Week 3: Thailand and last days in Vietnam
Jan 11th :: Ha Noi - Bangkok - Chiang Mai - Phrae
We awake too early and discover another area in the airport with soft couches. We fall asleep again and wake up to a cafe opening. More Western food along with some chocolate. It's funny how your body works and what it craves from your past life. We fly to Bangkok and kill some time there looking at BBQ- and Pork- flavoured banana chips. Back on a plane to Chiang Mai where we try to decipher the public transit system to get us to the Arcade Bus Terminal. We catch a sawngthaew which is a little pick-up truck with 2 benches in the back lengthwise. Works like a cross between a taxi and a bus. Off we go and are at the bus station where we get a later bus to Phrae. Kill time walking around and getting some delicious Tom Yum soup with shrimp and a seafood stir fry. I marvel at the tuk-tuks which in their decor resemble old pimped out sewing machines and some, instead of passenger cabs in the back, have mini kitchens attached to the side. I really can't get enough of the mobile restaurants in southeast asia. There is a lot more organization in Thailand and a lot less honking. People seem less hungry to rip you off. Much much more Western feeling which on one level is comforting and on the other seems somewhat sterilized and restrictive. Tron reads that all the Thai kings since the 1800s lived or studied in Europe. The King's image is everywhere and the hangars and the airport read "Long Live the King." He is more of a deity here than even Ho Chi Minh is in Vietnam which is saying a lot [after all, Ho Chi was officially canonized]. So we get to Phrae at 11:30pm and pass out.
Jan 12th :: Phrae
Everything stinks from here to high heaven so I decide to invest in doing some real laundry instead of the sink laundry i've been doing. I'm traveling with only 4 shirts and 3 skirts, 3 pairs of tights and one jacket so in the heat and dirt I end up using clothing in high rotation. Lots of hand gestures at the hotel lobby were employed and giggles exchanged. Tron and I walk around the small city and the heat really gets to us. Much hotter here than in Vietnam. Dry. Oppressive. We visit the remnant of a moat that has mini hydroelectric plants. Very clever. We walk into a restaurant and point. Lots of pointing, gestures, and smiles. We ate a papaya salad and some noodles in broth. There's some teak architecture here but the urban landscape is a bit more like a tacky pastiche than an organic mutation. There are not as many multi-use buildings here, though there are still outdoor markets and street-side restaurants. We visit a university with huge Wat temples that are quite ornate. We get fresh pineapple that is slightly salted - everything here has to have a combination of salty, sweet, sour, and spicy which leaves Western purist taste buds reeling. We get a mixed bag of fruit with salty/sour/sweet condensed milk dressing and the best sticky rice snack I've ever had grilled in banana leaves. And a soup to go in baggies. Everything here involves an elaborate scheme of ingredients in baggies. Bad techno songs from the Viet buses often occupy my brain. There are large ceramic bowls out in front of houses that have water lillies and tiny fish in them. It's nice to hear birds again. Lots of young buddhist monks around as being a monk is mandatory for all males. There are many tiny doll house-sized houses next to buildings and Tron dubs them "pray stations" which inevitable spins off into jokes about praystation 2's and the newest model, praystation 3. Turns out that thy're not actually altars, per se. Thai people believe that when they build on land they displace the earth spirits so they give them a little place to live. The bigger the building the bigger the spirit house as to be. The discotheque here has a spirit house with flashing colored christmas lights. I think of club spirit kids and laugh. The giant Palace Hotel has a very large spirit house that one can almost walk into. Photographing here is difficult as things are too eclectic and not at all aesthetically composed. Modernism seems to hit this town hard. In Vietnam, my frustration is that photography simply cannot capture the intricate overlaps of space and sensations. The space is too dynamic even for film. All of these discoveries made by 2pm, we're beat and head back to teh hotel. I accidentally nap until 8pm. Our next destination seems nearly impossible to reach. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I look out the window and there is an elephant crossing the street.
