Hanoi

Yesterday I went hashing.  What a great trail.  After a ride in an old school bus out into the countryside somewhere north of Hanoi I think it was, we had a quick drink before heading out.  The trail was prelaid.  And the start was a check.  The hares laughed at the people who thought they knew where they were going right away since they didn't.  Across the road and down a hill to another check.  A warren of streets, trails and alleyways later we wound up at a Budhist temple that was a hold.  So we hung out there and looked around for awhile till the hare told us which way to go.  We ran through rice paddies.  One girl got knocked into the water by an oxen that I guess didn't like the look of her or something.  I saw it.  And thought it was pretty funny.  I knew more hash songs than anyone in the circle and they loved me for it.  At the on after we sat upstairs and outside.  Had a small feast. 

Then today I went first to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex.  Long line took awhile.  But the air conditioning once we got there was brilliant.  Traipsed around the grounds a bit.  The museum was pretty good. Infused with modern art.  Afterwards I did the Lonely Planet city tour walk starting at the end and working my way backwards.  Stopped at some little cafe for an ice coffee and watched some woman that I think might have been a fortune teller.  No one there understood when I asked about it.

Back at the hotel I cleaned up and headed to the Water Puppet show.  Wonderful. The only low point of Hanoi, well there were two was that first the minibus took me to the wrong hotel, though it had the same name.  Lot of that here.  And my train ticket for my trip to Sapa tonight wasn't waiting for me.  So I had to call again and again to bug the travel agency to get it to me.  They finally did.  So now I'm off to dinner and to read a bit more of this heartbreaking book that I got in Angkor Wat, "First they killed my father" about the Pol Pot regime from the perspective of one of the survivors. It's making me cry.

Good morning. Vietnam?

Yesterday, all my troubles were in Cambodiay.  Now it looks like I'm on my way to ho, ho, ho chi minh.

The floating village at Tonle Sap, south of Siem Reap was nothing like I'd expected.  I thought it was going to be a village with streets and shops and such.  Instead it's a bunch of boats moored in a lake that is now only about a meter deep.  When the rains come and the water level rises the village moves.  There's a couple of stores, a school and, according the guide a tremendous amount of poverty. 

The school, for instance, which isn't much more than a medium sized-houseboat has 250 students and two teachers.  If some of the kids can't catch a ride to school they swim.  We stopped on the way there and I bought a bunch of Top Ramen type noodle packets for a donation.  Their teachers speak no English.  They learn Vietnamese first as it's a more marketable language.  I looked at some of their work and talked very briefly to the one teacher on duty who was busily grading papers while surrounded by about 15-20 kids waiting their turn to be graded.  Then I went outside to the playground, video camera in hand and a bunch of the kids mugged for the camera.  Then they decided I'd make a good jungle gym.  After about 10 or 15 minutes of using them as dumbbells I got tired.  Poof!  There was my guide, ready to take me back to shore.

He and the driver were surprised to learn I'm not 35.  They're both under 30.  I guess I'm pretty well preserved by their standards.  No post office where they are.  No child labor laws in Cambodia.  And the US hasn't banned land mines.  I'm feeling guilty.  I was entertaining the idea of joining the Peace Corps before I left.  I now have a lot more food for thought.

* * * * *

Here it is a few days later.  Still haven't figured out how to upload videos.  In Nha Trang now.  Saigon, aka HCMC, was okay.  A lot of cycles.  I met an Aussie now married to a Vietnamese, who told me that the government imposes a 2-300% tarriff on cars to encourage the use of motorcycles to keep the streets from being even more crowded.  

Went to the Cu Chi tunnels with a stop at the Cao Dai Holy See.  The religion is a mix between Buddhism, Tao and Confucism.

Lost a filling to a piece of coconut candy on the Mekong Delta.  Then a few days later, right before diving, another popped out. After diving went to the local dentist, whose office is more modern than most I've seen and had both teeth fixed for 20 bucks.  And now that they're in another popped out yesterday. 

