Take a look if you have some time to kill - Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, China and Indonesia at your fingertips from the comforts of your own home. You can't beat an offer like that!

Just CLICK HERE.

Back to a blog friendly country and thus naturally back to blogging (as much as I really enjoyed my time in China - not being able to access certain web sites was mildly frustrating). After 3 months in China - my quasi "mother-land", a country where everything seemed so familiar and yet not - I've decided to blog about my experiences there at a later date. There is so much to cover - so many amazing people to mention, so many comical lost in translation moments, and so many beautiful vistas. To cover it in a nutshell - I landed in Kunming (the capital of Yunnan Province) with the grandiose idea that I would take Chinese classes during the day and volunteer in the afternoon. Classes ended up being buku bucks, and the volunteer program I was looking into ended up being based 1 hour south of Kunming. I opted to forgo the classes for the volunteer program at the Yunnan Institute for Development. The school is part of the Humana People to People program. They train volunteers in development work and at the end of the training program the volunteers get sent to Africa and India. I helped in a couple of the efforts (one which took me out to a remote village in southern Yunnan Province - an experience I will never forget). I then had a two week holiday from my holiday in Guilin/Yangshuo with Russ, which was magical. What an otherworldly place! After that I volunteered at another program in Shangri-la (the western most part of Yunnan Province bordering Tibet) called the Eastern Tibetan Training Institute. I was teaching 9-12 year olds English for ETTI's summer program. If you know anything about me you know that I love kids, so already it was fated to be a good experience. Anyway I'll post more about all of that later - now it's time to talk about the beautiful country Indonesia where Maria and I are currently.

After a whirlwind trip visiting friends and family I had a LONG journey back out to Asia. Ultimately I landed in Bali to meet up with Maria to finish off the last two months of our epic around the world trip. We stayed in Kuta, which is basically Aussie central, a bit like I would imagine Ft. Lauderdale would be to American college spring breakers. We escaped Kuta during the day and went for some high class Bali style in Seminyak at Ku de Ta, Kaizon and Il Trattoria. They have some seriously chic shops in Seminyak (mostly Aussie designer imports) in which after a 2 hour hike up to Seminyak from Kuta in the HOT midday sun (where everything feels like hot dog breath) I proceeded to window shop for 3 hours and bought... drum roll please... a US$ 4 hat. Sigh... thus is the fate of the unemployed traveler. Also while in Bali I tried my hand at a bit of surfing and had the exhilarating thrill of managing to get in a sort of awkward downward facing dog stance on the board whilst riding the whitewater of a wave once or twice, otherwise I basically lay on the board waded back and forth looking out for a wave that didn't have 15 other beginners trying to catch it.

After we'd had our fill of the creature comforts we booked a flight for Manado on the northern tip of Sulawesi. Upon arrival we boarded the local boat (well boarded is a euphemism crammed on to is more exact) and had a lovely journey across turquoise water to Bunaken island. We ended up at Jonath's Cottage. A little family run joint that was our paradise on earth. US$20 per day for 3 all you can eat style home cooked meals and our own private bungalows (yes plural - Maria and I each had our own bungalow, extravagant I know). A little bit about the island just to give you an idea of how remote we were - there is no internet on the island (except at one pricey resort, which only lets guests use it) and the electricity only runs from 6pm to 6am (give or take). Anyway the main reason anyone would ever want to come to this tiny island is not actually what's on land, but what's below sea level. It's a nature reserve with extremely well preserved coral reefs, and we took full advantage!

