I've been home for a little over two weeks now. I'm taking summer classes at UNC and have transitioned quite smoothly into my pre-semester existence. My passport is now safely locked away in Raleigh, but I'm planning on using it again very soon.
Studying abroad was hands down the best decision I've made, and it will have been the highlight of my college experience. When I originally decided to go to Asia, I hoped to learn some about a region that I knew very little about and come home with a different perspective on the world. I never expected to become as attached as I did. I know I'll be back at some point - hopefully sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, I'm enjoying being back and am getting ready for an amazing senior year. Eventually I'm going to put up all of my pictures (or at least more of them), probably on webshots, and I'll put the link up here. Huge thanks to everyone for keeping in touch and for all the positive blog feedback. It's been fun!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
More than Great
I was originally planning on posting some pictures from my Australia trip, but it appears that the server is incompetant at the moment. It's going to be dull without the pictures, but I'll try to embellish it a little.
I spent my first week in Sydney exploring the city while Juliana was finishing up her classes. I was able to walk around and figure out the public bus system a little bit. It's the type of city that is best experienced by just walking around and exploring, and even though I don't have much detail, I absolutely loved it. Last Thursday, I went to see the Sydney Symphony at the Opera House, which was lovely, and I also visited a few museums. On Friday night, we went to see the Sex and the City movie, which opened here that weekend. The crowd was absolute madness! It was nice to see the movie in an actual big city, and we actually got on TV when they filmed our line entering the cinema (that's what they call them here).
On Saturday, we left for Cairns, which is the main tourist town near the Great Barrier Reef. The four days we spent there were an absolute whirlwind, and I think I did just about everything possible to characterize my Australian experience. I still can't believe how much I saw in just a few days! (And rightfully so, for how expensive everything was!)
The first day, we took a cruise to the reef and snorkled at two sites. Yes, I snorkeled! With a life jacket on, of course. I am definitely willing to get in the water if there is a Great Barrier Reef involved. It was incredible to the point where I'm not even going to try to describe it. We rented an underwater camera and got tons of pictures, which came out pretty well although they aren't nearly as vibrant as everything was in person. The first site was at Michealmas Cay, where we snorkled off of the beach, and the 2nd site was in the middle of the ocean - we had to jump straight off the boat. It was pretty amazing. And rainy, so we were getting tossed around a little bit during our viewing experience. Overall, the day was amazing and never really sunk in.
The 2nd day we headed up to Kuranda, which is a town on the top of a mountain surrouded by rainforest. We went to the Kuranda Koala Gardens, where we "cuddled" Koalas, fed kangaroos and wallabees, and watched some crocodiles do absolutely nothing (my experience here has led me to believe that crocodlies never move unless they absolutely have to). Again, pictures would make this description a lot more interesting! We took the scenic railway back to Carins, which took us through the rainforest and past some waterfalls.
Day three was another organized trip - this one to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation, which is the spot on the coast where the rainforest meets the reef. It was pretty wild seeing the multi-colored water (again, need pictures) and a thin strip of sand lined with tropical rainforest. Our first activitiy a boat ride down the river to spot wildlife - definitely a stereotypical "crocodile hunter" experience, especially with the enthusiastic Aussie guide. We saw a couple little crocs and scores of birds, but didn't come across the 4-meter-long dominant male croc, Scarface. I think I preferred it that way, especially since I had the inside seat closest to the bank. We hiked a bit through the forest, which was incredibe, and wound up (as I said) on the beach. It was pretty wild (literally!).
The day we left, we took a half-day morning cruise back to the reef, this time to Green Island. At first it seemed like the day was going to be a bust: the weather wasn't cooperating, and the people we saw that were attempting to snorkel didn't seem to be having any luck. After a quick debate, we decided to go for it an attempt to snorkel anyway. Turns out, you just had to swim a bit further out and away from the "beach" area, and the reef was amazing. It was a little different than before - I think there were a lot more fish, and bigger fish, and the coral was a little more spread out. At one point when I was exploring, I turned and found myself face to face with a giant turtle (not sure about the use of the word "giant" here, but the thing was pretty big, I promise!). We had been told that spotting of a turtle is one of the most rare and exciting sights for reef-goers, but I was so shocked that I turned and swam the other direction! I eventually got up the courage to go back and watch a little bit, but only from a distance. It was a big turtle!
