Email to Friends: Back From Vietnam‏

Greetings!

I arrived back from Vietnam safe and sound on Friday night. Still not sure what day or time it is (apparently the clocks get set back an hour while I was gone?). Also came back with a nasty cold (I swear it isn't Japanese encepalitis or SARS or anything nasty....okay, well maybe I don't SWEAR, but I am pretty sure). Can't believe there is Christmas stuff up at the airport when I haven't even had Halloween yet. Yikes.

For those of you who left phone/text messages or email, sorry....I will get to it soon!

In the mean time, I got up my travel pictures (also viewable as a slideshow). Or at least the better ones. I took thousands of pictures and tried to weed out the blurry ones. Man, I am a real spazz with the camera. Then I paired it down since you all probably don't want to see 100 pictures that look remarkably similar of Halong Bay, Sapa, monkeys, war planes, or random other stuff.

I also kept a paper journal on this trip (well...I didn't think I would need a journal so I didn't bring one and had to write on scraps of paper since I couldn't find the "journal street" in Hanoi to buy one). I decided to put it up online instead of writing up my usual old trip report email. I am still in the process of sorting through the bits of paper and entering it online.

If I don't talk to you in the next few days, have a happy Thanksgiving,

Betsy

Email to Friends: Last Message From Vietnam‏

Hello!

This is the first time I have seen the internet since the last time. Went to a small town in the central highlands that was beautiful and was the only tourist. Visited another orphanage and handed out presents and played for a few hours. Have some adorable pictures of the kids to share when I get home. Also, randomly taught two English classes to little kids. When kids point to a picture of drapes and ask what it is, do you say drapes, shades, curtains, or window coverings? And who knew we had so many words for the same thing? That was interesting.

Went to Ho Chi Minh City but didn't find it as nice as Hanoi. Went through the Mekong Delta and saw the floating markets. Had an issue on the local bus where I had to sit for 3 hours and the ticket taker decided to sit next to me (there were only 2 other passengers in the minivan) and touch my hair, arms, face, and legs even though I repeatedly told him no, stop, and pointed to my ring (that I moved to my left hand after the 11th marriage proposal) and told him I was married. He then motioned for me to sleep and tried to push my head into his lap. The other passengers were not helping and so I spent the whole 3 hours with my legs curled up against my chest and turned my back to him. He finally got back in the front when some women got on near my destination but it was not a great experience as I could not get off the bus since travel in that area is not easy to get.

Now I am off on a small island called Phu Qouc near Cambodia, just relaxing. The first night I stayed in a dump of a bungalow for $12 (higher than average of what I am spending a night). Seems there was some type of large animal living in the roof above the bathroom, as I found small-dog sized poop (not the regular lizard poop) and it smelled. Also a large storm that night left a hole in the roof that rained on my bed. Then the storm took out the power, so I spend a long, dark night huddled up trying to figure out what creepy crawlies were sharing the room with me. So now I decided to suck it up and move into a much better place. But it is a whole $18 dollars a night to not have some demon spawn reptile poop on my head while I am sleeping! Hahaha!

OK - they are closing up here, so I will be on the island until I go to HCMC on the 16th and will fly home and arrive back in Seattle on the 17th.

See you all soon!

Love,
Betsy

Email to Friends: In Hue But Leaving Due to Coming Typhoon‏

Hello again,

Hope all is well with you all. This is just a short note since I am again near a computer. Since the last email, I met up with my Halong Bay tour guide, Tien, on the streets of Hanoi. I went and drank beer with him and his buddy who is a computer professor at the University. He took me to get ice cream, which means that I did the same thing in Hanoi as I would do at home... hung out with computer geeks, drank beer and ate ice cream :) The next day, Tien drove me on his motorbike to Cuc Phung to hike and visit the Primate Reserve. Long ride (3 1/2 hours and 140 km each way). He won't let me pay for anything, so I will have to send him a package when I return home.

Spent the last several days trekking through the mountains near China with the Hmong tribes and Red Zao. It was a nice break from the heat, as the weather is quite brisk up in the mountains. Kids from the various tribes ran along side of us and asked lots of questions (and wanted handouts -- which we were told by our guide not to give them, as then their parents won't keep them in school). Did a few homestays, sleeping on the floor of barns and houses. Visited the Bac Ha open market of the Flower Hmongs. Very colorful and beautiful.

