Pictures - Taiwan and Vietnam

Here are a couple of pictures from the trip so far.



- Hiking the 'crags' outside of Taipei, Taiwan



- An evening market outside of Taipei, Taiwan



- Sunset as we bike in Ninh Binh, Vietnam



- Hiking in Sapa, Vietnam with our Canadian friends

Vietnam, Part 2 - Sapa and Linh Binh

April 30,1975 was a day that the Vietnamese and most Americans won't forget. On that day North Vietnamese soldiers moved into the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon and the last of the American contingent in the country was evacuated from the country. Although I don't know much about the Vietnam war or the history of Vietnam directlyfollowing th war, I do know that most males over the age of 50 in this country probably fought in the war. Think about it, for most people my age that would mean that your parents or people just slightly older fought in Vietnam.

I don't bring this fact up to dwell on the Vietnam war. Actually, I mention it because it is incredible how much the country has changed in the last 35 years. The US only started a dialogue with the Vietnamese government in 1991, opened a consulate in 1994 and, finally, opened an embassy in 1995. However, the US dollar is now accepted in place of the Vietnamese Dong and, more importantly, everyone is exceptionally friendly. I find myself waving to most people in the countryside and when they find out that I am from the United States many say that they hope to visit my country one day. It is amazing how much can change in a generation.

Anyways, what have we been up to? Monday night we took a night train to a town called Sapa, which is famous for its scenic views. On the train we met two Canadians, both in their early twenties who are travelling after there semester abroad, who we would end up treking with while we were in Sapa. The two days we had there were fantastic, but also different from what I expected. After studying abroad in Ecuador I got extremely used to being able to talk with the locals. Here, the language divide is huge and basically impossible to surmount. For those of you who don't know, Asian languages tend to be very tonal. For example, 'ma' can be pronounced 7 different ways (depending on the accent) and each of those 7 pronunciations represents a different word. For a Westerner it is very hard to come to grips with!!!

On the other hand, though, it was great treking through a valley with rice paddies on both sides. It definitely gives me a new found respect for those who grow rice since they spend their time in the fields thigh deep in water and mud. It also made me aware of an ugly truth (I can't think of better words to describe it, but better words do exist). The Vietnames (as well as much of the world's population is dependent on rice as a staple in their diet. However, to grow rice the fields must be flooded and the water must be left standing for long periods of time. Consequently, there are tons of mosquitoes found in these rural areas. These mosquitoes can and do carry many diseases and the people of this part of the world seem to suffer disproportiantly when it comes to mosquitoe born diseases. What's the solution? I don't know. But we should at least be grateful that our society doesn't have the same health problems associated with agricultural production.

We got back to Hanoi this morning (Thursday morning), but only stayed long enough to repack our bags (we're leaving the majority of our belongings in storage at a hostel) and drop of dirty laundry before we caught a bus south to a town called Linh Binh. The bus ride... Unique to say the least. We were sitting in the back where there were 4 seats, yet 5 people were sitting there. Was it comfortable almost having a Vietnamese man sit in my lap? No. Could I sleep while the bus rocketed over speed bumps or the highway, the shape of which resembled that of a wave? No. But it definitely was an awesome and authentic experience.

In Linh Binh we rented bikes and biked south to a karst limestone formations. Basically, water had eroded the limestone so this river went through the mountains and we followed it on a boat. After the boat ride we biked through the rice paddies (I would say the most incredible experience so far) before we biked back to the hotel that was holding our packs. The bike ride seemed to take forever, though, since my tire was flat and, after I ran over enough rocks, the tire lost its circular shape.

Anyways, I have to go eat my fried rice. We leave to catch a night bus to Hue in 35 minutes. Sorry if my spelling isn't great. I don't have time to edit these posts.

Hanoi, Vietnam

So, I don't have much time for an update now. I am sitting at a desktop in a hostel in Hanoi, Vietnam and there is a line quickly forming behind me. A quick update, though..

The end of last week was a complete blur. It almost felt like we had been in Taipei for a month and we finished seeing everything that was on our list. Among the things we did were hike along a river outside of the city, visit the Chang Chi Shek (I know the spelling is probably wrong...), visit a couple of temples and go to a place called MTV - a movie place where you pick out your own movie to watch and get to watch it in a private room on a big screen.

Sunday, we finall had to say goodbye to Taiwan. Originally, our next destination was to be Thailand. However, with the warnings being issued by the US State Department and with a temporary curfew in effect, we decided to go to Vietnam instead. But, it was too expensive to re-route our tickets so we still flew into Bangkok on Sunday night. We arrived around 11 pm, cleared customs and camped out in the departures area where we would check into our flight to Hanoi at 4:15 the next morning. It was sort of funny, sort of sad, but as we cleared customs the lady looked at our 'address in Thailand' which said 'Airport' and asked me what that was about. I said I was leaving in 6 hours... She said she had thought I would be travelling into the city. I didn't have an answer I wanted to respond with.

Arriving in Hanoi we were tired, but happy to have moved on. Also, clearing customs was a lot easier than I ever thought it would be.. My pen broke as I filled out the entry for so I did not fill out the 'address in Vietnam' or 'passport number' fields and didn't sign the document. The customs agent looked at it, looked at me, didn't say a word and waved me through.