Overall, the trip to Cairns was amazing and action-packed and basically surreal. I saw every type of wildlife imaginable: held a koala, literally found Nemo (he was inside a sea anemone) and about 1499 other types of fish, got in a staredown with a sea turtle, searched for crocs, and listened to birds in the rainforest. Not bad for a long weekend.
Today was my last full day here, and Juliana and I went to see Edward Scissorhands at the Opera House (in the opera theatre). It was a great show, and we took lots of pictures around the area. We also walked across the Harbor Bridge in the morning, which turned out to be quite a hike and landed us on the wrong side of the harbor, leading to us nearly sprinting through the city and missing the beginning of the play.
I can't believe that I leave tomorrow and that I'm actually going home. The Australia trip was a very effective buffer and probably saved me a lot of emotional stress (my complete awe at everything didn't really leave much room in my mind for other emotions). Still, I know there is a lot that awaits me when I get home, and I'm excited about a lot of it and scared about a lot of it and anxious to see what the summer holds. I am so glad that I came to Australia - it's basically an entirely separate trip from the semester in Southeast Asia (attached only for scheduling purposes), but it has been equally educational and incredible in so many ways. I suppose I'll get those pictures up sometime soon when I'm back in the good ole US of A.
I spent my first week in Sydney exploring the city while Juliana was finishing up her classes. I was able to walk around and figure out the public bus system a little bit. It's the type of city that is best experienced by just walking around and exploring, and even though I don't have much detail, I absolutely loved it. Last Thursday, I went to see the Sydney Symphony at the Opera House, which was lovely, and I also visited a few museums. On Friday night, we went to see the Sex and the City movie, which opened here that weekend. The crowd was absolute madness! It was nice to see the movie in an actual big city, and we actually got on TV when they filmed our line entering the cinema (that's what they call them here).
On Saturday, we left for Cairns, which is the main tourist town near the Great Barrier Reef. The four days we spent there were an absolute whirlwind, and I think I did just about everything possible to characterize my Australian experience. I still can't believe how much I saw in just a few days! (And rightfully so, for how expensive everything was!)
The first day, we took a cruise to the reef and snorkled at two sites. Yes, I snorkeled! With a life jacket on, of course. I am definitely willing to get in the water if there is a Great Barrier Reef involved. It was incredible to the point where I'm not even going to try to describe it. We rented an underwater camera and got tons of pictures, which came out pretty well although they aren't nearly as vibrant as everything was in person. The first site was at Michealmas Cay, where we snorkled off of the beach, and the 2nd site was in the middle of the ocean - we had to jump straight off the boat. It was pretty amazing. And rainy, so we were getting tossed around a little bit during our viewing experience. Overall, the day was amazing and never really sunk in.
The 2nd day we headed up to Kuranda, which is a town on the top of a mountain surrouded by rainforest. We went to the Kuranda Koala Gardens, where we "cuddled" Koalas, fed kangaroos and wallabees, and watched some crocodiles do absolutely nothing (my experience here has led me to believe that crocodlies never move unless they absolutely have to). Again, pictures would make this description a lot more interesting! We took the scenic railway back to Carins, which took us through the rainforest and past some waterfalls.
Day three was another organized trip - this one to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation, which is the spot on the coast where the rainforest meets the reef. It was pretty wild seeing the multi-colored water (again, need pictures) and a thin strip of sand lined with tropical rainforest. Our first activitiy a boat ride down the river to spot wildlife - definitely a stereotypical "crocodile hunter" experience, especially with the enthusiastic Aussie guide. We saw a couple little crocs and scores of birds, but didn't come across the 4-meter-long dominant male croc, Scarface. I think I preferred it that way, especially since I had the inside seat closest to the bank. We hiked a bit through the forest, which was incredibe, and wound up (as I said) on the beach. It was pretty wild (literally!).
