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Wordpress seems like the next step so I'm going to try to do a better job of blogging there during the next 6 weeks and decide if I like it or not. Please check it out!

The Unemployed Life

9AM: Wake up. Start making bread while the bf makes French toast out of yesterday’s bread.

Mid morning: Try to find pet-sittter so I can go a one month mini-trip…

11:30am: Indulge in last piece of leftover birthday ice cream cake.

12pm: Feel very guilty about cake and go for 1 hour run. Listen to 2 Planet Money podcasts and develop small crush on Barney Frank.

1:30pm: Have left-over lunch: cream of broccoli soup and dal

2pm: Spend 30 minutes rounding up recycling, wallet, phone, and keys. Have high hopes of running errands + squeezing in a bike ride in town.

3pm: Begin adventure of driving very hard to drive vehicle 10 miles into town. Doing much better getting going in 1st. Missed 3rd at least 3 times. Oops. Soothing voice of Terry Gross helps me relax as I stumble into gear.

3:45pm: Drop off recycling. Wait until no other cars around before literally diving into magazine/newspaper recycling bin for this weeks new magazines. Practice Re-use as well as recycle.

4:30pm: Pick up backcountry.com order from UPS. Yoga pants have become my new sweatpants. Hope that vehicle does not roll away b/c of slightly sloping parking.

4:45pm: Small detour to get a mocha. Give up hopes of biking due to weather/time constraints. Decide to walk up to mini drive through instead of trying to wrangle aforementioned very hard to drive vehicle through drive through.

4:50pm: Small crisis averted. Coffee woman did not have change for large bill. But fortunately I found a bag of quarters hiding under bike shorts in my very large purse/bag.

5pm: Grocery shopping. Can not bring myself to buy chicken (Thank you Michael Pollan). Go for Wild Salmon and Portobello mushrooms instead.

7pm: Start dinner prep: Salmon with rosemary and capers. Red peppers and Eggplant.

7:03pm: Start to feel like an invalid because I don’t know how to pre-heat grill. Realize that I don’t really enjoy playing with very hot appliances that run on gas/propane. Don’t care how silly that makes me.

7:10pm: Get in trouble for not using enough olive oil. Arguing is futile. Begin to feel the fat cells in my thighs jumping up and down. Ick!

8:30pm: Another kitchen crisis. Somehow misread ingredients for Quinoa Pudding and end up with 1 extra cup of milk + almond extract instead of vanilla extract. Another 10 minutes in the oven seem to soak up the bulk of the extra liquid. Good thing no one knows what consistency quinoa pudding should be.

9pm: Serious internet research regarding alternate streams of income.

10pm: Read my new magazine finds and drink Mind Relaxing Tea (found at your local Asian market). Fall asleep to smell of one gassy dog.

Bread and buttter

In the past 3 or 4 months, I've totally changed the way I think about food and approach cooking/recipes. Until this point in my life, I was fundamentally opposed to bread. Carbs = bad, right? Then I discovered this invention called the bread machine. As I listened to the instructions patiently pretending to be interested I never thought I would get this into making bread. But, it never ceases to amaze me, dump a whole bunch of powdery stuff in, press start, and fresh bread in 3.5 hours.

This summer I've made tons of types of bread: garden herb (with fresh herbs from the garden), banana/strawberry, banana oatmeal, mutligrain, honey whole wheat, sesame seed, lemon poppy seed, coffee-cinnamon, cinnamon-raisin, garlic Parmesan, carrot etc. Mostly we use it for sandwiches. This morning I had french toast with cinnamon-raisin bread.

I guess the whole point of this post is in response to food blogs and how to live cheaply blogs that I've been checking out recently. There was a post the other day about making sandwiches to save money. It was followed up by 80+ comments none of which included making your own bread. What kind of "frugal" life-stylers don't make their own stuff? I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty sure that my home baked bread would cost around $4 or $5 at stores, yet I'm sure it doesn't cost that much to make. Especially the plain/basic ingredient kinds.

Also, before, I would have never had flour, sugar, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, yeast, or cranberries hanging out in the closet. But now I realize that if you buy in bulk it's not so expensive and the ingredients last for a while. I admit that in the past I dismissed natural food stores as "overly expensive hippy-villes" but now I realize the benefit of buying simple natural ingredients. Also I found out that our local natural food store does a 15% off (the entire store) sale once a month. If the natural food stores in the middle of nowhere can do it, I can only imagine the sweet deals in real cities!

So there all you wannabe cheapskates. I make my own delicious bread and it doesn't really cost that much.

Colorado

I found this in my documents folder. Written Mid June (?):

Today I am forcing myself to take a day off from working out. My stomach is just not quite right and I haven’t been getting enough sleep to properly recover. It is a beautiful day outside (80 degrees and sunny) and so I’m hoping I don’t screw myself by not taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Instead of working out, I thought I’d channel some energy into blogging. I have a few half written posts that I will get up soon but in the meantime, I thought I would write about Colorado….

I never realize just how much stress I sign myself up for. Really, who moves to a new state a million miles away where they don’t know anyone to start studying for possibly the biggest test of her life? All of this 2 weeks after returning to the US after 10 months away. It hasn’t been easy. The cold and rainy period was really icky after I had been promised beautiful summer weather (where it would be warm by 9 or 10am). Right.

