Allahabad and Varanasi

I’m soooo ready to come home. If it was at all an option, I would seriously consider it, but as it would a) be expensive and b) I have a bag full of stuff in Bangkok, I guess it's not really feasible. Oh well.

I haven't been feeling well for a few days, and have basically been subsisting on toast and tea and soda with as little Indian food as possible. I don't know that I actually ate anything bad; I think it was just too much of a change to my diet. But still. I’ve been grouchy and headachy and worried briefly in my hypochondriac way that I might have contracted malaria, so as I was jostled around not quite sleeping on the overnight train, I was trying to figure out, geographically, where I wound want to be in a hospital if it came to that and I actually had malaria. I couldn't really figure out anyplace safe and close. The best I could come up with was someplace down in Asia, like Singapore, or maybe someplace like Dubai. But those are still really far. luckily it didn't come to that... and as it turns out there are apparently very nice private hospitals in India and westerners actually come here for certain medical procedures b/c it's cheaper and the places are really nice.

Anyway, our last day in Orcha we spent at the pool and river rafting. The pool was glorious, as they always are, and the rafting was a great way to see another perspective of all the temples and palaces and ruins. Our guide was a drill master and made sure we knew how to follow directions, but it was all fun and games once we proved adept and the paddlers at the front took "stop" to mean "splash the hell out of everyone." Very refreshing...

We took the overnight train to Allahabad, and it was an experience. I don't know that anyone got much sleep between the rocking of the train in ALL directions, snorers, etc.

Once in Allahabad we had breakfast and toured the house of Nehru. Then we hopped on a chartered bus (meaning it was only the 12 of us, the driver, our guide, and a porter instead of us and 100 others) for hours of bumpetybump through the countryside. We then got on these small wooden boats with awnings and "sailed" down the Ganges River for a few hours. While the boats technically had sails, the wind was not in our favor and the poor boatmen had to basically row the entire way yesterday and today. The river was brown and looked pretty dirty, but there are dolphins (although they're blind), and the locals swim and drink it (and still occasionally put burning bodies into it)

We camped on the sand dune of sorts--and it was glorious. The weather was nice and cool, sunset was gorgeous, and at night the stars came out and it was surreal--the river was in front of us, but across in the distance you could see the lights from towns and hear the trains and the very loud musical celebrations going on for the festival that's going on. it was very cool, and probably the highlight of my trip so far (well, apart from the Taj Mahal).

We left around 7ish this morning and "sailed" until 2. Then we loaded into SUVs for ~ 2 hours to get to Varanasi.

Varanasi is one of the 7 holy cities of Hinduism. Supposedly if you die here you go straight to heaven and skip the rest of your cycles of reincarnation. Knowing that, it's no wonder that it's so heavily populated. The population is "officially" 1.2 million, but I think it's probably much much higher. I can't even imagine trying to do a census.

Here the rivers are at their worst. The guidebook says it is considered septic b/c there is no dissolved oxygen left. People bathe in it every day b/c it's so "holy" but meanwhile 30 sewers are continually discharging into it!!!! I’ll think I’ll stay dry, thanks.

Anyway, we spend tomorrow and tomorrow night here--sunrise and sunset sightseeing, and we leave at 6 the following a.m. for an 8 hour drive to the Nepalese border.

India continues to be overwhelming. It is like so many places I’ve travelled, and there are so many times I feel like I could be in Mauritania (from behind women in saris look like women in mullafahs), and yet it is like no place and indescribable. I keep waiting to see the nice parts, the stuff from the "incredible India" ad campaign... but I don't think that’s part of our itinerary. I guess the images are just sanitized and put on the TV screen--absent the smells and sounds and most of all the stifling heat and humidity, which is what makes the real experience (and what makes it fairly miserable at times).

I have to say, more than anything else, I’m looking forward to walking out of the house after taking a shower and not immediately feeling gross and grimy and hot again. But even my discomfort is a double edged sword. Knowing that I can go back to comfort makes me feel even worse about my discomfort now, precisely because I have the option to leave. Yeah, I’ll be overworked... but it will be nicely compensated and in air conditioning, which you certainly cannot say for our boat operators. I can see more and more why religious beliefs in reincarnation are so strong. It’s the only way to justify what life doles out to some.

Anyway, my appetite is coming back so I’m going to try to get some dinner. Hope all is well back home. Can’t wait to join you all.

Orcha

Day 2 in Orcha, and it's quite lovely. Getting here was quite an ordeal... in that sweaty hot cramped 3+ hour bus trip kind of way. I wasn't feeling great, so I decided to take the afternoon off. I think all the Indian food is working a number on my system--I haven't eaten anything bad or contaminated, I think it's just too radical a change in diet and all the oils are upsetting my stomach.

Everyone else went walking around the town and I bunkered down in the room/cottage with tea, a good book (currently The Count of Monte Cristo), and alternatively read, napped, and watched TV all in air-con splendor. After the sun went down, however, the bugs came out in force. Not mosquitoes or roaches, thankfully, but loads of little beetles, crickets, gnats, and other little annoying things. I had a hard time sleeping because I was sure they were all over me (and they were). Ugh.

