TransContinental

December 11th turned into November 1st. Life is always unpredictable isn't it? I won't blather on for long about my time here, that's what the blog archives are for. However, I think today was the perfect end to a somewhat imperfect experience.

1. While sitting in the park enjoying some dried sweet potato and soy milk, one of my students busts out in an N'Sync song complete with some break dance moves. After he was done he looks at me and asks if I like N'sync. Words could not explain my excitement.

2. 6 Vietnamese teenagers and myself on tandem bicycles, in a skirt no less.

3. Eating che chuoy (banana sweet soup) with my class while they keep yelling at each other to speak English.

and finally...

4. A wonderfully western dinner with some great friends and my favorite little dude (since when do I like kids?!) As well as a few intense games of Dutch Blitz.

2009 has been a year full of lemons and I'm planning on opening up my own lemonade stand very soon. Pink and regular on sale until December 31st.

I have 2 more sets of Vietnam pictures. The first is from the Valley of Love when my fellow KKG'er came to visit Dalat and the second will be posted when I am back on US soil. I think I'll put my camera down for a nap, however my next adventure begins in February when I move to Wyoming to assume the spot of official Air Force girlfriend. I promise Canon will come back to life in full force!

Stay tuned....

Enjoy below and here.

Some Me Time

Sometimes it really does take a day all by yourself to put things into perspective. Add in the serenity and awe-inspiring view of the Angkor Wat temple and you've got yourself a revelation. No better place to ponder matters then in the shadow of the largest religious structure on the globe.

Whether your thoughts are geared toward God, Buddha or Shiva, it is easy to feel closer to them while being here. The Khmer people wanted to get as close to the heavens as possible, so they concentrated much of their construction efforts skyward. Maybe they were on to something.

Although I was enjoying the peace and quiet, it was very difficult to turn down my fellow mid-twenty's motorbike driver when he invited me to go and drink with his friends in the park. Old habits die hard, I guess. Nevertheless, I politely declined and read my book from the comfort of the balcony hammock for the rest of the afternoon. In Cambodia it doesn't get any better then that.

Enjoy Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and Angkor Thom here and below.

Cambodia and Nothing to Say

I'm suffering from a bit of writers block or perhaps just lack of motivation. Nevertheless my first full day in Cambodia was everything I thought it would be. Filled with temples, temples and more temples...and maybe a massage thrown in there for good measure.

Enjoy the set below and here.

12 Hours & a Chicken Sandwich Later

I loved Cambodia. It was the perfect mix of familiar and un, all wrapped up into one. The amount of poverty contrasted with their amazing command of the English language is what surprised me the most.

Although the 12 hour bus ride from HCMC was grueling, I wouldn't have done it any other way, for the chance to see the countryside of this recently war-torn country was priceless. Tourism was, within the past decade, reintroduced to Cambodia following the atrocities and genocide forced on the nation by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

Despite this astronomical setback, one would never know the nation was forced back to Year Zero only a few decades ago. In Siem Reap, the town just outside the Angkor Temples, the variety of western amenities rivals that of only the biggest tourist cities in Vietnam. Many people from home thought I was facing certain death by venturing over the Cambodian border. However, my fate was much sweeter; that of $10 massages, adorable children, friendly Buddhist monks and and ruins rivaled only by the final scene in Planet of the Apes.

Enjoy my ride from Saigon to Siem Reap (with a pit stop in Phnom Phen) below and here.

A Year Older

I aged in Saigon - literally. I spent a wonderful birthday weekend with some equally wonderful friends, doing everything American and girly to boot. Dishing about boys, drinking beer and indulging in some much needed Pizza Hut, unfortunately sans bread sticks.

While growing older and wiser I came to some conclusions after this weekend:

1. An American entering the Vietnam War Museum feels exponentionally more American right after crossing the doorway. Not in a good way.

2. Alcohol makes me much more fluent in Vietnamese. Especially when trying to haggle with the cab driver to give us the correct change. Hai muoi, hai muoi, hai muoi!

3. Bad American movies are also bad in Vietnam, go figure.

Enjoy Uncle Ho's city below and here.

Halfway Home

As I will be lighting on out of here the beginning of December, I just passed the halfway mark of my journey. When I look back it seems as if so much has happened, yet feels like just yesterday I was bidding farewell to my family, friends and Taco Bell. I have been feeling a twinge of the homesick doldrums as of late and this quick passage of time is proving to be quite reassuring.

I really am enjoying most of my time here and the next month and a half is shaping up to be much more exciting with trips to Cambodia, the Mekong Delta and Thailand in my future. Perhaps its not as much homesickness as it is SE Asia wanderlust. Although I am in Vietnam, small town life can be claustrophobic whether you're on domestic or foreign soil.

It was great having some familiar faces in DaLat this weekend and despite the trepeditation caused by thinking about Vietnam + cable car, we decided to brave it. Although it was a cloudy day the view was gorgeous and gave a nice idea what was past the DaLat border.

