I wrote this after 1 month of travel, though it has been longer now, i'm just getting around to posting it... I finished my contract teaching in Korea, and it was a lot of fun, I learned a LOT about teaching
I, learned a LOT about teaching, about Korean culture, I learned the language relatively proficiently, and I got involved with a lot of different organizations. I did some volunteer work at an orphanage on the weekends, I acted in a play (SO MUCH WORK!), I took some Korean classes, I met a lot of good people, Korean and Foreign, took piano lessons, and did language exchanges on top of going out and socializing... In short, I learned a lot, made some great friends, and earned some money while doing it!
I'm now in Southern Vietnam, I have spent over 3 weeks in VN thus far, and have about 5 days left on my visa. So Gavin and I are trying to see all of Saigon and the Mekong Delta, and possibly a VN island to the South before heading on to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and to meet up with Gavin's girlfriend!
We are thinking about buying some mountain bikes, but also looking into renting some for a week or two, so we can bike all the way through Cambodia. We heard the roads there are pretty bad, but flat, so biking probably wouldn't take much longer than buses, and it would be a great way to see the countryside, and we could just camp if we didn't find a town with a hostel to suit us for the night. After ~2 weeks in Cambodia we are going to meet up with some friends in Bangkok, Thailand, and travel to Southern Thailand to do some rock climbing around Krabi during our friends' grad school winter vacation for a few weeks. Gavin, Gavin's girlfriend, Karenth, and I also plan to get our open water scuba certifications in that area during that time.
The trip is going great so far! I've met some really cool people, including a really cool Israeli guy named Penis whom taught me a little Hebrew, a cool Vietnam war vet who told me some cool stories about his return to Vietnam, Bamboo the tour guide, and many others!
Gavin and I did some DWS (deep water solo) rock climbing (rock climbing over water with no safety equipment, when you fall or if you get too high for your comfort, you just fall into the water) in Halong Bay, which is an amazingly beautiful place, and a great way to spend a day there! My highest ascent was ~55', and I had a few that were ~35'. Not too shabby for how little climbing I've done in the past 2 years! We also did some kayaking in the bay, which was also really nice. I have rented motor bikes 3 times now, in smaller cities, to drive around the surrounding mountains / bay / jungles, which is a great way to see the area, and a lot of fun just in the driving itself! I was considering buying a motorbike to do the rest of my travels on, but it is quite dangerous, my insurance wouldn't cover me since I don't have a motorcycle license back home (or here!), and I couldn't find a bike for sale in the right price range with the right specs for me. Anyway, taking the bus and trains around seems like a safer option for now, and I still have plenty to do and see!
Gavin and I got some custom clothes made for us in Hoi An, a city rather famous for its tailoring. Gavin got a whole suit, a couple shirts, dress shoes, and a dress for his girlfriend! (She sent him her sizes) As for me I just got some custom made leather flip flops (which I just lost the other day zip lining...), and a custom made shirt. I wanted to get a suit as well, as it only costs 80 - 150 US$ depending on the material, but then I would either have to mail it home which is relatively costly, or lug it around with me, which is not preferable. And I had just bought a new camera since mine was stolen (I've lost many things already this trip!) and I splurged a little bit on the camera, going for the tough kind that can go 10 meters underwater and be dropped from 2M, also takes pretty decent pics, so i didn't want to shell out more dough on commodities I didn't really need.
We just left Dalat the other day, where we did a 2-day adventure tour hiking a mountain and through the jungle, where we stayed the night in a bungalow in a tiny village, and had an amazing dinner there! The hiking was nice, the sights were beautiful, we saw some cool wildlife, most notably a spider the size of my face!!! And what MIGHT have been a flying squirrel (it was too fast to know for sure what it was, could have been a monkey?). But the main attraction was day 2 when we went canyoning and repelled down 15 - 25 meter waterfalls and cliffs! We went sliding down some smaller waterfalls head first (with helmets and lifejackets on of course =) and just had a blast! We also made really good friends with our tour guide (named Bamboo), and he took us out for dinner to get some dog meat after our day of abseiling, BUT, apparently it's bad luck to eat dog meat during the first two weeks of the all lunar months (or something along those lines) so no restaurants were serving dog meat, so we got some VN BBQ instead, and a few beers. The next day we went on a nice bike ride around town, with Bamboo again, and saw lots of cool stuff. And THAT night he took us to his friend's house to have a dinner party with all his Vietnamese tour guide friends (good that they were all tour guides because they knew English!) and we had a BLAST! Most of them had fun nicknames they went by, that all had sexual connotations! One of the guys was named Hib, which means strong man in Vietnamese, but if you say *Hip* it means rape, which (of course) provided lots of material for jokes after we all downed our first 3 beers in the first 30 minutes and kept that pace the rest of the night!
I have been trying to make a point to learn bits of the languages in each country I go to, because it's fun and you get a better feel for the culture, i think... We have also made it a focal point of our travels to try ALL the local specialty foods at least once. But we have found just about all the local specialties to be absolutely delicious and want to eat them all the time! A lot of times I won't go for local breakfast dishes, because I really enjoy (and haven't really experienced for the past 14 months because Korea doesn't really have) a nice Western breakfast!!! Omelets and pancakes and all kinds of goodies! But for lunch and dinner it's always Pho, spring rolls, rice dishes, freshly caught sea food, or whatever they say the local specialty is! And the food (minus one TERRIBLE bus stop restaurant that may have permanently scarred the inside of my stomach) is amazing!!!
The food, and just about everything in Vietnam is very cheap, even after the foreigner tax (10 US$ for a two bedroom, decent hotel with breakfast for two people!!) 2 US$ for a bowl of pho and a beer =).
Meeting people while travelling is awesome, because sometimes you can make really strong connections with people in a short amount of time! But the thing that I am loving the most about my travels thus far is the freedom!!! I don't have anyone I have to answer to, anything that I HAVE to do (except leave VN by Dec. 7 because my visa expires =) no time constraints, some money in the bank, and just about limitless options! It is an amazing feeling that I don't think many people truly feel! And I am lucky to have the opportunity to do so!
Well this has been more or less an update on my travel through Vietnam, I will try and do a briefer update on Cambodia soon
No comments:
Post a Comment