I just finished Moby Dick

Let me first start my saying the two days we spent traveling up the Mekong River were some of the most relaxing days of our trip. The boats are big and wide and chug slowly up the huge river. North of Luang Prabang there is very little in the way of infrastructure so it is just jungle, sandy banks, and the odd fishing hut. Most people travel east from the Thai border into Laos rather than doing the opposite like us. On the first day there were only about twenty of us on the fifty foot boat. The boat was pretty much just a big bathtub with a roof on it. The seats were old car seats and could just be slid around the deck depending on if you were looking for shade or roasting hot sunshine.
Since we were traveling upstream the trip goes very slowly but we eventually made it to our halfway destination just a few short hours behind schedule. The next day proved even more deserted with only about ten of us on the boat. More of the same: Sun, shade, cards, naps. Early on the third day we crossed the Thai border.
Now if the past few days were some of our most relaxing then the following two made me feel like a member of a highspeed land-race. The catch of course in this race was the participants could only rely on public transportation. And by high-speed I of course do not refer to the rate of transportation but rather our perseverence in making connections from one mode to the next.
We wanted to get down to the island I am on right now, Ko Phan Ngan, in time for the Full Moon party which was the 2nd of December. So: six hours from the border to Chiand Mai, a two hour layover and then a 12 hour night bus to Bangkok. Three hour layover. Nine hour train to Chumphan.
Now sadly our race had to end there for the night. We were trying to catch a three hour boat (now 11 oclock at night) but had to stop. I admit that this was my fault here. See in Chang Mai I realized what lay ahead so wandered into a pharmacy to inquire about some sleeping medication or something of that nature. The druggist, after hearing about the journey that lay ahead of me, handed me a little white box and told me they were like benadryl. Happy as a clam a took a few on the first bus trip, then a few more when I coulnt fall asleep. By the time I got off the train I had a fever, had thrown up everything I could, and could barely keep my eyes open let alone move. Not the benadryl we know and love at home. Oh no these were tranquilizers. I guess the sadistic son of a bitch really wanted to make sure I remembered nothing of my twenty-four hour trip through his beloved country.
It took me a few days to recuperate to say the least. But we made it to the Full Moon party, which is a big deal around here. How was it? Well I was still throwing up every ounce of beer or Red Bull I tried to coax down my throat and Nate was robbed. So yes of course it was all worth it.
But now, two days post party, we are both rested and healthy. We move now out of the Gulf of Thailand and over to the west coast. More beautiful beaches and cozy little bungalows.

I hunt tigers for their stripes

Nate just cut himself examining a sword. It was sitting in a rack among other swords, displayed along the road here in Luang Prabang. He tried to slide it out of the sheath and grabbed the blade with his fingers. I told him that that probably happens a lot to sword shoppers. You look like a real amateur walking out of a weapons shop dripping blood. But his obsession with weapons has been a continuing theme from northern China all the way down to here, today. First with the nun-chucks then with the swords.

But Nate what will you do with a sword?
What do you mean? Display it. Practice.
Like you would have weapons practice in your basement?
Yeah. And it would just be cool to display it. You know, in a rack.

Luang Prabang sits right on the Mekong River. The season is dry now so the river has dropped way down. We were just talking to booking agents about getting a boat west, to the Thai border. Actually, since the river has slowed the trip only takes two days. You take these long shallow boats that can’t draft more than a few inches and just kind of skim your way upstream. Should be pretty cool.

Oh and Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Happy greetings to all of our families. Nate and I will be sure to celebrate in some fashion. The climate here is not actually so far off from the northeast. During the day it actually does get pretty warm but at night its cold. Especially if you leave the windows open when your sleeping. I was almost as cold last night as when I fell asleep in Hanoi with the air conditioner on full and a sheet as my only protection.