This experience is one much more appreciated post-return home then while immersed. The mundane tasks of everyday life in Vietnam will be washed away with the memory's tendency to make more vivid the truly good and truly bad experiences of 4 months away. I know this to be a fact so I am enjoying everyday here to its potential and letting things that can only be described with TIV roll off my back with least resistance possible.

I have, however, made a few discoveries over the past few days that are perhaps worth noting...I love tofu, don't really miss American food anymore, and pedicures lift the spirit no matter what country you're in.

Enjoy the wonder that is the DaLat Cable Car below and here.

Intermission Entertainment

This week I had 2 lovely ladies visit me in Da Lat. It was great to have some quality time with friends and definitely restored some of my sanity which may have been lost in transit. Although, I do have large purple bruises on my legs from the massages we received yesterday. I would qualify it as more of a physical assault then massage, but hey, TIV, I guess.

I am getting caught up on the photos I took from the places we ventured, so I thought I might provide you with something to keep you busy while you wait with baited breath for my next set of pictures. Or maybe just regular breath...

My good friend and fellow photographer sent me this link the other day. He couldn't stop clicking and neither could I. The idea is that every time (or as much as your budget can afford) someone asks you for spare change you give them $2 and ask for a photo. Ask a little bit about them, snap a few pictures and be on your way. The combination of the moving images and equally moving stories make for a great distraction from the fact that Manhattan isn't just right outside my door or maybe you just want to escape from your cubicle for awhile.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/2dollarportraits/

My Street is Acutally Multi-Directional

I realized today, while pondering my pre-lunch stroll destination, that I live on a big hill, yet in the almost two months that I have been here I have never walked any farther up the hill then reaching home called for. So, I decided to spice up my life. I walked up the hill.

Although the scenery was beautiful, like all of DaLat, I realized why it was okay that I never ventured up. Everything is down. Aside from some gigantic houses (strange) and a row of 5 shops, each emblazoned with strawberry signs selling what I can only assume to be everything strawberry, I realized that no one here goes up. Only me and the people craving what looked to be strawberry wine, tea, juice and large jars of pickled something. I'm going to put my money on strawberries.

So, as my photographic ambition is to capture something out of nothing, I took the opportunity to employ that and captured away.

Enjoy my ascent below and here.

Dragons, Mooncakes and Drums... Oh My!

This weekend was a festival celebrating the 15th of August. Yes, I realize that it was October 3rd, but perhaps the reason everything is so backwards here is because they use two calendars! (lunar & regular)

Mid-Autumn Festival was this weekend and I think this is one tradition I am going to bring home with me. Streets were packed with motorbikes, people, dragons and handmade floats which were painstakingly constructed with bamboo and cellophane. American parades have a lot to learn from the Vietnamese; no more boring marching bands, waving Boy Scouts or giant, deadly balloons. Just add a touch of anarchy and a pinch of vodka guzzling fire-breathers and you have yourself an amazing parade. I can certainly attest.

With a dinner of Cha Ram Bap (corn spring rolls in peanut sauce) and a desert of Kem (ice cream) in my belly, some of my students, American friends and I immersed ourselves in the throng of holiday revelers.

It is traditional for the children and adults alike to carry lanterns in this crazy procession. The traditional paper ones have a candle inside, however I opted for the light up
faux-Minney&Mickey which played It's a Small World. Why not right? When in Rome - or Vietnam - buy the chintziest thing possible to blend in.

Enjoy the festival below and here.

P.S. Sorry for the profanity...blame John.

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

I am an innately messy person, therefore according to that ancient proverb I am akin to Satan himself. I think it was my way of rebelling when I was younger, being that I was too afraid to get in trouble for anything else. I used to tell my mother that the reason my room was a black hole was because cleaning was so much less important then all my other, apparently pressing, obligations. She would always roll her eyes and tell me to clean it anyways.

I still find that cleaning is way down on my list of priorities. Even the mail guy at my former place of employment told my friend he knew I'd left because my cubicle was finally clean. I still protest with a cry of organized chaos! As long as I know where everything is no one else has to, right?

Prologue aside, water in Vietnam is not potable even for the hardened natives, so we all drink out of large office water cooler-esque jugs. Mine was delivered today by the mother who runs the corner shop, whom we have become quite neighborly with. She even ran after John and I the other night with a bag of steaming potatoes for a snack.

Needless to say, I knew my room was really messy and thought I might have a chance to clean it up before she arrived. Unfortunately for me, and perhaps her, she was too speedy on her motorbike and reached my house before I finished my trek up the hill. She knows no English, so my explinations of, "sorry, its so messy", were lost in translation.

About 15 minutes later her daughter burst into my room freaking out that there were robbers and wondering if my stuff had been stolen. Apparently, her mother had pulled her out of her bath and made her run up the hill because, clearly, someone had ransacked my room given its current state of disarray.

Maybe this is what addicts refer to as rock bottom. When your room is so messy that it looks like a crime has been committed I think its time to turn over a new leaf...or maybe just my cleaning habits.

Where is my broom again?

P.S. I did a shoot of DaLat University today, who says you shouldn't still be in college at 23! Maybe a slight role reversal though...enjoy below and here.
A bit of typhoon damage showcased towards the end of the set.