Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Sticky icky. I've been sticky everyday since I arrived in Southeast Asia. I arrived in Bangkok last Sunday and am now in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I'll try to write as much about my experiences as I can for right now and will write more when I have time. I can't post pictures until I come back home (January 25th) so use your imagination (and in your imagination, make sure I look good).

I was in Thailand for four days, unfortunately as part of a tour group. My cousin and I were stuck 20 other Vietnamese people (and 1 Filipino) and a tour guide who cracks unfunny jokes. At first I dreaded the thought of being on a bus with old people who pick their teeth with tooth picks after eating and who stop at every plant to take a picture with it, but I ended up meeting some really sweet kids and adults.

My experiences in Thailand:

-Visited the Grand Palace, which has multiple pagodas and buildings that is encrusted with colorful mirrored embellishments. It's located in the middle of the hustle and bustle of hectic Bangkok and made me feel like I was in another time and world.
-Saw the reclining Buddha at Wat Po. It's a ginormous golden statue of the Buddha. I was in awe at its size and beauty and wondered how the hizzy it got into the building.
-Saw giant pictures of the 82 year old king in front of every store, building, and house. The king is a rock star in Thailand. The people truly respect him because he cares for the people. He has more legitimacy than the prime minister.
-Ate street food and Thai iced tea everyday from the many food carts. The vendors are all over the sidewalks in every corner. As long as I don't think about their dirty hands, I'm good.
-Rode an elephant at an elephant park. The people who work at the park also live there. We rode through their "village" and saw wooden shacks on stilts. It's amazing to see how people can live so simply without many material possessions.
-Got a two hour Thai massage where the lady dug her elbow into my back and stretched me in places that I didn't know could be stretched. Then she walked on me. It kind of hurt but I didn't want to say anything. No happy ending for me.
-Celebrated my 25th birthday in Pattaya, a seedy beach town. It's known for its hookers. There were a lot of Caucasian men with Thai girls. Maybe some of them were lady boys? As beautiful of a country as Thailand is, it is extremely poor with few job opportunities or assistance from the government so many of them resort to prostitution.
-Spent a night talking to some bar girls and playing Jenga and pool with them. I ate a grasshopper with them partly because I was buzzed and partly because I was curious. It's salty and crunchy. Couldn't eat the head though. Some of the girls would go home with men. After talking to the girls, I realized that I shouldn't have judged them without understanding their circumstances first.
-Swam in the warm, clear blue waters of Coral Island and babysat two of the girls from the tour group, ages 4 and 6, as her grandma was off somewhere else.
-Saw a lady boy show where they danced and lip synced to 80's music. They have hot bodies and some had pretty faces but others were straight up manly looking.
-Went on a wild animal adventure, stopping at a tiger zoo, butterfly and honey bee farm (didn't see any), and a snake farm. At each place, they'd try to sell you something that would cure your ailments, like if you had a giant belly or bad skin. I think the Thai people created these places for lame tour groups like mine.
-Spent New Year's from my hotel room watching the fireworks light up the sky and listening to my cousin snore like a rhinoseros. He started drinking at 10:30am so he fell asleep early.

On New Year's Day we flew to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I thought Thailand was poor. Vietnam is poorer but the people are friendly and the food is good. There's not much to see in HCMC but the people who I've come across have made the experience worthwhile.

My dad's 72 year old cousin, her adopted 37 year old daughter, my cousin's aunt and his two cousins, and the girl my uncle is trying to get my cousin to marry picked us up from the airport. It's my and my cousin's first time in Vietnam and meeting them. They had a picture of us and recognized my cousin right away. For the first night and following day, they followed us...everywhere. They were like the Verizon network. Everywhere we went, they went. Four of them even slept in our hotel room. Three to a bed. VN people know how to pack it in.

Our hotel is next to Ben Thanh Market. During the daytime, there's an indoor building with tons of vendors selling the same things: dried fruit, dried fish/shrimp, coffee, souvenirs, ugly clothes, cheap shoes, and noodles. During the night, vendors and "restaurants" set up on the street; it's like New York's street vendors but much dirtier.

We've been eating on the streets where the locals eat. People set up plastic hobbit chairs and tables on the sidewalk in front of stores and cook and eat there. These makeshift kitchens/restaurants are everywhere. Now I know why VN people squat. I haven't gotten sick yet so I'll keep eating with the locals. And speaking of locals, a lot of them don't work. The men lounge on their motorbike all day and people watch, others sit in front of stores and drink coffee, eat and talk.

The first day I rode on the back of the motorbike with my cousin's sister-in-law. The traffic is organized chaos. Basically everyone has the right of way, which means that no one stops for anyone and people cross the street as cars and motorbikes are heading at them from every direction. I thought I was going to die a couple times. Walking across the street here is like attempting suicide. Again, I thought I was going to die a couple times. There are very few pedestrian lights here so when I cross the big ass street, the vehicles look like they're going to hit me. But as long as I walk straight at a steady pace, I'm good.

My cousin and I went out a couple times at night. One night we went to an area that caters to European backpackers. I played wingman and spotted two girls standing at the bar. At first I thought they were lady boys and told my cousin (who was actually okay with it) but they were women. They came back to the table with me to meet my cousin and later I found out that work as masseuses. When I asked if I could get a massage, they laughed at me...because they're really prostitutes. They work from 9pm to around 3 or 4am and have one customer a night. Some nights they don't get any action. I didn't want to waste their time anymore because my cousin wasn't going to use their service so we went to another bar down the street. I ended up chatting to some guy from Alaska who supposedly knew Sarah Palin and a marine biologist from Australia. They were traveling by themselves and didn't know how long they were going to be in VN for. I love the sense of freedom that I get from seeing new places and meeting different people that I can't get from anything else.

I also visited an orphanage that Angelina Jolie happened to adopt from. The orphanage houses over 300 kids from infants to 18 year old kids. The kids are absolutely adorable with their bright smiles and laughter. I'm amazed that they can be so happy despite their sad circumstances. A lot of these kids come straight from the hospital the day that they are born because the parents couldn't afford to take care of them. When I walked into the room that had the brain damaged children, it broke my heart to see them lying in their beds, motionless and staring at the ceiling. About six of the children had enlarged heads and have been bedridden their entire lives. One boy was eight years old but had the body size of a 2 year old. I started to tear up and had to leave the room to stop myself from crying. I went back to play for a bit with the healthy children and let them snap pictures of me with my camera since they had fun with it. The cab driver was waiting so I couldn't stay long to play with them.

I have so much more to write but I have to go now. To be continued...