all visited the killing fields and the calssrrom
turned into prison runed into museum in the middle of the city.
It was very disturbing to see all of the images first hand the
the amount of skulls stcked on top of each other with gun shot
holes and blunt fracture wounds to them. I have allready
mentioned to a few but the most disturbing thing I we noticed
was not the stories, pictures, or even the human bones that we
were actually sticking out of the dirt as we walked around,
but that not one high ranking official has ever been charged
or even brought to court over the events.

Last night we were able to get those pictures out of our minds
while we were in an orphanage that scott aronson had told us
about in the states. It is an amazing place that is run by a
pastor who himself was involved in the pol pots monstocities
and fled to the jungle to ecape and care for himself. He
started up the orhpanage and let us teach english to some
children yesterday night. (it pretty much turned into a
question and snwer session of how tall am I, how much do I
weight, do i have a girldfriend, how tall is she, how much
doesn she weight :) ) It was very fun and we are going to
teach somemore tonight and then maybe all day tomorrow before
we head off to Ho Chi Minh.

As Casey said our last night with tomm in Seim Reap was truly
a one of a kind experience. It seems many of the tuk tuk or
motor bike drivers are more then willing ot share with us a
little bit of their lives and it always turns out to be so
much fun. (the sheep blood clots he talked about tasted like
mushrooms and they didnt tell us what they were until after we
had a few)

Our guest house in Phnom Penh is right on a lake. It is one of
the prettiest sunsets you can imagine and it usually comes
after a huge downpour of rain, in which we can sit protected
under a roof and in a hammock watching it all.

Well I just git my hour and 30 minute mark online so I earned
my free coffee from the internet place. Time to drink up and
rest a little before going back to the school/orphanage.

Miss Everyone So Much and wish you could all be here...

Sean

Despair and hope in Cambodia

2004-09-15T12:45:00.000+08:00

Cambodia, it's not all land mines and death! It's
still a lot of both, but they're cleaning up their act
and it's a nice place to visit, I gotta say. Siem
Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat were amazing. I
must say that the jungle temple of Ta Prohm was my
favorite. It is a truly magical place, with 800 year
old trees climbing forth from 1000 year old walls.
The jungle and temple have forged into one entity and
it is impossible to say where one begins and the other
ends. Just walking among those ruins and feeling the
history and power of the place was amazing.
After a great last night with Tom, Ben, Sean and I
boarded a 5 hour bus to the capitol, Phnom Penh. It's
a pretty scuzzy city where hawkers, beggars and
con-men abound, but it's growing on me. We got our
most depressing day out of the way yesterday and
visited the former Khmer Rouge torture center-turned
museum and the Killing Fields outside of town. There
isn't too much to elaborate on, man's inhumanity
towards man can be as horrific as it is predictable,
and I'm sure you have an idea. One thing that I must
mention (and stop reading if you want to enjoy the
rest of your day) is our visit to the Killing Fields.
Exhumed graves pock-mark the ground (88 so far found)
and a 12-story tower houses nothing but skulls.
However, as you walk the ground, your feet continue to
catch on protrusions which, upon closer inspection,
reveal themselves to be bones. This is disturbing
enough, but there is something about the antiseptic
whiteness of a bone that removes it from our physical
plane and places somewhere in the recesses of history;
less disturbing, more removed. Yet scraps of cloth
also revealed themselves, and that what hit me. You
realized these were the clothes of victims, yet to
break down as they were buried (if one could use that
word) less than 30 years ago. Gone was the disconnect
as I pictured T-shirts, trousers, skirts and, God have
mercy, baby clothes. It was a troubling, but I
believe necessary, visit, especially considering
America's implicit role in assisting the Khmer Rouge's
rise to power. Illegal US carpet bombing during the
Vietnam War did quite a bit to destabilize the region
and un-seat the standing government.
But I'm done preaching. On a happier note we're
volunteering at a local Christian orphanage here in
Phnom Penh. We're helping teach English and generally
entertain the kids with our most humorous asset: our
white skin and strange behaviour/appearance. The man
who started this organization was a orphan himself and
now operates 4 orphanages in and around Phnom Penh.
He's an inspiring character.
We'll, that's all for now. We'll be here a few more
days and then head over to Vietnam and Saigon.
Keep checking the blog,
http://www.asialog.blogspot.com/.
Ni hi (goodbye in Khmer, the Cambodian language)
Casey