Once I returned to Hanoi, Tien came and picked me up. We went to his house to visit and I met his sister who is studying Japanese in the University. Went to snake village and had a 6 course meal of snake. I liked everything except the snake skin dish, which was too chewy. But the crushed snake bone on rice cakes was tasty and the lot leaves stuffed with snake meat was also good. Drank shots of the snake blood and bile after watching them drain it. And as the guest of honor, I did a shot with the still-beating snake heart. Lots of alcohol involved (lizard, snake gonad, and bee wine). Then went to the zoo. So far, no stomach problems! Said goodbye to Tien... he was sad and would like me to move here. I said I would probably be back one day with my parents.

Took the night train to Hue. Visited Lam's mom (Lam is the man who did the paperwork and was the Vietnamese contact to get me adopted to the States) and dropped the digital camera off next door. Went with the neighbor to see some sites, but I am trying to figure out what to do, since there is a typhoon headed to the Central area where I am (and had planned to be for the next week or so). Keep getting mixed stories on where I should try to be, but if it hits, they say all transportation will be shut down for a while. Can't understand the news too well, since I haven't really picked up that much Vietnamese. So, just trying to get people to explain what is best to do. Most say to get out of the area by the 2nd, although something on Google news says it may touch done on Saturday? So, my itinerary is looking like tonight in Hue, tomorrow the bus to Hoi An and stay overnight there and catch the early morning bus off to the Central Highlands area of Da Lat or Bahnar villages in Kontum to get away from the coast line.

Mom and Dad - In case you talk to Lam, tell him I met his mom and she is very sweet, but I decided to stay in a hotel because I needed to book a bus ticket and leave early in the morning. That isn't really the full story, but I will fill you in when I get home. I am fine... just think this is for the best.

Got to go find something yummy on the streets to eat and walk along the Perfume River. I will email again after the typhoon touches down and as soon as I can find another computer.

Love,
Betsy

Email to Friends: Hello From Vietnam‏

Just wanted to let everyone know that I arrived safely and am still in Hanoi. Hanoi is very loud and busy and I have heard from other travelers that Ho Chi Minh City is even worse. My first night here, I was exhausted and couldn't even figure out how to cross the street. I had to walk around the block until I could find someone else crossing and quickly walked with them (yes, I used an old lady as a body shield against traffic). Half of the population of Hanoi owns motorbikes and they drive within inches of each other. There are no traffic lights, so you just have to walk VERY slowly and they move around you. It is very hard not to stop or turn back, since they honk their horns at you. I have found that they are only honking to let you know where they are, so that you do not change the speed or direction of your walking. Then they can anticipate your direction and work around you. Unfortunately, when I hear honking, I instinctively stop. Luckily, I haven't been clipped yet.

On my second day, I went to Halong Bay and stayed overnight on a junk boat. Halong Bay is spectacular. The only other solo traveler on the tour was a creepy guy trying to find a wife in S.S. Asia and he was driving me nuts, so I just hung out with the tour guide, boat captain, and boat staff. The guide was really nice and we talked for hours about Vietnam and about my first visit. The day after that, we went kayaking around Halong Bay and then went to Cat Ba Island for a hike around the forest. The boat captain invited me to give over my passport to get permissions to stay on a few more nights for free, but I decided that I'd had enough boat time and there is too much else to see. So now I am back in Hanoi for my last night.

A bonus of jet lag is that I wake up around 5:00 AM every morning. I am getting lots done. My first morning in Hanoi, I walked around the lake. Tons of people exercising (tai chi, stretching, makeshift pull-up bars sticking out of tree trunks, etc). Met a guy with a motorbike that offered to take me on a tour of the city, but I really wanted to get out of the city for the day. So I convinced him to take me out of the city on the back of his bike. Drove through beautiful countryside and saw lots of farmers in rice paddies, brick makers, water buffalo, cows, chickens and other stuff that you only see in postcards (which I will eventually get in the mail to you, if you gave me your address before I left).