I've been wanting to get my PADI open water certification ever since my first discover scuba dive in the Grand Cayman on a trip with my parents in college, but I never had the time to do the course. However all the stars are aligned now - 1) I'm in one of the best dive spots in one of the best countries to dive in the world and, goes without saying, 2) I have the time. After some shopping around for the best price I picked an Aussie diving instructor who's been teaching the PADI open water diver course for over 25 years. I'll not bore you with the details of reading, well skimming through, the 300+ page text book, and 5 hours of extremely corny video summarizing the text book. We did 5 confined water dives, which in a normal course would take place in a pool, conversely we did them in the ocean. Then post haste set off on our open water dives in the wild blue yonder. It was an amazing feeling. A feeling of complete freedom. As previously mentioned I've done discovery dives before, but this was totally different. I actually knew what I was doing for one. Apart from that the dive master was not stuck to me like white on rice, which made the experience 10 times better. I was in complete control. I'd imagine the feeling is somewhat what birds feel like in flight. The ability to have a 360 range of motion is an amazing thing. Add on top of that the fact that Bunaken is one of the best diving sites in the world and I was having a near Nirvana moment. The sea was absolutely lousy with life - fish and coral of every imaginable shape and color. One of the most amazing things I saw was a grandaddy sea turtle. It was no joke the length of approximately, give or take, a mini (maybe the old school minis which are smaller than modern day minis). Incredible. Such a graceful being - they get such a unfairly bad wrap for their movement on land... I am totally and utterly hooked!

Nha Trang, Vietnam- After Saigon I spent a few days in the little beach town of Mui Ne (well, technically it's not a town, more of a little strip of guest houses along a nice beach). I never realized how much I missed the beach until I got there. I spent a few days reading and relaxing on the beach waiting for some wind to try kite surfing. Unfortunately the wind never came so I took the worlds worst $13 tour to see a creek, yellow and red sand dunes and this little canyon (if you looked at the canyon without anything to put its size into perspective it could look like the grand canyon!). I mean, the sights were nice but there was nothing particularly special about any of it except for this clay on the shores of the creek. The dunes could have been really cool except for the fact they were crowded so you never really got the 'wow look how open and massive it is' feeling.

Next I headed inland to the Central Highlands town of Dalat. Dalat has a bunch of hiking and mountain biking nearby so I was excited to do something a bit active. Traveling solo makes it tough though because its a bit boring going alone or with only a guide so my plan was to just add myself onto another trip that was going on. The only thing booked for the next 3 days was a 78km bike ride to the beach town of Nha Trang which was leaving the next morning. Since I was planning on heading to Nha Trang afterwards I decided to cut my time in Dalat short and sign up for the bike trip. I spent the day enjoying the lack of humidity and relative coolness (only 85 degrees F!).

The next morning I joined up with a couple of Canadian lawyers, who had also been living in London the past few years, for our 78km bike ride. It was sunny, 85degF and not a cloud in the sky; luckily the middle 30km of our trip would be down hill... but first we had to cycle 25km. The road was brand new and there weren't many cars or buses on it at all (everyone driving motos + no one really going long distances= nice, empty road for biking). We enjoyed some amazing mountain views and the long, rolling ups and downs of the first few km. At about the 15km mark we started going up these long, gentle hills which proved to be killer in the heat. Our guide told us once we got into the valley (2,000m below our current elevation) the humidity would be almost 100%, the temperature would be close to 100degF AND it'd be midday... awesome. We huffed our way through the next 10km of ups and downs before getting to the most amazing viewing point of the valley below. The next 30km would be downhill going from an elevation of about 2000m to around sea level. Now, I love bombing down mountains on a snowboard... but on a bike, on a main road, with breaks I have little faith in- ummmm, I'd rather go uphill. I spend the first 10km of the ride down squeezing my breaks so hard I started to lose feeling in my fingers. The worst part was that I was still going alarmingly fast and said a little prayer each time I turned a sharp corner. I laughed to myself thinking that I could probably go faster on a snowboard and would actually be stoked about it. Realizing that breaking was doing me almost no good I started to let up off the breaks and fly down the mountain. I must have been going about 30km/h while trying to enjoy the scenery and not test out my travellers insurance... or Vietnamese hospitals. With about 10km to go in the downhill we hit the crazy humid heat box. It was like hitting a wall and I knew it was going to be miserable once I had to pedal again.
We took a break for lunch and were not looking forward to the last 23km. Rolling hills sound nice. In average weather they're tough, but in our 'weather of doom' KILLER. The second to last hill was so brutal that I actually had to get off the bike and walk it up. For those of you who know me you know that I'd have to be near medical trauma to do something like that... I was. I got really dizzy and light headed and rather than test out my travellers insurance... and the local hospital... I admitted defeat (but not by the hills! by the weather...).