I felt somewhat better today, and this morning we set off on a tour of these palaces in town, which were incredible. Beautiful frescos in vegetable dye paint on the ceilings, a king’s room with tunnels to the rooms of 6 concubines, the remnants of blue tile that used to cover the place, and an interesting mix of Hindu and Muslim architecture--arches and domes with lotus flowers and elephants.

We also went to a Hindu temple that resembles a church, a mosque, and a palace all at once. Around town and in the distance you can also see the remains of these other palaces/temples that strongly resemble Cambodian architecture, which is interesting.

We also toured a paper factory run by an ngo that employs 70 percent women, and makes all its paper from old cotton cloth. the process is very labor intensive, but pretty cool, and the end result is all sorts of cards, notebooks, paper lanterns, bags, etc.

After lunch we shopped a bit and rested, and then went to a cooking class. We sat in this woman's house and she demonstrated how to make a bunch of Indian dishes and then we ate up on her roof. The food was delicious! We did a little bit of shopping and I bought two wall hangings, and now I think it's time for bed.

Tomorrow we have all day here before taking the overnight train to Allahabad. We might go rafting, as the town is right on the banks of what is supposedly the cleanest river in India. Now, "in India" is quite a qualifier, but it actually looks blue and pretty.

India!

India is hot and hectic and exhausting, but pretty damn cool.

Our group met for the first time Saturday afternoon, and set off for a city tour.

besides me and dad, there is a guy in his 40s (?) from Sacramento, a grandmother (late 60s/70s) and her granddaughter (early 20s) and their son/uncle (40s) from Australia, a couple from Australia who emigrated from south Africa (early 50s), a gay couple from Australia (early 30s), a brat girl (late 20s/early 30s) and a British guy (mid 20s). All nice, and a pretty well balanced group. This is our guide's first tour for Intrepid Travel, but he was a guide for a French company for 5 years prior. He is really nice, and is really trying hard to please.

We took local bus, rickshaws, and the metro, and we saw the largest mosque in Delhi (maybe India too?), markets, old Delhi and just the hustle and bustle of it all. The highlight was the spice market--a bunch of little dark alley ways with shops filled to the brim with sacks of spices. At first it smells wonderful and looks exotic... but soon you start to cough and your eyes start to water from the air, which is permeated with chilies and all sorts of other spicy pungent aromatic goodness.

we finished off the day with a beer at this bizarre bar with a Texan theme... all the waiters wore black cowboy boots, black jeans, black shirts, red bandanas and cowboy hats, and the stools at the bar were saddles.

Anyway, we set off at 6am the next morning and traveled to Agra by train. We ate lunch and hit the red fort and then the Taj Mahal. Anyone that says it's not that impressive in person either a) wasn't there or b) is an idiot. The red fort was very cool, incredible architecture, and it's very very old. It used to be protected by an outer wall, a moat with crocodiles, an inner wall (70 feet high), and then an area with lions and tigers and bears (oh my!). If by some amazing feat an enemy was able to breach all of this, the road up to the palaces is very steep and they would roll huge boulders down it!

There are beautiful views of the Taj Mahal from the fort, but nothing prepares you for how beautiful and ornate and massive it is. It was truly spectacular.

The whole group went out for a great dinner afterwards and I slept like a rock because the day was so tiring. The heat really saps everything out of you.

This morning we left by local bus at 9ish for a 3+ hour ride to Galion. It was hot and harrowing--the driving is absolutely insane here--but actually kind of cool to see all the scenery.

After lunch we went to a palace of one of the richest maharaja families in India. It was a tribute to excess. The palace is huge, and still used--but a handful of rooms are open to the public as a museum. One of the most elaborate things was a crystal chandelier from Belgium... (Actually there were two!). Each one weighed 3.5 tons. Before they were able to hang them from the ceiling in the reception hall, the maharaja had a 50 meter ramp built so that 8 elephants weighing 1 ton each could be taken up to the roof. After the elephants were up there for a week and the roof didn't collapse, they determined it was safe to hang the chandeliers. Crazy.

After that we went to the Gwalior fort. Again--amazing architecture and gorgeous views of the city. Hard to describe w/o the photos. Unfortunately dad forgot to bring his camera charger and his battery has already run down. Hopefully someone else has a similar camera and he'll be able to charge it.

I think tonight we're going to go to a music and light show at the fort, and tomorrow we head to a small village where I think we'll be for 3 days. Doubtful that there's internet there, but you never know!

Besides the traffic, what's shocking about India is the contrast between rich and poor. It really makes you wonder how rich Indians view the rest of their countrymen, because it seems there have always been fabulously obscenely rich families, while the vast majority of the people just eke by. I suppose the belief in castes and reincarnation "justifies" it all, while also stifling impetus for change.

Anyway, I’m disgustingly sweaty and gross, so I’m going to go try and shower before dinner.

On to Delhi....

After an incredibly frustrating encounter with the airline in Phuket, which didn't seem to think that the fact that no one answered a single phone at any of their offices the day before, nor the fact that internet was out on the entire island, was an excuse for not changing a flight in advance... I finally paid the late change fee, and we were able to book new flights. Once in Bangkok we shopped a little and I tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) to pack light for India. I dropped a bag off for storage at our old hotel since they are switching airports in Bangkok next week and there is no provision for left luggage that spans the switch, and headed to the airport.

