Not the snack of the day.

Viper booze. Maybe vodka?
I actually didn't get a good luck at the price tag. I snuck a photo in the grocery store and someone was coming around the corner.

Sólo travel culture

When I'm in a city, it feels like home and I can't imagine leaving it, until the day before I leave, and then I get the itch, even seeing other backpackers with their packs on makes me long for a nice long bus ride, but at the same time filled with the dread/excitement/anxiety of figuring out the next step.  What transport/hostel/city/map/money is next!?!  The unknown.

I have a few things I'd like to share about this odd experience of traveling alone. I spend a lot of time now by myself but surrounded by others. I also spend a lot of time in dorms....I'm pretty much just living out every persons dream of living in a permanent state of summer camp....sometimes I really don't believe I'm a grown up at all, I could be 12 again! 
Dorms:
Metal bunk beds. Stories of bed bugs. Inappropriate things happening in bunks late at night. People being noisy. People staying up late giggling. People getting up early. People snoring. It's all part of it. I've now witnessed dirty people/clean people/loud people/messy peopme and it's never who I expect it to be!! Ladies can snore!!  Also....it's such an intimate thing sleeping....just in that sense, I've now slept with 100's of strangers!  Who can say that and really mean it?  So grateful for my sleep mask and ear plugs!

I believe this is my first/last time truly backpacking. After a certain age you can still do it, but you become the weird creepy guy/girl which I have become all too familiar with as luckily I do not take offense when the old Brit guy hits on me and I explain how things are *old and married and he feels bad for his creepy plunder gone south.  Not to mention, jumping up onto a bunkbed?!?  Not always so easy! I had one place where I was on the top of a triple decker!  Don't think I'll be doing that in 20 years.

So that's the thing I struggle with the most in my writing this blog. Do I talk about the incredible culture of the new beautiful places I'm seeing....or the new beautiful culture of truly traveling as a solo backpacker and all the pros and cons of that interesting and unique culture in itself. Every day meeting amazing people from far off places in a hostel. It's intense!  Plus, the hostel can make or break a city for me....if there's no atmosphere/social meeting space, my battleship is sunk. I rely on an open meeting area where I can introduce myself to others and make plans for the day....it's like speed dating for friends, but it's important!!!  We are all doing it and desperate for a connection in the storm.

A little note here about writing about places....a lot of times my time to write is on buses/I pretty much never have privacy....to truly write my feelings about the full experience of a place....it feels wrong and offensive knowing full well the local guy sitting next to me on the bus is reading my every word in English with interest and curiosity.

I have all kinds of biases and intrigues and attitudes. Also bad things happen and great things have happened and I've edited those out too....hopefully I can do better from here on out in sharing info...

Well.  I guess I can start now!

Two friends have been mugged in front of me. That's for starters.  Both in Cambodia. Luckily I have lost nothing but the trauma is real and raw and it's horrible to witness. Both are safe and in the end lost nothing special but had to cancel debit cards and will need to return destroyed items to REI. They were smart and lucky and cautious. Keeping money in a bra instead of a purse in one case or locking their bag to their bike in another. Both drive by motorcycle robberies on main busy roads.

The poverty here is intense. Grandma's digging thru trash heaps. Children begging and memorizing capitals to impress tourists. The line between rich and poor is beyond drastic and it's scary and real and raw.  Giving money to beggars with babies on their sides will accomplish nothing but it's heart breaking to walk by and do nothing. It makes me feel a lot of feelings about the support people need from each other.

So there's my thoughts on life tonight. Thinking of all of you that  I love in this moment sitting solo on pub street sipping an angkor beer and wish you well.  Cheers!

Snack of the day

Yes. I did it. I finally ate a fried worm!

Local Food

Most of my favorite experiences in Vietnam revolved around food. Buying it. Eating it. Looking at it. Watching the world go by. 

I'd say that this is pretty accurate for locals as well. 

To really understand the experience, you have to go, but I'll do my best to explain what happens when you're hungry.....

You walk along the street. Restaurants aren't restaurants, they're shacks or the first floor of houses with little mini plastic tables and chairs, with a glass display case on a square box showing the raw ingredients they use...veggies, meats, sauces sit all together in little bowls or bottles. Usually there's some kind of giant pot simmering in back as well...that's broth.  Once in a while you might see a huge metal round pot sitting up front next to the display case. Those are steamed buns with BBQ'd meat inside. 

