Big City Blues

So i'm sitting in my hostel in Bangkok and can't even believe 30 days has passed, and i'm on my last day of my journey.  Bangkok is a trip, its the biggest city I've been to this trip, and it's insane.  I swear I see more western faces than locals, and people are hawking billabong and Ed Hardy knock offs.  I see my good friend Brian again in town, who I met in Chiang Mai, so that was awesome, but definitley wasn't sure how much I'd like the city.  Luckily, I meet some good people to hang out with, grab a few drinks and enjoy my last night.  Tomorrow I got a few ideas but I think I'm going to take it easy and just prepare myself for reality.  30 days and 4 countries later, I've found lots of new enlightment.  Travelling is great in that way, sometimes when you think you got yourself all figured out, you travel, and get the outside perspective and realize you still got some work to do.   My life has been nothing but work hard and do what I want when I have the time, but the more I travel, the more I realize my passion and my life should coincide a lot more.  A thought for the future, and definitely something that has infected my mind, so we'll see where I run with this, but hopefully you'll be seeing some drastic changes for me in the next year.

Well, as my lost blog of my travels in SE asia, I must say, it's been amazing.  I've met some amazing people, seen some amazing things, and experienced some life changing events.  I'm fortunate to have met some amazing friends, some people I feel will be long time friends, and some people I hope to keep in touch and see their adventures unfold.  Travelling never ceases to amaze me on how much it makes me reflect, so I can't wait for my next trip and my next set of blogs.  I guess that's all I got for now, so cheers for now and hope to be blogging again on travels soon. 

A few days in a Treehouse.....

So after an amazing time in Chiang Mai, meeting good friends, having some great times, and enjoying a pretty chill town, I made my way to Laos to do the Gibbon Experience.  The Gibbon Experience is an organization that wanted to take care of a national conservation area that the government couldn't afford to take care of, that found Gibbons living in the area, which was a pretty big deal as they were thought to be extinct in the area.  The area is pretty massive, and only 75 Gibbons are thought to be in the area, so conservation of the environment there is pretty key.

To help stimulate funds, a french dude set up a tourism site in one small sector that has people use ziplines to cross canyons, and has people sleep in treehouses 150 feet high only accessed by ziplines.  The project is super cool, similiar to what I want to set up in ideals, and is a great time.  The ziplines are amazing, as you zip through lots of bamboo jungle and just get great views of all of the forest and the treehouses are great, just beautifully set up with water, and guides and cooks that deliver meals to you.  It was amazing and definitely a highlight in my trip, and i met some great people along the way as well.  I met a girl who was an english teacher for the guides who gave me some great insight into the project and the local guides, who were unbelievably amazing and sweet.  The people in Laos just seemed so caring and sweet, and I loved every second of it.  I will definitely post some pictures as soon as I get back....sadly that's Sunday, so expect them soon.

So after doing that, I made my way back to Thailand, to another town in the north, Chiang Rai.  It's like a smaller version of Chiang Mai, and a bit homelier.  It was a bit intimidating getting there solo as i couldn't find one person who spoke any english or read any english and my hostel address and name were both in english.  After a bit of confusion and some good directions from the local rasta bar, I found my hostel, and walked into a great surprise, my friend Brian from Chiang Mai staying in the same hostel.  A great surprise and a great way to end the trip, with a good friend and a new city.   So i got 2 more days, one in Chaing Mai and one in Bangkok, and I'm out.  I'll be home soon with lots of pics and lots of stories, but definitely wish I could have more time to do more.  SE Asia has been great, but definitely think I'll need a return trip....

Reggaefest 2011 in Chiang Mai

So  Chiang Mai lived up to what I thought it was going to be and probably more.  I loved being where I was, a backpacker community where I seemed to instantly fall into friends and good people.  I found a set of friends that made it just feel so at home, we would talk to the wee hours of the morning in the courtyard of the hostel, and drink beers and play cards like it was a home.  I'd leave for a few days of a trek and come back to people saying they missed me and that they were happy to see me, definitely a nice feeling when travelling solo.  I met a buddy Brian at the hostel who I ended up hanging out with most of the time in Chiang Mai, whether at a park just relaxing and slacklining, or climbing up in at the crazy horse buttress, which was amazing and so beautiful.  I got a chance to do some sportclimbing, which i'm pretty new at, and Brian is a well seasoned climber, so it was awesome having him to guide me and show me the ropes.