Jan 13th :: Phrae - Wiang Sa - Na Muen
I'm tired of anxiety dreams and thinking too much about my life and responsibilities back in Denver. Anyway, a pleasant early morning start. Clean clothing. Found out a possible route that will get us where we're going or so we think. Lots of map pointing, gestures, and descriptions. We have time to kill before the bus so we decide to seek out some more fresh pineapple and sticky rice treats. This time it already feels more like home. We know the price of things without asking, all transactions go smoothly, the territory seems more shared with us so naturally we go into photo mode. On the way back to the hotel we take lots of shortcuts, narrow clean alleys that lead us into a beautiful neighborhood - all teak houses, overgrown, banana and coconut trees. No motor vehicles. It starts getting hot and we hit another neighborhood which is what Tron fittingly describes as teak-collides-with-Bauhaus. Same basic stilt system but the shapes and textures are different. We also find some abandoned places with abandoned spirit houses. I think of my thesis - somehow when human inhabitation [occupation] ceases the earth spirits [wilderness] can resettle. They no longer need or are confined to the little Indian reservation equivalents the Thais give them. Speaking of Indian [East not West, now]. This earth spirit business Tron links to Brahman foundations. Sometimes it's hard to tell Indian from Thai from Chinese form Western here. Also re: spirit houses I heard a blurb on NPR that icelandic people believe in elves that get seriously perturbed if you displace them from their rock settlements. Apparently even huge government highway building projects have been screeched to a halt because some elf rocks are found. I like the idea of having these spirit houses that remind you everyday that you are only on borrowed land. We arrive in Wiang Sa at a tiny bus station and I use the cleanest squat toilet I've seen on this trip - it very much seems I'm in someone's house. We walk out and I'm heckled by 4 wonderful Thai women - even though they only speak a few words of English and I don't understand a lick of Thai, we pass 1 hour laughing and joking. I'm introduced to a boy from Chiang Mai who is unfortunately leaving and I buy a bamboo stalk stuffed with egg, bean, and sticky rice [[in retrospect, this was a very VERY bad idea... still makes me ill just thinking about it]]. Bamboo and teak and banana and tall grass and green I can't identify. The air smells like jasmine tea and our minibus struggles up the hill as the sun relinquishes itself on the horizon. Turns out the bus doesn't go all the way to Pak Nai. After much confusion we are invited to stay in someone's house in Na Muen. It is always a little awkward being a guest let alone a strange guest but the experience is very pleasant. A very warm and generous family who give up their bed for us despite our gestures that we can sleep on the floor. We take a long walk around the town and to the village English teacher's private quarters [the daughter brings over the teacher because no one can communicate with us. He is from the Philippines and very strange]. I wonder if I wouldn't mind teaching English for a year somewhere like this quiet little town where most of the houses are teak and families build fires to warm themselves at night.
Jan 14th :: Na Muen - Ban Pak Nai
Oh the night was a bit rough. It was so cold that all of my dreams are of broken air conditioners that turn my world frozen. There was a cockledoodledoo-happy rooster next to the room where we slept that cried out in our ear at the slightest disturbance and little scuttles of creatures ran along the side of our rock hard bed. Hard to complain when we know what the family gave up for us, though, and they didn't ask how we slept so we shared a jovial truthful morning. The father found one of this friends to drive us to Pak Nai. We arrive at the little fishing village and it's exquisite. The people seem a little nonplussed about us being here and they don't return my smiles. I opt for a warm long nap lulled to sleep by Thai soft rock on the karaoke machine and the sounds of lapping water against our room. At dusk we walk up the steep road and walk into a fairy-tale like path overgrown and shedding bamboo leaves. More unpleasant dogs meet us at the pier barking ferociously. I start to feel unwell. Sure enough vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches and all else imaginable ensues.
Jan 15th :: Pak Nai
A day of delirium and shitting.
The night is so windy that I am convinced that like Dorothy, we will wake up to find ourselves far from Kansas. Floating somewhere on a distant shore.
