Travels and Traffic

If my blog tonight has a hint of hysteria to it that would probably be due to the fact that I just had to deal with thirty minutes of ferocious motorbike drivers, large taxis and their endless honking, congested roundabouts, delivery men with boxes of toilet paper and steel rods poking out from behind them, teenagers recklessly driving their bicycles, traffic lights that were out of order, and the absence of stop signs at large intersections where a stop sign should be, all in my desire to get home from work. But my complaining is done. I knew what I was getting into when I bought my e-bike, and can I just say that I don’t regret it at all.

Yes, security guards, men on the road, women selling fruit on the street, my ex-xe-om driver (with whom I had to break up with via text message in French telling him I no longer needed his services), my Vietnamese colleagues, basically everyone including my dear maid Cuc might laugh at little Bennie (the story from how my bike got its name would make this blog even longer) when I drive it around town or pull up to park, but I have confidence in its and my ability and I am getting better by the day (not to brag, but I had one friend describe me as fearless in my ability to start riding my bike around town immediately), and by better I mean less wobbly and less inclined to fall over a stoplight or when I take a turn.

And I must blame the fact that I haven’t updated my blog since coming home from my trip on my motorbike. You see, I was so excited to get back to practicing that I have been riding all over town. And somteimes, after coming home from another thirty minutes of exhaling fumes I rationalize that because I am saving oh so much money on driving myself instead of paying someone that I bike to a haven of a coffee shop and splurge on that latte or go to the expensive gourmet grocery shop and buy that imported French cheese or freshly baked baguette or nutella, and then my break is up and I must go back to work.

But enough with my complaining and excuses and my obsession with my bike. Back to the update on my travels.

As I had mentioned in my previous blog, friends and I flew to Bangkok, not really having much of a plan. It ended up being a wonderful trip. We stayed a night in Bangkok, took a night train to Chiang Mai where we spent three wonderful days trekking through the mountains. There were seven of us in the group that traveled together, and only seven of us on the trek plus our two guides.

On the night train to Chiang Mai.

I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect trek. The mountains of Thailand during the cold season were beautiful. It smelled and looked like fall. What a glorious treat to have a fall that in February when we have been living in the Ho’s (Ho Chi Minh City) sunlight. We stayed two freezing nights in hill tribe villages where there was no electricity and where we got to play with children, talk to the locals, sit around a campfire drinking homemade rice wine (which is not good and very strong), and eat delicious food. We also hiked all day, explored a remote cave, went mountain biking, rode an elephant, swam in a waterfall, and floated down a lazy river on bamboo rafts. I could go on and on, but I will let pictures do the rest of the talking.

On our way to the drop off point. We road in the back of this truck for two hours before we had lunch. We climbed up steep hills, as evidenced by the car engine having to cool off.

Group shot having lunch on day one before we began the hiking.

An example of the bridges we crossed along our hike.

Swimming at the waterfall.

On the hike.

First night's accommodation. We all slept in the same cabin. Unfortunately, the mosquito nets didn't do much for providing warmth.

Village life.

The villagers wanted us to purchase many of their homemade goods. Being business savvy, they waited until it was pitch black dark and after we had consumed some rice wine to try to sell us their wares. I bought a bracelet thinking it was red, only to discover the next day that it was bright pink. Some of us tried to give them an English lesson instead, but even that didn't work as one can see by the hat that Thom is wearing.

Bamboo rafting.

Entering the second village where we stayed the second night.

Cute village girls dressed up for the new year.

Breakfast around the campfire.

On the bicycle ride.

Exploring the cave.

Afternoon swim our last day before the elephant ride.

After the trek we went back to Chiang Mai and then Thom and I left the group and took the bus up to Chiang Rai (which is even further north of Chiang Mai) where we rented a motorbike and decided to drive up to Myanmar.

Here I am getting ready for our journey.

