tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80883851566758005342024-03-21T06:41:39.585-07:00Tales from SaigonIt's me. And my life in Saigon. And my thoughts about life in Saigon. And maybe someone else's if they manage to express the thoughts more eloquently than I ever could.Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-23896457126274925232016-04-14T13:52:00.001-07:002016-04-14T13:58:06.393-07:00The one where Kat comes to visit and we go to the beach. <div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">My BB (best buddy, bosom buddy,
something along those lines) Kat came to visit me in October 2012. Before you
get all <a href="https://justkickthecan.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/funny-judging-owl.jpg">Judgy
McJudgerson</a>, you should realise that at least I’m writing this BEFORE the
FOUR YEAR MARK! Crazy how time flies and how much I procrastinate with doing
the things I really want to do. Not my job…obviously. Kat had never been out of
the country before and has now visited three countries in four years, for which
I’m immensely proud of her. Leading up to her first trip though, there were a
ton of emails back and forth all full of questions like “will there be signs in
English?”, “do I need a visa?”, “how do I hail a taxi?” “is that safe?” (in
regards to a seafood buffet I wanted to take her to), which are all perfectly
legit questions, but I never think about things like that. I mean, I do, but I
do all the research on my own and never think to ask others about it so it was
a particularly stressful time for both of us because I kept taking on her
stress about visiting. Once she arrived it was easy peasy time. Well, for her.
I got sick…of course. More about that later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Kat arrived on a Friday and I
decided to keep my evening classes because I was losing an entire weekend which
sucked because of my low hours, but was also amazing because having a free weekend
felt so darn good at the time. It didn’t affect me that much though because she
arrived late Friday evening and by the time I picked her up from the airport
and we got back to my apartment it was pretty late and we had an early morning
train to catch. We had enough time for a late night snack, some minor BB catching
up time, shower (for her since she’d been traveling for close to 19 hours) and
sleep. We were up pretty early on Saturday to catch our train up to Nha Trang.
It was my first time on the train so that was pretty exciting. We got a soft
seat in air con (just a regular chair in air conditioning) which I can’t
remember why because it was about a 7-hour trip and the soft sleeper wasn’t
that much more expensive. It was a good trip though. Make sure to buy your
tickets in advance since reservations are required. I went to the train station
about a week prior to buy the tickets, but you can also buy through most travel
agencies on Bui Vien. I didn’t see the point since you have to pay an extra
fee, but it does make life easier for lazy travellers. Ga Saigon is located at 1
Nguyen Thong, 9th Ward, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. If you need more information
on train travel ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, check out <a href="http://www.seat61.com/Vietnam.htm#How much does train travel cost">Seat
61</a>, which is absolutely one of the best websites ever. For more information
on train travel in Vietnam, you could also use the <a href="https://vietnam-railway.com/train/route/train-from-ho-chi-minh-city-to-nha-trang">Vietnam
Railways website.</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Kat and I caught the 6:00 a.m.
train and got into Nha Trang around 1:00 p.m. We got a taxi to our hotel, the <a href="http://www.agoda.com/golden-sea-hotel-nha-trang/hotel/nha-trang-vn.html">Golden
Sea Hotel Nha Trang</a>, which I don’t remember very well, but I have over good
memories of it. We had an oceanfront view, as in a view of the actual ocean. I
only got to see it for a little bit before I promptly got sick. It was probably
motion sickness because after a few hours of rest and lots of water I was back
to normal. The beach in Nha Trang (to me) wasn’t particularly nice (as nice as
Cambodia and Thailand for sure) and I took a personal exception to it because a
wave *literally* knocked me on my face, which caused endless amounts of
laughter on Kat’s part. ::I’m still shaking my fist at you, Katherine:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The seafood in Nha Trang is
generally delicious. We found a restaurant, <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293928-d1121796-Reviews-Truc_Linh_2-Nha_Trang_Khanh_Hoa_Province.html">Truc
Linh 2</a>, not too far from the hotel for dinner that was not. Avoid it all costs
even if Lonely Planet touts it in their guidebooks. The pictures of our food look good, but it did
not taste good and that’s all I have to say on that matter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The next day we rented a
motorbike and drove around town to see some of the sights. I successfully
managed to not kill us and find <a href="http://en.vietnam.com/central-vietnam/cities/nha-trang/attractions/nha-trang-places-of-interest.html">Long
Son Pagoda (Chùa Long Sơn)</a> (success!!), which is a Buddhist temple with a
beautiful and huge statue of…you guessed it…Buddha! It’s really peaceful and
definitely worth a visit. We also managed to successfully find <a href="http://en.vietnam.com/central-vietnam/cities/nha-trang/attractions/nha-trang-places-of-interest.html">Po
Nagar Towers (Thap Ba)</a> which I can’t say enough good things about. It’s an
old Cham temple (but apparently is still used by visitors) and the architecture
is so different from Buddhist temples you find in Vietnam. I think I prefer the
Cham style, I have no words, but lots of pictures so hopefully you’ll be able
to see why. It’s situated at the top of a hill overlooking the water and there
weren’t that many visitors when we were there in October so it was quiet and
exuded the sense of peace you usually only find in temples. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">We
didn’t try to see much more because Kat was still feeling jetlagged and I was
still getting over my sudden sickness from the day before and it was pretty hot
to be driving around, in the sun mind you, so we called it quits in the early
afternoon. Plus, we had a bus to catch to Da Lat, which I thought would be a great
place to visit for several reasons. I’d never been, Kat wanted to see as much
of Vietnam as possible so I thought seeing the beach, a big city and the
mountains would count as “as much as possible” and it was chilly in the
mountains in October and I was really missing the cold. So off to Da Lat we
went. More in the next post…</span></div>
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Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-11849140234219045142016-04-10T15:03:00.002-07:002016-04-24T20:07:02.910-07:00More from Phu Quoc<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanks to Facebook memories, I found this review I wrote to my friend Alee after Helen's and my stay in Phu Quoc and I thought I ought to share it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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"I stayed at the <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1184679-d3237706-Reviews-Coco_Palm_Beach_Resort_Spa-Duong_Dong_Phu_Quoc_Island_Kien_Giang_Province.html">Coco Palm Resort</a> in Phu Quoc just last week and it was great. It's a bit further away from town, but you'll get all the rest and relaxation you want. They treat you like family there. Plus, you'll get your own private beach. It's right on Ong Ang Beach which is so much nicer than Long Beach where the majority of hotels are. Sao Beach is amazing, beautiful, perfect but on the other side of the island. If you stay at Coco Palm, especially due to your mom's injury, be prepared to stay there the entire time unless you take a taxi for 175,000 VND back to town. I'd wholly recommend staying there, though."<o:p></o:p></div>
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Granted, this happened four years ago and who knows what it's like now, but it was fantastic back then!<o:p></o:p></div>
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This also reminded me of the funniest story. Helen and I shared a room while there because that always makes financial sense. It was late at night and I can't remember whether we had fallen asleep or were woken from sleep by this scuttling noise. The rooms all had tiled floors, as should all good beach hotels, so we could here the definite sound of a "click click click" on the floor. It scared the bejesus out of us. I mean, we were terrified. We're two pretty smart people and we should have realised that it was probably a crab or something, but nope. We immediately think man-eating spider or a snake that developed claws. I know, we're weirdos. We're up-on-the-bed-flailing-around-trying-to-make-a-run-for-it-but-we-can't-reach-the-door-and-what-will-we-do-outside-in-our-nightgowns-weirdos. Anyway, I recently remembered that and I can't stop laughing about it.</div>
Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-32074756702675613652015-04-18T22:39:00.004-07:002015-04-18T22:41:44.821-07:00Mui Ne, Phan Thiet, VietnamIt's been 7 months but I finally made it to Mui Ne. Then I went back a week later. When I do something I do it hardcore. Twice. Apparently.<br />
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Mui Ne is an idyllic, quiet beach town about 5 hours by bus from Saigon. It's one of the best places to go, in my opinion, if you need a quick getaway because while Vung Tau is only an hour away by hydrofoil it's actually a nice place to visit.<br />
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My friend Aubrey, who I had not seen since 2004, decided on a last minute trip to Vietnam because her boyfriend Paul was doing a month and a half backpacking through Southeast Asia. She only had a week and decided to visit me in Vietnam and meet Paul as he ended his trip. I picked her up at the airport and we spent a really good first day after so many years together. It was like nothing had changed. Always the sign of a good friendship. We met up with Paul after he got off the bus from Cambodia. We did all the touristy things, made sure they were sufficiently impressed and fed. They were both impressed and fed when I took them to my favorite Pho place. The next day she and Paul flew to Hanoi and then headed to Ha Long Bay for a two night stay on a boat in the middle of the bay. I absolutely cannot wait to do that. She then had a few days to kill and as I wanted her to see enough of Vietnam without being too rushed I suggested Da Lat (a gorgeous mountain town) and Nha Trang (a really beautiful beach/party town) but in the end we ended up in Mui Ne. I think I made the right decision in the end. Mui Ne is a smaller beach town near the larger town of Phan Thiet. They have some pretty amazing resorts, which I'll mention more in another post, but I chose to stay in a backpackers lodge for my first night. I left Monday morning, spent the first night with my friend Matt and his super amazing parents, Jan and Kevin, and then met up with Aubrey and Paul the following evening. They flew back from Hanoi on Tuesday morning and then caught the bus to Mui Ne. Lots of travelling but it was so worth it.<br />
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I digress. My first night I spent at the Mui Ne Lodge Resort. It's not a resort and for $20usd/night it was a bit pricey considering it didn't have a pool or comfortable beds. It was, however, extremely gorgeous, right on the beach. LIKE right on the beach. And it was on the quieter end of the strip which I appreciated a lot. I arrived Monday afternoon and immediately met up with my friend Matt who was visiting with his aforementioned amazing parents. I spent the afternoon/evening in their lovely company at their amazing resort, Allezboo Resort. I highly recommend that place.<br />
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The next day I decided to rent a bicycle, because I couldn't work up the nerve to ride a motorcycle just yet. I had so much fun riding down the strip towards Matt's hotel and I'm sure I would have had even more fun if my tire hadn't popped. The worst part was that it was the middle of the day. Do you know what noon sun feels like? It feels like what I imagine the <i>hottest</i> part of hell to feel like. Actually the worst part was that no cabs would take me and the bike back to the hotel. Such bs. So I had to walk the bike back. I'm sure it was an interesting sight. It did give me a chance to stop at other hotels and inquire about rates because I couldn't stay at the same place I was at when Aubrey and Paul showed up. They just didn't have any rooms that were big enough. I found a pretty nice one with an awesome pool for $55usd/night with three beds. Jackpot!<br />
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After I found a new hotel I packed up my stuff and moved in, but had to head back to the old place because I booked a tour and they jeep was supposed to pick me up there. Mui Ne is full of sand dunes. I know that doesn't seem like anything but in reality, these sand dunes are amazing. It's amazing that there is so much sand so far away from the shore and it's amazing that they're piled so high. It's almost like a mini desert. Really cool thing actually. Matt, his parents and I did a jeep tour of the red, yellow and white sand dunes, the Fairy Stream and waterfall (so not as cool as it sounds, feel free to skip over it), Mui Ne fishing village and we watched the sunset from one of the sand dunes. It was an amazing day. After I got back to the hotel I washed about 5 lbs worth of sand off my body. I was completely covered in a thin layer of super soft sand. I was actually finding sand even after I thoroughly washed off (trust me I was thorough) and jumped into the pool. My ears, belly button, nose, etc. That sand gets everywhere.<br />
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Paul and Aubrey arrived that evening and I took them to a restaurant that Matt's mom suggested for dinner the night before. It's called <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g3688649-d2155629-Reviews-Bamboo_Bamboo_Restaurant-Ham_Tien_Phan_Thiet_Binh_Thuan_Province.html" target="_blank">Bamboo Bamboo</a> and if you're ever in Mui Ne, please please please please do yourself a favor and have dinner there. It's so reasonably priced and <i>everything</i> I ate that night was delicious and scrumptious and savory and mouthwatering and...well I'm running out of adjectives to describe how amazing that food really is.<br />
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We stuffed ourselves silly on grilled sea bass and seafood fried rice...well I did...and we turned in early. We made plans to watch the sunrise and by golly we were going to do it. We did it and it was totally worth it. We figured we could catch up on sleep by the pool afterwards, which we did. All. Day. Long. It was so relaxing. That day I did get a bit sick but I'm pretty sure it was just food poisoning and nothing seriously detrimental because after sleeping it off in the room and 2 cups of green tea I was right as rain. I managed to make it out to dinner. That's when we ate tons of seafood and Aubrey made a new friend. See pictures below. I then had to head back soon after because of that thing called a job, but it was SUCH a memorable time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbrJaM3TQuTKiBpq2_5ru-EPCfIAiwpV412iSm5VLuIoWHLAjxIOWfC-UhAg4zpyZPPP8YHuDKmcuCnvxaMbGJckABO81gXbqeaD05sGltT-XlbPMzHVtMrybedcPqkaYFFLkiIWt5vbg/s1600/IMG_3044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbrJaM3TQuTKiBpq2_5ru-EPCfIAiwpV412iSm5VLuIoWHLAjxIOWfC-UhAg4zpyZPPP8YHuDKmcuCnvxaMbGJckABO81gXbqeaD05sGltT-XlbPMzHVtMrybedcPqkaYFFLkiIWt5vbg/s1600/IMG_3044.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kite surfing is HUGE in Mui Ne.</td></tr>
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<br />Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-63078667654761703472015-04-18T22:03:00.002-07:002015-04-29T08:13:56.960-07:00My 100th Post: Part 4 (Dessert and Wine Night)One day I discovered brownie batter at Phuong Ha, which is one of the <a href="http://saigonsally.weebly.com/where-to-buy-imported-food-in-ho-chi-minh-city.html" target="_blank">two really awesome international grocery stores</a> on Ham Nghi. I got so excited and almost bought them all, but then I realised I'd probably eat them all. However, I realised if I invited my friends over I could share it with them. Of course, it tumbled out of control and Dessert and Wine Night was born. I think we all agree that this time all pictures are totally right for this post. You can thank me later.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brownies with almonds on the left and brownies with snickers on the right. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf3XdyjDRPTDE-RiYQVZASrlX9AcCUq8wG6L2Hjq-PgXnBr-GSMxGCwNSAHTnID8GpMUflUzoMVFnbGOEGo_4-3NxZ5QYrdZHYIRG21I_MSTtnF0EJnGoS8NLQ_IHAmy-WSv92T9WBGjM/s1600/IMG_3858.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf3XdyjDRPTDE-RiYQVZASrlX9AcCUq8wG6L2Hjq-PgXnBr-GSMxGCwNSAHTnID8GpMUflUzoMVFnbGOEGo_4-3NxZ5QYrdZHYIRG21I_MSTtnF0EJnGoS8NLQ_IHAmy-WSv92T9WBGjM/s1600/IMG_3858.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So many desserts!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZBpHNMh2b8uGhnTDOBkgSCUs8mvEctaReUMBe1Gkvnf5RCzBnvQjivbcb6LpdNl2A4pYhw3n57g2QIgXIkyqyKBNrqGk8Go90Evgh7259-cw2GpxhHhRwOu_XpUNqpZlE1nhx30kg0w/s1600/IMG_3859.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZBpHNMh2b8uGhnTDOBkgSCUs8mvEctaReUMBe1Gkvnf5RCzBnvQjivbcb6LpdNl2A4pYhw3n57g2QIgXIkyqyKBNrqGk8Go90Evgh7259-cw2GpxhHhRwOu_XpUNqpZlE1nhx30kg0w/s1600/IMG_3859.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I've forgotten what these were called, but they were delicious even though (I think) they had a creepy name.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcHhkXz5_aqviflGHxlv37sp3-YjJtsCgL0mM-q5ivNGblJeVBqYy-kYtS-zm2yFH6ItGkyZPiVaCF-1gHkkXsvY4LmN36D4h2aAyTZcFJ9E19mcA8VmuDzInZ-pwsiqyjuaye8_lBK2c/s1600/IMG_3861.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcHhkXz5_aqviflGHxlv37sp3-YjJtsCgL0mM-q5ivNGblJeVBqYy-kYtS-zm2yFH6ItGkyZPiVaCF-1gHkkXsvY4LmN36D4h2aAyTZcFJ9E19mcA8VmuDzInZ-pwsiqyjuaye8_lBK2c/s1600/IMG_3861.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh hai, there's the wine and cupcakes, of course,</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF6pMdpkJx3UYYJOu_qM5pxw5SGVbkRwsVysup_jKDXngU80G5ROW1RKqMd74yR9pM4hJjcQ3_opj1azi8OhQRmY50cew7E-fDR_GaKAzCwALWE0hyphenhyphenpUtPxjlycMqvVtg8qsf7BJWLQXI/s1600/IMG_3866.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF6pMdpkJx3UYYJOu_qM5pxw5SGVbkRwsVysup_jKDXngU80G5ROW1RKqMd74yR9pM4hJjcQ3_opj1azi8OhQRmY50cew7E-fDR_GaKAzCwALWE0hyphenhyphenpUtPxjlycMqvVtg8qsf7BJWLQXI/s1600/IMG_3866.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look at how nicely we share.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">City Hunter was on in the background and I think this picture perfectly sums up the evening.</td></tr>
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Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-82967499464126282872015-04-18T21:42:00.000-07:002015-04-29T08:14:13.315-07:00My 100th Post: Part 3 (CELTA Celebratory Dinner)Once upon a time, I moved to Vietnam to do a teacher certification training program. 4 hellish and intense weeks later, including an accident with a motorbike, I 'graduated.' For our celebratory dinner, one of our instructors had a boyfriend who owned (?) <a href="https://plus.google.com/107808239126818630136/about?hl=en" target="_blank">Baba's</a>, an Indian restaurant on Bui Vien and we all gathered there. It's interesting to note that on Bui Vien alone there are three Indian restaurants. Interesting, over done, same same, but they're always busy so I guess there's no interference from the competition.<br />
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Here a few pictures from dinner:</div>
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Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-48842934237803915702015-04-18T20:58:00.001-07:002015-04-29T08:14:38.478-07:00My 100th Post: Part 2 (Thích Quảng Đức and the Burning Monk statue)<div class="MsoNormal">
I know that part two of my 100th post is technically my
101st post, but I had a lot to say in order to celebrate 100 and it was easier
to split them up. </div>
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That being said, this post is a little Wikipedia heavy and picture-lite because I feel like they explain it better than I ever could, despite having
taken <a href="http://historyarthistory.gmu.edu/people/mlair" target="_blank">Meredith Lair's</a> excellent class on The Vietnam War at
George Mason University. I don't know if you've ever heard of The Burning Monk
statue in HCMC, but I hadn't either until I got there. I didn't know where it
was, but I was driving through downtown on my way home from planning at school on a Friday when I realised I was at the
intersection where Thích Quảng Đức set himself on fire to protest Ngo Dinh
Diem's treatment of Buddhist monks.</div>
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Here's what Wikipedia has to say:</div>
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'<b>Thích Quảng Đức</b><sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> (1897
– 11 June 1963, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_at_birth" title="Name at birth">born</a> <b>Lâm Văn Túc</b>), was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam" title="Vietnam">Vietnamese</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana" title="Mahayana">Mahayana Buddhist</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhikkhu" title="Bhikkhu">monk</a> who <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation" title="Self-immolation">burned
himself to death</a> at a busy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh_City" title="Ho Chi Minh City">Saigon</a> road
intersection on 11 June 1963.<sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> Quang
Duc was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Vietnam" title="South Vietnam">South
Vietnamese</a> government led by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng%C3%B4_%C4%90%C3%ACnh_Di%E1%BB%87m" title="Ngô Đình Diệm">Ngô Đình Diệm</a>. Photographs of his self-immolation
were circulated widely across the world and brought attention to the policies
of the Diệm government. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy" title="John F. Kennedy">John
F. Kennedy</a> said in reference to a photograph of Duc on fire, "No
news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that
one."<sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Browne" title="Malcolm Browne">Malcolm
Browne</a> won a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize" title="Pulitzer Prize">Pulitzer Prize</a> for his photograph of the monk's
death.<sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c#cite_note-k297-4">[4]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c#cite_note-j148-5">[5]</a></sup></div>
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Quang Duc's act increased international pressure on Diệm and
led him to announce reforms with the intention of mollifying the Buddhists.