Air India is even stricter about what you can carry on than the US department of homeland security and they were confiscating batteries, tiger balm, chapstick, umbrellas, etc. The flight was only 4 hours, but I managed to sleep a bit which was good since I didn't get to my hotel until 6am.

Delhi is very quiet in the pre-dawn hours, and what was most surprising was the number of people sleeping outside--on top of push carts on the side of the road, on the sidewalk along the train tracks, everywhere. I checked in and slept until noon, when I decided to venture out. It’s hot, but not as miserable as Cambodia and South Vietnam were. The people are very friendly and keep welcoming me to India, but what is weird is that there are very few women around. Men are out, walking and hanging out everywhere, but very few women. Tuk tuk drivers (don't know what the vehicles are called here) won't take no for an answer and will follow you down the street telling you it's way too hot to walk, and they'll take you where you want to go for just 10 rupees.

I finally caved and got into one, not really knowing where I wanted to go, and ended up at a huge crafts bazaar building. I felt obligated to walk around at least--and I wanted the driver to go away--but inside I was greeted and followed in every room by at least 3 salespeople.

I left shortly, and wandered to an Indian fast food restaurant where I had a delicious curry w/ naan bread which I unfortunately managed to spill all over my one pair of clean pants. When I left the restaurant I managed to evade taxi drivers and helpful pedestrians and ducked into an Internet cafe.

I have all afternoon.... dad doesn't get here till tonight, and the tour doesn't start until tomorrow, but I have no idea what I want to do. I don't have an India guidebook, and no one seems content to just let me wander on my own, so I’m somewhat at a loss. It seems a waste to sit in the hotel though, so I’ll figure something out.

Cultural differences are so interesting... the tour information keeps warning that society is very conservative and knees and shoulders must be covered at all times.... yet women are draped in saris with bare midriffs showing everywhere. I would think shoulders are less racy, but clearly I’m wrong.

Anyway, the fan is blowing very high causing wisps of hair to tickle my ears and get in my eyes and it's driving me crazy, so I need to go.

Thailand

Well... the rest was all travel, but THIS is a vacation. After a relaxing 2 day/1 night trip to Halong Bay, we made a last minute decision Sunday night to leave Hanoi, and jumped on the last plane to Bangkok. After several indecisive hours in the Bangkok airport debating which flight to try to take in the a.m., whether to pay $50 for a hotel room near the airport (highway robbery!), and proving ourselves inept at using payphones, the desire for sleep in a bed with a lock on the door won out over rock-paper-scissoring for who would stay up and watch the luggage while the other slept for the first shift.

In the a.m. we headed back to the airport and booked a flight to Phuket. We were a little nervous b/c the 5 day forecast for pretty much every beach destination was thunderstorms, thunderstorms, thunderstorms. However, when we finally arrived (after an aborted attempt to board the plane, and a return to the departure lounge for an additional 3 hours while they fixed a mechanical problem), it was gorgeous and sunny and has been for the past 2 days.

We tried to find a budget hotel at Patong Beach and were so underimpressed with the offerings that we decided to splurge and got a cab down to Karon Beach where we checked into a $30/night (low season has its benefits... it's normally ovre $100/night) resort hotel right across from the beach. The room is gorgeous, the pool is divine, the buffet-style "American breakfast" is a welcome change from bread and the occasional banana pancake.

We spent yesterday a.m. at the beach, yesterday afternoon at the pool, and then headed to the travel agent so I could purchase my ticket to India. After stepping on a piece of glass in their office and bleeding all over the floor (foot wounds...) I got one of the last 2 seats on the flight and we set off in search of sunset.

This was the sunset of the trip. Sunset over Angkor Wat was just as disappointing as sunrise over Angor Wat and Machu Picchu. But here it was glorious. Then we wandered through town to Kata, and ended up being ferried by motorbike to a salon where Jo got her hair cut and I got my legs waxed. The girl was precise, and deft, but SLOOOW. It took an hour. Jo was completely done and I still had half a leg to go.

After that we had dinner, booked our day trip, and headed back to the hotel. We were supposed to fly out tonight after the day trip so we were starting to pack, and decided to see if there was anything on TV. We flipped on the BBC and "BANGKOK TANKS! MILITARY COUP! THANKSIN DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY! MILITARY SURROUNDS GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS IN BANGKOK! MARTIAL LAW IN THAILAND!"

We were shocked to say the least, and it was infuriating b/c this happened to be at the time Bush was giving his platitude-filled, inappropriately smirky speech at the UN so BBC was giving live coverage of that with just the breaking news headlines.

The German(?) satellite station DW thankfully had it's English news journal on at the same time, so we watched that. By this point, it was the only station still broadcasting b/c BBC mysteriously cut out (turns out it was on purpose...) and the Thai stations--if they were broadcasting anything--were showing karaoke versions of the Thai "we love our king" song (in english... very very odd).

Anyway, we called the Embassy and they said they're monitoring the situation but don't see any reason to flee the country or not come to Bangkok for our flights out, so we went to bed and got up way too early this morning for our boat trip out to Ko Phi Phi.