Everyone gets horns except bikers

Phnom Penh is not exactly a jungle paradise. There are eight million people and four million motorbikes. I guess that means that someone could always give you a ride. Inversely, it seems that three of the four million are actually targeting me. Its hard to move without constant offers for motorbike? or tuk tuk? The best way to get around is by bike. You can just breeze past all the people trying to get you to buy something. Plus with a bike one can compete in the mad dash that is all the roads in the city.
During the middle of the day the streets and cafes are empty. Usually shop owners are sleeping in their hammocks and the sidewalks quiet. It doesn’t seem like the city is as big or as loud as people warned. But as soon as the sun starts to set and the temperature drops the street side restaurants, bars, and coffee spots all fill up. This is followed by a few hours of intense socializing, phone calling, and general moving of motorbikes. And it seems everyone is home snug in their mosquito nets by midnight. But dang these people get up early. With so few hours of tolerable heat you really gotta get after it while you can.
The Cambodian government has really put a lot of money into the road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. Despite the excellent blacktop a bus ride still takes six hours to cover the two hundred kilometers. Siem Reap though is very nice. Lots of tropical trees, little monkeys, and delicious fruit. I think I had today what was probably the most delicious mango ever grown. Pretty lucky purchase really.
Every time you move to a new country there is always that awkward few days where you are fumbling like a blind person through the new currency. Of course the conversion factor is always a nice comfortable round number like 17,000. And especially here in Cambodia they go to extra lengths by only writing the denomination in little print on one corner.

I continue to sweat more than all of Vietnam combined

We have finally made our way to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh city and let me say it's HOT as balls. I am pretty sure I have not stopped sweating for the last 34 hrs since arriving in this city. I am still waiting for my body to adjust to the climate...but for some reason I don't think its going to happen. For the previous five nights Pete and I were in the city of Mui Ne, which is a smaller city of about 80,000 that is located right on the ocean, and might have been my favorite place thus far. We found a great hotel for 12$ a night that was literally on the water! Our hotel was smashed between a few 4 star hotels these of course were a bit out of our price range, but we had no problem enjoying their luxeries such as their pools! Many tourist come here for the great kiteboarding, which can be found just about everywhere. It was a bit tempting to give it a shot, but we both decided to save our money and put it towards a diving certificate in Thailand. After waking up to rain on the 5th day we decided it was about time to move on south.

Besides Saigon being immensely hot, its a great place. It feels a bit more relaxed then other large cities in Asia. Yesterday we went to the War Reminents Museum, and I had very mixed feelings towards it. Firstly, it had photos of mostly American things taken by Americans. Don't get me wrong the photos were terrific, but the whole presentation of the exhibts seemed a bit off. It seemed like a real mish mash of different ideas and themes. They did make sure to show how Americans screwed up here, and that was also evident once more when we attended the CuChi tunnels today. These tunnels was where many Vietcong hid during the war. They showed us two different holes one in which the Vietcong actually used, then another for tourist to go through. This is required due to the slight size differential between the Vietnamese and us.

So recently we have acquired a new friend from London who has been traveling with us for the last week or so. Her name is Manmeet and she is terrific! She has added much to our conversations even though at times she finds only herself talking, especially in the early morning after a night of drinking. She has slowly learned not to take offense when we do not participate in these conversations! It has been great to have a new face to spice things up! We will have to part ways soon because she needs to meet back up with her friend in Laos, while Peter and I will continue to Cambodia then up to Laos a bit later.

While in Nha Trang we picked up a new hobbie: conconut hunting. We first must search the beach for the lowest tree, then I usually will stand with my back against the tree while Pete uses my hands for a boost and stands on my shoulders attempting to tear down as many before he comes down with them. We were also taught by a local boy how to properly tear open one of these nuts using just a stone. A very useful skill for later in life I am sure! We also celebrated Holloween in Nha Trang, and I would like to say that we both had wonderful costumes. I bicked my head with a razor and was Mr. Clean (Mr. Muscle according to the English), and Pete had his face painted as a ferocious "Tiger". It was great fun until the facepaint found its way to both of our clothes which we didn't discover until the next morning.


We are off to Cambodia in a few days and maybe I'll stop sweating by then...