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Last night hurrah

2004-09-13T14:46:00.000+08:00

Tom left us last night and we sent him off in grand
fashion. Our moped drivers invited us over to their
house for some food and drinks. While hanging out on
their porch it began to pour and we moved into their
tiny shack. With the rain pounding on the metal roof
above, we proceeded to have one of the most unique
experiences of my life, downing "Cambodian Cocktails",
eating sheep blood clots and having a grand ole time.
We ended the night at a Cambodian disco, dancing the
night away. Lots more to tell, but we just arrived in
Phnom Penh and have to go find a guesthouse. And,
honestly, much of what there is tell can not be put
into print for risk of future incrimination.
There will be stories to tell, rest assured.
Vios con dios, Tommy!
Casey

Temples anyone?

2004-09-12T09:52:00.000+08:00

We are now on our third day in Seim Reap. As casey touched on Cambodia is very close to a polar oposite of Phi Phi or Thailand in general. During the past two days we have been exploring the incredible temples around Seim Reap. Most of these Temples date from 9th to the 12th century and are each incredible in their own way. Anyone ever see Tomb Radier? Yeah I was bored once too, anyhow they are all kinda like that. In fact most of them are because it was filmed here. The town is rather small and we have found accoumidation in a guesthouse that has it's rooms divided up sort of like you would divide up a barn if ou were going to make it into a guesthouse. The place is very cool, very cheap and the people a extremly nice. Oh and a brief bit of advice to anyone who is planning to go to Cambodia sometime; Do not under any circumstances order any menu item which has the word "Happy" in it's title. Khmur food is great so eat anything else.

At times the poverty of Cambodia can be rather depressing. Each temple has a small community of Cambodians that "work" infront of it to send children running towards you to try to "sell" anything and everything. The children here are so adorable that for the most part you need a lot of will power to say no to them time after time. On the up side last night we went to a concert last night that was put on by the dirrector of the local free childrens hospital here. Dr. Beat Richner is a Swiss Dr who has opened three hospitals here in Cambodia, all of which are free. Hearing him speak and play chello was a very valuable and inspiring experience. Anyone of us will have more details about the clinic when we come home for those who are interested.

Today is my last full day with Ben, Casey, and Sean. I will be leaving tomorrow to go back to BangKok, do some shopping and fly home. It grows harder and harder to leave but I can't wait to see you all.

T.

Time killer at work for my deadbeat friends.

2004-09-09T18:27:00.000+08:00

Hullo all,
Hope you're all doing well. We're in beautiful
Cambodia right now! I've been a bit delinquent when
it comes to updating people, but keep checking the
blog for updates from my fellow travellers.
A note on our last night in Phuket: Tom is correct,
the island, Ko Phi Phi and the bay, Rantee Bay were
amazing. Thrift and apprehension drove me to pass on
the scuba diving and I forged ahead of my companions
to secure housing and commence trade with the natives.
The beach was no more than 400 meters long, with
rocky outcroppings serving as bookends. Our bamboo
huts stood on stilts about 15 meters back from the
water, where the palm trees mingled with the sand
before succombing to thick jungle which crept up the
steep hillside behind us. The beach was relatively
deserted when I arrived in the morning and my splendid
solitude was interrupted only twice: Once, during
lunch with a delightful Melbourne chap on his way out
to Istanbul, Here, There and Points Inbetween. And
again by the presence of two lithe French girls who
occupied an inordinate amount of my energy and time.
But alas, they too lit out for less leersome locales,
and whether their departure was a blessing in disguise
or cruel twist of fate, only time and personal
temperment will tell.

Travellers began to pour in later in the afternoon in
search of peace, quiet and gentle waves, and while I
cannot blame them, I could resent them. Fortunately I
didn't let it spoil our stay.