The day we left, we took a half-day morning cruise back to the reef, this time to Green Island. At first it seemed like the day was going to be a bust: the weather wasn't cooperating, and the people we saw that were attempting to snorkel didn't seem to be having any luck. After a quick debate, we decided to go for it an attempt to snorkel anyway. Turns out, you just had to swim a bit further out and away from the "beach" area, and the reef was amazing. It was a little different than before - I think there were a lot more fish, and bigger fish, and the coral was a little more spread out. At one point when I was exploring, I turned and found myself face to face with a giant turtle (not sure about the use of the word "giant" here, but the thing was pretty big, I promise!). We had been told that spotting of a turtle is one of the most rare and exciting sights for reef-goers, but I was so shocked that I turned and swam the other direction! I eventually got up the courage to go back and watch a little bit, but only from a distance. It was a big turtle!
Overall, the trip to Cairns was amazing and action-packed and basically surreal. I saw every type of wildlife imaginable: held a koala, literally found Nemo (he was inside a sea anemone) and about 1499 other types of fish, got in a staredown with a sea turtle, searched for crocs, and listened to birds in the rainforest. Not bad for a long weekend.
Today was my last full day here, and Juliana and I went to see Edward Scissorhands at the Opera House (in the opera theatre). It was a great show, and we took lots of pictures around the area. We also walked across the Harbor Bridge in the morning, which turned out to be quite a hike and landed us on the wrong side of the harbor, leading to us nearly sprinting through the city and missing the beginning of the play.
I can't believe that I leave tomorrow and that I'm actually going home. The Australia trip was a very effective buffer and probably saved me a lot of emotional stress (my complete awe at everything didn't really leave much room in my mind for other emotions). Still, I know there is a lot that awaits me when I get home, and I'm excited about a lot of it and scared about a lot of it and anxious to see what the summer holds. I am so glad that I came to Australia - it's basically an entirely separate trip from the semester in Southeast Asia (attached only for scheduling purposes), but it has been equally educational and incredible in so many ways. I suppose I'll get those pictures up sometime soon when I'm back in the good ole US of A.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Traffic laws? What are those?
Here's a brief overview of our trip to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), for the sake of completing the blog. After our UNC program ended on the 25th, my friend Brennan and I headed to HCMC for 4 days. The bus ride there totaled about 24 hours, including stops, but it was a "sleep" bus, which meant it had beds, sort of like a sleeper train.
HCMC was completely different from the other cities we visited in Vietnam. It was much larger, more populated, and more urban, not to mention the traffic was absolutely insane. Lights and lanes are optional at best, and most people drive on whichever side of the road has the least traffic. Crossing the street typically involved walking straight into an oncoming barrage of motorcycles, hoping that the drivers would swerve around us. I usually either closed my eyes or tried to shield myself by walking close to a Vietnamese person. Aside from the challenges of crossing the street, I really enjoyed my time there and also learned a lot from the people I talked to and the places I visited.
Organized tours and day trips dominate in Vietnam, and I took two during my four days in HCMC. The first day, Brennan and I took a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which is one of the sites with fully restored Viet Cong tunnels open to the public. We saw some traps and bunkers that had been set up by guerrillas, crawled through part of the tunnels, and watched some "educational" videos that were - to put it nicely - anti-American. The site also boasts a huge shooting range, where we purchased a few bullets and shot AK-47s - an experience I'm glad I had but would never like to repeat. I don't even know if I came anywhere near the targets because I was too busy reeling from the noise. They provide you with headphones (Lonely Planet describes them as "DJ-style") which do absolutely no good. I pride myself in having seasoned ears (thanks to years of drumline), but this thing left everyone's ears ringing for quite a while.
Day two was spent exploring the city and visiting the primary tourist sites. We went to an art museum, Reunification Palace (formerly the government site of South Vietnam), and the War Remnants Museum (formerly known as the Museum of American War Crimes before the country patched up relations with the US in 1995 and began receiving American tourists). The museum was loaded with pictures of American soldiers committing atrocities, tortures inflicted on prisoners of war, and also images of people throughout the world protesting the American involvement in the war. It was a little overwhelming.
Day 3 I went off by myself and took an organized tour of the Mekong Delta, which is the rural region that makes up the southern part of Vietnam. The trip included boat rides down the Mekong and its canals, handicraft demonstrations, and the sampling of coconut candy and rice wine (which was bad, but not as bad as banana wine, which tasted like a 99% pure alcohol and 1% rum, and "snake wine," which is rice wine that has a snake head floating in the bottle)(I didn't personally try the snake wine). We also were able to bike through a village, which would've been nice had I not been the last one to get a bike. Mine had defective breaks and a chain that caught about 1 out of 4 times I pedaled, making me look like some sort of cartoon character pedaling at warp speed but only moving about 2mph.