Hello Mr. Origami...

There are a few things worth noting about living out of a backpack. The first thing is that it is never hard to decide what to wear. I have never been one to get too stressed out about the contents of my closet, but having just a few shirts and shorts certainly takes out a lot of the guesswork. The second thing is that since everything is always being folded up and packed down tight it certainly takes on a new look. So it is important to be prepared when you meet a lovely swedish girl on the beach and she agrees to meet for a drink later and you show up looking like a bit of paper that some one practiced making paper cranes with. Its not as easy as it sounds to project the smooth and composed image that you are going for when your shirt looks like a relief map of the rockies. Ah but so it goes.
Hoi An was a nice little town. Small, manageable, and great to cruise around on bikes. The beaches are a short distance from the town, which is split by a little river. Good food here: fish with ginger and lemongrass grilled in a banana leaf, lots of vietnamese sandwich spots. Oh and the best part about this little town is that is appears to be the tailors' capitol of Vietnam. The little shops line the streets with all sorts of different dresses, shirts, coats, and suits displayed on the sidewalk. Everything is custom made from your measurements in the fabric of your choice. So your right in guessing that I bought a goddamn suit! My first. Oh what a proud moment. Nate did too. We shopped about a bit and settled on a friendly spot run by a local family. They measured us in all the appropriate spots and told us to look through the fabrics.
Its not easy to decide on a fabric, pattern, color, and cut, when you are faced with an entire wall of options. It was very hard for me to remain reserved and not choose something like cream with blue pinstripes. I settled on a dark blue with some darker stripes, cashmere wool. Very classy. Nate choose a lighter color as he wanted something "a bit more casual." We come back the next afternoon for a final fitting. Their workmanship is excellent and our new suits are ready to go. The price for a fitted jacket, dress shirt, and pants came to something around $130. Now there are not many opportunities in little Hoi An where a suit is necessary or even appropriate but to be sure I busted it out of its bag for a bit of a strut around our room.
The post office system here is also very handy. They show up at your door with everything to ship something and just wrap it all up right there and take it away. We decided to use seamail as it is much cheaper. Another lovely benefit of seamail is that by the time things actually make it to their destination a few months have elapsed and you have completely forgotten about shipping anything.
We are in Nha Trang now, about twelve hours south of Hoi An. More of an oceanside town than Hoi An, with more of a vibrant nightlife. The plan is to stay here for a few more days, eating lychee nuts and walking on the beach.

Nate sweats more than all of Vietnam combined

We took an evening bus out of Hanoi going south. There is only one road that runs up and down Vietnam, nh-1, and its only a two lane road. So we picked this little town called Dong Hoi, about 10 hours south of Hanoi, to spend a couple of days. It was supposed to be very quiet and have beautiful beaches. After spending so much time in busy cities, especially Hanoi, we wanted something a bit more tranquil. But the kicker here is that there arent any bus stations in Dong Hoi and 10 hours from departure puts us into Dong Hoi at 530 in the morning. And since there arent any bus stations the driver just decides to pull over somewhere and let us off.
The sun is just coming up, we are tired, and now we need a place to stay. We eventually wake this lady up who is sleeping in a hammock inside of a dark hotel and ask for a room. Since we are foreigners her first instinct is Lets take these foreign bastards for everything they've got. So we bargain our way around until we settle on a price of about 5 dollars a night. The town is deserted. Obviously so at 530 in the morning but also in the middle of the day. Just a few people here and there: sitting around drinking iced coffee, smoking cigarettes, and cruising on scooters.
But we spend a couple of days here, trying to find the merits of this little town. The beach is very nice. It bends along the coast for miles with no one in sight. The water is warm but still refreshing. But two dudes really can only have so much fun on a deserted beach together. One day of that proved to provide the tranquility we were searching for. Now, I think I can say with some assurance that there is a reason we could not find a map anywhere of the town or any mention of it in guide books. There are no computers in the town, thats why we have appeared incommunicado, and no english is spoken. An authentic experiance to say the least.
The food was also fairly limiting in this town. About a million pho shops and not much else. Don't get me wrong I love pho. Its like noodles and soup, oftentimes with chicken or beef (or some kind of reddish meat). Soup and noodles are maybe two of my favorite foods so pho is right up my alley. But a town where all they serve is pho is kind of like going to a town and finding out all there is to eat is pizza. Or cheerios.
So yesterday, in the rain, we decided it was time to get the fuck out. Getting a bus is kind of the exact opposite of leaving one: you stand on the side of the road and wave like a crazy person when you see one coming. Then there is always the awkward moment when you step onto the bus and feel about 40 pairs of eyes. I thought I might like the feeling of being completely different, but actually it just makes me blush. Everyone turns around in their seats to watch you as you try and fold yourself into seats not built for a six-one frame. Plus we are dripping wet from standing in the rain. Then again with the godamn bargaining until we end up paying a reasonable price for a ticket to Da Nang (about 7 hours and five dollars) We'll probably spend a few days here before going to Hoi An, which is supposed to be great and where a group of four swedes are waiting for us. We met them in China and they are funny shit. All 19 years old and straight out of highschool. Tall, blond, and beautiful. They really crack me up.

