More travelling

My last two weeks were in Vietnam. I've just had one week of teaching and now this weekend I'm flying to Hong Kong. I won't have another holiday for a while. We'll leave today (Friday) and get back on Monday. It'll be nice to stay in Bangkok next weekend. It's exciting to travel to other countries, but it can be a little tiring. I'm going with five friends. None of us have been to Hong Kong before. I'm not sure what we'll be doing. I think we'll go to a famous peak to see a view of the city. But I'll let you know the details when I get back. I'm putting pictures from my Vietnam trip on-line today. Check my photo website: http://photos.yahoo.com/steven_c19

Take care.

How to Speak Australian

Aussie Lesson

I'm back in Bangkok or Bangers as the Aussies call it.  Is there nothing they won't abbreviate?  I learned a lot of Aussie lingo during the trip because I was roomming with Andrew Ross.  His family lives in Canberra and he went to Uni (University) there, but he doesn't say he's from there.  He grew up in some small towns in the state of New South Wales.  So now I can speak a little Australian. 

-G'day mate.

-How ya' goin' mate? 

-What's on the salvo? 

-Gonna drink a few frostys. 

-Fairdinkem!

-Hey, I gotta run to the dunny.

-Ok. Cheers mate.

Translation:

-Hey, man.

-What's up?

-What are you up to later?

-Gonna drink a few beers.

-True.  Right on! 

-Hey, I gotta go to the bathroom.

-Ok.  Later man.

By the way, don't tell an Aussie that you are rooting for a team.  I said my friends were rooting for Brisbon during the Australian Football Grand Final.  Rooting means having sex.  My friends were definitely spirited, but they were only cheering for their team.   Supposedly, Aussies and Americans speak the same language.

We met an Aussie expat in Hanoi.  He'd been there for four years and he'd been married to a Vietnamese lady for two.  Between him and Andrew I got I nice informal lesson while we were sitting on kindergarten chairs on a street corner buying drinks for about ten cents each.

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Traveling Problems

Most of you have probably seen the movie The Terminal.  I can't imagine being in the same situation, but I can relate to unforeseen problems at the airport.  I didn't get stranded, but if I had been traveling alone it could have been a different story.  I ran out of money.  More accurately I ran out of baht.  I had 170,000 Vietnamese dong which is about $11 US, but there was no place to exchange dong.  I had almost no baht in my Thailand account.  My paycheck hadn't cleared the bank yet.  I had been counting on that money to be there.  I had one traveler's check left, but I had mistakenly signed it already.  Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.  I should have changed some of my dong back to dollars at my hotel in Hanoi.  If I hadn't had friends with me then I would have had no way to pay for the taxi ride home.  But I was fortunate enough to be traveling with generous friends.  I've learned a lesson.

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Voting

I received my absentee ballot.  I'm looking into how to send it the quickest way.  I sent for it twice.  There might be a problem with my residency since I filed it differently the second time.  But I'm still in Texas so I should be able to vote.

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More of my Journey from Vietnam

Xin Chao!

I've been in Vietnam for a week now. I'm going from South to North. I started in Saigon and I'm in Hoi An right now. I love it here. It's a great place to relax, and there are plenty of wonderful things to see. I didn't stay in Nha Trang for very long. I only was there for a day. I didn't see much of the beach, but it was very beautiful. I went diving and then I went out at night. Diving wasn't as good as it was at Ko Pi Pi in Thailand. But I did see a moray eel and an octopus. And now I am certified to dive in Open Water. I won't ever dive without a dive master though. I don't feel confident enough to do that, and it's good to always dive with someone who knows the local waters anyway.

I met a guy from China. He was really nice, and he spoke English well. He insisted that we had to visit China.

He saw that I was reading a book about China and he said we have a proverb in China: "It is better to walk 10 kilometers than to read 10,000 books about a place."

I agree. I would love to visit China. I'll make it to Hong Kong, but I won't be able to visit the mainland in the near future. Our Chinese friend lives a short distance from Hong Kong. We may see him again. He might also visit us in Bangkok.

