China Part1 Nanning-Chengdu

Compared to Vietnam, China is extremely commericalized, and yes, the whole world agrees that Kobe is the best basketball player in the world. Every city has these giant mega malls, with tons of neon lights.

Tea is served at every meal. Also, the Chinese spend whole afternoons at teahouses. The tea house give you loose leaf tea, and a jug of water. The tea leaves lasts for 20 cups of tea, which means that the 1st 5 cups of tea are going to be undrinkably strong

Yes, It is that part of the world

From Guilin, we went to Yungshou, a small town surrounded in all directions by the karst mountains. Renting a bike and exploring the scenery along the river was relaxing.

At our cooking class, we made garlic eggplant, sweet and sour pork and handrolled beef dumplings. When I get back, don't keep your expectations too high, but I am pretty sure I can make it better than Panda Express.

We are like celebrities here - It seems like almost daily that we get asked to pose for a picture with a stranger. Also, 5 times a day little kids run up to us and say "Hello, where are you from"

People say that temples are the same as cathedrals, once you've seen one, you've seen all of them. However, I have found temples much more relaxing. Temples have people meditating in the gardens or relaxing by the pond.

At the panda center in Chengdu, we saw red pandas and adult pandas at feeding time. I tried ripping through bamboo with my hands and it didn't work out to well for me. Those pandas have quite strong claws.

Everything is fake here - Some of the Swooshes on logos are laughable. Most Adidas or Nike clothing also has the brand of the company that manufatured it. This guy conned us into stayed at his hostel in Yungshou by telling us it was "HI" (or "hosteling international"). They even made a fake HI placard.

This is the result of traditional chinese medicine- After putting cups on your back, they light them on fire to create a vacuum. They basically pull the underlying tissue up to try to get rid of all the toxins. I look like I have been bean bag gun shooting practice.

Hanoi-Halong Bay-Sapa

Snake Village - When we got to Hanoi, we met up with Jaycie and spent an afternoon at Snake Village. They took a live snake, slit its throat, and put a still beating snake heart in a shot glass, which we got to eat.


Then they turned the snake into a 6 course meal, and gave us unlimited snake wine







Uncle Ho Forever - Like the Pope, the Vietnamese have embalmed Ho Chi Minh's body and put it on display for everyone to see. (No cameras were allowed)










A foggy dream – Ha Long Bay has 2000 karst islands darting through the bay surface, surreally masked by the intense fog. It was unlike anything else I had experienced.













The water was quite cold but kayaking around the islands was a highlight. We stopped to spelunk at an island with a cave. Jaycie and I stayed an extra day because we didn't want to leave this unreal place. On our extra day we had a hike with the unbelievably lush plant growth. We heard monkeys but could not see them. At the top of our hike, there was a rickety water tower about 100 feet high. Every step that everyone took shook the tower. Also, the last step was missing so we had to jump over a gap to get onto the top platform. Definitely not built to US quality control standards.


Eastern "Medicine" - Our guide bought this bottle for his father. Inside are 6 fermenting geckos and 4 fermenting sea horses. Apparently this drink is "very good for old man" "Makes him sooo strong"














So how do I drive this thing? - Jaycie and I rented a motorcycle for a few days to explore the small villages in Sapa, the jungle region. The road to the villages was carved into the side of a steep mountain, with gigantic drops (and breathtaking views of endless rice paddies) - not the best place to learn how to ride a bike. Just as I was getting a feeling as to how to handle the bike, a stream interrupted the road. I stopped about 20 feet before the start of the stream, which I could see was 6-8 inches deep, and rocky. There was no easy way around the water so I cautiously eased in, with no momentum. As we hit the deep part of the stream my front tire hit a rock and we felt our bike tipping over to the right. I hit the gas as hard as I could and my front tire lifted out of the water. As we came out the other side, I sent Jaycie air born. He miraculously landed in his seat, and I sorted the steering out. Needless to say, we both started screaming in elation. When the driver of the bike is screaming expletives, its not so fun to be the passenger.


Not as scary as they look - Water buffalo have big horns. Which made me a bit wary about getting too close. But later I was little village kids riding them like horses. I did muster up the courage to pet one walking in the middle of the road. However, I was prepared to set my personal record in the 40 yard dash






Ban Ho Minority Village Homestay – After a few hours of cliffside riding, Jaycie and I spent a night at a local village. Everyone was really nice, and family that we stayed with spoke English and wanted to know more about California.