p.s. I got my first sunburn. It's on my nose.

Im going to make her eat that flag

Tonight is our last night here in Guilin (pronounced gwaylin for all you round eyed folk). Small city, big cliff promontories called karsts, and huge terraced rice paddies. The rice paddies were quite a draw for us. They shoot up the steep hillsides for hundreds of feet, forking and branching with the many ridges. The problem with visiting them is that they are a few hours away, deep in the mountains near a series of villages that had no road in or out until 1997. That alone is quite fascinating. The area is home to one of China's minority groups. The woman in this group cut their hair only once in their entire lives, when they are eighteen. Not only that but the long piece that gets cut off is then bound at one end and tied back into the new frock. They comb it and comb it and then wrap it all up tight around their heads. It makes quite a tidy bundle but I really cant imagine the weight. In honor of their incredible dedication to hair growing Nate buzzed his head last night. It cost him two dollars and took ten minutes. I doubt anyone even thought about saving any of the clippings.
A delicious specialty of these rice-growing, long-maned folk is callef bamboo chicken and bamboo rice. Basically large pieces of bamboo are opened at one end, stuffed with either rice or raw chicken along with ginger and mushrooms, and then plugged back up with a corn cob. The whole cylinder is then thrown onto the grill. The green bamboo slowly chars and releases its water into the food, cooking it in a most tender fashion. Satiated on this we were prepared for the long upward climb through the terraces and humid sun.
I mentioned that the area is hard to get to. What I mean is that no public busses go in that direction so one is forced to sign on with a tour group. We did that and our guide nearly managed to ruin every redeeming quality of a thousand years of history. We were the only westerners in a group of twenty-five chinese. For those that have never had the pleasure of encountering a Chinese tour group know these three things: the leader carries a flag, the tour guide uses a microphone no matter how close you are to them (even if it is less than a foot), and pictures of EVERYTHING are a must. So our guide would rattle off a few thousand words in Chinese and then HELLO!! YES!! HELLO!! WAKE UP!! to Nate and I and then procede to yell for a few minutes in broken english about the area around us. Of course all accompanied by healthy flag waving. You may have noticed that I was cleverly avoiding the name of said minority group. Not my fault. I blame in on unintellible english filtered through a kareoke microphone.
But all that aside, the country here is beautiful. We are leaving tomorrow, on a boat in fact. The boat, apparently made of bamboo, is going to take us down the river for a few hours to our next stop. We only have another week or so in China before we enter Vietnam.
I have received a few calls for more photogrpahs. Heres the thing: Blogger along with facebook and other similar sites are all banned in China. There are a few sneaky little programs that allow you access. But when we can get in it is usually with limited access. So we have not been able to put pictures up. Sad, yes.