However, the promised reforms were not implemented, leading to a deterioration
in the dispute. With protests continuing, the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Republic_of_Vietnam_Special_Forces" title="Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces">ARVN Special Forces</a> loyal
to Diệm's brother, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Nhu" title="Ngo Dinh Nhu">Ngo Dinh Nhu</a>, launched <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X%C3%A1_L%E1%BB%A3i_Pagoda_raids" title="Xá Lợi Pagoda raids">nationwide raids</a> on Buddhist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagoda" title="Pagoda">pagodas</a>, seizing
Quang Duc's heart and causing deaths and widespread damage. Several Buddhist
monks followed Quang Duc's example, also immolating themselves. Eventually,
an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Republic_of_Vietnam" title="Army of the Republic of Vietnam">Army</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_South_Vietnamese_coup" title="1963 South Vietnamese coup">coup</a> toppled Diệm, who was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrest_and_assassination_of_Ngo_Dinh_Diem" title="Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem">assassinated</a> on 2
November 1963."</div>
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Here are pictures I took:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEL9gLViJWf3rtZ5K42p_ugMoMALtR5nKoig_ZdXRZk2sf1ers3iop4800NfmcEQgXLvdza8I1s0rUNzyoI8n69tB2uIjnPxdpWQ980PGGLLPbD4QvJFDW4rus6Y7hiIUU2fcZx158eO8/s1600/IMG_0074.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEL9gLViJWf3rtZ5K42p_ugMoMALtR5nKoig_ZdXRZk2sf1ers3iop4800NfmcEQgXLvdza8I1s0rUNzyoI8n69tB2uIjnPxdpWQ980PGGLLPbD4QvJFDW4rus6Y7hiIUU2fcZx158eO8/s1600/IMG_0074.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm4nNNPr70xYvwFQwCVNAGridWoaNdwxZEetUIEO-gIwIs1kPy_H-JBXoNU7wUBUknsW8X_6YAYSbCwNPlPcYpriBY38JQeTPU9Tzdnop5mVlZKLWGbfcSmasIzhfgQ5DV0W1tqcY4Jsg/s1600/IMG_0078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm4nNNPr70xYvwFQwCVNAGridWoaNdwxZEetUIEO-gIwIs1kPy_H-JBXoNU7wUBUknsW8X_6YAYSbCwNPlPcYpriBY38JQeTPU9Tzdnop5mVlZKLWGbfcSmasIzhfgQ5DV0W1tqcY4Jsg/s1600/IMG_0078.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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I also found an article on <a href="http://thoughtcatalog.com/matthew-newton/2011/01/in-terrifying-color-vietnamese-buddhist-monks-1963-self-immolation/" target="_blank">Thought Catalog</a> that published the original photos
that Malcolm Browne took. There's also a video. They're both very graphic so be
forewarned. </div>
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Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-6588980691045858582015-04-18T20:00:00.002-07:002015-04-29T08:15:00.884-07:00My 100th post: Part 1 (The view from Cao Dat)100 is a BIG number, guys. Most people don't live to see 100 so we celebrate those that do. Most shows don't last until the 100th episode so they do something super special, usually by sending the characters on a trip (well, at least they did in the 90's) or kill someone off. Yep, those are the two types of shows I watch. In honor of my 100th post, I've decided to celebrate, but in a different way. I'm going to celebrate the mundane, the everyday, basically, my routine. What better way to do it than through pictures!<br />
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First post, my apartment.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2tIimHlbOiAmd9k_V6jWwvmLBf6j_oOvn7ei9dQDBC-xD6NcyyA-Y8ySsoWTtQCBCvW66BAwc3do7EkcLXlC-P5r9fq4r3Dikzry3AHhANafcRTskDNXPHZ6uaA9uclDYmBdanLCrkqE/s1600/IMG_1894.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2tIimHlbOiAmd9k_V6jWwvmLBf6j_oOvn7ei9dQDBC-xD6NcyyA-Y8ySsoWTtQCBCvW66BAwc3do7EkcLXlC-P5r9fq4r3Dikzry3AHhANafcRTskDNXPHZ6uaA9uclDYmBdanLCrkqE/s1600/IMG_1894.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the living. Check out the crazy leather sofa. If you're thinking that it's okay to have a leather sofa in an apartment in Vietnam if you have an air conditioner, you're right. Too bad we didn't have an a.c. This is one of the awesome apartments on Cao Dat in District 5. If you're a teacher in the city this is a place that lots of teachers tend to congregate and is pretty ideal because you can get the expat support system you'll initially need and it's also very Vietnamese so you'll have room to branch out when you're ready.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHlPddZoOqDwgDBJqZydy5sPc5DTJnZ3D3OTzkYBBghzJvBzvq4Ey762SUeMKRG7zsfuVHXDPMHXi0_SQVw8QRgUTB0PTFIND3BxuE9hmokRgYZEF73Q-Of2IZSePWVfPEP2oaK-Ju9J8/s1600/IMG_1895.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHlPddZoOqDwgDBJqZydy5sPc5DTJnZ3D3OTzkYBBghzJvBzvq4Ey762SUeMKRG7zsfuVHXDPMHXi0_SQVw8QRgUTB0PTFIND3BxuE9hmokRgYZEF73Q-Of2IZSePWVfPEP2oaK-Ju9J8/s1600/IMG_1895.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the kitchen! Love our little gas stove. I ran out of gas while cooking dhal the first time I found it. Note: always make sure that you have enough gas before cooking. Most apartments have those small cookstoves and they very rarely have ovens. Unless you live in one of the fancy ones like Diamond Plaza or The Manor. Also, check out our bottle of DaLat wine. It's perfect for mulled wine, less so for drinking straight from bottle to glass. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8SYMZi9VQLqX2ra-K4eHGS7TVlfaMgmsF1t1d0Zl_D5AruVgG0biDh92ZqOWH8xrKgaVDN3QY9cRd-K5huCuOH6ZBcpmdZoF1RSacA_OdaeSi6OI6AxeLGYqGl3qGWZu61vjjWgb-_Y/s1600/IMG_1900.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8SYMZi9VQLqX2ra-K4eHGS7TVlfaMgmsF1t1d0Zl_D5AruVgG0biDh92ZqOWH8xrKgaVDN3QY9cRd-K5huCuOH6ZBcpmdZoF1RSacA_OdaeSi6OI6AxeLGYqGl3qGWZu61vjjWgb-_Y/s1600/IMG_1900.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new room! Check out the king sized bed and oversized armoire. Also, not the crutches in the corner. Those were my Vietnamese crutches. They were the tallest the hospital had and 2 inches shorter than me and they gave me teh occasional splinter. Total Viet crutches. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYrgFW4roZDZioANsA5WQDk6Hlj2CBjEco0LL8mfqUGlj_96WewWRyddeEAwlHJvMpXXjdgU039Ddy45qyde9ltz8879uzDxGwkxo6fqN_3A2moRLw6hBeOWkE6KAAuRraxgF0frRZI0/s1600/IMG_2032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYrgFW4roZDZioANsA5WQDk6Hlj2CBjEco0LL8mfqUGlj_96WewWRyddeEAwlHJvMpXXjdgU039Ddy45qyde9ltz8879uzDxGwkxo6fqN_3A2moRLw6hBeOWkE6KAAuRraxgF0frRZI0/s1600/IMG_2032.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from my apartment. That's the Saigon River and the highway running alongside it. What a beautiful sight!</td></tr>
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<br />Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-6368911277449960422015-01-29T11:30:00.000-08:002015-01-29T11:30:02.679-08:00The one where Dana and I see a movie...<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
This post isn't remotely related to travelling abroad, but we did watch a movie where there's a city called San Fransokyo in the future. It's geographically San<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Francisco, <span class="apple-converted-space"></span>but is very heavily influenced by Japan and is in fact now my new dream city. Sayonara London! You should all know by now that I'm all about East meets West. Check out<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://gizmodo.com/a-tour-of-san-fransokyo-the-hybrid-city-disney-built-f-1642066794"><span style="color: windowtext;">Gizmodo's review</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hero_6_%28film%29"><span style="color: windowtext;">Big Hero 6's</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>fantastic imaginary city. </div>
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Another reason for posting about my day with<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Dana<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>is that she's fashion blogger so after sushi (natch) we stopped into one of our favorite places for a quick photo shoot. She was the model and I was the photographer and I have to say that it's amazing what you can do with cell phone cameras these days. <a href="http://goodredherring.blogspot.com/2015/01/snowy-saturdays.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GoodRedHerring+%28Good+Red+Herring%29">Here are the pictures!</a> Please feel free to peruse her amazing blog afterward and no she's not paying me to say this. Or even bribing me with p<em><span style="background: white; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">hở which we all know works wonders.</span></em></div>
Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-42427263465935578112015-01-15T14:03:00.000-08:002015-01-15T14:03:37.209-08:00Happy New Year!<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Dear all,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Happy New Year and its only 15 days late this time! I’m getting much better at doing things. I was reading <a href="http://www.legalnomads.com/" target="_blank">this blog</a> the other day because the author is gal after my own heart. I say this because my "About me" section on <a href="http://instagram.com/haisau" target="_blank">Instagram </a>says "I love food. And travelling. And eating food while travelling" and Jodi Ettenberg's blog is all about her “vaguely chronological account of living and eating [her] way around the world” I think we’d be good friends. (I promise I don’t know her in real life and am not getting anything to promote her blog.) My unsolicited review of her blog is that it’s pretty <i>awesome!</i> For example, her <a href="http://www.legalnomads.com/2014/12/hue-vietnam.html">post on Hue</a> is very compelling and her style of writing draws you in by creating a mental picture of what she experienced. Maybe I can feel it more than most because I’ve actually been there and have done that, but I think it can stand the test for anyone who reads it. </div>
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The best part of reading her blog is this photo I came across. I love it for many reasons. First, see how perfectly the golden lights of the highway are captured. Second, you can see my old apartment! They are the really tall set of buildings on the left. That view of the river and highway (in reverse) was one the best things about living there. Third, FIREWORKS! Fireworks are one of my favorite things. I absolutely adore everything about them, including the noise, so you know I’m really serious. Learning to photograph them is one of the things I really want to learn to do. Sidenote: I attempted to photograph in snow the other day and it came out moderately well. The snow wasn’t falling hard enough to really capture. Sorry, who wants to hear about snow when you can think of the warmth of Saigon at a time like this? Fourth! How quintessentially Saigon this picture is. If you look closely you can see that the highway is filled to the brim with folks sitting on the <i>xe om's </i>watching the light show. I miss the feel of community in Vietnam. People just aren't as nice here. Even when they laughed at me in Vietnam I knew it wasn't always malicious. It was one of wonder "OH WOW, a tall black girl." I'm sure I've discussed the way my skin tone was perceived in Vietnam. They'd never seen someone as dark as me and I'm the lightest person in my family. It was always so weird/funny to me. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Well. enjoy the photo and let's hope that better weather is around the corner, especially if you're in the D.C. area. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijH5s-Hb-CmOmqYaxBrw3gcE1dDikljjiqztZZLIii3r5eCd45u2N3SUR1UQrk3bNpfz52IvxMPlkRwAXfUqIcSBC9NGGEJNrZdVbX7AYXxtXVnSFOoN_fk2V3p4EzjbmaHt7ZEMrO8aA/s1600/saigon+fireworks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijH5s-Hb-CmOmqYaxBrw3gcE1dDikljjiqztZZLIii3r5eCd45u2N3SUR1UQrk3bNpfz52IvxMPlkRwAXfUqIcSBC9NGGEJNrZdVbX7AYXxtXVnSFOoN_fk2V3p4EzjbmaHt7ZEMrO8aA/s1600/saigon+fireworks.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">http://www.legalnomads.com/2013/03/tet-new-year-vietnam.html</span></td></tr>
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Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-65081568818128835472014-07-29T22:11:00.002-07:002014-07-29T22:48:01.477-07:00The one with Koh Rong Island, Cambodia.<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">The beauty of ESL schools
and the way their schedules sometimes works is when your class ends for the
session you might have a day or two before the next session begins. A day or
two can be the equivalent of an entire week because of the every other day
rule. My Tuesday/Thursday class ended in early August 2012 and I suddenly
found myself with a free week. What was a travelholic to do with a week of
free time in August? I knew that if I didn't take full advantage of it I
would regret it for the rest of my life and I'm not exaggerating. I had several
choices available to me for only a week - options where I didn't have to spend too much
money or time: Da Lat, Hoi An, Mui Ne (all in Vietnam) and Cambodia. I knew I was going
to go to Da Lat and Hoi An later in the year and I had already been to Mui Ne
twice before and I'm absolutely in love with Cambodia so the choice was
easy (even if I did spend more time travelling than sitting on a beach.) </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Give me a beach as one of
my options and I will, without a doubt, always choose that. Granted, it can’t
be a beach in Delaware versus a night in Rome or something like that.
Luckily, most beaches in Southeast Asia can hold its own in that kind of a
fight. A coworker of mine suggested seeing the islands off the coast of
Cambodia. Koh Rong is the second largest of Cambodia’s islands. It’s in the
Gulf of Thailand, right off the coast of Sihanoukville, which was named after
former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk. If it sounds familiar to you history
buffs out there it is because Sihanouville is the site of the last official
battle of the US Army during the Vietnam War. Divers can see the wreckage of
two U.S. battleships in the area.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh_Rong" target="_blank">Or so says Wikipedia.</a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Getting to Koh Rong was not
easy. I bought a ticket for a bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh, missed that bus in
the morning (which I seem to have a knack for doing) and had to wait for
another bus. I chatted with this cray cray Australian guy who only told
stories about fights he got into (which seemed to be every single time he was
in public), and endured a 6 hour bus trip from Saigon to Phnom Penh in a seat
that was overheating because I was at the back of the bus. When I arrived in
Phomn Penh I was surprised to see a familiar face in the crowd. You might<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://mssaigon.blogspot.com/2013/05/tour-guide-in-pnomh-penh-cambodia.html" target="_blank">remember Naren,</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>the fabulous tour guide I had the
first two times when I was in Cambodia. Well, turns out he was there picking up
another visitor, but when he saw me he had one of his guys help the other
tourist to his tuk tuk and he helped me with my problem. My problem was that I
had another 6-8 hour journey to Sihanoukville ahead of me and my bus was
leaving at 4, which meant I would arrive extremely late in a strange town and
have to find my bungalow all by myself. Naren took me to the bus depot "customer
service department" and got my ticket changed for a bus leaving within the
hour. What was I to do with that hour? Central Market bebe! </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
Central Market or Psah Thom Thmey is literally (yes, I understand the meaning
of the word) one of my favorite places in this entire world. For example, I've
been several times and I have never had a cockroach run over my toes. (I'm
looking at you Ben Thanh Market!) Also...and I've got to face the music...I'm a
shopaholic and this place is where I get my fix. I left my bags with Naren and
headed to the market for a small shopping spree. Small because I had only
walked with my backpack for a week. ::sigh:: What happened to that girl? I wish
I could go back to being her. A few sundresses later I headed back to get my
stuff, profusely thank Naren by giving him a gift for his wife and baby, and
hop on the bus. One uneventful bus ride later, unless you count the snoring
tourist wearing the neon pink tank top sleeping next to me, I arrived in
Sihanoukville. Thank God for earplugs. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
(10 hours later!)</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">I don't understand how bus companies can advertise 4 and 5
hour trips and good, well paved roads in Cambodia when they're clearly not. I
mean, I get that they lie about it and people believe it, but it just makes me
mad! I arrived in Sihanoukville around midnight. The neon wearing guys next to
me were very unsure about what to do. I told them, based on what I'd heard,
heading towards the main part of town, which was within walking distance, would
give them quite a few options. They asked if I wanted to walk with them to find
a place, but I tossed my hair over my shoulders, smiled a mysterious smile,
said "no, thanks I've got a place" and walked towards the motorbike
taxis. I haggled with the guy for a $3 ride to Otres Beach (which I still
maintain was a ripoff) and hopped on, my one backpack and all. As we sped out
of the parking I was feeling really cool. You're probably thinking "way to
go!", but you know me and deep down you know that feeling didn't last
forever. I asked my driver to stop at a grocery store so I could grab a few
things and as I was getting off the bike my strap got caught and I
was yanked back towards the exhaust pipe. You'd think after a year in SE Asia
that I'd know NOT to get off on that side of the bike. Don't know what I was
thinking, but my<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Saigon%20kiss" target="_blank">Saigon kiss<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></a>was a painful reminder of my
stupidity and arrogance and immediately took away that feeling of being awesome.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
That bike ride is one of those things I'll remember until the day I die. Otres
Beach is outside the city limits of Sihanoukville - maybe, maybe not, but there
aren't any street lights, houses or even paved roads at times the closer you get to it. It wouldn't be a
problem during the day if you could see where you were going, but in the dead
of the night on the back of a stranger's motorcycle it's definitely one for my
history books. It was one of the few times I was ever really concerned about my
decisions in life and I only got through it by telling myself that I was too
old and too fat to be a sex slave. It's a terrible thought especially since
it's<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://libertyasia.org/slavery-south-east-asia" target="_blank">a real fear for many young girls living in
SE Asia</a>. I prayed during that bike ride. I told God that I'd never put
myself in a position like that again if I survived. I'm sure he was listening,
but at the same time I'm sure I was being my typical American self thinking
that the world is out to get me. Is that an American thing? Maybe it's just a
me thing. Either way, the thought that there's always someone out to get you
can be potentially life saving and drive you crazy at the same time.