Based on what's in the window, it's easy to know what to order, because there's usually just one thing they sell and you just tell them how many. For that, you hold up a finger or two fingers and then sit down awkwardly, legs dangling on either side of the table and wait. It's perfect. 

If it's soup, there will be bowls in the window. If it's banh mi, you'll see baguettes. If you want a fried egg, yep, big bowl of eggs. One stop shopping, like picking out donuts or pastries from a window. 

The other thing I loved about this set up is that it's all one person (wait staff, cook, cashier) and all right in front of you. You are sitting behind the kitchen watching the magic happen. There's nothing to hide!

There's always a large amount of condiments available on the table and a little mini trash can next to a table leg, usually a chile sauce, a little bowl of fresh limes, bean sprouts and if you order soup, they bring out a great big basket of fresh herbs and greens...some of them oddly shaped and fuzzy.  

I will admit, I got Pho'd out. Especially for breakfast. But then again, I have also discovered I'm not a breakfast person. 

In Cambodia I've been eating less cart food. It just doesn't look as fresh or enticing, but the restaurants can be cheap and good if you find the right one. I'm getting the nerve up to try a large brown deep fried thing the shape and size of a burrito that looks to have pepper and herbs in it, but I always see them being made along side tire and plumbing stores which unnerves me for some reason, even while watching the burrito sized donut like globs fry to perfection and smell delicious. 

People have told me the food is not good in Cambodia before I came. I believe they weren't eating in the right places. You have to HAVE TO go where locals go, that's the only way. That's where the real Khmer food lies. I discovered two small cheap good restaurants next door to my hotel that lie across the street from a University. You get free unlimited iced tea. Free soup. And a heaping plate full of noodles or rice with beef or pork and veggies. I've also tried the Khmer soup, a cousin to pho, but green onion and fried shallot instead of fresh herbs and a sweet peanut chile sauce on the side. 

Two of my favorite dishes in Cambodia are Amok (a fresh fish peanut sauce sweet curry with big chunks of lake fish)  and Lak Lak (meat - pork, chicken, beef fried in onions with a sweet sauce served with white rice and fried egg). I have a belief the beef is the way to go here as the mini bus drive thru the countryside contained 1000s of big fat white cows wandering the streets. FREE RANGE!!!!  I'm afraid my seafood days are over....in Mui Ne, the ocean resort town I was in, the tofu curry cost $2 and the seafood curry jam packed with fresh shrimp and calamari was $2.25. Yeah. I know. I'm sooooo lucky. 

I've also seen balls of things on sticks, colorful balls of things in large piles, pickled veggies in giant glass jars. You've already seen my selection of dried veg and fruit snacks. There's a lot I haven't tried yet, but I still have time before heading to Thailand at last on the 3rd. I'll try to take/find some photos To explain my wonder and awe at food. 

Snack of the day

Mango smoothie.
I now have a smoothie guy. $1, and spparently, the more often you go, the more overfull the smoothie becomes. Plus, today I met his kids. Aged 1, 5 and 8. the one year old poked me and my map equally, the 5 year old counted to 10 for me in English and the 8 year old little girl stared deeply into...I think my forehead....for a good 5 minutes.

Angkor Wat Day 2

Snack of the day

Think chewy slightly sweet green tea flavored soft gummy rice goo filled with a chewy slightly sweet pumpkin filling.

Kind of the texture of chewing gum.
Yum!

Minnesotans mingle in Kampot

First day in Siem Reap

Lucky for me I met a really lovely couple from Seattle in Battanbang...the town I was in last....and spent the day today biking around Angkor Wat together. It was a really beautiful ride in itself...I'm told we biked 30km, and we saw I think 5 of the major Wats. 

We are planning to spend tomorrow wandering around together as well and then I'll have one more day on my own after they leave to see the big one....Angkor Wat (that's the very large Wat in the center of the park)  which I'm planning to bike to for sunrise.

Exhausted but happy while I sit poolside at my hostel and catch my breath!

