So the day at the mud baths turned out to be a huge success! They are on the north side of town and about 3km into the forest, so naturally, beautiful grounds. We relaxed and pampered ourselves and finished the day off with an italien supper on a small pond. Well worth it. When we came back, we decided to finish our spa day with an hour long foot massage...the whole day costing us about $20. Jealous much?

The next day however, wasn't quite as pleasant. We decided to take a bus tour out to "Monkey Island". The tour actually consisted of three islands, the last one being home to hundreds of monkeys living happily without predators. The reason for the trip being not so pleasant was due to two things. The first being a sole elephant tied up on a chain about one meter long. The elephant lived alone on the island, without a mate and without even a park to walk around in. I told the keeper - who insisted on attempted flirtation even after I had insulted his practise openly (...) - that I refused to buy a picture with the elephant so as not to promote it's captivity. He told me that she was 25 years old and that they can live to up to 100. I couldn't even bear the fact that she had another possibly 75 years to live in those conditions, and that such a proud animal can still be treated with such disregard. The second unpleasant factor of the day was that we had to watch two seperate circus' (one of which inevitably contained the elephant). I've been to the circus before, but for some reason - maybe that the animals were trapped solitarly on an island - I found these particularly disturbing. The combination of the elephant, black bears, goats, monkeys and dogs all dressed up in human clothing being forced to perform embarrassing and unnatural stunts really got to me. By the end of the third island and two circus performances, I felt sick to my stomach that I had contributed to the operation of such a display. It didn't help that we were on an all-vietnamese tour with only a couple of people who could speak english. I really don't like the tour feeling. It was the first time I had done anything in my travels with a group and a guide, and I don't think I'll be doing much more of it...not a personal experience, and not an ounce of that exciting exploring feeling.

The only positive thing about the day was that the monkeys roam free, and I got to ride an Ostrich(!!).

The next day was spent at a local beach called "Long Beach" about 45 mins out of Nha Trang. I went with the DJ from Crazy Kim's and we met up with some of his friends, only a couple of whom I had met before. The day was spent lounging about eating plate after plate of seafood and fruit, occasionally wading out into the ocean to cool off, or sleeping in hammocks. Need I say more? Great day...and am getting used to being the quiet one amidst conversations in Vietnamese. It's a whole new level of integration...I think I've passed the acceptance test.

First week complete

Seeing as it's been almost a week since I've been on the computer, I'm going to recount what we've been doing/ what has happened in that time.



Tuesday:

The danish lady that we were staying with turned out to be quite the grouch and didn't like us staying in the same house (that she's renting btw, it's not hers) as her because we tended to leave the fans on....apparently that was a huge problem so to avoid conflict, Kim (project manager) moved Sophie into a hotel. This actually works really well because we're not stressing about annoying the old lady :P and the people at the hotel know us by name - but a lot of the time it's "how was your day, teacher?". Our day was hence interrupted by packing up and moving around quite a bit.



Wednesday:

After class, Sophie and I decided to venture up to the north side of Nha Trang to do some touristy stuff. We went to visit the Cham towers - temples made by the cham people which are now almost non-existent because of the more dominant chinese, vietnamese, and cambodian cultures. The towers themselves, although partially re-built, are spectacular. They are still used for prayer so only tourists have to pay admission to go enter the grounds. The fare was less than a dollar. Although there's only four towers in close proximity, we stayed for about an hour just wandering the grounds in the blistering heat. The towers are set on a hill overlooking the harbour/river so it we were perfectly content to enjoy lazing about in the shade enjoying the scenery. From there we walked about 45 mins to see the Hon Chong Promontory. In short-rocks. For some reason, we've developped a bad habit of walking long distances mid-day, direct sunlight, exhausting heat. So after wandering through fish markets and never ending roads, we finally arrive, but go for a quick wade in the water to refresh. The rocks weren't anything phenomenal but we ran into a group of vietnamese having lunch on the rocks so we caught some shade and chatted with them for a while and took some pictures. We were so exhausted from the walk and from the sun so we sought out a cab pretty soon after. The cabs tend to sit around in the shade and sleep in between driving, and the one we woke up was so out of it he couldn't even figure out how to bring his seat back up to verical again. Sophie and I just looked at each other in disbelief thinking, is he okay to drive? He finally got himself together, but didn't speak english, so once we got back onto the main beachfront, he decided himself where was a good spot to pull over and drop us off....which wasn't necessarily all that close to our hotel. We felt just as delerious as he looked, and when we began the still 15 minute walk further to get home, all we could do was start laughing at the situation and how pathetic we must have looked sauntering home, soaking wet in our own sweat (attractive, I know).