I'm grateful that nothing happened. In fact, when we arrived my driver parked on the
side of the road and walked all the way up the road stopping at all the hostels
trying to figure out which one was mine. Hard to see signs in the dark you
know. He found it for me and waited until I registered, got a key and was
assured that I was safe there. I'm thankful that I have such great luck in
meeting such lovely people while travelling. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
Based on the advice of some colleagues at ILA I stayed at a guesthouse on
Otres Beach called<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g325573-d2239981-Reviews-Don_t_tell_Mama-Sihanoukville_Sihanoukville_Province.html" target="_blank">Don't Tell Mama</a>, which I found to be
such an apt name after my bike ride. Unfortunately, I'm kind of telling mama by
writing this blog post. (Ha, I laughed even if you didn't.) Otres Beach is
quiet and further out of town so it's not plagued by the seedy feeling that
Sihanoukville suffers from. Even though it was well past midnight the
guesthouse across the street called Mushroom Point was open so I decided to
grab dinner. A glass of wine, really good food, the sound of waves crashing
against the shore and a really friendly and relaxed atmosphere finally put me
in vacation mode. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">
I got a bungalow room with the use of shared bathroom for $9/night as
opposed to a bungalow with a private bathroom for $18/night. Since I was the
only guest there I got such a great deal because my shared bathroom
was essentially a private bathroom. Peter and Ulla, the owners of the
bungalow, kept me company while I ate breakfast the next morning and shared
suggestions on how to get to Koh Rong. They sent me to speak to a woman at a
nearby guesthouse who had the schedule for the boat to Koh Rong. I bought a
ticket from her, but had to head into town to get a bus to the boat. I asked
her about booking a room, but she said that it was </span><span style="font-size: 19.09090805053711px;">unnecessary</span><span style="font-size: medium;">. I quote
"you'll be able to find a room." I spent a few hours of the
morning on the beach and then packed up and headed back into town. </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
I got dropped off at the travel agency that was transporting us to the island
and I'm sorry, but I've completely forgotten the name. I know it's associated
with the bungalows I stayed at on Koh Rong, but I have the feeling it's the
same company no matter where you go. Anyhoo, you're in luck because there is a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Koh_Rong" target="_blank">Wiki
Travel entry on getting to Koh Rong</a>. I honestly don't remember how long the
boat ride was, but I vaguely remember it being more than an hour long. This boat ride is another
one of those times when I wished I wasn't travelling alone. It was a pretty
boring boat ride and I was afraid to use my iPod because it would be just my
luck that it would fall overboard. The only saving grace was the clearly
hungover girl who was clearly suffering. I hate when people make fun of other
people who get hurt or suffer in any way, but when you bring the suffering on yourself
(drinking excessively the night before travelling???) you get no sympathy from me.
She turned out to be a really lovely girl, we became travel friends and I only felt
slightly bad for feeling superior to her, but more on that later. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
The boat finally arrived and a couple of guys on the dock started hauling
people and luggage off the boat. The guy who was clearly in charge started
yelling and asking people where they were staying so he and his guys could get
the luggage sorted. When he got to me I told him I hadn't booked a room because
I was told I could get one very easily. Guess what he told me. "Sorry, all
rooms booked." I, naturally, was flabbergasted. I said, "they
can't all be booked, can they?" He said, "yes." I said,
"how do you know?" He said, "I know" and walked off. How was I
supposed to argue with that? I began to quickly formulate a plan which included
sleeping on the beach. Suffice to say I wasn't happy with that plan, but hey,
backpacking around does have it downsides. (Note: I chatted with a guy on the boat ride back who went for a late night swim the night before I got there and was robbed because he left his things on the beach. So glad I didn't have to sleep out there!) Thankfully, and I it say with the
utmost sincerity, two girls who were standing nearby overheard the conversation
and said "We have two beds in our bungalow and you can have the second one
if you want." Needless to say I was flabbergasted for the second time in
the span of five minutes. I still believe in the goodness of humans even though
I also believe the world is fundamentally broken, but I hadn't experienced the
good side of the world in such an obvious way in a long time. They were two
really cool, really sweet, really British, youngsters travelling around SE
Asia. I even met up with them when they arrived in Saigon a few weeks later. I think some of the
best people I've ever met were met during my time abroad. We spent two days
together (that's all the time I had after all my travel time) and we had just
the bestest time together ever! We walked around the island, or as much of it
as we could, were discouraged from walking over the mountains to the other side
of the island because of the rain, took pictures with water buffalo (okay,
okay, OF water buffalo), swam in clear, blue waters and ate lots of seafood. We
stayed at Cocos Resort and it's kind of the party place on the island so I was
grateful that our bungalow was all the way up the hill. Other than the pulse
pounding noise...ahem, music...emanating from the bar at night, Koh Rong is
picturesque and quaint and everything I had ever dreamed of in an island, but I
think all of that is changing or may have already. Due to it's growing
popularity, more and more commercial activity is taking place on the island. The
girl I mentioned previously, the hungover one, had dinner with us and told us
how she'd visited the island about a year earlier and how it had changed
drastically since then. She said at least ten new sets of bungalows had appeared since
she was last there. I can only imagine the changes wrought since I've been
there. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
I spent two lovely days on Koh Rong and would head back in a heartbeat. I
highly recommend it and here are some photographic reasons why.
(Note: Not all of the pictures are mine because my memory card was corrupted
during the trip so I've borrowed a bunch I found online. They're all marked as
borrowed.) If you do visit and you don't find it to your liking, remember that
it's gone through two years worth of changes and I'm sure not all of it is for the
good. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: medium; line-height: 20.700000762939453px;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7zbiBEVPCAfwIrOlOglM1Ex8j0Dvl5Fk4jTuU-GPaGUUmfZMp4P9zfgV1-5520GQggZIOq2x-FaRLInOlYdoMcj-_hBDAVV5hSS69XoLen0_otYoxi5YB2FheoabVzQOSJxnasqVal2c/s1600/6076685242_2e6dd1599f_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7zbiBEVPCAfwIrOlOglM1Ex8j0Dvl5Fk4jTuU-GPaGUUmfZMp4P9zfgV1-5520GQggZIOq2x-FaRLInOlYdoMcj-_hBDAVV5hSS69XoLen0_otYoxi5YB2FheoabVzQOSJxnasqVal2c/s1600/6076685242_2e6dd1599f_z.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Borrowed. I did love hanging out on that bench though.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ3misjV0Sp8V3xye7bF8UoBwpPDRNJKoHLTEzDvsPdvEhVGLPHCMCVoAvNn0jCzytzEDlXvMwHvWkwPSESMHYsA4JEle5qCplc2EaAWqzAQkk2gW6UPaewqwzLWX4F05_aeixgnSzFmY/s1600/DSCN3479.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ3misjV0Sp8V3xye7bF8UoBwpPDRNJKoHLTEzDvsPdvEhVGLPHCMCVoAvNn0jCzytzEDlXvMwHvWkwPSESMHYsA4JEle5qCplc2EaAWqzAQkk2gW6UPaewqwzLWX4F05_aeixgnSzFmY/s1600/DSCN3479.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Borrowed to show the clarity of the waters.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp66iTqL7R88nJmFCsCtduunub8kmIwOgH5PIYaynaIQ5Tz-eP2CPTVp0OKnhtlkcFJgdeEDLA6Och1Rbxe1kwgKAgB4UHVDIN6UAsF69G3KyHXoK7ZXpBiRDDsNvXV6wgcW5kUU7P6Bk/s1600/IMG_1285.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp66iTqL7R88nJmFCsCtduunub8kmIwOgH5PIYaynaIQ5Tz-eP2CPTVp0OKnhtlkcFJgdeEDLA6Och1Rbxe1kwgKAgB4UHVDIN6UAsF69G3KyHXoK7ZXpBiRDDsNvXV6wgcW5kUU7P6Bk/s1600/IMG_1285.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8kGZ7arkAMei54zl546k_arjlcKlihjcZuDxrkdxId2HeUzsHIHfPa_5JnJPJZnPeSR3AFQhpvsEgjiek35N5hyBZYzBgzjzOWdJAFnMZ7yKb6AqOpBBVgp5-7X5GzySaYJO6_EChvk/s1600/IMG_3107.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8kGZ7arkAMei54zl546k_arjlcKlihjcZuDxrkdxId2HeUzsHIHfPa_5JnJPJZnPeSR3AFQhpvsEgjiek35N5hyBZYzBgzjzOWdJAFnMZ7yKb6AqOpBBVgp5-7X5GzySaYJO6_EChvk/s1600/IMG_3107.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My bungalow at Don't Tell Mama's.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNL2JsQ3HW0-c3EA1q_EkRl1GHj79z1SC7WxHIvqG3l-SuyEn3586LXI8-WrRbJ7xCuJG2NQOVSZiZWUSjY-9zlO8VFfqOJI6KLCaBcsBXvthUoG6yp9caEAG9tpnW19JAGFOQJjdSoss/s1600/IMG_3111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNL2JsQ3HW0-c3EA1q_EkRl1GHj79z1SC7WxHIvqG3l-SuyEn3586LXI8-WrRbJ7xCuJG2NQOVSZiZWUSjY-9zlO8VFfqOJI6KLCaBcsBXvthUoG6yp9caEAG9tpnW19JAGFOQJjdSoss/s1600/IMG_3111.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT7H9_P0PHKlvsb85BuPvDp62TIsEzMPCIHOOr5EZ2ot5-ca-1kmSiAMe-ucgasmQTig7CbOKAR23O_wopHMdouTemMKBDg-4Blgi0JBFE8zUODbg1Iu7q3esgZaReGxIIHg00AKnmJ3A/s1600/IMG_3113.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT7H9_P0PHKlvsb85BuPvDp62TIsEzMPCIHOOr5EZ2ot5-ca-1kmSiAMe-ucgasmQTig7CbOKAR23O_wopHMdouTemMKBDg-4Blgi0JBFE8zUODbg1Iu7q3esgZaReGxIIHg00AKnmJ3A/s1600/IMG_3113.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Otres Beach</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_83VbRRzkwrIDVvHF91Jl5Qb8AiughDNLoL3SMmTpRBM9UQncdOxuC0y-nE7qOQBMj2YYY0TykNXMtXIa_zNPuczB4hVnkrXqfY83SwXCZUET7pRIMBQ2fUxiUcbgVy-jsZ5Jz-Vd0I/s1600/IMG_3121.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_83VbRRzkwrIDVvHF91Jl5Qb8AiughDNLoL3SMmTpRBM9UQncdOxuC0y-nE7qOQBMj2YYY0TykNXMtXIa_zNPuczB4hVnkrXqfY83SwXCZUET7pRIMBQ2fUxiUcbgVy-jsZ5Jz-Vd0I/s1600/IMG_3121.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Otres Beach</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCC4unbZc8lhxnWXxGiXoIxJjQp0x_NzzeLrxZeMtWyZ8pyqEN3rbjboRIkuoKpkwQOmBrASFUmffBkJX73anV2qSznqOa3cC3TsgCCqUpZUepX74h44SopVt-yLxem6r4tjhDAn8P_Fo/s1600/IMG_3140.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCC4unbZc8lhxnWXxGiXoIxJjQp0x_NzzeLrxZeMtWyZ8pyqEN3rbjboRIkuoKpkwQOmBrASFUmffBkJX73anV2qSznqOa3cC3TsgCCqUpZUepX74h44SopVt-yLxem6r4tjhDAn8P_Fo/s1600/IMG_3140.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of the bungalows on Koh Rong from the inbound boat.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHybAopRl4J9mz15Z5CO9-_kVInMDiPQkCP1AKdvNL1vntjXB5cLIK4yVjD5VWyYCL5vrW_HT8atTrZQXHHiLAxypUvAQpluUYt8lhSZur4cvbUXJrCsN75IseoQUs7n_BCKOtNF-ge-A/s1600/IMG_3145.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHybAopRl4J9mz15Z5CO9-_kVInMDiPQkCP1AKdvNL1vntjXB5cLIK4yVjD5VWyYCL5vrW_HT8atTrZQXHHiLAxypUvAQpluUYt8lhSZur4cvbUXJrCsN75IseoQUs7n_BCKOtNF-ge-A/s1600/IMG_3145.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of the pier enroute to Koh Rong</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5LBs1WZeZLPVlQXzCJQqdehlAYm1BGbM0TX-Ct26nF7Hffqs6ZUcgJAA-EHL4KDWAXdkuBbxORaU4PZ4VNHpalbK5SNT49mzSdV9E25PdQQEsyRWny9mKXcutEGL_v6JROnkq9gcL7fc/s1600/IMG_3148.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5LBs1WZeZLPVlQXzCJQqdehlAYm1BGbM0TX-Ct26nF7Hffqs6ZUcgJAA-EHL4KDWAXdkuBbxORaU4PZ4VNHpalbK5SNT49mzSdV9E25PdQQEsyRWny9mKXcutEGL_v6JROnkq9gcL7fc/s1600/IMG_3148.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WATER BUFFALO!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKzNtTQkhYcZeSB_Em6tvox_LwUgJLF0yjGzmeX4VL0kxCXQkxrD9TO_oMh6x2jKR_2jUn7i0E70IjILNxGwXFJ9BU_TX1G8h1pXdfVzJmIdKKvd5L83lYWH75DfPxGLxsH1y2AlE3oA/s1600/IMG_3150.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKzNtTQkhYcZeSB_Em6tvox_LwUgJLF0yjGzmeX4VL0kxCXQkxrD9TO_oMh6x2jKR_2jUn7i0E70IjILNxGwXFJ9BU_TX1G8h1pXdfVzJmIdKKvd5L83lYWH75DfPxGLxsH1y2AlE3oA/s1600/IMG_3150.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nikki on the left and Gemma on the right. Two super awesome chicks.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLSzsg2X8R9xw94wm2lKkjBotTtwmIEjBNkqwV1XlbcXbIl3nafY0vLBvoqjo_P6B-ASjEsY2fuYtKU8sD1F-1Y9W4PwJtxq8PQA7FlSfVHxhuknujC6mGR9VhLqDDMaa_VhU76Jvm5xw/s1600/IMG_3152.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLSzsg2X8R9xw94wm2lKkjBotTtwmIEjBNkqwV1XlbcXbIl3nafY0vLBvoqjo_P6B-ASjEsY2fuYtKU8sD1F-1Y9W4PwJtxq8PQA7FlSfVHxhuknujC6mGR9VhLqDDMaa_VhU76Jvm5xw/s1600/IMG_3152.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The things we encountered on our trek around the island. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9bmnW8IWCA-YjjA-83Xrb25n2x-Btoo-8ngTczGO0kUk_GieowT4cPCVxu7jQncC_JSuD4vlUuNbH8f5GklJM_B77x4D-yl74tbH9v9Ohfx3ztICCbPDKjNJmoSagjxjihIZ8TdczMSg/s1600/IMG_3158.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9bmnW8IWCA-YjjA-83Xrb25n2x-Btoo-8ngTczGO0kUk_GieowT4cPCVxu7jQncC_JSuD4vlUuNbH8f5GklJM_B77x4D-yl74tbH9v9Ohfx3ztICCbPDKjNJmoSagjxjihIZ8TdczMSg/s1600/IMG_3158.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The reason we couldn't walk all the around the island.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRnJkfh61uWibc6DsTSy3qSKbLPBQi8NYlYnw_XxdeNa2t8Y46F5qhy6RgNsmyF1ybCYbgSmlIMRpX4lOEEh2IvBltP1x3vEEkgNOflWrreqLvs4p8SEtwNl6dab5PRVAmROP9bO8fBAA/s1600/IMG_3160.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRnJkfh61uWibc6DsTSy3qSKbLPBQi8NYlYnw_XxdeNa2t8Y46F5qhy6RgNsmyF1ybCYbgSmlIMRpX4lOEEh2IvBltP1x3vEEkgNOflWrreqLvs4p8SEtwNl6dab5PRVAmROP9bO8fBAA/s1600/IMG_3160.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Koh Rong pier at night.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbQANs_GqyzDRvUokn_uetc8jRVWW2J8pqvqfmd5I468JCtk1YtXT_7wmy1ptUtBAHaudNzl8NiRf5eV__L0OIvP7idCuK_KwcJiy4FNQLENwt3C5Omcs6WEdA0RgsT8A7rl-4nYMsPU/s1600/IMG_3163.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbQANs_GqyzDRvUokn_uetc8jRVWW2J8pqvqfmd5I468JCtk1YtXT_7wmy1ptUtBAHaudNzl8NiRf5eV__L0OIvP7idCuK_KwcJiy4FNQLENwt3C5Omcs6WEdA0RgsT8A7rl-4nYMsPU/s1600/IMG_3163.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dinner at Cocos. I lost the picture of my fried fish. :(</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2C8wl8c8mPCy3dQXocrt-f6sY8yi17ojNA7TT2cDC-RfiSZHWd0FRkwRFe_ksBOUt7Ms-QKxSJQm-TrKOrFaywkc17hqnhYahshrinj4R_SBvUo6AY4OH53u24QriB9EY4Pt1HDFa79U/s1600/Cocos_Kohrong_12a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2C8wl8c8mPCy3dQXocrt-f6sY8yi17ojNA7TT2cDC-RfiSZHWd0FRkwRFe_ksBOUt7Ms-QKxSJQm-TrKOrFaywkc17hqnhYahshrinj4R_SBvUo6AY4OH53u24QriB9EY4Pt1HDFa79U/s1600/Cocos_Kohrong_12a.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cocos.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSVXZEIJkFocolwplH07ztIG2ytn8El12j8kBJYSaz3MXvgWoM4LNKcwsIvBOd0WwTAs4Mvk4sD_EiTpCH0JcakqUs7I1S3GJDFauge8kkyh7pv4VIHHIYvLGvBvUD-YnGNjkaerC3BGE/s1600/IMG_3146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSVXZEIJkFocolwplH07ztIG2ytn8El12j8kBJYSaz3MXvgWoM4LNKcwsIvBOd0WwTAs4Mvk4sD_EiTpCH0JcakqUs7I1S3GJDFauge8kkyh7pv4VIHHIYvLGvBvUD-YnGNjkaerC3BGE/s1600/IMG_3146.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Puppies under the pier.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb6FKuA5F2V9uKk_kFJ2FWJ3t9CnAVJcc6BF-Jt9uv4ejw2FmVUBe6sU4KIR6hPXsmidxys7l4wUQYrVvgHSZC4OBbD67vqvy9yDMi-BdPt61HtZ6tpNJ4tGjTving6cKTLQh6dOvpzAM/s1600/384087_10100643404658716_379671439_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb6FKuA5F2V9uKk_kFJ2FWJ3t9CnAVJcc6BF-Jt9uv4ejw2FmVUBe6sU4KIR6hPXsmidxys7l4wUQYrVvgHSZC4OBbD67vqvy9yDMi-BdPt61HtZ6tpNJ4tGjTving6cKTLQh6dOvpzAM/s1600/384087_10100643404658716_379671439_n.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's me waving hi! Borrowed from Gemma.</td></tr>