We flew into Bangkok yesterday and, in the spirit of
Olympic endurance I so admire, we immediately hopped
on a 6 hour bus to the Cambodian border. It was by no
means intolerable. We had A/C, leg room and "Speed 2"
dubbed into Thai. (On a side note, our travelling
entertainment has been superb! "Jersey Girl" on the
plane over, "Speed 2" and "Angel" reruns on the bus,
and in the car from the border to Seam Reap, 98
Degrees! These folks know how to entertain). There
was also a Californian on the bus going to "check on
my cattle"(?) and he had tons of useful advice. After
one night in a skeezy hostel, we were on to the border
town of Poi Pet for our visas into Cambodia. It was,
all in all, a pretty easy process. The fee is 1000
Baht (around $25) and one soldier tried to demand 1100
(an extra $2.50!). I was having none of it and
soundly refused! He retreated, tail between his legs.
Now, the trip from the border to Seam Reap (and the
temples of Angkor Wat) is a brisk 3 hours and the
roads are notoriously bad, so we knew we had to choose
our mode of transportation wisely. Would it be smooth
sailing along the river? Perhaps the spaciousness of
a bus? Maybe even the smooth ride of an SUV? At long
last we chose a 96 Honda Accord as the wisest and most
economical choice for 5 grown men. Bags in the trunk,
Tom, Ben and I in the back, Sean and the driver up
front, and Nick Lashay and 98 Degrees in the tape
deck, we were on our way!

With the roads in such bad condition and crowded as
they were with cattle, mopeds, trucks and children,
our driver had to settle on a rather laborious pace of
60 mph...when going over bridges. There are no
passing lanes or even, conditions in which one
shouldn't pass. Be it up a hill, blinded by dust or
undeniably blocked, there was no reason to stay behind
a slow vehicle. Our fearless driver simply laid on
the horn for a good 20 seconds and off we'd go,
hurtling toward our death, smiles on our happy faces
like Hindu cows! Luckily the old Cambodian saying
still rings true: "If 98 Honda Accord is flying at you
packed with white people, get the !$%# out of the
way." We some how gained time on the trip here, it
has something to do with reversing the Earth's
rotation or something.

Anyways, this is way too long. We haven't seen the
temples yet but I'm very excited, they're supposed to
rank among the top wonders of the world. We'll be
here for a few days, then it's on to Phnom Penh and
Vietnam.

Keep the e-mails coming.
Lena and Christie-How was Nova Scotia?
Pez-How's the move to Chicago going?
Jon G. and Lewis-Staying away from flower pots?
Again, send me your address if you want a postcard,
and keep checking the blog.
Take care and cross your fingers I don't get malaria!
Crazy (that's what my name means in Thai!)

They should have sent a poet.

2004-09-07T14:32:00.000+08:00

I really can't describe how amazing this is here. Seriously too beautiful to be real is the best way I can describe. Last night and today we spend at Rantee bay down the island of Ko Phi Phi Lay. This was much more isolated and quite then the main parts of Ko Phi Phi. We spent the night in bungalows that were 15 feet from the white sand, blue crystal water. Guess how much that cost? 2 dollars and 50 cent. We spent our time split between snorkaling reading and sleeping in hamochs. Dispite the isolation the food at this beach we went to was fantastic too.

Earlier in the day yesterday Ben, Sean and I went scuba diving. We went to an island just south of Ko Phi Phi Lak ("The beach" island) We had great visiblity and our first dive we saw 2 sharks, both leopard sharks (huge bigger then divers, so that was a real trip) Then our second we saw more sharks, giant mora eels. Unfortunately Ben got a little sea sick. Otherwise it was a greatly valuable experience. I am checking on my return flight at the bangkok airport tomorrow as we fly out of Phuket. Hopefully I will have a real return flight set then.

Miss you all still,

T.

Sept 5? or whatever day it is

2004-09-05T23:55:00.000+08:00

I sent our last post and it didnt send so I tried it again.

We are in the Phi Phi islands right now, the MOST beautiful
place we have ever seen! Good thing we saved it for teh last
of our beaches. We are scuba diving tomorrow all day and then
staying our last night in a hut right on the beach.

Today we did a a little snorkleing and on way back were
followed by about 20 dolphins, babies and all. They were
within 10 feet of us at one point.

