just laura

M and I made it to Saigon 36 hours ago. We left Sat 11/1 at 2:25pm, and arrived here Sun 11/2 at 11pm. Checked into our Hong Hao hotel, slept till 5am (yay jet lag), then spent a long day exploring yesterday. We went to the Ben Thanh Market and to Reunification Palace, and then lucked upon a fabulous restaurant for lunch (pork vermicelli, bbq beef with chili salt, rice cakes with sesame, banana cake, and coconut milk with mung beans!). Yum! In the afternoon we wandered to the river to watch the boats, saw sunset and storms from atop the Sheraton Saigon hotel (23rd floor deck), went to an outdoor market (who wants entrails or tails?), bought M a camera, had a smoothie, and had an awful dinner. :) We were exhausted and in bed by 11pm, and now it’s 9am and we’re ready for breakfast.

Oh, and don’t worry. Saigon is super far away from Hanoi… no flooding here. We’re safe and sound. Leo and Mae arrive in 2 days. Yay! Then the adventures really begin!

Go Obama! Happy birthday Marth!

He hopes it will be Obama. We’re going to sleep now (it’s almost 10pm and we’re exhausted!) and then we’ll wake up and see what happens tomorrow morning. Rather sad to miss the excitement of rallies, volunteer opps, and election parties back home, but really no complaints at all about being here and spending a great vacation with M. :) It’s sooo good to be away and just be able to spend time together exploring and enjoying the company.

This morning awoke today to emails about the flooding in Hanoi… no worries, we’re far, far away in Saigon. Today we spent another relaxed day wandering Saigon. Today we ate breakfast from a street vendor (friend egg, fresh veggies, baguette, cheese, and iced coffee for $1.50 each) did a bike rickshaw ride, booked flights and a boat trip in Halong Bay (I’m soooo excited!), hit the War History Museum (where I cried a lot… very powerful photography of the atrocities), had a great lunch at Xu (chili tomato soup, grilled grouper, fabulous custard dessert, and passion fruit juice), sat in the park, talked history, reminisced about life in Kenya, ate a yummy dinner at Lemongrass (fresh roll, eggplant stuffed with mincemeat, sauted ginger chicken, dragon fruit), and took a ride home on the back of a motorbike. Another long day wandering in the hot sun. Still tired, but planning to take sleeping pills tonight. We have no problem falling asleep, we’re just both having a harder time staying asleep past 3am or 4am.

Tomorrow is a big day: US election results should arrive by tomorrow morning and Leo and Mae arrive by tomorrow evening! A very, very exciting day! G’night all!

M and I are having a great time in Vietnam! We just got back from a three day luxury boat cruise in Halong Bay on a Huong Hai junk (giant fake sail boat). The last time I slept on a boat I was in Zanzibar, and before that Lamu. This trip was a bit more decadent… definitely getting in touch with my hedonistic side. Our boat sailed around karst after karst, each more scenic than the last. We saw floating villages, we kayaked, we hiked to the top of islands, we walked through caves, we relaxed on the top level of the boat, and we ate our body weight’s worth of seafood. Best of all we got to be on hand when Leo proposed to Maegan! The event was well documented and we’ll post pictures eventually! Many congrats to Leo and Mae!

We left Halong and Haiphong just before the typhoon was supposed to hit tonight, and are now back in Saigon collecting our bikes. Tomorrow we’re off to Da Nang and Hoi An and the biking adventures begin! Hope everyone is well!

[apologies in advance... no time for editing or proofreading! limited internet access and now i'm off to bed!]

We fly to Da Nang, assembled our bikes with the help of many, many interested locals, and did our first day of riding to Hoi An. People were super excited by us… apparently not that many people actually ride? I ran over a brick, and didn’t crash! Roads are hectic, full of speed demon busses, giant trucks, bicycles, a bazillion motorbikes, and mangy mutts galore that like to jump into traffic.

Hoi An was gorgeous and historic, then on to Tam Ky for 1 night (in a town that never sees tourists), then to Quang Ngai for 1 night at a family hotel not far from Son My (the My Lai massacre site), then to Sa Huyn for 1 night at a rainy beach front/government run resort, and now in Quy Ngon for 1 night at another beach town in the rain. The biking hasn’t killed me yet. While we’ve yet to actually get hit by the potential typhoon, the storms rage on and rain continues to fall on us.

