moving on

a few weeks have passed once more without an update but i am on holidays after all so i think i deserve a little break. things are still going great. when i last wrote, we were about halfway down vietnam. well, we spent a few days in mui ne, just chilling out on the beach and taking a much neeed break from riding the bus. managed to get some colour, slept a lot, read a lot and then just as it was seeming to get a little tired we set off for ho chi minh city. to be honest, i wasn't really in the mood for a major urban center after the tranquility of the beach, so we took in a few sights by taking a walking tour. only spent a couple of days in saigon, but i did manage to make it to the war remnants museum. i expected lots of photos and artifacts from the war, but they were much more graphic and showed the terrible cost of war. i won't describe the images but they were enough to make me want to leave after only seeing a fraction of what they had. that said, i feel it's an important part of vietnam's history and should never be forgotten what many paid with their lives for.

the next stop along the way was in cambodia, specifically the capital of phnom pehn. we had gotten quite used to the vibe of vietnam and crossing the border at moc bai was like entering a different world. crossing the border overland is always an interesting experience because you instantly get to see just how different the countries are. it was almost like night and day. if vietnam had suffered in the war, it had recovered some what while cambodia still seemed to be in the grips of it. there were maimed roads and people everywhere, a painful reminder of what war can do to a country. when we pulled into phnom penh and finally found a place to stay, these two young booksellers came up to us and chatted in english. i eventually bought a book off of one of the girl's who seemed to be full of life. i asked her how she learned english, from school or her tutor and she just said she listened and learned. she didn't go to school. she ate with us and then off she went, happy as could be ready to sell her next book.

our only real destination in cambodia was siem reap, the closest town to angkor temples. we spent a whole day checking them out, but realistically it wasn't enough time to fully appreciate it so we just took in the highlights. it was spectacular and completely worth the jarring and hot bus rides we had to endure along the way. i remember along the way, the bus got a flat and we broke down for an hour. then, there was no air cond and it was bumpy all the way. about halfway through our ride, we stopped for lunch and we were all bitching about the trip. just as we were getting back on the bus, a pair of girls found a young woman lying in a ditch, covered in bruises and cuts. she was barely conscious and was severly dehydrated. someone arranged for a person to go to the nearest town and get a doctor to come and collect her. the rest of us had to leave but the poor girl had to stay there in the ditch and wait for the doctor to arrive. it was a shocking image and certainly made the rest of us on the bus feel as though we had nothing to really complain about.

we soon left cambodia behind after a short stay of only 5 days because we realized how quickly time was slipping through our fingers. we took another bus (sensing a theme here?) to bangkok and have been here for the last three days. we leave tonight to head up north to chiang mai and do our elephant trek which should be a lot of fun. afterwards, we had planned to travel through myanmar but it looks as though we aren't going to be able to do that. it's funny, but we arrived in bangkok to do our visas and the day we went the office was closed for some reason or another. a sign perhaps? whatever it was, it made us reevaluate or time and money and so we've decided to spend the remainder on the beach which is fine by the both of us.

still feeling good about the trip we've had, but feeling a bit tired of the tours, the haggling, and so forth. also, both of us can feel reality started to close in around us which is scary. the prospect of having no job, no apartment and heading back to a country where everyone has to strive to have the best of all this is enough to keep me awake at night. literally. i have been not able to fall asleep for the last week or so properly. just keep thinking about how things are going to be, the people and the places, what am i going to do next? the other sort of life crisis that hits when moving back to a different country. i'm still happy with our decision to leave taiwan...i do feel it was time, but i think maybe a little more effort should have been put into as to what to do next. i'm sure things will work out as they always do, but i also think i should really start looking for something to do with myself. i can hear my parents already, most likely about a week after returning...the inevitable "what are you going to do now?" speech. it would be nice if i could have an answer like "I've been offered a great job writing for such and such magazine." or possibly "I'm giving my life to jesus. " hmm...that last one probably won't fly too well. anyway, i'm just going to keep enjoying the time left over the next few weeks and try to put it out of my mind for the time being.