The islands were absolutely gorgeous. Very similar to Halong Bay (which was another amazing boat trip---absolutely stunning scenery, but a very uptight annoyingly shrill tour guide) with huge limestone formations covered with greenery jutting out of the water. Here however there are also islands with beautiful beaches. The water here is turquoise and visibility is something insane like 30 feet. (Halong Bay has green water, which is gorgeous. In Halong we kayaked into a cove, which was beautiful).

Today we snorkeled a little, swam a little, sunbathed a little (I got a little too much sun, but it's not too bad), and ate a delicious lunch before heading back.

We were supposed to fly out tonight and spend all day shopping in Bangkok, but given the situation we've decided to bump our flight to tomorrow. Today was declared a compulsory holiday in Bangkok, and we're not certain anything is even going to be open tomorrow.

We really are in the best place to be riding this out, and it really doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. The PM doesn't seem to have a lot of support, the Thai love their king and will go along with whatever he decides, and so far there hasn't been any violence or anything. (Which is more than you can say for further south, but luckily we're not there and not going down to Malaysia).

Mauritania had a bloodless coup a year or so ago, and this appears to be the same kind of thing. Enshallah.

Hanoi part 2

I think I'm getting homesick. It's just tiring... and I still have over three weeks of travelling left!!! We did our city tour today, and Hanoi continues to underimpress. To be fair, I don't think it's the city per se, rather I think it's just the fatigue that settles in after approx. 2 weeks. The day started off on a frustrating foot as they told us they would pick us up between 7:30 and 8, and we were ready at 7:30. At 8:20 we had the hotel call... 15 minutes later a guy showed and corralled us into a cab with 2 British girls (who had a similar pick-up experience). We think the tour company actually forgot about us and when both hotels called they threw something together.

Anyway, it was hot and sunny and our guide repeatedly chose to expound on long explanations of Ho Chi Minh's character and how it was exemplified while standing in the blistering sun!!! (Though Ho Chi Minh is a fascinating individual and I really want to learn more about "uncle ho")

We saw the outside of the mausoleum (closed on Thursdays...), his old house, his house on stilts, etc. Very pretty grounds, trees and foliage from all over Vietnam, and the buildings are painted a bright yellow with red trim.

The highlight of the day was the Ho Chi Minh museum. It opened in 1990, and while it has very limited subject matter, the presentation is fantastic. It’s quite possibly the coolest museum I’ve ever been too--I’ll have to post pictures, because I just can't figure out how to describe the decorations.

We saw a few temples and pagodas (the difference, we learned, is that a pagoda is dedicated to worship of Buddha only, and temples are dedicated to other individuals and spirits etc), and the temple of literature which was essentially the first university in Vietnam, dating back hundreds if not thousands of years. Again, beautiful grounds, cool stone carvings of turtles commemorating the scholars, and enormous drums made out of wood and buffalo hide.

The tour ended early so we headed over to bank of America.... only it wasn't there. The guidebook (2006 version!) said there was a BofA on the ground floor of this one hotel, but when we got there they said it had closed several years ago and there were no other locations. this was disappointing since JoAnn banks w/ BofA and we thought she would be able to take out money w/o a fee... here ATMs charge $2, our banks charge $5 (despite only charging $2 in every other country either of us has been to--outside of Asia), and there is a per transaction limit of 2million dong, which seems like a lot but is really only $126. UNLIKE South America, it appears VERY easy to cash traveller's checks here, and some of the banks don't even charge a commission. Unfortunately, after the difficulties that both Jen and I had finding people to take or change traveller's checks in South America, I chose to travel w/o here. Live and learn...

Back at the hotel we booked our trip to Halong Bay for tomorrow (we'll sleep overnight on the boat and go kayaking, etc, amongst karst rock formations and caves), napped, and then headed out to dinner at Kangaroo Cafe because we were both craving some western comfort food. A cheeseburger and club sandwich later we were revived...

Hanoi

In travel, as in life, there are ups and downs, it ebbs and flows. Yesterday was just one of those days.

It started off well enough... we got all our clothes, everything fit, we picked up our cute little silk flats with matching handbags and they were adorable, I was admiring a pair of tweed flats in the shop and amazingly they actually were my size (which is unheard of here since, by local standards we are both enormous), we got to the airport on time, our flight was uneventful, etc.

However, I was already a little out of sorts because I realized that I had somehow lost (or had stolen) one of my favorite new silk purses, and then I thought I had lost jewellry I had bought (but it turned up in a pocket of a bag).

Anyway, we are leaving the airport in Hanoi and this guy tries to shove past us. Rude, but hey--there's just a different concept of personal space and a lack of respect for, you know, lines and order here. No big deal. Then we're climbing on the mini-bus, and this woman shoves right past us to get on. Again... annoying, but I let it slide, until I realize that the woman speaks perfect English and is probably an American on holiday. She's obviously integrated better than we have.

Then the driver collects money for the bus. The airline magazine and our guidebooks said it should be 20,000dong. He charges us 30,000 ($2) but he asks where our hotel is and it appears he's going to take us there instead of just the main stop.

When we arrive at the stop however he says some gibberish about how he was going to do us a favor, but since we had to wait so long at the stop (?!?!? nonsense) it would cost another $2 to take us to our hotel (which, it must be noted, was less than 1km away).