Jan 16th :: Pak Nai
First attempts at solid food consumption. I really want fruit but all there is here is rice, chips, and fish. I am now shitting bright green instead of bright yellow. Tron says this is progress because green is closer to brown than yellow. I argue the logic. I awaken from a dream where I walk into a high tech research facility with my brother. My name is either Amber or Amanda. The place is deserted except for borg-like males. My brother activates them and they start attacking. I think it's a video game until one comes after me and from what I can gather they've killed my brother. I run into the bathroom but there's no lock so I sit down and use my legs as a brace against a fixture. I use a little spray nozzle (that's pretty common in Vietnam in the bathrooms... apart from the shower, next to the toilet, there's a little spray hose) to shoot my attacker int he face. The green and blue goo begins to come off of his face and I sense him becoming more vulnerable. He tricks me, I don't remember how, and he bursts into the bathroom which is now a bedroom. He repeatedly scratches the same place on my back with his fingernails. He says they'll go right through me and I believe him. But I look at him and am suddenly desperately attracted to him - not as an attacker but as a vulnerable human creature. "I wish we could fuck before you totally destroy me," I say calmly forgetting my pain. He says,"Really?" and lets go of me. I say yes. He watches me shyly as I take off my tights and shoes. I ask him to close the door so the fellow androids can't see and he abides respectfully. He says he senses danger for hisbrothers but is too stimulated to do anything about it. He rubs against me with his boxers on but by then I'm disinterested. Bored. I fastforward my dream. 2 businessmen stand on a roof and talk about me as if I had died. One calls me a slut. Apparently someone had filled the building up with gas and blew all the zombie androids up. Cut to another scene where I'm talking to the boyfriend or brother of Amanda/Amber and I apologize to him because I made all those decisions for her in my dream. And yet another cut - I am with a friend. It seems as though she was the one that blew up the place and saved me [and all of civilization] but no one knows. We take a bath and curl up in white hotel bathrobes from L.A. and I say, "It's all gone now." And she says, "Yea. It's all gone."
The day is full of heat and Thai karaoke. I take a shower in a bucket and do some laundry. Little geckos scurry along the walls. Motorboats disturb the peace. The smell of controlled forest burning fills our floating cabin.
Jan 17th :: Ban Pak Nai - Chiang Mai
Some general notes about Thailand. Phleghm clearing from the throat seems to be a national passtime. People drive on the left-hand side of the road. There are many monks in bright (or worn-out) colored orange garb. There are many gaudy Wats (temples). There are still rice paddies vibrating green across some of the land but not as much and not vertically landscaped like in Vietnam - things are much more under order and control here. People will call out "hey you" to you - I wonder if they got it from some sort of NYC gangster movie. The people working at the market stalls are not as high-pressure as in Vietnam - that I definitely like. All young boys are hipsters. I do mean ALL. Karaoke is big. And unlike Vietnam where horrible sugar techno is all the rage, here it's emo pop garbage. We met up with some cyclists in the back of a sawngthaew that were German and Swiss-German. Very good people. They took us to the night market. We rode around in tuk-tuks which was delightful, really [they will be outlawed soon]. Ate some truly spicy Thai food which my recovering stomach actually handled well. We watched some traditional Thai dance on a touristy stage that was surprisingly atmospheric - I ate it up. There are braided or twisted wreaths of my favorite flower which is the lilly in the valley sold in the streets by old women and street children. I do regret not buying one to carry. The scent is simply transportive. Chiang Mai is FULL of tourists but still somehow manages to be pleasant and peaceful. I have a hard time falling to sleep and Tron falls ill.
Jan 18th :: Chiang Mai - Bangkok - Saigon
I push and pull and jiggle and miraculously the hot water starts working. A welcome surprise for the morning. Then into a sawngthaew to the airport. Short hop to Bangkok. We have time to kill and money to blow so we get some tasty spring rolls and a smoothie. Yes. A smoothie. It felt like narcotic. We fly into Saigon and we're back on motorbikes. Weeeeee! Death averted! We find a little guesthouse - one hidden in an alley - and unwind. Then out and about. The city invigorates me. I make a few purchases. We get really good at crossing extremely chaotic traffic though sometimes we use a local as a crutch and shield. There is a man on a bicycle in the roundabout in the middle of motorbikes, taxis, and buses with a huge bunch of balloons ties to his handlebars and another huge bunch tied to a rear paneer. Women push around their mini kitchens. Four family members fits together like puzzle pieces on the seat of a motorbike - the father is smoking, the toddler daughter is helping steer, the mother is on the cell phone and holding her infant boy. Young teenage boys push around a strange metallic contraption that plays music. Tron translates the text to "ear piercing and weigh station." Food vendors and markets everywhere. One length of the park is suddenly transformed into lovers' lane as EVERY bench is occupied by the intimacies of a couple and between the benches, parked motorbikes pack in tightly each seating a couple. A woman does yog in the middle of the park square while adolescent girls run around her agitating her. Boys play soccer. Women, about 100 of them, do aerobics to pop songs in the park. A few Africans walk by joking amongst each other. I would like to go to Africa. It used to be a dream of mine. I think about moving. I think about learning languages. I try not to define home. Tron and I go grocery shopping - some veggies, some bread, pickles, and tofu. We were going to make elaborate veggie sandwiches for our wounded and recovering stomachs but by the time I finish a loooooong hot shower (first good water pressure and true heat we've had the entire trip) I'm beat and Tron's passed out. I sit on the foot of the bed like a pregnant Polish woman in pajamas, my head wrapped in a towel, DEVOURING Russian pickles and whole grain dark rye bread (with flax seed! worth the pricey 4 dollar investment. my body craves complex carbs). I'm sated. Time to watch some black and white boob tube and fall asleep.