Getting across the border proved to be no problem compared to driving the hour up to the border. We had read that they only accept USD in Myanmar, therefore causing us to stop at least four times trying to trade our Thai baht to dollars, only to be told at each of the stops that there were no USD available. After exiting one bank we received a flat tire that was discovered well after we had left the town. We then had to pull up to a small store on the side of the road, point to our tire, and hope that the seventeen-year-old selling car electronics could help us out.

And he did! He even got his mother to watch the store as he drove into town to buy us a new tire (and overcharging us in the process), but we were back on our way.

View from the road up to Burma.

Once we arrived in the border town in Thailand we had to find a place to park the motorbike. We couldn’t take it over the border, as no wanted the responsibility of looking over the motorbike (they can be wheeled away quite easily). Thus, we had no choice but to purchase a room for the motorbike a room and house it in the room during our journey. After one last stop to try to trade money we were on our way over the border.

As I said, getting into Myanmar proved to be no problem. We gave them our passports to keep until we crossed back into Thailand in exchange for a piece of paper that had our picture on it, told where we were allowed to go in Burma, and told how long we were allowed to be there (without a visa we could only go in a certain section of the country). Again, I will let the pictures do the talking (or some of it, I know this blog is lengthy) but even though we only stayed in the border town, it was very interesting to see the country and compare it to Thailand and even Vietnam. The atmosphere was very different for the poverty was more apparent and their were guards with machine guns sitting on many corners throughout town, but it was beautiful and the people couldn’t have been nicer. (And, of course, everyone wanted Thai baht. They all REFUSED USD!)

Our tuk tuk driver who we hired to take us around to see the sites in the city.

Here I am in one of the temples. As I was leaving this man motioned me over to show me some whitening cream that everyone was wearing and helped me put some on my face. He then asked if I would get in a picture with him.

View into the mountains.

At lunch. Unfortunately, I got food poisoning from this meal. Why I would trust a tuk tuk driver to take me to a restaurant in Myanmar where I wouldn't get sick I don't know. But how many people can say they good food poisoning from Burma?

To the right of the river is Burma, to the left is Thailand.

After the afternoon in Myanmar we went back into Thailand and the next day we drove around some more, going down to the Golden Triangle and driving up in the mountains where we stayed in this beautiful town (Mae Salong) literally on top of a mountain. The next night we took the night bus back to Bangkok and the next day went back to Vietnam.

Back in Thailand, here is a view into Burma.

The Golden Triangle. Laos to your right. Burma ahead. Thailand behind me.

Some of the scenery along the drive further into the mountains.

Cute cafe where we ate most of our meals in Mae Salong.

A view of the town from the pagoda.

On the way back to Chiang Rai to catch the bus.

Getting accosted by more people to buy souvenirs.

Arriving back to Vietnam was like coming home to another vacation as there were NO traffic problems and things were so quiet. Stores were still closed, neighbors were gone, construction on the roads had been taken down, and even though I had to teach I hardly had any students as people were still traveling. It was quiet and wonderful and the perfect way to end the trip.

However, as evidenced in the beginning of my blog the city is back alive.

Since this blog entry is already so long I will just tell one more story to end. Recently a friend of mine asked me if my maid could work for her and her roommates on the days she didn’t work for us.

Our maid, Cuc, is amazing. She cooks, speaks English, brings us fruit treats, does an amazing job cleaning, does our laundry, pays our bills (we, of course, give her the money), runs errands, and deals with so many problems because we can’t speak Vietnamese. She may be a tad bit bossy and we do have to hide things we don’t want cleaned or organized, but we all need a bit of bossiness in our lives.

I gladly asked Cuc if she was available to help my friend out. Yet, somewhere along the way things got lost in translation and she became scared that we didn’t want her anymore. She frantically sent me mutliple texts, one saying “But! I like work for you, Beth, and Grey. Your friend, I’ll work more ok.”

I quickly assured her that we loved her and definitely did not want to get rid of her at all. She then responded to my text saying “Thanks! I very like three people, happy, sympathy, union. If 3 people go to USA I never forget 3 people.”

And so, this third of the “happy sympathy, union” wishes you a wonderful week!