We say no, and we ask for the extra money back and it becomes clear that the price really IS 20,000 dong for Vietnamese (or anyone who looks Asian) and $2 for "foreigners" even if you pay in dong. There is a sign to this effect. And the guy is just a jerk. We were mobbed by taxi drivers and people trying to explain why it was okay we were being charged more and I just snapped.

I stubbornly refused to get in a cab that was only going to charge us a dollar, and started off down the road carrying my backpack, my shoulder bag, and the ENORMOUS duffle bag that I bought to hold all the stuff I've acquired.

I'm struggling down the road, I trip and skin my knee, and JoAnn continues to handle the situation beautifully and lets me have my tantrum. We go into Vietnam airlines where I complain about what happened and the woman was not sympathetic at all and launched into some BS explanation about exchange rates. Which was as far from a valid point as anyone could have at that point. You can charge 2 prices in 2 different currencies... but that fact that people actually prefer dollars here, and the fact that we paid in local currency, no dice.

Anyway, we bumble around some more, trying to find out hotel. It didn't help that Vietnam air had offices caddy-corner to each other, and only one was on the map, so we took an unscheduled detour. Twice more we tried to get a cab, and the drivers asked for ridiculous amounts. We were seriously 2 blocks from our hotel and the guy wanted $5. We finally arrived, and there was a miscommunication so we ended up with a room that is roughly the size of 2 twin beds, with a foot in between. The shower is over the toilet. But it's clean, and cheap ($10 night, total), so we went with it.

We showered, I collected myself and was able to laugh about how ridiculous it was to get upset over $1, and to try to explain the principle of the matter to a booking agent at an airline (though I am going to write a very stern letter to the airline about the impropriety of an officially sanctioned double rate, that is not explained in the airport information). We decided to head out to see the water puppetry shows and grab dinner.

On the way, however, JoAnn was the victim of a balcony phlegmer. She's walking behind me and all of a sudden she starts screaming. I turn around and there is spit/phlegm (we hope) dripping off her arm and hand. This was the first time during the trip that neither of us was carrying anti-bacterial wipes (an oversight that will NOT occur again), and we had the hardest time finding a place where she could clean up.

We ended up in this big building that had a German restaurant on one level, and a fancy coffee shop on the 2nd. We decided to skip the water puppets and retreat into air-conditioned westerness... I had spaghetti and a green salad. She had steak. We drank pints of German lager.

I feel on-kilter today, so hopefully yesterday was just an aberration. However... we're waiting for our city tour to pick us up and they are very late. Hanoi just isn't winning me over.

I realize that most of this is ludicrously insignificant, and just a result of travelling for so long. It's just lucky that this wasn't our first experience with Vietnam...

Unfortunately I think we have to drop Laos from the itinerary. Due to flight schedules--when we can leave Hanoi and when we need to get to Bangkok--we would basically pay at least $300 extra to spend maybe 1.5 days in one town. Since there are so many great things to see up in the north of Vietnam, we're probably going to stay and go to Sapa for 2 days (in the mountains), and Halong Bay for 2 days as well.

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon was a lot of fun. We met this very nice girl from Switzerland named Stephanie on the bus and we all spent the rest of the day together afterwards--dinner, fixing her hotel fiasco, and then met the 2 Israeli guys from the day before for drinks later on.

The highlight of the city tour was the War Remnants Museum. Not because it was a fabulous museum, but because it was so unsettling and upsetting and informative. Granted, many of the exhibits would have a different slant if the museum was located elsewhere, but it was incredibly moving.

Every generation partakes in events that shock and mortify the subsequent generations, and can be reevaluated and criticized in retrospect, and yet the terrible cycle continues. My generation can condemn what our country did in Vietnam, your generation can remember how difficult that time was, and yet here we are again. Iraq, Afghanistan... we shake our heads and mutter "never again" about the Holocaust, and Cambodia, and Rwanda, and yet there's Darfur. It's frustrating and humbling, and you just don't know what to do, and you realize that your paralysis--in the aggregate--is why these things keep happening.

The pictures were horrible. People who were showered with napalm, children born affected, deformed, by agent orange, a family about to be executed (by forces working with the Americans) with the caption that the photographer had asked the soldiers to wait to kill them until he had taken a photo. It's all too horrible to imagine, even as you're seeing the photos of carnage, and it seems unreal.

It made me think of my September 11th experience. I wasn't in the US when it happened, and seeing the photos and the footage for the first time, 2 weeks later, on Senegalese television in French, made it seem like a bad action movie. I couldn't grasp it, and while the memories of that time and the images still affect me, I think it is in a different way than everyone who woke up that morning to the footage on television, or even worse the people in New York and Washington that saw it all unfold before their eyes and had to flee.

There were 2 exhibits that shook and unsettled and upset me more than the rest, even though they were less graphic, I think because they somehow were more accessible to my conceptual understanding of the world and what I've experienced. 1) There was a whole exhibit dedicated to the 130-odd journalists who were killed in action, which included several photos that were the last photos taken with their cameras. Most of them weren't photos of anything, so you knew that as they died their fingers still released the shutter. 2) There was a wall with the details of the massacre that former Sen. Bob Kerrey was involved with. That had me reeling for a long time. I remember vaguely when the details of that came out, and when he "confessed" his involvement back in 2000--maybe during the election? But I never knew the specifics. Seeing the photos and reading about what happened (granted, it might have been slanted, but still...) I just don't know how to process that. Here is a respected statesman, who was elected by the American people, who did things that I like to believe no normal person could do, things that don't even begin to make sense.

