MISTAKE

I sent this email to my family. I shouldn't have been dramatic. I soon realized it was a mistake when panic set in back in Texas.

I received multiple emails back. Here are a couple from my mom.

I don't know why I thought sending a dramatic email to my family about an injury while traveling through Southeast Asia alone was a good idea. MISTAKE. I sent apology emails for being dramatic, and my foot is fine. 

In my defense, I probably should have gotten off the bus and gone to the hospital. The cut was on the ball of my foot and about the size of a penny with swelling and bruising in addition to lots of blood. It really hurt to walk for a while, but I finished my trip with no problem.

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Nha Trang (pt II)

There really wasn't anything too special about Nha Trang, Vietnam, so I went to the beach...over and over again.

My favorite thing about Vietnamese beaches is the locals. The beach comes alive at night. Families come to the beach to play in the water and have picnics when the sun starts to set. The people watching is fantastic as most of them get into the water fully clothed.

Lobster boiler on the go

Atomic cotton candy

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Nha Trang (pt I)

Nha Trang is apparently THE scuba dive spot in Vietnam. After realizing I wouldn't have enough time to go to Southern Thailand to dive before I left Southeast Asia, I decided to give Vietnamese diving a try.

Dynamite fishing is a problem in Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam. It involves throwing either commercial or homemade explosives in the water to kill schools of fish, thus making way for easy collection. The blasts not only kill marine life, but destroy coral reef. My dive company, Rainbow Divers, spoke about how they can occasionally feel the impact of explosives while they're underwater. When diving, I noticed a lot of dead coral reef. It's a very sad and widespread practice in Southeast Asia.

Vietnam is beautiful!

My dive group

Thrilled to be diving, obviously

www.divevietnam.com

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My Son

My Son is close to Hoi An, Vietnam and boasts to be like Angkor Wat, but it’s not. It is a project in the making and will be a wonderful historical site one day. Sadly, much of the destruction to this property was caused during the Vietnam War. UNESCO and Italian investors teamed up and are working to restore My Son to the grandeur it once was. 

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Hoi An

Hoi An was a sad place to leave; I easily could have spent more time here. Custom tailors are what put the city of the map, but it has much more to offer. It is a romantic little city in every sense of the word. As a UNESCO World Heretage Site, Hoi An hosts many temples and museums for its small size. Colorful silk lamps hang from many of the store fronts and light the way at night. A river separates the town and reconnects it with artisan bridges. A peaceful beach is 3 kilometers away and perfectly accessible by bicycle. The streets feel more European than Vietnamese and beg to be explored. With romance in the air, I fell in love, not only with the town, but with a new friend named Amber. She's one of those people I had just met, but felt like I had known for a lifetime.

I met Amber when I got off the train from Hanoi and an American couple suggested the four of us share a cab from Da Nang into Hoi An. I spent the entirety of my time in Hoi An with her and had a magical time. She just left a relationship and needed a sounding board to reassure herself it was the right thing to do. She also left her job and all she knew familiar to move to India and study yoga. She was an inspiration. Amber is slightly older than me and offered words of wisdom in career and happiness, as I am about to start mine. She will be a lifelong friend and mentor, this I am sure.

China Beach

The one and only Amber, with our beach cruisers

Silk hanging lamps

Tailor shop

"You're young, attractive, and motivated. The world is your oyster. You can do anything." Thank you, Amber. I needed to hear those words.

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Hanoi (pt III)

Not that I like snakes, but I was peer pressured into going to a snake farm in Hanoi because I wanted to spend another night with my friends from the Halong Bay tour.

Only in Asia does such a thing exists where one can tear a snake's beating heart out of its flesh with one's own teeth and eat it. Then one can chug the snake's blood mixed with rice wine. People actually do this. It's a thing. I saw with my own eyes and deemed it inhumane, even without a PETA affiliation. Aside from the fact that drinking blood can give you Hep C, I understood the draw that some people, men in particular, find in it. Try as I will, forgetting this one will be tough.

I was most surprised when I was handling two snakes by myself (must have been raised on a farm or something) and a guy asked me to hand him one. I did. He screamed absurdly and prolonged. I thought he was joking. He wasn't. I laughed. He turned out to be the first one to eat the snake's heart. He immediately vomited. 

I wouldn't have been smiling
if it was a rattle snake.

Showoff

When you eat a snake's heart,
you feel like this.

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Hanoi (pt II)

Silly me, I did not look up the hours for the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum before I went, so I missed it. It is only open for a couple of hours in the morning, and I made my way over after lunch. Ho Chi Minh’s body has been preserved for about 40 years and is housed in a huge Romanesque complex that is similar to Lenin’s in Moscow. Ho Chi Minh was the Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader responsible for founding the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the People’s Army of Vietnam, and the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. He was loved and respected by his people.

Since I was already on Ho Chi Minh’s Memorial Complex, I toured the Presidential Palace and Ho Chi Minh’s House on Stilts, the One Pillar Pagoda, and Ho Chi Minh’s Museum. In the museum I walked through a twin exhibit dedicated to Lenin’s life; the other twin is in Russia. It was very interesting to see because Americans believe communism is a “threat to peace and freedom” (Richard Nixon, 1960), while some other nations celebrate it.

Presidential Palace

Mausoleum

Ho Chi Minh Museum

One Pillar Pagoda

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Hanoi (pt I)

Hanoi, Vietnam was my first Vietnamese city to visit. By saying I was overwhelmed when I first arrived was an understatement. When going through customs, the Vietnamese immigration officer silently stared at me, then my passport, then back at me for upwards of two minutes before he stamped me in. He sufficiently intimidated me. After wandering for a while, I found what is probably the best hostel in the city-Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel- where two Australians decided to open a place that they would like to stay. Brilliant.

Only intimidating for a short while, I fell into the rhythm of Vietnam’s capital city and really enjoyed my time there. The most peaceful place I found in the city was Hoen Kiem Lake (“Lake of the Returned Sword”). While walking around, I saw dozens of local couples gazing at the Turtle Tower in the center of the lake.

This guy caught me taking a photo.
He obliged by smiling.

The Huc Bridge ("Morning Sunlight Bridge")
leading to Ngoc Son Temple

Ngoc Son Temple ("Temple of the Jade Mountain")

Thap Rua ("Turtle Tower")

http://www.hanoibackpackershostel.com/hanoi/hanoi

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Halong Bay

Wow. Incredible. Halong Bay blew me out of the water (pun intended). It reminded me of the Westman Islands in Iceland, but more vast and tropical. The tour I signed up for enticed me with a great junk (boat) to spend the night in the bay the first night, rock climbing, kayaking, wake-boarding, spelunking, and camping on a private beach the second night. Unknowingly, I signed up for a booze cruise. Good thing my college days as ‘Boozin Susan’ prepared me for what was in store. The people on the tour were hilarious and fun, which made it a pleasure to spend three days with them.

The guides are mostly Westerners who were traveling around and decided to stay in Hanoi for a few months and work. The Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel tour motto is printed all over their shirts saying, “rock long rock hard.” I don’t know how they do it. At the end of the tour, my body was wrecked. Scraped and bruised from adventurous activities, exhausted from little sleep, and coming down with a cold, it felt right when it ended. I literally could not have survived another day. That being said, I would absolutely do it over again!

"Spelunking"
We barely made it inside... Drunk people...

Many food vendors came to our junk

Castaway Island

Just another day of rock climbing

The wake-boarding boat driver

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