I cannot finish this entry for the life of me

3/29/09
6:25

I can’t sleep anymore so I decided I would finish my Vietnam blob before we arrive in Hong Kong.

For the third day and night, Greg had found a homestay on Wikitravel in Mekong, so I joined him and some others on this trip.  Great group.  It was Greg, Caroline, Lia, Disha, Taylor, Brendan, this kind of weird guy named Mike, and Brendan’s roommate Skyler.  Brendan and Skyler were a hit.  Hilarious.

So at 7:45 the third day we loaded up a minibus with out friendly, English-speaking tour guide named Tan and began our 2-hour ride to Mekong.  As usual everyone tried to use the ride as a way to catch up on sleep, but to no avail for Disha and me.  We sat in the very back, so basically the bumpiest spot of the bus, and we felt every single bump.  I got so much air. It was crazy.

Along the way we stopped at a Cao Dai Temple.  Disha had gone to THE Cao Dai  Temple the day before, and although she said the one we saw wasn’t as cool she said it was still a good example.  The arched ceilings of the temple were painted sky blue with white stars and dragons.  The pillars are wrapped with colorful dragons.  There were altars to Hindu gods, Buddha, and Jesus.  It was so colorful.  And detailed.  And each Cao Dai Temple has this much detail. It made me think about the architects and artists that design each one and how long it takes them to create every unique detail.

After the temple we arrived in Mekong and we hopped on a river boat and traveled along the Mekong River.  We saw the houseboats of the fishermen, and we floated down natural canals.  We stopped on Ben Tre (Coconut) Island, which has the most coconuts than any other place in the country and listened to traditional Vietnamese songs.  Vietnamese music is very unique and the instruments they played were unlike any I had ever seen before.  There was a two-string guitar/banjo, a 5-string guitar with much deeper grooves in the neck, and some other instrument that was basically like a vertical stick with strings.  While in Vietnam I realized that Vietnamese people are very willing to sing if given the opportunity, and for the most part, they are very good at singing.  Our tour guide, Tan, asked us to sing to him while we were on the riverboat.  We sang Backstreet Boys, J. Lo and Ja Rule, you know….the classics. 

Then we went to the home where we would be staying.  We were all expecting a nice family atmosphere, with little kids running around everywhere.  We were excited to hear about life along the Mekong Delta, and to converse about Vietnamese culture.  Our imaginations got the better of us, I guess.  We arrived at the small house and the hosts greeted us.  They spoke very little English and the most interaction we had with them was when we first arrived and shook hands and when they served us meals.  There were separate living quarters for the guests along the house.  It looked like a porch, basically, with eleven beds/cots covered with mosquitos nets…thank god. We were not the only travelers staying there, either.  There were some French tourists and possibly some British tourists as well.  They didn’t really interact with us either, though.

Upon our arrival, Tan took us over to a little man-made canal to fish with bamboo sticks.  Skyler and others caught little baby minnow fish that the hosts cooked for dinner.  We were pretty hungry for dinner, even though we had had a great traditional-style Vietnamese lunch.  Lunch was deep-fried elephant ear fish, served whole, head and everything.  Various fruits, including jack fruit and Vietnamese apples.  Spring rolls.  I tried everything, even though I’m not a big fish person.  And you know what?  I liked it.  Dinner at the homestay was very similar to lunch, except we also got this pancake-like thing we rice and pork in it….delicious.  Also, the hosts helped us make our fresh spring rolls so they actually stayed together and looked like a spring roll instead of a clump of rice paper and fish falling apart.  Prawn and shrimp were served too.  I enjoyed that as well.  I guess I might like fish after all.

After dinner we went on a coconut leaf torch light walk to the riverbanks.  Everyone played with fire…pyros.  It wasn’t that late, but we were tired after our day of traveling.  Oh I forgot to mention that after lunch we went on a bike ride to the village markets.  The bikes broke down about every two minutes.  My kickstand was constantly falling down and dragging and my breaks were…nonexistent.  It was comical.  So anyways we all hopped in our netted cots.  Covers were unnecessary since it was still blazing hot.  It had been a sweaty day and it was going to be a hot night.  I’m sure we smelled looooovely. 

Once we were all in bed, we decided to tell stories.  Brendan and Skyler definitely had the best stories.  I’m not going to repeat their stories because they are a little graphic, but they were hilarious.  I’m glad those boys came.  They provided constant entertainment.  It was also nice to have Greg’s friend Dan on the trip.  He told us all of his SAS stories from his voyage two years ago.  We asked if it changed his life and he said he wouldn’t be volunteering in Cambodia had he never done SAS.  There ya go.

I slept pretty well, apart from waking up once or twice thinking I was covered in insects.  We awoke at 6 for an early bike ride with Tan.  Tan was the man.  We called him Tan Man, Mister Tan, Master Tan, and if you were Disha, who is HORRIBLE with names you may have called him Tin Plan.  We called ourselves the Tan Klan.  I don’t know how Tan felt about this, but I think he enjoyed it.

Quick interruption right now.  It is 7:11 am and I am watching the ship pull into port in Hong Kong. First there is rolling hill covered with dark green trees and shore is line with shacks standing on stilits, and then to the left there is skyscraper upon skyscraper.  It’s like a quick bit of nature and then concrete jungle.  Crazy.