On the bright side, I’ve scored some great deals on puffy jackets and other warm weather gear to keep me warm. Driving from Denver to Gunnison, I saw more snow than I’ve ever seen before. And this was in May. Not prime-time snow time for Colorado.

Other things that are different:
-Hills and mountains everywhere. I’m trying to get over my mental block about biking up hills, but it is coming slowly.
-Altitude. From sea level to 8000 feet. Yeah, it takes some getting used to. Coupled with the hills, some days I feel like my lungs are going to explode (or collapse). Other days, I look around and really enjoy the view
-Flowers: The wildflowers are starting to come out. Man, I miss tropical flowers. Poppys are popular here Mostly everyone has the same 2 or 3 kinds of flowers in their yard. They pop out amidst the green grass and bright blue skies. Not quite hibiscus style, but they will do for now
-The River: it flows right behind our backyard. I’ve sat on the back deck thinking that if I tried hard enough I could make it sound like waves, but I never can. The river is fun though. The dog enjoys cooling off in it and I’ve enjoyed rafting down it.

In case you didn’t get the theme, my list involves everything relating to the outdoors- that’s because the outdoors is what people do here. Sometimes it is intimidating when it seems like everyone here is in better (physical) shape than I will ever be able to achieve. However, it is really spectacular to go mountain biking with rockstars (including semi-retired pros) all the time. I love it so much that last week I spent 15 hours playing outside. That 15 hours of work/play (not including driving time, etc.).

I miss the beach. A lot. And I feel sort of guilty for this, but I’m sort of glad I’m not sweating it out in FL right now where it is 110 degrees.

Back in the US

It’s been a little while. I flew back via Australia and Singapore. In Singapore, I spent one last afternoon soaking up the small region known as Little India trying to remember the colors, the sounds, and the smells.

Quickly upon arriving in the US, it was time to get down to business. One 30 hour driving marathon later, I found myself in what I like to refer to as the middle of nowhere. I go through love/hate cycles of living in the middle of nowhere. There are enough outdoor adventures around to keep me going for years. Once I adjusted to life at 8000 feet, I learned to love the mountain biking and running trails. I finally feel like I have an understating of the term “hill.” While I still do not always enjoy the grueling process of climbing them, I have learned to love the feeling of accomplishment at the top.

I spent the better part of 3 months studying for what may or may not have been the biggest exam of my life. After establishing a study for 6-8 hours per day routine, I’ve been sort of lost since I finished the exam at the end of July. I threw myself even more into working out but might have over done it.

Another project I poured myself into was a photo slideshow for the SE Asia trip. Looking at my photos was really interesting since I hadn’t looked at them for a few months. There were some that I had never seen before on a computer monitor. Re-living the trip has made roused a lot of the feelings I had while traveling: the main one being a sense of urgency to take action. The second being that I want to see the rest of the world.

After coming home and talking to a lot of my friends, I was saddened in that it seemed really difficult to relate the intricacies of my trip. A lot of them seemed disinterested and didn’t ask me anything about it. I later realized that they probably didn’t know where to begin.

Speaking of knowing where to begin, my blog for the next few months will hopefully chronicle my journey into figuring out the best way to exert all of this energy build-up I have. I expect it won’t be quite as interesting as a 5 month jaunt around SE Asia, but you never know!

Back to BKK

Bangkok

We caught the overnight train from Chiang Mai to BKK. Overnight trains and buses always seem like a good idea until you actually arrive at your destination at 6AM sleep-deprived and disoriented. Luckily, we sort of knew our way around Bangkok. In the interest of time, we thought it best to straight to the Chatuchak Market. Well, that turned out to be a horrible idea.

First of all, the market has no luggage deposit so we were stuck with our backpacks. They were only 30L so not a huge burden, but still uncomfortable and clunky. After getting some food and iced coffee, I motivated to do some souvenir shopping. I never do souvenir shopping and I quickly remembered why. I totally got ripped off. After 5 months of arguing hard for everything, I totally got ripped off. Second, the market is not so captivating the second time around. All of the vendors and their products just seemed a lot less enchanting .

Finally, after an indirect bus ride back to Khao San Road area, we went back to the place we stayed before. Khao San Road was even less amusing, but I was glad to be able to have some ‘muesli’ and fruit. My partner had a flight at some odd hour like 1am, so I walked him to the bus stop (really cheap airport shuttle) and said goodbye for a few days.

At that moment, I suddenly realized that our adventure was over and I was really sad. As I walked back to the guesthouse, I felt free though. I felt the feeling of anonymity that I love feeling in cities. I walked along and I could have stopped anywhere and told the people thee anything. There’s something about being able to be anyone you want that is really appealing. I asked some strangers to open my beer at a gas station near the guesthouse. They invited me to join them, but I had tim-tams to eat and packing to do.

More Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai:

While there are definitely some over-touristy parts of the city, Chiang Mai turned out to be better than expected. I think it was mostly due to the fact that we had a scooter. We stopped at a different market almost every day on our way back from climbing and sampled everything that appeared strange and new. The people in Northern Thailand seemed a lot nicer. Plus, we knew our numbers now since it was the same as Lao so I’m sure that helped out a lot at markets.

