December 2010
12 posts
3 tags
getting the hell outta dodge
vietnam was wearying. matt summed it up pretty well here. needless to say when our visas were due to expire in a day and we faced a 24 hour bus ride to laos, we decided to fly instead. i’ve never made a better decision in my life. okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration…i’ve made a few other good ones. but relieving ourselves of a guaranteed stressful trip proved very...
2 tags
last ocean view
halong bay: bus, minibus, traffic jam, boat, minibus; vegetable curry; cliffside beach walk; suntans; political confrontation; boat cruise, germans, swimming, shell seeking; lazy day; ice cream hunt; frustrating journey back to hanoi. in a nutshell.
{out and about on cat ba island. all photos by matt.}
2 tags
the chocolate orange split
another overnight bus brought us to hanoi, thankfully this trip was more relaxing and organized (again, everything is relative now). bman and i took the walking tour of the city and were pretty easily overwhelmed. it reminded me of a passage about saigon that matt had read me from his book, dispatches: “a five-block walk … could take it out of you, you’d get back to the hotel...
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no hway!
{all shots from around the imperial palace except the last one (by matt) taken at a temple just outside the citadel}
from hoi an we a relatively short bus ride (it seems all things are relative these days) to the historical city of hue, pronounced ‘hway’. the CADC—short one member; ro-bizzle where you at?!— was at it again, this time biking through the old...
2 tags
whisper white horse
{faux flower vendors; street lanterns; bobo’s courtyard; dreamboat; bman. first three by matt, portraits by me}
hooowee! ‘member how i said the bus from dalat to nha trang was one of the worst yet? that does not even compare to the overnight bus from nha trang to hoi an. it’s a bit sketchy to begin with, then you throw in the non english speaking vietnamese staff and...
3 tags
days 42-46. easy livin'
{city streets, flower farm, silk factory, mountain view. all photos by matt.}
from the beach we went to the mountains, where the climate and terrain were strikingly familiar to our san francisco ways. cool air and fog hung low above the mountain tops and the city below us sprawled out in hills and turns.
day one in dalat was a bit of a chill-out day, with the boys making some plans and...
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days 40-41. gobble gobble!
{kitesurfers, beach pup, bright cutlery, our bill collector at dinner, palm trees. pics 1, 2, and 5 by matt)
we spent a relaxing three nights and two days in a quaint little resort town on the southern coast of vietnam, about 215 km north of saigon.
as can be expected, the most activity we had was either walking to the beach or walking to dinner. the beach was beautful, the water...
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days 38-39. hcmc part three. the rest.
{matt’s pic of the cool mood lighting on our cushy bus ride to mui ne}
saigon is a very busy city. now i’m a city girl through and through, but it was a bit much even for me in this town. needless to say we decided to wrap our time in hcmc as quickly as possible and head out to the beach for some much needed r&r.
on our last full day we checked out the war remnants museum for...
1 tag
recommendations, svp.
you know me, always looking for a good book to read. so far on the trip i’ve covered:
The Spirit Hits You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadimen Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell The Alienist by Caleb Carr Freedom by Jonathan Franzen Distant Star by Roberto Bolano
next in the queue: The Wild Sheep Chase by Harukai Murakami and Matterhorn by Karl...
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day 39. hcmc part two. or, reppin the CADC
{this is that the tunnels look like inside. i don’t have a camera anymore so you’ll have to bear with me}
i hopped back on the old horse bright and early after ‘the incident’ and joined robbie, bman, and matt on a tour of the cu chi tunnels outside of saigon. we boarded the mini bus and met our guide, ellie (his chosen english name which is short for his favorite animal,...
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day 38. hcmc part one. or, the purse snatching.
after meeting up with brendan, aka bman, and reminiscing/getting to know him over the course of the evening of our arrival, we made big plans to see the sights in saigon the next morning. first stop was the zoo. zoos in southeast asia are a bit, how you say, different. people regularly try to feed the monkeys or throw trash in the hippo pond. it was fun to see, but i don’t think i need to...
5 tags
days 33-37. chau doc--> can tho --> saigon
{river gas station; turnip vendor; vermicelli factory; quackers; watermelons in the shade. all photos by matt}
chau doc was ummm…a bit of a shithole really. we mostly stayed in our wonderful hotel and ventured out for food when we were hungry. we were stoked then, when we got to can tho which turned out to be a bustling city compared to chau doc.
immediately upon our arrival at...