So as a weird mix, I got into town and found out there was going to be a 3 dya reggae festival happening, so me and a few friends ended up deciding to go on the second day, where there was a band I actually knew on the ticket, the Easy Star All Stars, who do a pretty sick rendition of dark side of the moon by pink floyd, appropriately called dub side of the moon.  The concert was so fun and great, just a ton of friends, meeting new friends, running into friends made in town at random places, and tons of drinking.  We definitely took advantage of a deal we found at a local store for a 5th of some blend of thai whiskey and rum for about 7 bucks a bottle, 2 bottles of that between a few friends definitely made for a good time.  So after a late night/early morning of reggae, and a painful morning of climbing, i made me way out, and now am sitting in Laos, getting ready for the last big adventure of my trip, the gibbon experience.  Basically a nature conservation area where they set up tree houses 40 m above the ground, and ziplines to go from tree house to tree house to spot animals in the wild, and for use as lodging.  I'll be there for the next 3 days and 2 nights, just living in the wild and enjoying the lack of any civilization, something I'm definitely keen for at this point.  After that, few days back in another town in Northern Thailand, and then to Bangkok for the last weekend of my trip and back to reality.....so friends, i'll be home soon, a bit more experienced, a bit more tan, and a heaps more inspired to travel the world and see what the world has to offer me.  love you all.

Chatting it up with Monks....

Northern Thailand is the shit.  I've been here for a few days, since the 18th, and it's been amazing.  I got into Chiang Mai, the northern town that use tobe capitol of Northern Thailand, and it was an awesome change.  The town is like a big city, in the fact there's lots of stuff and big buildings, but really has reminded me a bit of Kenya, at least in theory.  The town is westernized but has kept a lot of culture.  You'll walk down the street, pass a 7/11, and the next building will be a temple or buddhist monestary.  The town is such a travel town too, with loads of travel companies offering tours, and lots of western bars and used book stores.  Just a cool community of travellers, with still a lot of culture in the heart.  You'll see loads of monks walking around all day, and i even went to a temple and chatted with a few for an hour or so my first day, which was super cool.  They often just want to learn english so they are happy to talk about anything, and me being an ignorant american, I wanted to know everything about buddism, meditation, and thai culture.  Pretty rad experience.

Chiang Mai has been a great place for meeting a lot of really good people, and a lot of good travellers.  Ran into a few guys who climb so i'm going to climb with them later this week, and that's awesome because now i got equipment to use, good guys who climb that'll give me some good guys that will give me beta and tips, and some friends to hang out with on downtime.  I met some really nice travellers and we had a great night out before i headed to Chiang Dao for a 3 day trek through the jungle.  The trek was amazingly awesome.  I got to do everything I wanted and got a lot of insight at the same time.  The trek started off nice and easy with a short hike, and elephant ride from one town to another.  It was pretty rad and nice to know i hired a company that treated there animals fairly and nicely.  From there we rode bamboo rafts down the river to anotehr town and met a few more tribes local to the area.  It wasa really cool meeting the tribes, which have been getting government assistance, and it was good to see how well they were treated.  |They were given solar panels to help with basic needs, and all villages were given small hospitals.  It was good to see the government was helping without intervening in too much of their culture heritage.

