Day 42: Singapore

So here I am, waiting to board my flight back the US, finally! I was luckily able to get a room in the airport hotel (which is the most amazing airport ever with free internet and a free movie theater) so I got about six hours of sleep. And now for the death flight of 24 hours.

I am also pretty angry I won't be able to see Singapore, but I figure it might be more fun to come back here with friends (and money) so I can really enjoy myself. I really have no concern about whether I'll be in Asia again soon (obviously I will be).

So that's the end! I may or may not be updating the blog with a final post when I get home along with updating each post with pictures, but that really depends on how bored/lazy I am. See you all soon!

Day 41: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

So we've had a sort of wrench in the plans and it appears I'll be returning home a few days early. Why you ask? Well it seems my stomach problems may just be something more than the usual upset stomach I get from travelling. This only shortens my trip by 3 days but it's truly tragic for two reasons. The first is that I'm going to completely miss Singapore which sucks. But far more serious is that I'll be leaving my new English boyfriend, Gareth. And by boyfriend I mean I wish death upon his annoying girlfriend. He's hot in that boy band sort of way, but there will be no judging of me as sometimes we just have to go for the obvious. And he has glasses not glasses potential (well not really, I more just put that in for those of us who enjoy such things).

In other news Kuala Lumpur is absurd. So I was aware at the Muslim influence here but not exactly its extent. About a third of the women wear head scarves, a third speak Chinese, and the other third are Indian. And men hold hands in the street? The city is filled with Mosques next door to Chinese food restaurants and the level of English is very high. And it's also extremely ghetto and polluted. And it has the largest in door amusement park which is inside of a mall whose bathrooms I got to know in depth yesterday. So yes, odd.

Speaking of odd I just have to share this amazing commercial which makes no sense. This woman looking very upset comes down the stairs wearing a black head scarf and complains to her husband about something. Seconds later she's shown happily washing her hair, but they don't exactly show her hair, just her face. Then suddenly she's overjoyed and wearing a new green head scarf. So I can only guess it was a shampoo commercial for women WHO NEVER SHOW THEIR HAIR IN PUBLIC. What?!?

I'll be home Tuesday evening, you all better call me the following day (even if I'm dying in the hospital, actually especially if I'm dying in the hospital).

Day 39: Sabah, Malaysia

I am in fact alive for all who had been led to believe otherwise. My last few days I'd like to entitle, "Alex, Trapped in Borneo."

So I arrived at my "resort" on the island of Guyana in Eastern Malaysia. I put resort in parentheses because calling it rustic would be rather charitable. No matter I said to myself, I'd find plenty to do. Between reading my book, hiking in the woods, and scuba diving I would have a grand time, infestation of ants in my room aside! So I sat on my deck overlooking the ocean and was highly content drinking tea and watching the sun set. This was going to be a great couple of days I thought to myself. And what is this? Monkeys just jumped on my deck a mere two feet away from me? Oh those monkey, they're incorrigible! And what now you say? The monkeys are attempting to open my sliding glass door? How charming!

The next day I woke up and my optimism had quickly vanished. Rain had descended on the tiny island of Guyana and it would not let up until the exact moment I checked out. This seemed to rule out the possibility of a hike to the nearby beach. Furthermore, my stomach staged an elaborate coup to ruin my vacation which quickly eliminated the opportunity to scuba dive due to the lack of an easily accessible bathroom. No matter I thought, attempting to maintain my sunny outlook, I'll just read....oh whoops, I seem to have finished my book and all other available reading material. And the television gets two channels, government news 1 and government news 2. So basically I spent my days praying meal time would come soon so I could find an excuse to leave my room and head to the restaurant which played the same ten ABBA songs on a loop. Oh and then I found a rat in my room which kept on eating the fruit the resort had provided which assisted in attracting more ants. So in conclusion I was trapped in my room for two days with some sort of unidentified stomach illness with absolutely nothing to do besides battle the rats, ants, and monkeys that continually assailed me. Not exactly a high point of my trip.

But now I'm out of here! And off to luxurious (?) Kuala Lumpur. Thank god.

