Miss Saigon

 So I was just in Vietnam--Saigon in particular, which is now technically called Ho Chi Minh City, even though most locals still refer to it as Saigon. (The Communist government changed it after the war.) It was lunar New Year, which is the biggest holiday in Vietnam, which was GREAT because there were a few big celebrations.events to attend that you would be able to see any other time of the year. However, it was also a bit inconvenient because a lot of normal attractions--for instance, the HUGE indoor market downtown, the Opera House, and many regular restaurants and shops including my Vietnamese friend's favorite restaurant--were closed for the days I was there. However, there was still PLENTY to do. Since I have a full 58 photo album going uo on Facebook right now, I think I'll still with a list format and maybe a couple of anecdotes. :)

While in Vietnam I:
*Watched fireworks at midnight in my pajamas in the middle of the street with other revelers, foreign and local. (Well, they were fully dressed. I was the only one in my pjs.)
*Walked a LOT in flip flops and discovered that I need to go to the chiropractor because my shoes are wearing unevenly.
*Looked at SO MANY flowers. Apparently Vietnamese people effing love flowers around New Year.

*Went to the Fine Arts Museum
*Ate french onion soup and a chicken and goat cheese crepe at a nice French restaurant
*Actually wrote postcards and sent them from the country that I was supposed to send them from!
*Learned how to say hello, thank you, Happy New Year, and "hey friend" in Vietnamese
*Met a girl from Germany and shared a round of AK-47 ammo with her and spent the rest of the day shopping
*Realized in the Cu Chi tunnels that I'm just sliiiiiightly claustrophobic...
*Held a giant snake around my neck
*Ate three bowls of pho. All of which were (varying degrees of) delicious. Of course, the best one I had was at the place on the corner packed with locals.
*Ate Vietnamese shrimp salad rolls, which I am in love with and think I could eat every day for the rest of my life.
*Met up with two girls from London who I met while waiting for the sunrise at Angkor Wat, and went to dinner at a delicious gourmet Vietnamese restaurant called Lemongrass
*Practiced my map reading skills and didn't get (more than a block) lost the whole time I was there.
*Rowed a canoe. But not really because I was pretty useless compared to the people who were actually rowing us around.
*Ate at Pizza Hut
*Flirted with a cute pho-stand operator who spoke pretty good English. Almost tried to convince him to convince his parents (whose stall it was) to show me how to make Vietnamese coffee, but if I had I would have been late for church
*Went to church (the English service) at the beautiful Notre Dame cathedral downtown.
*Met a new Singaporean friend who was on vacation with her family who I'm going to meet up with for dinner next week.
*Rode around in a cyclo, which is like a bike with a chair on the front end that the passenger sits in while someone (usually an old guy, all the young guys have motorbikes) pedals you around town. And got super ripped off.
*Rode on a motorcycle taxi--twice--and didn't get ripped off either time! Go me and my mad bargaining skills! And managed to take pictures on the bike and not fall off/drop anything/get anything stolen by the cowboy bagsnatchers--see?

*Almost bought a beautiful tea set which was a steal at about $18. But didn't, and I'm glad I didn't, because I need to stop collecting stuff that's bulky and breakable, making it hard to transport
*Bought a jade bangle, which I've been wanting for a long time and am very happy with.
*Washed some of my clothes in the sink with hand soap because my (limited supply of) clothes were all becoming very sweaty from long days of having fun.
*Got left behind by my tour bus on the side of the road. Yes, that happened. We stopped for a bathroom break, about 1 hour from Saigon and 1.5 hours from our Mekong destination, for a bathroom break and to look through some touristy craft shop. When I came back from the bathroom, my bus was GONE. Yes, gone. Thankfully, a couple other tours had stopped there from the same thing, so I went up to some of the other tour guides looking all pitiful and said "My bus left meeee! (Pouty face)" And thankfully a super sweet tour guide let me join her group, as long as I promised to keep it a secret otherwise she would get in trouble. She was only 24 and sat and chitchatted with me for awhile, and she's super nice and I got her contact information so that we can keep in touch. And that group was really cool and fun to be with throughout the day, and all made good-natured fun of my for getting lost, and a couple of the middle-aged people kept a lookout for me when we went place to place so I didn't get lost again! haha. It was nice. 

Wow. That's a lot of things in 3.5 days. No wonder the week felt SO LONG and why I was SO TIRED when I got back. But long and tiring in a good way :) Me at the airport, leaving, carrying all my stuff, looking tired but satisfied.

Holiday in Cambodia

Hello friends! Long time since my last update, and I figure if I don't update now I might never get a Cambodia blog post on here. However, I AM paying by the minute here, plus you never want to spent too much of a portion of your vacation online, an the internet is so slow that uploading photos at this time just isn't practical. Therefore, here is the short version! Feel free to ask for further details ;-) And I'm sure a Facebook album for photos will come up sometime soonish.

I left Singapore at 6 AM Sunday morning and arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia at 7:05 in the morning. The tuk-tuk driver picked me up--most transportation here is either by tuk-tuk, which is a motorcyle with an open car attached to the back of it that seats 2, or some of the biugger ones seat 4 if they have seats facing both sides. The hostel was AWESOME and took care of tons of things for me. My driver's name was Set, and he drover me around basically for two days and he was super nice and cute and tiny and respectful--not vaguely creepy/smarmy like many of the young drivers who won't stop flirting with you EVER. He's 24 and he just got married last month to a 16 year old. Weird. So the main attraction in Siem Reap is the Angkor temples and I spent a lot of time there. And I just realized that I only have 7 minutes of internet left, so the rest of this post is going to have to be in list format.

SO FAR I HAVE:
Spent about 5 hours riding in tuk-tuks
Learned how to say hello, thank you, and yes in Khmer
Seen a LOT of lovely, intricate, old, beautiful temples. I actually like the older ones better than Angkor Wat, which is the most famous and best preserved, but I like feeling like I'm walking through ruins. More "secret garden" style.
Speaking of that, this whole country is basically one "secret garden" moment after another
Gotten two massages
Convinced the massage staff at the hostel to teach me how to do the massage by paying for two people at a time, one to show me and another to be the model. Since it's only $3 an hour I figured I could handle the cost! :)
Thrown two small bottles on a traditional Khmer pottery wheel, which I got to keep. I mean, I had to pay to keep them of course, but super worth it and SO COOL! You actually have to spin the wheel with your foot--it makes it hard to center the clay and definitely takes some practice.
Gone to the Royal Palace
Spent 6 hours on a bus
Taken a Khmer cooking class.

Tomorrow is all the depressing stuff, and then on to Vietnam! One minute of internet to spare, must upload! More soon!