And I know that's hopelessly naive. I can't even pretend to understand war. But attaching a face I at least know of, to a situation I can't begin to comprehend... it shook me. And as much as it's tempting to condemn I feel such incredible sorrow for everyone involved in the whole war--that they had to experience and live that, and live with the legacy.

Anyway, the rest of our stay in Ho Chi Minh City was nice. What astounds me more and more, the more I think about it, is how friendly everyone is, and how resilient the country and the people are. Stephanie--who has dual US/Swiss citizenship asked us that first morning how it was traveling on a US passport, and to be honest we hadn't even thought of it. We have not encountered ANY anti-American hostility yet (knock wood).

Of course, that might be because people think I'm Vietnamese (!?!?!?!?!) I'm not joking--one woman in Cambodia thought I was Cambodian, and since we've been in Vietnam 2 or 3 people have asked if I was Vietnamese. One woman was telling us how she went to high school with a man who was half-American and half-Vietnamese, and looked at me and said "like you." It must be the dark hair and eyes...

We left Ho Chi Minh City the night of Sept. 10 by overnight (15 hours) train to Danang (north of Hoi An). The train ride was fine, but we're flying to Hanoi! Once was enough.

Our hotel in Hoi An is beautiful--it has a pool and a garden and very nice room and bathroom and it only costs $18/night for the room. Hoi An is a world heritage historic city and I'd love to say that we've seen all the sights, but honestly most of our time has been spent in various stages of undress at tailor shops.

We've each gotten a ton of clothes made--2 three piece suits each, a bunch of button down shirts, a dress each, some other tops, etc. the tailoring is pretty high quality, and the prices are great. You know you've provided good business though when the tailor shop pays for your taxi there and back, and then feeds you!!! The ladies at our main shop ordered us a traditional Hoi An dinner the other night, which was delicious.

We decided we needed to actually see more of Hoi An so we spent yesterday afternoon and part of today walking around the town, which is very picturesque and lovely with small alleys and colorful buildings, a river, and beautiful lanterns.

This morning we took a trip out to My Son, which is an hour away and has ruins dating back to the 7th century. Very beautiful, but after you've spent 2 days at the Angkor temples in Cambodia nothing else really compares.

Anyway, we have to get to one last fitting, and then to packing...

Vietnam...part 3

Sorry... it's been a tiring few days and I just haven't felt like typing, especially with slow internet, etc.

After our day trip in Ho Chi Minh, we took a boat tour in the Mekong Delta. It was nice to be out of the city, it was relaxing and quite pretty. We saw how coconut candy and rice paper are made, heard some local music, etc.

We spent our last day in Saigon just walking around, shopping, etc. and then hopped on an overnight train to Danang. The train wasn't too bad... we had our own cabin for 1/2 the way, we both slept a lot, and the scenery was very beautiful. However, the conductor was heavy handed with the break, and my body is still kind of stiff and sore.

We got into Hoi An yesterday late afternoon, wandered around, and began the search for a good tailor. It's a very small town, anD there are 300 tailoring shops!!!

We're actually off to one now...

Vietnam.., continued

Yesterday we took a city tour all day, saw a few temples, pagodas, the
catholic cathedral, the post office, the reunification palace
(basically a glorified conference center... do you think if it was
called the New Orleans Palace they would have been more concerned
about evacuating all those trapped there during Katrina?), and the War
Crimes museum--now called the "War Remnants" something or other to be
more politically correct and I suppose less offensive to the American
tourists.

There's a lot to write, but our breakfast is on the table and we are
jumping on a bus to take a boat tour of the Vekong Delta in 15 minutes
so i've got to go. more tonight...

Saigon

This morning we took a bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City). The bus was nearly identical to the bus that we took from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, including duration (~6 hours) with two very important differences: 1) We were seated way in the back this time, so we were relatively clueless as to how many moto drivers, bicyclists, cattle, and pedestrians we nearly killed, and as to how many times we veered dangerously near to not actually being on the road. 2) This bus did NOT utilize the dvd/tv set up, so we were thankfully NOT subjected to 6 hours of bad Cambodian karaoke videos and weird sketch comedy shows. (also thankfully, on the last bus no one sang along. I would say that I cannot even imagine the torture that would have been, except I kind of can since the girl at the internet cafe last night was wearing headphones and singing along with the karaoke on the computer screen. odd).

When we got on the bus we gave the bus operator (not the driver) our passports so he could do our paperwork. Very convenient, and I appreciate the service, but I wonder if the fact that my entry card is "signed" IGE will come back to haunt me...(the last three letters of my middle name of all things... JoAnn's is similarly signed "Meri" which is actually her whole middle name). I think the whole name order thing confuses them as much as it does us.

We did actually have to get off the bus and go into the border station, but I really think that was only so that we could pay our 10 cents entry tax, because our operator handled our passports and got everything stamped and then called our names (Paige? Meri?) and herded us through to the pay booth.