Jan 19th :: Saigon [HCMC]
Oh it's hot. I can feel it the moment I sit up in bed even though we have a fan going. We walk down to one market where there is a lot of wartime memorabilia and so on. I get a few things for M. I stare at all the 'hardware stores' that have everything you could possibly need to build anything mechanical you could dream of. It's insane. We walk over to the other market and buy some chopsticks at an insane price. I also invest in some dishes. They are so beautiful and the woman retailer is very kind. We eat some Pho at Pho 2000, a great little joint that looks like a fast food restaurant and has photos of President Clinton eating there. It's filled with Vietnamese people. Couple groom each other here - cut each other's toe nails, pluck hairs, squeeze pimples, comb hair, it's fantastic. In another part of the park, there is a toddler area that during the early evening, parents bring their little tots to learn how to walk. They wear these little sandals that squeak when they hit the ground so there's this sickeningly adorable orchestra of adorable Vietnamese babies squeaking at silly intervals as they take their early steps. We drop our spoils off at the hotel and rest a bit. Then we look for an Indian restaurant where Tron claims he had the best Indian food in his life. Unfortunately the restaurant has been replaced with a fax store. We end up in a Mosque where there was supposed to be another good Indian restaurant. That was awkward and unsuccessful. So we settle for a hole in the wall next to some ritzy hotels that is cheap and filled with Indian people. The food is more or less ok and we keep walking. This area of Saigon is completely eerie. There are long blocks where there is no interstitial space. Dead blocks. Huge streets that are empty by Vietnamese standards. So Western it makes your head spin. Fashion stores line the street. Wealthy tourists outnumber locals. So this is what is means to travel for some. I should mention that unlike Thailand, Vietnam has essentially no fast food joints. The only one they allowed is KFC. Tron has a great theory that the only reason they allowed it was because Colonel Sanders looks unsettlingly a lot like Ho Chi Minh. Another day comes to an end. All of a sudden the trip seems very short.
Jan 20th :: Saigon [HCMC]
Another hot day. Last batch of postcard writing and then we decide to track down some cyclo drivers. We find two eager drivers and we haggle a price. Off we go to the Jade Emperor Pagoda. The light is beautiful inside but it doesn't really feel sacred - I'm sensitive to those things - I normally feel holy space very quickly. Tron informs me that this is a pagoda and not a temple and therefore its function is for pilgrimage, not prayer and meditation. We hop back in the cyclos and are off to China Town. Oh it's another world. Even more dense, even more smells, even more commotion. Everyone is preparing for the new year. It is very very hot. We are tired and cranky. Off we go again in search of some nonsensical English t-shirts but can't find any. It rains for a bit. We go back to the hotel area and shoot some photos, go back to the hotel, feast on a salad and dragon fruit. Rest up. Decide we're going for another walk and that we're going to go have sushi. We walk across town, through the uppity tourist district, through the redlight district, and have some sushi. Turns out we are sitting next to a sex worker and her client. He seems very sweet, shy, but gets a little more loud and unruly after a few beers. I ponder his relationship with her and her relationship with him. Tron and I walk down to the river and sit for a bit and then start walking back to the hotel. Along the way we discover some wonderful stores that are closed [like a propaganda poster store!]. Next time. It's nearing midnight and Tron wants ice cream so we stop by a little place that he remembers from his previous visits. We are immediately escorted to the 3rd floor. Turns out only Vietnamese people are on the 3rd floor. All the white tourists are on the 1st floor. We love the VIP treatment and the ice scream is seriously delicious. Sated, we return and stay awake watching television until 3am when we shower and head to the airport. Long uneventful flights and we are back in Denver safe and sound.