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Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-74981664539264434572014-06-07T00:08:00.001-07:002014-06-07T00:30:41.862-07:005 Idiotic Travel Tips You Should Ignore<h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Great article from Vagabondish and my comments on each tip. </span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Spoiler alert: I agree with all of them.</span></h3><h3 style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: normal;">Tip #1: “Don’t eat the food there! You’ll get sick!”</span></font></h3><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Oysters on the side of the road in Trinidad. Boom! I can handle it.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Tip #2: "Don't ever travel alone, especially if you're a woman! It's SO dangerous!"</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Meh. Maybe if you're a foolish woman who doesn't take precautions that everyone, including men, should be taking. </span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></font></div><h3 style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: normal;">Tip #3: “Why would you ever want to leave the U.S.?”</span></font></h3><div><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I won't even touch this one. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></p></div><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Tip #4: "How can you afford to travel for that long? It's gonna cost a fortune!"</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Yeah, if you stay in fancy hotels and eat at expensive restaurants all the time. Eat street food and where the locals eat and find a balance between hostels, BnB's and nicer hotels. </span></div><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><div style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"></div><p style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; -webkit-hyphens: auto;"></p><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; -webkit-hyphens: auto;"></p><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span></span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: normal;">Tip #5: “You’re leaving for <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">a year</em>?! But what about your job, your life, your <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">[fill in perceived grown-up responsibility here]?</em></span></font></h3><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Life goes on. The things that can wait will, you'll learn who your true friends are, and you'll find another job. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">My tip: If you travel you can see places like the ones in the pictures below.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><font face="Helvetica" size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">http://www.vagabondish.com/idiotic-travel-tips-you-should-always-ignore/?utm_content=buffera7422&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer</span></font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikn7pShibXSPQ_DtZgoad4Z4oGN35cW2enFVXUizkgQLzMXhco_2pUpd0_6w33ytncsGIZcFxony1sxUD8UQNjkunRCle8_eJ2r15Bq31Ad2rU5S7R3ITgHQ8vzmXw9vBZWB6c-GbL7sI/s640/blogger-image--1535442478.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikn7pShibXSPQ_DtZgoad4Z4oGN35cW2enFVXUizkgQLzMXhco_2pUpd0_6w33ytncsGIZcFxony1sxUD8UQNjkunRCle8_eJ2r15Bq31Ad2rU5S7R3ITgHQ8vzmXw9vBZWB6c-GbL7sI/s640/blogger-image--1535442478.jpg"></a></div><div>Bermuda</div><div><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13.8px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4P9g3EUo02FtcX10NkJrdgw9oJg9FcEO-w5JPbs9o7IUJ8PmRXzJPlc-CUh6-6xK71zXNFrcaKNguAqIwUHk3gDSS2wW7V64yHXTZvVE9SbJz1wUykAODne6cK6WUAmCRlvr_86BFIzU/s640/blogger-image-1868163357.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4P9g3EUo02FtcX10NkJrdgw9oJg9FcEO-w5JPbs9o7IUJ8PmRXzJPlc-CUh6-6xK71zXNFrcaKNguAqIwUHk3gDSS2wW7V64yHXTZvVE9SbJz1wUykAODne6cK6WUAmCRlvr_86BFIzU/s640/blogger-image-1868163357.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Bermuda</div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span><p></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13.8px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5DQLg4Z2VOmwboml42T2A-HfTh4J2oBEYBxHi-0bMRQUlMTEZIGuW_vlFb3HKKORxN04wOwuTdEp0D0qiH5AY02B-X8eKmY-ojC1FBUZ_JSSKsD7TrjY2bBNsxJZsWaGWnB79DVUUUZs/s640/blogger-image--731641100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5DQLg4Z2VOmwboml42T2A-HfTh4J2oBEYBxHi-0bMRQUlMTEZIGuW_vlFb3HKKORxN04wOwuTdEp0D0qiH5AY02B-X8eKmY-ojC1FBUZ_JSSKsD7TrjY2bBNsxJZsWaGWnB79DVUUUZs/s640/blogger-image--731641100.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Bermuda</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4JSKeiop8JMNCXvnOFqjnYoez8Q2OA0ZS0sx2I9SU-2wZeUa2nH4eZ5YocnpaCg20BWJTvTePajvbHpqYl5LEBwQAlvGvzMk9Holx71IRiEmF2g3vrmjiUvdscd-3EGoOb9GlMprig2E/s640/blogger-image-1179420172.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4JSKeiop8JMNCXvnOFqjnYoez8Q2OA0ZS0sx2I9SU-2wZeUa2nH4eZ5YocnpaCg20BWJTvTePajvbHpqYl5LEBwQAlvGvzMk9Holx71IRiEmF2g3vrmjiUvdscd-3EGoOb9GlMprig2E/s640/blogger-image-1179420172.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Hoi An, Vietnam</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg78InjfaAEzkUwCdSqm06DRqOcMMrkUaQRkiVYmhlKhSToQjCxnLxKTBsBx6a5FID8qGXb_M6sFpCquEB53652qwbxVLFi-O_YQK9bTYgXNfRlx3UVkyb_XY-g9zZXiJiB_PjYbnAkYGQ/s640/blogger-image--1672108486.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg78InjfaAEzkUwCdSqm06DRqOcMMrkUaQRkiVYmhlKhSToQjCxnLxKTBsBx6a5FID8qGXb_M6sFpCquEB53652qwbxVLFi-O_YQK9bTYgXNfRlx3UVkyb_XY-g9zZXiJiB_PjYbnAkYGQ/s640/blogger-image--1672108486.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Hanoi, Vietnam</div><br></div><br></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span><p></p></div>Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-17521953861241862652014-06-01T21:19:00.001-07:002014-06-07T00:24:23.339-07:00Bermuda<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XvChOEFvR-A" width="480"></iframe><br><br>
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More to come from Bermuda! Don't forget there's audio!Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-29090278746213300212014-05-09T09:46:00.001-07:002014-05-09T09:46:31.383-07:00The one with summer school.Summer school sessions at ILA were physically and mentally demanding. Not only were you teaching 12+ hours on the weekends, but then you had classes in the morning during the rest of the week and then a weird break before your regular evening classes. By weird I mean a break that didn't allow you to go home and take a nap or do things so you ended up napping at school. By the by the best way to nap at school is to take 3-4 chairs and line them up side by side and sleep that way. The best thing is to push them really close to the table so people can't see you sleeping there.<br />
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Despite it's intensity, summer school was a welcome break for several reasons:<br />
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1) I was able to make up all my lost hours from the couple of weekends I was out due to various illnesses.<br />
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2) I felt like I was doing more with my life because I was working more and not cooped up in my awesome apartment. ::tear:: I miss that place.<br />
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3) We got to go on a field trip to the Saigon Zoo. It's a place I would have never gone on my own because I despise zoos. I'm glad I saw it, not because it was a great place to be, but because it was horrendous and it made me want to fight even harder against <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/video-marius-giraffe-butchered-front-3131162" target="_blank">the horrors of zoos.</a><br />
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Like with the majority of my blog posts, here are a TON of photos to help convey what my words can't say. Well, my words are pretty accurate this time around: I had some really cute and wonderful kids in my class and the zoo was a terrible place.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thinh and his favorite kid...for that day.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and Minh.</td></tr>
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<br />Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-82099173073657735432014-02-22T17:25:00.000-08:002014-02-27T12:06:26.519-08:00Tales from India: Udaipur: Oh wait, that didn't happen<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was supposed to go to Udaipur after Jaipur and spend two days there, but instead I got insanely sick, off McDonald's of all things!!! I mean I was eating street food there and I was absolutely fine. It boggles the mind. Being sick in India by yourself is quite an adventure, but I really don't have anything good to say about it. I stayed in bed, drank lots of water, spent a lot of time in the bathroom (please don't say ewww because it's a fact of life, and when I could finally digest stuff I ate french fries.) So I have nothing else to say about India really because I went back to Sunita's the very next day, stayed in bed for 2 days, ventured out for dinner with Tanay and Tanushi at one point, was offered a ride to the airport by a very handsome Indian man who gave me flowers and then endured 10 hour flight with a connection in Bangkok back to Saigon. I sat next to a very lovely Korean guy on the flight back and we bonded over our love of international travel and I told him all about visiting Cambodia. It was his first time out of S. Korea and chose Thailand as his first destination (excellent choice) and after talking to me decided Cambodia would be next. Woop!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Next, any random photos I didn't post before. Mostly pictures I took to keep myself occupied during some very long car rides.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhjAHsGaCT58KHQdg-nDrpngJ5E_PISJsuGmONHRRTTAaeOPvoYRoxEaty9vBdakA_4C3PjseFZA8pVPS1iktJXgfEgW3Fln3MuFQo9-a580B3FzkWbhRh-IkQZYaU3Qs3KeXnmWvlkgo/s1600/IMG_3962.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhjAHsGaCT58KHQdg-nDrpngJ5E_PISJsuGmONHRRTTAaeOPvoYRoxEaty9vBdakA_4C3PjseFZA8pVPS1iktJXgfEgW3Fln3MuFQo9-a580B3FzkWbhRh-IkQZYaU3Qs3KeXnmWvlkgo/s1600/IMG_3962.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Because I was a teacher, le duh.</td></tr>
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Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-82067425980293872162014-02-22T17:05:00.001-08:002014-02-27T12:06:39.417-08:00Tales from India: Jaipur: Day 2<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So once again I've decided to go with the picture essay format because 1) it's more interesting (for you) and 2) it's easier (for me).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will say that tour guides will tell you that you have to see this and you have to see that. Any time it's a factory where the print art, make jewelry, etc you'll be expected to purchase something. I don't, I only feel slightly bad for not doing so, and this is often a good opportunity to get into the shade.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also, this is the day I rode a camel!!! They're much higher up that horses and they get up and down by leaning forward or behind and you feel like you're going to fall off. Best advice is to just hold on tightly with your legs, keep your upper body straight and lean in the opposite direction. So if they're getting up they usually get up on the hind legs first so your body will be angled forward (downward). To avoid falling off just lean backwards. Easy peasy!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">These two little dudes were quite handy tour guides and made sure my camel didn't run into the middle of the street. Rewarded them with this tip: Stay in school. (Joking, I did give them money.)</span></td></tr>
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<br />Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-18772642721298634382014-02-22T16:56:00.001-08:002014-02-27T12:07:15.197-08:00Tales from India: A Bollywood wedding<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have to admit that even though I had visions of grandeur, white horses and elephants prancing down the street, the reality of what happened was much better. S and V's wedding took place at a hall called Tivoli Gardens. I'm sure the gardens themselves were beautiful, but the wedding was held at night so I couldn't see much. There was a long hallway lined with flowers and lights on the way to the hall. The hall was set up so that people could have dinner during the wedding, wander over to watch the ceremony when they felt like it and it wasn't a bad or shameful thing to not do so. I always feel bad sneaking away during West Indian weddings, but there is absolutely no way I'm about to sit on the floor for 2+ hours. When I get married I promise to provide chairs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The wedding ceremony itself was different from what I've seen. They carried the bride in on a chair and she couldn't come down until the groom, also on a chair, managed to throw a garland of flowers around her neck. Her family tried to stop him and his family tried to stop them. It was so much fun. While S and V were getting married people had the option of eating dinner or watching the ceremony (brilliant idea!) Not sure how and why things change so much, but I'm sure it's just a matter of differences between the Hindu religion in Indian vs. West Indian culture. Actually, it's a topic I'm currently doing research on, but I can't promise any answers and don't ask. Not sure why I even mentioned in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are a few pictures from the wedding.</span><br />
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<br />Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-35869252805300484522013-11-24T20:36:00.004-08:002013-11-24T20:38:55.476-08:00Tales from India: In between posts<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I recently read <a href="http://thelazytravelers.com/this-is-the-time-we-got-locked-in-a-dungeon/" target="_blank">this blog post</a> from The Lazy Travelers and I just had to share. It was genius and made me laugh like a smoker suffering from asthma.</span>Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-20947212097006236372013-11-24T20:35:00.003-08:002013-11-24T20:39:19.085-08:00Tales from India: Jaipur: Day 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So with the wedding a full blown success I prepared for my 4 day trip to Jaipur-Jodhpur-Udaipur. Basically I was going to spend a lot of time in a car. Luckily for me all I need to fall asleep is a moving vehicle. Must be a thing from the womb...thing. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I set out pretty early Monday morning, up before the sun early, to begin my trip. The drive to Jaipur was amazing. From the very little I remember. It was a 4 hour trip and I was up early so I basically slept most of the way. Thinking back, I was either very stupid or very confident in my Krav skills, After everything I'm now hearing about India I'm quite lucky that nothing untoward happened to me. I mean, I'm a very wary person and I trust no one, not even my own mother (hey, ma!) so hopefully it was that confidence that Krav instilled in me that was radiating outwards saying "don't mess with that girl. She knows crazy Israeli martial arts." I'm sure that was it. And my guardian angel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I arrived in Jaipur safe and sound. The first thing we did was head to my hotel so I could freshen up. Definitely one of the better hotels I've been in while travelling. I'd recommend Nahargarh Haveli for sure. It was just far off beaten path for me. I think it was in a residential district, but that just meant it was quiet at night and people could hear me scream if necessary. Ugh, my thoughts are awfully dark tonight. I don't have an address, but here's <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g304555-d1927309-Reviews-Nahargarh_Haveli-Jaipur_Rajasthan.html" target="_blank">their TripAdvisor page</a> and I would recommend it for sure, mostly because of how my trip ended and how well they took care of me. But I'm getting ahead of myself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The first thing I did was find my tour guide. We found the local office for Vaibhav India Tourism and appropriated a tour guide. He was pretty nice. Not as great as Hassan, but good nonetheless. I don't remember him commenting on my beauty, that's for sure. We visited Jantar Mantar first. "It's a collection of architectural astronomical instruments built by Sawai Jai Singh II who was a Rajput King. There exists a total of five such facilities including Delhi. The one at Jaipur is the largest and best preserved of them. It's another World Heritage site." Thanks be to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jantar_Mantar_(Jaipur)" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> for that succinct description.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghxP2f4BpQWGOiIlIHPTFfMkfypVjSyOt602qhUEncuVPaSIZsmVUVb1zeUW6PEdw7mGasK0Ycjf7K3-4flDymtlC7ne7ez7rkCj6QKL6jeuEWy7OZMSXwn5uTfBE7DECap5INRIEDWw0/s1600/IMG_0154.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghxP2f4BpQWGOiIlIHPTFfMkfypVjSyOt602qhUEncuVPaSIZsmVUVb1zeUW6PEdw7mGasK0Ycjf7K3-4flDymtlC7ne7ez7rkCj6QKL6jeuEWy7OZMSXwn5uTfBE7DECap5INRIEDWw0/s640/IMG_0154.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpRJLPPYaxra6XXqyciGXc3dvwZi_FhieXcwxsd9KDswVkTdwGLsMkQ1Z5evPEvmM9kheVc2ZiVKqFczRIjlDQXR8YSPuVfp36K-z08coVh0yh4JBMQWQvkzSgfv5DT77sFjwE__seiwQ/s1600/IMG_0155.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpRJLPPYaxra6XXqyciGXc3dvwZi_FhieXcwxsd9KDswVkTdwGLsMkQ1Z5evPEvmM9kheVc2ZiVKqFczRIjlDQXR8YSPuVfp36K-z08coVh0yh4JBMQWQvkzSgfv5DT77sFjwE__seiwQ/s640/IMG_0155.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Look at how red my face is.</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKeEgWhNcPyzZWu2XjwVlNrIGmeWcw1l0kRxBKVbXvmRKlb0rGYgGd-7AehjGmN7xNR1xzvgeajfxVAqNltiqJr_AQF25PmECFaTc0cTkmsmC1_tVFdgT6pNf8dRUjwn6ZdHYIh62coDs/s1600/IMG_0158.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKeEgWhNcPyzZWu2XjwVlNrIGmeWcw1l0kRxBKVbXvmRKlb0rGYgGd-7AehjGmN7xNR1xzvgeajfxVAqNltiqJr_AQF25PmECFaTc0cTkmsmC1_tVFdgT6pNf8dRUjwn6ZdHYIh62coDs/s640/IMG_0158.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then we went to visit the City Palace, which is a complex of structures and includes the Chandra Mahal and Mubarak Mahal palaces. It is now a museum, but parts of it are still part of the royal residence. Thanks again to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Jaipur" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>. I believe the current King of Jaipur is 13 years old and lives in London and is heir to a trove of bickering family members and court cases. Poor kid.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi-DiFipP2-q_RZXFhSNXUyrMBc9yw3i3jPtXOJv0srz5_BjDM9fHXKLQvYD83bA2BUT2aSp71JYvu7SToEBoxmEsceOxg-nudKkiqg03z8WB0bAngo9QjAIzKGc6KgWY_eDVNjEzaXjA/s1600/IMG_0140.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi-DiFipP2-q_RZXFhSNXUyrMBc9yw3i3jPtXOJv0srz5_BjDM9fHXKLQvYD83bA2BUT2aSp71JYvu7SToEBoxmEsceOxg-nudKkiqg03z8WB0bAngo9QjAIzKGc6KgWY_eDVNjEzaXjA/s640/IMG_0140.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGiZ0qXlpySkXO64hrA5iZUVde1s5iBGq_REBLpR5S3DbCDtg84ZNGx9-s-Cs4ttgikuJ72mKBp-0uvZauBalA5o3-0UQX6OVkOOzhyPoTXG0Fx5Fu0MlyRkU7bYFlU7qDOEKwi35DfOM/s1600/IMG_0144.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGiZ0qXlpySkXO64hrA5iZUVde1s5iBGq_REBLpR5S3DbCDtg84ZNGx9-s-Cs4ttgikuJ72mKBp-0uvZauBalA5o3-0UQX6OVkOOzhyPoTXG0Fx5Fu0MlyRkU7bYFlU7qDOEKwi35DfOM/s640/IMG_0144.