From there, we did a bit more trekking to another village where we slept the night, freezing our asses off.  The next day was fun, we did a few day hikes basically, going to a cave and exploring in there.  It was nothing too crazy but definitely interesting to see.  We also saw a pretty rad waterfall that pretty much fed most of the communities around with water.  The water system was interesting, and really reminded me of the water system in Guatemala, so it just spiked lots of ideas for non profit stuff.  We headed from there to a hill top village where we slept in open air huts overlooking the mountains and jungle, one of the best views i've seen during the trip.  The next day was a long day of hiking, with a short trip to another big cave.  We then visted another village that just had their first school built a month ago, and got to visit the kids and spent a few minutes to color and draw with them, as they don't see many visitors and were definitely excited.  Really cool to do that sort of stuff.  So after a few more hours of trekking, we made our way back to the lodge we started and I got a ride back to Chiang Mai.  The trek was awesome, not touristy at all, and didn't even see another tourist until our last night, and it was only a small group.  The tour was also eco-tourism, so they only hired local guides and made sure their practices were fair and ethical.  Just a really good time and I was lucky enough to have a pretty rad group, 2 kiwis, a pair from Malta, and an older English guy who was full of stories and insight.  Overall, a great trek and got me going to do more soon.

So I'm back in Chiang Mai, had a good night of chatting with some of the old friends I made earlier, and have lots of plans for the few days i'm still here.  I am headed to a thai organic farm to do a cooking class where we pick all the vegtables, and then go to the market and buy all the ingredients.  Definitely stoked for that.  Then we hit up a reggae festival that is in town all weekend, and probably will have fun with that.  Tomorrow, I finally get some climbing in and then i'm onto Laos!  Should be exiciting but can't believe i'm jsut a bit over a week from returning.  I'll think more about that later, but for now, a few more adventures, and a few more stories to tell later.  Cheers

You want postcard.....FOR YOUR BOYFRIEND?!?

"You want to buy postcard....FOR YOU BOYFRIEND?"I can't help but give a weird look followed by a laugh after hearing this come from a 10 year old boy who I said no thank you to in Khmer when he asked if i'd buy his postcards while eating my last lunch in Siem Reap with Lynn.  I couldn't figure out if I should hit him across the back of the head or give him a dollar for giving me a nice laugh.  Siem Reap has been amazing, such a welcome and pleasant change from big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.  It has been amazing seeing some of the temples and pagodas that are still intact here, Angkor Wat is absolutely amazing at sunrise, and the temples like Bayon, Ta Prohm and Bantey Srei are beautifully decorated.  Ta Prohm is that beautiful temple you would remember from tomb raider, but its amazing to see these awesome tree roots, kind of like ficus trees, that just sprawl out over entrances and doorways and grow down and around the huge blocks.  Definitely amazing to see, and a great comparison to seeing Macchu Pichu in July of this past year. 

Siem Reap has also had amazing people and just an amazingly welcoming feeling the entire time.  Our tour guide, also 26, named Ny, pronounced like "Knee" , was awesome.  We would chit chat about local life and he had a great understanding of religions and histories of the temples.  He also was inquisitive about life of Americans, so we had a great time, he even taught me pick up lines that he had me use on waitresses.  I got some great reception from things like "hey beautiful, you have beautiful arms...I love you."

 So all in all, things have been really nice in Cambodia.  Great people, a few new friends, helping the Ny set up some small websites for his tourism, and hopefully will contact him later about using him for my non profit.  Seeing this country, it definitely has inspired a bit of my non profit life as well.  Seeing small tiny projects, like single point water access in some of the areas donated by individuals, or a small water wheel used to pump water to a few households, has me believing more and more that I need to do small things with great devotion, compassion and love, because that is what kind of difference I can make.  So now with Cambodia coming to an end, Lynn and I head today to Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia via bus this afternoon, get there early in the night, and spend one night where we might try to check out the local night bazaar and market.  Then tomorrow morning starts a new adventure, Lynn heads home and I travel solo to Northern Thailand, where I have some great treks, some climbing, and a little adventure in Laos to look forward to soon.  Definitely up for it and hoping for some good travel stories soon.  Hope all is well at home and everyone is ready for some really funny souvenirs pretty soon. 

