Sapa

Sapa was the coolest thing I've ever done. I was there with some people I met along the way (a gay couple made up of a man from Portland and another from Munich, along with this really cool Israeli girl), and we found a woman who lived out of town in a small mountain village just outside the main town of Sapa. She invited us to stay with her, and we ended up sleeping with her family.

It was incredible! In the mountain, in a small one room shack with a dirt floor. I couldn't ask for a more authentic experience. I loved it. I helped the men pick rice for a while, and then went for a walk with a few women from the town. Only the first lady we met spoke any English, but everyone wanted to come meet me and my friends. The Israeli girl and I helped make dinner, and prepare the animals (I ate vegetarian for kosher purposes), which was an experience in it's self. I really don't know what else to say... it was like living in the discovery channel for 2 days.

Our guide did everything herself. She made all the food, built the home, worked the land, made the cloths, took care of the children, and had the energy to run around the mountains with us. She did this all while 8 months pregnant. She was just an amazing woman. Apparently, her husband is very bad to her and lazy. She even showed us a scar from where he attacked her. It was so sad, because this was one of the most remarkable women I've ever met!

It was really something else. The best part was that we didn't pay to stay in this woman's home. I think in her mind, we payed by helping her husband to work the rice fields a little, but little did she know we all would have paid hundreds for the experience. This woman (who coincidentally was named Set, and since they can't pronounce a "th" correctly, she thought we had the same name) even gave me two gifts when I left. She gave me a pillow case that she sewed herself, and a pair of shoes that she said was too big for her husband. she reminded me a lot of Bubbie. She kept forcing more noodles on my plate, she hated waste no matter what it was, and she had just the identical laugh to Bubbies. I tried to tell her that, but she really didn't understand.

It honestly seemed like these people may have enjoyed our time together more than the we did, but I'm not sure if that's even possible. I left after just two days, but it was the best thing I've ever done in my life.

Halong Bay

Halong bay was spectacular! I can talk about the events, but throughout the whole thing was just this ridiculous backdrop. It was the prettiest place I've ever been I got there alone, and was meeting people on the 3 hour bus ride to the boat. Once I got there, they switched me into a different group, at first I was annoyed because I made friends with the first group, but it turned out to be the best thing I could have done.

I loved the second group. There were six Israelis, two British girls, an Aussie, a German, and a guy from Austria. We all became great friends. The moment we walked on the boat we had lunch, which was fine, but clearly of low quality. Quickly after lunch We went upstairs and started chatting. I think the Israelis all loved me because I was speaking Hebrew with them. I kind of surprised myself how well I was able to speak, I didn't expect to remember that much, but once I started it all came back to me.

We came to a small cave, where we needed to get into a smaller boat and then go inside where there was a little lagoon separate from the rest of the bay. It was fun, and then our small boat exploded, leaving all sorts of black shmutz all over me and one of the Israeli girls. We eventually got saved by another boat, but not before we had a few laughs about the situation.

That night we drank on the deck. It was nice. However, the German and Austrian got so drunk that they jumped off the deck off of the boat into the bay. As soon as they hit the water, it began to rain so hard we needed to go inside. However, the boys couldn't get back into the boat. So, I had to go outside in a mansoon and lift them into the boat. Overall everyone was safe, but it was a mess.

After they got back in the boat, we went into the British girls room, for the after party. The Austrian guy (Christoff) was getting out of control. He eventually stripped naked and was walking around the boat going into peoples' rooms that weren't friends with us. I went to sleep soon after. I was sharing a room with Christoff and Martin (the German Guy), but they were up messing around, and I wanted to enjoy the next day.

About a half an hour after I went to bed, Christoff came in, stripped naked, and fell on his bed. It seemed about right, and I didn't care, so I went back to sleep. However, about an hour after that, Martin came in and began to yell at Christoff in German. They were sharing a big bed, while I had my own twin size. So, Martin was understandably angry that Christoff not only took up the whole bed, but was totally nude as well. After about 5 minutes of them yelling in German (Christoff now standing, totally nude), Martin looked at me and asked in English "Why is he naked?". I couldn't help but crack up. It was all very humorous.