Nha Trang is a great (if a tad touristy) little beach town. Many of the tourists are Vietnamese so it doesn't feel as touristy. My friend Claire (who I met while crossing the street... yes, I meet people millions of odd ways) and I spent 4 days taking a boat cruise around the nearby islands with a hilarious tour guide and just relaxing on the beach. There are a few women who sell snacks and fruit on the beach and watching them makes me forget how miserable the heat and humidity are. These women are rocking socks (yes, socks on the beach), pants, long sleeve shirts, scarves covering their faces and rice hats all so that they can be not tan (being tan in Asian countries is associated with the lower class so they try to be as white as possible). After long days of beach relaxation we would get seduced into happy hour by the sight of beer for less than $1.

<--- Our floating open bar on our Nha Trang boat cruise





Picts: More will be posted when we get to fast internet

Saigon (Technically it's now Ho Chi Minh City since the end of the war), Vietnam- Two thoughts simultaneously entered my mind as I entered Saigon: 1. I can't believe this city hasn't burnt to the ground yet because they have the largest masses of tangled and exposed electric lines I've ever seen and 2. I think it's safe to assume a large percentage of the world's motos are on the road in Saigon flowing like water around people and buses... and of course the odd car. Later that day I heard three people, on average, die each day on a moto in Saigon. Who knows whether or not it's true, but I might even say it's low considering our bus alone almost hit three motos (one of which had a family of 5 on it including a newborn... no child was wearing a helmet). I wonder how many people die each day of these crazy exposed electrical lines? Anywayyyyy...

Just when you thought it was okay to be an American! Saigon's 2 big draws for visitors are 'thanks' to the "American War" (yeah, they don't call it the Vietnam War. And, the English don't call English muffins, English muffins either :) ). Going in I was excited to see the other side of the story on the war but then I realized the very sad fact that I didn't know any other side... and I'm from America- I should probably know these things. I was shocked to come to the conclusion that everything I knew about the Vietnam War I learned by watching Forrest Gump. Yup, that's right... Forrest Gump. Generally, I'd say I'm pretty well educated, but this sad reality has made me rethink that. How can someone in the US graduate from high school knowing NOTHING about the Vietnam War? I know it's not our country's proudest moment but education isn't supposed to be a pep rally, it's an education! A few young teachers from New York and I came to the conclusion the reason none of us knew anything about it is that we never actually make it to the end of the history text book, which is where everything post-1960 is. Teachers, any thoughts?

The Cu Chi Tunnels are a cool network of tunnels the Viet Cong lived in during the war. The Vietnamese had constructed the tunnels when the French were looking to recruit Vietnamese to help them fight in Cambodia. The men in the Cu Chi area didn't want to fight so they built a network of tunnels connecting larger underground rooms including kitchens to hide. The tunnels are really impressive... and really tiny. I crawled through part of it following in the footsteps of a quick little Vietnamese man who was probably the same size as I was in 9th grade. The first 50m had been slightly enlarged and I sort of penguin walked through while squatting down. The last 50m they left untouched and I was crawling, inching, through hoping we'd get to the exit soon.

The crawling through tunnels part of the trip was about the only 'normal' portion of the trip. When we got there we watched an anti-American propaganda video that was filmed during the war, but the voice over sounded like it was done oddly recently. The entire video was about giving awards for "killing many Americans" and that you too (remember, it was propaganda) should go kill as many as you can. They said the phrase "killing Americans" no less than 20 times in the 15 minute video. Living in London during the Bush-era I thought I'd already taken the biggest beating I could get as an American... guess I was wrong!

As we took turns getting into a tiny underground hiding space a large (6'5" and 300+lbs) Aussie man said he wanted to try. We knew he wouldn't fit and just kind of kept quiet. He then said "Oh, I know I won't fit in there but I want to see how far I can get. I used to jump down these things every day." Yup... 100% nonchalant about the fact he had fought with the Americans in the war. I no longer felt any bit of weirdness about being American, this guy's experience trumped my passport! The odd thing was he looked 100% normal and carefree. You hear things about "crazy Nam Vets" and this guy was the opposite.