Food: Papaya salad was a maintstay in our diet. We were concerned about getting enough protein (b/c we were expending so much effort climbing) so we frequented the eggs-on a stick woman. I don’t know how it works but somehow the yolk just blends in and so the yolk isn’t like a hardboiled egg but the white is. We also found some chicken on a stick guys. A lot of the food vendors weren’t willing to negotiate which was sort of discouraging, but we ended up scoring some good stuff. I developed an unhealthy addiction to mango sticky rice. It was about 25 baht outside of town and 30-35 at our ‘local’ market. I think it involved butter, condensed milk, salt, sugar, and mango, but there was nothing like it after a hard day of climbing. That and our ridiculously cheap beer substitute- yum!

Chocolate: So, I had this challenge the whole time I was in Asia. I’m a chocolate eater. I enjoy cheap sketchy chocolate. But, I didn’t want to buy US candy bars while in Asia. Especially for more money than I would spend in the US. We went to this one chocolate/coffee boutique place in chiang mai and it was sort of a waste. I don’t know how many times I have fallen for this (and will fall for it again), but baked goods that aren’t quite sweet enough will never satisfy my chocolate cravings. Tim-tams (even though they are the ‘Asian’ modified kind) were my lifesavers. If you don’t know what tim-tams are, find your nearest Aussie.

Errands: We found a few other markets around northern Chiang Mai that were pretty interesting. It’s hilarious how the ‘geared for tourists’ market are starkly different from the local parts. We found the ‘dried fruit and tea’ section of the market and bargained for dried strawberries, lychee, and bael fruit (for making tea.) We later went upstairs where all the women were calling to us in English and trying to charge us double the price. Unfortunately, the US wouldn’t let the bale fruit in, but it made it all the way across the pacific.

I also took our ‘off day’ in Chiang Mai as an opportunity to get some much needed pages added to my passport. It’s sort of neat that I’ve been to 4 different continents and lots of different countries. Of course I want to see the whole world, but filling up a passport was an accomplishment, in a weird way. It also helps that the Asian countries all give visas that take up 1 page. Why can’t they just have stamps like everyone else ? 

Thailand-Round 2

The Thai/Lao New Year sort of wrecked our plans. We budgeted more time in Laos because of our first negative impressions in Thailand. Five months of travel sounds like a lot, but when there are only a few weeks left, it seems like there is this great pressure to do so much and see so much to make up for the previous 4 months of slacking.

Anyhow, one expensive flight from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai later, we were back in Thailand. This time with the potential to stay 30 days. Too bad we only had 2 weeks. After walking from the airport to town, we found a ‘cheap’ place to stay. For 150 baht per night, we secured ourelves a room at what we later called the burnout hotel. It had free wifi and felt relatively safe.

We got down to business immediately: locate the climbing shop. We paid ridiculous amounts for the rope rental but it got us started. The climbing is about 45 min. outside of chiang mai. I was amazed at what we found when we got there. There were bathrooms, signs containing lots of information, bamboo shelters, fences, etc. I guess the climbing shop is trying to be responsible with its monopoly. Although, it was interesting how they wanted donations for the water fund yet there only appeared to be water whenever they had clients.

So, we settled into 5 or 6 days of serious climbing. First, we rented a scooter from our burnout hotel. Scooters are so great. Then, every morning, we went to the same lady to get Cambodian style noodle soup and iced coffee. After, we would split up and gather the necessary supplies for the days nourishment: the sweet rice treats, fruit, waffles, and whatever else look portable and interesting.

Next, we would drive out to the climbing spot. We had a 3rd climbing buddy for a few days. It was interesting to climb with someone else. People have different methods and preferences. The days sort of blur together now, but I earned some tim-tams by on-sighting a few 6A routes. After 1 day of completely flailing, something clicked and I felt like I could climb anything. There was one 6C that completely shut me down, but I cruised a few 6B’s and managed to climb a few 6C (with a few falls). I didn’t really realize it until I got back, but I love sport climbing. Limestone is pretty amazing. Climbing stalactites and crazy formations is my favorite thing.

Climbing still remains one of the weirdest things I have ever done. In no other sport that I participate in do you have to confront failure head on almost every day. But, I guess that is what makes success so sweet!

All about the Benjamins (Cat Ba part 2)

True story: After a wave of sickness passed, I was feeling up to exploring Cat Ba city. Plus, we needed to get some dinner. We walked past a food cart and paused to try and figure out what exactly they were trying to sell. It appeared to be sticky rice with shredded coconut, mystery meat, and some other unidentified food to go on top. While we were standing there, a family had ordered a serving and paid 5000 dong for it. After some tasty yet unfilling pho, we cruised back to the food cart and decided to try the rice mixture (sans mystery meat). While my partner was getting out the 5000 dong to pay, they told us it was 10,000. We laughed and explained that we just watched someone else pay 5000 and it was not fair to charge us double the price. The man and woman promptly stopped speaking english, looked at each other, realized they were busted and took our 5000 dong.

