A Tragic Lack of Representation

American culture has infiltrated South East Asia in every aspect. People know the details of Obama's economic stimulus package, US unemployment rates and the capital cities of every state in America. They love American music, from Katy Perry to Nirvana to the Eagles to Jay-Z. People know the intimate details of movie stars' lives, including baby names and latest films. They eat at KFC, Starbucks, Diary Queen and the Hard Rock Cafe. Yet the majority of the South East Asian people I met were shocked to find out I was American. They simply don't meet American people travelling. Whether it's because Americans are more likely to teach or work abroad for a year or two than travel, or just because Americans find it difficult to leave the biggest and best country in the world to see what else is out there, is undetermined. Either way, for the first time in my travels I told people I was American and they were pleasantly surprised. The US is starting to regain respect from the rest of the world, making now an ideal time to travel the world.

The Beach

I thought the beaches in Thailand would be overdone and in a way they are, but they are still some of the most beautiful places I've been in my life. We started out on the Andaman coast, on the Western side of the peninsula at a small beach called Tonsai. There is very little actual beach, it's mostly a climber's paradise because of all the limestone crags covering the area. We didn't do any climbing this time though. After Tonsai we took a ferry to Ko Phi Phi, an island 2 hours west of Tonsai. We meant to only stay a night or two but ended up staying longer because the diving was so amazing. We saw 2 leopard sharks that were each about the size of me. They weren't scary though, they just look like big fish. Plus I found out that they don't have any teeth, which also helped:
We saw a bunch of Hawksbill turtles which are the most adorable species ever. They were just sitting on rocks or floating along munching on some sea sponges. There were schools of every fish you could imagine, including barracudas. The thing that amazed my the most was the brilliance of the colors and the visibility underwater. I don't have an underwater camera yet so you'll just have to imagine it (or look at these fantastic photos I found on the internet).

After Ko Phi Phi we crossed over the Thai peninsula to Ko Tao and Ko Phangan, where we did more diving and beach stuff. In Ko Tao we went to a place called Shark Bay, where I snorkled around with blacktip reef sharks. Yikes! These ones, unlike the leopard sharks, actually look like scary sharks, with the pointy dorsal fin and the grey and white coloring. It wasn't so bad when it was just one of them at a time. The biggest one was about 5 feet long and they were a few meters below me. But when Jenny hopped back abord the boat and I spent a few minutes alone in the bay, there seemed to be a shark party right underneath me. 6 of them (that I counted) were gathered right around me, just pacing and waiting for something to eat. Not me, fortunately.

Chiang Mai: Kingdom of Vegetarians

Chiang Mai is a smallish city in Northern Thailand, about equidistant from Laos and Myanmar. Jenny and I spent longer than we anticpated there, because there is so much to do, both in the city and in the surrounding countryside. Actually let's be real: we wanted to stay because there was too much delicious food to pass up. There were more vegetarian restaurants in Chiang Mai than I've ever seen in any city. Ever. Just from walking around the city we passed at least 12 to 15. The most tragic part was that there weren't enough meals in one day to eat at all of them. There were vegetarian restaurants of every class and variety: one had outdoor garden dining and waterfalls, one was run out of a Buddhist university behind a major Wat, one had a cooking school attached (which we also attended), one served only organic ingredients and was also an organic market. It was unbelievable. We had pad thai, tom yum soup, spring rolls, fried rice and every sort of curry you can imagine. This was green curry at the Buddhist university cafe. Mmmm.

We did some other things besides eating (and getting loads of Thai yoga massages). The most exciting was a trip to an elephant training village. We were nervous about going with any tour company advertising elephant rides, because of the stories we've heard of mistreatment and exploitation of the elephants. The place we went had 5 female elephants, which we learned to control by certain Thai commands (Yud! = stop, Buay! = go forward) which I struggled to pronounce and keep in order. We learned how to make the elephant turn left, right, go forward, go backward and stop. Then we rode two per elephant to a watering hole and a river where we gave them a bath and had a waterfight (they had an advantage becuase of the water holding capacity of trunks). Jenny and I rode Nongmai, who was the young (8 year old) and naughty elephant, becuase the Mahout (elephant trainer) said we were the best at commanding the elephants. I think it was because we shouted the commands really loud whereas everyone else was quite timid. I figured she might not understand my Thai pronunciation, so the louder the better, right? She wasn't so naughty, just very hungry and self-determined. She was adorable though. These are my new elephant friends.