After getting our of the tunnels we were escorted to the most dangerous firing range I've heard of. No protective wall, no safe distance between those firing and those just checking out the rest of the tunnels. If this Aussie guy had some sort of panic attack he could have killed everyone with an AK-47... for only 25,000 dong (~$1.40). Am I interested in firing an Ak-47? Maybe, but not when there is no real process except for pay the money and please aim in that direction over there when you pull the trigger. We quickly left the firing range area (luckily no one was shot) and got to see all of the gear the VC used. Seriously. I find it hilariously awesome that David beat Goliath in this case. The VC wore sandals made of rubber tires that had been exploded. They carried rice, a gun, a few bullets and a hammock. I have no idea what the Americans had but I think it'd be a safe bet to say that it was a bit more high-tech. (Forrest Gump had boots and Lieutenant Dan had a radio to say the least) The weapons used by the VC were either traps made of scrap metal and bamboo or bombs/guns. Most of what they had they would take from undetonated US bombs, found ammo, or the scrap metal of bombs/tanks. Resourceful.

Next I took a quick trip to the War Remnants Museum, a much more inviting name than it's previous one: "Museum of American and Chinese War Crimes." The museum had a few US fighter planes and tanks (they were in one piece so they must have been left behind or taken), a few guns and rounds of ammo on display and a heck of a lot of photos. The photos were pretty incredible. I don't think I've ever felt the urge to "sink back in my chair and hope no one notices me" more than in the gallery. There were some horrific photos of US military dudes holding up mangled people like those photos you see when people catch a fish. The photos were taken by journalists from not only the US but also general media from around the globe. One exhibition had all of the photos taken by photographers who were killed during the war. These photos were the most graphic, maybe because they captured the heated battle that ultimately got them killed. The last gallery had photos of Agent Orange victims as recent as the past few years. One photo had a letter to Pres. Obama written next to it (obviously recent) asking for the US to help finish clearing out the Agent Orange and/or provide assistance to those affected by it. I left needing a bit of a pick me up but luckily a trip to the beach the next morning helped.

Pictures to come (I know, I say that a lot but they just take so friggen long to load)

Mekong Delta, Vietnam (Maria)- Vietnam was made for tourists. You can't walk anywhere without seeing a little tour company offering to make your life easy for a few dollars. After having been doing everything on my own for a while and being on my own I decided to commit the traveling 'sin' of signing up for a 2-day tour of the Mekong Delta. I'm glad I did though because Vietnam doesn't really have any hostels, just guest houses, so you have to make a bit more effort to meet people and these tours are a great way of meeting other travellers.

We started by hoping a bus to My Tho at the northern end of the Delta where we boarded small boats headed for Unicorn Island (unfortunately there were no unicorns so no idea why they gave it that name... liars). We stopped at a bee farm where we sampled some honey tea (tea with a crazy amount of honey in it and a squeeze of lime to neutralize the sweetness) and I quickly realized why organized tours are not for me. There wasn't really any explanation or information about anything, we were just told to drink the tea and then promptly asked if we'd like to buy honey. From there we walked through the jungle to a tropical fruit farm where we sampled dragon fruit, pineapple, rambutan (looks like a lycee with half-inch hair), pomelo and baby bananas. The most interesting thing for me was getting to see the dragon fruit trees which are basically short trees that instead of branches look like they have cactus arms growing out of the top that bear the pink dragon fruit.

We then hopped on small 4-person rowboats and navigated through a narrow aquatic jungle for about 20 minutes until we reached a coconut candy 'factory'. Apparently the best coconuts in Vietnam come from this particular island. The factory consisted of 4 women a coconut shredder and a huge wok over an open flame. I was super impressed by the way they use every last part of the coconut. I also learned the difference between coconut juice and coconut milk (juice is the clear liquid inside the coconut and the milk is what you get when you shred the 'meat' and squeeze out all the liquid).