Okay back to the story.  Morning bike ride, quick breakfast of rice bread and jelly and fruit and then back onto the riverboat.  I’m pretty sure everyone slept on this riverboat ride.  At one point I looked around and all heads were doing the sleep headbob, some people’s faces were covered with the rice hats they had purchased.  Typical tourists.

Soon we arrived at Unicorn island and tried delicious honey tea, banana wine (which tastes nothing like wine, much more like strong strong whiskey), and an assortment of fruit candies like dried bananas dipped in sugar, water coconut dipped in sugar…lots of fruits dipped in sugar.  Mmm mmm good.

After the taste test, a python was brought out.  Lia held the little one and Skyler held the huge one.  Daring.  Then we went to get coconut candy.  We saw the candy-making process, got a free sample, and then I bought 3 packs of candy.  Peanut coconut candy, chocolate coconut candy, and banana coconut candy.  I’ll try and save some for all of you at home….can’t make any promises.  Just kidding.  I got it solely to give to loved ones.  I did eat a few though…you know how I am.

Now when we were observing the coconut candy-making process, Skyler and Brendan saw a crate of coconuts that had been chopped in half.  They immediately took out two coconuts and began acting out the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail when the king is pretending to ride a horse and his servants tap coconuts together to sound like a horse galloping.  I died.  They are so funny.

After this adventure we went to a little canal on the island that barely had any water and yet was filled with boats.  We hopped in one of these tiny boats, just a bit bigger than a regular canoe.  Two Vietnamese women paddled, one in front and one in back.  Their paddles dragged in the mud the whole time, and we there were several traffic jams that we had to squeeze through and we got stuck in the mud a few times too.  But it was a very, very enjoyable ride.  Brendan, Disha, Skyler and I were all in the same little boat.  We named her Bertha.  As we coasted down the canal, I saw plenty of mudfish, you know those fish that have legs?  Are they called mudfish?  Well, I saw a bunch of those and also these tiny little baby crabs.  I pointed out one of these crabs and Skyler burst into song, “Crab people Crab people, taste like crab, walk like people.”  This is from an episode of South Park.  And it became the theme song of the day. 

The canal opened up back into the Mekong River and we hopped back on the riverboat.  We got back on our mini-bus and began the drive back to Ho Chi Minh City.  Along the way we stopped at a Bonsai garden and ate a vegetarian lunch, that is, if you consider squid a vegetable.  While at the garden little kids came up to us constantly trying to sell us postcards.  I kept saying “no thank you, I don’t want them” and one little boy said, “Why you no want?”  and I said because I didn’t need them and he asked why.  We continued with this game for a while until I got on the bus.  This was a common occurrence throughout Vietnam.  Children and adults hassled us to buy postcards, gum, anything and everything.

Again on the bus ride home I sat in the back and got bumped and jostled about the entire ride back.  No sleep.

Back in Ho Chi Minh, Disha and I went to go pick up our dresses.  We tried them on and something was not right.  At that point I knew I had to give up on the idea of my dress being perfect and accept that it wasn’t going to work…at all.  It was too big even though it was supposed to be fitted through the bodice, the back wasn’t that low even though I wanted a low back…I looked like a little boy who was crossdressing.  They fitted me for some alterations but I knew then it wouldn’t work.  When I came back the next day I tried it on and it still didn’t fit, and now I am stuck with a dress that is way too short, kind of baggy, and makes me look like a little boy.  Maybe I’ll give it to Liv for dress up…in like 7 years.  Oh well, I tried. 

That night I went out with Lia, Disha and Kendra and we had a fabulous night.  We first stopped to get Lia’s dress fitted.  Her dress was beautiful and perfect.  I hate her.  Once we finished with dresses (and let me tell you by this time I was sooooo over dresses) we went to this bar across the street from the tailor’s.  We all got tasty little drinks and then we took a cab over to this local bar we had heard about on Wikitravel.  I am sooo glad we went there.  It was called Acoustic Café and it was jam-packed with locals, not SASers, when we got there at 11pm.  A band was playing American songs.  We heard three Vietnamese singers who sung the American songs perfectly, no accent, right on key.  We sang along, loudly, since we knew all the words.  Kelly Clarkson, P!nk (again), the song called “Knock on wood”…I think that’s what it’s called.  So many good songs.  The bar closed at 11:30 which was kind of bummer so we went outside and ran into the female singer who belted Kel Clarks.  We introduced ourselves, took a picture, and got her e-mail and facebook.  Score!

3/30/09
10:42

Tried to finish Vietnam blob yesterday….got distracted with Hong Kong.

So after Acoustic we went to a club called Volcano, which was horribly awkward and empty and stipclub-esque.  So we left in a hurry. We walked around the city and heard live music coming from the top of Sheraton so we went to hear it, but it ended right when we got to the top.  Everything closes early.  Everything except Apocalypse now.  So we went back to that club.  It was more packed than the first night.  I could barely move.  It was basically a mosh pit and all these bros were broing out on me and I was get clobbered. So Disha, Kendra, the med students Greg and Ben and I walked home to the ship.  Overall it had been a good day.

I want to devote enough time to my final day in Vietnam to capture how awesome it was, so I’m not going to bust it out right now.  However, I am in Hong Kong right and I LOVE IT HERE. Yesterday was amazing.  I am so glad Mere is here and knows her way around.  I love Hong Kong.  I don’t want to leave tonight.