5.27.2005
I'm sitting and staring at the computer monitor...Thinking damn, am I tired yet I had a great time this morning when I tried my first virgin dives! Yes, me, went deep down (well ok not that deep) into the south china sea, DIVING! Can you believe that? Me? haha...Even I impressed myself for doing this since never in my life I had ever dreamt about diving. I was scared of water and of that phobic area of the ocean.
Well, turned out it wasn't that bad, I was still scared (though I pretended that I understood everything the instructor taught us, and OK about everything) when the second I had all the equipments on me, (the air tank, the mast, the belt...And who knows what...) and when they wanted me to just jump in the blue ocean. I panicked, couldn't do it. I stood there on the edge of the boat, thinking no way am I jumping in now...So they asked me (patiently) to climb down the ladder and put all the stuff on me again IN the water. Shame on me...And I did the same thing at the second dive too.... :/
I didn't know where did I get the courage to dive at all, but I did it and it was absolutely worth it.
The first impression of the underwater world is amazing...Amazing you are inside of your screen savor....(ok bad example, but at least that's was what i had thought about under the water), it's so colorful, so vivid and so buzzard in a way. I loved the feeling of swimming with different kind of beautiful fish!
I am exhaustic at this moment, my ears are still suffering from the changing pressure of diving, my eyes barely open, and my brains are pretty much shot down now...But I'm content as if I was still swimming with two big fins like a fish....
Thanks Ryan, for putting me on that boat no matter what!
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5.24.2005
Here we are in a little unknown hot and crowded internet cafe somewhere in Nha Trang, Vietnam. Another beach town, feeling just a little not right that we are not breathing the cool air and all of a sudden there's no beautiful little fairy-tale town going up and down from our window in Dalat...Oh and i'm chatting with Ryan who's sitting right across from me!
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5.19.2005
If there were anything new now at this point of our journey, that would be we are back to beach again,
doing same all stuff...lying on a hammock, reading and sipping the cold fresh lemon juice.
Mui ne, the beach, the little fishing town
is absolutely gorgeous...
Vietnam is getting more relaxing.
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5.15.2005
Said bye to Can Tho, where we visited the Mekong delta and the interesting and amazing floating market, we hoped on the mini bus again moving toward to the last big city of our journey, Saigon.
To this point, 5 hours after we've arrived at the Saigon bus station, thinking about what had just happened to Ryan and I still makes me shiver and nervous...
Now, i have heard people, especially ryan who has been here two years ago, said that the traffic here is absolutely crazy, and i always thought "yeah, sure...big deal, i've seen crazy traffic in the three months od traveling before too...." But today, i mean now, i finally understand what people meant when they said "crazy."
This "life trip" that we had today will probably never be forgotten in my life. I forgot how reckless the drivers were a week ago when we first came to this country...but this time we brought ourselves maybe a hundred times worse drivers. They had no helmets, and no helmets for us as well...and they spoke zero English. Anyway, they started to speed up after we hoped on, and at the same time they were driving far too close to each other so that they could chat with each other. On the road, there were perhaps one thousand motorcycles driving with us at same time, and there were hardly any rules or any traffic lights. My heart went beating crazily whenever the driver drove close to each other and talk and joke around, because there were scooters coming in front of us in almost every five seconds, and there were also cars, buses, truck and people randomly walking on the same surface. I tried to yell at the drivers to slow down after a close accident that almost happen, but he had no English...and after about 10 times of almost hitting other scooters andRyan and I had a good deal of the motor taxis drivers soon after we arrived the station. Without thinking too much, we jumped on each one's motortaxi backseat and started one giant bus, i couldn't stand the ride any longer, i had to yell "STOP!!! STOP!!! RIGHT HERE..." since the driver almost didn't use his breaks at all.
I didn't remember how i got so brave and so frightened a the same time when he finally stop by the busy road. I didn't care if we've arrived at the place which we agreed. i only remember that wheni called stop, i was shaking, and i thought to myself it wasn't worth it to save little bucks to risk our lives like that. That don't recall any moment being so scared and angry before...
Standing in the middle of no where (i guess it's somewhere near downtown Saigon), i could not help crying while Ryan was frustrated and trying to figure out where the hell we were..."No more motor taxis, please..." i said to him, and he agreed completely.
Ryan and i just finished our first meal and found a nice room to stay in Saigon, and just now i suddenly realized that how much i disliked the T-shirts that we've seen during the trip saying "We survived Cambodia/Laos...", and how i thought they were silly and disrespectful to the locals and their culture. But I guess now, i will have a little new understanding when i see the T-shirt with words like "I survived Saigon!"
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5.12.2005
Another border town.
After two days rain in a roll from the beautiful beach town in southern Cambodia,
we decided to move on. Yesterday we crossed the "illegal" border between Cambodia and Vietnam.