How to make coconut candy: First, open the coconut and separate the juice (sold separately). Then remove the meat from the shell. Shred the meat and save the shells. Take the shredded meat and drain the milk from it. Pour the milk into a wok over an open flame and stir gently until it gets to a caramel-like consistency. The coconut shells are burned to create this flame. Take the shredded and drained coconut and dry it out (sold as shredded coconut). Once the heated milk has reached the desired thickness it's poured on a plastic surface, rolled flat and left to solidify for an hour. Once solid it's chopped up into little squares and hand wrapped and packaged to be sold as coconut candy. No preservatives, no sugar or anything added, just coconut milk! (Well, they make different varieties, like one with chopped peanuts added)

After lunch we rode bikes on the island and got to see the various farms (mostly tropical fruits) and homes before heading to the town of Can Tho a few hours away where we spent the night. Early the next morning we hopped on tiny boats and headed to the floating market- the largest in the entire Mekong region. At the market there were a bunch of big boats selling produce which they'd display on a long bamboo pole from the boat so people could see what they were selling. Amongst these boats were smaller boats with one or two locals using it as their shopping cart going from boat to boat and stocking up on the freshest produce. When the people on the wholesale boats weren't loading stuff into the shopping cart boats they were relaxing in their hammock... everyone in the Mekong seems to nap in a hammock when they aren't actively working (wouldn't that be nice?!).

After the market we visited a rice noodle maker. The noodles are made so simply- just create a liquid of rice and water, add a bit of tapioca flour (to give it that noodley gelatinous texture) and pour it on a cotton cloth that's been stretched over boiling water (so it can be steamed). Like the coconut candy place they use all pieces of the rice in their production as well- the rice husks are used to stoke the fire and then the ash is used as fertilizer.

Our last stop was a rice processing plant (for lack of a better word) where we got to see the process of rice entering with the husk and departing in various grades for various purposes. Here I learned that Vietnamese don't like brown rice (like the health nuts in the Western world) because they used to only eat it back in the day when they were much poorer.

Back in Can Tho I wandered through mini-sized alleys amongst mini-sized homes with mini-sized front doorways (I'm going to guess the average size of a Vietnamese person is 4'10" and maybe 80 lbs.). All of the kids playing in their homes (the doors and windows are always open as there is no A/C) would come out to wave and yell hello.

Pictures: To come (Christine is the photo expert)

Phnom Penh, Cambodia- Two and a half days in Phnom Penh was enough for me. The first day I decided to whack out as many of the 4 places I wanted to see as I could. I decided to start with the National Museum since it was closest to my guest house. On my walk over a tuk tuk driver started keeping pace with me pestering me about letting him take me on a tour or drive me to the Killing Fields (the furthest place, and thus most expensive, he could take me). I politely declined at least 5 times and he just wouldn't stop pestering so he told me the National Museum was closed until 2pm so I should go with him until then when he'd bring me back. Unfortunately for him I know all of the tricks in the book and told him I'd go to the museum just incase they were open. He smiled (knowing he couldn't fool me) and finally left.

The National Museum was much smaller than I expected, but about the size I should have been expecting (this is Cambodia after all). I was able to see the entire place in about 45 minutes. The building was beautiful and inside was mostly relics found at the Angkor Temples, so now I was getting to see some of the sculptures that were inside. Most of them were of Vishnu or Buddha and of the same rock material as the temples were made out of. After leaving the museum I eagerly awaited the moto drivers (like a cross between a motorcycle and a scooter) to ask if I needed a ride because, in fact, I did! I hopped onto the back of a moto for an awesome ride about 1km away weaving through the city traffic. I'd never been on the back of a motorcycle or scooter so I was stoked about this. Moto's are a fun, conventient and cheap way to get around.