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After that I had to call it a day. I'm sure I was suffering from sunstroke and since people wouldn't/couldn't stop gawking at the cherry tomato I called a face I had to plan a strategic retreat. Below are a few pictures from my drive back to the hotel and a few words of advice to the determined backpacker.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjjgXwDDmidapLYM3qC9KdhXgDUUXoLSw2UrzX_ZqEntqb8wtrhx3bblxSdv2WAGY77rUfEB4V_Sk0Z8UXRMjlDwqCUWX-1-D3hqHVDzZeq952jN7jLvloa1cEBBX6zLfJ0bkTldzH_I/s1600/IMG_0160.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjjgXwDDmidapLYM3qC9KdhXgDUUXoLSw2UrzX_ZqEntqb8wtrhx3bblxSdv2WAGY77rUfEB4V_Sk0Z8UXRMjlDwqCUWX-1-D3hqHVDzZeq952jN7jLvloa1cEBBX6zLfJ0bkTldzH_I/s640/IMG_0160.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Aren't they beeeeautiful?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbm1cGprzTOdhitkEnYBkgGwuwkHpJTW21voxe7LMTDUOcdmbloLhNEbII0WHfUKrpv9dtkAOABMHsCLG_catRBsilA_2KIypwP5PmAXvZ7SrCFl8HkOM8RjmISOTqf5Oif1IHYCGH8Jg/s1600/IMG_0163.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbm1cGprzTOdhitkEnYBkgGwuwkHpJTW21voxe7LMTDUOcdmbloLhNEbII0WHfUKrpv9dtkAOABMHsCLG_catRBsilA_2KIypwP5PmAXvZ7SrCFl8HkOM8RjmISOTqf5Oif1IHYCGH8Jg/s640/IMG_0163.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The famed Pink City.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsX9LR4g6Kr51kPIJGWAOrNy6JOwa3uk5t0b2ZFCWnOu-LWDqpkr74Lsg7pJBFz6BhwLrCb4eKtbxOAymgUQq6JnzhTsO3-6nXTPilzFdHjlK_pEdjCNyguFo7RmxeSeqnU1nAdIsRzQQ/s1600/IMG_0165.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsX9LR4g6Kr51kPIJGWAOrNy6JOwa3uk5t0b2ZFCWnOu-LWDqpkr74Lsg7pJBFz6BhwLrCb4eKtbxOAymgUQq6JnzhTsO3-6nXTPilzFdHjlK_pEdjCNyguFo7RmxeSeqnU1nAdIsRzQQ/s640/IMG_0165.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Love the colours!</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdB-1FJe-fqRtyO59v42eZDHsnhc_hiBtUoCLSQQYa-U2y7Adwyw9zpTSWW74aeO_92lh9wrc0tho6KFulcKT7KmQV9vUaVAWwfJWVmh5v4Xq3NefG0RH-m27HFb-uYULUkqyLcdlhYJA/s1600/IMG_0166.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdB-1FJe-fqRtyO59v42eZDHsnhc_hiBtUoCLSQQYa-U2y7Adwyw9zpTSWW74aeO_92lh9wrc0tho6KFulcKT7KmQV9vUaVAWwfJWVmh5v4Xq3NefG0RH-m27HFb-uYULUkqyLcdlhYJA/s640/IMG_0166.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBFdWUMO-IVx7meENp470qcOTF7FNFNoOSj7M9TMr3vw82JxpiogL0afCS16IcP5GknCzMXcOY9bTXd2JcjaBCoDPeyqOt8JEc02CZaF7A8yQc9I_sJjrZP_ywvKVqbNN7tCzV5gt-juo/s1600/IMG_0167.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBFdWUMO-IVx7meENp470qcOTF7FNFNoOSj7M9TMr3vw82JxpiogL0afCS16IcP5GknCzMXcOY9bTXd2JcjaBCoDPeyqOt8JEc02CZaF7A8yQc9I_sJjrZP_ywvKVqbNN7tCzV5gt-juo/s640/IMG_0167.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A reminder to watch that movie which of course I still haven't.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NriEhVLi2Ejyq_Ofihk0_HsbcfZdbS6-klnSV5uzsW9MDs2COnNljEeWUdJnBPAMNaT5GOGkTofxs-5NFO1HhX_vogM0Xms9xllYd1w2_YTyMk_ust8XR5Vy-wqv2BtIj_Xn3hbMDSY/s1600/IMG_0171.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NriEhVLi2Ejyq_Ofihk0_HsbcfZdbS6-klnSV5uzsW9MDs2COnNljEeWUdJnBPAMNaT5GOGkTofxs-5NFO1HhX_vogM0Xms9xllYd1w2_YTyMk_ust8XR5Vy-wqv2BtIj_Xn3hbMDSY/s640/IMG_0171.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hawa Mahal or the Palace of Winds. Probably the most iconic landmark in Jaipur.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzXjrsYsm_yElmsCDL63qwxqra1FKU0O3cZN-mdemyn3kluRw4BlZZ3pnd168YKKi4BupUhBoDOglj3qIXQ-HcqmyU-7yuJggEHNWR1oH8r71RhbVavGzT-tgvjkvnhLFZF23Q9jKBLK4/s1600/IMG_0168.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzXjrsYsm_yElmsCDL63qwxqra1FKU0O3cZN-mdemyn3kluRw4BlZZ3pnd168YKKi4BupUhBoDOglj3qIXQ-HcqmyU-7yuJggEHNWR1oH8r71RhbVavGzT-tgvjkvnhLFZF23Q9jKBLK4/s640/IMG_0168.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">CAMEL!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Words of advice:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you've got any common sense whatsoever you will not visit India in July and if you're forced to do so then you should not going touring especially in the middle of the day and if you are still on this path of insanity then you'll wear a hat, carry an umbrella, and/or drink a ton of water.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 2 coming soon. Promise.</span>Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-54659681619736996752013-09-20T14:09:00.000-07:002013-12-08T14:31:54.157-08:00Tales from India: Swaminarayan Akshardam<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Saturday was spent sleeping in a bit and recovering from the previous evenings festivities. Pssssshhhhh. I wish that had happened. Despite getting home late the evening before I was up at the crack of dawn. Sunita and I arranged for a driver to take me around the city on Saturday. With horrific traffic in India, me still tired from constantly being on the go since I arrived and the limited budget I put myself on I decided that I would only try to see the things that most interested me. I don't know if you've gotten a sense of what that would be so I'll tell you. My favorite things to see are markets (shopping, food, indoor, outdoor, you name it) and temples. Seriously, I can never see enough temples. Oh and waterfalls, of course, but that was a bit unlikely in the middle of New Delhi. If I'm wrong, someone should definitely tell me. My only regret about India is that I travelled alone. I think that's one place I would have enjoyed talking to someone about everything I saw. <span style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">My super awesome driver bought all my entrance tickets for me so I wouldn't have to pay foreigner prices, but that also meant he couldn't/didn't want to accompany me. He was probably like, "bahhh, foreign red-headed woman. What are we going to talk about?" Helloooo, my dad is from Trinidad! The West Indies plays India in cricket all the time. Even though I think cricket is sooooper boring I have enough national pride to fake a conversation about cricket. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The first place we visited was the Lotus Temple. All I remember is that it's a Baha'i temple and that it's shaped like a Lotus flower, hence the name. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy5wNeSPzfQ" target="_blank">Dee dee dee.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Suffice to say that it is my fault for trying to write a blog post about visiting it 14 months after the fact and all I can remember is really liking it. I can't say much more than that. Ah well. Here's what <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Temple" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> has to say about it.</span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">The Lotus Temple, located in New Delhi, India, is a Bahá'í House of Worship completed in 1986. Notable for its flowerlike shape, it serves as the Mother Temple of the Indian subcontinent and has become a prominent attraction in the city. The Lotus Temple has won numerous architectural awards and been featured in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">Also, here's their <a href="http://www.bahaihouseofworship.in/" target="_blank">website</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">Here are some pictures!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjQ-t4wpqqTDT37COj3noH2mnWxy5hdaGu84Xd8lOU4kfIpENBZHlySjL5-ug33My-4X_7F0-PhKQdlJAmY4Ct3Xl-aZpZZMRx20J-7d4naDguH1wDXEPDjj64IvIHbB8m4_c7JiBtI_U/s1600/IMG_0276.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjQ-t4wpqqTDT37COj3noH2mnWxy5hdaGu84Xd8lOU4kfIpENBZHlySjL5-ug33My-4X_7F0-PhKQdlJAmY4Ct3Xl-aZpZZMRx20J-7d4naDguH1wDXEPDjj64IvIHbB8m4_c7JiBtI_U/s640/IMG_0276.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Entrance</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMUf97AnGCqOmmN3oQ9GM_VG51BKd5cdL7saoeXeNhctUERERaTxmTO77amanRnvGM47Rj6i9mPuh6ZMNVuwlFITaonBgt9Ik1mHxqOw79RDznm650FLlml690dKKeJqsjkKchPo-K5Jo/s1600/IMG_0281.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMUf97AnGCqOmmN3oQ9GM_VG51BKd5cdL7saoeXeNhctUERERaTxmTO77amanRnvGM47Rj6i9mPuh6ZMNVuwlFITaonBgt9Ik1mHxqOw79RDznm650FLlml690dKKeJqsjkKchPo-K5Jo/s640/IMG_0281.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Pools of water on either side of the walkway to the entrance. It's beautiful and a great place for watching people make fools of themselves while taking photos.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8IBoMMGiRQlUBmydwrzBwnSjcvZcgZoqznEYFQKT9eXLl2RT0dDUnLZzQqkTUcNGxJeGroeoUN0zjXp4_z0BDoXf2o7s929EBBmxLh42hsNFfsBq5qkAkAlj8vkLhW40sSxqA7znKsX4/s1600/IMG_0283.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8IBoMMGiRQlUBmydwrzBwnSjcvZcgZoqznEYFQKT9eXLl2RT0dDUnLZzQqkTUcNGxJeGroeoUN0zjXp4_z0BDoXf2o7s929EBBmxLh42hsNFfsBq5qkAkAlj8vkLhW40sSxqA7znKsX4/s640/IMG_0283.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As already stated.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/LotusDelhi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="398" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/LotusDelhi.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Borrowed from Wikipedia. It's just a gorgeous piece of architecture and everything is more beautiful when it's lit up at night, isn't it? <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/LotusDelhi.jpg">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/LotusDelhi.jpg</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">The next stop was India Gate. That might have actually been the first stop seeing as how Sunita lived about 5 minutes away from India Gate, but I'm not about to rewrite the blog to incorporate that one tiny detail. India Gate is great during the day and amazing at night when it's all lit up. The surrounding area is full of government buildings and the streets are wide and tree-lined. Not at all what I was expecting in New Delhi. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">As usual, pictures say it best. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-53u0mXMuQ6euhzZ1veMNsmTE15ZdoW8mZTqAyEHOQQmS2iU6fdPn4ZyQFuYfDEZBN162fb9JrCvaO5_PlvtViRfya12GMYm_BGZagWJFSB-3hDWx0HILlSsEEo_nng_SCSP1-hfWV4/s1600/IMG_3977.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-53u0mXMuQ6euhzZ1veMNsmTE15ZdoW8mZTqAyEHOQQmS2iU6fdPn4ZyQFuYfDEZBN162fb9JrCvaO5_PlvtViRfya12GMYm_BGZagWJFSB-3hDWx0HILlSsEEo_nng_SCSP1-hfWV4/s640/IMG_3977.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">India Gate...at night.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvDPVxZmesGB03EcAoWFmc5m3njUscs-s51GF2PCpB-rXZe3RdmAlVV5jdRk0OSdTXvs6QM_JH7NQzJioP7FttgF4kmwUmkEIGsKP6A9uZWeh3YqfImYPkXTUMWkrcE2uFcrTfxcik61c/s1600/IMG_4097.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvDPVxZmesGB03EcAoWFmc5m3njUscs-s51GF2PCpB-rXZe3RdmAlVV5jdRk0OSdTXvs6QM_JH7NQzJioP7FttgF4kmwUmkEIGsKP6A9uZWeh3YqfImYPkXTUMWkrcE2uFcrTfxcik61c/s640/IMG_4097.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The beautiful gates surrounding the presidential palace.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0R1LIG7r7k7E-e2EbZALZoxAwjv5OeuTZ6jLIdPvx_3so-b99QyWb-mzzTODJqhoyit97PI0zO-u5563UxbGjX0Zvk4w2UT8HXe70fbTJWTvjoPavJSScPQm9aJchTJJP3rRiM9ip9nQ/s1600/IMG_4099.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0R1LIG7r7k7E-e2EbZALZoxAwjv5OeuTZ6jLIdPvx_3so-b99QyWb-mzzTODJqhoyit97PI0zO-u5563UxbGjX0Zvk4w2UT8HXe70fbTJWTvjoPavJSScPQm9aJchTJJP3rRiM9ip9nQ/s640/IMG_4099.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Some of those wide streets I mentioned earlier. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnI26NjDmMIajcWXVQ6YieAands5NYAmHc5s1UPYpvElOMuCoh0vwIG3opPOlYT-2Y6k6jUNJ2y3L-fnMLbJHUUSxru5o9ugkFB-Lr6pZbmNgaQ8WUXuDKTsWusvd9mvdabDco8t0rcXA/s1600/IMG_4104.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnI26NjDmMIajcWXVQ6YieAands5NYAmHc5s1UPYpvElOMuCoh0vwIG3opPOlYT-2Y6k6jUNJ2y3L-fnMLbJHUUSxru5o9ugkFB-Lr6pZbmNgaQ8WUXuDKTsWusvd9mvdabDco8t0rcXA/s640/IMG_4104.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">India Gate...during the day! </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT_EAgxS9T-RcwAtyDDYCoSnD0Dbe-I9rkVihxucL3THNJsWMQaxk1QAJ0Ur4f3ziRpPPGbNgnroi6pNES0T0mBgdl2uNedgA4NdLtMQcp_QCmHMBAif6AeY2WoHLJRyy19p9DONioMOE/s1600/IMG_4110.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT_EAgxS9T-RcwAtyDDYCoSnD0Dbe-I9rkVihxucL3THNJsWMQaxk1QAJ0Ur4f3ziRpPPGbNgnroi6pNES0T0mBgdl2uNedgA4NdLtMQcp_QCmHMBAif6AeY2WoHLJRyy19p9DONioMOE/s640/IMG_4110.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Me in front of India Gate. I'm beginning to hate these captions.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">After that we went to my new second favorite place in all of India. The first being the Taj Mahal, of course, despite the heat and crowds. Swaminarayan Akshardam. Words do not do this place justice, but unfortunately cameras aren't allowed inside so I don't have any of my own photos in order to tell the tale. So I borrowed some photos. First a little bit about my experience. If it weren't for a fact that this place was so beautiful and I loved it so much I would have hated my time in India due to my experience there. I was stared at constantly. Constantly. It wasn't "ooooh, who's that girl?" It was more of "ewwww, who's that girl?" Well, maybe not ewww, but they weren't friendly or polite stares. First of all, I was alone and maybe that's worthy of negative attention. It might have been due to the fact that I had to wrap my favorite purple Cambodian scarf around my waist because my yellow shorts (see above picture) was considered too short to enter the temple. Maybe it was unfashionable to wear my scarf like that? However there were other foreigners there who had to wear scarves wrapped around their waists as well, so that couldn't be it. </span><span style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">Maybe purple and green are offensive colours? </span><span style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">Was it my red hair and sunglasses? Maybe. Maybe not, because Indian girls are all about colouring their hair these days. I made sure to make a count and I was not alone. At two corners of the temple you can pay to have your picture taken. When I stood in line waiting to have my picture taken there were no crowds to be seen anywhere, except for the group taking their picture and the 3 or 4 people in line. However, when I got up in front of the camera, people magically appeared and they stood there and stared, even though they weren't waiting in line. I'm sure you're thinking I'm complaining about nothing, but to this day it makes me mad, that feeling of being judged and measured and found guilty of something. I don't think I'll go back to India unless I'm with a group. Sorry, that was a lot of negative energy. Here's some positive feelings to try and balance it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">Now, what could possibly make me love this place so much despite feeling so angry while I was there? Honestly, all I had to do was look around me at the architecture and design of the temple and it was all washed away. One part of the temple is dedicated to elephants and there are over 148 statues of elephants. As an elephant lover I found it all quite amazing. After awhile I found a quiet area and rested there and it was the most peace I'd felt since arriving in India. I sometimes think back on that time whenever I feel the calm slipping away and I desperately want to hold on to it. Here are some pictures that will hopefully help explain why. The first two are my own that I took from a moving car, hence the not so good quality. Pictures 4, 5 and 6 are from a site I liked the best called </span><a href="http://www.airpano.com/360Degree-VirtualTour.php?3D=akshardham-india&page=1#comments_anchor" style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;" target="_blank">Air Piano</a><span style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">. They provide 360 degree aerial panorama shots of different sites around there. It's like you're really there! ::gasp:: Make sure to take the aerial tour because it's ridiculously cool and they have wonderful music to accompany it. It's like being in India. <br />Pictures 7 and 8 must have been taken by someone who smuggled a camera inside because I don't know how they got shots like those. I found it on a random website called Skyscrapercity.com, but they're attributed to a Flickr user. Thanks so much to whoever that is that broke the rules. Normally, I'm not a fan of rule breakers, but in this case I am.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">Also, here's their <a href="http://www.akshardham.com/" target="_blank">website</a> and what <a href="http://www.airpano.ru/files/Akshardham-India/2-2" target="_blank">Air Piano</a> has to say about it.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was opened in 2005. The construction took over 5 years and involved 7000 artisans and 3000 construction workers from all over India. Their combined efforts gave birth to a building 42 meters high, 94 meters wide, and 106 meters long. The structure of Akshardham consists of 234 pillars, 9 shiny domes, 20 four-sided towers, and over 20 thousand figurines depicting themes from Indian mythology. There are over 148 statues of an elephant alone!</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnxX72PU8bWGm0iPp6o0JO5PQYOtpxSDrq51kfq40CuHpmebq_cg6iGDRubFD65LdGT_P5NOeLBuNRRyyW7zm5ZaAcIQ_FqB1Qv9sLKD2hMIGTimH-CLnI1nWNCkAahS-2D5c_r6-34r4/s1600/IMG_0100.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnxX72PU8bWGm0iPp6o0JO5PQYOtpxSDrq51kfq40CuHpmebq_cg6iGDRubFD65LdGT_P5NOeLBuNRRyyW7zm5ZaAcIQ_FqB1Qv9sLKD2hMIGTimH-CLnI1nWNCkAahS-2D5c_r6-34r4/s640/IMG_0100.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Swaminarayan Akshardam Temple from afar. This is a super zoomed in shot.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgomF2CMK75iW8Q6lKQ6jAxoihbLW2qbRTSsac9OLtF0fYOdXqDieQkBMOwe-13UIrpUPzGp_zeHCSpFxBADtmr9C8DHQ1RUNddCJ3cKtYDQ9ESBsZ_sz83tzAI2ppq_ubm58yNHqvpAJI/s1600/IMG_0103.