These little tables and chairs are the norm at local cafes.

Today, the next day, I didn't do much of anything. Woke up late. Packed for my sleeper bus to Hoi An.  Lazed on a beach under an umbrella. Had great Indian food, chicken tikka marsala, nan, rice, mango chutney, papardum and two beers, so cheap. Went back to the beach.  Wow is the water warm!

Lantern shop, still in Saigon.

Hot in Hoi An.  Nice hotel.  Interesting sights.  Biked into the center of town then walked.  Sent another box of souvenirs home and have pretty much booked the rest of my trip from this hotel.  Today I go by train, the scenic route, to Hue.  A couple days of sightseeing there. Then fly to Hanoi for a couple days.  Should be able to hash one night.  Then by sleeper train to Sapa, up in the mountains.  Hill tribes.  And the weather there's cold, I'm told.  Then to Hanoi where I'm picked up for a three day two night tour of Halong Bay.  One night on sleeping on a boat, another on Cat Ba Island, with Kayaking and a side trip to Monkey Island.  I'm exhausted just thinking about the whirlwind nature of it all.

Money woes in Cambodia

Not mine.  Theirs.  So much poverty.  And even their currency is hassled.  Their highest denomination is worth about 10 bucks.  And they'd rather be paid in US dollars.  So all the prices here are quoted in US$ and money from an ATM is greenbacks.  Today I got a couple hundred out of the bank.  It gave it to me in 50s.  Now go try to pay for a one dollar tuk tuk ride when maybe the most the guy is carrying is five or ten dollars american and maybe two or three times that in Cambodian currency.

Anyway, today I got a camcorder.  Looks like I could have gotten it a lot cheaper on Amazon.  But the way I looked at it when I was buying it was that it's nothing but a high priced toy anyway.  I tried to upload a short video but it takes too long.  The cam takes photos and can capture photos from videos. 

Yesterday was nice without a camera, though of course I was and still am about the loss of all those pictures!  Oh well. 

Bought two silk scarves from this little saleslady

I went to Angkor Thom, which is actually quite a bit bigger than Angkor Wat.  Saw a bunch of other temples but without a map of the complex in front of me I can't remember the names nor most of the spellings.  Their are hawkers at each one selling most of the same stuff.  I've bought a few trinkets, mostly just to be nice to the little girls and boys that are selling the stuff.  Bought a couple of scarves today.  Then a little girl, maybe 9 or 10 years old started crying because I didn't buy one from her, too.  So I bought one from her.  What am I bid for scarves from Cambodia! 

The video of these guys is short but musical

When I get back I can upload everything to Facebook or some such site, hopefully while I sleep, and you can look at whatever photos and videos I have left there if you like.  Or maybe I'll just hook the camcorder up to my TV and have everyone over. I'll try making some curry to go with.

Who's up for that?

Kuala Lumpur- and I lost my camera

What a culture shock.  Rural Bali one day to megalopolyptic Kuala Lumpur.

First night here all I did was find my hotel in Chinatown, get dinner at a hawker stall and walk around a bit.  My rooms a nice change though a bit pricey.  A real hot water shower opposed to the trickles of hot water I've had so far.  A flat screen tv with a lot of Malaysian language channels, some British news and old American movies I've never even heard of.  Not really old but maybe 5 or 10 years. 

After a good night's sleep, some internet and a buffet breakfast at the hotel I hit the town on a hop on hop off bus.  Some of the older architecture is gorgeous.  Most of what I saw is modern.  The viewing platform near the top of the Menara Tower was pretty good, affording a 360 degree view.  The pictures I took don't really do it justice.

Made it into the Royal Selangor Club, birthplace of the Hash.  The place had a sign out front saying only members allowed.  No guards though. I walked right in took a look around, a few pictures and smiled and waved at the guard as I left. He smiled and waved back.