We slept well that night.

Thursday:

I got my hair straightened!

A friend of mine took me to a local place to permanently straighten my hair. I know it sounds vain, but the curly hair was just looking too scruffy and was getting to be a hassle. The 3.5 hour process cost me all of 250 000 Dong, equivalent $15...which at home would have cost me about $500. Amazing. The whole salon process had me laughing out loud with the girls there (none of which spoke an ounce of english) for example three or four different women came up and grabbed my nose, one to demonstrate point out how flat theirs are in comparison, and two to test if it were real :P.

All in all, as stupid as it sounds, it has already completely changed my life and I'm so happy I was able to do it.



Friday:

Another day of walking in the heat :P. We decided we wanted a good walk and ended up walking about 3 or 4km to the south where the main docks are. Not much to see, but it was nice to get out of the tourist area.



Saturday:

Friday night we stayed in and went to bed early so that we could go diving on saturday. The bus left at 7AM to go to the docks(which we ventured the day before) with a group of about 25 people. It was the first time Sophie had ever been diving so she was pretty nervous but her boyfriend dives quite a bit so she was determined to overcome her fear of the ocean :). I had been once in Australia but was excited to go again. On the way to our first dive site, we were all assigned an instructor and it turned out that one other girl, Sophie and I were the only begginers, so we got a full briefing on what to do. I think the explanation of what could go wrong made us both more nervous than we were before lol. After pileing on what felt like 200lbs of equipment on top of a slightly large wetsuit, we were ready to jump in a sink straight to the bottom. Luckily, we're both still here and ended up having a great dive, despite our claustrophobia in the water :P. The second dive site we had decided just to go snorkeling which I found was just as much fun and we got lots of photos. We bonded with some of the crew and other divers and all lounged about on the 45 min trip home. This was the first time I got a slight burn on my back - otherwise I've been tanning slowlybut surely.
Despite the early start, it was a great day in the sun with lots to explore and lots of time to enjoy being out on the ocean on a beautiful day (as always). I kept thinking of how much Dad would have loved to be on the boat with us out on the sea...:) We got back and passed right out for a couple hours...it's surprising how much swimming takes out of you.
That night was one of the infamous "Full moon" parties at a nightclub on the beach that we usually end up at called the Sailing Club. We headed over around midnight after having a couple, also infamous, drinks called "buckets" at Crazy Kim's (where we teach). They are pretty much exactly what they sound like - buckets of alchohol. The first one we ever tried was out of a watering can, which you can imagine cracked us up... they also come in fish bowls and metal buckets hmm. Anyways, the full moon party was a blast, the club looks out onto the beach and on regular nights, there's tables and chairs out on the beach so you can get away from the club a bit. Saturday night, they had set up a huge stage for the DJ and lights surrounding the place. The dance floor was ultimately the beach with a couple stages set up so people can climb up and dance. We saw some people from our boat from diving that day but mostly we hang out with the locals. Thats the problem with Nha Trang, is that most people who we've met only stay for a couple of days, so I don't know many foreigners here - just Sophie.

Sunday:
Was spent nursing our hangovers on the beach while our friends slowly came out and joined us.

Today we are thinking of wandering again and maybe go to the mud baths for some spa treatment :) I don't think my nails have ever grown this long on their own - probably in fear of putting my fingers in my mouth :P
Thanks to all those who have left comments on my blog, it's probably my favorite part of writing. The feedback and just knowing that your all there...It makes me feel the connection.
Lots of love,
xoxox

Travel to....teach?