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgomF2CMK75iW8Q6lKQ6jAxoihbLW2qbRTSsac9OLtF0fYOdXqDieQkBMOwe-13UIrpUPzGp_zeHCSpFxBADtmr9C8DHQ1RUNddCJ3cKtYDQ9ESBsZ_sz83tzAI2ppq_ubm58yNHqvpAJI/s640/IMG_0103.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Curious because the Petronas Towers in Malaysia are also closed on Mondays.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.mapsofindia.com/my-india/akshardham-temple-delhi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="378" src="http://images.mapsofindia.com/my-india/akshardham-temple-delhi.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">At night. Le duh. <a href="http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/travel/an-epitome-of-grandeur-swaminarayan-akshardham-temple-delhi">http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/travel/an-epitome-of-grandeur-swaminarayan-akshardham-temple-delhi</a></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoGuA-72xQU8swA7Cqz_4WqYlVu1fhsnLR8WwZDTCCTdBhnpfesG9ni46VprhPtPD_ikGVs4z4dntVW-rN9tE-X6lUldVnV-ycMR-tZG1LD_51hupWFgVEhaCRGiGv5iwnqxpqK5-wy3A/s1600/akshardam+elephants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoGuA-72xQU8swA7Cqz_4WqYlVu1fhsnLR8WwZDTCCTdBhnpfesG9ni46VprhPtPD_ikGVs4z4dntVW-rN9tE-X6lUldVnV-ycMR-tZG1LD_51hupWFgVEhaCRGiGv5iwnqxpqK5-wy3A/s640/akshardam+elephants.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The reason I loved this place so much. The entire outside of the temple/inside wall around the courtyard has various depictions of elephants in various aspects of their lives. It's so enchanting!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCZ95aiidvnIjOUU_7qLRLtc2WuUjHZy081JMpSbZHTr6M1_43Imr-anBUgUyTQnAq5MDG-loX9lhw3FLcgY04brFYJj7OEiaLGwtXpNgZw16oL_wgEUsLV-VyMok7zMa0ZRqv6hVHDA/s1600/akshardam+grounds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCZ95aiidvnIjOUU_7qLRLtc2WuUjHZy081JMpSbZHTr6M1_43Imr-anBUgUyTQnAq5MDG-loX9lhw3FLcgY04brFYJj7OEiaLGwtXpNgZw16oL_wgEUsLV-VyMok7zMa0ZRqv6hVHDA/s640/akshardam+grounds.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Aerial shot of the grounds. They form the shape of a lotus flower.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Another outside view of the intricate carvings.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCgLrOr9DetIdlwDotuBZfJFU4ppOLqaoEAnC0DedTcZtdMBpF8m6lIco10gFKYY34HGtAEgoUfzR7i30aFGd-T3U1WBm2ElzYyqxYrs5y0rNRN83O-6ok_o1aSBnnuMPJ2odAOGYKvIE/s1600/akshardam+elephants+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCgLrOr9DetIdlwDotuBZfJFU4ppOLqaoEAnC0DedTcZtdMBpF8m6lIco10gFKYY34HGtAEgoUfzR7i30aFGd-T3U1WBm2ElzYyqxYrs5y0rNRN83O-6ok_o1aSBnnuMPJ2odAOGYKvIE/s640/akshardam+elephants+2.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Akshardam elephants.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9i0I3397JOdiUyqCLXQ60L-vH1zlQTSx1EGxC7pMM-Ys0yiD85S6Bg-ZnQhaSXlBp-tU714AD1GH7Ug5noKY7rFAugPVxDEonvsoIQNui84Joo43CtbW0Yn_1a4coDIyXu8mg5vNXrTQ/s1600/akshardam+elephants+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9i0I3397JOdiUyqCLXQ60L-vH1zlQTSx1EGxC7pMM-Ys0yiD85S6Bg-ZnQhaSXlBp-tU714AD1GH7Ug5noKY7rFAugPVxDEonvsoIQNui84Joo43CtbW0Yn_1a4coDIyXu8mg5vNXrTQ/s640/akshardam+elephants+3.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Akshardam from a distance, but still within the limits of the gates.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">Last, but not least was my visit to Dili Haat, an open air market that features a variety of sellers from all regions of India. It was definitely beautiful and I went a bit crazy with the jewelry buying while I was there, but I remember it being so hot that I thought I was going to faint. My friend G recommended it to me and I would recommend visiting it as well. Even though I didn't find anything that appealed to me within my price range for souvenirs it's still a gorgeous place to visit. I only have a few pictures from the inside. For once I wasn't too concerned with taking pictures of everything because I was afraid if I fainted my camera would fall from my hands and break. I do wish I had taken a video of the group of people in picture 3 because they were making lovely music. (Note to self: use other adjectives besides awesome and lovely.)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJSRe-I9RPoboQvFfHuebTroRiB_tjGdcx3BM7r7HX0tBTRYUX-XCKWXxXMIzoOa4eeK84c2F4YexnG0IDtyL_WZz8kY7VQiviIAt8ek6me7VLGaE4wZf327JrV1A-hwmLHDDn9He7yNM/s1600/IMG_0086.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJSRe-I9RPoboQvFfHuebTroRiB_tjGdcx3BM7r7HX0tBTRYUX-XCKWXxXMIzoOa4eeK84c2F4YexnG0IDtyL_WZz8kY7VQiviIAt8ek6me7VLGaE4wZf327JrV1A-hwmLHDDn9He7yNM/s640/IMG_0086.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Add caption</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The main entrance.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Dudes making music.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://know.burrp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/dilli-haat-shopping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://know.burrp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/dilli-haat-shopping.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://know.burrp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/dilli-haat-shopping.jpg"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">http://know.burrp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/dilli-haat-shopping.jpg</span></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://know.burrp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Delhi-Haat1.jpg"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">http://know.burrp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Delhi-Haat1.jpg</span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">I was reading an article called <a href="http://know.burrp.com/my-city/delhi-my-city/10-things-not-to-do-in-delhi/38611" target="_blank">"10 Things Not To Do In Delhi"</a> and I had to post the link because I definitely did #4, but that's due to me being confident in general I think. I also did #6, but I wouldn't put it on the list. In fact, I'd say DO IT! It's so much fun.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">I just I should also mention that I sort of visited Qutb Minar, but I didn't want to pay the exorbitant entrance fee, or at least a fee I thought was exorbitant, so we sort of drove past it on our way home and I popped out in the parking lot and took a picture and then hopped back into the car.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">Hmmm, I guess I should also mention that the super awesome Tanushi and Tanay took me out to dinner that evening.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7o2-2o74270-NjbKQF8G28gqD91QCydvE8eY6INmpZrQT79cfd1yD38opSkmaASWFybnIS0n8lgOrSJXS28_UmF3J9_uSZ_A2YRH-0scQoABK8Qd_d8bWFl4_Fe9X9ae5qIHObEHtJZU/s1600/IMG_4111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7o2-2o74270-NjbKQF8G28gqD91QCydvE8eY6INmpZrQT79cfd1yD38opSkmaASWFybnIS0n8lgOrSJXS28_UmF3J9_uSZ_A2YRH-0scQoABK8Qd_d8bWFl4_Fe9X9ae5qIHObEHtJZU/s640/IMG_4111.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Calamari, my favorite.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Don't tell Tanay you're about to take his picture or else...</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The super cute and spicy Tanushi</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Super shady alley way we had to walk down to get to our restaurant. I guess you could call it a hole-in-the-wall.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="line-height: 19.176136016845703px;">Coming up: Sunday and the wedding!</span></span>Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-64973862318858918072013-09-20T12:09:00.000-07:002014-02-22T16:51:33.509-08:00Tales from India: A most beautiful sangeet.I love writing my blog, but after reading oodles and oodles of some really well written and well designed travel blogs (<a href="http://thelazytravelers.com/" target="_blank">The Lazy Travellers</a>!!!) I've decided that I can't really consider what I do to be a travel blog. I wish I could say that it is my heart and soul on paper because it sounds more romantic. However, it's not even paper, so what can I call it? I think it's my heart and soul available for all to see! In this age of over connectivity that is kind of true, isn't it? I'm not going to complain though because it is precisely why I've felt this sudden surge of productivity (procrastination be damned!)<br />
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My Instagram account boasts that 'I love food. And travelling. And eating food while travelling', but I realise I've been devoting a bit too much time and space to posting pictures of food, although when is that ever a bad thing? Recently I started posting more of my travel pictures. The response has been overwhelming. Especially when two friends (shout out to TK and Nisha for giving my self-confidence a major boost!) came out of the woodwork to tell me that they've been reading my blog and that I need to continue it. (Just as an aside, I only procrastinate when it comes to fun activities for myself. Work and school never suffer. Only the things that give me personal satisfaction suffer for some odd reason. (::hint hint:: to any potential employers who might be reading this.))</div>
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So where was I? Ahh, yes. I left off after my trip to Agra to see the most magnificent Taj Mahal. Seriously, go see it! Heck, go to India only to see it.<br />
That brings us to Friday. Friday night was the sangeet. If you don't know what a sangeet is feel free to check out my first blog post on <a href="http://mssaigon.blogspot.com/2013/04/tales-from-india_16.html" target="_blank">India</a>. Friday morning into early afternoon was S's mehndi session. I hired a taxi, gave him her address and was off. S, if you're reading these posts, I have to say that your family is just the loveliest. You know I already adore your mom and dad and your extended family is just as wonderful.<br />
We spent the afternoon getting our mehndi done, oohing and ahhing at each other's mehndi designs, me wondering how S was going to go to the bathroom, singing songs (the others, not me) and trying to understand what people were saying (me, since I don't speak Hindi, le duh.) I had both the palms and back of my left hand designed, but I left the right one unadorned because once you've got mehndi on you can't touch anything (wet, dry or otherwise) until it dries and is hard enough to flake off. This way the henna has soaked into your skin deep enough to stain it. Ta daaaa....mehndi! When S left to go to the salon I went back home to Sunita's and then we went back to Lajput Nagar to pick up my sari's and get any other odds and ends I deemed necessary. Let's just say it's a good thing I put myself on a budget because I could have easily gone crazy. The shopaholic in me is always begging to be free.</div>
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The rest of day went off without a hitch until it came time to go to the sangeet. It was held at a place called The Panchshila Rendezvous. Sunita lent me the services of her driver (yep, I'm fancy!) for the evening, which was awesome. I gave him the address and he said, "hmmmm, I think I know where this is." So off we went. Place number 1 was not correct. It was a gym. Place number 2 was not correct. It was a parking lot. With no buildings in sight. However, as they say, the third time is the charm. I arrived about an hour late (or on time if you take into account IST, Indian Standard Time.) S and V hadn't arrived so I sought out A, S's only other friend from the States at the wedding. A was doing a semester abroad in India at the time for his MBA program so we quickly found each other and were like "gaaaah, another American! Whew." I'm all for travelling, discovering new cultures and of course new foods and meeting new people, but sometimes, just sometimes, a small taste of home can make you feel at ease, even if it's in the form of a stranger you've just met. Amit and I quickly bonded and hit up all the food servers passing out hors d'oeuvres. Those poor servers never saw us coming. I had such an amazing time. S's mom danced in honor of her only daughter and S sang a very moving and beautiful love song for V. I danced until my feet hurt, ate until I thought I was going to give birth to my food baby, Sebastian, and laughed until I thought my cheeks would crack. I know that I had a very idealised vision in my head of what a wedding in India was going to be like, but honestly it was like being with family back home. There weren't many difference. This further serves my theory that all people are alike. As long as the basic beliefs about taking care of family and having food and shelter to keep them warm and safe are there, who cares about how you do it. Also, no one there realised that I wasn't of direct Indian descent unless I mentioned it so if anyone calls me a fake Indian again <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN-_cZNDy0w" target="_blank">I'll punch them in the babymaker.</a></div>
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As usual, I'd rather express myself through pictures, but sometimes words are necessary. Thanks for suffering through the words!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">S's mehndi</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ba-bling! </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and S. It is terribly hot in India. How anyone manages to look polished is beyond me.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is where we 'oooohed and ahhhhed.'</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My mehndi in its unhardened state.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">General merrymaking</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9uwDPS97YLTmOPiNxQfXW_qpasIs1qWIjxiX72kB3eCPuNYgHS7OgenrnTGzZijaXle3KXSObqWEd94LB9lmWnePT_bdQ8eFDn6JSxPm53iHHJXs1QwHFhbnK9TYrzrDCZXJKsOyBxqM/s1600/IMG_4033.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9uwDPS97YLTmOPiNxQfXW_qpasIs1qWIjxiX72kB3eCPuNYgHS7OgenrnTGzZijaXle3KXSObqWEd94LB9lmWnePT_bdQ8eFDn6JSxPm53iHHJXs1QwHFhbnK9TYrzrDCZXJKsOyBxqM/s640/IMG_4033.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now are you saying you wouldn't hit that?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right: A, V, S and moi</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">S's awesome and most welcoming family.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">S's song</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aunty S getting her groove on.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This picture epitomizes the happy slightly wacky couple.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Action shot!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shhhhh, because I almost stole her away.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My mehndi the day after.</td></tr>
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Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-50875853882281781482013-05-28T20:23:00.000-07:002015-05-19T21:45:57.273-07:00Tour guide in Phnom Penh, CambodiaI had a reader ask me for my tour guide information from Phnom Penh and Siem Reap a while back. Unfortunately, I couldn't find their business cards or contact information anywhere! I even emailed my friend, who was my travel agent in Vietnam who helped book a few of my trips to Cambodia, but she couldn't get their direct information either. I was so bummed out. I mean, I'm sure I'll end up in Cambodia again since it's kinda one of my favorite countries in the whole wide world and I wanted them to be there! Lo and behold, Naren, my favorite tuk tuk driver emailed me the other day. He finally got a website up and running and he had my email address. So he emailed me and asked me to pass out his information to friends who might one day visit Cambodia. Lucky for him I write a blog, even if only a couple of people read, but I'm sure they know important people.<br>
Naren is great! I can't begin to tell you how much we loved him. The first time I met him was during my Tet vacation. He picked our group up at the bus depot and took us to our hotel. He was just one of the sweetest people I've ever met. The second time I visited he happened to be our tour guide again. He got on famously with my mom and sisters. The third time I went I was by myself enroute to Sihanoukville with a quick stopover in Phnom Penh. Well, it was supposed to be quick but I missed my bus in Saigon and I was late for my connecting bus in Phnom Penh. I was kinda freaked out because I would have to wait for ages in Phnom Penh. I could have gone to the Russian Market, my FAVORITE place in Phnom Penh, but my bag was kinda heavy and I'm kinda lazy so of course it was a problem for me. As I walked off the bus, despondent because I couldn't spend my time shopping, I literally ran into Naren. Yes, I'm using the word literally correct in this sentence. He was picking up someone from the bus, but he saw me and grabbed my arm and told me to follow him. I told him what happened so he went back to the bus depot with me and got them to change my ticket. Apparently there was a bus leaving in an hour rather than three hours that no one saw fit to mention. He then said he'd keep my backpack for me in his car while I went shopping if I wanted. He has a couple of guys working for him so he sent them to drop his clients at their hotel so they could freshen up and he waited for me and then made sure I got on the bus. I didn't have anything of concern in the backpack except my cool toothbrush cover so that wasn't a problem.<br>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2GoILz1YT6pkpgDMPT73bn4Ni1PEl_GWxNLh4idnKGtP_hxwOH-ML4o03eOcn4REPnbZU_Kfr_5EIKj7gnub9N8t__P869CFyjQrFK5dA7dqVx69Lq59SRLv9CiuKJah5i8PebM12k9w/s1600/IMG_2579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2GoILz1YT6pkpgDMPT73bn4Ni1PEl_GWxNLh4idnKGtP_hxwOH-ML4o03eOcn4REPnbZU_Kfr_5EIKj7gnub9N8t__P869CFyjQrFK5dA7dqVx69Lq59SRLv9CiuKJah5i8PebM12k9w/s400/IMG_2579.JPG" height="300" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Here's a picture of me and Naren and my awesome sign. That's Kat, my wonderful former roommate, looking on jealously in the background. </span></td></tr>