Once in Saigon we went to our hotel, the Ngoc Dang (pronounce that!), which has a bootleg CD/DVD store downstairs (any requests? seriously... even movies currently in the theater). Our room is large, has a spotless bathroom, a fridge, satellite tv (including a few English channels), and is only costing us $16 night, total.

Granted, the beds are incredibly firm and we're on the 4th or 5th floor and there is no elevator, but it's very very very nice.

We were kind of exhausted from the past week, so we took naps and just chilled for a few hours. then we went to dinner, booked a city tour for tomorrow, and went for a few drinks.

Our hotel, in addition to being both nice and cheap, is also in the backpackers haven. tons of restaurants, bars, hotels, guest houses, and shops, all within a few blocks.

We started out at this very western-esque bar where the beers were 25,000 dong (~$1.70), and where our waiter asked if we were lesbians, said I looked like Katie Holmes, and then told us a few kind of dirty jokes. we were about to call it a night when these two guys came over and started talking to us and asked if we wanted to walk down the street to a local establishment with them. Since we've really only talked to ourselves and service sector personnel, we said sure!

We ended up a block down the street where the tables were on the sidewalk, there were Chihuahua puppies on the way to the bathroom (you essentially walked through someone's living room I think, but it was all high ceilings, marble floors, and very open), and a litre of beer was 7000 dong (less than 50cents).

Our drinking companions were very 2 very nice Israeli guys in their mid 20s. They've been travelling for like 8 months!!!!

Both have finished their military service, and one just graduated law school like us and has a job awaiting him back in Israel, and the other is a ski instructor. (who knew there was a mountain that gets snow in Israel? not me...)

We also ran into this Japanese guy who speaks Hebrew, English, French, and who knows what else, who had been at the same restaurant as us for dinner, and who knew the 2 guys from meeting them yesterday. Small world.

We had great travel convos, steered clear of politics, and parted ways since we all have early morning plans.

Tomorrow JoAnn and I are taking a city tour of Saigon. we're going to take a Mekong Delta day tour the following day, visit the tunnels of the Viet Cong the next morning, and hopefully head up to Hoi An by train that afternoon.

Phnom Penh

It's been a great 2 days in Phnom Penh. The hotel (Kambuja Inn) we are in (recommended by these 2 girls we met in an internet cafe in Siem Reap) is one of the nicest, cleanest places I've been in a while, and a bargain at $20/night for the room. Huge bathroom, a/c and fan, 14 foot ceilings, and very very clean.

When we got in yesterday we went to the Vietnamese embassy and dropped off our passports... very efficient, and only $30, w/ less than 24 hour turnaround (and they came through, we picked them up today!)

Our tuk-tuk driver then offered to take us out to the Killing Fields (Cheong Ek), so we took him up on it. Little did we know that the road there was unpaved, incredibly bumpy, flooded in places, and practically impossible to drive with a tuk-tuk. We saw tens if not hundreds of motorcycles, a few cars, and precisely 2 other tuk tuks making the journey. Our insides were jostled and at one point I hit my head hard enough that I was mildly worried about a concussion.

The Killing Fields are not at ALL what I expected. The grounds are green and serene, and there are lots of trees with beautiful flowers. The grounds are almost hilly, because of all the mass graves that they discovered and dug up. There is a very tall tower (I don't know what it's called) that's a sort of memorial temple, and there are 8 stories of shelves with thousands of skulls of victims on them.

Signs mark where all the buildings and execution sites used to be, but nothing is there anymore. The fields are near the river, and there are cattle grazing everywhere.

It was very sobering, and just hard to fathom that such atrocities took place there. Additionally, at that particular site most of the people were clubbed to death--I think to both save ammunition, and to keep people in the area from knowing what was going on.

After a bumpy ride back, we cleaned up and walked around the corner for dinner. We stopped to kind of look at the menu at "Chilli's" and about 15 waitresses, who were inside behind the bar and around the pool table, enthusiastically greeted us and ushered us in... it would have been rude to walk away at that point!!!

We were the only patrons, and it turns out that place is kind of a Cambodian version of Hooters (there was also a Hooter's around the corner... and I think it might actually be a real Hooter's, but I'll have to check their website to be sure). The waitresses at "Chilli's" all wore microscopic blue stretch mini-skirts and hot pink tank tops.

We sat upstairs and ordered and then 2 of the waitresses asked if we wanted to play pool, so we played a few rounds while waiting for our food, which was awesome (albeit a little odd). The one insisted I looked Cambodian, which was kind of funny.

This morning we slept in for the first time since I got here, and then hired tuk-tuk for the day. We had lunch visited the temple Wat Phnom up in the French Quarter, and there were monkeys in the trees! We then visited the Genocide Museum, which was unreal. The museum is housed in a former secondary school that was used as a detention center where the Khmer Rouge imprisoned and tortured thousands of people, coercing false confessions.

Probably the worst part was the rooms and rooms of pictures of victims. The Khmer Rouge took photos of everyone they imprisoned... it's just awful to look at all these faces, some resigned, some scared, some defiant, and know that they all died. I think the statistic is something like only 7 of the prisoners at that facility survived and were rescued when the Vietnamese invaded and liberated the country.

