Oh hello,
Beijing side of the train:
After 8 hours of sleep (I was confortable but it seemed like I was possibly the only one). Everyone woke up at 7 AM. We had some breakfast of ham and cheese we bought before we left and read and hung out and talked, took a nap, had a light lunch and we were there!
This space is reserved for a rant - Smoking, is rampant in China. Basically everyone smokes. The bathrooms which were already dirty before we even got on and even dirtier every time you had to go in, was littered with cigarettes. There were cigarettes in the sink, the trash can, and in the passenger car. Why? I have no idea. There were clearly marked cigarette disposals everywhere. The sinks weren't self cleaning, the cigarettes just sat there. The ones on the bathroom floor at least absorbed some of the urine and spit which covered most of it. Oh yes the other thing. If you ever happen to go to Singapore or China be prepared for spitting. Its a constant sound in the background, much worse in China then Singapore. In Singapore spitting is at least relegated to bathrooms. China it was everywhere, on streets and in buildings and while people where talking to you. Its not just a nice southern quick spit on in the bushes either. They hauk these for seconds and let it slowly drop while looking straight at you. Saliva and flem are like mine fields in every walkway and public place. And while I am on the topic vomiting is also a much more common occurrence; especially for children. I saw plenty in Singapore and was reminded of it in China. Kids will be walking normally, then suddenly vomit with no warning. They do it while walking and just look down and let go. Parents then scoop them up and hold them up from the armpits or hips at arms length and point them towards the street or bushes then put them down like nothing is wrong and keep on walking. It happened twice in Hong Kong and we were there for only a week. I didn't see any children in Beijing so no vomit either.
We arrived in a station that had a metro, then inconveniently was the only metro that didn't connect to other metros. After breaking a 100 with some Jujube juice (delicious), we tried to get out of there. So after a lot of pointing and trying to read chinese, we took a bus to what we hopped was a station. And so we were able to find it because of some English that was in some places. From there we metroed (only 33 US cents to anywhere) to our hostel. Where we checked in and then made our way to dinner. On the way we stopped at a grocery store and I got some cantaloupe flavored soy milk and on the street some fried tuber like thing with salt water and garlic which was delicious. For dinner we only had a choice of western places in the area, so I had a pork burger and Michelle had a philly and we watched Super Bad while we ate (not our choice). We then showered (finally) and slept.
Beijing ~ the first day.
Just a note: Sun rises at 5. We woke around 8 and made a quick escape from the hostel and got breakfast nearby. We split a british breakfast of sausage egg toast and baked beans. We then wandered through some Hutongs (local side streets where people actually live). They were nice and we saw a duck and a chicken. We got some drinks in a store (ice coffee mix bottle thing and some mix fruit juice), and walked in a cute park bordering a main street. This delivered us to the Lama temple, which was visited thoroughly. It was nice, not to grand but large, with some unique architecture and an active monastery. There were no llamas (or Lamas due to some political things). After a long walk we came to our lunching spot. A local chain restaurant that sells dumplings cheap. For 6 USD I had 600 ml of the best local beer (it was ok) and 24 dumplings (Shreyas will hear of this). Twas delicious.
We then made our way to the touristy shopping district. Which had the most aggressive vendors I have ever seen and the only place in Asia we have been to where people tried to screw you over in a in your face way with no tact or attempt to hide the fact that they are screwing you over. It was off putting. There were scorpions and other crawly things on sticks that were still alive and squirming, pics on facebook. A shirt vendor tried to sell me a shirt at 30 USD and wouldn't drop it down so I walked away until he grabbed my wrist, but I shook him off and walked away. We bought some food, which somehow magically quadrupled in price when he gave it to us. I had given him a 10 (about 1.5 usd) and was waiting for my 5 in change, but insisted it was 20. He took half the food back and tried to shove me off, but I did not relent and asked for my money back and for him to take the food back. I blocked off his sales for two or three minutes of an intense staring competition until he grew tired of me and put the half of the food he put on the plate back and I just cut my losses and left, no doubt leaving both parties unhappy. A hat selling lady gripped michelles wrists hard enough to bruise them at one point. We walked away from the place. Michelle got some fruit covered in caramelized sugar at a stand, and I got a local drink which turned out to be fermented milk with honey. Basically a honey sweetened light fizzy yogurt in a reusable glass with a skin stretched over the top and punctured with a straw. It was good.
After all the excitement we returned to the dumpling place for more. Then made our way to the hostel. There we showered and slept.
The musings of a twenty-something currently studying in Missouri.
Always loving the escape as much as the anchors.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Finishing Hong Kong
Macau day- On Macau day we woke up to go to Macau.
Making sure I had the passports, we made our way to the ferry again. There we purchased our tickets (about 15-20 USD) each, and picked up some breakfast from McDonalds to go. I had hotcakes. The ferry ride was nice. It took about an hour, which was used to eat and then take a quick nap. Upon arrival we tried to get some local currency but failed. But it was ok because in Macau the exchange from Hong Kong dollars to Macau dollars is roughly 1:1 and they accept Hong Kong in lieu of their own (which is called Patakas). In the station we were hawked for taxis, an interesting mix of Cantonese, Portuguese, and English calls. We ignored all of them and tried to find a way to walk to the city. The only sidewalk was obscured and at the end of bus parking but we did manage to find it. This took as along the coast for a bit, passing some smaller Casinos and a giant theme park that was closed in the morning. It did not take long to find one of the many giant golden casinos on our walk. We decided to investigate and were confronted with incredibly overly done luxury and a guard who would not let me continue in my flip flops.
So we continued. We found a bunch of churches and old church libraries and visited them and took pictures. We then stumbled onto a wide road of touristy sites and shopping. We found a Portuguese eatery and had some wonderfully Portuguese themed sandwiches. Then we wandered till we found a cheap super market, where I had banana flavored Milkis (the carbonated yogurt drink) and some local stout. I was trying to open the stout by bumping it on a corner of a bench, when suddenly i was confronted; not by a police man, but by the Chinese beer fairy. I heard rumors but I did not think it was true. He was wearing dirty pants and no shirt and was wandering around with multiple beers and was drinking one. He pointed and showed his displeasure at the possibility of me cracking the bottled and produced a well used bottle opener and opened it for me. After an approving nod he walked away and moved on, no doubt to open the beers of countless others in need.
The beer a mildly sweet version of Guinness and was pleasurable.
We then returned to go buy me some shoes. We found 3.5 dollar cheap rubber things that covered my feet and looked mildly like lace-less leather shores, Michelle found a nice purse for about 4 dollars I think. With our new purchases we made our way to the biggest and goldest casino (the Lisboa) and entered the casino. Our first site was that of severely under dressed prostitutes of a quality resembling my new shoes. Just pass them was the gambling room, where to our surprise was located no black jack, roulette, craps, or poker. It took 2 more casinos to even find these games, only to have to walk away do to high minimum bids. The really like games of pure chance there. The casinos are exclusively slots, 3 dice, and 3 card Bakarat. The minimum bid on any table we found was 15USD per hand. We played 3 cent slots. Michelle made about 3 dollars, I lost about 1.5 dollars. I did however get some free milk coffee.
We then asked the lobby for eating suggestions and were directed across the island to a nice portuguese place where I had African Chicken (the local dish) and Michelle had some delicious vegetable soup and sausages. Both where good. We then walked all the way back, on the way we encounted a place that had an orange eyed cat, some old porutugese houses, a lake with a scenic view of the city, some locals gibbering in heavy portuguese accents. We took a taxi the rest of the way to the marina and took the ferry home and MTR back to our hostel and slept.