Tonight we ended up inviting a Vietnam vet to join us for dinner. Very powerful to hear about his trip back here, 40 years after his tour of duty. Will post more about Mike later.

Tomorrow we’re gearing up for a 120km day, despite the rains and in spire of a cold I seem to have acquired somewhere around Tam Ky. The trip is half over, sadly, and time seems to be slipping away. Too much to see and do, and limited time if we’re biking. Hope everyone is well!

We seem plagued by storms everywhere we go. We’re told the monsoons are a month late this year and they’re certainly here now as we’ve gotten them in full force for our biking trek. Flooding in Hanoi while we were in Saigon. They were about to his Halong the day we left Halong. We’re now in Nha Trang, where there’s a typhoon off the coast and tons of rain pouring down outside our hotel windows. Next up in 2 days in a trip back to Saigon, where there’s apparently more flooding.

The latest news:

Tropical Cyclone Warning #4 (2100z 16NOV)
===========================================
At 18:00 PM, Tropical Storm Twenty-Six (Noul) has sustained winds of 35 knots with gusts of 45 knots. The cyclone is located 195 NM east-southeast of Nha Trang, Vietnam and reported as moving west at 11 knots. Significant wave height associated with 26W is 11 feet.

and

Floods kill 11 in central and southern Vietnam
Nov 16, 2008 8:37 AM (11 hrs ago) AP
HANOI, Vietnam – Flooding killed at least 11 people in Vietnam’s southern and central regions, submerged thousands of homes in its largest city and stranded air and railway passengers, officials said Sunday. The country braced for more rain as another tropical storm approached, forecasters said. Floods caused by surging high tides submerged thousands of homes in the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City over the weekend, according to state media. No deaths were reported in the city, but television footage showed homes and streets in the downtown area under three feet (one meter) of water.

Off now to breakfast to develop a plan that will include a rainy day of sight seeing. :)

We just had a few ridiculously relaxing days in Nha Trang, a (touristy) beach town that was totally different than the small villages we rode through over the last 500km leg of our cycling trip.

The street food vendors in villages have maybe one entree each… hairy pork (with hair and skin still attached), pho, Vietnamese sandwiches (processed meat product and pate on a baguette with fish sauce and peppers), etc. Nha Trang is much fancier. It’s on a gorgeous beach surrounded by mountains, complete with fancy hotels and cafes that have staff who speak some English and serve your choice of Vietnamese or Western foods. We stayed at the Nha Trang Beach Hotel and had an air conditioned room with hot water, TV, a fridge, free breakfast cooked to order, and two king beds for only $7 each ($7 x 4 ppl = $28/night).

As for food, in Nha Trang I had a sirloin steak, gelato, a great chicken korma with garlic naan, a fabulous mango margarita, a wonderful ostrich fillet, fried bananas galore, iced Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk, and so much really good food. We ate ourdoors when possible, ideally on rooftop decks with views of the city. I also had a one hour Swedish massage for $6. Quite an affordable town to relax in for a few days! (Though it’d be pretty easy to get stuck there and stay for much longer!)

I spent most of my time there lounging on a beach chair, reading my book, journaling, and people watching. The friendly wait staff would deliver me drinks and snacks while I watched the waves crash and the storms roll in. Thank goodness for the decadent Sailing Club, the site of our indulgence for the past few days. Local women would stroll by trying to sell you their wares… illegally reproduced books ($5), fake Gucci sunglasses ($2), fresh fruit (mangoes, bananas, and dragon fruit) and best of all… fresh lobster and crab! They carry on their shoulders and cook the seafood right there for you. I ordered two crabs for $1 total, she threw in some chili lime salt sauce she made, and I had a feast for lunch. So great! Messy, but great!

We also hit a pagoda, visited a giant Budda, went to a gallery of photography by Do Dien Khanh, wandered the streets, saw more Cham towers, and snuck into a deserted amusement park and let ourselves onto the ferris wheel before security could find us.

More to come! For now, we’re off to search for cardboard to see if we can get our bikes safely home from HCMC to Tokyo to Seattle. Hope everyone is well!

