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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Onward to the End of the World...

So it's been awhile, I know. The truth is I've been so distracted by all the things we've been doing. This period of our travels marked a lot of traveling and rushing from place to place. We flew the 20th of January to Bali and spent three or four days in Kuta and Legian before heading to Gili Trawangan aka the most beautiful place in the world.

On the full day journey to Gili T., we met two guys from England and two from New Zealand. We had a great time enjoying the sun and beaches, learning to surf, and the most incredible diving ever! For $74 we did two dives and saw so many cool things such as banded sea snakes, cuttlefish, an octopus, white tip reef shark (including a pregnant one!), sea turtles, anenome crabs, sweet lip snapper, banner fish, damsels, sponges, fan coral.... I can go on and on. The visability was about 20 meters (about 69 ft) in the warm water of Indonesia. I could certainly live in Bali with a summer home in Gili T. Anyone care to join? Real estate is super cheap, their practically giving away beachfront property.

Anyway, from Gili T. I left early to get to the airport to pick Wes up on Feb. 2. Alison and I split up for four painful days of separation anxiety! However, it was really great to see Wes and spend a few days wandering around the sweaty streets of Kuta and Ubud. He and I did an island tour to all of the temples in Bali as well as ate lunch at a rooftop restaurant overlooking a lake and volcano. On our tour we were with an older couple from Bevelry Hills, of course. They were quite pleasant and interesting to talk to.

Then Alison came with our two British friends and we spent two more days in Ubud. We went to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary and got plenty of cute photos with cheeky monkeys as they chased us down for bananas and rambutans (lychees). Then, we said our goodbyes to the guys and headed back down to stinky, touristy Kuta to buy up some gifts and ship a package home. Thank god! Our bags are easily 5k lighter! We flew out back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Feb. 11.

In KL, we wandered around and saw the Batu Caves which were quite beautiful and then spent another day traveling to Jerantut and the Taman Negara, the National Forest/Jungle. It was so beautiful. Wes and I hiked around in the heat up to the Canopy walk, the longest one in the world at about 450 meters! It was pretty intimidating at first, especially since I'm not a big fan of heights. The Canopy Walk is 50 meters high and consists of a slew of ropes and cables and a narrow plank of wood on which to walk. Wes spent the majority of the time laughing at me freaking out in the middle of the rope-swing-like walkway.

The next day we woke up early and hiked on the other side of the jungle to reach the bat caves. We talked to some locals and the gave us a rough guideline on how to get through the caves. Long story short we spent the better part of an hour crawling the heaps of guano and ducking out of the way while hundreds of bats flew over head in dark, clammy, low-cielinged caves. We made it out alive enough to hope on a 30 hour bus to boat to boat to bus to minivan journey to get to Koh Lanta.

Bargaining in Bali

Bali air, thick like a warm stout, hangs over the art market
where eager vendors call out, "Hallo darling"
to passersby. Two of them creep out of their shop of tricks,
sunglasses, dresses, knock off purses and wallets.
The first, with a crystal whit smile, tanned skin
and as thin as the sandals he sells, comments
on my "beautiful white skin."
He laughs when I tell him I came here to be
a darker colour.

Stealing a sideways glance at the other vendor,
I run my fingers through the hanging sarongs.
The first puffs at a freshly lit Marlboro.
"Sexy body, like Coca Cola" -
grease on the wheels of an impending deal -
white skin, Coca Cola... money sign.
"A beautiful sarong for you madam
only 50,000."
Breathe out and bargain for a better price
as the heat wrings the water from my skin.

On Leaving

It's no attachment to anyone or anything or any place. You're here. You meet single serving people. Create a family, a memory, who knows if the connection stays; but for three or so days that you are in one place, it becomes home. You are sad to say goodbye when you leave, but once you're gone, you're gone completely. You don't miss them or the place. It becomes a memory and an experience, nothing more. The people become another number added to your Facebook friends. Sometimes, they are more. They become real. People you may know forever. People you shared those three special days with, a pact. You never know if they will be these people until you leave them, just like you never know if you'll go back to the same place until you leave it. You keep moving and learning and seeing everything you can and those are the things that stay with you. The things that make traveling different from holiday, because you settle into a nomadic lifestyle. And you realize how easy it is to choose to leave or stay. The dat trippers don't know this because they go back to a stationary life, choosing to stand still and wishing to move, but refusing to take the step or afraid to strike obligation, the sacrifice. People are not meant to be barnacles waiting for adventure to float their way.

