Vietnam: part 2

Yesterday Kelly and I got up early and headed to a tour of Cu Chi. There we saw a portion of the 250km of tunnels used by the Viet Cong. While I crawled through one of the pitch black tunnels on my knees, two thoughts ran through my head.

The first was how really scary this would be for dad when I told him about it. He was really lucky not to be drafted. The second thought was how totally out of shape I was. I was in the tunnel for about 90 meters, and still, I came out totally soaked in sweat from head to toe and aching all over.

Last night we went to the War Remnants museum, which used to be called "The museum of American and Chinese war crimes against Viet Nam," or something like that, but the name was changed because I guess they thought it might not be the best way to attract tourists.

It was full of pictures of bombing and napalm victims. There were also a lot of pictures of American soldiers doing terrible things and smiling at the camera. Remember that Abu Ghraib thing? That was nothing compared to the stuff in these pictures. It was one of the most disgusting things I had ever seen.

Anyone who was alive during the Viet Nam war probably remembers all of that stuff, but I obviously don't remember it, and nobody teaches it in schools, so it was all new to me.

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We also took a ride through Ho Chi Minh city in a cyclo, which is basically a bicycle with a big seat on the front. Kelly and I hopped on the front and the old man got behind us and pedalled us around town, through enormous round-abouts and intersections with cars, buses and motorcycles whizzing past us in every direction. The first few minutes were really really scary, but after that, I finally realized that this man wasn't going to kill us, and then I enjoyed it a lot.

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Tomorrow we leave for a two day tour through the Mekong Delta. I would write here a lot about it, but the truth is I don't really know. It's the same tour company that took us to the tunnels, so I'm sure it will be nice. There was the option to stay in river-side bungalows with mosquito nets or to have a home-stay with a local family, but we opted for the more comfortable hotel accommodation with air-conditioning and Internet. After that we're going to take a bus to the coast, where we'll board a boat and ride the Phu Quoc Island (Google Earth it!), where we'll spend 4 relaxing days on the beach swimming, snoozing and reading Harry Potter!

From there we'll take a flight back to Saigon, where we'll connect with another flight a couple of hours later to Hanoi, which is our departure city.

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This place has been very easy to get around and the language has never been a problem. It's been easier than Japan, Spain, or probably even New York. Almost every speaks enough English to help you out, and everyone seems very willing to do so.

Oh yeah, and .... GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!
(that's for my brother).

Vietnam: part 1

Sorry, but I have no pictures to post. UPDATE (06.09.07): There are pictures!!

If I did, there would be a gazillion motorbikes in front of us as we try to survive crossing the street. Seriously, it's crazy. It makes the traffic in Rome look like rush hour in Horse Cave.

Today we visited the Museum of Fine Arts, went to the Ben Thanh Market (where we said, "no thank you" about 15 times per second), to the Notre Dame Cathedral (an exact replica as far as I can tell), and then won a close game of bowling over my fierce opponent, Irwin. Final score: 98-96.

Oh, and among many other things, we ate some Pho.

Tokyo: Part 4

This is the last of the Tokyo pictures.

Looking back, it's amazing to me that we weren't there 2 full days.
We just saw so much stuff!

Not least of which was this, the THUNDER DOLPHIN, easily the coolest roller coaster I have ever been on outside of Cedar Point.

In fact, I'd say it ties for my #1 favorite rollercoaster on the planet. (sorry Wabash Cannonball. sorry Rockin' Rollercoaster. sorry thunder run.)

How many rollercoasters let you go through a building?

We leave for Viet Nam tonight, and then two weeks later we'll be back in the good ol' U. S. of A.

Who wants to meet up for some Taco Bell on August 4th?

(ps- mom and dad please come get me. August 3rd. Nashville. 6:01pm)

Tokyo: Part 3

We took a river-boat ride through Tokyo and ended up at this park, where an old man in a boat used a rake to scrape off the layer of pond-scum and dump it into the boat with him.

If I remember correctly, just outside this gate is where the "freaks" gather once a week to show off their style. It's sort of like goth kids mixed with transvestites and 15 year olds in prostitute outfits. Apparently it's a Sunday morning tradition.