The next day the boat took us Kayaking, which was fine, but not that cool. Soon after that it dropped us off on an Island and we went hiking. I walked with two of the Israeli girls: Shira and Ravit. It was such a hard trail, and I made the horrible mistake of wearing flip flops and swim shorts. Soon the sort
s tore, so that wasn't an issue anymore, but the flip-flops bothered me the whole time. I really loved the company, but the trail was hard, and not that cool or different from other nature hikes. We got to the top, and it was actually a very nice view, but probably not worth sacrificing my shorts.

As we left, we headed back to the hotel (not sleeping on the boat this night). It was a really crappy hotel, and I was forced to share a room with this English guy I didn't know, because they only had two person rooms. After we ate, Ravit, Shira, Lauren (the Aussie), and Noy (the third Israeli girl) went to the beach. Like everything in the bay, it was so spectacular. I just can't get over how beautiful it all was.

We went back to shower and have dinner, which again was very low quality. After dinner, Ravit and myself went to find her an internet cafe, where she bought plane tickets for herself. We walked a while after that, and found like 20 brothels, which was odd. Later she went to bed, but not before I developed a small crush on her (she really was just hot, and sort of out of my league).

After that I headed downstairs to find my friends from the first bus. They were playing drinking games, and while I didn't want to play, I was happy to chill, and reconnect with my friends. We stayed up a while, and the English guy who I was with ended up going to get a hooker. the rest of us just went to bed (some less sober than others).

The next day we went back to Hanoi, but not before Ravit (the hot Israeli), Ashton and a guy named Torston (Ashton and Torston were gay men from Portland and Munich respectively) agreed to head to Sapa for a couple of days. Little did I know what would await.

Hanoi

I got into Hanoi at about 5am today. I took a short nap, and hit the road at about 7. The town is so, so, so nice. I like it much more than Saigon. It is much prettier. There is a giant lake in the center of town, with a temple. The rest of the streets are just so much calmer. Still Asian, and busy, but calmer. I went and saw the Ho Chi Min Mausoleum and museum, which was really cool. Then I was walking back and a monsoon hit. So, I'm not sure what will happen tonight. I booked a 3 day cruise of holong bay tomorrow, so that should be great, but tonight I may be laying low.

Hoi An

So, I arrived yesterday late at night to Hoi An after two just crazy days in a very busy Saigon. While i was driving into town, i saw hundreds if not thousands of people in the streets. They were all watching performers in dragon costumes dance to drums. It was the full moon festival. Everyone was watching, and the streets were packed and no one could move through....it was really cool.

Then today I headed to the beach, where a man tried to offer me a free blow job, the issue was he would be performing it. Obvioulsy, I turned it down.

Upon my arrival back in town I headed out to town where the streets are lined with custom clothing vendors. I just felt like I should be getting something because that's what this town is known for. So, I bought some $13 custom made cotton casual pants. I kind of needed another pair anyways, and its a souvenir...so now I have it.

Tomorrow I am taking a long...long journey to Hanoi.

Catherine Floyed from London

Ok, I’m not sure if writing this much is good or not. I think it’s helping me collect my thoughts, and express them, which is good. However, I think at a certain point it’s overkill. Either way, such a significant event happened last night/this morning, I felt the need to write about it.

I was chatting with my roommate back at the hostel, and we were really getting along. I figured I had done enough damage outside, and I could just stay in and save myself from any dangerous situations. So, we just were talking, and talking, and talking for about 4 hours (she was also smoking hot, with a crazy body, nice tits, and a great ass which I saw via panty shots all night under her t-shirt several times). At this point I get ideas….oh yea, ideas. So, I make a move to her bed, and kind of do some light touching. I was hoping to feel out the situation. She seemed receptive. So I did a little more, and again, she seemed receptive. She ends up going t the rest room, and then telling me she needs to sleep. I go to my bed and lay down. This was not being receptive, but I’m foolishly not that put off by it. After a while we continue to chat, and I am continuously making her crack up. So, with the lights off, I proclaim screw it, walk over, and kiss her.

