Oooh I think I have it! Wait, no.. No, I definitely do not have it

Hbf and I found ourselves in Mui Ne, a beach city that is world famous for its kite surfing. Hbf has wanted to try it since he laid eyes on the sport, but it was sort of a new thought for me. I figured I would give it a shot since we were in the right place. My instructor was named Hi and was tiny vietnamese man who had no qualms about yelling at me when I did something wrong.

Day 1

For the first 30 minutes Hi had me practice with a trainer kite, aka a normal kite, so I could figure out how to control it. I've flown a kite maybe once in my life (sad, I know) but I thought I had the hang of it when the time was up. Next, it was time to move onto the kite that is actually used for kite surfing. That kite was 5 x bigger and had to be inflated. The wind was very strong, so Hi thought it best for me to sit down and learn so I didn't blow off the beach when I messed up. Even sitting, Hi held onto my harness in the back and the kite still picked me up during some of the moves. I started to get a little nervous after getting a feel for the power that the kite had. In the beginning, I constantly did the wrong thing and Hi would yell, 'You have to control the kite!' and then grab it from me before it yanked me out to sea. 90 minutes later, I had gotten a pretty good grasp on the controls and Hi only yelled at my about every 5 minutes. Progress. Hbf had a different instructor. While I was still on the beach with my kite, he had made it to the next step which was flying the kite in the water. I tried not to take it hard that he was better than me already, but it burned a bit. Hi decided that tomorrow would be better for me in the water because the wind was too strong in the afternoon. Fine by me.

Day 2

I actually got to enter the water, but no board yet. The waves were huge, and Hi controlled the kite while we attempted to make it past the huge surf. Waves crashed right on our heads, over and over. I clung desperately to Hi, Hi held on to the kite, and the kite dragged us out past the vicious waves. I was tempted to call it a day when I had drank about a gallon of salt water, but it had only been 10 minutes. The lesson must go on. Hi taught me how to body drag, which means that you let the kite drag you all around the ocean. This is in case you lose your board, you know how to retrieve it. He demonstrated, and then I did it with him hanging on to me. It went well, at first. Then, all of a sudden, a huge gust of wind grabbed my kite, and me along with it. Hi tried to hold on, but the kite yanked me out of the water and threw me like 5 feet. I heard Hi yell from behind me, 'You have to control the kite!' Yeah, yeah.. I finally got to the point where I could be in the water by myself, controlling the kite and not crashing it very often. I was pretty proud of myself, until I saw Hbf. He was already trying to get up on the board. *sigh*

Day 3

I actually get to try with the board today, but not by myself. Hi is with me, hanging on, which is makes it really tough to stay up for longer than 3 seconds. Each time I get up though, and I'm exstatic for those 3 seconds, before I fall and Hi yells 'You need to control the kite!'. I'm just getting semi-comfortable on my good side, when Hi tells me I need to work on my other side. So, I try the other side and the kite yanks me hard out of the water and then promptly crashes. Hard. 'You need to control the kite!' and then, 'You broke the kite'. Sure enough, I look over at the kite and it is a sad little deflated heap, rolling in the ocean waves. Apparently, breaking a kite ends the lesson. But a new lesson began called 'how to swim back to the shore with a broken kite and a kite board.' Basically that lesson involved me using the board as a flotation device while Hi dealt with the deflated kite. Even so, it took me about 20 minutes of hard swimming to make it back to shore. Hi made it back shortly after me, and gave me the good news that the kite didn't have a tear, the vent just popped open. Good, I won't have to pay $1000 after all. Hi told me that I probably needed more lessons (shocking!), but I was pretty pooped and we were leaving the next day. Oh well...

All in all, I had a good time. I will have another chance at kite boarding in the Philippines, if I want it. I haven't decided yet..

Vietnam at Christmas

It's been 3 months now traveling, and the new year is fast approaching. Usually during this time, I'd be home with the fam, soaking up the holiday spirit and eating sugar cookie dough. Mmm.. cookie dough. This is the first Christmas where I won't be home in Oregon, but understandably, no one there really feels sorry for me. My madre tells me about the freezing cold weather in the burrito, but I'm sweating in the non-air conditioned internet cafe at the beach. I semi-wish there was a way to make it home for the holidays, but I knew when we started this trip, I wouldn't be making it home. Maybe it's time to cut the apron strings anyways. Naaah.. Spending the holidays with family is what it's all about. Hopefully there won't be too many years where I am absent, but at least the first time that it has happened, I'm in paradise. Did I mention Vietnam is awesome?