Imagine if this happened every time we bought something. More often than not, this is the case in Northern Vietnam. Sometimes I feel cold hearted when I complain to other travelers about the dual pricing scheme. Sometimes I think I should stop obsessing. I have to eat 3 meals per day (roughly) and because I have no cooking facilities, I have to buy those meals from vendors or street stalls or restaurants. Am I just supposed to double my daily food budget and pretend like I don't notice when I am charged twice the price? I used to think it possible that the 'these people need the money more than I do' argument carried some weight. Now, I don't. I have observed the loafing all day and the prices that locals pay. I don't buy it anymore.

Yes, the exchange rate is favorable to us. But, I don't have unlimited money like so many people seem to think. When I go home to my country and support myself, it will involve working at least 8 hours/ day 5 days a week. Days full of work. Not just sitting on my motorbike calling out to all tourists within a 100 meter radius and trying to offer rides. I fully support people involved in legitimate ways to make money but I can no longer support the dual pricing scheme. It really gets to me. I don't know how other travelers do it.

Enough ranting... We have know developed a system for the remainder of our time in Vietnam: watch transactions very closely and then refuse to pay anything other than what the locals pay. It is really obvious and in the US, it would be considered super nosy, a violation of personal space, etc. But here, it seems to work.

All over the place (Northern Vietnam)

I begrudgingly admit that I might be suffering from mild burn out. The constant loud honking of motorbike horns, the long bus and train rides, and the constant struggle not to get ripped off are starting to get to me.

After arriving in Hanoi in the early morning, things have been less than ideal. Ok, well, the free shot of liquor with our noodle soup breakfast might have been a positive. We walked around looking for coffee but only found peculiar setups. Every other spot on the sidewalk was a little table covered with a few canned beverages, gum, and other miscellaneous items. Around the tables were men (sitting in mini-chairs) drinking either tea or beer and smoking out of something that looked like a bong. We concluded that it was probably just tobacco, but were confused about the extravagant smoking method.

Not having slept well the night before, we motivated for the last part of our mission: Get to Cat Ba island and go climbing in Halong Bay. We took a train to Hai Phong only to find out that we missed the 12:30pm (last) ferry. We didn't want to pay 3 times the price for a chartered boat so we decided to just spend the night in Haiphong.

Once again, there were no cheap options. So we settled on a place for 150,000 dong. It included hot water (for tea), tea, a tea set, towels, and a blanket. Yes, standards for hotels are higher in vietnam but so are the prices. I think we even had toilet paper. It was in Haiphong where we learned that Northern Vietnam is more expensive and the people are more focused on money.

The next day, we caught the ferry. I am still unable to comprehend how the boat took almost 3 hours to cover 40 kilometers, but somehow it did. We had to stop unexpectedly to rescue some people from another boat. I think that their boat sank (evidenced by the fact that only the very top was visible above water) but they were originally rescued by a tanker (the people were dry so we assumed that they were rescued quickly). The tanker was not going back to land anytime soon so the people jumped on our boat to get back and get sorted out. Sometimes you just have to fill in the pieces for entertainment value.

Cat Ba island was grey, rainy, and chilly the whole time we were there which is a negative side effect of visiting it in the low season. We did manage to score a room for $4/night though with a window/balcony overlooking the bay. Our climbing plans and motorbiking around the island plans were foiled by a) the rain and b) me being sick. It was really frustrating to try and find food that had any sort of nutritional value. Normally subsisting on pho and random snacks would be ok, but after a total system purge, I needed a little more...

After 2 nights, we decided to just cut our losses and head to Hanoi for a day and then leave Vietnam. Done, Done, and done.

Heading North (Hoi An to Hanoi)

Heading North

Hoi An to Da Nang:

We took the bus for this portion of the journey but this time without the chickens.

Da Nang to Hue:

I insisted that we take the train for this portion of the trip since it is supposed to be the most beautiful portion of train ride in the country. It was in fact really beautiful. The tracks follow the coast most of the way. I sat looking out the window and wondering how to get to all of the deserted white sand beaches we kept passing. I had plenty of time to ponder this as the train took 4 hours which is 2 hours longer than it is supposed to take.

Hue:

I had planned on being able to check out the Citadel for a few hours before heading on a night train or bus to Hanoi. Unfortunately, the timing did not quite work out and so Hue was only a brief moment in time for us. It seemed like a likeable little place though. There were lots of parks and flowers alongside the river. Also, it was obviously devoid of the 'made for tourists' feel of Hoi An.

We did have time to stock up on food before boarding the bus. I got a dessert which is largely inexplicable but was very tasty. The old woman scooped bananas, gelatin, nuts, taro paste, and other fruits and random things into a cup. Then she topped it with ice and condensed milk. After a 2 day chocolate hunt, I decided to eat with the locals eat for dessert. Mostly because I refused to pay US prices for a Mars Bar. The Vietnamese don't really have any chocolate bar equivalent.

To Hanoi:

The thing about Vietnam is that it is not of an insignificant size. Coming from Cambodia where the distances are short took a little getting used to. The other thing about Vietnam is that the 'open bus tour' scheme means that almost all tourists make the same trek up the coast and stop at all the same places. The good news is that it is fairly easy to arrange transportation. The bad news is that it is really hard to authentic vietnamese anything.

Since we are running short on time, we're sort of relegated to covering large distances quickly and staying on the tourist track. The overnight bus to Hanoi was largely uneventful. The bus drivers and assistants always seemed surprised when the bus makes a dinner stop and we walk to another restaurant to eat. We are always surprised at the way people file in like cattle to the overpriced restaurants and just pay extra for the crappy food.