The last day, we explored the city on our own, and I was determined to talk to some cyclo drivers about the war. We'd been told earlier (from reliable sources) that South Vietnamese soldiers who had fought with the Americans were essentially stripped of their rights and sent to re-education camps for up to 9 years after the war ended. When they were released, they were unable to resume their previous careers and could only legally take a few jobs - most of them now work as either tour guides or cyclo drivers. We'd had a very spirited and informative tour guide earlier in the trip, but unfortunately, the only cyclo drivers I was able to talk to that afternoon were either too young to be soldiers or too creepy to talk to. This was disappointing, because after hearing the Vietnamese (communist) perspective and American perspective on the war, it would've been nice to get some feedback on how the war affected the South Vietnamese.
The last escapade of the trip was the ride to the airport. We made the brilliant/idiotic decision to take motorbikes (remember the traffic described earlier?). With bags in tow and helmets secured, we whizzed through the masses for quite awhile before my bike was suddenly flagged down by a pair of cops by the side of the road. My driver pulled over and looked like he was about to cry. Of course, no one spoke English, so I was just standing there while the cops yelled at the guy, checked his license, and filled out forms. The driver looked so distraught that I figured: this guy is illegal, something we were doing is illegal, he's about to get deported or thrown in jail, they're going to try to take me away, something terrible is happening. Turns out, my driver had run a red light and was being fined about 100,000 Dong ($6). Of course, his income is so low that this small fine WAS enough to bring him near to tears. This came as a huge wake-up call to me - another example of how Asia is drastically different from the US.
I'll close with that, as this "overview" turned out to be everything but brief...
HCMC was completely different from the other cities we visited in Vietnam. It was much larger, more populated, and more urban, not to mention the traffic was absolutely insane. Lights and lanes are optional at best, and most people drive on whichever side of the road has the least traffic. Crossing the street typically involved walking straight into an oncoming barrage of motorcycles, hoping that the drivers would swerve around us. I usually either closed my eyes or tried to shield myself by walking close to a Vietnamese person. Aside from the challenges of crossing the street, I really enjoyed my time there and also learned a lot from the people I talked to and the places I visited.
Organized tours and day trips dominate in Vietnam, and I took two during my four days in HCMC. The first day, Brennan and I took a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which is one of the sites with fully restored Viet Cong tunnels open to the public. We saw some traps and bunkers that had been set up by guerrillas, crawled through part of the tunnels, and watched some "educational" videos that were - to put it nicely - anti-American. The site also boasts a huge shooting range, where we purchased a few bullets and shot AK-47s - an experience I'm glad I had but would never like to repeat. I don't even know if I came anywhere near the targets because I was too busy reeling from the noise. They provide you with headphones (Lonely Planet describes them as "DJ-style") which do absolutely no good. I pride myself in having seasoned ears (thanks to years of drumline), but this thing left everyone's ears ringing for quite a while.
Day two was spent exploring the city and visiting the primary tourist sites. We went to an art museum, Reunification Palace (formerly the government site of South Vietnam), and the War Remnants Museum (formerly known as the Museum of American War Crimes before the country patched up relations with the US in 1995 and began receiving American tourists). The museum was loaded with pictures of American soldiers committing atrocities, tortures inflicted on prisoners of war, and also images of people throughout the world protesting the American involvement in the war. It was a little overwhelming.
Day 3 I went off by myself and took an organized tour of the Mekong Delta, which is the rural region that makes up the southern part of Vietnam. The trip included boat rides down the Mekong and its canals, handicraft demonstrations, and the sampling of coconut candy and rice wine (which was bad, but not as bad as banana wine, which tasted like a 99% pure alcohol and 1% rum, and "snake wine," which is rice wine that has a snake head floating in the bottle)(I didn't personally try the snake wine). We also were able to bike through a village, which would've been nice had I not been the last one to get a bike. Mine had defective breaks and a chain that caught about 1 out of 4 times I pedaled, making me look like some sort of cartoon character pedaling at warp speed but only moving about 2mph.
