The Karaoke Incident

Of course there was a karaoke machine on our cruise boat, I mean, we are in Asia after all, right? So, after one too many drinks, a very flamboyant crew member convinces us all to sing a couple of songs. Just to be nerds, we make an Australian couple sing "The Land Down Under", and afterwards they request "Born in the USA" for us to sing. This is where things went wrong, VERY wrong.

Have you ever listened to the actual lyrics of Born in the USA? Well, if not hear ya go....

I got in a little hometown jam,
So they put a rifle in my hands,
Sent me off to Vietnam,
To go and kill the yellow man, (cringe, this is when we all start registering the words)
I had a buddy at Khe San,
Fighting off the Viet Cong (And this is the part we all throw down the microphones and run back to our rooms to hide)


I'm pretty sure the crew member who was singing with us did not understand the words anyways, but still, this was obviously a very dumb move on our part. Just remember this the next time any of you decide you're up for karaoke in Nam.

Vietnam

AH! So sorry for the delayed posting. I've been busy working and trying to figure out my next move after the holidays. Busy, busy, busy!

Now, back to the trip. After Indonesia, we headed home with Rachel to Saigon. We spent 3 days there before heading up to Hanoi. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh really are very similiar places...both big cities crammed with people and motorbikes. Hanoi has a little more character, as there is more French influenced architecture around the city and the streets are a lot smaller and quaint than the big boulevards of Saigon. But having my sister as our tour guide in Saigon, definitely made for a more memorable experience (post on Saigon coming soon).

Streets of Hanoi...

Opera House in Hanoi...
After Hanoi, we headed over to Halong Bay for a 3 day cruise. We didn't have the best of weather, but met some amazing people, kayaked and ate a lot of great food. Halong Bay's limestone cliffs weren't too bad of a view either.

Our "junk", Oriental Sails

After Halong Bay, we headed down to Hoi An, quite possibly my favorite city in all of Southeast Asia. It's too good of a place to put in a paragraph, so look for a post some time next week.

Crossing the Street

Whenever I had to do this in Vietnam, my blood pressure immediately raised 10 notches. When reading our guide book before our arrival, it said "You will always remember the first time you crossed a street in Vietnam"...no joke.

As Matt and I take our first venture out onto the streets of Saigon, we attempt our first crossing. Now, the pedestrian green "walk" sign is flashing, so, I just start waltzing right across the street, when suddenly a Vietnamese woman takes a right turn without stopping, plowing right into me. I literally almost tore the 4 foot woman off her bike, it was such an awkard collision (probably would have been hilarious to watch on a hidden camera).

Luckily neither the woman or I got hurt, but I got the feeling she was used to running over westerners on a daily basis as she did not flinch once throughout the whole ordeal. But I literally was so scared I had to do a shuffle across the street and use Matt as shield for the rest of the trip. So stressful!

Mt. Rinjani Trek

Here's one lesson to be learned when traveling....DO NOT listen to Lonely Planet. When reading about the trek in our book, Lonely Planet describes the 2 day trek to the crater rim as an easy hike. However, they did not mention anything about hiking for 9 hours directly STRAIGHT up a mountain. Now, when I say straight up, I mean straight up. There was no zig zagging to make the hike a little easier, no, we hiked straight up the mountain.

The majority of the hike was through the jungle on the worst cut trail I have ever seen in my life, with every step being literally 3 to 4 foot high. After about 6 hours of hiking through the jungle, we thought we would surely be coming to some sort of a break. Oh no, the next 2 hours were spent hiking through sand, literally taking 1 step forward and then falling 5 back. And if that didn't seem like enough, we then had to crawl on rocks for another hour to reach the crater rim.

Once we were at the top, I have to admit this was one of the coolest experiences of my life. But that hike up was literally the most physically challenging thing I have ever done...literally could not walk for 2 days afterwards.

The view from the crater rim...
Me at the top, just happy I made it.
Our campsite...

Our porters busy at working making banana pankcakes. These guys deserve a lot of credit for making our meals and hauling all our supplies up the mountain...all while wearing flip flops.
The morning at sunset. The peak you see at the top of the picture is Bali and if you look very closely, you can see the three Gili Islands branching off from Lombok.

Bungalow Chic

Some of the places we've been staying. Definitely adding one to my backyard later in life.



I fell in love with outdoor showers. Nothing better!

The Gili Islands

When picturing Bali, most people get images of some exotic, far away place with beautiful, deserted beaches...something like what they disguised it as in the "Eat, Pray, Love" movie this summer I assume? Well, sorry to disappoint you all, but in reality Bali is chock full of traffic congested highways, drunken Aussies, littered beaches and all the KFC and McDonalds you can eat.


Since my sister had already discovered this let down on her first visit, we decided to stay only 3 nights in Bali and then head on to the Gili Islands for some peace and quiet. The Gili Islands are are a set of 3 islands off the coast of Lombok and are all only a few kilometers around in size. There are no cars or motorbikes on any of the islands...just horse drawn carriages that add a pleasant jingle to your entire stay. Gili Trawangan, the largest island, is the most touristy. We stayed there for 2 nights and then went on to Gili Air. And this is where I found my favorite place in Southeast Asia.

Gili Air is closest of the islands to Lombok, and from the eastern side where we stayed, you get magnificent views of the mountains on Lombok and Mt. Rinjani. Gili Air is not very populated either, so there was a very remote and secluded feel to our entire stay. It also has a great beach where you can rent snorkels and swim literally 25 yards out to a coral reef with the craziest fish I've ever seen.


Another reason to love the place- the people in Indonesia are amongst some of the nicest we met on the entire trip. Their language is not a tonal language like a lot of the others in Asia, so it is a lot easier for them to learn English....and they love to talk with you! Even little 5 year olds are running up asking you, "Hello! Where are you going?", So cute!

After spending 5 blissful days on Gili Air, we decided it would be a great idea to go climb a mountain. To be continued...

F U- Man on the Motorbike!!!

We have one day to go and I thought I was going to come home without having gotten anything stolen. WRONG! Today as Matt and I inched our way through motorbike drivers on a street in Saigon, one guy blew past and snatched my purse right off of me.

No worries though- I was fully prepared for this to happen since it has already happened to my sister and almost all her friends. My cheap purse broke immediately, so I did not feel a thing. And since I always give anything valuable to Matt, the only thing good he got was my cell phone.

So, Mr. Motorbike Man, please have fun with my $10 cash and Burt's Bea's lip gloss.