Hoi An

Hoi An

The chicken bus dropped us off a little ways out of town. The motor bike guys said is was 4 km but since we are super fit, we managed to walk to the middle of town in 10 minutes. Amazing how those 4 km just ticked by.

Ok ok. Sarcasm aside, Hoi An immediately proved to be ruined by tourism. We went to probably 7 or 8 hotels and it was the same story: rooms started at $12 and included AC, hot water, and a pool. Yes, all of the hotels had pools- this is not usually the case. A motorbike driver told us about a place for $8. I have adopted a new policy which includes Never following a motorbike driver to any tourist destination including hotels. Walking up to a hotel with one of those guys is just shooting yourself in the foot. This guy wouldn't leave us alone though so we noted where the hotel was, went and had lunch, and then went back.. After some light negotiation, we got a room for $8. Success.

Hoi An is known for tailor-made clothing. There are hundreds of stores. It is impossible to stand on the side walk for more than 30 seconds without someone coming up to you and trying to get you to have clothing made at their shop. In the end, it proved to be too much of a daunting task. I didn't have enough prior knowledge and I didn't´have enough motivation to become a tailor made clothing expert.

Instead, we did some relaxing. The beach in Hoi An was actually pretty nice. The people selling coconuts, etc. Were only marginally obnoxious. The water was cool enough to be refreshing and overall the beach was clean and uncrowded. Much better than the reports I had heard from Nha Trang. In true Vietnamese style, at both of the beaches, people tried to wave us into parking lots for our bicycles. One guy looked pretty official with a baton and a whistle but we had previously been advised that paying for parking was a scam and not necessary.

Biking away from tourist towns seems to be my favorite activity these days. From a main road, we turned down a dirt/ grass path which cut between uber green rice fields. Riding on this stretch amidst palm trees, green grass, blue skies, and cows just hanging out evoked the 'I love this life' feeling that has been happening less frequently in the past few weeks.

I often have that happy feeling when I feel like I am in a part of the country that is just that country-not a production for tourists. I also have that feeling with interesting meal experiences not only because of the food but because of the opportunity to have 'normal' transactions with locals.

While I disagree with the many people who claim that Hoi An has amazing food, I would say that the food is the best part of Hoi An. It is also the last place we were getting somewhat reasonable prices: fresh beer for 4000dong and 2 coffees (+ 2 teas) for 10000 dong. We found a 'vegetable' lady down an alley who hooked up huge piles of veggies + rice + watermelon for 20,000dong each. Sweet sweet vegetables....

One night while on the prowl for dinner with another American couple, we passed by a local restaurant which looked interesting. After some pointing, gesturing, and conversing with a slightly intoxicated vietnamese customer, we successfully ordered a few plates of grilled chicken and okra which we wrapped up in mustard leaves and lettuce with cucumbers. There were 3 dipping sauces to choose from: soy sauce, a sweet chili sauce rendition, and some other totally unidentifiable sauce which turned out to be amazing. Thanks to our new friend, we were feasting like the locals. Sweet sweet success. The icing on the cake was when we observed the elderly woman taking money tallying up another customer's tab with an abacus. We stared in disbelief, then laughed, then stared in disbelief again. Only in Vietnam.

Coffee with a side of Tea (leaving Dalat)

Coffee with a side of Tea

Leaving Dalat was not easy. In retrospect, I should have spent more time there. Motivated by desire to see everything Vietnam has to offer, I headed to Nha Trang. Nha Trang is one of the big tourist destinations mainly for the beach. As a beach girl, of course I am drawn to the water no matter how much of a scene it is. Even if it is only for a short swim, the salt water always leaves me with a smile on my face. So, despite my initial attraction to seeing the beach in Vietnam I gave into my partnerś logical reasoning that Nha Trang would be a total zoo. Instead, we took the night train to Da Nang since the train doesnt stop in Hoi An.

The overnight trains tend to be 3 or 4 times the price of the overnight bus. There were 2 Vietnamese men in our 6 bed cabin. The Starer just stared at us all night. The Obnoxious guy played elevator music on his laptop all night and kept turning the main light on in the middle of the night. Finally, at 5:30 am, we made it to Da Nang. We walked towards the bus station and stopped for Coffee. The great thing about coffee in Southern Vietnam is that it comes with tea. Furthermore, it is perfectly acceptable and even encouraged to linger at the mini-chairs and tables for hours. I have yet to see anyone walking around (or on a motorbike) with a To go coffee.

From Da Nang, we caught the local bus to Hoi An. In an effort to blend in with the local women, I had purchased a SARS mask. Itś a nice blue flowery pattern. Women wear these things all the time. IT totally makes sense for dusty roads, but I'm perplexed about its purpose. So, I just refer to it as the SARS mask. The local bus had a marked price (10000 dong) on the side of the bus. The control freak assistant bus worker tried to charge us 20k each but backed off as soon as we pointed to the sign on the side. The control freak assistant #1 spent the remainder of the ride pushing people off the bus while the wheels were still rolling and practically hoisting new arrivals onto the bus. The highlight was when we stopped in the middle of nowhere and control freak assistant #1 loaded 15-20 large boxes on the bus. Upon further inspection, we realized that the boxes were chicken parts from Sanderson Farms in Mississippi.