The last day, we explored the city on our own, and I was determined to talk to some cyclo drivers about the war. We'd been told earlier (from reliable sources) that South Vietnamese soldiers who had fought with the Americans were essentially stripped of their rights and sent to re-education camps for up to 9 years after the war ended. When they were released, they were unable to resume their previous careers and could only legally take a few jobs - most of them now work as either tour guides or cyclo drivers. We'd had a very spirited and informative tour guide earlier in the trip, but unfortunately, the only cyclo drivers I was able to talk to that afternoon were either too young to be soldiers or too creepy to talk to. This was disappointing, because after hearing the Vietnamese (communist) perspective and American perspective on the war, it would've been nice to get some feedback on how the war affected the South Vietnamese.
The last escapade of the trip was the ride to the airport. We made the brilliant/idiotic decision to take motorbikes (remember the traffic described earlier?). With bags in tow and helmets secured, we whizzed through the masses for quite awhile before my bike was suddenly flagged down by a pair of cops by the side of the road. My driver pulled over and looked like he was about to cry. Of course, no one spoke English, so I was just standing there while the cops yelled at the guy, checked his license, and filled out forms. The driver looked so distraught that I figured: this guy is illegal, something we were doing is illegal, he's about to get deported or thrown in jail, they're going to try to take me away, something terrible is happening. Turns out, my driver had run a red light and was being fined about 100,000 Dong ($6). Of course, his income is so low that this small fine WAS enough to bring him near to tears. This came as a huge wake-up call to me - another example of how Asia is drastically different from the US.
I'll close with that, as this "overview" turned out to be everything but brief...
Seeing Red
It's raining cats and dogs (and kangaroos?) outside, so I'll go ahead and put up some pictures of Vietnam.
UNC girls:
Hoi An:
Our group in front of Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum in Hanoi:
Street in Hanoi:
Every once in a while, you run into something like this:
UNC girls:
Halong Bay:
Hoi An:
Monday, June 2, 2008
Bye-Bye Bangkok, Hello Sydney
After a hectic week of surprises, I made it safely to Sydney this morning. My flight was 9 hours on Birtish Airways, and it was luxurious compared to the bus rides and Air Asia flights that I've been taking. I watched about 6 episodes of various sitcoms from the TV database and had no problem sleeping the rest of the way.
I arrived this morning around 7 and painstakingly went through immigration and customs. Still, they were much easier than I'd been led to believe. The night I returned to Bangkok from Vietnam, I happened to check online to find that, contrary to my previous belief, I would need a visa to enter Australia! Crikey! I then found a laundry list of goods that customs does not allow into the country, including wood products and dirt that is caked on shoes (fear of disease and danger to endemic species). Then, I read that I would only be allowed one checked bag, since my flight does not cross an ocean - a problem for me, since I am continuing straight to the US and have everything with me. Also, all of this happened on a weekend, so nothing useful was open. Needless to say, I was panicked for most of my last day in Bangkok.
A hasty online ETA (alternate visa) application, two boxes of shipped goods, several phone calls to automated customer service computers, and a hefty excess baggage fine later, I made it through. Juliana met me at the airport, and we took a taxi to her dorm, where I promptly fell asleep. In the evening, we took a bus downtown to Circular Quay, where I saw the Harbor Bridge and Opera House lit up in the distance. Then we headed to an ARL rugby game between the Sydney Roosters and the Wests Tigers: Australia's version of Monday Night Football. The Roosters won, and to say that it was entertaining would be an understatement. During the 2nd half, it started pouring, and all of the fans stayed until the end (it wasn't a close game) and remained quite spirited. A far cry from home, especially UNC games where most of the golf-clapping fans leave at halftime to beat the traffic.
As for leaving Thailand, the goodbyes were tough. I had one last dinner with my Thai friends and Sara, and lunch the next day with other international students. It didn't really hit me that I would be leaving, and now I'm too overwhelmed by the fact that I'm in Australia to think too closely about it. Still, I felt like I'd left Thailand before I even boarded the plane - the waiting area was full of Europeans on a connecting flight from London, and the entire flight staff was British.