Couldn't make it to the hash that night because it was far out of town and no one in the hash could offer me a lift.  But tonight I'm going.  One of the locals is nice enough to pick me up and was so concerned that he wouldn't know who I was when he gets here today, even though I said I'd be the only person in running gear with my hash tags and a yellow cap that's got my hash name on it, that he showed up at my hotel around midnight, waking me out of a sound sleep and some dream I couldn't remember, to say hello.

I'd had two calls from hashers that day around noon.  I asked at the front desk around 3 if I had any messages since I was expecting at least one.  They said no.  Then when I got back from dinner I had two messages one at 11 am and the other at noon.

****
So I'd typed the above yesterday afternoon intending to upload picturesto it after a read through and edit.  However, today in Cambodia while tuk tukking my way from one temple to the next my camera fell out of my pocket.  We looked for it for quite a while, made a report to the tourist police, asked people that work along the side of the rode and so on but no luck.  So the pictures I have of my trip are just the ones on this blog.

I'm kind of upset, as you can imagine.  Strangely enough, I'm also kind of glad because now I can just look at things and people and experience them without having to think about dragging out my camera to take a picture.  Oh well.

After Ganung Batur

a store on the way to the museum

I walked along the main drag, Jalan Raya. Jalan means road, I think, and is abbreviated Jl in all the countries I've been to so far. I was going to the Neka Art Museum.  The "concierge" at my hotel said it was only a 15 minute walk but it seemed a lot longer.  An art museum here seems superfluous because there's art everywhere you go.  Besides just about every store having something artistic, even if it's say, a Circle K (local 7eleven- bamboo wind chimes, masks, beaded baskets, wicker baskets, sarongs, ornamental knives, paintings, tile encrusted dishes and so on and on - there's artwork embedded in things like the bridges, doorways, the street and rooftops.  So the museum was okay and I'm glad I went.  A guy was playing a bamboo, uh, xylophone or marimba type thing and I jammed with him on another one just like it right next to him - until the other guy came back to play it.  

Next day I took a batik class.  I'd always wondered how that's done.

Then yesterday I took a cooking class and did a last little bit of souvenir shopping, getting a few musical instruments though they're Maori, like the thing that Crocodile Dundee makes a "phone call" with in the second of those films.

And today, my full last day here I feel like I did a lot.  Mailed 4 kilos of souvenirs home. Checked internet. Went to the Blanco Museum.  He's known as the Bali Dali.  Lots of birds there. 

Went by scooter to the ARMA - another art museum but with much more exquisite grounds and a lot more sculpture than the Neka. 

Grabbed another scooter to Horizon Glassworks since I've been trying my hand at glassblowing.  I'd emailed them first and they were expecting me.  Wow, what a bunch of neat stuff.  The scooter guy had given me his phone number.  And the glassworks are a bit removed.  So we called him when I was ready to go and he took me back to the Palace. 

Saw some guys playing soccer in the town pitch.  So after dropping my stuff in my room I walked down to them and got into the game.  Played with them until someone kicked the ball out of the park and broke a parked car's side view mirror.  They didn't seem at all concerned.  I hope the car was well insured.

Went home, cleaned up, booked a shuttle to the airport for tomorrow morning, had dinner and wrote this.  Next I go back to pack.  And tomorrow I'm in the air to Kuala Lumpur, arriving around 6 pm.  There's a hash both days I'm there.  Already contacted them and they seem willing to help me get to them.  So that should be extra fun.

Chinatown in KL

So let's see.

Where did I leave off...after the monkey forest, I think.  I walked up the street, Monkey Forest Road, and booked a trip to Ganung Batur for that night.

Then I went for a walk, which was really more of a hike, on Campuhan Ridge, pronounced Champuhan.  A bit tricky to find though it's mentioned in a lot of guidebooks and everyone here knows about it.

This is a view from the bridge as you enter - though so much here is so beautiful.
















And here's a view during the ascent on the ridge.  There was an old guy along the way, looked like maybe he was missing an eye, selling coconuts for about a quarter.  I bought one.  He asked me the usual, "Where are you from?" and looked the usual dumbfounded for a sec.  The juice lasted me for a long while.  There's a lot of juice in coconuts!