vietnam part I

we've now been traveling in vietnam for the last 2 weeks and it has been nothing short of awesome. i feel a little stupid that i hadn't chosen to take a holiday here sooner but better late than never. i've been keeping a journal everyday (or nearly everyday) to try and keep track as well as fill in the gaps in my memory of the places we've seen and been

June26.2007

What a day! Day 9 and feelin' fine. We hopped aboard our minibus where we spirited away to the splendor and wonder that is Halong Bay. it is every bit as good as it looks in photos and more. aquamarine water, chinese junk boats everywhere, rocky outcroppings with hundreds of areas to explore, some only accessible by sea kayak. we went to this natural cave which was just so....incredible. splendid. amazing and all those other adjectives i can't think of right now. also took a walk up 400 steps for some wicked views of the entire bay. also tried our hand at sea kayaking which is definitely something i would do again in the blink of an eye. great exercise...can't believe i said that but it's true. tonight, sitting down to a great seafood dinner aboard the junk where we will be spending the night.

the feeling of being here on the water at night is sublime. a warm breeze is blowing off the water while a melody is being played on a bamboo flute somewhere in the ether.

June 27th.2007.

said farewell to the beauty of halong bay and hello to 5 hours of bus riding. tonight, we're going to stay in ninh binh which is nothing more than a place to stop and rest for the night. the next leg of the hourney is going to take us a grueling 10 hours so wanted to try and break it up as much as possible.

we've decided to slow down a bit and just take our time, otherwise this holiday is going to be over. fast.

june 28.2007.

we weren't able to book ourselves on the bus today but let me tell you, i'm glad it worked out that way. we decided to take in some of the sights of north-central vietnam. it feels like an entirely different world out here. very rural complete with floating villages, rice paddies and water buffalo. so tranquil and serene. we visited tam coc, which has the familiar karst rock formations, except we saw them by being rowed down a lazy river. what an absolutely perfect way to spend a hot afternoon. we also hired a couple of motorbikes to take us around and really got to see some of the countryside. all in all, a perfect day to while away.

july.1st.2007

happy canada day! yet another national holiday spent abroad but i can't imagine doing so in more picturesque surroundings. we left ninh binh behind and got our first, true taste of the bus system here in vietnam. long story short, it was awful. intermittent air cond, thread-bare seats and incessant horn honking every 10 seconds. even after two sleeping tablets, i didn't manage a single wink. i tried until about 4:30 and then just plain gave up. on the plus side, i did see my first sunrise in years. (without me trying to get indoors from the night before, that is!) we arrived here in the former imperial capital of Hue and just crashed. after this bus ride, i've been too tired to truly give this sleepy city the attention it no doubt deserves, but still pretty cool. we depart tomorrow night for another yet shorter bus ride to another culture capital...Hoi An.

july 5th.2007

this has been a weeks of lots of moving around and seeing lots of great stuff. as i mentioned, hue was alirhgt but didn't really have a lot of the stuff we were looking for. Hoi an on the other hand was much more in keeping with the rustic and ancient feel we've been wanting to see. fading yellow building with terraces, draping plants over them , cobblestone streets lined with shops selling all sorts of handicrafts and knickknacks. it was slow-paced, scenic and enchanting. as far as culture goes, hoi an has been my favourite place so far. it did rain but it made for a nice day of shopping. i actually got a couple of shirts and a suit made which is awesome...all for the bargain price of $60 US!

Now, we've arrived in Nha Trang after yet another grueling 12-hour bus ride. Slept some fo the trip but just crashed as soon as we got to the hotel. today, just been taking it easy in the room. tomorrow, i think we'll just check out something in the morning and then hit the beach for a few hours in the afternoon. i think it will take care of this travel weariness we've been feeling. just a combination of travel, changing rooms too much and dealing with other travellers. (see future post for further details about this)

