Lasting Impressions

***check back in a week, photos to be posted***

This is my final day in Southeast Asia, after a full five months. I feel like I've truly done so much, that all I have on my agenda for today is to eat some street vendor pad thai and get a massage. Bangkok has grown on me to the point of becoming one of my favorite cities, first impressions do only terrible things for this city's reputation, but there's more beneath the touts, pollution, tuk-tuk traffic and all.

Wrapping up the excursion of a lifetime with pops I will recap our final week: From Hanoi, Vietnam we went to Yangon, Myanmar. Having visited the country under very different circumstances, namely for research into the plight of the persecuted refugee seekers, it was interesting to venture into the capital city. Guilt about spending any money in this dictator-administration made us pay close attention to the family run small guesthouses and Thai-based airlines. We have been told, and hold firm to this, that a little international exposure of what life outside this oppressive government can be like is good for the citizens of Myanmar/Burma/Bagan*.

*Myanmar is the name given by the corrupt genocidal government. Burma was the name of the country under British imperialism, locals have never referred to their country as Burma. So perhaps we should call it Bagan, the only original claim to unadulterated identity.

A small word on corruption: If you were to change money from USD to Myanmar Kyat at an official government run money changer the exchange rate would be 6:$1, however if you were to change on the illegal black market in the alleys of downtown you're looking at 1,150 Kyat to one US dollar. That is beyond ridiculous. And of course pity the fool who attempts to be official in this land and changes money "officially" they'll be spending nearly $200 for a cup a joe, that might cost 2500 Kyat. One dude who approached us with an itinerary for the day to all the sites and asked questions like, "what do you do for a living? What do you study in school? Are you staying in a big hotel or a guesthouse?" He told us he was the administrator official of something, and we quickly left him. Otherwise people were immensely friendly, invitations to homes flew at us, we were of course some of the only foreigners, and certainly two of the few actual tourists around.

Christmas Eve was spent in Kuala Lumpur, Malyasia. It was a riotous time of every Western holiday jumbled into one night (Santas everywhere, aerosol sprays to look like snow, red heart shaped confetti, roast turkey dinners at every restaurant, people in costumes: minnie mouses, reindeer, rabbits, crazy wigs, streamers and noise makers and partiers in the streets... truly a little of everything, pretty impressive for an Islamic Nation. The next morning we just missed our flight to Bali because I didn't realize it was an hour later time zone. Our only hiccup, and we were put on the next flight. Penalty: spending Christmas day in an airport.

We did make it back to Bali, beautiful beach weather, luscious gardens, ohmysoul fantastic food! And I got a moment to pop back to the clinic and give big hugs and kisses to my favorite midwives, Ibu Kadek and Ibu Agung Mas! It was a wonderful surprise reunion. Bali was good to us, as always. I can't wait to be back.

Lastly in Bangkok, and here I wrap up all. I will be back Monday night late. Looong flight awaits, and then snow and friends and family and classes and Godiva and American grocery stores and skiing and my own pillow (if Forest will send it back!) and so much more!

I can't speak Vietnamese

I love Hanoi. I will absolutely venture back to this country. I had the absolute hardest time with the language, which has only further justified my need to return... someday. I have been very proud of myself for picking up a surprising handful of words and phrases, everywhere we go. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not convince anyone in Vietnam that I was attempting to speak in fact, their language.

Some of favorite moments were:

Dad approached by a classic shoe shine boy who leans in close and says "Very cheap, I shine your shoes, only one million dollars."

Marvelous pho, though vegetarian is rather unheard of, so I'm still very much looking forward to that cozy spot on the Ave back home, as well as of course the Taramind Tree on Jackson (the Little Saigon of Seattle.)

And my best vegetarian moment thus far in all my travels...
(Dad and I are planning a trip to Hu Long Bay which includes a meal.)

I say: I'm vegetarian.

Our booker says: OK, no problem, if you don't like the seafood you can have beef.

Me: Oh, but I'm vegetarian, I don't eat meat.

He: Oh, absolutely, no problem. If you don't like beef, we have chicken.

Me: I'm sorry, but I don't eat chicken, only vegetables.

He: Absolutely, we have everything, if you don't like chicken we have BEEF! (my emphasis)

There are many other reasons why I loved Vietnam, but for now here is my little snippet. Still without photographs*, but too bad!

Well, Happy Merry Christmas Eve to those out there practicing, and Happy Whatever-else to All, where ever you are. I cannot wait for snow in Seattle, despite what everyone says.

*These were added at a later date. Photographs of old propaganda posters, still ubiquitous.