The typhoon didn’t hit the coast, but the winds and the rains of tropical storm Noul definitely hit Nha Trang. We went in for a massage around 10am, and at noon came out to find the street in front of our hotel flooded, water rising steadily up over the curb and covering much of the sidewalk. That’s a ton of water in a very short time… somewhere between 8-12 inches in 2 hours! We stayed under shelter the rest of the lazy day at the Sailing Club lounge area… eating, drinking, and watching the storms roll in. Seemed easier than attempting sight seeing in the pouring rain. By the next day, it was partly cloudy, the rain stopped for the mornings, and we enjoyed a sunny half day at the beach. Excellent! We continued to get evening rains, along with morning or afternoon rains, but happily it never really rained all day. We survived yet another storm… though the 3,000 missing people from the region are still in my thoughts.

Today we prepare for the long travel ahead, leaving Vietnam tonight, flying into Tokyo, spending a day in Tokyo on layover tomorrow (hoping to do a one day city tour), then returning to Seattle on Sunday morning. I get less than 24 hours in Seattle before heading back out for my Thanksgiving flight early Monday. Perhaps I should pick up another book today before getting on the plane? And a few souvenirs maybe… though I never really know who wants a lighter from Saigon, candle holder from Halong, snake wine (complete with dead snake inside), or magnet from Nha Trang. Or perhaps a lacquered bowl, matching chop sticks, or embroidered purse? I hate to bargain, buy, pack, ship, and gift, only for it to get tossed to Goodwill soon after. No one really wins there. If I could find classier/more exotic souvenirs, that people would actually want, I’d have a much easier time shopping. Alas. Time to get off the internet, wash the bike grease from my body, and get out to enjoy one last sweaty day in Ho Chi Minh City.

Tomorrow, off to Tokyo! If anyone has suggestions for 1 day tours, or sights to see self guided, drop me an email!

Gotta love my boy Brett who’s “ready to throw his nuts on the line!” He’s traveled through 45 countries, and I think we did about 7 of those countries together! He’s lived in New Zealand as an outdoor adventure tour guide, is doing real estate now in Panama, has been a dive instructor in Mexico and Fiji, has lived in the US, etc. He’s got a law degree and a zoology degree, and he’s trying to get a gig doing nature documentaries. If anyone has any leads, do let me/him know!

Fiji dive footage…

Photos from Africa… (proud to say I actually took a few of these shots of Brett!)

Brett’s video resume…

Nature documentary… where breeding time is the “highlight of the social calendar!”

Seems I haven’t blogged lately… I’ve been busy flying here and there. Made it back from Vietnam last Sunday, then left for Florida on Monday. Time with the family was very lovely… my uncle’s house is right on the beach, a fantastic backdrop for laid back family time. Two and a half year old Gus was the all-star of the weekend… so great!

I flew back from Florida this weekend and made it home in time to go to a party at M’s house, see the new 007 flick, get some unpacking done, and eat dinner at Carmelita. Carmelita has a 3 for $30 special right now, and I had the farro tagine for my main dish (amazing, with butternut squash, chard, and pomegranate seeds!), beet/goat cheese/risotto balls for my starter, and a pear-cranberry crisp for dessert. It was a perfect meal for fall and I was lucky to have M as my beloved meal companion.

Tomorrow I’ll return to the office after being gone a month and am hoping I won’t lose my job. (I got a call last week promising 10% cuts or more, plus the encouragement to take unpaid leave… yikes). I’ll only be in town one day then will head to San Francisco on Tuesday for a quick business trip. I’ll be back in Seattle by Friday, just in time for the weekend. Hope y’all are well!

Carmelita
www.carmelita.net
7314 Greenwood Avenue North
Seattle WA 98103
206.706.7703

“Carmelita, Seattle’s Premier Vegetarian Restaurant, opened its doors to the public on December 1st, 1996. The menu at Carmelita changes with the seasons. Every dish is made from scratch using only the freshest ingredients. Organic produce, grains, cheeses, herbs and spices are used whenever possible. Independent farmers and foragers are heartily supported, and local and seasonal ingredients take precedence over maintaining a routine menu. Change is a way of life at Carmelita, with daily specials and seasonal surprises delighting diners. Each season brings a feast to the table. From Fall and Winter’s sweet and golden squash, to Spring’s asparagus and artichokes, to the local harvest of late Summer with its bounty of heirloom tomatoes and sweet corn; everyone welcomes the changing seasons at Carmelita. Diners can enjoy fine imported and domestic wine and beer, selected to complement the savory vegetarian fare. All of this and more is served up in a comfortable, eclectic and totally smoke free environment.”