The Unicorn of my SE Asia Trip

So Southern Vietnam has been pretty awesome.  Lynn got in on the 9th so I've been travelling with her around Saigon and Nha Trang the past few days and it's been refreshing to have another traveler to talk to and share stories with as well reminisce about past trips.  Since Lynn has been in we've done all the sites around Vietnam.  Its been a weird and somewhat somber experience at times, as Vietnam now has a bit of a different perspective on the Vietnam war.  The war museum, which use to be called the museum of American war crimes and was changed for obvious tourism reasons, depicted on the tragedies that happened to the North Vietnamese, while true and unbelievably horrible, it gave no real insight into the other side of the story.  While somewhat one-sided, it was interesting, nonetheless to see everything.  The horrible things that agent orange did to people of that generation as well as future generation was horrible.  This chemical, thought to be safe to spray around humans, was used as a defoilaging agent in the jungle, to basically make jungle warfare less jungle and more towards the way the Americans know how to battle.  We went to the cu chi tunnels yesterday, and that was also pretty crazy. The cu chi tunnels were tunnels in the south where the communist vietnamese held control and the Americans and Southern Vietnamese wanted to take, but never could, because the Northern Vietnamese were so good at jungle warfare.  the entire time being bombed by american planes, these Northern Vietnamese lived in a series of extremely small tunnels up to 10 meters under ground.  The tunnels were complex, tiny, and smart, as they even had rooms with smoke chambers for cooking so by the time the smoke made it to the surface, it wouldn't be seen in the air.  But the ways they showed jungle warfare was insane, the traps and ways they killed American soldiers was horrible and some of the people who talked about it made them sound like a proud thing they came up with, as they gave awards for most Americans killed.  Just a bit of a trip, coming from America, being an American, but at the same time, being of Vietnamese descent.  Definitely gave me a different perspective, but at the same time, made me appreciate that we do have freedom of speech and the freedom to hear both sides.

On a brighter note, we also made it to Nha Trang, a small beach community just a bit NE of Saigon.  The city and beach was beautiful, and definitely a welcome change of pace as it was not nearly as insanely crowded and not as humid.  It was awesome to chill on the beach and be lazy.  We also walked by a lady who had a few mopeds for rent, and found out we could rent mopeds for the entire day for 5 bucks!  No insurance, no license required, no leaving paperwork or deposit, just pay 5 bucks, and go.  It was rad riding along the cost and being able to experience a bit of the Vietnamese traffic.  All in all, Nha trang was really nice little break, and even got to try some Vietnamese brewed beer at a brewery, which wasn't half bad.

So on the social side of things, I got to meet up with some friends I made in Hanoi last night in Saigon.  It was awesome to see them and they actually brought a few other friends from their hometown they ran into on the trip.  It was a fun time, the usual drinking and story telling, the club/bar we were at had the most random assortment of music, from playing Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer, a must for em, to playing mmm bop.  ha.  A good time of talking about traveling through Vietnam and definitely am glad to have met them, and actually heard I might get a visit or a couch surf in a bit when they are headed to the states, which always is a fun time.  So another person I met on the trip that seemed.....well....amazing was this girl on the same tour as me and Lynn to the Cu Chi Tunnels.  So we get on the bus, and these two Aussies walk on, a guy and a woman....if that word is good enough to call her.  She was super super cute, and so I had to start talking to her.  We talk for a bit and she seems super nice, and super sweet, and just really awesome as well as astoundingly hot.  She tells me she's actually in actress and her mate traveling with her is just a coworker, a make up artist.  SO we get on the tour and some people start asking for pictures with her and start saying they love her, apparently she is a pretty big deal.  She's a big name actress in the UK and Australia, works on a big soap opera, and also has been on dancing with the stars and has a successful modelling career.  So I obviously have to flirt more, which was good, and she even seemed into it, despite what Lynn says, she has to admit, it was a good sign when she asked her friend to switch seats so she could talk to me.  Oh yea.  But alas, so is the life of a Unicorn, the mythical creature of beauty you see once but then remains forever just a dream.  ha.  So yea, she was pretty hot.  Oh well, onto Cambodia tonight! Just at the airport getting ready to go for 3 days to Siem Reap and Angor Wat!  Should be awesome to get out of the big city life and onto a cultural landmark.  Then onto some great adventures in Thailand and Laos, I finally got my trip a bit planned and have plans to do a 3 day trek with local hill tribes in northern Thailand, then go rock climbing in a popular spot there for a day, then head to Laos for the Gibbon Experience where you stay in treehouses 40m high and go from house to house via zipline, then back to another Northern Town in Thailand for a few days of hiking, and then finally on to Bangkok for last minute debauchery and trouble before heading home to my amazing friends and family, cousins count as both, whom I miss dearly and think about often!  Signing out!  Check in later in Cambodia!

