Argentina Calling

When I left SE Asia, I promised myself that I wouldn´t take another twelve hour night bus. Well, promise has been kept as Argentine distances tend to be between 16-23 hours! Anyway, it´s been just over two weeks, and I can´t believe how fast time is flying. I´ve been having a great time meeting people and enjoying the cities and the countryside. Here are a few quick notes about the cities I´ve been to so far:

Buenos Aires: Really big. I stayed at Palermo House Hostal and met a lot of Americans, so much so that I felt the need to leave BA pretty quickly, despite how cool and awesome they were (two studying in Chile, one who works a diamond mine in Sierra Leone, one creative director, etc). Regardlessm I needed to feel in Argentina so I left after two or three days. The hostel workers were really nice and had a lot of good advice on Tango clubs, etc - very much a party hostel.

Anyway, La Boca district is fairly touristy and pretty beautiful. It doesn´t seem dangerous, but it is. Most of BA´s theft tends to happen there. The cemetary in Recoleta is a lot bigger than it seems and includes many of Argentina´s wealthiest dead. Saw the madres in the Plaza Mayor in front of the Casa Rosada. They march every Thursday at 3pm.

I think my favorite part of my brief stay in BA was the art museums. My god is Argentine modern art purely amazing! MALBA and Museo de Belles Artes were just incredible. The first is discounted every Weds. and the latter is free. I´ll probably go back there and write some art-inspired poetry. I think I could stare at those pieces all day long.

Puerto de Iguazu: Wow! Beautiful waterfalls, totally worth the 20hr bus ride. I met an Aussie girl who had spent the last 6 months traveling around South America. She´s only 18 and hasn´t even started Uni yet, a very bright and lively chica. Anyway, the two of us romped around the national park, taking snacks and a bunch of photos. Buses to the cataratas were only about 15 pesos ida y vuelto and the second day to the falls garners a 50% discount.

The first day at the falls there was a butterfly who landed on my arm and stayed with me for over half an hour. I named him Eduardo the Butterfly. Other animals included coati (racoon-like creatures), condors, iguanas and little lizards, and birds. Loved it, especially the Sendero Macuco and Isla San Martin.

La Garganta del Diablo wasn´t all that impressive after seeing everything else, but damn there´s a lot of water. I read somewhere that in the 1930s you could pay a local boater to row out to the top of La Garganta and row rapidly against the extreme current for a unique and highly dangerous photo opp, but after the death of one boater and six German tourists, the adventure was deemed illegal and thus no longer exists.

Córdoba: Here I met up with my long-time friend, Nelson (yes, there exists an Argentinine named Nelson). We had met four years ago, more or less randomly, in BCN. Ask me later for the story. I stayed with his family in Villa Allende just outside the city. One day we went to the campo where I met Minda del campo, the man who takes care of Nelson´s family´s acres of farmland and animals. He´s, to put it in one word, awesome. An old man full of life and energy, laughing at us crazy gringos that come to say hello to him and share some bizcocho and maté. He really liked me, the hugely tall american girl. I´ll post pics of him on Facebook later.

The following day we went to Alta Gracia to see Ché Guevarra´s first home. Not terribly interesting except a quote that says, ¨Leer y escribir es andar¨meaning To read and write is to walk. Love it. That and apparently Castro and Chavez visited in 2006... woo. Oh el comunismo.

More later on Mendoza and Chile.

Reinventing the Revival

I'm bringing this bitch back!

Lookout for more poems and more random adventures... quit the job and heading to Argentina in November. What this means is I've got two months to compile my book of poetry and break free to the big bad world of wanderlusty profound confusion.

Zing!

The Final Days of SE Asia

The last ten days of Vietnam and Bangkok were certainly bittersweet. After leaving Jungle Beach, we took a grueling and miserable night bus to Hoi An where we were supposed to meet my parents at a nice hotel. The overnight sleeper bus beds were clearly meant for non-western people. They were all too small with a box for your feet to go in. Not to mention someone had gone through our bags in search for valuables. The bus was cramped and uncomfortable. Those on the top bunks had a constant fear of falling out to the narrow passageway below. Valium and sleeping pills helped only a little. To make matters worse, the dates at the hotel were mixed up and we had to trek around looking for a new one and letting the parentals know where we were.

Tailored Clothes Galore!
Hoi An is a wonderful place, quaint and infested with millions of tailor shops. You can get anything you want made for any price. Alison and I got jackets made (without which we'd be dying in freezing Tokyo). I also got a dress made. The last time I had anything tailored was when I went to Venezuela about eleven years ago for my cousin's first wedding. Our friends, Steve and Tyler, got all too many things made for them: suits, shirts, jeans and.... Team Zissou suits from Wes Anderson's Life Aquatic. Hilarious.