The calming sounds of a nose flute - On our train back from the jungle region, this guy sat next to us, played Beethoven's 9^th Symphony with a wooden flute through his nose. For our 11 hour bus ride we bought the $4 hard seat tickets that mainly the locals ride. They never sell out of train seats. If all the seats fill up, they start selling B-tickets. Ticket 22B means you have to stand or sit on the grimy floor near seat 22.

Other crazy things I've seen on a bike – over 1,000 bananas, a pony, 30 chicken in 2 crates, a family of 5, 14 20-liter (about 5 gallons) bottles of water.










Girl Possessed - This girl followed me around for 10 solid minutes trying to get me to buy a hand woven cell phone holder/purse. I didn't have money on me but I couldn't translate that to her. And I couldn't outrun outmaneuver her on the rocky muddy trail. I had to use Jaycie as a human shield, until she got distracted by another tourist. Serious persistence!







Matching Ladies – There are a ton of fabric stores around here. I only presume that every lady pics out a pattern and says “tailor me a matching jump suit”

Nha Trang-Hoi An

Hey guys, sorry for taking so long to but this blog up. I wrote it about 2 weeks ago, but I have not had the time to upload the pics and finalize it.

Boat Cruisin' - Nha Trang was big backpacker destination. One of the main draws is a day long cruise to 4 islands with snorkeling, a nice beach and a Vietnamese feast. I went on the cruise with Sarah, the English girl we traveled with through 3 cities, and met quite a few other backpackers. When we went out to a bar at night with the people I met on the day cruise, I ran into a few Aussies I met in Mui Ne. Somewhere between walking drunk people back to their guest houses between 4 and 5 AM, I decided to set my alarm for 8AM and join the Aussies as they were doing the cruise the next day. 2 days of boat cruising made me pretty tired.

It was nice how Nha Trang accommodated Westerners, but there were all kinds of people out to get your money. A bar worker took a full drink off our table, and made us buy another drink. When we begrudgingly did this, they tried to keep our change. Also, there was a band of pickpockets that the police looked the other way about. The further north we got, the more crime there seemed to be.




Easy Riders– From Nha Trang, Andrew and I took a 3 day motorcycle tour through the central highlands. One of our guides was an ex-South Vietnamese soldier in the US-Vietnam war. He had an amazing life story. After the south lost the war, he was sent up to the north for 4 years of “re-education” camp to learn how to be a good communist. Afterwards he took his family on a tiny canoe, and tried to escape Vietnam. He got caught and was “re-educated” for another 4 years. He had a very different view of the US war effort. He thought that we were in there for the right reason, we were just hesitant and unorganized. He thinks that if the war had been popular back at home, history would be written differently.

All the pics except for the last 2 were on our easy rider tour:


The real back country -Some of the views on the passes were incredible. This ride really changed my view of Vietnam. There is so much untouched land. It was dry season, so there weren't as many swampy areas as I thought. Also, the government has spent a lot of resources replanting trees since 1975 because whole groves have been wiped out with Napalm

Hook and Line -For the amount of resources given to them, the Vietnamese are extremely clever. In America everything that can be automated is. In Vietnam, labor and cost of living are so cheap, many more things are done by hand. Also, they don't have the infrastructure to handle or create the mass production that we have in the states. Boats go out for up to 45 days at a time, but they do not have refrigeration. Instead, they load the boats up with 2000 pounds of ice to keep the catch cold until they get back to land. Obviously, the boats that go out for a month are on the left of the pic, not the right.


Buddha – Our guide told us this Buddha was smiling because he was bathing in the river and he saw a beautiful girl on the other side of the river so he cut off his “snake” and threw it at her. It fell in the water and now he has 7 mermaid kids. He could then spend the rest of his life being celibate and have less distractions as he searched for answers.

It was only a 50 foot drop- This bridge was made out of bamboo and rope. Some planks were missing. It swayed in all direction as we crossed it. It seemed like I could build something like this in my back yard.










Minority Village – The minority villages in Vietnam were treated similar to the Native Americans in the states. they were put on a land with very little help from the government. The houses were built in this fashion so tigers couldn't come into the houses. Instead the tiger would steal a (more easily replaceable) chicken or boar and head back into the jungle.






The scariest thing since passing semi-trucks on windy roads on motorcycles a few hours before - Andrew and I also did an elephant ride in the village. At this point our toes were in the water as the elephant crossed the deep part of the lake. We both thought our cameras were toast as the elephant stumbled on the lake floor. Elephants are such prehistoric creatures.



















I almost got a fang shaped memory of this trip– One of the guide's friends owned a python, so we stopped by. After I took this picture, I took a closeup of the snake's face. I left the flash on and the snake lunged at me and tried to sink it's teeth into my arm. I don't like snakes much. I also assume Andrew was a little freaked out with an angry snake on him.






Guess what they were out of that day? - Instead we ordered Hedgehog. Other things I have eaten/been offered: snake heart, bat on a stick*, cubed chicken**, sea urchin soup

*They killed a bat, ripped off its wings, and put it on a skewer, skin and all.

** We thought that they were going to cube the meat, but they cubed the bird. We got a beak, neck slices, 2 feet, and who knows what else.

After the easy riders, we went to Hoi An. The touristy part is about a 1km x 1km, and there are over 200 custom tailored suit shops. For cheap, I got 2 nice suits. As long as I don't put on 20 pounds, they will still fit.

Ho Chi Minh/Mui Ne

Greetings everyone, welcome to my blog. Loads of people have asked me to update my status online. I choose this method because it allows me to embed pics and videos with text. I have read hundreds of travel update over the past few years, and I can't truly get a feel for the trip unless there is some type of visual. (I apologize for offending any of you who have sent me text only updates over the years) Also, I am going to try to spare you the major details of all the minor discomforts that I face. As a backpacker, you must expect long delays and problems - but that is half the fun. I am sure that you could care so little about the story where my ipod ran out of batteries on my 8 hour bus ride. Instead, I will fill this blog with rumination about cultural differences, and anecdotes that shed a light on my mental and physical situation. With that enjoy and feel free to write back.




There is a certain charm to this place - Between getting approached by vendors every minute and the hustle and bustle of the city, Ho Chi Minh has a very harmonious feel. There is no road rage, no visible crime, and everyone has a smile on their face. Everyone feels they represent Vietnam.








I do the slow walk - Ho Chi Minh City has about 6.6 million people. Crossing the street is a daunting task because mopeds don't follow street signs. The trick is to cross the street at a slow yet steady pace, and the mopeds will avoid you. I almost got ran over(about 4 times) by a family of 4 on a moped. Its in between a real life game of frogger and Neo from The Matrix.

The bottom picture is the main backpacker street, as you can see there is a lot going on - and never a quiet moment

















Hungry? - Ben Tranh Market is the huge open air market in Ho Chi Minh. Everything is supercheap. I heard that the locals get insulted if you don't try to bargain with them. A guy at our hostel bought a dress shirt for $1.25.

This lady sold some type of heart, brain, liver, intestines, and eyeballs. Tasty!

I held 1 million dong in my hand today - Lance Bass, don't get too excited. And no, mom and dad, I did not get kidnapped by the Vietnamese gay bandits. The dong is the undervalued currency in Vietnam. 1 dollar will get you close to 20,000 dong, It only takes about $57 to be a million-dong-aire. Paying 15000 of anything seems like a lot for a rice and beef plate off a street vendor, until I realized I paid 85 cents. A 3 night stay at the hostel cost me an outrageous 158,000 dong, or $9 .

Grounded - One of the first things I noticed in Asia is how close everyone sits to the ground. Most of the backpackers prepartied at either “the red chair place” or “the blue chair place” I am quite certain I sat on bigger red and blue chairs in kindergarten. Some of the street vendors sit on stools no more than 3 inches high. These stools would be unusable for 99% of the American population over 8 years old.

Once we got over how small the chairs are, the red and blue chair bars were quite nice. They jam as many people into a 15'x15' area, often spilling into the street. The proximity makes it easier to break the ice with with people sitting next to you – you are more or less touching knees with people on either side of you. Also, a jug (about a pitcher) of freshly brewed local beer is 11,000 dong, about 65 cents.

Lost in Translation - Its great how everything is written using English characters (unlike Thai), but the translation is not always 100%. We stayed at the “Domytory” for $3/night and across the street they sold “loney lannet” guide books. When we asked the cab driver to take us to Cu Chi tunnels, we ended up in Chinatown (yes, every city over 100,000 people must have a chinatown). We cant complain because they go out of their way to learn English, and I learnt my first 2 words of Vietnamese yesterday.