CRAZY... I have to get to bed, Casey wont stop whining about
me keeping him up... lol

Talk to everyone in a few days

We are next going to fly to bangkok and trek to cambodia!

sean

Sept 3rd

2004-09-05T23:50:00.000+08:00

Well yesterday night was quite an adventure. We arrive
yesterday morning at our newest beach bungalow which is a 10
second walk to the beach... very beautiful and a better less
crowded beach, except for a surfing competition which brings
some traffic.
We sat on beach for a bit, dove into 5-6 foot waves, grabbed
some dinner at the Kata Beach Seafood Restaurant which is
right next to our living quarters, and then played some
cribbage on the beach while the locals played a beach soccer
tourny. It was pretty relaxing and we still hadnât figured
out what we were going to do that night. We walked back to
our place and before we could go up the steps we were offered
a beer and freshly cooked tuna from some Thai friends who
were celebrating a man named Chinoâs 47th birthday. What we
thought was going to be one beer turned into many beers, a
feast of seafood (crab, lobster, gigantic 6â prawn, calamari,
bbq tuna, fish stew, shrimp, oisters and things we didnât
even know what they were!!) We stayed up till 3am talking to
Chino who spoke great English and the rest of the crew. Tom
even made friends with one of the tuk tuk drivers who he
exchanged a bracelet for his trusty caribiner(sp). It really
was a perfect night and a lucky one. There is no way we would
have experienced it if we had decided to stay in Katong for
another night or even gotten any other guesthouse to stay
in.

Ask any of us when we get back about Chino, he is an
amazingly well traveled man who lives in holland and travels
to Phuket twice a year. I am out of time but we are off to
another island so talk to everyone in a couple of days

Sean

birthday feast

2004-09-03T16:46:00.000+08:00

WOW~!!!

2004-08-31T19:53:00.000+08:00

Well... Phuket is amazing! Yeah sure it has its men walking
around with there half aged "friends", yeah sure we are
staying in what we think is the equivalent of wrigleyville on
the island (store next door advertises Boy on Boy Massages,
and the bars names are in rainbow print, lol) but with all of
that the beach, the cost, and the atmosphere is like we are
in cancun on a 10 dollar a day budget. Out rooms(4
mattresses, a fan, and shower above a laundry facility, so
yes, free laundry which is key) cost us 2$ a night, we just
had a sea food dinner that was caught hours before we ate it
for about $1.5-$2 each, and the water on the white sand beach
is literally... bum bum bum... 70 degrees! ALmost too warm
but I WILL TAKE IT, and I know mom would love it! (yes she
loves to turn our pool into a suana, the cat is out of the
bag... I never leave the heater on, it is mom at night who
sneaks outside to get us in trouble, ryan and I have caught
her twice but swore secrecy for undisclosed amounts of money)
sorry mom, had to squeal sometime....

Ok, where was i, yes, back tp PARADISE. We are currently in
Batong Beach, and area on the Phuket island, (it is
pronounced poo-ket, sorry to those who thought otherwise...)
and we really dont know how long we are staying because it is
so beautiful. The only downside is a mix between key west's
tourism and tiajuanas nightime glamour. While sitting at a
bar, drinking of course, we got offered 10 plus items from
street vendors. From erotic lighters to alligator wallets
that can be doused in kerosene, set on fire and still have no
damage. Nothing like a purse that will survive 10nth degree
burns... just what you want when your in the hospital
recovering, a money holder that outlast you. kind of made us
laugh. We did somehow score free shots form Penny the
bartender for my birthday. She told us to comeback tonight
for more, and we can't turn down a good offer like that.

As you can see we are like kids in penny candy stores right
now so I don't have much more time to write as the night is
still young. I miss you all and wish you all could bee here
with me! I am speaking for all of us when I say we are
enjoying every minute of it. And to those who write the blogs
we all enjoy reading you comments! Thanks for the support!

Dad, send me 2 thousand more, I am gonna by a hut and a
scooter! :) jk

love sean

Petronas, more like Pe-crappy!

2004-08-30T10:35:00.000+08:00

So we got back from our jungle trip to the interior
Saturday night. Taman Negara ("National Garden") was
a great trip. It was good to get away from the diesel
fumes and noise of Kuala Lumpur for a little while.
For a great detailed account, check out a blog we have
set up, www.asialog.blogspot.com. I'll just say we
spent a lot of time touring the jungle, and found a
great, knowledgeable, young guide to show us around.
If you're ever lost in the jungle and need water, cut
open bamboo, but only drink the water if it's yellow
or white, red, green and black, "verrry dangerous".
The highlights were our canopy walk (the highest and
longest in the world, and constructed from everyday
household materials) and our cave tour which should
have been called the "Crawl through guano while being
attacked by bats and snakes tour", but I guess that's
a little long.