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Here's his website. <a href="http://naren-tour.com/">http://naren-tour.com/</a><br>
And his contact information just in case the link doesn't work.<br>
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<h2 style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; margin: 10px 0px 0px 10px;">
Contact Information:</h2>
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Contact Name : Mr. Kao Naren</div>
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Address : #209, St. Small road, Khleang Sang Village, Sangkat Ruessei Kaev,Khan Russey Keo,Phnom Penh, Cambodia.</div>
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Tel : 855(0) <a href="tel:89%C2%A0816%C2%A0089" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="telephone" x-apple-data-detectors-result="1">89 816 089</a></div>
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E-mail : <a href="mailto:soknaren11@gmail.com" style="font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: none;">soknaren11@gmail.com</a> / <a href="mailto:info@naren-tour.com" style="font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: none;">info@naren-tour.com</a></div>
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Website : <a href="http://www.naren-tour.com/" style="font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.naren-tour.com</a></div>
Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-49990225876075345212013-05-28T19:35:00.001-07:002014-02-27T12:12:37.417-08:00The Lazy Travelers: Jetsetters: Nadine<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I like writing my blog. Some days I feel really inspired and I can write pretty brilliantly, if I can say so. Some days they're rather boring. Despite my ups and downs The Romantic and The Wino, the wonderful bloggers at <a href="http://thelazytravelers.com/" target="_blank">The Lazy Travelers</a>, welcomed me into the blogosphere with open arms. Some people gushed over <a href="http://thelazytravelers.com/jetsetters-nadine/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">my interview</span></a> (I love my family) and some people said it wasn't as epic as my post <a href="http://kamininadine.blogspot.com/2010/04/one-where-i-go-speed-dating.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The One Where I Go Speed Dating.</span></a> I totes agree with that because that was brilliant. I initially posted it Facebook and had to disable comments for it because the response was so overwhelming. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm lying of course. I don't know how to disable comments for posts on Facebook. Or do I...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anyways, the point of this absurd post is to describe how insanely happy I am. Procrastination got in the way of course so 2 weeks later, here it is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I won't re-post the entire thing but here's a snippet or two. Feel free to check out the link and comment there. Post lovely things please.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span style="line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;">Hello friends and fellow travel lovers! It’s our favorite day of the week (next to Wine Wednesday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday, of course). It’s JETSETTER day!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: orange;">Meet Nadine of </span><a href="http://mssaigon.blogspot.com/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Tales From Saigon</span></a><span style="color: orange;">. She grew up in the West Indies, first traveled on her own at age 17, and has ridden on the back of a motorcycle taxi, which makes her infinitely cooler than us. She quit her job and moved to Vietnam for sixteen months, where she fell in love with Pho. We’ll let her tell you the rest."</span></span></div>
Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-32717817341879016392013-05-06T22:39:00.000-07:002013-05-06T23:03:28.496-07:00Tales from India: The Road to AgraDay two was replete with the obligatory visit to the Taj Mahal. At least, that's how I initially felt. I know, deep down, that the Taj Mahal is a one of the wonders of the world (not technically) and as such it must not be left off any lists. It is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is number <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/252" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">252 on the list</span></a>.</span> For those of you that don't know, in order for a place to be listed as a World Heritage Site it has to be of special physical or cultural significance and it is chosen and maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. By the by, that's all from their <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">website</span></a>. </span>I may be a fount of useless trivia, but I'm really not that eloquent. The ability to properly define a word still eludes me. I'm all "uhhhh, it does this and ummm, this is an example of it, blah blah blah." That doesn't lead back to my original point but I'll find it. I wasn't super excited to go to the Taj Mahal, but all those feelings changed after seeing it. Pictures do not do it justice. It is absolutely marvelous and it definitely stunned me into silence after my first glimpse. Absolutely amazing.<br />
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I did some research into travel and tour companies before I left Vietnam and narrowed it down to two places. They all offered the same things: A/C car, pick up and drop off, tour guide, tolls, parking, taxes, gas (diesel)etc. In the end I chose the tour service that came to the apartment to speak to Sunita because she was quite worried about me wandering off by myself. After seeing the recent news coming out of India about treatment of females, and by that I mean the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/indian-girl-5-serious-condition-rape-125916780.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">rape and torture</span> </a>of a 5-year old girl and the earlier story of the girl who was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Delhi_gang_rape_case" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">gang raped on a bus and later died</span></a> from her injuries at a hospital in Singapore. Ugh, I'm so mad just thinking about this but I do not want my blog post to be a commentary about the sad state of women's rights in India and the Indian governments inability to effectively run its state. I'll leave that to the people who can better argue against it.<br />
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In any case, Sunita was duly worried about me travelling by myself so I asked representatives from the tour companies to visit the apartment and speak with her the first day I got there. Shailendar from Vaibhav Tourism Services, Ltd was able to make the visit. After taking his cell phone number, the driver's cell phone number, the license plate number, the address of the agency in Delhi, the address of the agency in Agra and the tour guide's name and phone number she felt secure in letting me go. I love her for being thorough and concerned.<br />
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I left pretty early the next day, slept most of the 4 hour drive to Agra, shopped at bit during the stopover we made, regretted that I bought a few pieces of clothing (darn my shopaholic tendencies), took countless pictures of the beautifully decorated trucks on the road and visited a Mother Laxshmi shrine on the way there. I really wish we could have visited Mathura, birth place of Lord Krishna, but I was asleep as we passed it on the way going and we didn't have enough time on the way back. It was too far off the highway we were on and we would have been extremely late getting back. I didn't fancy being with an unknown man at night on a highway in India.<br />
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There's nothing to see in Agra. In fact, when we finally got there I thought it was like every other trash filled, smog riddled, hawker infested town we'd passed on the way there. You can't see the Taj Mahal from the road. You do pass Agra Fort on the way in, but I don't have memories of being very impressed with the view from the road.<br />
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We picked up my guide, a very nice man named Hassan, and headed up to the Taj Mahal. His English was impeccable as opposed to my severely limited Hindi and he was very knowledgeable. He did give me his contact information before I left because I said I wanted to share it on my blog but I, of course, was the ultimate numpty and lost it. I sincerely regret it because he was fantastic and very pleasant. I normally despise tour guides because I really, really, really hate the endless chattering. Our tour guide in Cambodia drove me up the wall so I opted for a tuk tuk by myself and left the fam to suffer with him. Sowwie! Hassan was the opposite of that. I've included a picture of him in the post so you can print it out and show it to the tour agency to request that specific tour guide. I'm serious! He was great! He took pictures of me (not in a creepy way) and made me pose (I promise not in a creepy way), which absolutely made my heart soar. It's the kind of thing I do for others, so they ALWAYS have great photos of themselves and I'm like "was I even there?" He even made me do the obligatory tourist shot at the Taj. During our tour he asked me if I spoke Hindi and I told him that I understood a very limited amount. He responded by saying, in Hindi, that I was a very beautiful woman. I could have thanked him in Hindi, but I chickened out and just said 'thank you' in<br />
English.<br />
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After walking around in midday heat in India during the month of July for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours, I was exhausted, dehydrated and in severe danger of passing out. What prompted me to do that? I love the heat but only if I'm sitting on a beach in front of beautiful clear water and white sands. Not while I'm in the middle of crowds (have I ever mentioned that I hate crowds?) who smell and are continuously hawking up something or the other. Not that I didn't smell, but I understand the power of deodorant, so I smelled less. Hassan quickly found me a large bottle of water and a shady spot and we sat there chatting for a while until he said that my face <a href="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121122214910/thesabrinatheteenagewitch/images/5/55/MJH-sabrina-the-teenage-witch-328228_250_190.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">no longer looked like a cherry</span></a>. We found my driver, dropped Hassan at his agency, did a shady transaction in which I had to pay for half my tour at the agency in Agra but since their credit card machine wasn't working we had to go to a textile factory to use theirs. Nothing untoward happened on my credit card, but it was shady because that's what tour guides do. For example, in Bangkok they tell you that a certain tourist location is closed and then recommend another one that will give them a percentage if tourists show up. In India, they take you to tourist sites that 'you should really visit', but it's just showrooms. In Jaipur, I was taken to a gem factory. Yeahhhh, right! Didn't they see what I was wearing? They thought <i>I </i>could afford gems?! </div>
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We headed back to Delhi; the driver battled traffic and I battled drooling while falling asleep. Terrible habit that happens when I'm beyond exhausted and I can't control my body anymore. I managed to stay awake and take some pictures, but the motion of a moving car always puts me to sleep. I felt terrible because I really wanted to talk to my driver. I hate situations where I feel like I'm so privileged. I mean, I am compared to most people in the countries I've visited of late, but I hate flaunting it. My driver kept fielding calls from his kids who live up north on the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnuTs_QYR7xcDuOMcNdTRMWfaMFbC4G6dnUPoPYJgSqHdlKDPzGWDir1ONhTlMQVNi5KkAAM9tU4x24iMUsiuYbobz_Ij75qywCzOmRjE4RRnGmvvXx-b1iyAyIMJXzvEMpYlEdVAOKutU/s1600/indialarge.gif" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Haryana/Punjab border</span></a>. He lives in New Delhi which is in the state of Haryana, but down south on the Uttar Pradesh border, which is where the Taj Mahal is located. He got to see his family every couple of months. I felt bad for him, but in reality you do what you have to in order to support your family. He was a really nice guy who obviously cared about his family. I really love meeting family oriented fathers. It makes me happy. I think I gave him a tip that was almost equivalent to the price of the day trip. Of course, I'm incredibly jaded and wonder if it wasn't all a story. However, I'm sure the part about him being ridiculously poor is true and I hope he appreciated it.<br />
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I made it back in time to eat, shower, make small talk with the family and then fall into a deep sleep. After a really shaky phone call home. It's amazing what the power of an iPod touch, decent WiFi, and a Google Voice account can do. I'm seriously in love with Google and am going to promote the heck out of it right now. Tip: If you get a Google Voice number before you leave home and download the Talkatone app (or whatever free app that works with Google Voice that catches your fancy) you can call home for free. Especially if home is in the same country as your local number. I have a DC number and called my family in VA and NY, for freeeeeee. Forget Skype! Oh and this is of course if you didn't get a fancy, internet ready phone that uses a SIM card.<br />
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Day 3: Coming soon!<br />
In the meanwhile, enjoy these pictures!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-mp9ytmyXBSYv6MgX91eIsvIqvTc34-EmavT1L5SADQlwoo02hIeh3H26cbXqM4zW7Sz6460CwD9PpVyWegUVOniSc3IrDL7DMFTcY6W_Aq3RoiKXd2WjXhJxLfDHFn60J9vHKaqtxm8/s1600/IMG_0060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-mp9ytmyXBSYv6MgX91eIsvIqvTc34-EmavT1L5SADQlwoo02hIeh3H26cbXqM4zW7Sz6460CwD9PpVyWegUVOniSc3IrDL7DMFTcY6W_Aq3RoiKXd2WjXhJxLfDHFn60J9vHKaqtxm8/s640/IMG_0060.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My first glimpse of the Taj Mahal.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc_AXy265-ExDfpdXegxEsBbDhPr4ZFwg0D-wOlMVntVSpkWqf4nImus__rCfKvKQRFxirNSfqu8tCD2a8un4Tssrkiy1x7q8tNe-hoNobTryBoZporbmolaF2t6DQIGUnmfpGmlyhijQ/s1600/IMG_0029.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc_AXy265-ExDfpdXegxEsBbDhPr4ZFwg0D-wOlMVntVSpkWqf4nImus__rCfKvKQRFxirNSfqu8tCD2a8un4Tssrkiy1x7q8tNe-hoNobTryBoZporbmolaF2t6DQIGUnmfpGmlyhijQ/s640/IMG_0029.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Taj Mahal. Duh.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbtSCXyAqB93sIdWzqIbRkRYjZBPkaPcJsGrH8MZtYuFi41KGQhCihomF4sJJOFAyBCSNL_t5NZD56H7u03W3QdjXdphDvvez8ou9jQx_xZ1rW4OCxCyRL6GKMAqzXo1oldzx2gI99-BE/s1600/IMG_0032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbtSCXyAqB93sIdWzqIbRkRYjZBPkaPcJsGrH8MZtYuFi41KGQhCihomF4sJJOFAyBCSNL_t5NZD56H7u03W3QdjXdphDvvez8ou9jQx_xZ1rW4OCxCyRL6GKMAqzXo1oldzx2gI99-BE/s640/IMG_0032.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A not creepy pose.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis5q2VnYfUC4iwGZtPEZxzBm1JKfnVnjJQoXQD2LiuVbJxaaSf4g0gQHCHqLKNGFmg6Fb2oeJsvUoTobGJ_gElCq91S1S4h80Fckgjc6-2-vUWUhL8bU0Si9V13Mtx-rEf1WgmgS8bunY/s1600/IMG_0034.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis5q2VnYfUC4iwGZtPEZxzBm1JKfnVnjJQoXQD2LiuVbJxaaSf4g0gQHCHqLKNGFmg6Fb2oeJsvUoTobGJ_gElCq91S1S4h80Fckgjc6-2-vUWUhL8bU0Si9V13Mtx-rEf1WgmgS8bunY/s640/IMG_0034.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Obligatory tourist pose.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCvhfFC3HM8nNje5bBCVklRYM8Y4QnsU3qf-cRDWgmMZMteeRx3Sp9AYmFaMShTzrsabOVZaz8ddK0oh_ATvfTEQujiPl4L7_UhfvkWnzkCO5LdWeiAdLvJN6piRMgk2Nsx6Uc2UpF1G8/s1600/IMG_0036.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCvhfFC3HM8nNje5bBCVklRYM8Y4QnsU3qf-cRDWgmMZMteeRx3Sp9AYmFaMShTzrsabOVZaz8ddK0oh_ATvfTEQujiPl4L7_UhfvkWnzkCO5LdWeiAdLvJN6piRMgk2Nsx6Uc2UpF1G8/s640/IMG_0036.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You have to either cover your shoes or take them off to enter the Taj Mahal. Since I like having skin on the soles of my feet I opted for the booties.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5yML0mfVBFZH3ba3a2iOG1MzwkDPJv1Jvq-z_0ct4soNb5conIwMeegJQ1W9U0P0HLpYjB4FQXEPQbyTRDrIIawgpzd3huwHQw20o-IlXj9MvB6e3ZukJUSoQwa8hARNVWzPmvwgdB8g/s1600/IMG_0043.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5yML0mfVBFZH3ba3a2iOG1MzwkDPJv1Jvq-z_0ct4soNb5conIwMeegJQ1W9U0P0HLpYjB4FQXEPQbyTRDrIIawgpzd3huwHQw20o-IlXj9MvB6e3ZukJUSoQwa8hARNVWzPmvwgdB8g/s640/IMG_0043.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I think you can begin to get a sense of how red my face was. Also, another non-creepy pose.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzAWzzqDSlsSAEAaGLcuiBOERPAYWMhROQNLnQUeatXDjg0xxNgyEaYagQeXWBPHlAAsFY1dadlvg9B8HZztt8o-8jy5zEINpV-KzvHKjs9kOtgL2qXg1sdVkUccOlb3IPRRBcRNc-10g/s1600/IMG_0055.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzAWzzqDSlsSAEAaGLcuiBOERPAYWMhROQNLnQUeatXDjg0xxNgyEaYagQeXWBPHlAAsFY1dadlvg9B8HZztt8o-8jy5zEINpV-KzvHKjs9kOtgL2qXg1sdVkUccOlb3IPRRBcRNc-10g/s640/IMG_0055.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hassan! Ask for him. Seriously.