on the road

it's finally happened. we've begun our grand tour of southeast asia after putting it off for nearly a full two years. before i talk about the trip and moving forward, i need to talk about saying goodbye.
i finished work last week without much consequence. my boss, shao, seemed a little sad to see me go but no tears were spilled. i'm going to freelance for AMC which means no more example sentences, fun with phrases and most of all, no more tests!! so, a few days left in taiwan but no rest for the wicked. lots of last meals, moments and memories to be shared. all the while, we were trying to wrap things up so little sleep was had. our friends organized a going away party for us @ the source which turned out to be a great send-off. it felt sort or anti-climatic because it was all so whirlwind. i s'pose i just didn't think about leaving too much because otherwise i wouldn't have enjoyed myself as much as i did. now, it feels as though we will see everyone again in a few days or weeks when in reality it will be so much longer than that. i guess i will have to work that much harder to make the distance and time between the people and places i love shorter.
that sort of sums up all the things i've been feeling, combined with lack of sleep have made the first few days feel as though i am going through the motions of travel. however, things are beginning to improve.
we arrived in singapore on sunday afternoon and navigated the rather confusing layout after a few missteps and wrong turns. the sterility of the city that everyone talks about was hard to find. singapore was lively, vibrant and diverse. being compact, the little india, chinatown and various neighborhoods were accessible on foot. just soaked in the atmosphere as best we could. the best part of the trip was taking a boat trip down the singapore river at night. the restaurants, shops and nightclubs lining the river is something that taipei is sorely missing.
the next day, we made some arrangements to take a bus to kuala lumpur in malaysia, then off to singapore zoo. we took in a night safari which was alright, but a little disappointing for an apparently world class zoo. the next morning, we boarded the bus for K.L and something a little different.
That first day in K.L seemed like the first day of our vacation. we both started to feel more comfortable with things and our accomodation was first rate. we spent the day traveling through the city: the petronas towers, the aquarium, colonial neighbourhoods and the food! just awesome.
getting a little tired of cities and wanting something different, we booked ourselves on a bus to malaysia's largest national park, taman negara. it took us most of the day to get there, including a 3-hour boat ride up river but it was very chill just moving up the river at a slow pace. once we arrived, we made plans for the next day to take in a jungle canopy walk. there are several hundred meters of walkways suspended about a hundred meters above the rainforest floor. didn't see much in the way of wildlife, but there were some fantastic views. i'll try and post some photos later on so you can take a look. we sweated our asses off, but completely worth the time and the effort. it made me realize that i actually like spending time in nature and that i need to make some more time for this sort of thing. also, the exercise actually felt good. had one of those after-workout body buzzes that i haven't felt in a long time...and here i thought exercise was just a way for vain people to become more vain. who would have known?

today, we arrived back in k.l and checked out the central market for some malay handicrafts. i bought a wicked malay kite that is indescribably intricate but suffice it to say it will look astounding adorned on my wall....well, once i have a wall to call my own again.

tomorrow, we're off to hanoi at the ungodly hour of 6:30 which will be good 'cos we can have the whole day to explore and even take a nap in the aft without feeling guilty. all in all, a great first week of travel and feel thirsty for much, much more.

a day at the beach

just got back from a nice day at the beach, but i'm going to let the pictures do the talking for me.

CNY

Gon xi fa cai! it's the year of the pig chinese new year has come and gone but not before i update on what i did for my 10 days of rest and relaxation during this quiet yet busy holiday. in an effort to save some money, we decided to stay in taiwan for the duration of the holiday. 10 days just to take a deep breath and chill. but, taipei became something of a ghost town as half the city's population migrated back to their home towns further south. with nothing really open and only mcdonald's on the menu, a plan needed to be formulated. I came up with the idea to go to this 2-day music festival in an aboriginal village near the town of fangliao. there were a lot of people staying in taiwan this year, so it was easy to get people on board to go.

we boarded the train shortly after 8:00 for the 5 hour trip to Kaohsiung and were underway. while tired from the early wake-up call, we were all in good spirits.

after reaching the train station in kaohsiung, we needed to find passage to our final destination of fangliao. the cheaper and faster option turned out to be the bus, so another 2 hour ride got us to the fangliao bus terminal. next, a 40-minute shuttle bus ride would take us the rest of the way up a mountain and to the aboriginal village closest to the festival. total hours spent in transit: 10 hours.

hot, tired and thirsty we got to the place at last. it seemed like any typical festival. a stage, booths selling beer, food and trinketry, as well as loads of hippy foreigners staying in tents. set up everything and tried to get into the festival spirit. thankfully, tristan had supplied us with some goods for the night which helped things along. it was a fun evening full of 'shroomy delights and good laughs. a smile comes to my face when i think back on some of the highlights of that night...the urbanite snobbery, the "bad religion is coming"rumours, the fundamental racism, the little dancing girl on stage who can dance better than most pop stars...what a night.