We went to a water park in Saigon, which was amazing. We were severely punished by multiple water slides, but that just added to the fun (don't ask me how.. it just does). Now, we're at a beach called Mui Ne, the wind surfing capital of the world (or, that's what it seems like). We are taking lessons, and of course, Hbf has picked it up quicker than me. He actually made it into the water today, where as I wrestled the kite for 2 hours and then called it a day. Maybe tomorrow I'll actually get to go in the water and have the kite drag me around. Our room here is sweet and comes with a nice balcony that over looks the ocean. I couldn't ask for much more.

The food in Vietnam is.. well it's better than Cambodia, but worse than Thailand. I also think my standards have lowered considerably, so I hope that gives you a good idea of what I am eating. There are days when I'm really happy to eat, and days when I dread it. It all depends on my mood, oddly, and what sounds good at the moment. Lately, I've been craving milk and cereal. I had a brief taste of good milk in Cambodia, and I think it has unleashed my obsession with milk again. I went through withdrawl of milk while we were in Asia, but I was pretty resigned to the fact that I wouldn't get milk for 6 months. I'm very picky about my milk and I wasn't about to drink any warm, powdered, or otherwise different milk from what I am used to in the States. So, when I briefly tried it in Thailand and it tasted very different, I had given up on having it until I got back. At a grocery store in Cambodia, I spotted a box of Honey Bunches of Oats, the best cereal ever made! I was so happy, I didn't a dance right there and really considered buying 5 boxes. Hbf sternly insisted I only get one, and he also convinced me to try some more milk. I was very skeptical, but once that sweet, sweet nectar touched my tongue, I wanted more. I think I drank the carton in about 30 seconds. Since then, I have been on the look out for more milk, but to no avail. Water and juice is such a poor substitute for ice cold milk and the withdrawl symptoms are rearing their ugly head. Moodiness, restlessness, spontaneous shopping for milk.. I have all of them. I know I'll survive, but I want some dang milk!

A smattering of short stories

Mosquitoes
Hbf and I hunkered down in our bus seats, ready to endure a 8+ hour ride through the flatlands of Cambodia on roads that aren't really paved yet.. We got our books out to entertain ourselves for the morning. About an hour goes by when I started noticing mosquitoes buzzing around us. I haaaaate mosquitoes and have personally waged war against them, so I pointed out their existence to Hbf. He followed it with his hand, ready to beat it down, but it promptly disappeared and he shrugged and went back to reading. I'm semi-unhinged by now because I know the mosquito wanted my blood and no one elses, and I can't rest until it's dead. I kept my eyes peeled for any movement and I was soon rewarded with a glimpse of one in the curtains. It made the mistake of coming within striking distance and I clapped my hands around it. One down.. But it soon became apparent that he had friends. Hbf and I went on the offensive, him smashing them against the window, and me smushing them between my hands. We had at least 10 bodies between us when we were finished and we celebrated heartily. It wasn't until we got off the bus that we noticed all the bites on our feet. I guess they got one last buffet before they died.

Food?
We were told by our welcome host, self proclaimed Mr. Lonely, that Cambodians eat everything. I can bear witness that Mr. Lonely is no liar. Hbf and I were on our 3 day, 2 night trek with our guide, Mac and a forest ranger. Lunch on the first day consisted of rice, vegetables and beef. Ok so far.. But Mac went fishing and found himself a small crab. He seemed very excited, but I wasn't sure why. How much meat can you get out of a crab the size of a walnut, anyways? He threw it in the fire for about 30 seconds and then proceeded to pop it in his mouth. The Whole Thing. He crunched on the shell and laughed at the expression on my face, which I'm sure was pure horror. He even said it was very tasty. I doubt that.. That night, Hbf and Mac went fishing in the dark. They came back with a little frog, another crab and some craw daddies. I think Hbf had wanted a snake but they came back empty handed, thank goodness. Mac threw their spoils into the fire for a bit, then just started eating all of them in one bite. Well, except for the frog.. Mac and the ranger ripped it apart to share it. I was screaming the whole time and they just laughed and laughed.. And crunched on their 'food'.

The Drunken Village
Day 2 of our trek, and we found ourselves in a minority village. Apparently it was happy hour because everyone was drinking their homemade rice wine in groups of 10 or so. It actually looked like happy hour had started 2 hours ago, by the way they slurred and stumbled. Who's watching the kids? Darkness came, and Hbf and I settled into our bamboo bed to watch an episode on Lost on the iPod (I know, we're really roughing it). Suddenly, in stumbles a man and starts banging a rock against a metal bowl reeeeeally loudly. We were trying to get him to stop, but of course he doesn't speak english, and I don't speak drunken Khmer, so he kept right on for about a minute or so and then stumbled out again. Weird. 20 minutes later, he was back again with a buddy and wanted to bang the gong again. We endured it without saying anything this time and we just hoped that he leaves after he's done playing. But he doesn't. And more people joined him. Hbf and I looked anxiously at each other because we had no idea what was going on. The village people pretty much ignored us and our guide is nowhere to be found. Slowly, people started trickling in and I was feeling a little nervous. All sorts of scenarios ran through my head, especially a vivid one where we were brought forth as some sort of cannibalistic sacrifice. Turns out they were just having a town meeting. Haha.

Disappointed
Our last day on the trek and I was so close to a shower I could taste it. After a particularly difficult climb, Mac decided to give us a rest. Hbf and I took seats on our back packs and watched as Mac tried to tear down a vine from a tree. As he was tugging, he tried to explain the reason he wanted it, which never really became clear to me. It involved women, fertility, and birth, but that was all I understood. All of a sudden, Mac started hacking at the tree that the vine was attached to. Hbf tells him to stop, and I tell Mac that maybe he shouldn't be cutting down trees. He just smiled and kept chopping. Hbf and I both got up and insisted that he stop cutting the tree down, but it was too late. A moment later it tumbled to the ground and Mac got his vine. I was pretty upset, seeing as cutting down trees has always been a big no-no in any forest. Hbf told Mac that he really shouldn't cut down trees in front of tourists because it will probably offend them. We left the tree, and Mac's tip dropped considerably. Hopefully he learned his lesson.

Holes
We arrived in Phnom Penh and decided to head to the lakeside area to stay. We had read that it was where the backpackers were, so we figured we could find a semi-cheap room to stay while we waited for our Vietnam visas. We had to go to 3 places just to find a room with hot water and A/C. When we finally found the room, it was pretty much the crappiest room we had seen, but it met all of our criteria, so we decided to spend one night there. The hotel itself was a mess of hodge-podge construction, with gaps everywhere and walls made of the thinnest ply-wood. El Dub would definitely say it would never pass a building inspection. As we were getting into bed, Hbf noticed that he could see a hole in our floor and we laughed about it. I got into bed and Hbf plopped down right beside me. As he sat, the bed fell through the floor on one corner, the corner where the hole was that Hbf had found. We heard people exclaiming in surprise below us and we hurredly got the bed out of the hole. Since there was a hole already there, we figured we wouldn't be charged for any damages. The next morning, we told the manager about the hole in the floor and his reply was, "yeah, yeah, hole." Ok then, if it's cool with you it's cool with me.

It's a holiday in Cambodia!

Ohhh Cambodia, how I love thee. We made it Siem Reap without much of a todo, which was such a pleasant surprise. From what we had read, there were tons of scams waiting for us at the border and it all depended on how big of suckers we were. We showed them. We sucked so little that we got them to pay us (not really). Siem Reap is home to Angkor Wat. Angkor what, you ask? Angkor What is actually a bar in Siem Reap, but Angkor Wat is temples, temples and more temples. My max quota for looking at temples is about an hour, but I decided to suck it up and spend the whole day with Hbf seeing the big ones. They are one of the wonders of the world, after all.. They didn't disappoint, either. We had a lovely day and I surpassed my quota 10 times over (I survived).

We were able to meet up with a college friend of mine that has moved to Cambodia for a year to work for a non-profit organization. I hadn't seen him for a couple of years so it was nice to see a familiar face and catch up. What are the odds that someone you know is in Cambodia at the same time as yourself? Pretty cool.

Our next adventure took us to Banlung, with a stopover in Kratie. Kratie is home to some freshwater dolphins and we decided to take a tuk-tuk (a motorcycle with a trailer in the back that has seats for 2-4 people) out to the river to investigate. We ended up sharing a boat with some belgium girls and hunted dolphins for about an hour. No one spoke above a whisper for all that time.. I think we didn't want to scare the dolphins away. It worked though, and we saw no less than 20 appearances by our freshwater friends. Our boat had floated down the river quite aways, and the captain tried in vain to get the motor started. He rowed us to the bank and proceeded to change the spark plugs, siphon out gas with a straw, choke on the gas a little bit, and who knows what else. After about 20 minutes, he got it rolling again and we were motored back to the correct shore. We had a bus to catch in an hour and a half, and it was a 30 minute ride back to town so we hurried and got on our tuk-tuk. 10 minutes later, we have a flat tire.
Our tuk-tuk driver did a little off-roading at the beginning of our trip that I think he quite regretted at that moment. We stopped at a local gas station (someone's house that sells gas) and got the tire fixed. There was even a little puppy for me to play with! We made it back with time to spare and were shortly on our way to Banlung.

I have to say, I am enjoying cambodian food. They have delicious baguettes everywhere and you can get little slices of laughing cow cheese. It's breakfast for like a dollar, sometimes less, depending on where you get your bread. Also, I have had some authentic cambodian food (I'm not lying!) and I liked the flavors. We had something they called BBQ mountain, where they had marinated beef and mixed it with egg, then cooked it right in front of us. I also had something they call luk lak, which is marinated meat over vegetables with rice. It has a very nice flavor. I know! It's crazy!

Puppies!

I found a local animal shelter in Koh Samui to volunteer at for a day since it is something I have wanted to do on this trip. I went to the shelter's smaller location, aka the owner's house, which turned out to be a swedish couple. This was surprising because foreigners are not allowed to work in Thailand. I asked how they opened the shelter, and they said since they are non-profit, and are giving free vet services to all the animals on the island, the police look the other way. They employ all thai people though and foreigners can only volunteer. The house itself was filled with cats and smaller dogs, which they said we either blind or couldn't make it at the bigger location. Their yard was filled with diseased dogs, most looked they had severe cases of mange and many were missing limbs. These dogs were strays from around the area that locals had brought in because they didn't want to look at them anymore. Their mission isn't to necessarily get these dogs adopted (this would be near impossible since dogs aren't really valued in Thailand). They just try to give the dogs medicine and vaccines, along with neutering them to control the population. Once they are deemed healthy they are released back out to the streets. It's kind of sad, but they are doing the best they can, and they give all the medicine for free (who would pay anyways?).

I hopped in the minivan with some of the workers, all male, and we drove to the bigger location on the other side of the island. Some of the workers spoke very broken english, but they immediately pointed me to the puppy house. I couldn't argue with that.. There were 5 rooms with litters of puppies, and a room full of individual cages to house sick puppies that were dropped off at their door. They were almost all full. Some of the puppies were so young that they hadn't even opened their eyes yet. Since they leave the puppies in there the whole day, they have no choice to poo and pee in those rooms. The first item on the agenda was to clean out the rooms. They gave me a hose, and scrub brush with a long handle, bleach and a squeegie and set me to work. Cleaning those rooms took up most of the morning. After that, I watched one of the workers examine the sick puppies in their cages and tried to give them some love too.

We went to lunch at an authentic Thai hole-in-the-wall (or rather, shack on the side of the road) restaurant and they ordered me what looked and tasted like top ramen. We sat silent since none of them could speak very good english and I only know about 2 words in Thai.

After lunch, I ventured to the cat house which housed at least 80 cats and had an inside and outside. I cleaned their beds and swept the floor and then sat down to snuggle with some of the cats. It seemed as though the cats yearned for love too since I had a bunch rubbing themselves against me and trying to get me to pet them.

Besides the puppy and cat houses, there were 10 sections that the shelter was split into. Each section had about 30 dogs which seemed to be in various stages of recovery. About 90% looked to have mange, but were getting help. Dogfights broke out maybe every 20 minutes, but there were always workers there to quickly break it up. Usually a yell would stop them in their tracks, sometimes there needed to be more intervention. There were also other volunteers giving baths to the dogs, but some dogs just didn't want to get in the bath water.. One volunteer was bit and it drew blood. He seemed to be ok but they didn't end up bathing that particular dog.

After that, it was about time to go. The workers all piled in the car and we headed back to the house so I could meet Hbf. On the way home, they stopped for some whiskey and let it flow in the car.. So much so that they made a second stop to buy more whiskey since they had ran through a bottle so quickly. Once the drinks were flowing (I did not partake, of course) the boys started trying to talk to me. They knew a surprising amount of english, and they asked me all sorts of questions about USA. They also started asking me out and asking me to marry them. I told them Hbf would hurt them and that seemed to settle things. It was all good fun and we laughed together the whole time.

It was a really good experience, but definitely so different from the shelters in San Diego. I'm going to keep looking for shelters to volunteer at as we move on to different places because at the end of the day, I felt really good. :)