First Impressions

So this is a shot of my 'hood from across Ho Truc Bach. "Ho" means lake. So roughly translated "Ho Truc Bach" means "Lake Truc Bach". Yeah, I know. I pick things up pretty quick huh? The house is under the tallest radio tower somewhere. More about this lake later...

I heard that scooters and motorcycles were big in Vietnam, but I've only seen a handful of motorcycles. The scooter reigns supreme here. It's a mod's paradise.
They talk about how quickly the economy is growing in Vietnam and they've made a believer out of me. I became a millionaire within hours of arriving. $100 USD comes out to about 1,660,000 VND or "Vietnamese Dong". As a currency, it's great. It not only makes you feel rich, "Dong" roughly translates to "set up for 1,000 jokes".
The school has arranged for the woman who takes care of the house here to feed me twice a day. Which is pretty great. It took a while to communicate that I was a vegetarian, but everything she makes is great. The meat is for my room mate, Kickflip (not his real name).
Here is the school. It's about a 15 minute bike ride or 30 minute walk from the house. It's not in great shape, but the kids are curious and generally well behaved. The teachers are really nice and they make you feel a little like a celebrity just for showing up.

I got a lead on where I can find good cigars, and I plan on celebrating the end of my first week tonight with a nice Cuban, and a real Coke made with sugar. Delicious Communist sugar...

Pics!

Thanks to my new friend and housemate Kapow! (not his real name) I can now post pics.

I got to the airport Wednesday night (thanks to my supercool cousins) and flew out at 2:00 AM Thursday morning. I arrived inTaipei on Friday morning, which was about 14 hours later, and the sun never came up on Thursday.

Taipei is in Taiwan, which is in China, I think. I'm still a little confused about whether it's a country in it's own right, or a territory of China, or what. It's part of China somehow, and I found that China is a very nice country, with an ample supply of fire extinguishers...

I met an American woman on the plane who was returning to Thailand. We hung out for most of the layover. It was really comforting to have someone around who seemed to know what was going on.

I was really thirsty and wanted some water, but I was advised not to drink it from the taps or fountains. There were vending machines with bottled water. They cost 25 each. 25 what? I don't know. We did find a free wireless connection really easily though. I thought it was funny that I had no trouble at all getting a wifi connection, but that I couldn't figure out how to get water. Eventually a little restaurant opened up that took visa and we got a little something to eat and drink.

The gift shop had a bunch of familiar magazines with unfamiliar writing that I couldn't make any sense of. I also had a headache from sleeping in a weird position, or dehydration, or caffeine withdrawal, or all three. If you've ever had a concussion, this is exactly what the whole experience was like. General disorientation, no sense of time, and nice strangers taking care of you. (Everyone is a stranger when you've just had a concussion.)

I caught my next flight and got in to Hanoi 3 or 4 hours later.

I made it through customs, which was a big relief because when I checked in for the flight they told me that I might not be let into the country without a return flight and made me sign a waiver that said they weren't responsible if I was rejected. They let me in though, and after waiting for about an hour, I got my bag and met my coordinator, who took me to the house where I'm staying.

Shot from the balcony...

So I've been settling in since then. I've seen the school, met most of my housemates, seen the local grocery store, bank etc. So far so good.

So far so good and bad...

I'm having some trouble figuring out the computer situation here. There is a computer in the house (which I'm obviously using now), but I can't figure out how to hook my laptop up to the internet. And, when I put things on a flash drive, I can't get the computer here to recognize that there is anything in the USBport. So for now, I'm stuck with just typing and no pictures, which is really really boring.

So for now, I don't have a whole lot to show. But I have learned 2 things about Vietnam so far.

#1 Hanoi Sucks: The traffic is absolutely insane, it's noisy, everything seems to be in some state of decay, I can barely find my way through the tangle of street and alleys, and I can't get my computer hooked up at the house.