The Rundown

Brunei, not to be confused with Bahrain or Burundi (which is what dad's emailed itinerary said for a long time, and I thought, "wow we start out in sub-Saharan Africa eh?"), happens to be a tiny Islamic Nation on the island of Borneo, shared with Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo. On our flight there we were blessed by a reading over the PA system of the "Muslim Travel Prayer" which was translated into English on the screens. Oh Allah that he may deliver us in this vessel to other lands in his Great name, Praise Allah. Something like this, all in glorious Arabic monotone syllables trailing deeply at the end of each stanza. It is Federally prohibited by law to tamper with the smoke detector in the lavatories... or to eat pork. Once settled into the capital (which takes up a good portion of the country) Badar Seri Begawan, We promptly ventured into the jungles of Borneo. It was beautiful, a rain forest complete with steamy canopy of treetops. I've never seeped so much from my sebaceous glands in my life!

Our next stop required that we transit through Singapore (busy bustling city that we very nearly saw only through the metro system until we decided to visit the zoo where we saw beautiful enormous trees like I've never seen before and lush gardens, not to mention a stroll with the Dik-Diks and Zaboomafoo Lemurs) and on to Cairns, Australia for a slightly longer layover. Cairns, turns out, is prime Great Barrier Reef going, so we did. Yes indeed, I snorkeled yet again, and who wouldn't chuck their ictheaophobia to the surf at the old GBR? Dad did an introductory dive that in the end I wish I had done as well, but the experience was still amazing. Cerulean waters that can otherwise only be conjured with pallet-able acrylics. The fish were pretty freaky, but far enough away that I was not entirely threatened. One of our boat crew tried to point out a turtle and "inadvertently" chucked me overboard! He proceeded to entice me to swim around while he threw leftovers to the massive horrifying big ones with incisors, well, I did no such thing. Bizarre phobias like mine elicit everyone to attempt fish antics.

Port Moresby is notoriously one of the most dangerous cities around these days--so says guidebooks and everyone we met. Where do we sign? After a fitful rest full of terrifying nightmares shortly after we arrived, of people entering the hotel room and brandishing machetes and blowing up barricades, we ended up having loads of fun in Papua New Guinea. Fantastic folks, we never saw any machetes or rape or throat slitting that the area is known for. We were by far the only tourists, a few foreigners (Japanese and Australian) on business with oil, but no tourists. We met a coffee farmer, called Joe, who loves his half of the island (not caring so much for the Indonesian half) and showed us a great time.

From PNG we realized we were that close to the Solomon Islands, so why not? We paid a visit to Honiara, where again only NGOs and missionaries tend to tread. This was the spot where JFK washed up shore after his ship was torpedoed in WWII. Some of the Solomoners have amazingly contrasted dark skin with bright blond hair! Goes to show me (I can only speak for myself I suppose) how little of this world I can really know tucked away in our ethnocentric U.S. of A.

We had to return to Oz-tralia to the outback capital of Darwin, which despite my predisposed ideas, was nothing like cowboyland Montana. From there we took off to Dili, East Timor. Everyone kept asking if we were on the UN flight? Oh no, we said, we're on the earlier one, we'll make sure it's OK for them though. Dili was awesome. It was fun to try to speak a blend of Indonesian and Portuguese. We met several of the UN presence that were around every corner, and learned that they don't associate much with the locals, they (the UNers) seemed suspicious and pretentious. But I would definitely make my way back to Timor Leste someday. I'm also happy to have made it through the densest part of the disease-carrying mosquito territory for the trip (resistant malaria, hemorrhagic dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, blah blah blah).

Back through Singapore and onto Bangkok we have recharged for the remainder of the ride. With two shiny new visas in hand and after having finally found the movie theater where you sit in luxurious lazy boys and are treated to massage chairs and complimentary drinks all for $15, we are ready to keep going.

It's been a whirlwind to say the least and once-in-a-lifetime to say the most!

Must Use Words

I cannot yet post photos. I will at some point. But it makes me realize how much I rely on photography to capture moments and insights. Does a picture really tell a 1000 words, I feel like at least more words than I feel I can write (even I don't read really long blog postings.)

I think back on so many things I've seen that I did not capture (hahah, despite what many may think, I didn't spend the past 5 months behind a lens) Some of my favorite savored memories are the following (ones I wish I had a photo of, but will have to etch it into my memory instead): a gaggle of novice monks in Burma wearing vibrant orange all trying on faux gold Rolex watches, jostling each other, enjoying a taste of materialism. A well balanced toddler, maybe 3 or 4 riding a bicycle that was built for an adult, straddling the lowest bar, tippie-toe on the pedals and barely reaching the bottom of the handle bars to steer.

Ok, now let's see if I can describe the past two weeks and the six countries I have visited while whirlwind traveling with my dad...

***shoot! Ran out of time, hahahah, will post again soon!***