As I said, I've really enjoyed my time in Hoi An. So far I've gone on two tours. Yesterday we went on a tour of the old city. We saw temples that were mostly decorated in Chinese Buddhist style. One had ornate dragon statues made of shiny, colorful pieces of glass.

The city has retained much of its identity from its ancient past. It used to be a major port of trade for merchants from China and other places about two centuries ago. Then the rivers dried up. This helped preserve its heritage. We learned some of the history at a museum and also at an ancient house that has been owned by one family for centuries.

Today I went on a tour of My Son. The Cham people built temples when they lived in the area from the 4th to the 13th century. The place was left in ruins from bombing during the Vietnamese-American War. They worshiped Hindu gods. It was a fascinating place. Archaeologists still cannot explain how the temples were held together.

Then we went on a boat to a pottery village. I had a chance to try to make some pottery on a spinning wheel. My bowl turned out half-decent. It was very difficult, but the village people made it look so easy. Then we went to a woodcraft village and saw carpenters making ships, furniture, statues and all sorts of beautiful crafts.

Tomorrow I'll see China Beach and the Marble Mountains. Then I'll take a cooking course in the evening. All this sounds expensive, but it is not beyond my budget. Things are very cheap here. We are staying Hoi An a day longer than we planned because we were unable to get sleeper beds on a train to Hanoi. There are worse places to get stranded in. No one is complaining. We may even go to a lunar festival tonight.

During my trip I've seen many beautiful Vietnamese women, but I'm not advertising that I'm single. The Vietnamese people like to play matchmakers. They don't understand why anyone doesn't have someone else. A bartender claimed he was a fortune teller and he said Cyndi and I would be a great couple. She's one of my friends traveling with us. It was funny because he said that Andrew Ross, my Aussie friend, would not be a good match for her. He got upset when Cyndi told Andrew. He didn't want Andrew to feel bad. He denied it. Then he told Cyndi that fortunes are not supposed to be shared. Fortunes about the heart are a secret.

Well I've gotta go. There is still a lot of time left tonight to go out.

I'll write again soon.

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Hello Saigon!

Xin Gio! I am having a good time in Vietnam! Right now I'm in Saigon with two friends. I've been here for three nights. I'm enjoying the food. I've had pho and spring rolls. I also liked Vietnamese Iced Tea.

Saigon is officially called Ho Chi Minh City. Uncle Ho's communist forces invaded or "liberated" Saigon on 30 April 1975. But many locals still call it Saigon. One local said with a bit of resentment that Saigon is the capitalist name not the communist name. The city has about 8 million residents. The traffic is crazy. I have never seen such chaos. Following the traffic lights is optional. Everyone just goes when there is an opening. I'll have to double check, but I think a tour guide said that there were about 20,000 traffic accidents last year.

Most people ride around on motorbikes- either made in China or Japan. Our tour guide said there are 2 million of them in Saigon. According to him 1 out of 8 people owns one in Vietnam. Vietnam has about 80 million people. That's a lot of bikes. They only cost about $400 American.

The road is also filled with cyclos (rickshaws) which are wheeled carts attached to bicycles and people carrying heavy loads of food or goods. Sometimes animals get into the road too.

Fortunately, we became friends with a girl who took us on a tour of the city. We went to the War Museum, Notre Dame, and the Chinese Market. The War Museum was a heart-breaking place. There were many disturbing pictures, but the ones that stand out were of the children who were deformed by Agent Orange. Yesterday we went on a tour of the Mekong Delta. There were floating markets on the river. We also saw women making spring rolls and heard some farmers play music.

Today we went to the Cu Chi tunnels. I crawled around in one of the tunnels. It was very small. One lady in front of us was panicking. She couldn't see very well and wasn't sure if the guide was in front of her.

Our tour guide was funny today. He joked that sometimes he looses tourists in the tunnels. He said, "Some go all the way to Cambodia without a visa."

We're leaving tonight to go Nha Trang. Three friends are there already. We're going scuba diving. We'll fly out of Hanoi to Bangkok on the 17th. I don't know what else we'll do before then.

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