I admit, I too am a (chicken) breast girl. My partner had been telling me all along that Americans only eat certain parts of chickens and ship the rest to Asia. Then all of a sudden we were on a bus with the evidence. I'm not sure how I feel about this. In Asia, Ive consistently been eating bowls of soup with chicken gristle, fat, and bones and only a bite or two of meat. There has to be a happy medium.

Arcoiris (Dalat)

This format is so cheesy- I know. I was trying to be creative and Dalat really left me feeling happy and cheesy so this is the result:

Red: The color of the cheapest wine I have ever bought. Grapes are 50000 dong per kilo but a bottle of wine is only 20000 dong- less than $1.25. The quality exceeded my expectations considering the price.

Pink: We arrived in Dalat on a pink bus. It pulled into a hotel parking lot diagonally where a security guard served as a physical barrier to keep out the touts.

Peach: The color of the hibiscus blooming on our balcony overlooking the lake. A middle aged woman popped out of her house as we walked down the street to invite us to look at her room for rent. I couldn't say no. The room had 3 beds, a canister with loose tea, a cute little tea set, a thermos of never ending hot water, a hot shower, and 4 glass door panels which folded back and opened to the balcony.

Yellow: Squash at the market. At 1500 meters, Dalat has a temperate climate which allows for beautiful vegetable crops. Baskets and baskets of artichoke, avocados, eggplant, greens, broccoli, cauliflower, purple cabbage, etc made my mouth water. It also made me wonder who was buying and cooking all these wonderful things which were not available at the market prepared food stalls. I did manage to find a roll your own spring roll stall. It was really fun for me and for the Vietnamese women who watched us flail at first.

Green: Green is everywhere in Dalat; the hills, grass, trees,etc. There are a few parks in town around the lake. I put on my running shoes for the first time in a month and did a lap around the lake and golf course. It was a great way to take in the scenery and the cool air.

Blue: The sky in Dalat is the perfect shade of blue. From the elevated section of the crazy house, i admired the beautiful hues of blue. The crazy house is the only touristy site we visited. Really, the only way to describe it is crazy. It brought to mind the gaudi architecture I had seen in spain. It was a small complex connected by curvy passage way and imaginative stairways which would not meet any us building codes.

Purple: I am not sure what kind of trees they are but there are tons of trees around with little light purple flowers. Overall, Dalat has a plethora of flowers; in the garden and surrounding the french architecture. Supposedly, Dalat is a honeymoon destination for the Vietnamese. The swan shaped boats paddling around the lake were a little too much but the rest was charming.

Brown: The color of the ca phe that is grown in the region. I was on a crack-uccino detox so I only had 1 iced coffee with the condensed milk. It came in a typical setup where the coffee drips through the grounds into the glass. When it is done, you remove the metal grounds holder, stir in the milk and pour it over ice. (this probably makes no sense without a picture of the contraption) The men-some with their moto helmets still on--huddled around an outside table playing dominoes completed the atmosphere.

Welcome to Vietnam (HCMC)

After the bus dropped us off outside of HCMC, we started walking towards the city center. One of the first things I did in Vietnam was weigh myself. I passed a pharmacy with a scale so I went in, took off my backpack, weighed myself, picked up my pack and walked out without anyone else even looking at me. Does CVS have free scales? If not, they should.

Next stop was my first bowl of pho in Vietnam. Once again, what started out as a pleasant experience turned sour when I went to pay. The first problem was that we did not have any Vietnamese Dong and so we tried to pay with US dollars. It is common practice in Cambodia to pay with dollars but not so much in Vietnam like our guidebook stated. The woman tried to give us an exchange rate that was about 60% of what it should be. I waited at the scowling ladyś food stall while my partner found an ATM to get some VND.

HCMC traffic is slightly more organized than traffic in Cambodia, but the volume is so much more that crossing that merely crossing the street is a daunting undertaking. You just have to creep across the street without stopping or making any sudden moves. This gives the motorbikes time to change their path and swerve around pedestrians. They're used to it. The problems start when there are cars involved. Cars block the moto's ability to swerve and just clog things up in general. Anyhow, we were able to hail a bus and get to the city center for 3000 VND each. I can not even imagine driving a bus in the city. What a disaster!

Finding a place to stay in the backpacker district took about 5 minutes. Two Vietnamese ladies spotted us and started fighting over us. They led us down a maze of alley ways to peoples homes. We looked at a few rooms and finally selected one for $8. Basically, families are renting out their bedrooms to tourists. You don't have to find them. The ladies in charge of this operation will definitely find you.

Our place: You take off your shoes and walk through the living room/kitchen. There is no furniture. The people lounge on mats on the floor while staring at the TV mounted in the corner. The space is very narrow. After going upstairs, there are 2 bedrooms which are also for rent. We opted for the attic room. Getting to the room requires going up an additional staircase and then climbing through a trap door. Yeah, the trap door makes me laugh every time. It definitely feels really awkward when I come in at night and people lying on the floor have to scoot over so I can tip-toe between motorbikes and people through to the stairway. Prices in HCMC have increased a lot recently so I just hope that my $8 is helping them out. Wandering through the maze, it appears that most families have the same set up.

So far, the city has a vibrant energy and is far different than anything you would find in Cambodia. It feels decades ahead of Cambodia, but still much different than the US.

Leaving Cambodia

10 days is only enough to scratch the surface. I experienced pleasant bike rides, beautiful scenery, and satisfying transactions with the locals. I also experienced attempts to get short changed, locals changing the price when I went to pay, and people flat out lying to me.

In any country, there is always good and bad. I am in no position nor do I have adequate information to judge any country. I can only say that there are some unfortunate things happening in Cambodia: the corrupt government is selling its national treasures to foreigners, the Cambodians are attempting to base an entire economy on tourism, large NGO presence may or may not be producing any results aside from bringing large SUVs to the country, and foreign aid keeps rolling in.

I would love to see Cambodia emerge from its struggles and build a strong economy like its neighbors. I just think that some fundamental things have to change before it is even possible.

Phnom Penh (Cambodia)

Once again, I opted for the shared taxi system to Phnom Penh. It is a horrible system. The Cambodians need old school buses to use as public transportation. Locals get around on flat trailers pulled by small motorcycles, by shoving themselves into the back of pickup trucks, and by cramming into mini-vans. All of these forms of transport involve waiting in the vehicle until it fills up. This could take hours. Also, people travel with so much cargo that the vans are usually fully loaded down on the roof and out the back. It is common to see motor bikes and bicycles sticking out of the back of vans.

I took my first tuk-tuk ride in Cambodia because we got dropped off 5km from the city. That is usually our cut-off for walking. Plus, we have screwed ourselves over too many times by refusing transportation so this time, we went for it. Phnom Penh traffic is pretty crazy. Cars, bikes, motorbikes, tractors, etc come from every direction. Most intersections don't have stop signs or lights so everyone just weaves in and out until they get across. The stoplights at the few intersections where they exist are mere suggestions.

The backpacker section by the lake is definitely cheap, grotty, and slightly sketchy. Everyone wants to sell you something- lodging, transportation, drugs, tours, etc. The brown lake is pretty disgusting but the sunsets are pretty. The best deal in the district is the $2 all you can eat Indian lunch special. Indian is quickly becoming my favorite. It is always so tasty and provides what I can only describe as comfort as the flavors dance around.


On to serious matters: the next day, we rented bicycles and headed to the killing fields. Yes, despite being terrified of the traffic, I let my partner convince me that cycling would not be a problem. The 7 or 8 kilometers through the city were adrenaline filled and went by quickly. The intersections were the worst part. Since the traffic moves fairly slowly (20-30 km/hr) it was ok.

I admit- I was pretty ignorant as to the Khmer Rouge and its regime in Cambodia. After spending time at S-21 and the Killing fields, I feel like an expert on the subject. Visiting those two sites in one day was absolutely depressing. There is absolutely no reason that genocidal measures should take place anywhere ever again.

After not being able to stomach anymore information about the Khmer Rouge, we made plans to move on. Phnom Penh is an ok little city, but with less than 2 months to go, I am starting to feel the time crunch. Time to move on.

Who am I? (Cambodia)

Who am I?

After reflection upon my price-obsessed state of mind, I felt I needed to do a little clarification.

After 5 months out of the US and 3 months in SE Asia, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I hope to gain from traveling and what motivates me to keep traveling. It is easy to sort of coast through Thailand, Cambodia, etc. and just stay in the tourist bubble. I have only met a few people who want to ask questions and dig deeper.

I think my main motivator is curiosity. I want to know how things work in other countries. What kind of transportation they have, what kind of food they eat, what kind of beliefs the people have, what kind of customs still exist, etc. As my partner puts it, I am after the fly on the wall experience. I want to be able to experience life as the locals do. I don't feel like I deserve special treatment because of my skin color or nationality. I love pristine desolate beaches as much as the next beach girl but I don't think that the Thais or the Vietnamese should cater that to me because I am a westerner. By the same token, I don't feel like I should be taken advantage of because of my skin tone or nationality. If I want to sign up for a $500 per night resort, then I will do that and pay $500. But if I sign up for a meal on the street, I want to pay approximately what locals pay. Not 2 or 3 times the price that the people beside me pay for the same meal.

I enjoy checking out some tourist attractions ( Angkor Wat, etc.) but the more I travel, the more rewarding I find local markets and the less rewarding I find the tourist attractions. Markets tend to be the places where I seek refuge after being ripped off or being part of the tourism zoo. Jumping on a bike and getting out of the town or city a little ways also helps too. If I had to sum it up, my mission statement would be: to learn, to understand, and to grow. All of this of course being done with as little impact as possible on the Earth and on the cultures I visit. I don't tip or hand out candy to kids. I don't buy bottled water. I don't hand out money to beggars but will share my fruit with them if they will accept it (many won't.) Ok, soapbox mode is off.


What is my blog about?

Originally it was more geared towards sharing personal growth while chronicling my travels. At this point, I feel like it should include some trip report content in addition to isolated stories and feelings. After looking at other peoples blogs, I have realized that things are really different in this part of the world and I have normalized a lot of it which makes it hard to explain myself to those people who have not traveled here. So I am switching over to documenting some of those differences to provide more context.