we didn't get a lot of sleep that night, mostly because nobody really went to bed. there was drinking and carrying on until dawn, when a female hippie screamed out that we were stupid for missing something as magical and beautiful as the sunrise. i was too lazy to get out of the tent, but in my head i had killed her dead 4 times...one for each time she tried to get everyone out of bed at that ungodly hour. in the end, it was the sun hitting the tent as well as the overwhelming urge to go to the bathroom which get me out of bed. i blinked away the sleep and surveyed the damage. the chaos of the evening was seen in the detritus left behind. bottles, cigarette butts, half burnt fires...a frown found its way at the corners of my mouth. in the clear light of day i could tell that this field was really a race track for the elementary school up the road. lovely for the kids. i reached the bathrooms and chose one of four porta-potties opened the door and grimaced. the toilets hadn't fared well during the night. they weren't flushing anymore and the toilet paper had stacked up. the next two weren't much better but the 4th was a little cleaner. feeling a little shaken after my bathroom experience, i returned to our site only to hear that there were no showers and no food. that, combined with my general disgust at westerners bringing all this filth with them made up our minds to move on.

we quickly packed up and found something to eat. a short, but hot walk up to the bus stop revealed that the bus wasn't there. 30 minutes pass. an hour. an hour and a half! people on scooters drive by and tell us that they heard the organizer had problems with the bus company and that the buses aren't coming all that often. finally, we got organized by speaking to some locals and offering them money to take us down the mountain in their trucks. if there was ever a better idea, i would love to hear it.

now it was decision time. the festival had turned out to be less than it was cracked up to be, so what to do? return to taipei, tail between our legs or push on by heading further south to kenting? since it would have been a shame to come all this way for only one night, we got on another bus to take us to one of my favourite places in the country...the beautful beach town of kenting. yes, we would have to camp again but this time the facilities were first rate. hot showers, flush toilets, clean, grassy campsites...it was perfect. set up things again and then went into town for some good eating. we had lost a lot of sunlight, but kenting also comes alive at nighttime, especially during CNY when about 50,000 people head straight for the town. lots of noise, music, smells and fireworks. also lots of fun.

the next day was spent getting something else delicious to eat, then hitting the beach for a swim. the weather wasn't that great, but the water was nice and so were the cheap beers at the bar. the rain started soon and so did thoughts of the long way back to taipei. it would be busy and we wanted to beat the rush so we set off at 2:00. another long and hot bus ride to kaohsiung with no toilet. we all began to plot our way back home. some of us would take the bus while some of us wanted to try out the new high-speed rail service.

unfortunately, we were unable to buy tickets as they were all sold out. we tried several times to find a way home other than a bus, but there were no openings for almost 2 days. so, beat it back to the bus stations and took the first available bus back to taipei. the trip back took an age. taiwan is about 500km from tip to tip, and about 150km across...not a big country by any stretch of the imagination but with 22 million people trying to get around, it makes seemingly short day trips into arduous overland treks. our bus stopped at every major port of call between kaohsiung and taipei adding to the time spent in my seat. it was a 6 hour ride before
getting back to taipei and hitting the hay.

it was a good little trip into taiwan, which is always enjoyable as you get to see a very different side to this place. living in taipei can mean living inside a bubble, just like anywhere else. before taking this little trip down south, i hadn't been out of taipei in 6 months. that is the longest period i stayed put in this city and it was getting to be a little too much. nice to get out and stretch my legs. while i was doing that, i also learned a few things too. i learned that music festivals aren't really my thing anymore. while i love the idea of them, being in one reminded me that i enjoy showering and a going to the bathroom in a toilet. in light of this realization, i'm going to make spring scream 2007 my last music festival. i also learned that travelling with a large group is fun, but only if things are planned out in advance such as accommodation and tickets. all in all, CNY 2007 was alright and i'm sure will rate highly someday in the future as one of my favourite holidays....not now, but someday soon i'm sure.