Here Kelly shows off the fact that she has a fan to fight off the 80 degree weather and I don't.

Tokyo: Part 2

Tokyo at night was pretty overwhelming. We checked out Shinjuku, which reminded me of Times Square with lights and enormous TVs on the side of buildings.

Then we checked out the Circle K, where strange things were definitely afoot.

Tokyo: part 1

Big Golden Turd on my head.

Surprise! It wasn't really on my head. It was just on the building behind me.
Crazy camera tricks!

Enormous lantern at a cool shrine whose name I can't remember.

People were rubbing smoke from this chimney thing onto the ailing parts of their body to cure them. That's what the guidebook said they were doing at least. I wondered why they never brought def leppard's drummer here.

Cool pagoda. Or is it padoga?

This is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. We went to the top and looked out onto the city. My analysis: big.

i knew it!

no worries. she's the good kind.





she did turn me into a newt, though.

not-so-secret admirer

I visited an elementary class yesterday and this girl, after two fits of crying, decided to fall in love with me. She stayed after class 20 minutes getting pictures made with me and exchanging mailing addresses. She said, "I'll miss you."

Here are a few pictures from the rest of the class.

The kid in the black sleeveless shirt was sort of intimidating.

i´m pretty sure this kid was staring at my sweaty underarms.

The spots were so big they almost connected.

They all think I´m a lemon.

Sand in my Socks.

The two times that I have felt most lost in my entire life have both been while searching for the ocean.

The first time, I went on a 40-minute car ride through Guatemala.

It was supposed to be 40 minutes, but 3 hours later, I was driving around in circles on a dirt road with pot-holes the size of my car. I didn't see another vehicle during the whole trip, except for a bicycle with 3 full-sized adults, one carrying a baby and another holding a leash which dragged a skinny little dog behind.

When we drove by, people stopped whatever they were doing and turned around to watch our car go by.


After ducking down another smaller dirt road, we drove the car onto a tiny little ferry that tugged us across a river and onward to the ocean with the hammocks and beaches of burning black sand.



This time, alone in Japan, I felt almost as lost.

Luckily, I didn't feel nearly as scared.

After visiting 3 of Kelly's classes on Friday, I borrowed her camera and the good bicycle and set out, once again, to find the ocean.


I didn't take a map with me, which is always a brilliant thing to do when you don't know the language, don't know where you're going and aren't completely confident of where you are in the first place.

The only real directions I had were to go past a line of trees.


Actually, that turned out to be really good directions. I rode the bike in the basic direction for about an hour, trying to remember ridiculous markers along the road such as "There was an empty beer can on the sidewalk at the intersection where I turned." and "I passed a fence with blue flowers growing out of it."

Then I drove through a few acres (or whatever the metric equivalent is) of farm-land where there were no cars, but plenty of fisherman hanging over little bridges. Again, I left my trail of bread crumbs with movable landmarks such as "I passed a fisherman with a red squiggle on his shirt."

What can I say? I'm a genius.

Anyway, I found that line of trees I was looking for.

I had to cross over some orange cones and chains to get there. There were signs that I could only assume said for me not to enter, but I couldn't read them, so I chugged along. It looked like something out of Blair Witch. I could just see Ben Ariel screaming "It's NOT a moo cow!"



I again crossed a river, just as I had in Guatemala.

Then another ten minutes later, my gravel pathway turned to sand and the forest behind me disappeared.

The beach was huge and completely empty save two guys with fishing poles.

One said something to me in Japanese.

I responded with one of the two sentences I know. "nihongo ga wakarimasen." (I don't understand Japanese).

The guy laughed to his friend and said the only other sentence I know, "Eigo ga wakarimasen" (I don't understand English.)

We smiled at each other and then they disappeared.

I only found one shell. I mailed it to my Papa. If you're lucky, he'll show it to you.

Raw Fish

Guess which 4 of these I ate.

Earthquake!

Saturday morning I woke up to this!

No, it wasn't Earthquake, the wrestler and former tag team champion (thanks for the wrestling trivia dhigh).

It was a real, ground shaking Earthquake. My glass of water starting making ripples like on Jurassic Park. Exciting stuff.