I have 500+ photos. I will try and work on some of them this weekend. Phew!
We awake too early and discover another area in the airport with soft couches. We fall asleep again and wake up to a cafe opening. More Western food along with some chocolate. It's funny how your body works and what it craves from your past life. We fly to Bangkok and kill some time there looking at BBQ- and Pork- flavoured banana chips. Back on a plane to Chiang Mai where we try to decipher the public transit system to get us to the Arcade Bus Terminal. We catch a sawngthaew which is a little pick-up truck with 2 benches in the back lengthwise. Works like a cross between a taxi and a bus. Off we go and are at the bus station where we get a later bus to Phrae. Kill time walking around and getting some delicious Tom Yum soup with shrimp and a seafood stir fry. I marvel at the tuk-tuks which in their decor resemble old pimped out sewing machines and some, instead of passenger cabs in the back, have mini kitchens attached to the side. I really can't get enough of the mobile restaurants in southeast asia. There is a lot more organization in Thailand and a lot less honking. People seem less hungry to rip you off. Much much more Western feeling which on one level is comforting and on the other seems somewhat sterilized and restrictive. Tron reads that all the Thai kings since the 1800s lived or studied in Europe. The King's image is everywhere and the hangars and the airport read "Long Live the King." He is more of a deity here than even Ho Chi Minh is in Vietnam which is saying a lot [after all, Ho Chi was officially canonized]. So we get to Phrae at 11:30pm and pass out.
Jan 12th :: Phrae
Everything stinks from here to high heaven so I decide to invest in doing some real laundry instead of the sink laundry i've been doing. I'm traveling with only 4 shirts and 3 skirts, 3 pairs of tights and one jacket so in the heat and dirt I end up using clothing in high rotation. Lots of hand gestures at the hotel lobby were employed and giggles exchanged. Tron and I walk around the small city and the heat really gets to us. Much hotter here than in Vietnam. Dry. Oppressive. We visit the remnant of a moat that has mini hydroelectric plants. Very clever. We walk into a restaurant and point. Lots of pointing, gestures, and smiles. We ate a papaya salad and some noodles in broth. There's some teak architecture here but the urban landscape is a bit more like a tacky pastiche than an organic mutation. There are not as many multi-use buildings here, though there are still outdoor markets and street-side restaurants. We visit a university with huge Wat temples that are quite ornate. We get fresh pineapple that is slightly salted - everything here has to have a combination of salty, sweet, sour, and spicy which leaves Western purist taste buds reeling. We get a mixed bag of fruit with salty/sour/sweet condensed milk dressing and the best sticky rice snack I've ever had grilled in banana leaves. And a soup to go in baggies. Everything here involves an elaborate scheme of ingredients in baggies. Bad techno songs from the Viet buses often occupy my brain. There are large ceramic bowls out in front of houses that have water lillies and tiny fish in them. It's nice to hear birds again. Lots of young buddhist monks around as being a monk is mandatory for all males. There are many tiny doll house-sized houses next to buildings and Tron dubs them "pray stations" which inevitable spins off into jokes about praystation 2's and the newest model, praystation 3. Turns out that thy're not actually altars, per se. Thai people believe that when they build on land they displace the earth spirits so they give them a little place to live. The bigger the building the bigger the spirit house as to be. The discotheque here has a spirit house with flashing colored christmas lights. I think of club spirit kids and laugh. The giant Palace Hotel has a very large spirit house that one can almost walk into. Photographing here is difficult as things are too eclectic and not at all aesthetically composed. Modernism seems to hit this town hard. In Vietnam, my frustration is that photography simply cannot capture the intricate overlaps of space and sensations. The space is too dynamic even for film. All of these discoveries made by 2pm, we're beat and head back to teh hotel. I accidentally nap until 8pm. Our next destination seems nearly impossible to reach. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I look out the window and there is an elephant crossing the street.