Snack of the day for dessert

Snack of the day

The description reads: green pea stick BBQ flavor

Well. They are exactly that. Although these little green sticks for some reason taste like vanilla birthday cake. I know. It's crazy. Delicious!!

Battambang

After a 6 hour mini bus I've made it to Battambang. Heading to Siem Reap the day after that. 

I spent yesterday learning about the genocide of Cambodians by Cambodians in the late 1970s at their museum in Phnom Penh yesterday. Truly horrifying. 

I also managed to drop my water bottle on my toe, which is a pain at home, but more so here where the streets are dusty and its hard to keep an open wound on your foot clean. Alas, all the ointments and bandages have been purchased and I'm now just waiting for it to heal in time to wander thru Wats in the next few days. I hope so!

Taxis

As it is, I have an extreme hatred for taxis. 

I'm traveling with these bags....

Because:

They are light. Super light. Lighter than my back pak in highschool for damn sure. Think 15 pounds. 

I can run/walk/skip wearing them.

I don't have to check my luggage (unlike the poor Belgiun I met in Mui Ne who's luggage got lost in Russia)

It's less to keep track of and both bags have excellent pocket systems 

But the big big big one?  I don't have to rely on taxis to get to my hotel alone. 

This was an annoyance when traveling as a couple, but now that I'm alone, it's beyond annoying, it's unsafe. The most horror stories I've heard from other solo women travelers have had to do with being locked into the back of cabs and getting mugged. 

I don't mind sharing a cab with another backpacker at all, but it's such a luxury to be able to walk easily wherever I am on my own feet to walk the 5 minute walk it takes to get to where my hostel is and also know exactly where I am thanks to GPS on my phone. 

I feel so lucky that I traveled previous to this to know how to pak light and also grateful for the updates in technology that didn't exist the last time we were in Asia. Excellent wifi everywhere. Phone service. 

What else has changed traveling alone?

I book and reserve hostels ahead of time when in a very new city I'm nervous about. It takes the edge off. 

I also request bus pick up from my hostel when heading out of town. I don't care if it costs more. 

I'm very likely to say hello to strangers anywhere. Locals/tourists/couples/anyone. You never know if that person might be a new friend, maybe not in that moment, but at the next hostel in the next town sleeping on the top bunk.....there they will be all smiles right back at me because they remember me saying something nice to them before. It happens all the time. 

So yes. I'm a huge believer in traveling light, with a smile, as I wander past the line of taxis or tuk tuks yelling to me. So so glad that I did!

Otres Beach

I wandered for hours this morning up and down the beach in order to find a working ATM. Yes....the big stress in my life is taking out money.  Just as long as it doesn't run out, life is a dream!  But after two hours and one ATM not working, I got a little pissy, but I did eventually find one!

So after that fun I was starving and stopped on the side of the road for food. I was sitting in a little...well....let's not call it a restaurant. There was a menu, but it was card tables and folding chairs along the edge of shelves filled with instant coffee packets, boxes of cigarettes and cans of Pringles, all kind of strewn about in no certain order with no working lights....so if you wanted to shop, you'd be doing it in slight darkness when farther from the wall-less edges of the open room.  

Everyone sipped out of coconuts a foot across. I asked the Gandolf looking older hippy biker man how much it was.....60 cents....ok!

So as I sat and enjoyed my 3 full cups of coconut water I had a chance to think about where I was. 

Motor bikes

Old hippies

Young kids wearing bohemian bright colored pirate clothes and over stretched tank tops falling off of them. Most of the dudes are so thin their pirate shorts fall down lower than comfortable. Everyone is tan and hairy and dirty. 

Red dirt road with the occasional large truck flying by. 

Everyone that came in left with huge bags or boxes of cigarettes. 

And I felt a sense of Deja vu....where had I seen this before?

Oh yeah!  Mad Max!  So there you go.  Accept that this is a little mini paradise where water and beer and coconuts are plentiful and I'm about to go down to the beach and enjoy a juicy burger, fries, salad and beer for $4 while watching the sun set along the water. So it's more like Mad Max meets the suburbs!

Phnom Penh

I've spent the last couple days in Cambodia - Phnom Penh - after one night in Saigon. Saigon is what the locals call it, not Ho Chi Minh City. Now I wait for a bus to the southern coast where I'll share a bungalow with a new friend on the river front a half miles walk to the ocean for two days. 