Three days en route to Thailand

We heard the slow boat from Laos to Thailand up the Mekong River was a beautiful journey, well worth the 2 days of 10 hours on a slow, slow, slow boat. The boat can't travel once it's dark outside, so in between the 2 days we spent a night in Pakbeng, a small port town where all travellers to the Thai border and to Luang Prabang in the opposite direction stop. Electricity was only available from 6-10 pm. Some restaurants and homes had generators to provide electricity after hours, but not our guesthouse (at 30 kip-$3.5 /night I wouldn't have expected it). The boat we travelled on had mostly hard, wooden benches for passengers to sit on, but Jenny and I managed to get 2 of the 10 cushioned bus seats (tragically out of place on a boat). It wasn't so bad, I read about 300 pages of my new book. The second night we arrived at the border too late to cross into Thailand so we spent another night in Huoyxai, another travel stop town. We had to splurge on our hotel room, and spent 50 kip ($6) for one night stay. The next morning we crossed the Mekong river which divides Laos from Thailand. We took a "ferry" which was a tiny wooden boat, only wide enough for one person per seat. We walked up a sand dune to get to the immigration office, which was more official looking than the Laos side (a man sitting under a tent with a typewritten sign declaring "immigration"). This is Jenny at Thailand immigration:

Laos

For a country of only 5.6 million people, there are probably about a million tourists here. Laos is the backpacker's paradise of Southeast Asia it seems. We spent 2 weeks here in 3 different towns. We crossed the border from Vietnam and ended up in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. It's a pretty small city though and less frequented by tourists than its Northern counterpart, Luang Prabang. The first day we visited the Buddha Park, which is a statue garden filled with different style Buddha statues. I'm not sure why it exists or what it's purpose is (besides to take silly pictures next to the statues), but there were a few monks hanging around (also taking pictures). We sipped on fresh coconuts and played dominoes looking over the river. The next day we decided to be more adventurous so we rented a motorbike and ventured to a national park, Phu Khao Kwai National Protected Area, supposedly an hour and a half from Vientiane. After a few rough starts on the bike, I finally got it going pretty well, until we got lost, and lost again, and lost again. The only directions we were given were to bear right at the bus station, go 87 kilometers until we see the stuppa (temple) and take a left. Naturally we were lost in about 15 minutes and it took us almost 2 hours of pulling over and shouting to random people along the side of the road "Phu Khao Kwai?" ("poo cow quay") and hoping they'd point us in the right direction (which surprisingly they all did). Eventually we arrived and went on a 5 km trek to the elephant tower, where there is a nearby salt lick where wild elephants hang out. What we didn't know is that they only come around in the evening, and we had to leave by 4. So no elephants. But an adventure nonetheless.

After leaving Vientiane we went to Vang Viang, which is about 3 hours north. Vang Viang is a super laid-back town, whose main attraction is the infamous "tubing." I put tubing in quotes beacuse mostly it means going back and forth across the river (with or without an actual tube) to the bars on either side, each of which has a rope swing, a giant slide or a zip line to propel you into the water. Not to mention that on either side of the river are huge limestone mountains and forests...absolutely georgeous location. We also went swimming in a swimming hole right next to the bungalow we were staying in with a whole bunch of Lao children. The boys were doing flips off a platform and the girls were taking their long skirts that they were swimming in and fill them up with air to make a little floatation device. It was genious. Jenny and I also went rock climbing along the limestone crags; the highest climb was 18 meters, which is about 60 feet. I've never really been rock climbing before so when the guide pointed to the top of the rope we were heading to, i had a small moment of panic. I did make it to the top (and back down again) without hurting myself.

Next we took a bus to Luang Prabang, which is a super cute city in Northern Laos. There are dozens of Wats (Buddhist temples) within and around the city, some of which have really intricate wood carvings, engravings and mosaics coating the outside and inside walls. Here we took a tuk-tuk to a waterfall (it was way too cold to swim!) called Kouang Xi and there was also a rescue center for Asiatic Black Bears, also called Moon Bears, who had been taken from poachers. Traditional Chinese medicine uses the bile of these bears for something or other. They keep them in tiny cages and remove the bile. Eww, I know. We also took a 6 hour trek to 2 ethnic minority villages North of Luang Prabang. One was a Khmu village (aka Khmer, ethnic Cambodians) and the other was a Hmuong (aka Muong in Vietnam). Neither village had running water, although there were a few satellite dishes sprinkled throughout. The people are mostly farmers, growing everything from sticky rice (Laos staple food) to corn to herbs, and raising chickens, pigs and cattle. Our guide told us we hiked 35 km (21 miles!) but I don't know if I believe him. We woke up early one morning to watch the Monks receiving alms. Monks from each Wat in the city line up to accept food donations (usually sticky rice, sweets and other stuff) from local people. As the monks walked past, there was a second line of young boys, maybe 9 or 10 years old, who were standing with cardboard boxes or plastic bags to accept food donations from the monks. Anything the monks either didn't want or could spare they would toss to these boys, who actually seemed to be making out pretty well for themselves.