No honey, your ass isn't that big, the tunnels are that small. The Vietnamese took 20 years to build a secret network of underground tunnels. 250 k of tunnels by hand, complete with hospitals, kitchens, and booby traps. A fully sustainable society safeguarded from the Americans. The tunnels are pitch black and they actually made the tunnels bigger for tourism. Andrew and I did the day trip with 2 English travelers we had met the night before, Jay, a self proclaimed pacifist from Sussex, and Sarah, a Vietnam war buff from Chesire. The war/peace dynamic and bickering in English accents kept me and Andrew entertained all day. According to Sarah, they both “had a whack at taking the piss out of each other”

*BTW the first picture is not Sarah Howlett, from 2271 Stonebrook Road, Chesire, England



War Museum - This picture caught my eye. The museum graphically details the US-Vietnam war. There is a whole wall dedicated to the effects of agent orange (graphic). After this museum, I am even more surprised by the warm welcome Americans get here.









A monkey we fed on the way to the sand dunes in Mui Ne.

















I paid 2 little kids to rent a plastic sheet to slide down the sand dunes a few times. The kids spoke perfect English and were extremely intelligent. I told one 13 year old kid to move to America and become a doctor.










American do it wrong- still about a week into the trip, I am just starting to release all stress from the daily grind, and make it into the travellers mentality that I am so desperately seeking. Every euro traveler I have met, is in the middle of a 6 month, or a 1 year trip. It really does take a while to make this mental shift and free the mind of all the clutter that comes with city life. No offense to my ex-co-workers at Neubauer & Associates and Quest Diagnostics, but it take a few days to mentally downgrade my mind and get out of that go-go-go mentality. If I had to go back to work in a few days, I'm not sure if I could ever truly make it into this travelers mentality I have been talking about. A 2 week vacation doesn't do the trick.


John Madden's dream come true - There is a ton of exotic fruit over here, and a ton of crazy foods I will never see back in the states, however, the creature on the left is unexplainable. A real life tur-duck-en! Take a nice look at that creature. It has webbed feet, and a ducks body, but chicken wings and kind of a gobble. The cows do eat plastic bags, so there may be some type of genetic mutation, but this must be the work of a cross breeding mad scientist.

Sitting in my empty room at 4AM, ready to dream

Friends and Family, I have gotten numerous request to send pictures and updates from the trip I am about to go on, and with the wonders and convenience of the Internet, I will be sharing my travel experince in this blog.

In an hour, I will put my laptop and cell phone in a box, not to be touched for at least 3 months. This will likely be the last time in my life that I will have no way to be reached and zero responsibility. The more research I do, the more excited I get. However, I find it hard to think about my mindset for this trip. The fast paced environment of San Francisco contrasts with the laid back lifestyle of the travelling community. I know that in 3 days I wont have a care in the world, but it is hard to actualize that feeling considering that I just finished my 9-5 job about 12 hours ago.

As I prepare to catch a plane in 7 hours, I reflect on my 6 month journey in 2005 to Fiji, Australia, and 9 countries in Western Europe. I would consider this one of the highlights of my life, and have been outspoken about buying an around the world plane ticket instead of studying abroad. Instead of being locked down in 1 city, drunkenly recreating freshmen year, I had time to immerse myself in cultures from all over the world, not just spend a weekend here or there. While I will be in slightly more impoverished areas than Aussie or Europe, many of the fundamentals of the trip will be similar:

I will explore other cultures, and do my best to learn how other people in the world live









I will bring a little bit of my culture to the people I meet









The backpacking community is really a unique culture. Its a very open, liberal culture where everyone looks out for everyone else. My dad offered me a free stay using credit card points. I told him I would rather stay in a $4/night hostel to be around backpackers





This picture has 2 points. First, there is no place I would rather be than on that boat. The ability to have total freedom over everything I do

will put me in the travellers mindset

Second, look at my clothing in the above pics. I am only bringing 5 shirts for 100 days, do the math.



And finally, the last tenent: Facial hair

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Here are some of the higlights of this upcoming trip:

2/11 - Fly into Ho Chi Minh, and meet my college roommate, Andrew

2/27-3/12 Meet my high school friend, Jaycie, and explore Hanoi, Halong Bay and the jungle region

3-20 - Tube down the river in Vang Vieng

4/9 - Full Moon party in Ko Phan Gnag. Hopefully a few of my San Francisco roommates will spend a few weeks island hopping with me.

5/11 - 5/16 - Fly from Cambodia to Japan for a few days, then back to SF (only if i'm ready to come back)