Jan 13th :: Phrae - Wiang Sa - Na Muen
I'm tired of anxiety dreams and thinking too much about my life and responsibilities back in Denver. Anyway, a pleasant early morning start. Clean clothing. Found out a possible route that will get us where we're going or so we think. Lots of map pointing, gestures, and descriptions. We have time to kill before the bus so we decide to seek out some more fresh pineapple and sticky rice treats. This time it already feels more like home. We know the price of things without asking, all transactions go smoothly, the territory seems more shared with us so naturally we go into photo mode. On the way back to the hotel we take lots of shortcuts, narrow clean alleys that lead us into a beautiful neighborhood - all teak houses, overgrown, banana and coconut trees. No motor vehicles. It starts getting hot and we hit another neighborhood which is what Tron fittingly describes as teak-collides-with-Bauhaus. Same basic stilt system but the shapes and textures are different. We also find some abandoned places with abandoned spirit houses. I think of my thesis - somehow when human inhabitation [occupation] ceases the earth spirits [wilderness] can resettle. They no longer need or are confined to the little Indian reservation equivalents the Thais give them. Speaking of Indian [East not West, now]. This earth spirit business Tron links to Brahman foundations. Sometimes it's hard to tell Indian from Thai from Chinese form Western here. Also re: spirit houses I heard a blurb on NPR that icelandic people believe in elves that get seriously perturbed if you displace them from their rock settlements. Apparently even huge government highway building projects have been screeched to a halt because some elf rocks are found. I like the idea of having these spirit houses that remind you everyday that you are only on borrowed land. We arrive in Wiang Sa at a tiny bus station and I use the cleanest squat toilet I've seen on this trip - it very much seems I'm in someone's house. We walk out and I'm heckled by 4 wonderful Thai women - even though they only speak a few words of English and I don't understand a lick of Thai, we pass 1 hour laughing and joking. I'm introduced to a boy from Chiang Mai who is unfortunately leaving and I buy a bamboo stalk stuffed with egg, bean, and sticky rice [[in retrospect, this was a very VERY bad idea... still makes me ill just thinking about it]]. Bamboo and teak and banana and tall grass and green I can't identify. The air smells like jasmine tea and our minibus struggles up the hill as the sun relinquishes itself on the horizon. Turns out the bus doesn't go all the way to Pak Nai. After much confusion we are invited to stay in someone's house in Na Muen. It is always a little awkward being a guest let alone a strange guest but the experience is very pleasant. A very warm and generous family who give up their bed for us despite our gestures that we can sleep on the floor. We take a long walk around the town and to the village English teacher's private quarters [the daughter brings over the teacher because no one can communicate with us. He is from the Philippines and very strange]. I wonder if I wouldn't mind teaching English for a year somewhere like this quiet little town where most of the houses are teak and families build fires to warm themselves at night.
Jan 14th :: Na Muen - Ban Pak Nai
Oh the night was a bit rough. It was so cold that all of my dreams are of broken air conditioners that turn my world frozen. There was a cockledoodledoo-happy rooster next to the room where we slept that cried out in our ear at the slightest disturbance and little scuttles of creatures ran along the side of our rock hard bed. Hard to complain when we know what the family gave up for us, though, and they didn't ask how we slept so we shared a jovial truthful morning. The father found one of this friends to drive us to Pak Nai. We arrive at the little fishing village and it's exquisite. The people seem a little nonplussed about us being here and they don't return my smiles. I opt for a warm long nap lulled to sleep by Thai soft rock on the karaoke machine and the sounds of lapping water against our room. At dusk we walk up the steep road and walk into a fairy-tale like path overgrown and shedding bamboo leaves. More unpleasant dogs meet us at the pier barking ferociously. I start to feel unwell. Sure enough vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches and all else imaginable ensues.
Jan 15th :: Pak Nai
A day of delirium and shitting.
The night is so windy that I am convinced that like Dorothy, we will wake up to find ourselves far from Kansas. Floating somewhere on a distant shore.