There really just aren't words.

We left the museum and went to one of the markets. We bought some bootleg DVDs, some jewelry, etc. then we went and procured bus tickets, because tomorrow we leave for Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. We had thought about taking a boat through the Mekong Delta, but the way the route is set up, you end up having to spend the night in a town along the way, and take a bus for the last portion. We decided to instead take a day trip to the Mekong from Saigon once we're there and just take a bus to Saigon from Phnom Penh.

We left the hotel to walk to dinner, and stopped at this awesome boutique. 1 hour and $100 later we walked out with some deals of the century on silk purses. Every item in the store was gorgeously made, very cute, and supremely inexpensive. $5 for a beautiful silk evening clutch? It was hard not to buy everything in the store.

We finally made it to dinner, and soon we're heading back to pack because our tuk tuk driver is going to pick us up to go to the bus station at 7am.

Phnom Penh is a pretty neat city. There are gorgeous temples and buildings (and then rundown ones of course), vibrant bustling markets, crazy busy streets with thousands of people on motos, and gorgeous riverfront (though the water is gross) and parks where people gather to just sit outside and fly kites, and lots of restaurants.

Unfortunately there is also a lot of poverty, tons of street kids and beggars, and the worst of it is that many of them are amputees of some variety due to landmines and the war.

Cambodia has somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 amputees!!!! Also 45% of the population is under age 15.

For as horrible of a RECENT past as this country has suffered, the people for the most part are super-friendly, very helpful, and seem content.

The trip so far has been very eye-opening, and has also made me realize some of the limits of my own adventurism. I've lived in, and experienced much worse, but I'm unwilling to now. I mean... I lived in the slums of Nouakchott, but I won't consider a hotel room without A/C, and I freaked out when we found a few small cockroaches roaming in our room in Bangkok. Being here tears at your heart and your conscience. It's horrible to be purchasing something frivilous, like a necklace, while a woman with a young child is begging you for money. It's hard to eat dinner on an outdoor patio when a child without legs tries to sell you books you don't want or need. And yet you do, and you wonder what that says about you...

Cambodia!

My mom is posting my email messages so that people can read what I"m up to since internet access here is rather slow.

September 4

We had another great (but tiring) day today. internet is really slow tonight, so I can't update my blog, but i will hopefully be able to in Phnom Penh (where we're going tomorrow, by bus).

Our driver picked us up at 5am and we went to sunrise at Angkor Wat. it was... unimpressive. it's really unfortunate... we did sunset there last night, sunrise this morning, and we tried to do sunrise at Machu Picchu, and all were just not what the mind imagined.

We then had coffee and breakfast at a little "restaurant" outside the temples (really more of a covered patio, kind of like the picnic areas at parks, with lots of plastic tables) and then took a 30 minute drive to the "ladies temple," so called because of the more intricate carvings and the slight pinkish tint to the stone.

Then our driver detached the tuk-tuk from the motorcycle and the three of us drove 45 minutes to a place where Joann and I disembarked and hiked 30 minutes up to a small waterfall.

The coolest part was that in the stream the ground/stone was carved into these half-spheres... very strange, we don't quite know what it is--a water temple kind of thing maybe?

We hiked back down, moto-ed back 45 minutes, and then went to 2 other very cool temples, and then arrived back at the hotel just before 4. We were EXHAUSTED, but it had been an awesome day.

One of the most interesting things was that both at the waterfall, and at the market outside one of the temples, we ran into people we had seen at Angkor Wat yesterday afternoon (and reciprocally taken photos of). small world.

Anyway, there was a floating village we could have visited, but we were soooo hot and tired and sweaty and hungry that we decided that will be for next time we come to Cambodia (and I would totally visit again. So far it's high high high on the list of vacation spots I would recommend to anyone).

Siem Reap

September 3

We're in siem reap, which is a very pretty little town. We spent all morning at the temples, came home for lunch and a rest, and then went back and visited more. Tomorrow a.m. we're going to be there for sunrise. We're both shutter happy, so there are hundreds of pictures already.

It's sooooooo cool. And there are intricate carvings on everything, which makes it even more astounding.

We're having a good time, and Ithink we're leaving Tuesday for Phnom Penh. Hopefully we'll get our visas for Vietnam quickly, and then head down to Saigon through the Mekong Delta. Then it's up to Hoi an about halfway up the coast, then Hanoi and Halong Bay, and then probablyLuang Prabang in Laos.

The heat and humidity are awful!!!! We sweat sooo much, it's disgusting. I looked like I had wet myself, my pants were so wet from sweat from my thighs.

Our guest house is very cute, and adequate. Part of me wonders what it would be like to do this as a high budget vacation, staying at the posh resorts, etc...last night after we got in we went to one of those places where you eat a buffet dnner and watch traditional dancing.

We have a tuk tuk driver who is great, who picks us up at the guest house, takes us to the ruins, waits for us, takes us to the next ruin, etc. Very efficient system.

Okay, it's kind of sticky even in the internet place and I think we're going to go look around the market now. There are some beautiful handicrafts here, and the cambodian silks are gorgeous. a lot of the stuff is similar to what you find in Thailand.