Google search Otres Beach to see where I'll be. 

Yesterday she and I walked the city and wandered thru the National museum which was filled with spiritual Hindu/Buddhist artifacts. The hard part was understanding the details and history on a basic level without any previous experience with the history/symbols/meaning. Instead, with a head cold on medication, I sort of wandered about and thought.....hmm....pretty....carved wood....man with 8 hands. ...I may be a lost cause when I get to Siem Reap. I don't take amazing photos...I'm not religious, so when it comes to feeling something bigger....the only way that happens walking around something old and unique is the history of the thing itself....I need a story. 

In Yogyakarta, Prambanan was built when a prince who was one religion married a princess who was another, so he built a temple in her honor that held both symbols of both religions, symbolizing their love together. See!  Story!  Fun!

So here's to hoping I don't get Wat'd out!  

Solo married lady travel

The things I find myself most in shock from over the last two weeks is relearning what it feels like to be single (but still married) and figuring out what that is....especially a women traveling alone is a whole different thing entirely....there are a lot of assumptions made if you are alone....I also look younger than I am (yes, this a good thing, but confusing to explain to new people over and over again when they disbelieve I've been married for 6 years and stare dumbfounded if I'm joking or not. I guess that's a compliment?

A large group of backpackers were sitting together from all different countries and ages and genders, and it was asked to put to a vote, how many of us had partners back home. 5 of the 7 women present had boyfriends who were at home and some of the boyfriends had plans to meet them at some point in the trip. It's actually quite normal what I'm doing, I was surprised to find that out!  Most of the single ladies weren't single!  But....they weren't married either. 

Now....on the other hand, they were all a decade younger than me....there are pretty much no married women traveling alone and that was quite a shock to me to learn, but also a shock to most people I tell that I would choose to travel without my husband. "Why?"  They ask. "Why not?"  I say. 

I don't know if I would call it a stigma, but there are a lot of social pressures and norms connected to being a married women...the do's and don'ts of what married woman are allowed to do alone, and it has me thinking a LOT!  All the time!  Am I doing something wrong?  But then I know more and more every day....this is one of the best things I've ever done for my marriage and myself.  The level of trust and respect we have for one another and the knowledge of what I'm now capable of today that I wasn't able to do a couple weeks ago?...super fun. 

The book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is a beautifully written book I believe, thought provoking and inspiring about her experience of self healing falling to pieces from a horrible divorce and then learning  the joy of travel and discovery and finding herself and loving herself again. Wonderful thoughts on the power and pain of the experience of being alone and finding strength thru that. 

Self love is a huge thing that's super important, but I believe many misconstrue self-love as self-ish, particularly women. We don't believe we are worth the extra effort and cheat ourselves out of living a full life.   Perhaps if more women felt comfortable taking trips and spending more time on their own, they wouldn't feel as trapped into roles and lifestyles that limit their feeling of freedom and self confidence and strength of self....maybe there would even be a lower divorce rate!  Imagine, choosing and wanting to be with a life partner and occassionally by ones self rather than forcing togetherness at all times. Yes I'm married, but I'm also me!!!  I'm a person. Not an extension of my husband. 

Lots of husbands take on jobs that allow them to travel freely and independently for their work while their wives stay at home left behind raising kids and dealing with the day to day...they are forgotten.  Of course they don't mind doing it, but now I just wonder....what if the roles were reversed every now and then....how cool would that be?

Something I can't stop thinking about is, why do we have to fall apart to build ourselves back up?  Why do we deep clean our ovens the day we move out of our apartments?  If we don't take a little time here and there, not necessarily on the other side of the planet from our spouses/partners, but it can be super healing and renewing (and terrifying) to plop yourself in a new place alone and spend time with ones self. Freak out a little bit and then become a little in awe of how quickly new types of thoughts/feelings/wants come out of the woodwork and we can reclaim little pieces of ourselves that we thought we had lost just by enjoying a little reboot time alone. 