Taking a Vietnam airlines mini-van into the city made us think we were safe from the taxi scams that run rampant from the airport. However, we still managed to get dropped off at the wrong hotel (a hotel posing to be ours, but operating under a different name). I didn't give the man my name and only told him my name started with 'M'. We couldn't tell me my full name from their reservation book. We left. However, the second hotel looked fishy so we settled into a hostel dominated by westerners. Its a good place from which to get our feet on the ground and organize the rest of our trip here.

In a couple of hours we get on a night train headed to Sapa, a town to the north renowned for its treking. I'll let you know how that goes when I get back. The line's getting long. I have to let someone else on the computer.

Week 1 - Taipei, Taiwan

It's hard to believe that I left Washington DC for Asia only a week ago. These past 7 days have definitely kept me busy exploring Taipei and, more generally, the country of Taiwan and also planning, mostly re-planning, the trip ahead of us as the political situation has deteriorated in Bangkok, Thailand. When we get home each night our feet our sore and we are tired. As a result, you guys are going to get the 'Asia Lite' version. I'll try to make posts when I can, but sleep just might take priority - I know, crazy idea.

I was actually planning on making this first post two nights ago. There I was, sitting at a computer as the internet loaded. As I went to type I noticed two problems, though. First, the key board stuck and the backspace didn't work. And second - but more importantly - the "Hello Kitty" stickers on the keyboard were so large that I couldn't make out the letters on each key. But, I digress...

I arrived in Taipei early Friday morning. I met my friend, Drake, in the airport several hours later before promptly getting lost on the way to Drake's sister's house (Maresa - she lives here). Why did we get lost so soon? I didn't fully appreciate just how different Mandarin (I'm just going to call it Chinese) is. I know, foolish me. In Europe and Latin America I could read the signs and decipher a little even if I did not know the language. I could show cab drivers the English names of museums and they would know what I was referring to. Here, however, I am completely illiterate. I can't understand a single symbol. I can communicate the quantity of something I want, but telling them what I want 'one' of is the difficult part. But what about all of those Asians that speak English, you ask. After all, they all have to take English in school. Well, two things. First, there is often a big difference between studying a language and being able to talk it. What about all of those American school children who study Spanish during middle and high school? But, this isn't entirely a fair point. Many of the students here study English much more intensively than we study any foreign languages. Many Universities have classes in which the text book is in English and, therefore, a high level of English is required. This leads to the second point, though. For, these people who speak conversational English aren't the same people driving taxis or, according to our luck so far, not the people we stop on the street looking completely lost.

Anyways, after being lost for more than an hour Drake's sister came to 'collect' us off of the side of the road and took us to her 'house' (I'll explain the quotes later). But, she wasn't just about to let us sit there tiredly as we tried to get over our jet lag. Nope. Instead, within the hour we were packing our smaller bags and getting ready to get on the train and head to Hualien, a coastal town two and a half hours southeast of Taipei. We got on the train as my 'jet lag' - or what would be better described as 'body clock confusion' caught up with me and I passed out. I woke up in Hualien where we rented a car (Maresa's Taiwanese boyfriend was with us), drove to the beach, set up our tents and went right back to sleep.

The next morning I woke up in a pool of my own sweat. The tent was acting as an oven and it was... ONLY 7 AM! That is another other thing. It is HOT here. It gets hot early in the mornings and then the humidity picks up throughout the day. By the afternoon it is like walking around with weights on your shoulders.

We spent most of Saturday at a nearby gorge driving and hiking. Taiwan is 70% mountain and the vast majority of mountains are deemed uninhabitable. As a result, a lot of the land in the interior of the country offers great outdoor opportunities such as hiking, biking, etc. Throughout the gorge were signs warning of falling rocks and telling visitors not 'to linger'. If I've ever seen unambiguous safety advice, that's it. As we got to thinking about bed we checked into a local hotel where we could use a room of 3 hours and, most importantly, shower. At the end of our three hours in the AIR CONDITIONED room Drake and I were lobbying to stay (for 13USD extra), but lost and we returned to our makeshift campground and fell asleep in our tents, only to be woken by the heat at 7 again.

Sunday we drove to a nearby lake and rented bikes. We also hiked into the nearby mountains where i was again struck by the foliage of Taiwan. I had just not realized how green this country would be, but I've definitely been reminded that Taiwan is comprised of hot and humid (during this time of the year) tropical rainforests. After a another full day of hiking and biking we got back in the car, drove to the train station and headed back to Taipei.

Monday we slept in and met up with Maresa and some of the other teachers from the English speaking school at which she teachers. As they told us the most recent news regarding the unrest in Thailand we decided on the spot to change our itinerary and go to Vietnam instead. How? We didn't yet know, but we would find a way.

