Good Morning Vietnam! Not without incident it wasn't.

Living it up in Hanoi Vietnam, the country's capital. We've been here for a few days now, but we had a few problems along the way. Kristy accidentally left her purse in a bathroom and got her wallet, camera and passport stolen in Malaysia. She and my brother rushed around to get a temporary passport for her, so she could make her flight to Vietnam.

Just 6 hours before we were all set to fly we were in the hotel room in KL when my little brother, Vonn, got severe diarrhea paired with harsh vomitting. We made it to the airport for 4 am, Vonn with a bag in hand the whole time, using it once in the cab.

Check in.

I then look around for Vonn, as we come to the realization that if anyone catches on to the fact that he is so sick he will be detained and quarantined upon arrival in Vietnam. Where do I find Vonn? Throwing up into a bag in the middle of the airport. Poor guy. Anyways, we tell him that he must try to keep his sickness on the down low as much as possible... he made it through security on all ends without question.

The airline we were with didn't assign seats. So, we stood in line early to ensure that we are first to board and get our seats together. A Vietnamese lady managed to butt her way in front of us. Pretending to look at something outside and then asking the desk a question about her ticket, next thing we know, she's in front of us. She takes her friend's bag and holds it, as they exchange a wink and a smile and her friend stays behind us. Well, we weren't gonna take it.

The doors open and this 50 year old woman breaks into a short sprint! and then she slows down. We (all 4 of us, except Vonn) start running past her. She starts running again and we are in a full out race to the airplane. Vonn is watching from behind and about a dozen other people start running too. We come to an airline stewardess who tells us to stay inside the painted lines. Running past her, we do. We get to the stairs of the plane, out of breath and tired and the woman is still trying to sneak past us along the railing, up the stairs. Jay puts his elbow out and we form a solid block, not letting anyone by us. Upon boarding the plane, the stewardess greeting us says, "got your morning exercise, did you?" We sat down, laughing hysterically and got strange looks from the others boarding. The woman we were racing was smiling as she boarded and the plane was only 2/3 full in the end.

We arrived in Hanoi that morning at around 9 am. We took a taxi, specifically asking to go to a certain hostel. The man at the airport who set us up with this taxi was in a big rush to get us in to the car and on our way.. a little suspicious, but we weren't sure what to make of it. Anyways, the taxi driver took and made about 15 phone calls on his cell phone and then takes us to "our place". We arrive and 2 guys open the door, poke their heads in the cab, show us a business card with the hostel name on it and tell us it's full, but they have another suggestion.

Jay knew they were lying right away. We get out of the car and quickly realized (regardless of the lies these two guys were telling us) that we were not where we asked to get dropped off... in fact we weren't even on the map of our lonely planet guide. The cab driver was long gone. The 2 guys proceeded to assure us that we were at the right place and to please come into their travel agency. We told them to get out of our faces and walked away... finally our harshness made them back off, as they were following us down the road a bit, still trying to convince us.

Vonn was being a super trooper, not even complaining (had to throw that in). We walked for about 30 minutes and finally found the area and place we were looking for. On their wall it says "Beware of people who pretend to be with our hotel. They will steal your money, like they stole our name." They didn't have room for all 5 of us, we found other places with in 1 minute walking distance and we were so happy to be safe and sound. I will write more later about what this place is like. This entry is probably long and entertaining enough for now.

p.s. Vonn is feeling much better and has been for a few days now. :)

Brother Vonn's post

Here is something that my brother wrote on his Facebook acct. about the last few days here. I thought that it encapsulated things quite nicely. So, instead of writing my own post this time, I figured I would just post his words instead... also to give you the view of one of my fellow travel partners.

"Howdy Y'all! I'm now in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Although, all the cool people call it KL so I'll refer to it as such from now on. When I last informed you all, I was in this city with a very long name that I have since forgotten. I remained there for another day or so. We went and checked out this temple that was well over 1000 years old. It was pretty cool. After that we went and saw this shadow puppet show. This guy is apparently the most well known shadow puppeteer in southern Thailand. He's even performed for the king. We took a tour through his museum and then watched a short play.