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3LPduqBkq_V0nV84HjTlsNWwjk3Pok4bdsQ1MgMDPq2U-_ixtp8hvlUA81IhcVTohJiO8pPI_86jOtc82PE-EO4nkqI6EL74jiXHIFU3jOLlmihlvJ5RTARSepojo1J8LccZaW2tLRLU/s1600/IMG_0066.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3LPduqBkq_V0nV84HjTlsNWwjk3Pok4bdsQ1MgMDPq2U-_ixtp8hvlUA81IhcVTohJiO8pPI_86jOtc82PE-EO4nkqI6EL74jiXHIFU3jOLlmihlvJ5RTARSepojo1J8LccZaW2tLRLU/s640/IMG_0066.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Indian traffic. It was everywhere at all times.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5CiwiNkKaQriL85lYzaPtg59GWRQlsUESRVygl6sHHhIX1BTprX_eGFT3RaGOwFn-_Zlz34Ny4ZZk9G_dNYunsUYWEu0pLdIT_Rie9y8k8Mumd5-MCRPN59Lmx3kzjmQXn2CsmRvBr0/s1600/IMG_0069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5CiwiNkKaQriL85lYzaPtg59GWRQlsUESRVygl6sHHhIX1BTprX_eGFT3RaGOwFn-_Zlz34Ny4ZZk9G_dNYunsUYWEu0pLdIT_Rie9y8k8Mumd5-MCRPN59Lmx3kzjmQXn2CsmRvBr0/s640/IMG_0069.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Truck!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpFYBNMOR93A9qKDlCvi8aBNfJSYbKBJwT-U155RMn175rkwRqoPUtTtyp9QQSUA-8vN2jbW4ZPoUmAklM_r6xvG5KvBvFnQgoFaALD9Zy8DtcckiOcZY7J71dCibqIepsO3uWJZhyphenhyphenQ-A/s1600/IMG_0070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpFYBNMOR93A9qKDlCvi8aBNfJSYbKBJwT-U155RMn175rkwRqoPUtTtyp9QQSUA-8vN2jbW4ZPoUmAklM_r6xvG5KvBvFnQgoFaALD9Zy8DtcckiOcZY7J71dCibqIepsO3uWJZhyphenhyphenQ-A/s640/IMG_0070.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another truck. I was obsessed with these trucks, I tell you.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrVHJ7WYImKtSWgTGx_o2PiqIWLUHwmxiFhNNsop3ZHI4nWbUTzQQE55Dun4TpGter5M5Pqbf_LlJO63HcweQLqcM0q_nyqOfcr1jMR321G4JCO0fpJe4Qyx16PEKA5PoeZ611SK6VMno/s1600/IMG_0077.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrVHJ7WYImKtSWgTGx_o2PiqIWLUHwmxiFhNNsop3ZHI4nWbUTzQQE55Dun4TpGter5M5Pqbf_LlJO63HcweQLqcM0q_nyqOfcr1jMR321G4JCO0fpJe4Qyx16PEKA5PoeZ611SK6VMno/s640/IMG_0077.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mother Lakshmi statue.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik7k8dkcKw852BaREp4WwQdca1_I8zBKZEhYaNDjSbiBKbVoQwsB9DPoGFoyIBm3Dij0DSp_PhxCjQz_WgUKTlreEpHcm3-hfut4Sy7GS90bsid8of2GKY9fR_AJ3hOmUI5MogWHOGf10/s1600/IMG_0078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik7k8dkcKw852BaREp4WwQdca1_I8zBKZEhYaNDjSbiBKbVoQwsB9DPoGFoyIBm3Dij0DSp_PhxCjQz_WgUKTlreEpHcm3-hfut4Sy7GS90bsid8of2GKY9fR_AJ3hOmUI5MogWHOGf10/s320/IMG_0078.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another truck!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrJf0fHExhVdPTKnRyUAZ81KzyOFBgbXhxMf_4zbU6jKWuwznBOv2Muq1lmLEke3PX1ma1W9rs9ZRMQoosYUkb-KZXoVEmarwOC99CuIYNeSfYfA5Nx8_uMTMfljVM_Qemj2AMA-rQmI/s1600/IMG_0084.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrJf0fHExhVdPTKnRyUAZ81KzyOFBgbXhxMf_4zbU6jKWuwznBOv2Muq1lmLEke3PX1ma1W9rs9ZRMQoosYUkb-KZXoVEmarwOC99CuIYNeSfYfA5Nx8_uMTMfljVM_Qemj2AMA-rQmI/s640/IMG_0084.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Child playing on a tractor.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEuKQjpgizjfty8M-RaczuYq6JDzkymxaqMW-HhiBd3f8VaE7T2EdDorQckmqgNqESHyMiyP1MGTQNHxPQfhPEA22yLK3iFOXX8FaGsKLnpaSYPV-Lac2-kn3Vml5gUnMUPti_lEOrNLo/s1600/IMG_0111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEuKQjpgizjfty8M-RaczuYq6JDzkymxaqMW-HhiBd3f8VaE7T2EdDorQckmqgNqESHyMiyP1MGTQNHxPQfhPEA22yLK3iFOXX8FaGsKLnpaSYPV-Lac2-kn3Vml5gUnMUPti_lEOrNLo/s640/IMG_0111.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dare I say it again? Truck!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEse3pBhCQk20c-6YYRjO0uyKu9UuO-3mhVxt-bjZeQ3H3pyw-vc-oQK2I-4ugzBURlF2d0g-uNujRXUfgQKDSjlDjdIZkS1HgPQuDZzUkk8J7_Lf1rKFTf8BbuQHWSv7xXcLyI42qmE/s1600/IMG_0112.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEse3pBhCQk20c-6YYRjO0uyKu9UuO-3mhVxt-bjZeQ3H3pyw-vc-oQK2I-4ugzBURlF2d0g-uNujRXUfgQKDSjlDjdIZkS1HgPQuDZzUkk8J7_Lf1rKFTf8BbuQHWSv7xXcLyI42qmE/s640/IMG_0112.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh and I think this is a picture of a truck.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ4bEgRt8dedzICkHL_BR9hbEav3de6dIGKcj_X_exc_dHQvFRbtKYFOtMaJl6MjZhixVqqFWqYiCZExE2H1GC-SjK9wSJnYJ61jffjnQdH6qKptaYbZXjNTCX_gjlSl4fgXz6dV3BzlA/s1600/vaibhav.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ4bEgRt8dedzICkHL_BR9hbEav3de6dIGKcj_X_exc_dHQvFRbtKYFOtMaJl6MjZhixVqqFWqYiCZExE2H1GC-SjK9wSJnYJ61jffjnQdH6qKptaYbZXjNTCX_gjlSl4fgXz6dV3BzlA/s640/vaibhav.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I should probably mention that I'm not posting this because I get anything kind of compensation from it. Rather, they were quite helpful and if I can help anyone else who is looking for a tour company the so be it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-20317038042850114882013-04-16T20:44:00.001-07:002013-05-06T21:13:19.132-07:00Tales from India<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I bet you're saying "finally!" and by you, I mean
my mom, my most faithful reader. I think I should win some sort of award for
this blog post. Something along the lines of "World's Longest Amount of
Time Spent Procrastinating Writing a Blog Post." That could be a thing,
right? I even procrastinated a little bit more before starting the actual
writing of this post by reading up on procrastination. I might have this down
to an art form.<br />
Interesting <a href="http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/procrastination/" target="_blank"><span style="color: orange;">handout</span></a> from
The Writing Center at UNC, by the way.<br />
So where should I start? I think the beginning is always a good place to start
but in this specific case the beginning started nearly 28 years ago and I don't
believe I have time for that. The abridged version of the 28 year long story?
Well I've always had a love/hate relationship with India. I love to hate it and
I hate to love it. Oh wait...that's sorta the same thing, isn't it. Well let's
try to define my relationship with India and you might begin to realise why
this was a complicated trip for me. I am of Indian descent, but not from India.
I'm a practicing Hindu, but I don't practice speaking Hindi. I love Bollywood
films and music, but I'm as lost as a man who refuses to ask directions without
subtitles. All of this leads up to the fact that I have been asked, <a href="http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: orange;">ALOT</span></a>, if I'm a 'real' Indian, but I have no idea what
that's supposed to mean. In short, I have very mixed feelings about
India.<br />
I have a lot of friends who are always complaining about wedding season and the
23 weddings they have to attend because all of their friends are getting
married. I've never had that problem. I haven't figured out if it's because I
have no friends or if they just aren't getting married. Joking...I have no
friends. In the year 2012 I had two friends get married. Of course they both
chose the EXACT SAME WEEKEND. How on earth could I possibly choose
between India, a place I'd always dreamt (or had nightmares) about, and
Thailand, a place I'd definitely always dreamt about? In end I chose India
because I had visions of a jewel-clad elephant, or horse if I'm being
realistic, prancing down the street surrounded by dancing girls and singing
boys. Yes, I'm talking about a Bollywood movie come to life. I didn't really
think it was going to happen, but that small part of me that thinks I'll
actually win a round of poker kept saying, "you never know."<br />
"You never know" is what prompted me to choose India even though I
only had 10 days to spend and everyone I talked to said that 10 days in India
is crazy talk. Hey, I wanted to start another blog called "The Lazy
Travellers" with my friend and former roomie Helen Robbens (shoutout!) but
I knew that I'd just procrastinate doing that as well. I digress. Back to the
10 days. I'd just taken that amazing two week trip to Cambodia and Thailand
with my family and due to my uncanny ability to get sick every month due to all
the pollution in Saigon I was short on vacation days.<br />
I flew out late Tuesday night, had a 1 hour flight on Qatar Airways (which is
ah.mah.zing) to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, a 5 hour layover there, then a
direct flight on Jet Airways (which was absolutely disgraceful compared to
Qatar) to New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. Tip: In my
opinion, you should pack light if you have long layovers because this way you
can just tuck your bag under your head as a pillow and pass out.<br />
Before leaving for India I spent hours communicating with my family back home.
My uncle-in-law is from India, but he left as a child and, as a result, doesn't
have the highest of opinions about India. For example, I stupidly mentioned
that I wanted to take a train out to the edge of Rajasthani Desert and go camel
trekking. I'm pretty sure they heard, "I want to try and take drugs through
the airport in Thailand so I can be arrested and put in a Thai prison to
rot." That idea was quickly nixed and before you think it, I know what
you're thinking. "You're an adult in a foreign country with no one to
check up on whether you went camel trekking or not. Just do it!" That was
also their reasoning for why I shouldn't go just in case I was kidnapped and
sold into sex slavery. I'm not trying to be facetious here, but I'm about 18
years too old and 100 lbs overweight for that to happen. In any case, I'm a mostly obedient niece so I nixed the idea and decided that I'd try to take
it easy. I was also told, multiple times, that I should closely guard my bags
as I'm exiting the airport because people rush up to you and try to grab your
stuff. I, of course, listened carefully and tightly held onto my backpack as I
walked out the airport ready to face the hordes from hell. Instead, I got
crickets. I'm pretty sure there was literally no one around as I walked out. I
mean, there weren't even any taxi drivers rushing to hound me and they're
pretty much staples at most Asian airports, aren't they?<br />
Day 1: I arrived in India on Wednesday about 10 am. After arranging for a taxi
inside, which is pretty simple actually. You pick a counter, give them the
address you're going to, they'll tell you the price, I don't think you can
haggle with this one but you can sure try, take the ticket once you realise
haggling is useless and head outside to find your taxi. The tickets have
numbers that correspond to the numbers on the taxi. Easy peasy. The people at
the currency exchange counter and the taxi stand were so nice. No one asked if
I were a real Indian. Thanks to my oh so obvious American accent and inability
to perfect any other kind of accent they knew where I was from and asked if it
was my first time there. I said yes and they wished me luck and not in a
"oh ho you're gonna need it" kind of way. It was nice. I found my
taxi, stashed my stuff in the boot, hopped in and prayed to God it was a
legitimate service and that I wasn't going to end up dead. I found myself
saying that a lot during my travels. I digress. My first impressions of India
were "God, it's hot" and "hmmmm, this looks just like
Trinidad." (Trinidad, I'll write a letter to you one day thanking you for
resembling so many other countries that I've never felt homesick or
frightened.) We finally found the apartment buildings, but when I tried to pay
I realized that I only had large bills and even though I did want to give my driver a tip I didn't want the tip to be larger than the fare,
but I couldn't explain that to him. I mimed to him to wait and rushed into the
building trying to find someone who would be willing to break my large bill.
Large bills are kind of like a poisonous snake. No one wants to own them. I
finally found a guard who just gave me the rupees I needed. He was so sweet. No
one wanted to break the 1000 rupee note I had and I just wanted a 50 so he gave
it to me. I eventually tracked him down and tried to give it back to him, but
he refused it. I think I'm being a bit mean here but I can't imagine an American
doing that for another one unless they were homeless and even then it's still
pretty improbable. I finally found the apartment where I was staying, and
oh...I haven't even mentioned where I was staying. I was all up for staying in
a guesthouse or hotel, but my aunt mentioned that my uncle's cousin lives in
Delhi and that they had enough room and after a multitude of emails and dropped
calls I finally found my way to their apartment. I have to say that I really
appreciated staying there and not because it was pretty swanky and that there
was a cook, a cleaning girl and a driver. I mean, sure, that was a large part
of it, but it was also due to the fact that I was staying with an Indian family
who spoke English who could and would properly answer the billion and one
questions I’d inevitably have. To sweeten the deal they were incredibly and
genuinely nice people who never once said “oh, you’re not a real Indian, huh?”
(If you imagine that sentence being said in a thick Indian accent it’ll be 59
times funnier.) I had Tanushi, the fiery spitball of a 10 year old girl, and
Tanay, the 23-year old who I mistook for a 15-year old for company while I was
there. My first day there I was pretty wiped out because I’d been in school
since 3 pm the day before, taught class, stayed to plan for my lessons after I
returned from my trip and then headed straight to the airport. So Sunita, my
‘aunt’, insisted that I eat and sleep before I did anything. That evening she
took me clothing shopping and before you roll your eyes thinking "she's
in a foregin country and the first thing she does is go shopping" I have a
good excuse. I had AN INDIAN WEDDING TO ATTEND and the fanciest thing I owned
in Vietnam was a cocktail dress that wasn't even that fancy and the only shoes
I had that were slightly suitable would make me three feet taller than most
people there so I was in desperate need of clothes and shoes. So yaaa, I went
shopping. Sunita and Tanushi took me to <a href="http://www.mapsofindia.com/delhi/shopping-areas/lajpat-nagar-central-market.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: orange;">Lajput Nagar Market</span></a>, which is great because you can
find pretty much everything you need there and it has a real
homey feel to it. Plus, hardly anyone looked at me funny. Even with my bright
red hair. Long story. Oh and they have Mehndiwalas, guys that are lined up
along one side of the street sitting on stools with plastic tables full of
tubes of henna. For shockingly low prices you can get henna done. I've also
seen this in Malaysia and Singapore, but they weren't as prolific as the
Mehndiwalas in New Delhi.<br />
Back to the shopping. I bought two <a href="http://www.abandonthecube.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sari.gif" target="_blank"><span style="color: orange;">saris</span></a>, a <a href="http://www.4to40.com/coloring_book/trace.asp?p=Woman_in_Salwar_Kameez&k=Salwar_Kameez" target="_blank"><span style="color: orange;">salwar kameez</span></a>, two pairs of shoes (I was glad to be in a
country that carried my size) and a loads of trinkets for souvenirs. I also
bought the. best. thing. ever. I finally, and by finally I mean after 15 years
of waiting, bought a black sari. Ever since I saw the movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
and fell in love with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQeN3Z-zUrw" target="_blank"><span style="color: orange;">Kajol and her black sari</span></a> (2:19) I have been coveting
one.<br />
I selected the materials, got measured for the length of the underskirt and
top, paid the man and we left. It takes them several days to get everything
together so I arranged to come back on the Friday, just in time for the <a href="http://weddings.iloveindia.com/indian-weddings/pre-wedding-functions/sangeet.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: orange;">Sangeet</span></a> on the Friday evening.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of Sunita's favorite foods is from a food stall in
Lajput Nagar and she has to have it every time she goes there. I
desperately wish I could remember what it's called. I'll have to email her and
ask her the name at some point. Anyways, she promised that it would be okay
because it was fried and didn't have any fresh vegetables in it. Sounds
healthy, doesn't it? Well, it doesn't matter if it was healthy or not because
it was scrumptious. We stood there and finished an entire order by ourselves
and then she looked at me and I felt that I could read her mind because I said
"one more for the road?" It was the right thing to say. We bought
two, finished one in the car (while the chauffeur drove us home) and gave
the second order to Tanushi. My first day in India was complete. I had shopped
and bargained with notorious cheapskates, I ate street food and I didn't die. I
would call it a success.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Day 2 TBC soon. I promise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8088385156675800534.post-58059425421501261312013-02-25T19:43:00.000-08:002013-02-25T19:43:36.990-08:00TravellingI know I haven't posted AT ALL in what feels like years. Here's a list of what's new:<br />
<br />
1) I'm officially jobless and homeless for the 2nd time in 2 years. Of course since I've chosen this path there is no need to feel sorry for me. Plus, I'm technically not homeless because I've got too much family to ever be without a place to live.<br />
2) I'll be travelling for the next 6 weeks. I absolutely can't wait! Today is my first stop. I'm currently waiting at the airport for my flight to Da Nang. Da Nang is a coastal town in central Vietnam. It's the place I wanted to visit first when I started researching Vietnam. I'm excited to finally be going there. I'm going to rent a bike and find the most isolated/beautiful spot on the beach and say there for 2 days.<br />
3) I'll try to post every time I visit a new spot. Happy and safe travels to me!!!<br />
<br />
<br />Tea Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01730200143870860441noreply@blogger.com0