Having just finished a "day" of teaching, I thought I should document some of what we are doing here. Monday to Saturday, there are two morning classes from 10-11:30 for beginner and intermediate students. The school has two levels and so far I've been teaching the intermediate class upstairs which are mostly teenage students. All I was given was a grammar book and was shown around where they are at in their learning.....aaaand go. I wasn't so sure at first at my teaching abilities but it seems like it could get easier..? Holly, I applaud you for teaching for 5 months, what a feat!! The evening class, of which I just finished my first one tonight, is at 17h and is more of a discussion period than anything. It went soo well compared to the morning classes, partially because we are all just trying to communicate and learn from each other as oppose to a teacher/student relationship in a classroom. The class, which consisted mostly of people 21-30 years old, was in disbelief to hear that I am only 19 lol. Either the shock comes from the fact that that seems young to be travelling and that I am teaching, or just that I look older. I get the shocked reaction quite a lot actually, I have yet to find someone who just accepts it :P.
We had our first rainfall yesterday which brought with it many mosquitos unfortunately. It seems that it only rains in the afternoons, which is what it said in the guide book but it still amazes me that it can be beautiful blue skies all day and all of a sudden, around 17h, torrential rains appear. The vietnamese have the most outragrously creative ways to keep themselves dry whilst in the rain. Sophie and I saw one man with a plastic bag over his head(while riding his moto!), and others with full body suits of plastic protection, like one piece snow suits but clear...so funny, I'll have to get a picture.
That's another thing that is a hot topic that I haven't mentioned yet, is the motos. Nobody drives cars here unless it is a taxi or they've come from another city. The streets are absolutely riddled with motos (not quite motorbikes). The high volume of these also mean that the sidewalks are ignored, and pedestrians usually have to walk onto the road to avoid parked motos, as well as street vendors. Just as I had heard, they pile people on those things like you wouldn't believe. I think the most I've seen in 5 people on these smaller versions of motorbikes: two adults, two kids sitting in front and in between the adults, and one baby, already trained to hold on to his dad while standing on his mom's lap. It's just a way of life here. The way they drive them is even more chaotic! Traffic lights don't exist here. The intersections are just like four way stops...without the stopping. Some bigger intersections have mini traffic circles, but generally, people just drive on through honking their horns to tell each other where they are. It's absolutely fascinating to watch! The honking never subsides, but it all just seems to work...I'm going to have to take a video during rush hour on our street corner because it never ceases to baffle me. Pedestrians also come into this strange mix. There are crosswalks, but it seems only for the walkers to find their way across, because the motos never stop. It's like a game of frogger really, I've found myself a quarter or half the way across and find that I have to stop and wait because they all just keep going around you, and it's you who has to find the space to cross the street in between them haha. I was scared out of my wits the first time I had to cross the major road! All good fun though in the end... no one drives over 40km and there are apparently hardly ever crashes.
Must run though, will write soon.

Om.

P.S. Yesterday was the annual celebration of Buddha's birthday and there was a parade in front of our house so I will put up the video on facebook!

Book I

So now that the first couple days are over, I feel quite comfortable and at home here in Nha Trang. I'm staying in a very typical and beautiful french/vietnamese home with a Danish woman and as of yesterday, another volunteer. She's from England and her name is Sophie. She's come all the way across Russia and down through China and is spending two weeks teaching with me in Nha Trang. Seeing as we've both spent the past couple days on our own, we both welcomed a day of chatting and exploring and generally just enjoying good company. We spent the afternoon on the beach after she had slept and I finished teaching my class (will write an entry on the school in a bit). The beach is spectacular with potentially surf-like water(which is warm!! :)) and fairly empty seeing as the vietnamese don't like to tan. Where I try and wear T-shirts or mid-sleeve shirts to stay conservative and absolutely melt in the heat, they are frequently fully covered with masks and gloves. The women don't like to be exposed to the sun because fair skin is considered more attractive. It's a perfect example of "we always want what we can't have" seeing as north american women tan inside just to keep some colour. The beach has major pro's such as: a fairly strong wind which allows you to enjoy your time on the beach in terms of keeping the temperature sane, 5km of great beach, no docks or personal watercraft so the waterfront is absolutely clear, not busy at all since the only people who visit the beach in the day are caucasian or are selling things to caucasians. The major con of the beach, however, is just that - the vendors. They are, in my opinion, Nha Trang's major flaw. Men and women, sometimes children, get in your face and sit down next to you with whatever they are selling and are very difficult to dissuade. There are five types: Men with portfolios of their families paintings(although they must be a huge family seeing as there all the same...), women with a sweet papadum-like bread paper in fruity flavours(these are the only things they can persude me to buy), women who offer massages, women and children with baskets full of cigarettes, bracelets candy, gum, chips etc., and lastly people carrying boxes of books. Sophie and I made the mistake of saying "maybe later" to a couple of them. Indeed they came back later, pointed at their wrist and say "later! you say later, it now later!"...What are you supposed to say? At this point they get really angry and pout. One girl who was particularly persistant started to cry, threw down a pack of postcards on my chest and then hit us saying it's not fair. Oh my. It was better today though now that our body language is more clear to them that we are not interested. It was funny though, I was teaching Sophie some Yoga on the beach and as we were in a strechted out slightly upsidown position, one lady still comes right up with a "hi lady! you want to buy!" I litterally burst out laughing and almost fell over... tell me, do I really look like I'm in a position to buy or want to buy something? :P
It feels sometimes as if I haven't done that much yet, but the culture is so different and so great that this not so little beach town has been the perfect landing. I will dedicate more time from now on to writing smaller more frequent entries and not long drawn out ones :P