Well, she wasn’t into it, and seemed kind of annoyed (can’t blame her) that I tried. I spent the next half hour trying to make light of the situation, and smooth it over.

We fell asleep, and she was gone when I woke up. She left me a note, and was overall very nice. Hopefully my next sexual advance won’t be met with “what are you doing?”

Oh God...Day 1 and my mother would be so pissed!

To be fair, I'm upset at myself. It's funny, because you tell yourself you're not stupid, but here I am acting really stupid. I mean really stupid. I mean scary stupid. However, I'm glad I made it out safe, because it is probably the thing I needed to scare myself straight. Or at least I hope so....

so, immediately after I left the little cafe where I wrote the last post, I ran into a man, who for some reason was talking to me. He asked me where I was from, and tried to start a conversation. Well, this isn't the first time this has happened to me, and I have a standard plan to get people to stop and eave me alone. I just reply in Hebrew as if I didn't speak and English. I guess I could use gibberish, but it is easier for me to do it this way, because I think it sounds less fake. Well, in this case, he replied back in Hebrew, which is crazy for an Asian guy. Obviously this peaked my interest so I spoke with him a little.

He took me to a little sidewalk cafe, and bought me a drink. I was embarrassed, so I kept up the lie about being from Israel, and he couldn't hold an entire conversation in Hebrew so we switched to English. We chatted, and he and his two female friends (all of which older, so nothing sexual) all spoke English really well. After what was clearly too short of a time, he took me back to his house. I guess I went because I had such a good experience with a local a few hours earlier, and I was still on a trusting high from that....Needless to say this was a HUGE mistake!

Once we got to his house, he invited me in, and fed me (although I ate very little, as I had just eaten). he began to tell me his job, which he claimed was as a manager of casinos. I didn't question, as it was certainly possible, and what do I care. He then told me he knew how to cheat the system and for us to win a lot of money. I wasn't interested, and told him so, but he said he just wanted to show me how it worked. I was suspicious, but figured I had no cash on me, and what was the worst this man could do (I guess shoot me or something, but I didn't think about it at the time). We went over his "system" once, and then he said we could play together in Phenom-Pen (where I told him I was going next). He was excited about the $200,000 we could make together. This whole thing was very odd. Why would he want to go in with me, a complete stranger? I asked him, and he claimed to have only done this once before, but didn't like his partner. Why would he trust me, a relative stranger, with this kind of money. The whole thing didn't add up. I took his phone number to be polite, said I would call him, and tried to excuse myself.

He then all of a sudden had a "high roller" come in the room. First, this man was no "high roller", he was wearing the cheapest suite/shirt/tie combination I had ever seen. Obviously they didn't expect for me to have a vast knowledge of mens' clothing. However, I do, and this dude was broke! This man claimed to be filthy rich, and wanted to bet big. He also by the way, was the most flaming homosexual I had ever seen, like a comic book character. He was unreal. My new "friend" said that he would spot me money to play with him, no matter how much. I reluctantly played, but was now really nervous.

As we played, and I won every hand (except one Blackjack on his part), the money creeping up. Eventually we were betting thousands on each hand. However, I had never put in a penny, and couldn't loose cash (unless they beat me, and it was becoming a real possibility at this point). I knew this was a scam, and I knew I was going to be in trouble soon, but I didn't know what to do to get out. Well, I declared my last hand, and tat I wanted to go. The other guy bet $30,000. This was silly. I don't even have that much to loose. When my new Friend said he would guarantee it from me, the other guy demanded cash. So, I said that I would get it form my hotel (I had no intention of getting money, I just wanted to leave). The other guy just said to call him when I come back and get it, as he was going to go to his boy toy for a while. His words not mine.

That man left, and my friend said he was going to come up with the cash for us to cover, because he wanted to split these winnings. However, just in case he can't, he wants me to scrounged up a couple thousand to cover the part of the 16,000 we are short and he can't find(I had put in about 4,000 from my "winnings", and my friend was able to put in 10K, but the man demanded it all in cash). Ah-Ha, the cam. Finally I found how he makes his money. I refused to do that. He kind of gave me a lecture on trust, at which point I just knew this was a scam. So, I insisted that I would not. He then told me I needed to go. He wanted me to contact him in 2 hours to come back to finish the game, in case he found the 16,000. This made sense, because he would need to continue our scam. However, I left with the clear intention of not contacting him....ever....oh god, never.