Aside from tailor shops and various markets, Hoi An is host to ancient Buddhist ruins called My Son. We did a tour there and found out that the temples would've been more complete if the U.S. didn't bomb them during the Vietnam-America War, known to the Vietnamese as the American War. After being in Southeast Asia for over four months, the ruins weren't that impressive. After seeing Angkor Wat, you really don't want to see another temple. Still, My Son is interesting and beautiful.

Driving through the DMZ
From Hoi An, we took a four hour bus up to Hue. There we walked around the citadel but skipped out on the tombs and other attractions. We took an all day tour to the Demilitarized Zone, aka DMZ. The tour was miserable. We spent all day in a sauna, aka our bus, driving across the country and stopping at minor sites to take pictures. If you are a history buff or someone who enjoys scenic bus rides, this tour is for you. All in all, I learned a lot from the tour and the Vinh Moc tunnels were cool, but I've had it with bus rides especially since we had to board a night bus to Hanoi right after the tour. This was another miserable bus ride where my ipod got stolen as well. Hopefully, travel insurance will be able to compensate me for some of the cost.

Hanoi and Halong Bay
Hanoi was relaxing and pleasant. The weather there is cooler than in the south and the people more localized. It does not have much of a westernized feel like Ho Chi Minh City had. Here, we booked a one night two day tour to Halong Bay on a deluxe boat, which was not deluxe but still very nice. Basically how these tours work is you get what you pay for and everyone pays a different price for the same thing. Unfortunately, our trip was dawned with gloomy weather, a few arrogant guests and a crew that kept super over-charging us for random things. The rest of Hanoi was fun, just some shopping and saying goodbye to Vietnam and my parents.

Bangkok... the last three days
So Bangkok is, well, Bangkok. The one cool thing is that we were on Khao San Rd. for the 60th hour, also known as Earth hour, which is an event that supposedly took place worldwide, a simple concept: one hour lights off. It was pretty cool to be there.

From Cars to Motorbikes: The “Tuk Tuk” Phenomenon

The automobile has been one of the world’s greatest inventions, giving people an affordable and convenient method of personal travel. Although the versatility and usefulness of cars still reign in many parts of the world, in Southeast Asia motorcycles and scooters seem to be not only more common, but more cost effective and necessary for livelihood

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Viet Nam as told by a young American

Well, I must first say that Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon is utter madness. Imagine standing on a street corner watching herds of honking motorbikes zoom past you like a Disney cartoon of Goofy attempting to cross the street. I'm pretty sure motorbikes outnumber people here. Aside from that, HCMC is just another large city. We only spent two days there. Saw the Reunification Palace which is decked out in 70s decor asian style.

NAM, War and Tears
The War Museum was quite a heart-wrenching experience. Simple and plain with halls of pictures, this museum will scare you and if you're America it may just haunt you. After being in Phnom Penh and seeing the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime at the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng, I couldn't help but find comparisons between the tactics. It's sickening really. What was especially interesting was the exhibit of photos by photographers who had died in the war. Then there's the pictures of the lasting effects of Agent Orange, not to mention the pickled deformed fetuses in one corner. This museum made me never want to go back to the US, especially with the double war in Afghanistan and Iraq. But, it's home and I've got the return ticket already.

Mui Ne Hey Hey
From there, we moved up the coast to resort Mui Ne. Boring boring for longer than a day, unless you want to drop $250 and learn to kite surf for a day or surf or just relax on the beach. Ok, so maybe not that boring, but we've done plenty of that already aside from kite surfing. The white and red sand dunes were amazing. It felt like a time warp to Morrocco. My favorite was the Fairy Creek or Fairy Trail. You walk a km or two down murky ankle-deep waters like walk through the river Styx to a fairly mediocre waterfall. One side of the walk is full of green and life while the other is sand and death. It's truly an incredible sight. Not to mention that it felt like we needed some M16s to hold high above our heads and the water to be eye level. Amazing is an understatement for this mini-trek.

Nha Trang and it's Jungle boogie Beach
We went diving in Nha Trang for $35 for two dives including lunch. It's definitely cheaper than Thailand for certifications. Advanced SSI was $175 and gives you six dives. We went to Octupus Divers, which supposedly is one of the better dive centers. I regret not doing the Advanced Course, but perhaps it'll allow me more freedom with my money when we get to Tokyo at the end of the month.