Om.

Good Morning, Vietnam!

Well I am finally here!First and foremost I want to say a hello (or goodbye?) to those I meant to see or call before I left but didn¡¦t quite get the chance to. We are all doing so many different things in so many places! Second, I know I didn¡¦t do a prelude entry for my blog, but it was for my own reasoning that it would probably result in something like the tales of me running around picking up last minute things and saying last minute goodbyes (which included promising Tippi (my dog) that I would not eat meat that could very well be his relatives).So on with the intrigues of what has already happened!The epically long but relatively painless 13 hour flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong began with a set of proud grandparents sitting right across the aisle from me¡Kwith two newborns. Luckily for my fabulous inability to smell, because as the plane started rolling backwards, the baby closest to me decided it needed to be changed. So picture a jam packed 747 with people still running up and down the aisles (?) as the plane is starting it¡¦s taxi, and here, right next to me, is a dirty baby bum hanging upside-down getting a look of half disgust half amusement by one of the stewardesses. I thought it was a pretty excellent way to start a journeyƒº. Second comical event was during one of the four movies I watched (yes it was a sleepless night, although I did try!). So you have to keep in mind I have my headphones on, fairly loud to hear the words, and on and off I hear this odd singing that doesn¡¦t seem to coordinate with the movie. I ignore it at first but then it started to get quite loud to the point where it was interrupting my attentiveness. I took off my headset and the man behind me was singing at the top of his lungs in a Madonna type chorus. It was so loud that everyone around him was awake and staring while he sang quite outrageously to what sounded like really bad pop music. I put my movie back on and tried to concentrate, but it was so loud that even the loudest setting wouldn¡¦t drown him out. This went on for a good 15 minutes until finally someone called over a stewardess to silence him¡ The whole situation gave me a good laugh, but I think I may have been the only one seeing as by then it was about 4:30 in the AM and most of us had already been on a previous flight.Flying with Cathay Pacific really was a treat in the end though, the food was exceptional (as you alleged Dad), and seeing as I didn¡¦t stop eating the whole 13 hours, they were amazing about always providing me with a sandwich or a bowl of ichiban etc. (on top of meals haha ƒº).I then ended up in the ever so fabulous and ever so mammoth airport of Hong Kong. The shear size of it would have amazed me but the shops¡Koh the shops, Crystal and Nathan would go crazy over it¡K! I met a couple on the flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi (which is where I now reside) who were visiting (her) family in Vietnam. We got along so well that at the end of the flight we took a picture and they gave me their contact card in case I needed anything while in Vietnam. So kind. It was the first time I was able to talk to a Vietnamese (apart from Cindy) while local.I felt the first bit of discomfort here in Hanoi however¡Knot in a negative way, but even just in the airport, I can noticeably feel that I am now the minority. Now that I¡¦ve been sitting here writing this message, I¡¦m quite enjoying listening to the soft Vietnamese dialect all around me and even more the fact that I can¡¦t understand their conversations. I¡¦m learning too! I taught myself some basic phrases and numbers in Vietnamese on the airplane thanks to Cathay¡¦s wicked video options and some local Vietnamese expertise on the plane.It¡¦s time for me now to head off towards the south to begin the real adventures and the purpose of my journey! Will write when I get there.
xoxox
Ruv yu awrrr
Roro

Om.