#2 Hanoi is Awesome: It's vibrant and colorful, the food is great, the people are friendly, things are really inexpensive, and there are a thousand of years of history under your feet wherever you go.

So far I'm mesmerized by what a fascinating place this is.

Greetings from Hanoi

I made it!

I'm tired and a little disoriented because the sun never came up on Thursday and it's about 36 hours past my bed time, but it's a lovely Friday afternoon here in Hanoi, a nice lady just put a mosquito net on my bed for me, and I can't wait to use it tonight. I'll have pics and more soon. Just wanted to let anyone that's wondering know that I made it safe and sound.

Last road trip post

On Friday, I finally finished the Mexico-to-Canada leg of my trip. Oh Canada...
I really just wanted to cross the border to say I did, so I got in, stopped at a gas station, topped off the tank, and headed back. Gas was only $1.38.

I took this as I was waiting in line to get back into the US. 5,112.2 miles total for the whole trip. And there was a much longer line to get into the US than into Canada. Obviously, our country is better. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!...
At the border, they looked at my passport and asked me about my trip. I told them that I was really just crossing the border because I'd worked my way up the coast and wanted to go all the way from Mexico to Canada, so I just stopped for gas and turned around. The officer said "You bought gas in Canada?" and handed me a slip of paper. He told me to park and take it inside with my passport. I looked at the paper on the way in. He had horrible hand writing, but across the top it said "*Bought gas in Canada?*". Apparently this was cause for suspicion. Now, I know that gas in Canada isn't really $1.38 a gallon. Their $1.38 might not be the same as ours, and it's not in gallons. I knew it was probably more expensive, but when you're only putting in a gallon or so it doesn't seem like a big deal. Well I guess that's just what terrorists think too, because it got me stopped.

When I went inside, there were 8 officers milling around behind the desk. Some of them were laughing at something one of them found online. There were 2 at the desk, but only one was actually helping people. When I finally talked to someone, I handed him the piece of paper and he said, "How the hell am I supposed to read this?" (TERRORISTS - DON'T READ THIS PART) He asked me a couple of questions about my trip, told me that the computers were down, and drew a big letter "A" on the back of my piece of paper. I showed it to the guys outside and I was on my way. I could have saved a lot of time by writing an "A" on the paper myself, but I didn't know their super secret code beforehand. Man, those guys are clever.

After that I headed down to Burlington for lunch with my Aunt and Uncle and their two pugs. Such majestic creatures...

There is such a thing as free lunch. And I got some good stories too. One about my dad breaking some poor girl's arm on his first motorcycle. probably not the best move. If there is one thing I know about the ladies, it's that they don't like getting their arms broken.

After that I was done with interstate for the day, and I took hwy 20 over to Whidbey Island. This is the bridge at Deception Pass.
I took a couple of little gravel roads looking for some dirt to play in, and I found these guys...
Then a few bucks...
And then these!
This kind of equipment can only mean fun. So I turned off and found an area where they were putting in a new housing development, which means unpaved roads. Someday I want to build a clubhouse here and put a sign on it that says "No girls or Harleys allowed (except for the girls part)."
I explored a little, got dirty, dropped the bike trying to get over a little tree, messed up my back, and rode the rest of the island down to the ferry. It was great.

I got right on the next ferry with my motorcycles-are-cool pass, and crossed over to Everett. There was a HUGE line of people coming the other way when I got off. A lot of people head up north for the weekend and it was about rush hour on Friday, so the line to get on the ferry was probably about a mile long.

When I got to Seatte, I found Karla's place and we waited around a little for Jay to come home (I was early). Then they bought me dinner. I found a free parking spot too. And they had a couple of nice dogs for me to pet. Pretty sweet deal.
After that I went back to Mom's for the night.