There are separate villages for each craft. Saw the ceramics village where he took me into his friend's place where they handpaint pottery. The women let me try, but I was pretty bad at keeping my hand steady. Then went to the woodblock printing village and tried my hand at that, but I was too slow and not very good at it. Went to a cool temple and then off to lunch at his sister's house. Finished with the wood furniture village. My driver seems pretty safe, except sometimes when he starts talking about the government and turns to face me when he should be driving. When we got back to the city, my knuckles were white. We were swerving around within a few mere inches of horses carrying supplies, whole families of five on motorbikes, huge trucks, and buses. But all in all, it seemed pretty safe (and I secretly looked over my driver's bike before going to look for dings or scratches from accidents).

I am off again tomorrow with him to see either Ninh Binh (where he thinks I should see) or Cuc Phuong National Park to see the Primate Reserve (which, of course, I want to see). We are still "discussing" it, but since I have the one paying, I have a feeling I will win. Maybe we can do both, if I can stay on the back of the bike for 8-9 hours. Then tomorrow night, I catch the night train to Lo Cai and Sapa for trekking around the Hmong tribes and visiting markets and doing some homestays.

The weirdest thing that I've found here is that everyone immediately knows I am Vietnamese, and sometimes even starts talking to me in Vietnamese. Most of the women I have met just stare at my face and really seem to be examining me. Not sure why they are doing it, but I admit I am doing the same (looking for my features in their face). Two kids last night spent two hours talking to me and whispering to me in Vietnamese. Of course, I couldn't tell them I didn't understand them. So we just spent most of the time giggling and making faces. Gave them each a superball and finger puppet from the toy stash I brought from home to hand out, so they seemed happy. The name Betsy seems to be giving everyone trouble, so most people are calling me by my middle name (Hoa-Sen, which means lotus blossom, or just Sen for short).

Taking tons of pictures and keeping a journal (okay...scraps of paper) for when I return. Probably won't have email until I get to Hue on the 31st or first.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Love,
Betsy

Email to Friends: Playa del Carmen, Mexico Trip Report

Hola,

I am home and finally getting up my pictures from Mexico. I spent two weeks in Playa del Carmen. Playa is very touristy and not really for me, but is centrally located and a great location to hit stuff to the north and south of the Yucatan. There is one main street in Playa called 5th Avenue with a ton of touristy stores, restaurants and bars. At night, it can get so crowded on 5th that it almost reminded me of Vegas. Not many Americans... mainly Italians and Europeans. The hurricane damage was minimal to the beach due to the fact that Cozumel took most of the beating, so unluckily for me, the Europeans could still run around topless and speedo-ed (never really the ones that you want to see in such attire).

I spent quite a bit of time hanging out in the town behind the touristy street, eating at whatever places I could find the most locals. The fact that I know very little to no Spanish and very few tourists wander off in to that area made it more difficult to communicate, but they were good at humoring me. Eventually, I was hanging out with enough locals that did speak English and Spanish that they could help me around. And the food was spectacular! Tamales, tortas, and empanadas for under a dollar.

I did four days of diving. One day of ocean diving to Tortugas (where I saw about 20-25 sea turtles) and Barracudas (which also lived up to its name), one day in Cozumel (amazing dive which included rays, eels, a lobster the size of a Labrador, cool corals and swim-throughs, and a fun bearded toadfish) and two days of cenote dives (cool layer of salt and fresh water that causes light to refract differently and then stirs up, one random eel, tons of stalactite and stalagmite formations, and even the remains of Mayan pottery). The cenote dives really made me want to get a cave diving certificate.

I also went to Coba and Ek Balam to see the ruins. Both were spectacular and not terribly touristy. And also visited a small fishing village and bird/wildlife sanctuary to the north called Rio Lagartos that was beautiful, and had a flamingo breeding ground (and salt mines). Tried to go to Tulum, but apparently the locals I went with hadn't ever been and didn't know it closed at 5, so we goofed off in the village and walked around town (it had a HUGE 700 year old tree and a cool cemetery).