Day 33: Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi continues its awesome track record. Friday I went to the Museum of Fine Arts which had some truly great pieces of art from the 20th century. Oddly enough, a large proportion of it was militarily themed, yet I'm led to believe this is due to the choices of the museum rather than the actual output of the art community in Vietnam. I also visited a University dedicated to Confucius that has existed since the 11th century. After a great dinner I was blown away by how many Vietnamese people were out and about in the city. It was great.

Then yesterday I went out to Halong Bay to take an overnight cruise. Halong Bay is jaw droppingly beautiful with huge rock formations rising out of the South China Sea. The cruise was with three Australian couples who I actually had a pretty good time with while swimming and kayaking in the ocean. The only problem was that apparently Australians' favorite topic of conversation is nothing less than Australia. I had absolutely no idea what was going on half the time.

On the way back to Hanoi I met a Vietnamese tour guide who was actually ethnically Chinese and was leading a tour group of Malaysian Chinese. I spoke with him in Chinese for a while and although I was able to get along fine, the words felt incredibly awkward in my mouth. I hope this isn't a sign of further deterioration in the coming year.

Day 31: Hanoi, Vietnam

Just when I think I'm about ready to go home I arrive in Hanoi and completely change my mind. Hanoi is an amazingly beautiful city of 3.5 million and it might just be my second favorite place so far (after Luang Prabang). Hanoi is made up of tiny streets and is dotted with beautiful lakes. It is also dotted with beautiful backpackers who somehow made a pact to only send their hottest representatives to Hanoi. Success!

Things started out right as I shared my sleeper car with a woman who worked for Sofitel in Hanoi and told me some of the best things to do in Hanoi (well actually she just told me to eat Pho which I really could have told her at this point, but still, it was the thought that counted). I got in around 5 am and after some initial confusion about where my hotel actually was I finally made it and promptly collapsed. I awoke around lunch time and sped off to the oh so trendy Restaurant Bobby Chinn which could certainly hold its own in LA or NYC. While there I overheard a number of business lunches that were going on around me. It forced me to consider whether this would be a life (meaning corporate law) that I'd be content with. On the one hand it seemed somewhat exciting and would certainly provide me with a great lifestyle. On the other hand would I be satisfied with what I accomplished in 40 years? Does my heart actually lie with other causes? This time, however, I was much more optimistic about the decision process I would soon have to make, knowing that I am incredibly blessed to be in such a position that provides me with a great amount of flexibility. I've also become a master of the solo meal, I don't even need a prop anymore!

I then hired a motorbike driver for 3 hours ($8.50, expensive) to take me around the city. I went to the Hanoi Hilton, home of John McCain and a number of other POWs from the Vietnam War. It was bizarre for a number of reasons. It is located right next to a huge office building that houses a number of foreign companies, an odd contrast to the prison. The propaganda at the prison was also particularly intense. It harshly criticized the French use of the prison (which was no doubt quite bad), but made it seem like it was a country club for Americans which was clearly not the case.

I then went to the Ho Chi Minh Museum which was like Disney World for Communists. It was totally out of control. Huge modern exhibits about the Industrial Revolution and Fascism. I also think the museum wasn't quite sure how it felt about many things. In one exhibit it would exclaim about the horrors of industrialization, but the next exhibit would proclaim the wonders of the new power plant Vietnam had constructed. But there was a large exhibit about Ho Chi Minh in China, and let me tell you, that Ho seemed like a pretty nice guy judging by all the photos of him (Viet Cong aside). He was always laughing it up and hanging out with peasants.

I went to the Army Museum where, after I was enlisted to do some English translations for some the exhibits, I saw a huge sculpture made up of captured French and American planes. It was pretty intense. Then my driver decided we should take a break and sit on stools on the sidewalk and drink something that he told me was beer but was definitely iced tea no doubt made with tap water. Digestive disaster promptly ensued.

Also let me just tell you that if you ever go to Vietnam I highly recommend visiting Highlands Coffee, the Starbucks of Vietnam. First of all they valet park your motorbike. It's also full service so you sit in huge comfortable couches rather than having to wait in line. Best of all, the Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk is delicious. So thank you Highlands Coffee, and thank you attractive Korean tourists who decided to sit next to me.