Of course I'm talking about myself. Of course I am. But I can't reccommend the experience enough to other women in long or short or non term relationships....granted, I'm still experiencing and changing with good and bad moments, but I'm already feeling stronger and more confident, like I'm starting to radiate some inner diva I'd put away from my twenties, but exuding a new mysterious confidence and strength from being in my thirties.  I'm not looking to hook up and party hearty, I'm looking and finding connections that go beyond the normal social boundaries.  Talking to strangers both local and tourist. Enjoying time alone. Making decisions purely for and by myself. Sharing moments with new friends. Making decisions with my money of what I find valuable.  The phrase "putting yourself out there" is usually aimed at young people dating, but I'm totally feeling the highs and lows of doing just that, but I'm dating different cities instead of people. I'm actually meeting a lot of truly inspiring younger women from Europe also traveling solo and I feel so happy and excited to hear about their lives and their future plans....it's hard to sit on my hands and not give unwanted life advice, but rather listen and root them on!

The point I really want to get across is, I'm having all these great incredible thoughts and feelings of renewed inner strength and growth, but without the ugly divorce.  Without the heartbreak and without starting over. I'm cleaning my oven now rather than the day before moving out!  I'm having an adventure and then I'm going home to the man that I love and loves me most and I'm psyched about it and I truly believe my relationships with hubby/friends/family will be better and stronger for it. Sorry...preachy bit over....I just feel like women are afraid to travel without their men for the most part, that it won't be as fun or it's weird. But it's like eating a salad....so good for you and you'll be glad you did it after!

The hardest part was of course starting up the engine and getting out the door. The moment we bought our plane tickets and R man looked in my eyes and said...."are you sure you want to travel for two months?"  I said no. I said I wasn't sure. But I also knew this was the chance of a life time to get to know myself alone as an adult and so far amongst the highs and the lows, it's been absolutely worth it!

The next time I travel for a day/week/month with a friend or my husband or by myself again, I'm going to appreciate the experience differently in a way I didn't before and was afraid of. It just goes to show, in whatever part of your life you feel afraid, if you face the fear head on, dissect it and take it apart, the fear fades and what is left is strength. 

Here's a few specifics I've discovered about myself this week:

I'm a morning person, not a night person...I've always known that I think, but now it's glaringly obvious. 

I'm not good at confrontations, so what I need to do for myself is tell someone I'll think about it, whatever IT is, then actually have a good think on it and get back to them. No big decisions in the moment unless absolutely necessary. 

I like coffee but coffee doesn't actually like me very much!  I think especially here because the espresso is so strong. Herbal ginger tea at night has become a favorite. 

I love feeling cozy in bed. It's like a little square of security in whatever city I am in. As long as I have a twin sized mattress, I feel adventure calling at the door and look forward to leaving it behind. I also like sharing a room with others...hearing them breathe and move around, even if I don't know them, makes it easier to fall asleep then if I was alone. Probably like how puppies plop on top of each other to take a nap. 

I love walking and looking at stuff...and when you're alone, you actually tend not to get hassled as much....no one hands me pamphlets to their restaurants or hounds me to buy their purses, I'm not their target market. 

I'm a 50/50 mix of intro/extro verted depending on what day/city/mood I'm in. I'm just as likely to stay silent all day with a book than I am to talk my head off with a new friend, but I love having the mix of both. The people I hit it off with are those that don't mind being silent with me at times reading or walking together.  I have discovered that sometimes my empathy gets the better of me, and I should have cut off a conversation two hours prior...but then again, every time I talk to someone new I learn something. Did you know that "having a brew" in England really means "having a cuppa tea"?!?

I miss cheese in my head, but my tummy is much happier on an Asian diet. I'm no longer bloated and feeling too full all the time, instead, it's nice to eat when I'm hungry and feel sated on half the portion of food I would usually cook for myself at home. I think I've lost a little weight. 

I cover up in the sun, but I'm now covered from head to elbow with freckles. Shoulders and nose  particularly. 

So, nothing really huge or life changing. Just little odd things I've come to savor about being alive. 

Of course this is just describing my inner workings.  The experience of travel itself and being in Vietnam, that's a whole other blog entry...not to equate it to being lesser then my little solo lady rant, they just happen to be occurring all at once....being alone also allows me to totally absorb that experience as well. I notice more....think more....question more...and wonder about the people who live here. To be continued.....