HONG KONG- Last Day
On our last day in Hong Kong, we walked a long long ways. For breakfast we went to a bakery where I had some British tea time cake, which was pumpkin cake with nuts and fruit and was delicious, and a japanese sweet potato bread, which was bread with an entire sweet potato in the middle. Michelle had a pao de queijo, and a pao de queijo which was blueberry flavored. It then began to rain, but we didn't care. We went to the coastal defense museum which was nice but incredibly cold because of the rain. We then metroed to the beginning of a long walk across some Bangkok like shops. In between them we found a nice little french bistro and had some snacks of sausages and a ham and cheese sandwich. We continued to the flower market, which had lots of flowers, and the bird market, which had lots of birds in small cages and made me sad. So we left and walk across a line of pet stores, mostly fish, but also lizards, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, gerbils, and some conveniently placed restaurants. We skipped across these and walked to a fancy but local section of town and got some dim sum, which made me realize how authentic the place in Atlanta is.
Hong Kong end of the Train~
This day was uneventful. We woke and had breakfast at the place by our hostel, packed, took the bus to the station, had some street pizza which was good, waited to board the train and got on.
The only seats were fold out seats in the tiny aisle. We were on the last of the cheap cars and the least cramped one. We were in a room of 6 beds stacked 3 high with a tinier aisle inbetween. The bed was exactly 2 meters long, giving the only other white person in the cheap beds a hard time (he was 6'2"). Oh and btw we where in the only cheap cart with another white person and he was in the bed above mine. Nice guy, Indian from San Francisco, but a Fraternity brother so white enough to be white even if he spent the first 10 years of his life in India. The only other non Asian near by was a Haitian Canadian who lived in Beijing and spoke Mandarin, also very nice. Basically we talked, read a bit, had dinner and fell asleep.
Making sure I had the passports, we made our way to the ferry again. There we purchased our tickets (about 15-20 USD) each, and picked up some breakfast from McDonalds to go. I had hotcakes. The ferry ride was nice. It took about an hour, which was used to eat and then take a quick nap. Upon arrival we tried to get some local currency but failed. But it was ok because in Macau the exchange from Hong Kong dollars to Macau dollars is roughly 1:1 and they accept Hong Kong in lieu of their own (which is called Patakas). In the station we were hawked for taxis, an interesting mix of Cantonese, Portuguese, and English calls. We ignored all of them and tried to find a way to walk to the city. The only sidewalk was obscured and at the end of bus parking but we did manage to find it. This took as along the coast for a bit, passing some smaller Casinos and a giant theme park that was closed in the morning. It did not take long to find one of the many giant golden casinos on our walk. We decided to investigate and were confronted with incredibly overly done luxury and a guard who would not let me continue in my flip flops.
So we continued. We found a bunch of churches and old church libraries and visited them and took pictures. We then stumbled onto a wide road of touristy sites and shopping. We found a Portuguese eatery and had some wonderfully Portuguese themed sandwiches. Then we wandered till we found a cheap super market, where I had banana flavored Milkis (the carbonated yogurt drink) and some local stout. I was trying to open the stout by bumping it on a corner of a bench, when suddenly i was confronted; not by a police man, but by the Chinese beer fairy. I heard rumors but I did not think it was true. He was wearing dirty pants and no shirt and was wandering around with multiple beers and was drinking one. He pointed and showed his displeasure at the possibility of me cracking the bottled and produced a well used bottle opener and opened it for me. After an approving nod he walked away and moved on, no doubt to open the beers of countless others in need.
The beer a mildly sweet version of Guinness and was pleasurable.
We then returned to go buy me some shoes. We found 3.5 dollar cheap rubber things that covered my feet and looked mildly like lace-less leather shores, Michelle found a nice purse for about 4 dollars I think. With our new purchases we made our way to the biggest and goldest casino (the Lisboa) and entered the casino. Our first site was that of severely under dressed prostitutes of a quality resembling my new shoes. Just pass them was the gambling room, where to our surprise was located no black jack, roulette, craps, or poker. It took 2 more casinos to even find these games, only to have to walk away do to high minimum bids. The really like games of pure chance there. The casinos are exclusively slots, 3 dice, and 3 card Bakarat. The minimum bid on any table we found was 15USD per hand. We played 3 cent slots. Michelle made about 3 dollars, I lost about 1.5 dollars. I did however get some free milk coffee.
We then asked the lobby for eating suggestions and were directed across the island to a nice portuguese place where I had African Chicken (the local dish) and Michelle had some delicious vegetable soup and sausages. Both where good. We then walked all the way back, on the way we encounted a place that had an orange eyed cat, some old porutugese houses, a lake with a scenic view of the city, some locals gibbering in heavy portuguese accents. We took a taxi the rest of the way to the marina and took the ferry home and MTR back to our hostel and slept.
HONG KONG- Last Day
On our last day in Hong Kong, we walked a long long ways. For breakfast we went to a bakery where I had some British tea time cake, which was pumpkin cake with nuts and fruit and was delicious, and a japanese sweet potato bread, which was bread with an entire sweet potato in the middle. Michelle had a pao de queijo, and a pao de queijo which was blueberry flavored. It then began to rain, but we didn't care. We went to the coastal defense museum which was nice but incredibly cold because of the rain. We then metroed to the beginning of a long walk across some Bangkok like shops. In between them we found a nice little french bistro and had some snacks of sausages and a ham and cheese sandwich. We continued to the flower market, which had lots of flowers, and the bird market, which had lots of birds in small cages and made me sad. So we left and walk across a line of pet stores, mostly fish, but also lizards, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, gerbils, and some conveniently placed restaurants. We skipped across these and walked to a fancy but local section of town and got some dim sum, which made me realize how authentic the place in Atlanta is.
Hong Kong end of the Train~
This day was uneventful. We woke and had breakfast at the place by our hostel, packed, took the bus to the station, had some street pizza which was good, waited to board the train and got on.
The only seats were fold out seats in the tiny aisle. We were on the last of the cheap cars and the least cramped one. We were in a room of 6 beds stacked 3 high with a tinier aisle inbetween. The bed was exactly 2 meters long, giving the only other white person in the cheap beds a hard time (he was 6'2"). Oh and btw we where in the only cheap cart with another white person and he was in the bed above mine. Nice guy, Indian from San Francisco, but a Fraternity brother so white enough to be white even if he spent the first 10 years of his life in India. The only other non Asian near by was a Haitian Canadian who lived in Beijing and spoke Mandarin, also very nice. Basically we talked, read a bit, had dinner and fell asleep.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Gabe's Incomplete Post on Hong Kong
Hong Kong - We arrived in Hong Kong. It was a fourish hour flight maybe. Anyway the airport was nice and the customs was no hassel and very quick. We then rode the airport express, a 5 USD trip that took us into town in under 30 minutes. It took us to an elevator shaft which we rode down to attempt the regular subway, called the MTR. Here we were stuck behind an entryway to the MTR and had to buy a ticket, only we didn't have small change. I then attempted to obtain change from a few passerbys who, to my surprise, were Brasilian tourists. They did not have change.