I've caught some nasty sinus infection, but I've had
the luxury of recovering in Woodsy's uncle's air
conditioned apartment. I'll be fine by the time we
board our plane Tuesday morning for the sunny beaches
of Phuket in Thailand. We never did get a chance to
go up in the Petronas Towers, everything is closing
down for Merdeka, Malaysia's independence day on
Tuesday. That's fine, they only let you go up to the
40th floor. What a bunch of losers.
Phuket's a touristy spot, but there are several lesser
travelled beaches a few hours and less than $2 away.
We may be entering the "Hunter Thompson Faze" of our
expedition as the pull of cheap beer and white sand
may be too much, but we'll try to keep it clean.
Jokes aside, I'm looking forward to some clean air,
book reading and cribbage playing (We play, on
average, about 5 games of cribbage a day. Thanks to
Amy Martin for that graduation gift).
The first batch of postcards are on there way and I'll
be sending out more soon.
Again, check the blog, www.asialog.blogspot.com, if
you want more info or wonder where we are as my
companions are better at updates than I.
Casey

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Beach time

2004-08-30T10:17:00.000+08:00

I'm very glad to see that this blog has been useful. Sean's summary of Taman Negara was pretty good, I'm not sure I can do much more to sum up the events. We all had to stop our sleves and say "We are in the jungle of Maylasia, how did this happen?" totally mind blowing. Taman Negara was visually stunning to me, I was having a hell of a time trying to separate out the different shades of green when I was photographing it. Our swiming area that we frequented on one string of the river was absolutly beautiful, and was a nessesity at least for me because I have never sweat more in a day. It's amazing how quickly brown water becomes your new refreshing friend and also how quickly you began to need very little in a day to be happy. Once we got back to KL though it didn't take long for us to remember the wonders of pools and air conditioning. For now though it's back to the beach bum life.

I wanted to give you all a breif break down of where we are planning to go. Tomorrow we are leaving KL for Phuket to get in around 1 in the afternoon. The general plan is to travel down the coast from Phuket. The first island we have in mind is Ko Phi Phi then Ko Lantas... after that we will give an update of where we are heading from there. Back to Bangkok to get to Angkor Wat is the tentative plan. Hope everyone is well.

T.

Welcome to the jungle

2004-08-28T12:32:00.000+08:00

We just got back from our crazy trip to the town of Taman
Negara in the Malaysian rain forest. It started with a bus
ride to another bus ride to a 3 hour boat ride to a remote
town in the middle of a rain forest. We booked the travel and
decided to not purchase any tours until we got to the hostel
where we stayed. It was a room on top of a large hill that
looked write over a river and into the national park.

The first day we got there at about 5pm and settled in before
buying a three tour package at one of the many travel agents
on the river. We had met a 22 year girl from England on the
busride and she got the unlucky task of being our fifth
roomate in our non-airconditioned room, which included a
bathroom that doubled as a shower (literally, you could sit
on teh toilet while being sprayed by the shower head above
you, pretty efficient) :) We went on a night safari in a
pickup with a guide through the "jungle". It was fun but
pretty worthless as we were one of 6 tours going through
there. I think the nightly noise and lights had caused the
animals to retreat into the real jungle way before our tour
set off, but just like many, we had to find out for
ourselves. We did see a sloth, a spotted leapard(the size of
a house cat), and many water buffalo but we our convinced the
sloth was drugged, the buffalo was tied to a tree, and the
leapards really were just spray painted kittys. Well, you
know us so we still had a lot of fun... we spent the free
time freackin out other tours by jumping out of our pickup
bed as they drove by the other way. One guys mistook me for
a "King Cobra" :)

After further perfecting the game of cribbage on the
waterfront looking at the rainforest, we called it a night
and got ready for our second day.