Jan 16th :: Pak Nai
First attempts at solid food consumption. I really want fruit but all there is here is rice, chips, and fish. I am now shitting bright green instead of bright yellow. Tron says this is progress because green is closer to brown than yellow. I argue the logic. I awaken from a dream where I walk into a high tech research facility with my brother. My name is either Amber or Amanda. The place is deserted except for borg-like males. My brother activates them and they start attacking. I think it's a video game until one comes after me and from what I can gather they've killed my brother. I run into the bathroom but there's no lock so I sit down and use my legs as a brace against a fixture. I use a little spray nozzle (that's pretty common in Vietnam in the bathrooms... apart from the shower, next to the toilet, there's a little spray hose) to shoot my attacker int he face. The green and blue goo begins to come off of his face and I sense him becoming more vulnerable. He tricks me, I don't remember how, and he bursts into the bathroom which is now a bedroom. He repeatedly scratches the same place on my back with his fingernails. He says they'll go right through me and I believe him. But I look at him and am suddenly desperately attracted to him - not as an attacker but as a vulnerable human creature. "I wish we could fuck before you totally destroy me," I say calmly forgetting my pain. He says,"Really?" and lets go of me. I say yes. He watches me shyly as I take off my tights and shoes. I ask him to close the door so the fellow androids can't see and he abides respectfully. He says he senses danger for hisbrothers but is too stimulated to do anything about it. He rubs against me with his boxers on but by then I'm disinterested. Bored. I fastforward my dream. 2 businessmen stand on a roof and talk about me as if I had died. One calls me a slut. Apparently someone had filled the building up with gas and blew all the zombie androids up. Cut to another scene where I'm talking to the boyfriend or brother of Amanda/Amber and I apologize to him because I made all those decisions for her in my dream. And yet another cut - I am with a friend. It seems as though she was the one that blew up the place and saved me [and all of civilization] but no one knows. We take a bath and curl up in white hotel bathrobes from L.A. and I say, "It's all gone now." And she says, "Yea. It's all gone."
The day is full of heat and Thai karaoke. I take a shower in a bucket and do some laundry. Little geckos scurry along the walls. Motorboats disturb the peace. The smell of controlled forest burning fills our floating cabin.
Jan 17th :: Ban Pak Nai - Chiang Mai
Some general notes about Thailand. Phleghm clearing from the throat seems to be a national passtime. People drive on the left-hand side of the road. There are many monks in bright (or worn-out) colored orange garb. There are many gaudy Wats (temples). There are still rice paddies vibrating green across some of the land but not as much and not vertically landscaped like in Vietnam - things are much more under order and control here. People will call out "hey you" to you - I wonder if they got it from some sort of NYC gangster movie. The people working at the market stalls are not as high-pressure as in Vietnam - that I definitely like. All young boys are hipsters. I do mean ALL. Karaoke is big. And unlike Vietnam where horrible sugar techno is all the rage, here it's emo pop garbage. We met up with some cyclists in the back of a sawngthaew that were German and Swiss-German. Very good people. They took us to the night market. We rode around in tuk-tuks which was delightful, really [they will be outlawed soon]. Ate some truly spicy Thai food which my recovering stomach actually handled well. We watched some traditional Thai dance on a touristy stage that was surprisingly atmospheric - I ate it up. There are braided or twisted wreaths of my favorite flower which is the lilly in the valley sold in the streets by old women and street children. I do regret not buying one to carry. The scent is simply transportive. Chiang Mai is FULL of tourists but still somehow manages to be pleasant and peaceful. I have a hard time falling to sleep and Tron falls ill.
Jan 18th :: Chiang Mai - Bangkok - Saigon
I push and pull and jiggle and miraculously the hot water starts working. A welcome surprise for the morning. Then into a sawngthaew to the airport. Short hop to Bangkok. We have time to kill and money to blow so we get some tasty spring rolls and a smoothie. Yes. A smoothie. It felt like narcotic. We fly into Saigon and we're back on motorbikes. Weeeeee! Death averted! We find a little guesthouse - one hidden in an alley - and unwind. Then out and about. The city invigorates me. I make a few purchases. We get really good at crossing extremely chaotic traffic though sometimes we use a local as a crutch and shield. There is a man on a bicycle in the roundabout in the middle of motorbikes, taxis, and buses with a huge bunch of balloons ties to his handlebars and another huge bunch tied to a rear paneer. Women push around their mini kitchens. Four family members fits together like puzzle pieces on the seat of a motorbike - the father is smoking, the toddler daughter is helping steer, the mother is on the cell phone and holding her infant boy. Young teenage boys push around a strange metallic contraption that plays music. Tron translates the text to "ear piercing and weigh station." Food vendors and markets everywhere. One length of the park is suddenly transformed into lovers' lane as EVERY bench is occupied by the intimacies of a couple and between the benches, parked motorbikes pack in tightly each seating a couple. A woman does yog in the middle of the park square while adolescent girls run around her agitating her. Boys play soccer. Women, about 100 of them, do aerobics to pop songs in the park. A few Africans walk by joking amongst each other. I would like to go to Africa. It used to be a dream of mine. I think about moving. I think about learning languages. I try not to define home. Tron and I go grocery shopping - some veggies, some bread, pickles, and tofu. We were going to make elaborate veggie sandwiches for our wounded and recovering stomachs but by the time I finish a loooooong hot shower (first good water pressure and true heat we've had the entire trip) I'm beat and Tron's passed out. I sit on the foot of the bed like a pregnant Polish woman in pajamas, my head wrapped in a towel, DEVOURING Russian pickles and whole grain dark rye bread (with flax seed! worth the pricey 4 dollar investment. my body craves complex carbs). I'm sated. Time to watch some black and white boob tube and fall asleep.