I decided to buy a ticket to this water puppet show to which Frommers gave three stars. When Frommers gives something three stars they aren't messing around. It was actually pretty fun to watch, despite people's compulsion to take pictures of every fucking thing that happened. Video even! What is wrong with these people? Are you going to go back home and watch the video of the water puppets that you weren't even paying attention to WHILE IT WAS ACTUALLY HAPPENING because you were too busy filming it? But I soon wondered what was more stupid, ignoring the show because you were too busy filming it, or ignoring the show because you were too busy being enraged at the people filming it.

So after a highly successful day I ran into the people I took the train with from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang with. It was nice heading to dinner with them and of course, watching the United States getting eliminated by Ghana in the World Cup. Tragic. My allegiance is now obviously with Brazil. The night would have been perfect if not for the two Vietnamese guys who stared at me throughout the ENTIRE GAME. Guys, if you're going to do that, at least buy me a drink and make it worth my while.

In other news I've decided to stop taking my Malaria medication because Malaria could be no worse than the side effects I'm currently suffering. Wish me luck!

Day 29: Hue, Vietnam

In a tragic turn of events I have lost the battery charger for my camera so it looks as though there will be no more pictures for the rest of the trip. I definitely had a little freak out about that last night since I've still got some cool places to see (Hanoi, Halong Bay, Borneo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore), but in the end I figure I'll probably take the time to look at things more as a result of not being able to take pictures of them. So if you want to see these places you're just going to have to go yourself.

Yesterday was jaw droppingly amazing. I was beginning to question whether it was worth coming to Hue since the Citadel was nice, but not fantastic. On top of that I paid $25 to take a private boat down the Perfume River to see some of the tombs of past rulers of Vietnam and I wondered whether it would be worth it. Well it definitely was. The tombs were insanely beautiful and were done in many different styles. One looked like a European palace with all the mosaic work while others were landscaped incredibly. On top of that I had to take a motorbike to a lot of the sites. It was rather surreal to be on a motorbike going through the back roads of Vietnam. Truly amazing was speeding through rice paddies and around small temples that had cattle sleeping on their steps without another person in sight. It was the vision I had in my head of what I would be doing in Asia when I decided to come. Also the family that took me on their boat had three adorable children that attempted to teach me Vietnamese.

In other good news I seem to have defeated the fever that has plagued me for the past few days. I definitely didn't tell anyone about my illness in fear that it would get back to my mother who would promptly fly to Vietnam to come get me. Hurray for me and hurray for Tylenol (but not for Malaria medication which continues to ravage my digestive system).

In a few hours I get on a train and head north (over the former DMZ) to Hanoi. It's a horrible 12 hours and I get in at 5:30 am. Let's hope I don't get stuck in a car with cigarette importers like I did last time.

Day 28: Hue, Vietnam

First let me say that the Harvard website is so confusing it makes Columbia look like a pinnacle of organization. Figuring it out should be the test to get in.

I arrived in Hue yesterday which is not a terribly attractive city. What it does have however, is a huge palace complex called the Citadel since it used to be the capital of Vietnam. It's basically a modern version of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Oh, it's also a more ghetto version as much of it has been destroyed due to wars over the years. Things like that keep happening such as seeing bullet holes in Angkor Wat or a huge bomb crater at My Son.

I ate dinner last night at this awesome place right outside of the Citadel that was quite literally a hole in the wall. The owner/cook/waiter was deaf which actually made me feel like I was on equal grounds with everyone else when it came to communicating with him. We had a nice chat(?) about the World Cup. He was quite adamant about his hatred for Togo. I always find it funny that during the World Cup people suddenly have passionate emotions towards countries that previously would not have had the slightest impact on their life.

Riding on the back of motorbikes has also become my new favorite obsession despite being incredibly dangerous.

I also had a wonderful dream last night where Brad Pitt was going to be my roommate in an apartment on Mass Ave. I kept on warning people not to let him know I loved him. Odd.