23 hour bus ride to Laos

Yes. It was just as sketchy as it sounds. The first "sleeper" bus left Hue city in central Vietnam at 5:30 in the evening. I say "sleeper" because it may have been a sleeper for some people, but Vietnamese people are a lot smaller than I am. The bed only fit up to my mid-calf, and since there was another bed right in front of me, I was pretty crunched up. Not to mention the window next to me was ajar, so cold mountain air was blasting in my face all night. Still, that was the comfortable part of the journey... At 1 am the bus drops us off at a "rest stop" in the middle of the mountains somewhere along the border to wait for another bus to take us across the border to Laos. The rest stop consisted of a little restaurant and a parking lot. After the bus driver promised Jenny he would wait until the second bus arrived, he hopped back on the bus and they drove off into the distance. Fortunately the second bus did arrive; unfortunately it was a sitting bus that would have had enough leg room for someone 5'2" and shorter. Not to mention the fact that the luggage space underneath the bus was filled with bricks (I think there was some sort of border smuggling situation going on, but I can't be too sure), so our 50 or so backpacks were either piled in the aisle, or in some passengers' leg space. I think I must have slept at least 18 of the 23 hours though, so I can't really complain.

Seriously though, I am a giant in Vietnam. At one of the rest stops a woman stood and measured herself next to me and then all her friends giggled. They also laughed because my pants only came down to my ankles and they thought I was too tall for my pants.

Wedding in Sóc Trăng

We got the chance to attend a wedding of one of Jenny's friends from Vietnam, Dao. She lives outside of Soc Trang, which is a small city in the Mekong Delta, which I never would have visited if there hadn't of been a wedding there. It is a very sleepy town and the only thing that stays open past 10 pm is the internet cafe (which closes at 11). Her house was a 20 minute drive from the town. Let me just say, Vietnamese weddings are nuts. I say this for a couple reasons, but first off because they last 3 days. There are 3 days of ceremonies until the bride and groom are officially married, she can leave her family and move into her husband's family's house. It starts out with a party at the bride's family's house, which involved a lot of eating, drinking Saigon beers (mostly the men), and an mc with a microphone singing songs with an accompanying keyboard player, who only really played the same techno beat at faster and slower tempos. There was nothing vegetarian for me to eat so an older Vietnamese lady kept feeding me candy and orange soda all night. Literally she was feeding me. If at any point in the night I wasn't holding either a piece of candy or my mug of orange soda, she would unwrap a candy and put it in my hand. Eventually the groom came to the house and brought some vegetarian pho (noodle soup) which was unbelievably sweet! I was already really full (and a little ill) from all the sugar but it was delicious anyways. At the end of the night Dao asked if we would sing a song before we left. Since no one was really paying attention to the mc, we thought we might be able to slip in and out without anyone really noticing us singing. Unfortunately Dao asked Jenny to make an announcement (on the microphone), which she then translated into Vietnamese for everyone (on the microphone). So that's how we got everyone's attention. We decided on "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" because we knew the chorus and one verse, and figured we could just keep repeating the same verse (no one would understand it anyways). After the song was over, everyone (everyone meaning Dao and the mc, who turned out to be her high school teacher) insisted we keep singing, and the next logical song was "Joy to the World," the one about Jeremiah and his bullfrog. We must have sang the whole song through 5 or 6 times. Then the mc and another guy got us to dance with them. The one guy started a conga line, but it was only him, Jenny, and me in line. All the other guests were just sitting and watching us dance and no one joined in. I have to say it was a pretty magical experience.

The second day was a luncheon reception at a restaurant, where the bride and groom did all the "traditional" wedding stuff, like cut the cake (which no one ate), pour champagne (cherry soda) into a cascading fountain and take obligatory wedding photos. The oddest part was that not a single guest at the party, except Jenny, Katie and I, was watching the bride and groom. The food had already come out and they were all busy eating. Also no one took any pictures besides us and the wedding photographer. When all the food was gone, the guests just got up and left. It was literally an eat and run type situation.

The last day of wedding was the big one, where the bride leaves her family's house, goes to the groom's family's house, and they are officially married. The first ceremony started at 6 am, meaning we woke up at 4:30. Before we got in the taxi we stopped for some street food breakfast. We tried this hot, creamy, super sweet soup with wide, flat noodles in it. The lady served it out of the cooking pot into small plastic bags, tied up with a rubber band, which we bit a hole into and sucked the soup out of. It was amazingly delicious. Since the ceremony started at 6 am, we arrived at the party by 9 am, and food (and beer) was served. There was a little competition between the older men's table and the older women's table over who could cheers the loudest. Vietnamese cheers is mot, hai, ba yoooo!, which means 1, 2, 3 drink, and I'm still not sure who won. This picture is from day 3: