Hum Cum we Live?

Wow. yesterday was a day of twelve days in one... Absolute insanity! Phuong, Molly, Sarah, and I rented motorbikes and after a 30 second lesson, were flying down the crowded avenues of Hanoi, narrowly escaping death at each turn! We proceeded to practice in a small parking lot where 2 little Vietnamese girls were also learning to ride bicycles. They were worse than we were and kept falling directly in front of our motorbikes and giving us coronaries. Once we were slightly comfortable, we took to the roads for the tour to end all tours!! Phuong took us in a circle around the entire city center, through winding roads and small paths near Sword Lake. We saw the rich and the poor, naked chickens fighting, babies peeing on the road, beautiful pagodas, and finally the highway of death. THe highway of death involves a two lane road, 3000 motorbikes, aggressive chicken trucks, and mean cars. Molly and I were almost wiped out by a dude in a car with murder on his mind! Luckily, we swerved out of the way and have our first "we almost died" story.... We met up with Phuong's two friends Kong and Chi who lead us to the countryside. Amazing! We stopped at a Pagoda on the red river on a street that was lined by fields and huge cows with nose rings that acted as living lawn mowers.. pictures to follow. We then drove to the middle of nowhere and stopped to have Bia Ha Hoi and some garlic french fries (along with pork that was wrapped in banana leaves for ten days and never cooked... disgusting). This was home to the most nasty bathroom (if you can call it that) It was a room with a trench all along the sides with no water to rinse the excrement anywhere.... unbelievable. Thouroghly grossed out, I walked out of the trenches to see a huge bird flu chicken coup under the sink as well.....

Then dinner at Phuong's family's house. Beautiful house, great food, such nice and welcoming people. Sarah was sick all day with wild butt, and had to go to bed after dinner. Molly and I went to this club called New Century with Phuong and his friends... I cannot stress how terrible the establishment was... Bone shakingly loud techno, epileptic seizure lights, and million dollar beers. Molly and I composed a list of terrible things we would prefer to be doing instead of being at new Century see below

Ready?

Bad things to do that are better than being at New Century: a list by Molly and Jeff-

1. Laying in bed with diarrhea cramps
2. Eating dog: preferably raw
3. Paying taxes
4. Cuttin your toenails or pubes
5. Getting a cavity filled
6. Puking our your nose
7. Waiting in traffic for 1000 hours
8. THe Spice Girls
9. The Backstreet Boys
10. Sharting in your underwear
11. Papercutting your eyeball

as you can see we had to make our own fun. On a lighter note, sarah is feeling better, and we are off for another day of unpredictable motorbike adventure!


Love getting the comments from everyone! keep it up

J

i thought i was gonna die

what up,
had a spectacular day yesterday! from the amazing motorbike tour of the country around hanoi to the incredible diarrhea that only i suffered from to the meal of spring rolls and curried chicken at phuong's parents house. driving a motorbike was the scariest thing i've done in a long long time but sort of got the hang of it cuz phuong made me drive his bike allllll over. molly is by far the best of the 3 of us tho and jeff was definately not as shaken up as me. my nerves were shot for the rest of the day and combined with some serious digestive problems to make me a very sad girl.

we have changed our plans a bit because we were lead to believe that a bus to nha trang (a paradisical beachside oasis) would be 8 hours. it's actually 28! so we go to halong bay tomorrow (the 2nd)- a bay with 3,000 islands of marble covered in algae. we have their famous seafood and kayak and swim and stay overnight. back the next day - the bus is about 3.5 hours, no big deal. back to hanoi on the 3rd and fly to saigon on the 4th at night. that way we can be in saigon until the 7th when we fly to cambodia.

gonna go find some pho and get in touch with phuong. we are doing a bunch of more touristy stuff today: viewing ho chi minh's body (hopefully) and maybe doing a motorbike into the mountains.

how come nobody is posting on my shit?
xoxo,
s

Yo peeps

ok so much has transpired since my last transmission. After checking into the hostel and having a few Halida (vietnamese beers) on our amazing rooftop bar, we continued to wait for molly to arrive. Phuong and his friends Hang and Hung took us to one of the seven karaoke bars on our street (we now refer to our street as the land of plentiful karaokes). We sat in the dark back room with terrible leather couches with massive holes boared into them and proceeded to drink heinekin and sing songs. Now, these are not your standard karaoke fare... this was 80's vietnamese love songs... ungodly awful beyond your wildest dreams!! However, I did sing about 10 songs such as tears in heaven, suspicious minds (yes elvis is famous here too), and much beatles. My first asian karaoke was a blast!!

After that, sarah, molly, and I wandered Hanoi looking for some grub. Once sufficiently lost, we stumbled upon a row of baby furniture where many vietnamese were gathered around steaming pots of amazing food. We had a broth with noodles, bok choy, and various incredible seafood things. The giant shrimp were whole and their purple beady eyes were bursting from the heat.... so nasty. To eat them, one must rip their heads off in a shocking display of carnage and rip the carapace off and munch away. I have great pics...

Went to see Phuong play at his jazz club after that. Had Bia Hoi, the local beer, and proceeded to get so tired I could not speak. Phuong is killer on the keyboard thoguh!

Today, we woke and had a traditional breakfast of Pho which is a clear broth with veggies and meat. Unfortunately, vegetarian is concept unknown to this region of the world so guess what kids??? Jeff ate meat!!! and it was pretty good too! kinda chewy though... (dad how proud are you?) Then we had the most amazing coffee in the world. Vietnam was a french colony and those frogs brought caffe with them!!! well played frenchies...

anyway, it involves lots of espresso, sweetened condensed milk, and ice.... mix and drink... so rich and somewhat unexplicably chocolatey.... cant describe the intense goodness...
and i am mad wired.

gotta go learn how to ride motorbikes like i live in Hanoi.... may die. I am expecting gore and blood....

stay tuned.


J

food tales...

hey y'all,
no time to write cuz phuong -who has been an absolutely spectacular tour guide - is coming in a half hour to take us motorbiking for the first time so that we can practice before we ride out into the mountains. last night he took us to an awesome jazz club and sat in for a bit. tonight we are having dinner with his family and then going back to minh's jazz club to hear him play a whole set. last night jeff mol and i walked around looking for food. found a place with tiny child-size plastic chairs and tables - standard issue here. there was a gas burner and pot on the table and they brought us broth with tomatoes and pineapple. we added baby bok choy, clams, squid, octupus, shrimp the size of your head, white fish, chili paste, heinekin. it was amazing! just came back from a breakfast of pho - soup with scallions, noodles and it was so good that jeff ate beeef!
i'm sure he will tell you about the incredible vietnamese coffee so i'll save that for him. caffeine is his forte after all!
all i can say is this is other-worldy and i can't believe i'm here.
so much love-
s

whattup! it's mols

Hey guys...i've arrived as well. we are all three now. we have to go drink beer. i've had a rough two days- i moved my life out of japan ::big sad face::
and it was my bday. 24. worst one ever. gotta do it again next year.
byeeee!!!

wer her bitches!

we got here without any troubles - kinda surprising... already having a blast. more later.
peace to you!
s

first impressions: Hanoi

Hey everyone


Sarah and I arrived safely in Hanoi about 2 hours ago. All the flights went well. No major setbacks. I am writing this at our hostel in the old quarter of hanoi. Phuong was able to pick us up at the airport which was great because I am a zombie and the airport is hella far from the city. I cant even explain all the things that passed by my car window as we drove through the countryside. Rice fields on either side, motorbikes honking and nearly slamming into the car, people with cone hats running across the street with their produce, waterbuffulos, shacks, temples, and a giant red river... Hanoi is one massive spectacle!! so amazing! The juxtaposition of the poverty and wealth is very blurred, armani store rising out the huts pinning it on either side.. The city smells like shit too! in a glorious way though.. Anyway, we are chillin at the hostel waiting for them to clean our room so we can take much needed showers. I have major swass... Then dinner with Phuong and Molly and a few Bia Hoi (Hanoi's local beer) cant wait!! Pictures will come soon but I havent had the chance to take many yet.

Miss you all already

J

peacin out

we are going to asia!!!!!!!!!! much love and lots of missing everyone already. more soon.
peace to you,
s

takin off tomorrow

Man.... i cant believe that this is the last night i will spend in my apartment for 5 weeks.... im trading it in for hostels and hammocks! Keep checking back for more updates... I am still trying to finish packing so dont have too much time to type. I keep feeling that I am forgetting something important...


ps. this is a picture of Halong Bay in Vietnam. Its this amazing bay with 300 jagged marble islands which we will be riding motorbikes to from Hanoi. I can't wait!!! I really hope i dont have a biking accident though.. not into hospitalization.

Peace out!


The Backpacker J