Crossing the border to Vietnam wasn't difficult, yet it wasn't fun either. The police at the border had to check us thoroughly in and out. They checked my passport many times as well as my visa, and not just the guys in uniform, but the guy who were hanging out there drinking tea/beer... They put all of our bags in the Xray, and after that, they fiddled around Ryan's and my cameras. And before I could finally walk out from the office, they asked me: "Where are you from?" again.
That was enough. And just when I thought so....There came the motor taxies, which apparently is the only way to this nearby border town, Chau Doc. Ryan and i played a little game to kinda bargain down the price to get to here, and there we hop on the back seats of the motorcycles. i decided to take the ride with an old driver, thinking he'll be safer in driving and he wouldn't be like big drivers i had who grabbed my hands to hold on tight their waists. I knew i was wrong the second the old man started to drive. He was not only racing the whole way, using his horns but he also kinda showing off, somehow, to his friends, chatting and laughing while passing three motorcycles had to pray and keep my eyes closed sometimes to stop me from yelling to him.
Anyways... i guess we were lucky and safe to arrive this town. We found ourselves a fantastic hotel room with just seven dollars which has a cute "firends-like" purple door, a balcony, flowery bedding, sorry ryan, and hot shower.
I still can't say if i live Vietnam so far, my judgment of a country from a border town has always been wrong. But one thing to be sure is that there's some strong culture shock in me already, the tombs here and there, the mess of the town, the smells... Hopefully all those shocks will be gone soon before i start to fit in and enjoy, just like the other four countries, my last stop of our journey.
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5.08.2005
Sitting at the breakfast shop, i was a little bit nervous and a bit excited for today is mother's day. Been planning to call mom on this special day, but somehow my mind has been unsettled...unsettled because this five-month journey has changed me so much in every little way, and i wonder if i could explain all of these changes in me in about ten minutes on-and-off oversea call to my mom. I called my mom, learned that the whole family's celebrating the great day that they just ate a nice lunch and heading to a picnic. All good! Except that when my mom asked do i gain more weight or become skinnier now, i should have told her that none of these matter, what matters is that i am much stronger than i was before the trip, and that i might have become skinner, darker, and wearier, but i'm stronger both physically and spiritually!
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5.04.2005
Maybe i really don't say it enough,
maybe my period's coming (again),
maybe it's just tooo hot, and not enough
water.
But, deep down, i've always wanted to say,
"Thank you." (no really!)
And "i truly love you."
The Spaceman.
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Just when both Ryan and I (well, me, to be more exact...) are itching about not being able to dip our feet in the ocean and to see that blue open space for such a long time...(three months...long enough for me), here we are in the Southern beaches of Cambodia, Sihanoukville!
It's so nice to smell the saulty breeze and to hear the waves again. For an ocean girl like me, living in the east coast of Taiwan all my life, once being in Luang Prabang (the heart of the south east asia without any oceans surronded) and drifting all the way down with the Mekong River to the sea (Gulf of Thailand), it seemed so hard to believe what has appeared in front of my eyes in such a long while. Ah, miles of blue blue oceans again!
Did you know that down here at the beach you can easily jump into the ocean, or walk on the long milky sandy beach right near the hotel ..and when it gets hard, you can just walk up the shore and within ten steps the internet cafes are there waiting for you! And if you get tired of emailing or get hungry, there's an "Happy Herb" Pizza next door ready anytime to make you real happy, if you know what i mean!
Mm...we'll see. :)
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5.01.2005
Bad Start.
Yesterday we got on the bus which we booked at our guesthouse from Riem Reap to Phnom Penh. After 5 minuts, we were kicked off the bus, found out that every body was waiting on the sidewalk there trying to get into another bus. No notice or anything we followed the crowd to get on that bus which everyone seem to be busying getting on it. Put our bags away, found the seats(luckily), and even bought some baguetts from the window(yup!)yet, before we even tried to settle down and figure out what was going on, we were kicked off the bus again. "Wrong bus, to Bangkok, not Phnom Penh" somesone shouted to us....so we hurried to dig out our heavy backpack which were burried in the back seat of the bus, and tried to be sane to find out where the hell our bus sbould be....and there someone pointed us, "There's bus to Phnom Penh..." Ok, we bouble comfirmed making sure this time was the right one. We got on, feeling dizzy, and a bit annoyed, settled down, we started to eak out breakfast. And about 10 minutes later, we arrived at an empty space with two buses parked there. Guess what happened this time?? Yeah.....kicked off AGAIN, picked up our bags again, got on the NEW bus and tried so hard to find another seats. Thank god, there, we were finally on the right bus...The bus started to run to Phnom Penh...only an hour and half LATER!
Good End.
The bus finally got here and we were dropped near the riverfrond, which is the pretty much downtown. We found ourselves a pretty sweet guesthouse, which our room has a 5 star look and quality. (You name it!) And, the best part was that when we eventually sat down on the riverside for dinner, a kid vendor (they are everywhere) yelled at my boyfriend: "Hey, Monkey! Buy a book?? Yes, you, monkey..." Ryan, with his beard getting thicker everyday didn't know what to say....Ha ha! Oh, that kid made my day!
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