The morning walk

7am. I wake up from a large group of Chinese tourists gathering there things to catch an early bus. My dorm room of 6 bunk beds is an active place. Some young Europeans coming back from the dance clubs at 3am, some Chinese tourists packing up their roller bags to head to their next group tour. 

I walk down the 1/2 mile small gravel path down a large hill to the main road from my hostel/hotel/resort. It's a nice situation to sleep in a $6 dorm bed in a prison like room of metal beds and wake up and wander over to the resort like pool setting with a breeze, tables with chairs, mood music and couples sitting pool side sipping smoothies. 

Lining the gravel path there are ladies selling fish from sheets along the sides of the street. One says to me in English?  "You want?  You buy?"  I mumble back, no, sorry, wish I could, sorry. They look like they would make a delicious paella. Plus, I'm sure it would cost $1 for the whole sheet full. There's also fruit stands with herbs and onions, beer and bottled water. Bags of chips and tourist brand shampoos. 

I'm at the main road and the cross the street where my Banh Mi lady awaits....she charges me local prices. 15,000 Dong for an Egg Banh Mi. Today there's a wait. A van of locals is across the street and the old woman with the triangle bamboo hat is working as fast as she can. 4, 5, 6, all going into a bag as more mopeds line up for their regulars and I stand by and watch happily enjoying the feeling of being part of something normal. Everyone waits the same together. For a moment we are all equals....waiting for our Banh Mi Breakfast sandwiches. A young women appears from behind me, she asks in perfect English what I ordered, then how much I paid.  I'm a little startled as this has never happened before. She tells me it's a good price. The van of locals had sent her over to check and make sure I wasn't being scammed (a very regular occurrence here to be charged 5 or 6 times the local price. As it is, I know I'm paying double.)  she smiles and walks back across the street. As the van pulls away, a few women wave at me thru the back window. I feel a little tingle of something...warm fuzzies?...what is it?  

She fries my eggs, then adds the pickled veggies, cuts some fresh cilantro, adds a black sauce, some chile sauce, then wraps the sandwich with a used receipt paper from a restaurant, a rubber and places it in a plastic bag. I give the money to the young boy next to her who looks a little perplexed at me....I don't know why, something else I've gotten used to, looks of  

concern or frustration or just plain old misunderstand. Communication is super tough beyond "hello, 1, 2, goodbye, thank you" and all the body language. I was looking for a bathroom a few days ago and after not verbally clarifying bathroo,, washroom, toilet, I broke out in interpretive dance for the waitress, trying to look like I needed to pee badly, but I kind of accidentally added some graceful hand motions for dramatic effect and she got even more confused.

So, with warm piping hot Banh Mi in hand I walk the block plus long alleyway to the beach. Russians are walking their morning walks. Some are playing volleyball. Chinese woman are walking with umbrellas. There's a little Chinese girl in full body suit running to and from the waves in pure joy as her parents look on smiling. She seems to have more fun running from the waves then running into them. 

I eat my sandwich on an old tree stump watching the little craps peak in and out of their holes in the sand in front of me. They sit for a brief moment out of doors and then, poof. Gone!  I watch couples walk by. I watch older men in sneakers with darkly tanned skin and swimming shorts run by. Of course there's also the ocean swishing in and out. I listen and eat and think about all of it. Everyone all on this beach together from so many places, all having gotten up early to enjoy this moment before the sun hits and the heat blooms and the kite surfing shops open for business. Before the wind picks up and the waves become angry. I dig a hole in the sand with my feet. It feels good to have my feet covered in and sand. I hitch up my skirt to walk thru the foot high water as it pushes onto the beach, foamy and sleepy and sinks down again. I smile at the little girls parents who are laughing amongst her shrieks of joy as she runs away and runs back in. I know exactly how she feels. Maybe all of the grown ups on the beach are feeling that same urge, to shriek with high pitched joy smiling from ear to ear at the playful game the ocean plays with our feet....is it gonna get me?  Nope. Not this time....oh wait!  AHHH!!!  Whoooosh!

I plop my sandy feet into my sandals and walk back to the alleyway. It's piled with trash....junk food bags and red wrapping paper....that's right...it was Tet. 