So, here are the final numbers:

Total Miles: 5,112 (I snuck over to Wenatchee, WA somewhere in there too)

Animals Spotted:
13 Deer
4 Sea Lions
4 Rabbits
3 Elk
2 Prairie Dogs
2 Road Runners
1 Skunk (Non-rabid)

New Stickers: 7

Altogether it was a great trip, and a great way to see a bunch of this country and the people that I love before I leave for a while. People took me into their homes, fed me, and flashed their high beams at me when there was a deer around the corner. I saw desert, ocean, mountains and cities. I made amends with Iowa. I had frybread, vegemite, pho, and saladitos. I evaded attacks from dinosaurs, deer, pugs and slugs. I got a new hat. And, rode the best roads I've ever seen, in 12 states, and from border-to-border. This is a pretty great country.

Road Trip post for Saturday 7/19

So Saturday morning I got over to my cousin Kyle's and we headed down to the Mariner's game. We were planning on getting there for batting practice, but there was a lot going on in the city. We spent some time sitting in traffic. We were sitting a while, and I could feel other people getting retro 80's baseball baps while we sat there. Every second was one less chance of me getting my hat.
When we got off the interstate he wanted to look around for parking. After years seeing people spend $50 to park at Cubs games, $15 for parking across the street from Safeco Field seemed like a joke, and I wasn't going to miss getting my hat to save a couple of bucks, so I convinced him to park in the lot.

And we got our hats...A dream come true. So it is possible sometimes to go back and set things straight. And we look just as awkward and goofy as the pre-teens we would have been if we would have made it to the original game in the 80's, so it's perfect.

We took our seats right under the jumbotron, and got to see what it would be like to be famous everytime they showed something on it. It seemed like the whole place was looking at us.
With the Mariners loosing at the top of the 9th, some thoughtful fellow decided to take it upon himself to provide some entertainment, and ran out on the field. When security got close, he was smart enough to lay down, so they wouldn't clothesline him. They hauled him off and we went back to the game.

We stuck around for the last out, and got to see a couple of more runs, but final score was Mariners 6, Indians 9. I didn't care. I got my hat.

After that, was the annual block party in Kyle's neighborhood. And good time was had by all.The only thing left in my big trip was to cross the Canadian border.

road trip post for Friday 7/18

Friday I got up like someone with a job and I followed Maureen to her workplace, the Portland Japanese Garden. I got a private tour before it was open to the public. Maureen walked me through it and it was absolutely beautiful. Another one of the places on my trip that I couldn't really capture in pictures. But of course I tried...
Then I went back to the Conservatory and followed Chris home, where I got to hang out with him, Beth, and Akito. Akito looks like a pug, but is probably really some kind of space-aged , cold-fusion-powered, gyroscopic, robot. She vibrated like a jack hammer and I would have sworn there was 4 of her when she attacked me. I had a really hard time getting her off of me because she had paralyzed me with laughter - probably with some sort of hypno-ray. The only time she stopped buzzing was when she sat on my bike. There was a moment of profound silence while she whistfully looked into the distance as if to say, "That's my home, friend... the horizon..."
She was a noble creature indeed.

Before I left town I stopped at Pearl District Tattoo to get a little ink. I wanted to get something in the northwest corner of my compass rose tattoo. The northwest is where I'm from, and Portland had a lot of important firsts for me. I thought about a couple of different designs but then decided that filling it in with a nice cloud-grey would be the most appropriate. It seemed a little darker than I wanted at first, but then, that seemed pretty appropriate too.And yeah, I'm wearing a bandana around my neck. What about it? I'm a cowboy. "On a steel horse I ride..."

I headed up toward mom's, but stopped for lunch just over the Washington border. People who aren't from around here think I'm joking when I talk about Marion Berries. A Marion Berry isn't a crack smoking DC Mayor, it's an actual berry. It's a kind of blackberry, sometimes sold out of SUVs in parking lots, it was developed in Marion County, Oregon, and it's delicious.
So I slowly made my way north through rush hour traffic (which was just as bad as Chicago or LA), and finally made it to mom's place.
(I actually washed the helmet liner before we took this pic. It was getting a little funky.)