The next day was quite an adventure. We had a morning tour
through the jungle which was great. Our guide showed us so
much about plants and animals, I think we picked one of the
better companies (just by pure luck) as we would often be
passed by other tour guides while ours was showing the four
of us details that we would never have seen by ourselves. We
then, after sweating buckets of water, made it to a canopy
walk where we walked 75 meters above the ground literally
through the trees. It was like something out of an Ewok
village! Very cool! I hope the pictures turn out so we can
show you what it was like... I really can't describe it
except to say that it was half crazy half scary and half
amazing. Yes, that adds up to 150% but in Asia it makes sense.
SO BACK OFF! :)

The second tour of the day led us through a cave that put the
bat area at Brookfield zoo to shame. Mom you would have
freaked out... I FREAKED OUT! Not only did we have to climb
through spaces 2' by 2' wide covered in guana (sp?), when you
got through you wished you didn't turn on your flash light
because the bats were hanging in hundreds two inches from
your allready crouching head. You know how I always sit in
the that weird pounching position? Well it finally came in
handy. We saw frogs the size of cats, NO JOKE, snakes that
were in little nooks 5 feet above our heads, spiders that I
couldn't look at, and meanwhile the bats were flying within
centimeters of our ears, sending shivers thorugh my body
every time I heard one! The flashlight was used minimally to
get through. What made it worse is we had a family in front
of us holding us up when we were in the bat highways. They
had very small, cramped areas that we woudl always get stuck
in that seemed to hold most of the rush hours traffic. Glad
we did it but don't know it I could do it again, very small
places with too many moving things. We hit up our favorite
swimming area in the mucky river immediately after the caves
to wash off all the bat doo! (that was our fav spot, swimming
in teh middle of a rainforest with, at times, not another
soul near us)

We again had dinner on a floating hut and played cribbage
while watching the worst display of diving the olympics has
probably ever seen. SO if you are on time delay form us and
haven't seen the recent diving competition, don't even
bother, the only interesting part was one malaysian diver who
looked about 14 that everyone would cheer for.

We are currently waiting for our bus by to Kuala Lumpur and
will be spending a few days in our hotel pool before leaving
for Phuket. We will be spending my birthday on a beach in
Phuket drinking some Tiger beer, should be fun :)

yours,

sean

ps. I had my first leach experience from putting my foot into
a lil pond to wash off my sandles(we think that is where it
came from becasue the rivers were supposidly clean) I ripped
off from my foot when I found it and later found out from our
guide that if it were a bigger one I would have been better
off letting it suck and get full and let go by itself, becaue
even if you burn it off it leaves itchy teeth inside you
skin... Mine was small enough where I was allright. Oh and we
have seen many molitor lizards and gheckos (sp). One molitor
was at least 4 feet long head to tail. Pretty crazy

Going to Phuket

2004-08-24T12:28:00.000+08:00

We have finalized our plans in KL. Yesterday we set up a
jungle tour in Malaysia for three days, starting thursday.
Should be interesting, would say more about it but we don't
know what to expect.

We return to KL for a few days then take off to Phuket on
August 31... more later

kl

2004-08-23T15:20:00.000+08:00

We are in Malaysia and have been for three days now. The city
we are in Kuala Lumpur is absolutely unlike anything I
expected in south east Asia. The buildings are amazing and it
is actually a very large and very clean city. We visited the
telecommunication tower( giant seattle space needle)
yesterday which looks over the whole city and directly at the
Petronas Towers, the 2nd largest(used to be first) buldings
in the world. So mom and ryan can relate :) they were in the
movie Entrapment with sean connery and k zeta jones. haha jk

We are staying with Ben woods uncle in his three bedroom
condo, RENT FREE and spent all of 6 dollars last night on a
delicious Malay fish dinner. One of the higher priced yet
most delicious meals we will have. The Malays are one of 5
major ethicities in this asian melting pot. Whites are rarely
seen unlike the Bangkok where it almost felt like a packed
travel/hippie mecca.

We are planning on staying here for another two-three days
after seeing a rainforest and more of the city and then
heading out to some tropical islands off of the
malaysia/thailand border. Then to more on the gulf side of
Thailand. Phuket is a city on the other side of Thailand
right on the ocean that we are alos considering but it seems
to be a little too pricy and touristy for what we are looking
for. Pretty excited about anywhere we will end up though.