Eventually change was obtained through officials near the airport express. The MTR is nice, kind of like a metally large version of Singapore's MRT, but significantly faster. We made our way to the hostel from the station. Upon stepping out we shaded our eyes from the daylight, created artificially by lights everywhere. It was 10 PM but bright out. The hostel was in a regular building and quite nice. The room was clean and had 12 beds, 6 of which were cubbie style where we slept. But not before getting dinner in a restuarant nearby. It was reminicent of Singapore. I had a prawn noodle which was beehoon noodles, Michelle had a ham sandwhich. Both were good. To drink Michelle had Ice Lemon Tea, which if I havn't mentioned before is basically sweet tea with lemon. I had almond tea with egg whites, which is exactly what you would think it would be, unless you have never had hot almond milk with egg whites in it. Sleep.
Thus ends the fist day of our Hong Kong edventure.
DAY-2
We awoke. We descended. We ate; our food came from a small cafe at the bottom of our hostel. There I had some banana mosli (fancy for toasted grains milk yogurt and honey (and bananas)), Michelle had toast with eggs and Bacon. Then, we bussed under the river to the other side (called Kowloon) and purchased our tickets to Beijing. After, we wandered about a bit about the walkways and found some museums. We made our way to the history museum and bought half year long passes (which at student prices where cheaper then the tourist week pass and single tickets to two museums.) And explored the history of Hong Kong. Twas a nice museum. We then walked to the water front, on the way stopping for some soupy noodles with things in it. Mine had lots of things, michelle's mushrooms and sausage. It is around here we discovered Hong Kong hates walking, walls are put everywhere barring your way and crossing streets, forcing you blocks and blocks to pedestrian bridges and tunnels. When we found our way to the waterfront, it was very nice. There there was a star walk with various hand prints of people we dont know, then creepy pictures of stars we did know. Twas interesting. On the water there was a space museum. It was attended by us. They had some interesting exhibits; nothing was American and American activities were not talked about. We sat on a gyroscopic thing and spun in slow circles and then did some moon walking in a very uncomfortable harness.
After the museums, we walked around, in the very expensive part of town, where there were very nice stores and fancy cars. We stopped for kebaps on the street and watched cars go by before heading back to the hostel. Gabe had a nice double chocolate stout while I had a Kriek. We sat on the balcony and watched the river for a while before heading to bed.
DAY THREE:
We woke sort of early and headed out. Breakfast was delicious coffee (chocolate and banana flavored) and chocolate (mint) with waffles for Gabe and crispy bun for me (which is sortof like a fancy toasted hamburger bun with butter and sweetened condensed milk). We then walked to the convention center and along the coast towards the west coast. We stopped in Hong Kong Park, where we saw some very cute turtles sunbathing and then saw some pretty birds in the aviary. Across from the park was Peak Hill, where we took a trolley up to the top. The track was literally at a 80 degree angle at some points, and we had a great view at the top. I got some interesting candy across from the Bubba Gump restaurant, and then we sat for a while. On the way back down, we stopped and got some french fries with chili, bacon, cheese and other yummy stuff from a place called New York Fries. We headed back down the mountain and walked over to SoHo, which is basically a big food district. Every type of food imaginable was there. We got delicious Nepalese food; Gabe had spicy lamb curry sort of thing, and I had yummy mixed bean soup. Gabe picked up some Fuller's Organic Honey Beer, which he enjoyed at the hostel. Around the corner from our hostel is a place called Crumbs, which is a frozen yogurt place. We shared a large with strawberries, house cookie crumbs, gummy bears and maples syrup covered bananas. Then it was bedtime.
DAY FOUR:
This day, we tried to go to Macau... but we forgot our passports, so we walked around the western part of Hong Kong Island. The market was not really a market, but little stores that weren't open yet, and we walked by some of the more "local" areas, where there were little to no tourists. We found the Medical History Museum, which was interesting. It focused on the SARS epidemic and vaccines, but also had a room about midwifery and some old radiology equipment. Then we kept walking and came across the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Museum, which was rather boring and difficult to understand. We ended up back in SoHo and stopped at a delicious little Italian restaurant. Lunch was a four course meal for $88 HK (about 13 USD) - mixed greens salad with quail egg, tuna and potatoes, fresh bread, potato soup, and orange-lemon cheesecake for dessert. For our main dishes, Gabe had shrimp and asperagus risotto and I had incredible spaghetti carbonara. Then we went towards the financial districty part of town, where we found the Hong Kong banking buildings, complete with an "Occupy Hong Kong" camp in the breezeway below the building (it was open on the ground floor, with the offices above). We went into a large, expensive, fancy mall to go to the bathroom... The place was ridiculous - wooden hingeless stalls and marble and automatic lighting. It was incredible. We then saw The Avengers 3D and got some amazing chocolate and caramel popcorn. For dinner, Gabe got something on a stick from a street vendor (it was raw and then they boiled it, then dipped it in some sort of spicy nut sauce). I had a cup of mushroom noodle soup and a small can of pineapple slices at the hostel. Then it was time for bed so we could get up early for Macau (again).
DAY FIVE: MACAU
Portuguese food - yum!
Casinos - played nothing but baccarat and some dice game (one table craps, three tables Omaha poker, and computerized roulette).
I made $4 HK.
Eventually change was obtained through officials near the airport express. The MTR is nice, kind of like a metally large version of Singapore's MRT, but significantly faster. We made our way to the hostel from the station. Upon stepping out we shaded our eyes from the daylight, created artificially by lights everywhere. It was 10 PM but bright out. The hostel was in a regular building and quite nice. The room was clean and had 12 beds, 6 of which were cubbie style where we slept. But not before getting dinner in a restuarant nearby. It was reminicent of Singapore. I had a prawn noodle which was beehoon noodles, Michelle had a ham sandwhich. Both were good. To drink Michelle had Ice Lemon Tea, which if I havn't mentioned before is basically sweet tea with lemon. I had almond tea with egg whites, which is exactly what you would think it would be, unless you have never had hot almond milk with egg whites in it. Sleep.
Thus ends the fist day of our Hong Kong edventure.
DAY-2
We awoke. We descended. We ate; our food came from a small cafe at the bottom of our hostel. There I had some banana mosli (fancy for toasted grains milk yogurt and honey (and bananas)), Michelle had toast with eggs and Bacon. Then, we bussed under the river to the other side (called Kowloon) and purchased our tickets to Beijing. After, we wandered about a bit about the walkways and found some museums. We made our way to the history museum and bought half year long passes (which at student prices where cheaper then the tourist week pass and single tickets to two museums.) And explored the history of Hong Kong. Twas a nice museum. We then walked to the water front, on the way stopping for some soupy noodles with things in it. Mine had lots of things, michelle's mushrooms and sausage. It is around here we discovered Hong Kong hates walking, walls are put everywhere barring your way and crossing streets, forcing you blocks and blocks to pedestrian bridges and tunnels. When we found our way to the waterfront, it was very nice. There there was a star walk with various hand prints of people we dont know, then creepy pictures of stars we did know. Twas interesting. On the water there was a space museum. It was attended by us. They had some interesting exhibits; nothing was American and American activities were not talked about. We sat on a gyroscopic thing and spun in slow circles and then did some moon walking in a very uncomfortable harness.
After the museums, we walked around, in the very expensive part of town, where there were very nice stores and fancy cars. We stopped for kebaps on the street and watched cars go by before heading back to the hostel. Gabe had a nice double chocolate stout while I had a Kriek. We sat on the balcony and watched the river for a while before heading to bed.