Jan 19th :: Saigon [HCMC]
Oh it's hot. I can feel it the moment I sit up in bed even though we have a fan going. We walk down to one market where there is a lot of wartime memorabilia and so on. I get a few things for M. I stare at all the 'hardware stores' that have everything you could possibly need to build anything mechanical you could dream of. It's insane. We walk over to the other market and buy some chopsticks at an insane price. I also invest in some dishes. They are so beautiful and the woman retailer is very kind. We eat some Pho at Pho 2000, a great little joint that looks like a fast food restaurant and has photos of President Clinton eating there. It's filled with Vietnamese people. Couple groom each other here - cut each other's toe nails, pluck hairs, squeeze pimples, comb hair, it's fantastic. In another part of the park, there is a toddler area that during the early evening, parents bring their little tots to learn how to walk. They wear these little sandals that squeak when they hit the ground so there's this sickeningly adorable orchestra of adorable Vietnamese babies squeaking at silly intervals as they take their early steps. We drop our spoils off at the hotel and rest a bit. Then we look for an Indian restaurant where Tron claims he had the best Indian food in his life. Unfortunately the restaurant has been replaced with a fax store. We end up in a Mosque where there was supposed to be another good Indian restaurant. That was awkward and unsuccessful. So we settle for a hole in the wall next to some ritzy hotels that is cheap and filled with Indian people. The food is more or less ok and we keep walking. This area of Saigon is completely eerie. There are long blocks where there is no interstitial space. Dead blocks. Huge streets that are empty by Vietnamese standards. So Western it makes your head spin. Fashion stores line the street. Wealthy tourists outnumber locals. So this is what is means to travel for some. I should mention that unlike Thailand, Vietnam has essentially no fast food joints. The only one they allowed is KFC. Tron has a great theory that the only reason they allowed it was because Colonel Sanders looks unsettlingly a lot like Ho Chi Minh. Another day comes to an end. All of a sudden the trip seems very short.
Jan 20th :: Saigon [HCMC]
Another hot day. Last batch of postcard writing and then we decide to track down some cyclo drivers. We find two eager drivers and we haggle a price. Off we go to the Jade Emperor Pagoda. The light is beautiful inside but it doesn't really feel sacred - I'm sensitive to those things - I normally feel holy space very quickly. Tron informs me that this is a pagoda and not a temple and therefore its function is for pilgrimage, not prayer and meditation. We hop back in the cyclos and are off to China Town. Oh it's another world. Even more dense, even more smells, even more commotion. Everyone is preparing for the new year. It is very very hot. We are tired and cranky. Off we go again in search of some nonsensical English t-shirts but can't find any. It rains for a bit. We go back to the hotel area and shoot some photos, go back to the hotel, feast on a salad and dragon fruit. Rest up. Decide we're going for another walk and that we're going to go have sushi. We walk across town, through the uppity tourist district, through the redlight district, and have some sushi. Turns out we are sitting next to a sex worker and her client. He seems very sweet, shy, but gets a little more loud and unruly after a few beers. I ponder his relationship with her and her relationship with him. Tron and I walk down to the river and sit for a bit and then start walking back to the hotel. Along the way we discover some wonderful stores that are closed [like a propaganda poster store!]. Next time. It's nearing midnight and Tron wants ice cream so we stop by a little place that he remembers from his previous visits. We are immediately escorted to the 3rd floor. Turns out only Vietnamese people are on the 3rd floor. All the white tourists are on the 1st floor. We love the VIP treatment and the ice scream is seriously delicious. Sated, we return and stay awake watching television until 3am when we shower and head to the airport. Long uneventful flights and we are back in Denver safe and sound.
I have 500+ photos. I will try and work on some of them this weekend. Phew!