My next stop was the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (aka Security Prison 21 or S21) . Obviously not the happiest place to visit but it's part of the country's history and still something to learn more about. S21 was a high school before the Khmer Rouge rose to power in the mid 70's and converted it to a large torture prison against their own countrymen. I've visited Auschwitz and Dachau previously and this was similarly, if not slightly more, haunting. I say slightly more because in one of the classrooms (each was a former place to keep or torture prisoners and now a part of the exhibit) there was a shelf full of skulls of the some of the victims. It seemed a bit odd that they wouldn't bury them but rather display them, but I guess each culture chooses to do different things to respect the memory of those who passed in such brutal fashion. In another room they had the photos of the men, women and children who were imprisoned there- some looking rightfully scared out of their minds. The last room had photos and small comments from both the few survivors (there were less than 10,I think) detailing their horrific experience AND a few of the security guards! I found that to be outrageous! None of them, or the generals, have been to trial. Apparently the UN was going to start the process but it hasn't happened yet. The general stry from the security guards was that they aren't ashamed but very sorry. They signed up at the time because they knew it was the only way to survive. Talk about a decision we hope we don't have to ever make (live or torture people).

Outside S21 I met a young Dutch couple and we decided to share a tuk tuk out to the Killing Fields (4km out of town). We negotiated a rate of $4 (he tried to charge us $8 but we knew that $4 was the going rate and fair price) and on arrival the driver told us to be more generous. We told him if he wanted more money he shouldn't have agreed on $4. We entered and right in front of us was a 30 foot high (and maybe 10 ft by 10 ft at the base) glass tower FULL of human skulls... again, this was how the Cambodians saw it best to remember those who died here. The Killing Fields were just that- a place they brought prisoners to execute. There were about 20 pits that had been excavated where they removed the remains of thousands (women and children included). We walked between the pits on a dirt path and started to notice pieces of cloth on the trail. We squatted down and noticed it was the cloth from those who were killed AND there were bone fragments also sticking out of the trail... I repeat, this was a trail. At this point, it was just a bit weird for me. Why on earth did they make a trail over human remains and their clothing?! As we neared the end of the walk through the fields we saw a sign that pointed out the "Killing Tree." Apparently children were picked up by their legs and swung against the tree until they died, then dumped in the pits. They did this because though the children weren't traitors they feared the kids would seek revenge for killing their parents later in life. It really doesn't get any more cowardly than that.

More than ready to head back into town we got to the parking lot to find that everyone had arranged return trips with their tuk tuk drivers ahead of time and since it was 4km out of town there wasn't anyone there who was free... except for the dude who brought us out here knowing full well we had to take him back. The smile on his face when he saw us... he knew he owned us and said the return trip would be $10. We refused. We paid $4 to get out here and were only going to pay $4 to get back. He came down to $6 and we refused out of principal- the dude was clearly taking advantage of the situation (to put it in perspective you can hire a tuk tuk driver for an entire day for $8 and the driver would be happy with that). We knew we didn't have a choice but decided to wait to see if we could tag along with someone else (yup, I'm stubborn!). We were at a stand off. We met 2 ladies who's tuk tuk driver had disappeared to we told our driver $6 was okay if they could join. He immediately raised his price to $10. We asked for a justified reason and heard everything from 'need more gas' to 'because you have money to pay me.' We all decided to wait until the women's driver returned and head back with him. Our driver knew he would lose us so came down to $7.50 ($1.50 each). Fed up, we agreed. On our walk back into town we passed the tuk tuk driver who had left the 2 women and a chase ensued! He hunted us down and made our driver pull over (the women had hired him for the day and this was the last stop so they hadn't paid him yet). Argueing between drivers and the women went on and eventually we carried on after they paid him a fair price. We got back to town and each paid our $1.50. As we walked away the tuk tuk driver started yelling about how we need to learn to not be stingy and be generous people and give more money to him. I walked back and asked him how he could say that since we had just paid him almost 50% more than he'd make if someone had hired him for the day. Speechless. He then said that good things only happen to people who are generous. I told him I agreed which is why I'd donated money to the Cambodian organizations. He then went off saying that he needs money too and that he didn't want to drive us for such a low fee. So I asked him why he agreed to a price that he didn't want. He was stupified and asked if I needed a driver for the next day... typical.

Overal I'd say Cambodia was a good experience, but if it wasn't for the Angkor temples I'm not sure there'd be any real draw. In my opinion you can't really experience the culture the way you can in other places because anyone who sees you wants money from you and stops what they'd otherwise be doing. I'm glad the country has Angkor though, they need something to build an economy on.

Maria

Pictures: I didn't take many but some will come