I'm definitely experiencing price shock, and I'm sure the culture shock will follow. I suppose Sydney is a good buffer between Thailand and the US - I'm still traveling and experiencing new things, but this new culture is much more similar to my own. I'm getting used to things like speaking English, drinking tap water, flushing toilet paper (which you can't do in SE Asia), and seeing white people everywhere. Not to mention the quadrupled prices.
The end of my Vietnam trip was amazing - I loved Saigon and learned a ton there, but I'll have to recap it later. The plan now is to explore Sydney this week and head to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef this Saturday. I'm sure it will fly by! (And my bank account will be run dry.)
I arrived this morning around 7 and painstakingly went through immigration and customs. Still, they were much easier than I'd been led to believe. The night I returned to Bangkok from Vietnam, I happened to check online to find that, contrary to my previous belief, I would need a visa to enter Australia! Crikey! I then found a laundry list of goods that customs does not allow into the country, including wood products and dirt that is caked on shoes (fear of disease and danger to endemic species). Then, I read that I would only be allowed one checked bag, since my flight does not cross an ocean - a problem for me, since I am continuing straight to the US and have everything with me. Also, all of this happened on a weekend, so nothing useful was open. Needless to say, I was panicked for most of my last day in Bangkok.
A hasty online ETA (alternate visa) application, two boxes of shipped goods, several phone calls to automated customer service computers, and a hefty excess baggage fine later, I made it through. Juliana met me at the airport, and we took a taxi to her dorm, where I promptly fell asleep. In the evening, we took a bus downtown to Circular Quay, where I saw the Harbor Bridge and Opera House lit up in the distance. Then we headed to an ARL rugby game between the Sydney Roosters and the Wests Tigers: Australia's version of Monday Night Football. The Roosters won, and to say that it was entertaining would be an understatement. During the 2nd half, it started pouring, and all of the fans stayed until the end (it wasn't a close game) and remained quite spirited. A far cry from home, especially UNC games where most of the golf-clapping fans leave at halftime to beat the traffic.
As for leaving Thailand, the goodbyes were tough. I had one last dinner with my Thai friends and Sara, and lunch the next day with other international students. It didn't really hit me that I would be leaving, and now I'm too overwhelmed by the fact that I'm in Australia to think too closely about it. Still, I felt like I'd left Thailand before I even boarded the plane - the waiting area was full of Europeans on a connecting flight from London, and the entire flight staff was British.
I'm definitely experiencing price shock, and I'm sure the culture shock will follow. I suppose Sydney is a good buffer between Thailand and the US - I'm still traveling and experiencing new things, but this new culture is much more similar to my own. I'm getting used to things like speaking English, drinking tap water, flushing toilet paper (which you can't do in SE Asia), and seeing white people everywhere. Not to mention the quadrupled prices.
The end of my Vietnam trip was amazing - I loved Saigon and learned a ton there, but I'll have to recap it later. The plan now is to explore Sydney this week and head to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef this Saturday. I'm sure it will fly by! (And my bank account will be run dry.)
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Vietnam
Our program is officially over! I've said goodbye to just about everyone except for a few who I will see in Bangkok when I get back, and it's definitely strange to think about this all ending. I am going to upload all of my pictures when I get back to Bangkok, and I think I'll just post them within the old entries.
In Vietnam, our group (the UNC group, on an organized tour with our professor) visited Hanoi for 3 days, Halong Bay for a night, Hue for two days, and Hoi An. I loved Hanoi, and the boat trip around Halong Bay was possibly my favorite experience of this semester. We also visited several health facilities and schools in Hanoi and Hue, which was a neat experience. In Hanoi, we visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, which was packed with both tourists and Vietnamese paying their respects - Ho is the leader of the original Communist party here and is credited with the unification of the country even though he passed away just before Saigon fell. After our tour of Halong, we took the overnight train to Hue, which was actually fairly nice. Hue is best known for its Citadel, which was a major battle site during the American War (yes, that's what they call it here), and for the tombs of old emperors that lie just outside the city. We visited a few of those and a couple pagodas before continuing to Hoi An for the final day. Hoi An is a port town, surrounded by fishing villages, and we were able to take a boat ride up the river and explore a little bit yesterday and this afternoon.