Push Climbing and Riding Dirty

So I"ve been in Saigon a few days and it has been interesting.  I"m usually really against being in any big town, for the mere fact it's a big town, and it's ugly, too western, and just lacking any sort of culture.  So when I knew I ahd to be in Saigon for an extended amount of time, to visit some family I've never met, and also to wait up to meet up with my good friend Lynn who will be travelling with me, I was a bit nervous.  So far it hasn't been bad though, the food here has been really good, and the small tucked away places have been really interesting to see.

So when I first got into town, I walked about for a bit, but then met up with my parents to meet some of my dad's family I've never met.  My dad was raised by his two aunts, one of which passed away a few years ago, the other is 87 and lives outside of Saigon.  This was my first time meeting her, and a few of my dad's siblings who have never made it stateside.  It was definitley interesting and touching.  My greataunt, who is pretty much my grandmother, was amazingly sweet and welcomed me into her home with a home cooked meal and tears from meeting me for the first time.  Her and the family then commented on how I looked so different than pictures she had seen.  So apparently, but Vietnamese standards, I am bigger, fatter, taller, and much more friendly looking than most.  Ha, i guess I'll take that as a compliment, but apparently they think i'm too big, so I shouldn't work out at the gym as much....you listening ladies, too buff for the family, I should be beating you all off with a stick/my penis.

So after meeting them, which was awesome, I left the fam to venture off on my own.  With a bit of research I found out about a small climbing gym outside of saigon i wanted to check out, just to try to keep active and in shape, and also keep myself in climbing condition for Thailand.  So I hit up this gym, and man, it is effin tiny.  It is the size of our living room, maybe slightly higher ceilings and just....tiny.  So I say wtf and gear up and start bouldering a bit.  They hafve some fun routes, but a lot of it is traversiing as the ceiling are so low.  An hour or so in, a young guy walks in, and apparently its the owner of the gym, Push climbing, who started the place.  Turns out to be a super cool guy from Chile who is studying in VN and loves climbing, so started the gym.  SO we start climbing, and the dude is an awesome climber, and give me great advice on climbing.  We end up talking a lot more and he's super cool guy and definitely knows a lot about the area and gives me some good tips, definitely looking forward to climbing and hanging out more with him.

So as I get ready to leave and head back toward the city, I found there are two ways to get back, pay a guy $1.50 to ride on the back of his sketchy ass moped through a shit ton of other bikes and mopeds, or pay a taxi 4 bucks to get there in AC, abit more time, and a lot more safety.  So as I was riding bitch on this tiny as moped taxi, called a Se Om, I notice people next to me, one local girl riding on the back of another moped eating take out with her chopsticks, anotehr dude carrying 3 huge panels of glass sitting on his lap and going about 4 feet higher than him, and then a famly of 5 all riding on a moped carefully balanced and placed for ultimate safety.  I realize the pace of life isn't necessarily faster here, it's actually quite a bit slower, nobody going over 20-30 mph, but just a shit ton more people going as they please.

So all in all, Saigon hasn't been too bad.  I've seen a few markets that have been interesting, selling every part of any animal you could think of, and a few local food corners that look delicious I plan on trying, but definitely looking forward to getting to some remote areas, like what I have planned in Thailand and hopefully in Laos if my plans work out.  All in all, pretty good times, and definitely looking forward to seeing my friend Lynn in 2 days, and travelling some beach communities with her!  Should be a blast!  Hope everyone back home is having a good week and a good new years so far!  Cheers!