Next stop Jungle Beach, a must for any traveler. For $22 a night you get a secluded private beach, a bamboo hut, three comunal meals a day, afternoon fruit snack, ping pong table, free wifi, and a bonfire each night. It may seem pricey for those who have been living on $12 a day, but it's really worth it. The resort is within walking distance to a waterfall where dumb tourists such as myself jump off and fall about 12m into the cool water below (and that's the medium jump!). The high one is about 15-17m! It was totally worth it!

Rocking You from Saigon to the DMZ
Well, that's all for now folks. Stay tuned for Hoi An and Hue, some crazy tailors and 5,000 dong beers (about $0.20).

The Khmer Rouge Aftermath: Volunteering in Cambodia

Phnom Penh, Cambodia a diverse city with tragic history. To detail my adventures in this wonderful country, I must first shed light on the horrors that have befallen it. The year 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam war, but not the end of war for Cambodia. During the years of this infamous war, Cambodia was victim to U.S. bombings and landmines that were meant to weed out Viet Cong. By 1975, the country was overtaken by an extremist communist group known as the Khmer Rouge.

One of the first acts of the new regime were to evacuate Phnom Penh under the pretext that it was going to be bombed by the U.S. Hundreds died on this trek to the countryside and many more were captured and imprisoned or sent directly to the Killing Fields. One of the most famous and atrocious prisons, Tuol Sleng, has been turned into a genocide museum, a must see for anyone who goes to Cambodia.

The Khmer Rouge imprisoned, tortured and murdered all the country's intellectuals and political dissenters as well as women and children. If they were ethnic Khmer, they were as good as dead. The survivors were predominately the uneducated rural people. The regime believed that hard work and farming were the backbone of any society. Religion, family and many other ideals that Cambodians hold true and dear were unacceptable. Therefeore, families were separated and sacred temples bombed, including the ancient city of Angkor, one of the world's seven man-made wonders.

Genocide, we've all heard it before. Some of us have even seen it first hand. Why would this be any different? Many of us believe that we do our best to prevent or stop such heinous acts. That's why we have the U.N. right? Well, the U.N. acknowledge the Khmer Rouge government and gave them Cambodia's seat. Moreover, for years the U.N. ignored the Cambodian people's plea to remove the Khmer Rouge as representatives of their nation.

That said, Cambodia is still suffering greatly and taking all too long to recover from these tragedies. Cambodia has one of the highest female to male ratios in the world, not to mention that 33 percent of its population is under the age of 15. Something needs to be done. Alison and I spent four days volunteering at a childcare center/orphanage called Save poor Children in Asia Organization (S.C.A.O.). The director Mr. Sath Samith is one of the kindest men I have ever met. He and his late brother started S.C.A.O. only 16 short months ago.

Now the center houses 17 poor children, helping to put them through school, an otherwise costly and often discouraged luxury). On average it costs $300-$450 a year to put one child through primary or high school. This may not seem much, but to a people whose income is rarely more that $1,000 a year, it's a excessive. Children roam the streets hungry and desperate, claiming they go to school when they are forced by parents or poverty to sell books and knick knacks to help support their families. Not to mention that Cambodia has one of the highest rates of child sex slavery and trafficking in the world.

Something needs to be done. Despite the economic recession and hardships worldwide, there is always someone less fortunate. These people have suffered long enough. Therefore, I implore anyone who can give to please do so. In Cambodia, the dollar rules. Even just a few can make a difference. Also Alison and I are working on a proposal to NGOs to obtain annual funding for S.C.A.O. Anyone interested in getting involved or who has any information about proposals, etc. Please contact me at http://www.blogger.com/alyse.speyer@gmail.com. Also, S.C.A.O. is desperate for volunteers.

Donate Now!

Car Culture: What It’s Like to Drive in Southeast Asia

Every day we drive, take a cab, or use a subway, train, or bus to get to wherever it is we need to go. On occasion, we pack our bags and jump on a plane, take a break from the day to day hassles of life, and go on vacation. Still, no matter where we are in the world or where we are going, transportation plays a key role and knowing the types of environment we may be driving in can make day-to-day life and vacations safer and more enjoyable.

On the Move
In November, I decided to jump on that plane and fly half-way across the world to Bangkok, Thailand, on a five-month Southeast Asian tour. For the past three months, I’ve traveled by car, bus, minivan, train, motorbike, “tuk tuk,” taxi etc to get to temples, waterfalls, beaches, mountains, borders, guesthouses, Wats, and plenty of other tourist attractions. On my journey, I’ve grown to appreciate the steady chaos of driving back home in Los Angeles.

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