It's only been an hour since I woke up and I'm already feeling like being here is one of the most special things I've done as a calm and a peace of ocean waves and happy kids and kind thoughtful locals who smile thru van Windows makes me want to share all those happy moments.....so there you go!

Rodolfo's pics

Rodolfo put together a beautiful collection of photos for public consumption and some of them are from our trip to Vietnam!  You can check out his beautiful work here:  

https://500px.com/reperezr

Mui Ne

I took this photo last night with the sun setting. Kite surfing is obviously a popular thing to do here. Not that I would want to do it after watching a young blond women struggling desperately against her kite, pulling on the rigging with blood shot eyes from the ocean water and a look of complete exhaustion. 

Nope, nope, nope.  I'm quite all right sitting at a table with a view looking out onto palm trees and blue skies with the potential notion of poolside time this afternoon when the sun gets lower and reading a trashy paper back til then.  That's perfectly acceptable for me. Yes....I'm loving the stress free aspect of the beach bum life style. This will be my only beach time, so I'll live it up while I have it. 

My intention is to now travel the next 1-2-3 weeks thru Cambodia and head to northern Thailand with whatever time I have left.  I'm nervous about travel in Cambodia, but talking to a fellow back packer, she mentioned that she also gets nervous with changing countries, but once you take the leap, it's all in our heads, it's very very easy. 

Little wins. Little ones.

First of all, I made it safely to the chilled out beach town of Mui Ne. Slight breeze.  View of the ocean. Ok.....Ill be a total jerk and take a pic of where I am writing this at this very moment, really rub it in...

It's pretty nice.  Just wish you were here with me!  It's quiet...chill, very zen in a boogie kind of way.  

I booked the hostel dorm here that's a slightly older crowd...more of the couples and less of the 20 somethings, but for sleeping purposes, sharing a room with grown ups is pretty nice.....except for that one snorer.....grrrr. 

So.  Now that I'm settled, I of course have to start planning the next leg of the trip....which can be infuriating on an emotional level, because it means bowing to the gods of the booking agencies. 

I'm going to let you in on the grimy icky not fun part of backpacking....playing the game of how ripped off do I want to get and by whom. Be it a hotel, a bus, a taxi, a meal, the only power I have is in the form of paper bills with a picture of Ho Chi Minh on them and it can be infuriating to be treated like an ATM machine rather than a person. 

Letting someone rip you off a few bucks doesn't seem like a big deal. Right? This is a poor country. People need the money. I can afford it. What's the fuss all about?  

Firstly, no one likes to be the chump. The loser. The odd man out. Especially after when you find out you've been fooled by someone you thought you could trust. It just doesn't feel good.  Also, it's dehumanizing. It's saying, I'm different than you. I'm not one of you. I am simply a standing, talking object to get money out of. 

I'll use this morning as an excellent example of my fuss:

All the buses that run are the same quality, same type, same time to the next city I'm going to. The local price for a ticket should be 150,000dong/$7ish.  Sounds easy right?  

Here's what happens really.....

When I check in last night, the lady at the hotel tells me the bus for Saturday costs 320,000d/$14. It's Tet holiday after all and so prices everywhere for everything have gone up. That seems reasonable. I have after all booked 7 days in a beach resort just to avoid the mess and haggle of traveling during a holiday when there's no buses running. I think about buying it right then....but decide to wait, maybe I'll want to leave earlier?  Maybe head directly to Cambodia?....it's a big investment really to decide on a leaving date. What if I hate it here?  Better to wait and feel it out I decide...best not to pressure. 

I walk down the beach this morning and check in at one of the local bus companies...the woman ignores me for 5 minutes, then slowly wanders over and glares at me. I ask, she quickly whips out 350,000dong/$16 at me. Whoa!  Every day?  Every day same price. No smile. No discussion. No nothing. Yuck I think. That's more, why?  Weird. I'll wait and buy at my hotel. 

Now.....back at the hotel, 12 hours later, the buses are all full she says. The price has gone up....400,000d ($18).  I sigh. Oh shit. I missed my opportunity. Man people sure we're fast buying up tickets last night!...thinks my Minnesota nice brain. I say yes out loud to buy, then I make a grimace and change my mind....something smells fishy.   I apologize for my confusion and walk away. 

I talk to another tourist girl I met on the road. Her ticket has also gone up in price.

