For the Love of Money, I have decided to make a severe schedule change and I will be heading to my parents' place on June 24. Of course I would love to continue on to Europe, but it is just not going to happen this time around. With seven countries down and a few buck left in my bank account, mama I'm coming home.
So, let's see who really reads my blog. For all of you in the States, especially those of you out west, drop me a line. I will be spending at least a month with my family in Illinois, but thereafter, I am planning on heading out west to spend some time with the friends I left behind about 4 years ago. So again, get at me! I'll be looking for some couches to crash on...
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Going Up
Vietnam has been amazing. Hence, I haven't been online for a while. The food, the people (i.e. the families), the landscape, and the language - it's all been a blast. The food is gradually changing as we make our way north: fresh spring rolls, sandwiches, pho, cau lau...
The people (save all the annoying people on the street trying to sell you anything and everything) are genuinely friendly and open to foreign cultures.
The landscape has healed profoundly. We haven't seen all the world heritage sites as of yet, but so far so beautiful...and apparently the further we go north, the better it's going to get...can't wait!
The language is crazy. Of all the countries I have ever visited, I feel so far from understanding that it is becoming really fun. The intonations and tones are perhaps impossible for me to discern or hear, but it's been a riot trying to pronounce anything. My friend Cathy (''Hi, Cathy! Get back to work!!) mentioned in her blog that the more retarded she could sound, the more she sounded like she was speaking Vietnamese. I completely understand. If you know any Vietnamese people, try to say 'good night' and let the good times roll. By the way, don't ask me because I can't do it and the more I try, the more I sound like an infant trying to spit out her first words...ngahy nhagy nhahg;alksdfj;aksgj.... :o)~
Ho Chi Minh City was fantastic. We spent a week there and it was cheap, had good food and we met some really great people. We only couchsurfed 1 night, but it was genuinely enriching. We took a bus about an hour out of the city (near the Cu Chi tunnel system - some 200km of underground tunnels constructed by the Viet Cong during the French and American wars...all dug out by hand tools in a period of 20 years...and let me tell you, if you ain't a small person, you ain't going very far...damn!), and stayed with a really nice family. They fed us 'til our bellies were full (fresh spring rolls, lots of meat and rice, and plenty of chilies!), introduced us to the southern Vietnamese lifestyle, guided us to the Cu Chi tunnels, and treated us like we were born into their family.
Nha Trang...I really cannot recommend this place. Unless you want to get drunk with a bunch of tourist and continuously get ripped off without a full blown price war with the vendor, don't go here. The beach was beautiful. On a side note, I've been told that if you have an inside connection, the mountains to the west have a lot of potential. We didn't get that far.
We are currently in Hoi An. It is really interesting, but there's not much going on here. So it's been good - nice and quiet. Actually, this place is one of the few places that didn't really get bombed during the wars, so there are several really old houses, bridges, etc. There's also a few ancient sites (nothing close to Cambodia) and marble mountain next to China Beach, but overall, this is just a nice area to chill out. And that's exactly what we are doing.
And that's about it. We're making the 24 hour bus journey to Hanoi on Monday to check out the north end of the country and we're looking forward to it. We will miss a bunch of great sites, but our visa is only good for a month and we want to spend some time up north before we leave. So, when we get there and I see some stuff, I'll find a computer and fill you in. Until then, chao!
The people (save all the annoying people on the street trying to sell you anything and everything) are genuinely friendly and open to foreign cultures.
The landscape has healed profoundly. We haven't seen all the world heritage sites as of yet, but so far so beautiful...and apparently the further we go north, the better it's going to get...can't wait!
The language is crazy. Of all the countries I have ever visited, I feel so far from understanding that it is becoming really fun. The intonations and tones are perhaps impossible for me to discern or hear, but it's been a riot trying to pronounce anything. My friend Cathy (''Hi, Cathy! Get back to work!!) mentioned in her blog that the more retarded she could sound, the more she sounded like she was speaking Vietnamese. I completely understand. If you know any Vietnamese people, try to say 'good night' and let the good times roll. By the way, don't ask me because I can't do it and the more I try, the more I sound like an infant trying to spit out her first words...ngahy nhagy nhahg;alksdfj;aksgj.... :o)~
Ho Chi Minh City was fantastic. We spent a week there and it was cheap, had good food and we met some really great people. We only couchsurfed 1 night, but it was genuinely enriching. We took a bus about an hour out of the city (near the Cu Chi tunnel system - some 200km of underground tunnels constructed by the Viet Cong during the French and American wars...all dug out by hand tools in a period of 20 years...and let me tell you, if you ain't a small person, you ain't going very far...damn!), and stayed with a really nice family. They fed us 'til our bellies were full (fresh spring rolls, lots of meat and rice, and plenty of chilies!), introduced us to the southern Vietnamese lifestyle, guided us to the Cu Chi tunnels, and treated us like we were born into their family.
Nha Trang...I really cannot recommend this place. Unless you want to get drunk with a bunch of tourist and continuously get ripped off without a full blown price war with the vendor, don't go here. The beach was beautiful. On a side note, I've been told that if you have an inside connection, the mountains to the west have a lot of potential. We didn't get that far.
We are currently in Hoi An. It is really interesting, but there's not much going on here. So it's been good - nice and quiet. Actually, this place is one of the few places that didn't really get bombed during the wars, so there are several really old houses, bridges, etc. There's also a few ancient sites (nothing close to Cambodia) and marble mountain next to China Beach, but overall, this is just a nice area to chill out. And that's exactly what we are doing.
And that's about it. We're making the 24 hour bus journey to Hanoi on Monday to check out the north end of the country and we're looking forward to it. We will miss a bunch of great sites, but our visa is only good for a month and we want to spend some time up north before we leave. So, when we get there and I see some stuff, I'll find a computer and fill you in. Until then, chao!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
