Belated Travel Update - Bangkok and Beyond!

After much finagling and reservation changes we flew into neon lit Bangkok, Thailand late last Friday. As some of you already know we have been trying our best to get into a Vipassana Mediation course in Thailand and although there are four separate locations within the county the majority of the courses, within our time frame, were full. We got the word about a week ago that we were accepted for the April 29th - May 10th course so we went ahead and booked a flight to Thailand. After the course we will start cycling to Cambodia and eventually back to Vietnam. If your interested in reading about the course check out: http://www.abha.dhamma.org/

While we were waiting to hear about our course status we continued our exploration of Ho Chi Minh City. My step-dad Bill and I had a wonderful conversation about his memories and experiences within the city during the Vietnam War. Bill did multiple special forces tours during the Vietnam War from 1963 - 1970. His intimate and personal connection with Saigon (now HCMC) and the whole of Vietnam allowed him to at times give us street by street directions to various sights around the city. Saigon, once known as the "Pearl of the Orient," now blends spiced exoticism with modernistic architecture and mainstream fashion. Because HCMC is a hub for many of the major universities within Vietnam, English language students proliferate the city. And, after two weeks traversing the city our favorite pass time was to hang out in one of the many inner-city parks and practice English with those students. In contrast to what we're used to back home (the idea of a 'personal bubble') people in HCMC constantly approached us wanting to talk about where we're from, especially to practice their English. Our last night in HCMC we met again with two university students in their 20's, talking late into the night about their beliefs, experiences, and goals. From these conversations our own personal Vietnamese dictionary is steadily growing - hopefully proving to be invaluable when we cycle back to Vietnam.



Although the actual blog 'postings' are being neglected we often take little notes about our experiences traveling, especially those things that really give essence to a place. Traffic in HCMC is in a leauge of its own. Everything we read about the traffic is absolutely true. The streets are unbelievably crowded during the day and remain quite busy into the wee hours. Crossing the streets on foot can literally require a leap of faith as you dash off the sidewalk to avoid the motorbike heading straight for you on the ancient, narrow, fractured path landing in the swarm of revving scooters crisscrossing every which way and beeping warning honks at you in the six lane superhighway-like city streets. One valuable piece of advice we received was "Just walk slow and make eye contact with the drivers," which is helpful but does not account for the frequent violation of common sense that occurs when the moto drivers turn into oncoming traffic like salmon fighting the current, driven by some kind of ludicrous urge to go up against incredible odds to get where they need to go. We had some near misses and saw more than one bandaged foreigner who'd met the pavement in one way or another. We also went with our guts and left the bikes packed in their bags and passed up the opportunity to rent a scooter to fulfill our own touring whims.

Are there too many cars on the road? Well, ride on the side walk! Why didn't we think of that before?


Unfortunately much of the Mekong is lined with rubbish inside the city limits. Often areas of the river without a strong current display a kaleidoscope of rubbish as seen below this bridge:


Half way into our time in HCMC we decided to forgo the sweltering metropolis and headed to the beach about 130 kms away in the city of Vung Tau. Our 4 nights there were refreshing and allowed us to finally cure ourselves of our lasting colds. Vung Tau was not the iconic rolling surf and golden sand resort town typical of Australia. The beaches are half work, half play, with vendors renting beach chairs and sun umbrellas, to the fishermen pulling in their nets right next to wading vacationers. Our first glimpse of the beach on Sunday didn't actually have any beach in it. When we crossed the highway and followed the motorbike path, what we found right up next to the sea was an almost endless mass of brightly colored umbrellas shading some of the simplest and most comfortable hammock-like beach chairs. Any space that wasn't occupied by a tiny shade oasis had some variety of push cart food vendor, cart firmly sunk into the loose sand under the weight of soda cans, grilled seafood and meat skewers, and all manner of souvenir one might expect to find in a well stocked tourist shop.


The water was teeming with Vietnamese and tourists alike. The Vietnamese didn't appear to appreciate the concept of bathing attire and instead came trotting our of the surf in the jeans and t-shirts they'd arrived in. Only the foreigners donned the board shorts and bikinis and frankly were outnumbered and outdone by the locals. The beach like the streets everywhere in Vietnam is awash with garbage of all sorts. And although the beach was beautiful with warm ocean water flowing over our feet, we often found ourselves stepping over rubbish tumble-weeding down the sandy stretches. The guilty pleasure of walking down the beach was often times starkly contrasted by the degradation caused by the plastic and other non-recyclables littered about.



A massive approaching storm over Vung Tau. This giant cloud wreaked havoc on the beach front, causing a number of huts to cave in and tossing beach chairs down the sand in huge gusts:


We were welcomed by a generous smile from the security guard as we arrived in Bangkok at our Warmshowers hosts apartment building. Obviously expecting our arrival the guard peered into our cab window, waving happily and holding a cardboard sign, usually reserved for those hitchin' a ride, reading in bold letters "E and Z". She was a welcome and warming sight. Leading into the foyer we were handed a key to our own one room mini-apartment. Amazing! As we later learned our host Supaporn's lovely aunt, in her mid-80s, owns the apartment building. Supaporn took us out to an beautiful lunch yesterday. Ordering for us, she helped to translate the menu and gave us a glimpse into how the the locals eat - no Pad Thai for us! Although Supaporn hasn't dabbled in cycle touring yet, she has an adventurous soul and has traveled all over the world. We are even tossing around the idea that she may come visit us in India!

Look at all the good food! View from the restaurant and the approaching storm thanks to a Chinese typhoon off the coast... what is it with us attracting big storms?:


Although this is our second time in Bangkok, we feel we are meeting the city for the first time. Bangkok has a unique and striking contrast between the old and the new. Ancient glittering Buddhist temples are hugged by modern shiny buildings while the brightly painted tuk-tuks pull up next to the BMWs on sleek paved roads. Getting around primarily by the river ferries and on foot, we have wandered amazed through breath taking Buddhist temples, around the Grand Palace grounds which house His Majesty the King, and in and out of the markets teeming with life.

Bizarres Galore - Bunched Roses:


Are we the only ones disturbed by this?


What Pho (Temple of Reclining Buddha):


Wat Phra Kaew (The Emerald Buddha):


By coincidence, or sheer luck, we arrived in Bangkok at the same time as our Canadian cycling friends did. Having just cycled from Singapore to Bangkok, Mike and Katrina are planning to tune their bikes up and tour the city, then depart north on their bicycles into Laos. We met them on our first day abroad in New Zealand and we would love to cycle with them in SE Asia. The world just keeps getting smaller and smaller. Last night we had dinner with, not only Mike and Katrina, but two other couples - one from Portland, Oregon now living in Bangkok and the other from Ottowa, Canada, on a year long cycling tour. We spent the night talking about cycle touring and life back home, while enjoying our first spaghetti meal since leaving home with actual brownies and ice cream served for dessert. Thank you for the excellent dinner!

The cycle touring group and our friends Katrina and Mike:


Early tomorrow morning we leave for our meditation course. Observing the code of 'noble silence' we won't be talking to each other for the entire 10 day meditation. We are both anxious with excitement, not knowing what to expect and looking forward to this new experience with meditation. We miss and love everyone back home and there isn't a day that goes by that we don't comment on how nice it would be to share every moment of this experience with our family and friends.