DAY THREE:
We woke sort of early and headed out. Breakfast was delicious coffee (chocolate and banana flavored) and chocolate (mint) with waffles for Gabe and crispy bun for me (which is sortof like a fancy toasted hamburger bun with butter and sweetened condensed milk). We then walked to the convention center and along the coast towards the west coast. We stopped in Hong Kong Park, where we saw some very cute turtles sunbathing and then saw some pretty birds in the aviary. Across from the park was Peak Hill, where we took a trolley up to the top. The track was literally at a 80 degree angle at some points, and we had a great view at the top. I got some interesting candy across from the Bubba Gump restaurant, and then we sat for a while. On the way back down, we stopped and got some french fries with chili, bacon, cheese and other yummy stuff from a place called New York Fries. We headed back down the mountain and walked over to SoHo, which is basically a big food district. Every type of food imaginable was there. We got delicious Nepalese food; Gabe had spicy lamb curry sort of thing, and I had yummy mixed bean soup. Gabe picked up some Fuller's Organic Honey Beer, which he enjoyed at the hostel. Around the corner from our hostel is a place called Crumbs, which is a frozen yogurt place. We shared a large with strawberries, house cookie crumbs, gummy bears and maples syrup covered bananas. Then it was bedtime.
DAY FOUR:
This day, we tried to go to Macau... but we forgot our passports, so we walked around the western part of Hong Kong Island. The market was not really a market, but little stores that weren't open yet, and we walked by some of the more "local" areas, where there were little to no tourists. We found the Medical History Museum, which was interesting. It focused on the SARS epidemic and vaccines, but also had a room about midwifery and some old radiology equipment. Then we kept walking and came across the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Museum, which was rather boring and difficult to understand. We ended up back in SoHo and stopped at a delicious little Italian restaurant. Lunch was a four course meal for $88 HK (about 13 USD) - mixed greens salad with quail egg, tuna and potatoes, fresh bread, potato soup, and orange-lemon cheesecake for dessert. For our main dishes, Gabe had shrimp and asperagus risotto and I had incredible spaghetti carbonara. Then we went towards the financial districty part of town, where we found the Hong Kong banking buildings, complete with an "Occupy Hong Kong" camp in the breezeway below the building (it was open on the ground floor, with the offices above). We went into a large, expensive, fancy mall to go to the bathroom... The place was ridiculous - wooden hingeless stalls and marble and automatic lighting. It was incredible. We then saw The Avengers 3D and got some amazing chocolate and caramel popcorn. For dinner, Gabe got something on a stick from a street vendor (it was raw and then they boiled it, then dipped it in some sort of spicy nut sauce). I had a cup of mushroom noodle soup and a small can of pineapple slices at the hostel. Then it was time for bed so we could get up early for Macau (again).
DAY FIVE: MACAU
Portuguese food - yum!
Casinos - played nothing but baccarat and some dice game (one table craps, three tables Omaha poker, and computerized roulette).
I made $4 HK.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Manila - An Outline
enter manilla.
machine eats card.
taxi - with meter and everything!
hostel is nice.
go and get food. some calimari and some chicken wings apparently. San Miguel is the local beer and they make Red Horse which costs 50 cents and is 7% and tastes decent
road is dark and full of bars, children everywhere.
sleep. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
wake up early, start walking.
streets empty, its good friday.
hit a park, walk around the park.
continue walk to intramuros
get fried food
see church and church museum
continue through and try to get to china town
give up and get a mototaxi
drops us off in chinatown
we get burgers and more beer
walk, see second church with Jesus in it.
walk around china town a bit then give up and get a horse carriage back to park.
go back to hostel, take a one hour nap. on way saw hobbit and some other places.
go for dinner at aristrocrat.
look for karioke bar but can't find
go to hobbit and have beers
walk back to hostel and sleep, but everyone was loud so we didn't really sleep -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
walk down the coast, wall all along coast cause it was destroyed in a flood.
find a cool building which is culture center
walk and find zoo but dont go in
walk to intramuros again and see the fort
kids try to pick pocket me
get more burgers
sit outside aristrocrat and nice local guy talks to us and asks about politics
we then go to airport and fly home
machine eats card.
taxi - with meter and everything!
hostel is nice.
go and get food. some calimari and some chicken wings apparently. San Miguel is the local beer and they make Red Horse which costs 50 cents and is 7% and tastes decent
road is dark and full of bars, children everywhere.
sleep. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
wake up early, start walking.
streets empty, its good friday.
hit a park, walk around the park.
continue walk to intramuros
get fried food
see church and church museum
continue through and try to get to china town
give up and get a mototaxi
drops us off in chinatown
we get burgers and more beer
walk, see second church with Jesus in it.
walk around china town a bit then give up and get a horse carriage back to park.
go back to hostel, take a one hour nap. on way saw hobbit and some other places.
go for dinner at aristrocrat.
look for karioke bar but can't find
go to hobbit and have beers
walk back to hostel and sleep, but everyone was loud so we didn't really sleep -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
walk down the coast, wall all along coast cause it was destroyed in a flood.
find a cool building which is culture center
walk and find zoo but dont go in
walk to intramuros again and see the fort
kids try to pick pocket me
get more burgers
sit outside aristrocrat and nice local guy talks to us and asks about politics
we then go to airport and fly home
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Gabe's Post - Bus and Combodia
We awoke to a bus to be an hour late. This was no problem as we simply read our books until its arrival. Upon boarding we were immediately asked to fill in some paper work. After the paper work was filled, we were asked to relinquish our passports to a shady man in a hat. When asked why, he simply said "Heh heh heh heh, do not worry." And then we were off. Driving through Vietnam was mostly just slightly urbanized areas and mopeds and was unremarkable. The bus was moving around 45 km an hour on average because of the mopeds. It took 4 hours to get to the border. The shady man in the hat had since then disappeared. Another man entered the bus and retrieved the passports of a few passengers who had yet to relinquish them, and ushered us into a small room that was the Vietnamese border. Here we stood in a hot mass of people idly standing as the border guards worked behind the desks. No one moved through on their own. All 100ish people in the room had no passports and were just hoping that the people they relinquished their passports too would soon direct them. After 30 minutes, we saw our first ray of hope. Names are called by bus and the entire bus is called at once. Another 15 minute wait saw us walking past the guards with our passports thankfully in our hands. We then made our way to the bus again to be driven to the Cambodia side. Here things were different. Passports and visas in hand, we simply walked up to the passport control like in an airport, took fingerprints on a digital scanner, and made our way through no problem. And back on the bus we climbed.
The Cambodia side was all rice paddies and bulls.
After about an hour we stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant with nothing nearby. Here we learned the exchange rate of 1 dollar to 4000 riel. Basically they use US dollars in Cambodia, and people use the riel as change. ATM's give you US dollars exclusively however. At the lunch place we had some fried noodles and I had an incredibly over sweetened coffee with condensed milk. The stop was about 30 minutes long, allowing the busmen to transfer what turned out to be about 10 huge bags from the back of the bus. Somewhere along the ride we learned they were bags with about 500-1000 pink Lacoste polos. These bags were taken, along with our stuff, onto another bus, where we soon boarded. From then on, the bus ride was all rice paddies and bulls. There were also some houses on stilts. And at one point the bus rode on a ferry to cross a river. Eventually, about 6 hours later, we arrived at Phenom Penh. Here we dismounted the bus, bought some water and nuts, and hopped on a bus bound for Siem Riep. Phenom Penh itself was very nice and large, but we didn't see much of it before we were off to Siem Riep.