I've loved Vietnam so far, except for the unbearable heat, and I definitely plan on coming back at some point. One nice thing has been the lack of Western institutions - fast food, recognizable brands of everything - which I think gives the cities a lot more character. Also, in general, less people speak English than in the other countries I've visited, so we feel a little more out of our comfort zone. Not to mention the guilt of being American here, even though none of the Vietnamese seem to mind (after all, they "won" the war). At one point, a man came up to me and asked me where I was from, and when I said "America" he replied "ooooooh!" and whipped out a picture of George W. Bush to show me. I told him (through gestures, since he spoke little English) that I wasn't such a fan of GW, and he laughed quite heartily.
Continuing with the theme of visiting only cities that begin with "H," a friend and I are leaving in a few hours for Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) for the next four days before flying back to Bangkok. The bus ride is a whopping 21 hours, and I'm trying not to think about the logistics of that too much. I am also bracing myself for the shock that will occur when I get to Australia and see how expensive everything is there. It's already pretty bad trying to make plans and realizing that I will spend more on single activities there than I have on entire weekend trips in Southeast Asia. Still, I'm very excited! And I'm getting more and more excited about seeing everyone when I get back, although I know that after a few weeks I'll be bored of NC and itching to travel again.
In Vietnam, our group (the UNC group, on an organized tour with our professor) visited Hanoi for 3 days, Halong Bay for a night, Hue for two days, and Hoi An. I loved Hanoi, and the boat trip around Halong Bay was possibly my favorite experience of this semester. We also visited several health facilities and schools in Hanoi and Hue, which was a neat experience. In Hanoi, we visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, which was packed with both tourists and Vietnamese paying their respects - Ho is the leader of the original Communist party here and is credited with the unification of the country even though he passed away just before Saigon fell. After our tour of Halong, we took the overnight train to Hue, which was actually fairly nice. Hue is best known for its Citadel, which was a major battle site during the American War (yes, that's what they call it here), and for the tombs of old emperors that lie just outside the city. We visited a few of those and a couple pagodas before continuing to Hoi An for the final day. Hoi An is a port town, surrounded by fishing villages, and we were able to take a boat ride up the river and explore a little bit yesterday and this afternoon.
I've loved Vietnam so far, except for the unbearable heat, and I definitely plan on coming back at some point. One nice thing has been the lack of Western institutions - fast food, recognizable brands of everything - which I think gives the cities a lot more character. Also, in general, less people speak English than in the other countries I've visited, so we feel a little more out of our comfort zone. Not to mention the guilt of being American here, even though none of the Vietnamese seem to mind (after all, they "won" the war). At one point, a man came up to me and asked me where I was from, and when I said "America" he replied "ooooooh!" and whipped out a picture of George W. Bush to show me. I told him (through gestures, since he spoke little English) that I wasn't such a fan of GW, and he laughed quite heartily.
Continuing with the theme of visiting only cities that begin with "H," a friend and I are leaving in a few hours for Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) for the next four days before flying back to Bangkok. The bus ride is a whopping 21 hours, and I'm trying not to think about the logistics of that too much. I am also bracing myself for the shock that will occur when I get to Australia and see how expensive everything is there. It's already pretty bad trying to make plans and realizing that I will spend more on single activities there than I have on entire weekend trips in Southeast Asia. Still, I'm very excited! And I'm getting more and more excited about seeing everyone when I get back, although I know that after a few weeks I'll be bored of NC and itching to travel again.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Homestretch
I'm in the midst of my last week in Thailand, which is also the first week of our research course on health economics. We've spent the past two days attending lectures and visiting health organizations and the evenings trying to finish all of the things on our Bangkok "to-do" lists that never got done during the semester. So far, mine has included visiting the city park during a public exercise session (one of the highlights of the Bangkok experience), getting tailored suits, tackling the giant weekend market, and buying pirated DVDs from mall vendors.
Street aerobics at Lumphini Park - every evening at 5 and 6:15pm:
Street aerobics at Lumphini Park - every evening at 5 and 6:15pm:
Aside: I remember writing a while back about how much I enjoy watching CNN World, particularly the ridiculous news headlines. As I was writing that last paragraph, I looked up and saw "Drunk 'darth vader' escapes jail" trail across the ticker. This was followed immediately by "overweight nude to set art world record," then "Madonna: New, different, 'Hard.''