I went straight back to the hostel, where I am so, so, so, so ,so happy to be safe, unhurt, with all my money. That was a really bad situation, and if I expect to have 83 more days here in Asia, I need to be smarter.

Day #1

Well, I’m here! Saigon is pretty cool o far, although getting here was a huge pain in the ass. I was late leaving Chicago, and then we had to made a detour and stop in Beijing to re-fuel due to weather in the Pacific. This caused a 15 hour flight to be more like 19 hours. Then I had to sprint to get into the connecting flight, because it was leaving about 10 minutes after my first flight landed. I made it! Unfortunately we sat in the runway for over an hour, so my sprint, while necessary, seemed like a huge waste.

Anyway, I am here, and digging HCMC (Ho Chi Mihn City). I saw the “American War” Museum, which was cool, but crazy bias, and totally against the US. It was just a monument to anti American propaganda. Then I saw Independence Palace, which is where the communist regime set up after the US left. After this I just kind of walked around. The Architecture is kind of cool; its Asia meets France, which makes sense. Everything kind of reminds me of Chengdu. It has some big buildings, and a lot of commerce, but it isn’t as western as the east coast of China….which is obviously kind of cool.

As I walked I took a break, and ended up meeting this local guy named Hi. He introduced me to his friends, and after chatting for a few minutes they invited me to play a card game with them. It was called Tien Len... or so I think, it was hard to understand. The game goes in a circle, where you put a poker hand down and it goes around the circle seeing if anyone has the same hand (pair, triples, straight of any number of cards greater than three, single card) but a higher version of it. If no one does, you can put down another hand. First to get rid of his cards wins. The odd thing was that if you only a put single card, a 2 is the highest don’t ask me why, but those are the rules. Anyway, it was really fun, and something I’ll being back with me.

The traffic is nuts! There are no signs, much like china its all a big jumble. You take your life in your hands every time you cross the street, so I hope I don’t die I guess…..it really isn’t safe.

As for the food, its cheap! I had lunch for $.40, but as a big fat American it was a little small. It also was kind of plain. Just noodles in a broth with a leafy green vegetable. Nothing else in the soup. I could have used variety. So, for about $1 I went to another place 3 or 4 hours later and had some rice noodles with all sorts of crap in there. I think I’m going to lose a ton of wet, because all the food is so health. Where are the hot dogs? I’m also walking a ton, so the 219lbs I left at should come down quite a bit.

Tomorrow I have a half day here in Saigon, and then I head to Hoi An for 2 nights, so that should be much smaller, slower, and authentic.

Bon Voyage Former Life

As I sit in my office four days before I embark on incredible life changing events, I can’t help feeling somewhat sad. I truly enjoyed my life in Chicago, and the US in general. I had a good job, which paid me well, plus it was interesting and thought provoking. I had a lot of friends from diverse backgrounds and social groups. I had a good amount of family here in Chicago. Overall my life wasn’t too bad. However, I have decided that if I didn’t mix it up and try to do something cool and different, that I never would and that it is important to take myself out of my comfort zone and try to gain new perspectives and experiences. This desire has lead me towards my decision to leave that all behind, and experience the world a little more.

I have done some traveling in the past. I’ve been throughout Europe, China, Panama, and Morocco. I apologize, mostly to myself, for my last two blogs sort of falling apart. I was traveling with others and they really weren’t respectful of my desire to sit for a while and type, consequently many of my experiences and thoughts went undocumented. However, I am determined to keep a blog on this trip, as it will be my longest, and I will be alone the entire time. My travels start me in Viet Nam, and from there I plan to go to Laos, Thailand, and India. My trip will be about 3 months, and at its conclusion I will be relocating myself on a more permanent basis to Israel, but that’s another adventure altogether.

I don’t know what to expect, and I don’t know what will happen, but I’m sure whether it’s for the better or not, this will be a life changing event (let’s just hope just not life ending).