That afternoon we went to the top of the 101, the world's tallest building until recently when it was outdone by the Burj Dubai in, you guessed it, Dubai. What stuck me the most wasn't the building itself or what I could see as I looked out from the observation deck, though. Instead, it was what I did NOT see. A couple of years back i saw a show on the 101 and assumed that the skyline of Taipei would consist of many tall buildings and be similar to that of another large city such as Hong Kong. Instead, though, the 101 stands alone. I don't mean to say that there are not other tall buildings to be found, but the buildings aren't that tall or that plentiful. Basically, Taipei is a city built closer to the ground. The skyline reminded me more of a Richmond rather than a New York.

Tuesday Drake and I went to the National Palace Museum which is regarded as on of the top 10 museums in the world. As the Republic of China was forced to retreat from mainland China to Taiwan the people took a great number of significant artifacts with them. As a result, the best collection of historical Chinese artifacts in the world is actually located in Taiwan. The National Palace Museum has a counterpart museum operated by the Chinese in Beijing and these two museums share collections with each other. But, the Taiwanese like to point out that it would take the sister museum in Beijing over 30 years to show all of the artifacts in the possession of the National Palace Museum while it would only take a fraction of that time for the National Palace Museum to display the artifacts not in its possession.

After that we headed over to the Vietnamese Office of Social and Economic Affairs (no country actually has an 'embassy' in Taiwan) in person to get out visas that we would need to enter Vietnam. We had started the search for the building that morning before our museum visit but had been thwarted by our illiteracy of the Chinese language until we found a man in a real estate office that spoke English. He gave us directions, but the building was closed for lunch. On our return, though, we went inside and began filling out the visa paperwork. I was a little nervous, though. I had always heard that Vietnam could be strict about issuing visas. I tried to fill out all of the necessary fields, but didn't have all of the information. I walked up to the window to talk to the Vietnamese representative and handed her my paper that was still missing my address in Vietnam, my date of exit and my signature. She looked at my paper for half a second, looked up and said, "I give you one month visa to my country." I nodded my head, said "ok", paid and was on my way. So much for a difficult process!

Today (finally, sorry this is so much writing in one post) we headed out of the city yet again to the 'crags'. One of the bodyguards of Sun Yat-sen (the father of the Republic of China) retired and decided to chisel staircases up several peaks. We hiked up these peaks and, from the tops, got some pretty incredible views. I wonder, though, what ever inspired this man to chisel these staircases into the rock. the most gradual incline was probably 45 degrees. There were parts where it was so steep that it was only safe because of the handropes on both sides of the stairs.

As we hiked down some of the rocks were slick. We took it slow though. As we approached the more modern (and safer) stairs, though, I lost my footing and fell. I only fell on the rock below me and reflexes turned me to my side, but I still landed on the outerside of my right thigh. After rolling on the ground for several minutes I was able to get up and we continued going down the mountain. The whole time, though, I could feel the burn of my thigh and knew I was going to have a major bruise.

So, here I sit. Back at 'home' on Maresa's laptop which, thankfully, is lacking in 'Hello Kitty' pictures on its key board, icing my thigh and just hoping that my limp isn't any worse tomorrow. Only the morning will tell, but I already know that they bruise is going to at least be the size of my palm. Hopefully I'll be able to post up here more often from here on out.

Oh, and sorry there aren't any pictures yet. I haven't been able to get out the cord to hook my camera up to the laptop. I'll see if I can change that soon. Night.

Leaving for an Adventure in Asia

Last summer a friend of mine - Drake Mailes - and I had a long day packing up the supplies of the Boy Scout camp at which we were working and began talking about traveling the world. We bounced around ideas of places to which we could travel and, slowly, the conversation morphed, I don't know how, into where we could travel the following summer. Initially, we talked about taking the Trans-Siberian railroad from Berlin to Beijing before traveling around Asia.

A couple of days later we were in London - the camp was in the UK - and we walked by a travel agent's office. We looked at each other.. And walked inside. We only talked to the travel agent for a minute and the price we were quoted for the Trans-Siberian railroad was, well, rather exorbitant. However, we didn't let this deter us, we just started talking about alternatives that might be cheaper. Finally, we decided on a trip to Southeast Asia, specifically Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia.

I'll be honest. This trip almost never happened. When I returned from the fall in Ecuador I was spending so much of my time simply getting readjusted to the thing called 'school' and the 'homework' associated with it that I stopped thinking about the trip and the summer started to approach at lightening speed. But, Drake stepped back into the picture, searched for flights and was nice enough to keep me in the loop through phone calls, emails and text messages. Before I knew it, tickets had been booked and dates had been placed on the calendar.

This adventure, concocted at camp where we were working on too few hours of sleep and while we were walking around the rainy streets of London, starts in just over 6 hours when I leave for the airport. Well, that's only partly true... The true adventure starts after my 6 hour flight to LA, the following 12 hour layover and crossing the International Date Line (IDL) during the more than 15 hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan where I will arrive just under 48 "hours" (including time change "hours") after I arrived in the airport in Washington, DC.

However, this is probably all just part of the adventure - my Asia adventure where I won't know any of the languages and will be fearful of the mosquitoes, but hope to see new things, learn a new phrase and come away knowing more about a part of the world that's 'home' to more than 500 million people, yet which I know so little about.