The next day, we, Amie, Dan and myself, parted ways from Jason and Kristy for a short while. We took a bus down to Hat Yai, a sort of border town. Our plan was to catch the 2:50 train to KL, having the bus arrive at the train station at 1:00. To our extreme disappointment and aggravation, our bus didn't take an hour to get to Hat Yai like it was supposed to, it was more like three. We couldn't buy tickets for beds on the train until the next day so we were stuck in Hat Yai for one night without anything to do. Alas, we wandered around for a bit and discovered this bar that it turns out Lonely Planet recommended for having live music. It was really cool to see a Thai band do covers of songs such as: Layla, Stairway to Heaven, and Hotel California, along with many others.

The next day, Amie and Dan went to the train station first thing to get some sleeper car tickets but they were all sold out! This meant that was had to go through a 17 hour train ride in slightly reclining seats. This however was not as bad as it could have been. The seat next to me remained empty the whole time and the train cleared out by the time we were getting tired so we each had a pair of seats to try and get comfortable in.

17 hours later, we were in KL. We decided to stay in the China Town here, which is a beehive of activity. There's other travelers all around as well as street vendors trying to peddle their wares. You can't go 2 steps without someone offering you watches, DVDs, bags, or clothes. Everyone calls me "friend" here. I've never felt so popular. Also, with the shops repeating every 20 feet or so, you don't need to bother going back to look at something that caught your eye. You just have to wait until the next "Official" Rolex store comes up. We walked around this city and it really is quite beautiful. The Mosques are gorgeous and the more modern buildings are interesting too. We checked out the Twin Towers and soaked in a movie in the mall at their base. They are breathtaking when they're lit up at night.

We've found this very nice Reggae bar. It's a chillin' atmosphere with friendly peoples. For instance, last night we were drinking with a corporal from the Australian army, a student from Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Ambassador's son. It was definitely a cool experience.

I believe that's all for now.
Y'all take care now, y'hear?!"

Thailand...

Hi, so, we will be leaving Thailand tomorrow afternoon. We're in Hat Yai now, 53 km from the Malaysian border. Dan, Vonn and I are together and Jason and Kristy have branched off to have a few days on their own. They will meet us in Malaysia in a few days.

Thailand was a unique experience full of excitment, fear , joy and laughter. I have made some observations as I have travelled around here that I will share.

Scenic - it's a panoramic beauty! A very lush, green, lively, beautiful country. The seaside is gorgeous as is the mainland. I look around all the time and think about how pretty it all is.

Dogs- lots! no leashes. hungry. diseased. looking for food and love. sad. They scare me.

Food- delicious! currys. coconut. rice. noodles. pineapple. etc. cheap!

Bugs- plenty. I'm all bitten up. Mostly mosquitos and some spiders bites too (I think).

Housing- lots of shacks and huts. broken down houses. old wood. rusting metal roofs. in need of repair.

Cows- walking freely along the roads/highways. Munching on grass. lots of cows.

Motorcycles - everywhere! no helmets. familys of 3 fitting on one bike. toddlers and/ or dogs standing in the front.

Vendors- tonnes! selling anything from sausages, fresh fruit, freshly squeezed orange juice, banana pancakes, pad thai....

Power outtages- frequent on the islands.

Toilets- lots of squatters. bring your own toilet paper or wash off with the bucket of water next to the toilet. pour water down the toilet to flush it, from the bucket. don't put tp down there!

King- highly worshipped here. You can spend time in jail if you make a joke about the king. pictures him everywhere. people wearing yellow shirts and bracelets to show support. They truly love him here.

Poverty- lots. You are a walking money machine and they know it.

There is a lot more and perhaps my observations seem like sterotypes... but it is what I have noticed as I have travelled down South from Bangkok.

Next stop, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Burning skipping ropes aren't as cool as they look, but they make for a good story.