Khmer Food (Cambodia)

So at this point in my journey, I admit that I might have been a little obsessed with food and food prices. But, checking out the local food and avoiding getting totally ripped off all the time are priorities for me.

One of the good things about this fairly small country is that there is not a lot of food variation by region so prices are pretty standard. How much one pays is largely dependent on the types of places where he eats and how willing he is to negotiate. Here are the prices I paid. I know for a fact that the noodle soup was local price. As for the rest, I'm not sure but I think I was paying fair prices. This is not meant to brag about low prices but to give an ideal of how much things cost.


Exchange rate: $1US=4000 riel if you pay in dollars and get change (dollars are accepted everywhere). If you change money at the market, you can get 4100 riel for $1US. The XE.com rate is irrelevant. Not sure why they bother.


•Noodle soup: Found in food stalls and food carts in the morning. It is usually green, red or clear. Add the miscellaneous leaves, green beans, sprouts, sauces, and lime. I routinely paid 2000r for 1 bowl of basic soup around siem reap and central cambodia. They will usually try to charge 4000 for one but come down in price immediately. When the mystery meats get involved, the price goes up to around 3000. The 5000r soup is better but it's not worth twice the price for a few bits of chicken gristle.

•Fried rice/noodle/vegetable stands. 4000r is what I would expect to pay for 1 plate of vegetables and an accompanying plate of rice. If the food stall has a menu in English, it is the same as all the others floating around. The price might be different but it is more of a suggestion which is open to negotiation-especially around sr.

•The cauldrons: Another way to load up on veggies. The food is made fresh twice a day. In the market it is 3000 for a bowl of rice with a few scoops of veggies on top. The precooked veg are usually dark green and have bits of meat mixed in . At one food stall in kampot, I paid 2000r for each plate of veg and 1000 for rice. Usually, there's a wide selection of meat and meat products as well.

•Baguette sandwiches: Standard price is 3000r for the pate special. I usually get everything except for the fat globules. If you just want bread, find the ladies selling only bread and it is 500r for a sandwich size a d 1000 for the bigger size.

•Fruit shakes: No need to pay more than 3000r. Best price I found was 2000r with the option to add an egg for 500r. Soursop, winter melon, and jack fruit are the tropical fruit stars for shakes.

•Coconuts: Best price 1500r for 1. Highest price I paid 2000r

•Coffee: Iced coffee with sugar is 1000r to 1500r. Iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk is 2000 to 2500r. Go to the places with old men sitting around and don't neglect the post coffee free tea.

•Fruit and veg: oranges-4000r for 1 kilo of the smaller, less pretty ones. Bananas-2000/kilo. Dragonfruit- 4000-5000r/kilo. Cucumbers- 700r/kilo. Eggplant-3000/kilo. Mango-3000r/kilo. Most fruit starts around 4000-7000r/kilo. Must negotiate.

•Pau: Pau is the omnipresent breakfast/snack food. I believe it is of Chinese origin. It is that white bready blob with pork, chicken, red bean paste, coconut, etc. inside. In Cambodia, I routinely paid 1500 for one.

•Baby duck egg (duck embryo) 1100-1500r for 1 egg. Don't forget the condiments. See Quest for Nutrition post for details.

Kampot (Cambodia)

Discouraged and disgusted with Sihanoukville, my partner and I set off for Kampot. One shared taxi ride and a few hours later, life improved dramatically. Normally, I am anti-taxi. In this case, the taxi was the same price as the bus and it was faster. Also, since we stuffed 8 people in the Camry for the 2 hour trip, I did not feel like I was really indulging in a luxury.

Kampot is a lovely little town on the river. You can pay $50US to stay at the lodge just across for the river. We spent a little while contemplating what exactly you get for that amount of money- AC, hot water, and breakfast included should only be around $15-20. What could possible justify the extra cost? I guess we'll never know. The river view wasn't that amazing. Anyhow, we stayed at LongVilla. Despite the mention in the LP, the rate has not tripled like all the others. $5 still gets you a decent room.

Part of the intrigue of Kampot was visiting Bokor Hill- a national park up a hill. Unfortunately, the Cambodians have recently sold it to the french who are constructing a 500 room resort. It is now closed to visitors as the road is being used for 'construction vehicles' which may be 'dangerous.'

With Bokor out of the running, we rented a motorbike and headed East. Kep is a small town nearby which represents huge contrasts. There are abandoned buildings next to nice, new resorts. Also perplexing are the stalls of pre-set up hammocks. I wasn't sure if the locals rented them for hanging out or if there was some other system. Cambodians tend to do quite a bit of lounging. We took advantage of a lounging structure to stop and have a snack.


Once of the coolest stops of the day was at a pepper plantation. (Pepper as in the companion of salt, not chili peppers). I had never seen the way the peppercorns grow on trees. It is pretty neat. The owner of the plantation also provided us with some of the best jackfruit I have ever had. I have been eating jackfruit for only a few months but I have eaten it in enough countries to know that this was pretty amazing. I wanted to purchase a bag of peppercorns but couldn't really justify carrying around 1 kilo of pepper for 6 weeks.


Kampot was a very necessary stop and more of the relaxed pace of life I have come to love.