Ho Chi Minhsoleum, Hanoi

It seems a trend that all great Communist leaders wish to be cremated but instead end up pickled and resting under orange light that makes them look like a Muppet with glowing hands. Eerie. In Hanoi we have Ho Chi Min, and though it's not the Minhsoleum like the Maosoueum, it easily could be: same line, same walking, same waiting, same wishing it was something else you're looking at.

Another Hanoi attraction is the Hoa Lo prison where Senator John McCain spent some years. Vietnam does a lovely job of painting a picture of how hard the Vietnamese had it when the French imprisoned them here, but how like the Hilton it was for the Americans: all smiled over games of volleyball and pool, not to mention Christmas dinner! What a vacation! What a treat!

Maybe that is all what Hanoi is: Loud, misleading. Peaceful and beautiful in the midst of grime and noise - so much noise.

The End of My Shoes

I'm a girl but I hate shoes. Actually, they hate me. Despise me. Haunt me. Taunt me. Torture me. They take one look at me and start to laugh that cruel, evil laugh you equate with Disney. So, when a time comes that I actually find a pair of shoes I can wear, I hug them and love them and try my best to keep them around.

My last trip to the U.S. I acquired a pair or actual hiking boots! Okay, they're still Birkenstocks and they cost over $200, but they had laces and closed toes and actual tread so I wouldn't (and didn't) slip in in the snow. They were great - notice past tense...

Christmas day in Luang Prabang, Laos was cool and cloudy and I kayaked down the Mekong River past cliffs so impressive when you look at the sheer size and had lunch on a sand bar with a small peanut farm. Peanuts, who would have guessed? Then off to caves with 4000 Buddhas inside where the monks used to spend days in silent dark meditation. I had even spent sunrise of Christmas Day watching the monks collect food offerings along the streets of Laos among the hordes of tourists who assault them with long lenses and pre-dawn flashes. How obnoxious. But this is about shoes, not monks or tourists or pictures.

The next morning I was sick. Not puking, like so many others have along this last month, but a 15 hour flu with aches (partially from kayaking, but my toes and hair follicles?) fever, headache, runny nose and foul stomach. So I slept the day away glad I had nothing to do on the 26th and hopeful I would be fine for my flight to Hanoi on the 27th. Which I was, though a bit weak and light headed. Which directly resulted in the loss of my shoes...

The hotel maids are really eager to get done, so when I went downstairs to pay, they started cleaning and tossed the bed sheets over my shoes. And they are probably still there. All in all, it's a small sacrifice to the hotel room, and it is less to carry, which is pleasant, but when things are hard (actually impossible) to come by again, you need to take pause and remember.

So, goodbye shoes. I'll miss you. But I'll miss Laos more. What an amazing place!

Elephant Nature Park, Chaing Mai, Thailand

http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/For a perfect week of truly up-close and personal contact with elephants.

Itinerary Update

Dec 15 to 21 - elephants
Dec 22 - Fly to Laung Prabang, Laos Airlines flight QV 645
After I plan to fly to Hanoi but I don;t have tickets or anything. From there it will be down through Vietnam then up to Siam Reap...

Chaing Mai, Thailand

Not only is it warm, but the crickets and geckos are chirping and it's all reminiscent of Honduras. The big difference is the amount of vegetarian food that is to be found. To have a souvenir I can always take with me, today I took a private cooking class and learned how to make six different vegetarian Thai dished. Then I had to eat them all.

Needless to say, I'll be doing some cooking when I return to a house and a kitchen, so it might be a good time to think about inviting me over


On the menu: Crispy Morning Glory (This sauce is to die for!), Green Curry, Pad Thai, Massaman Curry (my favorite), Pineapple Fried Rice (WOW!) and Sweet and Sour.

Macau

Macau mentions its history with its Portuguese architecture, European main square and churches, but also lets them crumble into dilapidated back alleys. This is charming in its own sense, but when searching for the past, its a little sad. The art museum actually had the most information on traders other than the origional Portuguese sailors which is the focus of both the main museum and the maritime museum. The paintings on display were only mass produced works to be sold to early 1800's tourists (aka bring it home to the wife and kids after 2 years at sea), but it at least shows what was there.

This almost doesn't exist anymore. Now this harbor is a shallow lake surrounded by casinos. Yup, MGM Grand, The Whynn, the Venetian, and numerous other less overwhelming establishments have all moved their way into the Vegas of Asia. I know it seems gaudy, but after being out of the States for so long, I did have to spend considerable time enjoying the show, and I'm not complaining too much.

Hong Kong

My first Veggie Burger in a year. Who could ask for more?
But there was. It is such and international city, globalization at its best, perhaps. Every language, every color, every retail high-end store imaginable. Money falling from trees and all the fake Rolex's you could desire. And such tolerance (from what you can see in such a short time). But on Sundays, the Filipino's who work as domestic servants (I'm told) are given their day off, and not having a place of their own to go to, just fill the streets and walkways around the waterfront. They're dancing, and playing cards and eating and sleeping and everyone, clad in real and fake Prada, just walk around them without a care in the world.

It's enjoyable, that in a place so large, and so full, it still can be relaxed. Korea should take note.

Searching for History

I went to Canton, China (now called Guangzhou) to see where the Lady Washington traded with the Chinese 200 years ago. The old trading point during the Opium War was on Shaimen Island, so that's where I started my search. I too arrived by boat, though mine was a 7 cent, 2 minute ride across the Pearl River. Immediately, I was confronted by signs from the old trading past - yes, reference to the Phoenicians! Excellent! I must be on the right path. It didn't take long to search the Island, and while there was no road sign or blinking neon stating "Hey, this is where they traded!" as one might hope, there was proof positive that the Pacific Northwest trade is still going strong in Canton.

Content with my discoveries, I settled down with some Pacific Northwest warmth, just like they did 200 years ago. So it's soy lattes not sea otter pelts, who's counting?

Behind The Wall

When you climb to the end of the tourist area of The Wall, there is a sign to keep out. When you ignore that sign and continue walking on the well-used path of everyone else who ignored the sign, you come to what The Wall was... crumbling rock, overgrown with trees. The soil in the core of The Wall is being taken by farmers along other sections for their crops, and the bricks are slowly returning to the soil themselves.

The tourist areas are being "fixed". The fate of the other sections is unknown. However, it is this side of The Wall that (for me) is the most impressive and memorable.

Grand Walls with Pickled Mao

Clinton said, "This wall is grand, this wall is beautiful. It is more grand and more beautiful then I imagined". Well, that's what the Chinese said he said, anyway, but it doesn't sound very eloquent. I rode up to The Wall in the same cart as Bill. Me and Monica from Spain. We had the place to ourselves for almost an hour. Who would have thought in the most populated country at the most popular tourist attraction in the world, one could be alone. Just goes to show that maybe this planet is a little bigger than originally believed. Or, it's just the off season.


There are a few other places in Beijing you can get some peace and quiet, too. One is in the back alleys of the Forbidden City. It's amazing that outside those walls the traffic is piling up, but inside, you hear footsteps echo and crows flying overhead. The other place with quiet is the Maosoleum - where Chairman Mao or his wax double take turns being on display for the thousands that visit every day. The line is six wide and wraps around Tienanmen Square, though it moves somewhat quickly. After 2 metal detectors and and shop to purchase flowers,you are led past his marble statue and instructed to "step in order". Then, under the glass case, with his face lit up orange like a jack-O-lantern, is his body and it is at that moment you hope today they picked the wax Mao, because pickled Mao isn't something you wanted to see after all.
Outside The Maosoleum