Highlights/funny/cool incidents from the trip:

• The bus ride from the airport to Playa, I was sitting up front. Along the highway, some large bird smacked in to the front of the bus and cracked the window a bit. When the driver asked the ticket-taker what we hit, the ticket-taker said "Maybe a chicken?" The bus driver replied "Chickens don't fly" and the ticket-taker replied "WELL... neither did that bird!" Caused a minor delay but it was all good.
• When I asked what a great local restaurant recommendations for dinner when I first arrived, I was told "Johnny Rockets". I laughed and said no...and ended up eating the best $1 tacos at some stand called Billy's instead.
• Apparently, Subcomandante Marcos held a rally at the soccer field behind my hotel one night, and I actually got to caught a quick glimpse of him on horseback as he went through town.
• Met two cool married brothers from Maine that were staying in the same hotel so I had fun hanging out and had people to eat with (since apparently being a single female in Mexico was unheard of as is eating alone) until they left.
• Highway Driving. CRAZY. I spent quite a bit of time as the passenger in Jorge or Alex's cousin's car. They take a two lane highway and make it three or sometimes four lanes as they pass down the solid yellow line (really, the yellow line is obviously just a suggestion and not one taken too seriously. It really seems to be a waste of good yellow paint). At night, the oncoming lights just barely miss you, and there are people running across the highway on foot to jump on the collectivo buses. Oh, and they are speeding... I looked down and saw on the small dirt road that Jorge was going 130 km/hr.
• Finding out that the glass bottles hanging on tree branches on the side of dirt roads actually signified that there were people living in the jungle there
• Riding a bike around Coba. Most of you know that bike riding is one of my many "not-so-strong points", but I managed it fine and it was actually pretty fun whizzing around through the jungle.
• Mayan culture. I love it! The people are so friendly and wonderful. The ruins are beautiful. Jorge was from a tiny village in the Chiapas and I would love to do another trip to Oaxaca and travel through the Chiapas and then go to Guatemala. But I need to learn more Spanish or convince one of the guys to go with me.
• Talking to Jorge about why they have basketball courts every where. Jorge said that the government builds them in all the little villages... even in the small Mayan villages with no schools, doctors, sometimes electricity, sewers, etc. He was really angry about it since it was a waste of money and as he put it "We Mayans are short people. What are we going to do with a basketball court?" (mainly they put makeshift soccer nets in front of them). He said that a better use of the government funds would be to educate some of the shamans or witch doctors of the villages on how to cure common ailments without the use of local flora and fauna, since during hurricanes, that all gets wiped out and then people can end up getting really sick or dying from simple things.
• Other tourists taking pictures of me hanging out at Alex's store. We would sit out front and chat and Alex's 13 year old cousin, Ari, tried to teach me Spanish and I tried to teach him English with Alex as both of our translators. I noticed people occasionally walking by and taking pictures of me. One Canadian couple did finally ask if it was okay to take my picture, and they seemed very surprised when I answered back in English "Yeah, if you want a picture of a chick from Seattle".
• Heading off with some locals I met at La Parilla to the discotec off the tourist street in town where I stuck out as the ONLY non-Mexican in the place. The DJ had taped videos from BET and MTV and shows them on a big screen (they still have the channel logos on the videos).
• Spending one of my final days shopping with a guy that was a soccer player in Cancun that wanted to play on the Playa team so he was living at the bus station and ran up and down the beach several times a day and just tried out any time a spot on the team opened up. But he spoke English pretty well and I would show him what I wanted and he would tell me what to pay for it and how to get the price down.
  

In very sad news, my Grandpa passed away while I was gone. My parents finally got a hold of me down there, but it happened so quick that I couldn't get home. Not that he would have wanted or let me come home. It was just hard hearing about it and being so far away from my family and to be in a place where I couldn't really even communicate with many people. But the people I had met down there were wonderful to me. Offering to open up their homes to me, taking time off to just hang out with me, etc. I really met some first rate folks down there.

Any way, here is the link to my pictures (I haven't had a chance to add descriptions yet): http://flickr.com/photos/betsy/sets/72057594057611284/

If you read this far, your prize is that I have been perfecting my favorite meal: fish in garlic and red chile sauce, coconut rice (actually from Belize) and steamed veggies and of course... guacamole (although they didn't really have guacamole in Mexico, I still love me some avocado). You should let me know and I can cook it up for you. It was tested twice this weekend by other victims and as far as I know, they are still fine. If you don't like spicy or fish, the tequila I brought back makes everything taste better :) Next up... Vietnam for a month some time in September - October.

Love,
Betsy