I decided to jump into a spinning, burning rope on the beach the other night. I thought it was going to be a cool thing to do. A blast from the past... the days when I used to skip on the streets with my little friends. The strange thing is that I was never good at that kind of skipping back then. Yet, somehow I decided that on this night I could do it and I could do it while being intoxicated and while the rope was, yes, on fire.

Counting down from "3,2,1 Go!" Jason standing behind me, counting with me, ready to jump in with me... but he didn't follow. I was in the center of the spinning firey rope, I turned to see if Jay had followed and the next thing I knew the rope hit my left foot, knocking me down. In the process I managed to twist/sprain my right foot and burn my left foot.... ouch. I lay there scared that the rope would continue turning and whack me again, but it stopped. I was laughing very hard... unaware of my injuries and looking into Jay's laughing face. I got up and hobbled out of there.

The injuries are healing nicely and I laugh everytime I think of the incident. Just thought I would share it with you.

Freaky deaky GIANT spidey!!

Yeah, so there was a spider in our bathroom last night that was a little bigger than the span of my hand. Dan tried to kill it and missed. The power was out and we only had a small tea light as our light. We slammed the door after the spider got away from Dan and then realized that the candle was still burning on the plastic ledge in the bathroom.... we had no choice but to go back in.

So, with our shoes on this time and shoes in each hand we decided to creep in. Spidey was sitting in the corner behind the door... waiting. I went to get closer and the spider jumped from one wall to another. OH GOD!! It jumped! Anyways, we slammed the door and were still stuck with the same problem. So, again, we opened the door... grabbed the candle and our belongings, not daring to look behind the door and slammed the door again and then Dan escorted me outside to pee in a bush. PHEW!

Monsoon, please end soon!

Yeah, so it's monsoon season in Thailand and Malaysia... and that's where we are now and where we're heading soon. Boooooooo. We have had nice weather up until yesterday. Since yesterday it has been pouring almost steadily.

After leaving crazy Bangkok behind we took a 10 hour, (supposed to be 7 hour), middle of the night, 3rd class train ride to the place where we took a ferry to a small island called Kho Tao. The train ride was tough to sit through due to the discomfort of the upright, half broken seats, sore bums from sitting on the hard seats, bumpy ride, etc. People were sleeping on newspapers on the floors and we were very tired and uncomfortable, overall.

When we got to the island, we found beach some huts nestled in the palm forest, near the ocean front with our own private beach and spent 3 days there. It rained at night and was sunny in the day. Our bathrooms were wooden floors with huge spaces between each slat. The toilet flushed out under the raised huts and our back yards were literally our latrines. Smellllly. The grounds were amazing and tropical and lush. The water was warm to swim in and a bluey green.


Now we are on another island and re-thinking our travel plans, seriously taking the weather in to consideration. It's gonna rain here for days to come and we want sun!

Bangkok- culture shock

Hey! So, after the craziest week of my life (finishing everything at work, report cards, marking tests, prepping and throwing a huge Halloween party at school, packing, cleaning, entertaining house guests, etc), we're now here in Thailand. Got here yesterday night, late. The cab driver was falling asleep while driving us into Bangkok. We were trying to talk to him, get him to turn up the music, coughing loudly, etc. So, we made it here safely.

We're (by we I mean my 2 brothers, Jason and Vonn, Jason's girlfriend and Dan, my boyfriend) are staying in a guest house in a back packers zone called Khao San.

Khao San Road

Last night I felt a little scared to walk around. There were all sorts of people everywhere. Garbage filled the streets, pee smells filled my nostrils. It was Halloween, so along with my strange new surroundings, which resemble nothing of where I have been living for the last year (small town Korea), there were people with costumes and make up on. Bleeding eyes, and battle scars painted on their faces, masks and other things. So, it was a little unnerving. In any case, we found our place tucked away down a random alley. 5 of us slept on 2 beds, more comfortably than you would think.


The shower in our room is cold but refreshing. The food is so unbelievably delicious! Things are going really good so far. It's very cheap to be here.