The Malaysia trip went very well. By this point in the semester, most of us have shifted from very detail-oriented, efficient travel into a more lackadaisical system of exploring. My friend Judy and I arrived on Penang first and stayed in the town of Georgetown for three days while our group assembled. Activities included a visit to Fort Cornwallis (can you tell that Malaysia was a British colony?), Penang Hill and its view of the island, the world's largest (and possibly only) toy museum, and the botanical gardens. We also rented motorbikes the day we got there, both because it's the easiest way to get around the island and because we've always wanted to try it. Judy had rented a motorbike on a previous trip, but this was my first attempt at it, and everyone accurately described my driving as "less than confident." Still, it was a nice way to get from point A to point B, even if that 'way' included me driving so slow that I was being passed by rickshaws and hawker carts.
We left the following morning for the Cameron Highlands, an inland region of Malaysia known for agriculture and beautiful, rolling hills. We didn't know what to expect, but after being sidelined by pouring rains for an afternoon/evening, we had a chance to explore the area the next morning. The weather was refreshingly cool, and the scenery was beautiful. We visited a tea plantation and a strawberry farm, the highlights of which were naturally the delicious tea and strawberries. That afternoon, we left on another bus for Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. The bus ride took us winding through the jungle and featured several inexplicable "rest" stops, but we eventually made it.
Cameron Highlands:
We only had one full day in K.L. due to the rain delays, but we decided to stick to our original plan and visit a nearby theme park. This was a debatable decision considering that we were sacrificing our only day in the city, but it proved to be well worth it. The park was in the Genting Highlands, another cool mountain region, and to get there, visitors take the Genting Skyway, a 3.4 km cable car ride over the tropical rainforest. Needless to say, that experience made the whole trip worth it.
The theme park was a wealth of fun and a surprisingly cultural experience. We discovered that Asians (generally speaking) are easily excited and very animated on rides, especially thrill rides like roller coasters and free falls. The entire park was so high up that it was in the clouds, which made the vertical drop ride particularly scary since there was no visibility (we rode it four times and had a collective panic attack each time we reached the top). Throughout the day, we met a surprising number of Iraqis and had some very interesting conversations, including meeting a peacekeeping soldier who had friends in North Carolina. Still, all things considered, the highlight of our day was definitely observing the reactions - both sounds and facial expressions - of our fellow park goers. We also staged photos on roller coasters, the best of which was actually our first effort, which I've included here. We picked four poses that we felt symbolized our day's experience - the trademark Asian peace sign, motion sickness, fake-smoking, and an unnecessarily petrified facial expression that was actually outdone by the woman behind us.
The last morning, we visited the Petronas Towers, the largest twin towers and formerly the tallest buildings in the world. Visitors can visit the skybridge connecting the two towers, but there is a quota on the number of people who are allowed up each day. We were planning on going there early to ensure a spot, but everyone's cell phone ran out of batteries and we woke up frustratingly at 10am. Having missed out on our one experience in the city, we took a few pictures from the bottom (see below) and headed straight to the airport. Even though I didn't spend much time in KL, I liked the city. It was cleaner and seemed better organized than Bangkok without being as overwhelmingly Western as Singapore.
Now that I'm back, I'm trying to tie up all the loose ends and not miss anything during my last week. The monsoon season has arrived early, so after months of barely having any rain, we are now seeing torrents on a regular basis. Thailand wasn't hit by the cyclone, but it's been rough hearing about all the trouble in Burma, especially because I was there so recently (twice this semester, actually) and spoke to migrants and refugees. It's tough being so close and knowing that there's essentially nothing that can be done to help.
After a week of class here, we'll travel as a group to Vietnam on Saturday and spend a week traveling and visiting health organizations there. After the program ends on May 25, I will spend a few extra days in Vietnam with a couple classmates and then fly back to Bangkok the following Friday. We're planning on spending some time in Ho Chi Minh City, possibly stopping some along the way, and mainly trying to piece together the war history by visiting various memorials and sites. I can't believe that the semester is almost over, but I think I'll be ready to go home when the time comes.
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