This bus ride was different. The bus was more comfortable, but people brought food on the bus. By food I mean garlic fried chicken feet and durians. Which means the smell was terrible. The sun also quickly set and there were no street lights. So for 5 hours our bus traveled on pitch black, mostly paved roads. It was a pretty scary ride in general. We did stop once, but only got off to stretch our legs. Finally, however, we arrived at Siem Riep. It was a cute little town, dimly lit and with no buildings over 3 stories. It was a ghost town. There was no one on the street at all. This was very unnerving. It was only 12 but everything, even bars, were closed for the night. There were no cars or mopeds, and only 1 or 2 pedestrians on the 10 minute walk to our hostel. We later found out it was Cambodian New Years, which is why no one was in site. Our Hostel looked nice. It was big on the inside. The front desk was disorganized however, and stuffed us in a room for the night, to deal with us tomorrow. We filled a 6 person room, where the other people were out still. This did not bode well, but we were very tired and immediately showered and went to bed. Here I came face to face with my first bed bug. I killed it in a burst of red blood, no doubt belonging to the last sleeper, and quickly checked the bed for more. I then put on my swimsuit and spare shirt and slept above the sheets.
We were awoken that night by 2 drunk Australian men and 2 drunk american girls being exceptionally loud and turning the lights on. Then in the morning, we were woken by an alarm, twice. The owner of the alarm did not wake. He missed his flight the next morning, and announced this by yelling and storming out of the room while leaving the lights on. 2 hours later me and Shreyas awoke and went downstairs. Here we payed and booked a tuk-tuk to take us around Angkor. First we got breakfast, which was the best American breakfast I have had in Asia. We learned that the food here is 2-5 USD, making it the most expensive country so far.
After breakfast we got our 40 USD to pay for 2 day passes to Angkor.
From this point on I will describe our 2 full days in Angkor because they are the same.
For two days we crawled in the hottest sun we have experienced. It was incredibly dry and dusty and left us with head aches and dry sun. We did in 2 days what other travellers do in twice as long. We saw, crawled all over, ascended, analyzed, gazed at, and surmounted in all about 10 temples I believe. These were all huge and old and all unique. For convenience sake I will put them in 3 categories: there were flat ones that included a temple with trees growing in the walls everywhere, and one with doors that got progressively smaller so you had to duck your head before the king's ashes, there were temples that were built tall and like the wats in bangkok, these included Angkor Wat and our favorite Bayo, which were fun to crawl around and see all the intricate carvings everywhere, and finally there were the ones of almost all hematite, which were build tall but had no shade and were really hot but lots of fun to explore because no one else was there. Angkor Wat wasn't even our favorite. It was too overrun by tourists. It had the best preserved carvings, but our favorites were the untouched ones that you could simply crawl all over and explore to your hearts content. There will be pictures on facebook sometime, but it will take too long to explain all the temples in detail. Just know they are beautiful and large and old. 2 of them are almost all a rusty stone that I assume has Hematite, and the others were a mix of that and sandstone. They were all impressive in their own ways.
We ate lunch once, and had ginger beef, one of the few actual cambodian dishes. It was shaved ginger and beef fried over rice. It was good.
Besides that we had lots of water and 2 coconuts for a dollar.
There were lots of venders here, especially children. They all spoke in the same comic way we soon imitated and conversed back to them. They were nice and talked to us.
Both days we did this for about 8-10 hours until sun-down when they kick you out. After we went to the Hostel and Shreyas napped while I rehydrated. Then we would go down in time for happy hour and have food. We had both nights beef lak lak - ginger beef without the ginger apparently, and then a delicious burger with homemade patties. We also enjoyed Anchor on draught for 50 cents each, they were quite refreshing and a decent cheap lager. Other beers we tried in these days were Angkor (very different from Anchor) which was like a lesser version of Tiger, Black Panther which was an 8% extra stout that was pretty unexceptionally like Guinness extra stout, Cambodia which was another cheap lager and my least favorite of the light lagers, and finally a random beer no one local or foreign had heard of that came in a camo-can, it was supposed to be a full flavored wheat beer, but tasted like a cheap lager with some wheat dryness.
Both nights we were awoken by the same people. We soon came to realize that the Hostel was pretty much just for muscled Australian men and American woman who would stay at the pool and bar all night then sleep during the day and not go see Angkor at all.
I was not bit by a bed bug while I was there.
On the last day, we had a half day. Thus we used it to go see the National Museum. Which turned out to be one of my favorite Museums ever, because all it did was teach me about Hinduism, which is comically interesting. They had statues of Hindu gods from the temples, and some of the Buddhist ones too and simply explained them in detail. We spent 3 or so hours there, then made our way back and got a tuk-tuk to the airport. The airport was really nice and small. Here we tried some palm wine at the duty free store. It tasted like slightly rotting plums and dried out our tongues and throats for hours. The bathrooms at the airport were cleaner than any in Singapore. There were 4 "gates", which were just waiting areas, because when a plane arrived you just walked outside and up some stairs into the plane. On the plane we met a really nice guy living in Singapore for about the same times as us, though he will be here for 2 years. We talked to him all 4 hours until we got home.
The Cambodia side was all rice paddies and bulls.
After about an hour we stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant with nothing nearby. Here we learned the exchange rate of 1 dollar to 4000 riel. Basically they use US dollars in Cambodia, and people use the riel as change. ATM's give you US dollars exclusively however. At the lunch place we had some fried noodles and I had an incredibly over sweetened coffee with condensed milk. The stop was about 30 minutes long, allowing the busmen to transfer what turned out to be about 10 huge bags from the back of the bus. Somewhere along the ride we learned they were bags with about 500-1000 pink Lacoste polos. These bags were taken, along with our stuff, onto another bus, where we soon boarded. From then on, the bus ride was all rice paddies and bulls. There were also some houses on stilts. And at one point the bus rode on a ferry to cross a river. Eventually, about 6 hours later, we arrived at Phenom Penh. Here we dismounted the bus, bought some water and nuts, and hopped on a bus bound for Siem Riep. Phenom Penh itself was very nice and large, but we didn't see much of it before we were off to Siem Riep.
This bus ride was different. The bus was more comfortable, but people brought food on the bus. By food I mean garlic fried chicken feet and durians. Which means the smell was terrible. The sun also quickly set and there were no street lights. So for 5 hours our bus traveled on pitch black, mostly paved roads. It was a pretty scary ride in general. We did stop once, but only got off to stretch our legs. Finally, however, we arrived at Siem Riep. It was a cute little town, dimly lit and with no buildings over 3 stories. It was a ghost town. There was no one on the street at all. This was very unnerving. It was only 12 but everything, even bars, were closed for the night. There were no cars or mopeds, and only 1 or 2 pedestrians on the 10 minute walk to our hostel. We later found out it was Cambodian New Years, which is why no one was in site. Our Hostel looked nice. It was big on the inside. The front desk was disorganized however, and stuffed us in a room for the night, to deal with us tomorrow. We filled a 6 person room, where the other people were out still. This did not bode well, but we were very tired and immediately showered and went to bed. Here I came face to face with my first bed bug. I killed it in a burst of red blood, no doubt belonging to the last sleeper, and quickly checked the bed for more. I then put on my swimsuit and spare shirt and slept above the sheets.