 This idyllic is from the warung where I stopped for a bite.  Nusi Campur and cold water for only about a couple bucks.  Nusi Campur is sort of a chef's special, usually rice with some combination of tofu, tampeh, sate and vegetable.  Delicious!







I'm taking several baths a day to keep cool and to try to stay clean.  It's so humid.  And it's going to get more humid and hotter as I proceed north to KL, Angkor and Vietnam.

Anyway, I got picked up for Batur on time, around 2:30 a.m.  The "house boy" at the palace woke me at 2.  Then we picked up a French couple with not much English.  After an hour's drive we stopped at the base of our climb.  The mountain is only about 1800 meters and we were already probably somewhere near an elevation of  I don't really know, maybe 1000?  Anyway, my travel company neglected to tell me to bring a jacket so I rented one.  The guides were very interested in my Ipod.

The idea is that after hiking in the dark for about an hour and a half you reach the summit in time for the sunrise.  Of course, it was obscured by clouds much of the time.  Still a nice hike and a neat view.

Finished reading "A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian".  Quite interesting for me since three of my four grandparents were from the Ukraine.  The critics call it hysterically funny.  I laughed once.  To me it was more on the poignant side.  Anyway, I liked it.  In a few days I'll be sending it and a bunch of souvenirs to the states, care of my brother since I've now accumulated much more than I need or want to carry.

Anyway, I've signed up for a Batik class this morning.  Gotta go.

Ubud,the cultural center of Bali

Still don't quite know how to pronounce this town, if it's oobud or oobood but no one really seems to care that much.  So I guess I'm in the clear.

When I arrived here I had no touts trying to get me to go with their taxi so I hoofed it through town.  I decided to go "upscale" and spend more than 30$ night.  First place I tried was booked.  Next place was good.  Puri Saren.  Nice little room in the center of town, with a/c and trickling hot water.  A big breakfast, toast, an omelette, a big plate of fruit and banana pancakes.  And always tea.  Too much for me.

First day I didn't do much of anything, went browsing around the local market and saw an evening dance performance at my hotel. 

I'd planned to see the monkey forest my second day but the cremation ceremony also took place here.  Bizarre ritual.  After digging up the honored dead, they clean  and dress the bones, place them in a tower.  In front of the tower is what looks like a bull, constructed out of styrofoam.  Both are on platforms of bamboo.  Eventually, after food and music, the platforms are lifted by a horde of guys (I helped) and carried about a kilometer to another temple.  Then the bull is cut open, the bones are transferred to it and it's set ablaze.  These are its charred remains.

.After dinner and a massage I explored the grounds of my hotel.  A bunch of people were sitting around in back but their dogs barked at me.  The next morning I asked the guy at the front desk about it and he told me that's the royal family.  Turns out my hotel, a homestay, is the palace.  That's why when people ask where I'm staying and I tell them they're so impressed!

I saved my fruit from breakfast and went to the monkey forest. The monkeys encircled me waiting for handouts. They liked it except for one big guy who doesn't like pineapple. What a lot of monkeys. Some of the ones I'd fed followed me around for awhile. A little one jumped on my shoulder. When I tried scratching him on the head he started nibbling on my shoulder. I jumped and he jumped off. There seems to be a lot of purification ceremonies here. A bunch of the localswere building something. I stopped and talked with one, who must be pretty well-to-do by Indonesian standards. His command of English was spectacular, he does a great deal of travelling (doesn't like NY - says no w/o money there, there's no joy) and owns a local restaurant or two. He told me about the purification ceremony they were preparing for, which takes place once every ten years. I spent a few hours in the park, had a bunch more monkeys climb on me. Unfortunately, no one was around to use my camera to take pictures of me then.

Afterwards, I book a trip to Ganung Batur to see the sunrise.  I'll write a bit more later.  Now I'm going to the Neka Art Museum, which I've heard a lot of people praising.