We are looking into flight options from air asia instead of
the awfully long train ride we took down here. I can really
complain as it was air conditioned and it gave us all time to
master the game of Cribbage. (tom finally won his first game
today, so we all have it figured out now) :)

It looks like air asia has flights for about 20-30 dollars
anywhere around Thailand and even cambodia from KL, Malaysia.
We are not sure yet though and have more research, besides
that is two days away. We can't think that far ahead. I still
have to figure out lunch, its 11:42 am!

I love you all

Sean

Kuala Lumpur

2004-08-23T11:34:00.000+08:00

We have been in KL (Kuala Lumpur) for two days and two nights now. Staying with Ben's Uncle could not have worked out better. He is extremly nice and has given us a fantastic introduction to the city. His aprt is the perfect size for us to not inconvience him much and a fantastic location. It seems like he is enjoying having company here too.

KL awed us as we drove into it two days ago from Butterworth and has continued to amaze us since we have been here. It is extemly western while maintaining a varity of asian cultures. The city is a mixture of Maylay, Chinese, and Indian. Most everyone speaks English. Maylay (the language) in and of it's self is based on english and therefor also easy to understand. It is easy to stay pretty cheap too, this morning we had a great indian breakfast for a little under 60 cents per person. Today we are spending a second day walking around the city as we did yesterday. Sean's posting has more details about what we did yesterday. Tomorrow we plan to head to Taman Negara, a jungle which is over a million years old. (not a typo, a million years as a jungle.) We plan to be hiking all tomorrow. The day after that we are going to Ben's Uncle's hospital all day.

We are working through the hundreds of islands we can head to along the Thai/Mayla coast and will be heading up to one of the many Thur or Friday. Having a great time hope everyone is well.

Update

2004-08-20T11:36:00.000+08:00

10:16 am

Well we arrived in Bangkok last night at about 1am and met
with our Ben Wood(Casey's roomy from College) at our hostle.
We checked our bags in and went out for our first of many
Tiger Beers. Even though it was 2 am when we sat at the bar
we were all still operating at a 5pm Chicago time.

We are not staying in Bangkok long as it will be our final
destination before we go home too. Tom woke me up at what he
though was 8.30am so we could grab a train ticket to get to
kualalumpur, Malaysia. When we got to the train station we
found out that we had actually gotten up at 6.30am, so I have
a feeling we will sleep like logs on the 20plus hour ride
south.

The city is beautiful in its own way. While we were a little
wierded out by the many out of town men last night with their
escorts(prostitution is a little different here, it is more
of an 'all inclusive' weekly companionship then a one night
stand) the city is just so different then anything western
that the negatives are nulled. The way people come up to us
to just help us is amazing in itself. While there are those
who are trying to sell tours and taxi rides, we just spent 25
minutes talking to a government lawyer who just wanted to see
where we were from and give us his choices of what to see and
what prices shoudl be expected from the city. I can't imagine
anyone in Chicago stopping to tell a tourist all his secrets
about his hometown.

Today we saw the Golden Buddha and will shop around a little
before we get on our train (seeing as we do have an extra two
hours to kill) :) The Sukhothai Tramit Golden Buddha is a 12'
by 15' buddha that is in a temple in the middle fo the city.
Even though there were some very tourist oriented things
around it, like the buddha fortune telling machines that we
all did, the history is pretty neat. I wont be able to tell
about everything we see obviously but I will try to share
when I have time. The buddha is more then 700 years old and
was actually covered completely in plaster to conceal it from
attacking enemies. The date isn't stated but what is
interesting is that it wasn't known until 1955 that the
statue was pure gold when they took the plaster off. They
then created a building to let everyone see it and today it
is thought ot bring all who visit it good luck.

I wont give away my 5 bat fortune though, as it is way to
amazing for western ears. And besides 5 bat is a lot :). (41
bat = 1 dollar)

I miss all of you and cant wait to show you all my pictures
when I return. Sorry for any spelling mistakes, the spell
check brings up these crazy symbols and I can't figure them
out yet. :)

Sean

ps we are keeping a travel blog if anyone is interested

here is the site:

http://asialog.blogspot.com/

Korea landing

2004-08-19T17:44:00.000+08:00

We all landed in Korea fine and are waiting for our flight to Bangkok now. We should be able to update tomorrow once we are settled in Bangkok.

Begin

2004-08-06T01:40:00.000+08:00

This site will contain updates of where we are and where we will be going.