We were awoken that night by 2 drunk Australian men and 2 drunk american girls being exceptionally loud and turning the lights on. Then in the morning, we were woken by an alarm, twice. The owner of the alarm did not wake. He missed his flight the next morning, and announced this by yelling and storming out of the room while leaving the lights on. 2 hours later me and Shreyas awoke and went downstairs. Here we payed and booked a tuk-tuk to take us around Angkor. First we got breakfast, which was the best American breakfast I have had in Asia. We learned that the food here is 2-5 USD, making it the most expensive country so far.
After breakfast we got our 40 USD to pay for 2 day passes to Angkor.
From this point on I will describe our 2 full days in Angkor because they are the same.
For two days we crawled in the hottest sun we have experienced. It was incredibly dry and dusty and left us with head aches and dry sun. We did in 2 days what other travellers do in twice as long. We saw, crawled all over, ascended, analyzed, gazed at, and surmounted in all about 10 temples I believe. These were all huge and old and all unique. For convenience sake I will put them in 3 categories: there were flat ones that included a temple with trees growing in the walls everywhere, and one with doors that got progressively smaller so you had to duck your head before the king's ashes, there were temples that were built tall and like the wats in bangkok, these included Angkor Wat and our favorite Bayo, which were fun to crawl around and see all the intricate carvings everywhere, and finally there were the ones of almost all hematite, which were build tall but had no shade and were really hot but lots of fun to explore because no one else was there. Angkor Wat wasn't even our favorite. It was too overrun by tourists. It had the best preserved carvings, but our favorites were the untouched ones that you could simply crawl all over and explore to your hearts content. There will be pictures on facebook sometime, but it will take too long to explain all the temples in detail. Just know they are beautiful and large and old. 2 of them are almost all a rusty stone that I assume has Hematite, and the others were a mix of that and sandstone. They were all impressive in their own ways.
We ate lunch once, and had ginger beef, one of the few actual cambodian dishes. It was shaved ginger and beef fried over rice. It was good.
Besides that we had lots of water and 2 coconuts for a dollar.
There were lots of venders here, especially children. They all spoke in the same comic way we soon imitated and conversed back to them. They were nice and talked to us.
Both days we did this for about 8-10 hours until sun-down when they kick you out. After we went to the Hostel and Shreyas napped while I rehydrated. Then we would go down in time for happy hour and have food. We had both nights beef lak lak - ginger beef without the ginger apparently, and then a delicious burger with homemade patties. We also enjoyed Anchor on draught for 50 cents each, they were quite refreshing and a decent cheap lager. Other beers we tried in these days were Angkor (very different from Anchor) which was like a lesser version of Tiger, Black Panther which was an 8% extra stout that was pretty unexceptionally like Guinness extra stout, Cambodia which was another cheap lager and my least favorite of the light lagers, and finally a random beer no one local or foreign had heard of that came in a camo-can, it was supposed to be a full flavored wheat beer, but tasted like a cheap lager with some wheat dryness.
Both nights we were awoken by the same people. We soon came to realize that the Hostel was pretty much just for muscled Australian men and American woman who would stay at the pool and bar all night then sleep during the day and not go see Angkor at all.
I was not bit by a bed bug while I was there.
On the last day, we had a half day. Thus we used it to go see the National Museum. Which turned out to be one of my favorite Museums ever, because all it did was teach me about Hinduism, which is comically interesting. They had statues of Hindu gods from the temples, and some of the Buddhist ones too and simply explained them in detail. We spent 3 or so hours there, then made our way back and got a tuk-tuk to the airport. The airport was really nice and small. Here we tried some palm wine at the duty free store. It tasted like slightly rotting plums and dried out our tongues and throats for hours. The bathrooms at the airport were cleaner than any in Singapore. There were 4 "gates", which were just waiting areas, because when a plane arrived you just walked outside and up some stairs into the plane. On the plane we met a really nice guy living in Singapore for about the same times as us, though he will be here for 2 years. We talked to him all 4 hours until we got home.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Gabe's Post - Vietnam
A week ago and some hours ago, I was in Vietnam. Shreyas and I left Singapore around 7 and landed in Vietnam around 9 local time. After a 20 minute visa obtaining process using our already pre-applied for visa-on-arrival information, we gained entry into Vietnam. The very first thing we noticed was a balcony of eerily gazing people watching the arrivals intently. We, however, ignored this and made way to exchange our money. The exchange rate there was about 10% better then anything we could get in Singapore, and we also got set up with a taxi into town. This was good, because I have never been more momentarily confused in my life. We exited the airport lobby and came face to face with a mob of hundreds of teenage girls with cameras yelling giddily with excitement and expectation upon the exit of every person. There were security guards lazily eyeing us and also making a path through the mob for us. After some question we learned a famous Korean singer was disembarking shortly after us. Besides the mob, the night was uneventful. We took the 20 minute taxi ride which dropped us off on one of the main tourist streets at the mouth of a tiny alleyway. About 50 meters in this alleyway sat our hostel, a very clean and nice hostel with a quiet and nice clientele. Here, we decided to sleep and wake up earl, but only after going out and getting a drink. We wound our way all the way through the alley and exited on the other touristy main street that contained all the bars. We were quite hungry and so decided to get some street food. To our surprise, we found a stand that sold 75 cent baguette sandwiches with pate, butter, dried meats, and vegetables. They were absolutely delicious and we had one every day while we were there. We then sat down and had some drinks. We tried 333 and Saigon, some of the local beers (which were inevitably cheap light lagers). After this, we made our way home and slept.
Early in the morning, we awoke to a free breakfast of baguette with the laughing cow cheese and vegetables and some delicious coffee. We then walked outside to a Japanese Festival of sorts and got to try Sapporo on draft for free, which is significantly tastier then in a can and when paid for. We then made the tourist circuit. We saw the Ben Thanh market, which was just an echo of Bangkok's weekend market. The People Committee Hall, which was just a nice looking building. Then, we made it to a very overly nice part of town, with ridiculously expensive cars and everything, and saw the opera house, which was also very big and nice. We then made a left and saw the Cathedral Notre Dame, which was relatively unexciting but nice. There was a wedding occurring so we could not go in. Instead we went into the main Post Office Building, which was converted into a tourist attraction of sorts and had nice architecture and some interesting statues of war relating things outside. Shortly after we made it past the Independence Palace, which was very large and pretty, but also sunny and expensive so we didn't go inside. Instead we opted to go to the War Remnants Museum, which had some nice preserved tanks, helicopters, guns, boats, and planes outside. On the inside, however, was just something similar to our History Day project (aptly titled the Rape of Nanking), and was ghastly images of torture. When lunch closing time was called, we decided not to wait the two hours to return.
We decided it was lunch time. Being quite hungry, me and Shreyas determined that one of the first places we saw looked very good, and it was. To drink, Shreyas was afraid of water and ice so got something canned. I was beign adventurous, so asked the waiter what something I didn't recognize was and was told it is very hard for foreigners to drink....so I ordered it (turned out it was just barley drink with malted barley in it).Shreyas ordered some sort of tuna soupy noodle that was both fishy and very tasty. I accidently ordered a plate of shellfish. As in two handfuls of tiny unshelled mussel like shellfish. It came with 3 large sesame crispy flat breads that I used to scoop the mussels. It was all very delicious and about 4 dollars.