Then I meet a dude from the States. He says it's a thing the locals do....inflate the prices to get more out of tourists, if you argue or start to walk away, they'll lower the price to the local price. 

So...(now we are nearing the end) I walk down the Main Street half a mile. Walk up to the first travel stand on the street with a younger dude chilling out with his 2 year old daughter. I walk up and ask....300,000d/$13  He was nice. He smiled. He talked about other things to do here. He talked about his plans for Tet New Year and what the locals do for the holidays. He was a person with me and he smiled and treated me warmly. We shook hands and we wished each other a good day like human beings. I could have argued him down.  Maybe I probably should have, but the experience of sitting with him and being treated decently and sharing a very short moment with him and his family that didn't involve eye glares or irritation.....I really don't mind paying more to him at all. I feel kind of good about it!  

So to summarize the experience for one bus ride and probably even the same bus!

2/6 5pm $14 (my hotel)

2/7 8am $16 (angry lady)

2/7 9am $18 (my hotel)

2/7 10am $13. SOLD!  To the nice quiet guy at only double the price with the adorable little girl!

So I have a new motto. I don't mind being ripped off at all, if I'm being ripped off by people I like and who are honest and reasonable with me. Helpful is a plus!  

I was also told a few cities back by a reception girl after being super ripped off at a place next door to her....always ask around to 3 different places before buying something. Anything. It's worth the wait. Plus, you meet people....maybe even nice ones. 

So I sit and enjoy a respite before heading to lunch and doing the process all over again. It's not bad at all, just takes some getting used to!

Da Lat Botanical Garden

The funny thing about paid gardens in Asia......it's not so much about the different types of flowers, it's about how the flowers decorate the giant ceramic statues of Snow White and the seven dwarves.....or a woman loading a canoe with watermelons....or a creepy version of Mickey Mouse.  I didn't take pictures of those things, but I had to take these.  Please take special care in noticing the giant banana leaf square of sticky rice shown above next to the watermelon. These must be special foods for this region. 

The pony let me pet his ears. 

This photo is the perfect example of how Da Lat wants to appear to be kind of a little Switzerland.....but if Switzerland was in Disney Land. 

I think I ended up having more fun at the jumbo Costco like grocery store at the local mall after than I did at the garden....but if you know me, this won't surprise you at all. I bought jackfruit chips!!! It's also hard to enjoy an outdoor park in mid day sun without shade from trees. It was pretty, but made me miss and appreciate my beloved Brooklym Botanical Garden.  I promise BBG to visit more when I'm back!

Shrimp flower

Weird flower of the day!  In honor of walking to the botanical garden later this morning. Da  Lat has a flower festival every year because they love flowers so much!  So I'm excited to go flower hunting.

Da Lat

Well, I went from Russian Miami to Vietnamese Switzerland. DA LAT is my kind of town with easy city walking, local fresh fruit and veggies and lucky for me I've finally made a couple of friends here, had a lot of fun adventures and conversations and I'm starting to feel at ease.

Here's some pics of my last few days of adventures taking a monolith to a zen Buddhist monestary, walking the streets with new friends, eating delicious food and staying in a really fun little hostal full of other solo travelers just like me. Things are going really well.

Birds of paradise

Nha Trang

After a 12 hour night bus and an interesting one night stay in Nha Trang (Russian Miami), but a very very nice sleep in Tobala Hostel where I slept in a cubby box and room that opened with a wrist bracelet, then a 5 hour mini bus drive thru the mountains into a Vietnamese Version of Switzerland where the temp is 70-80 degrees, the air is cool and fresh and little kids grab your hand and say hello in English en masse. 

Here's some pics from my time in Nha Trang:

My awesome hostel Tobala

A store near my hostel....now I know where the Russians go for winter,

Crossing the train tracks 

My dinner!  Banh Mi. She's cooking eggs down below, then she added meatballs, aioli, herbs, chili sauce and pate. $1

This strawberry bubble tea was insanely delicious!  There were blueberry flavored bubbles that exploded in your mouth like real blueberries, plus half of it was little chewy gummies!  A refreshing drink and a snack!  50 cents. I also made a friend who I shared a room with at the hostel from Malaysia. We had a wonderful time talking and walking around.