After lunch we walked pretty far from the tourist circuit (we exhausted our touristy things to do). We ended up very thirsty in a place where no one spoke English and decided to walk into a Super Market. It was very large and people took pictures of us drinking free samples of Nescafe super-black, which was an Indonesian style instant coffee (just ground coffee beans in water). Here we got yakult to hopefully stave off horrible stomach illnesses from our accidental lunch of seafood. Shortly thereafter, we made it to one of the larger pagodas on our map and took pictures of it and admired it. It was very pagoda-y. We then decided it was ok to head back, and head back we did, with a brief stop to get 20 cent coffee at a local coffee sit down places. We almost made it home before we found fresh beer. This is beer that is not completely fermented yet and is known locally as Bia Hoi. The beer was delicious and incredibly malty and smooth and enjoyable. We only had one though because we were quite tired. After finally getting to the hostel, Shreyas took a siesta while I read and emailed.
After naps were had, we went out and decided to see the riverside. It was much dirtier then the other side we saw, and very underdeveloped. After some searching there, we decided to head back and ended up on the same touristy street we were before. However, we found a bar with locals and had some 20 cent Bia Hoi of lesser quality then the one before, and talked to locals. My local told me about how the South hated the North and the communist government, and how everything in the North is pretty much just terrible and the cities are evil. He also said the Siam is pretty evil and that all the girls in the area were probably prostitutes. He was lots of fun and we talked for 2 beers. We then got more sandwiches, another beer, and were offered lots of cigarettes and even random drugs pretty openly. After that we were tired so went home and slept.
Our second day was dedicated to the Cu Chi tunnels. Its that tunnel system you saw on the History Channel, where the communist in the South hid just outside Siam. The ride there was pretty long and uneventful. Our tour guide was named Manana and told us about how the new generation is taught in the government schools to hate the French, Japanese, and Americans for the most recent wars, but culturally they are taught that Vietnam has had too many wars and it is best to move on. At the tunnels we saw a Vietnam War Propaganda Film from the Cu Chi tunnel resident side which was interesting. We then saw a series of fox holes and spider holes (holes without tunnels connecting and holes with tunnels). We even got to crawl through a tunnel for 100 meters, which was both interesting and difficult. After seeing the tunnels for a few hours, we got some free steamed manjioca, which the tunnel residents ate when they lacked rice. We then made it back and then walked out for dinner-lunch. We walked away from the touristy section and found a very nice pho restaurant with little English. There we both had everything pho which was delicious. It had the pho beef broth, a ton of flat noodles, bean sprouts and carrots, meat balls, meat strips, meat slices, fish, cow stomach, and something I could not identify. The entire time the restaurant workers and us were watching the movie 127 Hours, the one about the guy who gets his arm caught by a boulder and has to cut it off. We never saw the end tho, instead getting some more of the good Bia Hoi and napping.
After, we walked out again and decided to explore the Japanese fest. There we tried some schwarzbeer, which was just German for Guinness, and some food. We then walked back to the market to see if anything was open. There we had some of the most delicious jackfruit ever, some colorful rice that was both sickly sweet and overly salty. We found no souvenirs so decided to just go back and have one last drink in Vietnam. There I tried some Banana wine, which tasted like watered whiskey with banana flavor in it somewhere. Besides that, all we did was get one last sandwich then sleep in preparation for an early rise to bus to Cambodia.
P.S. Siam alone has 10 million people, who own in total 5 million mopeds. You can not escape the sound of two stroke engines. And the roads don't usually have lights, its just go when you can. This rule applies to pedestrians as well as all the mopeds and the occasional car.
Early in the morning, we awoke to a free breakfast of baguette with the laughing cow cheese and vegetables and some delicious coffee. We then walked outside to a Japanese Festival of sorts and got to try Sapporo on draft for free, which is significantly tastier then in a can and when paid for. We then made the tourist circuit. We saw the Ben Thanh market, which was just an echo of Bangkok's weekend market. The People Committee Hall, which was just a nice looking building. Then, we made it to a very overly nice part of town, with ridiculously expensive cars and everything, and saw the opera house, which was also very big and nice. We then made a left and saw the Cathedral Notre Dame, which was relatively unexciting but nice. There was a wedding occurring so we could not go in. Instead we went into the main Post Office Building, which was converted into a tourist attraction of sorts and had nice architecture and some interesting statues of war relating things outside. Shortly after we made it past the Independence Palace, which was very large and pretty, but also sunny and expensive so we didn't go inside. Instead we opted to go to the War Remnants Museum, which had some nice preserved tanks, helicopters, guns, boats, and planes outside. On the inside, however, was just something similar to our History Day project (aptly titled the Rape of Nanking), and was ghastly images of torture. When lunch closing time was called, we decided not to wait the two hours to return.
We decided it was lunch time. Being quite hungry, me and Shreyas determined that one of the first places we saw looked very good, and it was. To drink, Shreyas was afraid of water and ice so got something canned. I was beign adventurous, so asked the waiter what something I didn't recognize was and was told it is very hard for foreigners to drink....so I ordered it (turned out it was just barley drink with malted barley in it).Shreyas ordered some sort of tuna soupy noodle that was both fishy and very tasty. I accidently ordered a plate of shellfish. As in two handfuls of tiny unshelled mussel like shellfish. It came with 3 large sesame crispy flat breads that I used to scoop the mussels. It was all very delicious and about 4 dollars.
After lunch we walked pretty far from the tourist circuit (we exhausted our touristy things to do). We ended up very thirsty in a place where no one spoke English and decided to walk into a Super Market. It was very large and people took pictures of us drinking free samples of Nescafe super-black, which was an Indonesian style instant coffee (just ground coffee beans in water). Here we got yakult to hopefully stave off horrible stomach illnesses from our accidental lunch of seafood. Shortly thereafter, we made it to one of the larger pagodas on our map and took pictures of it and admired it. It was very pagoda-y. We then decided it was ok to head back, and head back we did, with a brief stop to get 20 cent coffee at a local coffee sit down places. We almost made it home before we found fresh beer. This is beer that is not completely fermented yet and is known locally as Bia Hoi. The beer was delicious and incredibly malty and smooth and enjoyable. We only had one though because we were quite tired. After finally getting to the hostel, Shreyas took a siesta while I read and emailed.
After naps were had, we went out and decided to see the riverside. It was much dirtier then the other side we saw, and very underdeveloped. After some searching there, we decided to head back and ended up on the same touristy street we were before. However, we found a bar with locals and had some 20 cent Bia Hoi of lesser quality then the one before, and talked to locals. My local told me about how the South hated the North and the communist government, and how everything in the North is pretty much just terrible and the cities are evil. He also said the Siam is pretty evil and that all the girls in the area were probably prostitutes. He was lots of fun and we talked for 2 beers. We then got more sandwiches, another beer, and were offered lots of cigarettes and even random drugs pretty openly. After that we were tired so went home and slept.
Our second day was dedicated to the Cu Chi tunnels. Its that tunnel system you saw on the History Channel, where the communist in the South hid just outside Siam. The ride there was pretty long and uneventful. Our tour guide was named Manana and told us about how the new generation is taught in the government schools to hate the French, Japanese, and Americans for the most recent wars, but culturally they are taught that Vietnam has had too many wars and it is best to move on. At the tunnels we saw a Vietnam War Propaganda Film from the Cu Chi tunnel resident side which was interesting. We then saw a series of fox holes and spider holes (holes without tunnels connecting and holes with tunnels). We even got to crawl through a tunnel for 100 meters, which was both interesting and difficult. After seeing the tunnels for a few hours, we got some free steamed manjioca, which the tunnel residents ate when they lacked rice. We then made it back and then walked out for dinner-lunch. We walked away from the touristy section and found a very nice pho restaurant with little English. There we both had everything pho which was delicious. It had the pho beef broth, a ton of flat noodles, bean sprouts and carrots, meat balls, meat strips, meat slices, fish, cow stomach, and something I could not identify. The entire time the restaurant workers and us were watching the movie 127 Hours, the one about the guy who gets his arm caught by a boulder and has to cut it off. We never saw the end tho, instead getting some more of the good Bia Hoi and napping.
After, we walked out again and decided to explore the Japanese fest. There we tried some schwarzbeer, which was just German for Guinness, and some food. We then walked back to the market to see if anything was open. There we had some of the most delicious jackfruit ever, some colorful rice that was both sickly sweet and overly salty. We found no souvenirs so decided to just go back and have one last drink in Vietnam. There I tried some Banana wine, which tasted like watered whiskey with banana flavor in it somewhere. Besides that, all we did was get one last sandwich then sleep in preparation for an early rise to bus to Cambodia.
P.S. Siam alone has 10 million people, who own in total 5 million mopeds. You can not escape the sound of two stroke engines. And the roads don't usually have lights, its just go when you can. This rule applies to pedestrians as well as all the mopeds and the occasional car.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Twenty Countries!
So, I will post more about this past weekend's trip soon, but I thought it was necessary to point out that I've officially been to TWENTY countries!
Here they are:
Here they are:
US (duh)
Mexico
Bahamas
Chile
Brazil
Spain
Ireland
United Kingdom
France
Belgium
Netherlands/Holland
Switzerland
Germany
Italy
Israel
Singapore
Malaysia
Indonesia
Philippines
Thailand
Next to come: Macau, Hong Kong and China! And maybe Turkey if I'm brave enough to leave the airport during my 6 hour layover....
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Beachy Weekend
Sorry for the delay in getting this post up. It's been a busy week with lots of work for both of us. I'm also dealing with a sinus infection, which is fun.
Anyways, the beach weekend...
First I should tell you about Friday night. Shreyas let us know that there was a beer fest on campus at the staff lounge, the bar on campus. Gabe and I headed over and had some fun tasting different beers. I think Gabe enjoyed it a bit more than I did, but it was still fun. Shreyas showed up later and I let them have their fun so I could pack and sleep.
We booked a nice weekend in Bintan, Indonesia. It's just an hour by ferry. We scheduled the first ferry of the day, at 8AM. That meant we had to be there at 7, and the ferry station is an hour away by MRT, so we got up at 5 or so and took the train across the city. I slept the whole ferry ride. Upon arrival, we were filed into a cute little building and got our visas-on-arrival. Then we went to a nice bus and took a short ride to Nirwana Gardens, which is where our hotel was.
The beach was gorgeous. We checked in and changed into our bathing suits before going out to the beach. The water was cool and clear and wonderful.
The weekend was relaxing and we pretty much just walked around and didn't do much. After relaxing for a bit on the sand, we went for lunch, where I had a very seafoody fried rice and Gabe had delicious fried noodles. After walking around a bit more, we went for a couples massage that was included with our trip package... It was the most interesting experience I think I've had in a long time. I learned that every square inch of my body is ticklish and not to have another full-body massage.
Dinner was on the other end of the area (it's sortof like Hilton Head, with different large neighborhoods) - Thai food that was quite tasty. Gabe had a yellow curry that we ended up sharing and then we also had Thai spring rolls. Then we walked around looking for dessert. We stopped in every restaurant... About six. The ones we found ended up being out of stock that night, so I ended up with an ice cream bar from a quick mart, but it was still yummy. The whole afternoon, there was a storm building. By the time we got back, it was starting to drizzle and the lightning was gorgeous.
The next day we had a wonderful, delicious breakfast. Pastries, eggs, beef bacon (still strange), yogurt, breads, cereals, everything. We haven't had "real" American breakfast in a long time. It was amazing sitting there, eating yummy food and watching the storm on the beach. The day was overcast, but we still headed to the beach and explored a bit. For lunch, I had a light chicken soup and then we walked around some more.
In all of our walking around, we came across a "mini zoo" which had birds, snakes, crocodiles, and very cute little deer. It was cool to see them, though it was a true "mini" zoo, with only ten or so cages. All the animals were rescued from illegal breeders and owners, and they seemed to be well taken care of. It was nice.
Our ferry back was the last of the day, so we grabbed dinner - sharing a plate of nachos and a chocolate dessert - and then took the bus back to the ferry. Apparently the ferry plays Tom and Jerry the whole way, which was interesting. The train ride back was uninteresting, and we pretty much fell asleep when we got back.
This week has been busy, but we're planning to go to Manila next weekend. My photos are on facebook.
Goodnight-lah.
Anyways, the beach weekend...
First I should tell you about Friday night. Shreyas let us know that there was a beer fest on campus at the staff lounge, the bar on campus. Gabe and I headed over and had some fun tasting different beers. I think Gabe enjoyed it a bit more than I did, but it was still fun. Shreyas showed up later and I let them have their fun so I could pack and sleep.
We booked a nice weekend in Bintan, Indonesia. It's just an hour by ferry. We scheduled the first ferry of the day, at 8AM. That meant we had to be there at 7, and the ferry station is an hour away by MRT, so we got up at 5 or so and took the train across the city. I slept the whole ferry ride. Upon arrival, we were filed into a cute little building and got our visas-on-arrival. Then we went to a nice bus and took a short ride to Nirwana Gardens, which is where our hotel was.
The beach was gorgeous. We checked in and changed into our bathing suits before going out to the beach. The water was cool and clear and wonderful.
The weekend was relaxing and we pretty much just walked around and didn't do much. After relaxing for a bit on the sand, we went for lunch, where I had a very seafoody fried rice and Gabe had delicious fried noodles. After walking around a bit more, we went for a couples massage that was included with our trip package... It was the most interesting experience I think I've had in a long time. I learned that every square inch of my body is ticklish and not to have another full-body massage.
Dinner was on the other end of the area (it's sortof like Hilton Head, with different large neighborhoods) - Thai food that was quite tasty. Gabe had a yellow curry that we ended up sharing and then we also had Thai spring rolls. Then we walked around looking for dessert. We stopped in every restaurant... About six. The ones we found ended up being out of stock that night, so I ended up with an ice cream bar from a quick mart, but it was still yummy. The whole afternoon, there was a storm building. By the time we got back, it was starting to drizzle and the lightning was gorgeous.
The next day we had a wonderful, delicious breakfast. Pastries, eggs, beef bacon (still strange), yogurt, breads, cereals, everything. We haven't had "real" American breakfast in a long time. It was amazing sitting there, eating yummy food and watching the storm on the beach. The day was overcast, but we still headed to the beach and explored a bit. For lunch, I had a light chicken soup and then we walked around some more.
In all of our walking around, we came across a "mini zoo" which had birds, snakes, crocodiles, and very cute little deer. It was cool to see them, though it was a true "mini" zoo, with only ten or so cages. All the animals were rescued from illegal breeders and owners, and they seemed to be well taken care of. It was nice.
Our ferry back was the last of the day, so we grabbed dinner - sharing a plate of nachos and a chocolate dessert - and then took the bus back to the ferry. Apparently the ferry plays Tom and Jerry the whole way, which was interesting. The train ride back was uninteresting, and we pretty much fell asleep when we got back.
This week has been busy, but we're planning to go to Manila next weekend. My photos are on facebook.
Goodnight-lah.
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