Cameron Highlands

The rain forest adventure trek was quaint, but can be done on your own if you are amped up enough to do everything by hiking. At the start, one of the range rovers had a blowout and we all had to pile three carloads of people into two in order to get to the village for a blow dart demonstration. We all tried it, with poison-less darts made of bamboo. On first try, not only did I hit the board but I also hit the leaf attached as a target.

Because we were still waiting for the range rovers to come back, we decided to walk from the village through puddles of red mud. After 15 minutes, the rovers picked us up for an amazingly bumpy ride through rain-softened terrain. It was like being on a roller coaster without seat belts. Once we reached the top, we trekked through more mud and water, crossed a make-shift bamboo bridge where Alison nearly slipped through one of the bamboo poles that broke under her feet and the right railing fell. It was quite a scare but she managed to get across unscathed.

By the time we reached the Raflessia flower, we were caked with mud and sweat with soggy feet and pant legs. Apparently, this flower is actually a mushroom and smells like dead bodies or, as our tour guide joked, a Malay public toilet. The texture was bumpy and thick like an animal hide.

Afterward, we hiked back, many without shoes, jumped in the waterfall to wash off some of the mud, drank bamboo water and hopped into the range rovers for another bumpy ride down the mountain. Next stop was the BOH Tea factory that has roughly 200+ hectares of rolling landscape covered with bonsai-looking tea trees. The plantation is owned by a Scottish family who lives in Kuala Lumpur. It was quite a breathtaking site like green courdouroy hugging the lands voluptuous curves.

After lunch and a brief tour of the factory, we headed to the butterfly and insect observation. Imagine giant red and poisonous centipedes about 3/4 the length of your forearm, or mine at least. Giant beetles and mantis, millipedes and scorpions of indescribable size, yuck! as well as brightly coloured butterflies posing for snapshots. Next was the strawberry farm and back to the guesthouse for showers.

That night we has a Steamboat dinner, which is a soup where you cook your own ingredients. Unfortunately for Alison, the soup reminded her of the one we had in Laos that gave us food poisoning, we can thank the Lonely Planet for that one. Afterward, we went to Daniel's lodge for a campfire which wasn't much more than a group of Brits babbling about movies, actors and crap TV. Alison and I opted for playing a few rounds of pool and then bed. I really hate the day trippers.

If you want to be a rock and roll star...

We arrived in Penang. It was late and we weren't planning on going out. At the cafe where we ate dinner in Georgetown, we met two guys. one was fairly creepy and took pictures of us while we ate. He bought me a soda, because I said I wasn't drinking. We couldn't understand a word he was saying because of his thick Indian accent and the music from the cafe was loud. After an hour, he left thankfully.

The other guy we met, Jose, is half Portuguese and half Malay and grew up in Australia. Jose is, to use the word he used to describe himself, a vagabond. He's a sailor who works on private boats as a chef. He also helps to run the cafe. He gave us some good recommendations for the Cameron Highlands.

Down the street was another restaurant called the Blue Diamond where a live band was playing. We decided to join him for a bit. There we met two other travelers, whose names escape me, one from Norway and the other from Denmark... musicians. Ironically, they had met doing volunteer work twelve years ago in Lake View Terrace/Tujunga.

We convinced the musician to play a song or two with the band. He did. Then they were talking about playing one of his songs from his band back home, Glory Box.. The next thing I know, the Norwegian points at me and says, "You are playing bass." I politely declined, saying that I don't know how. Apparently, that wasn'y good enough. So we played the sone for the entire restaurant, about 20 people. It was a lot of fun and a didn't screw it up!

We spent until 2:30 am talking about music festivals and traveling. What a night!

Langkawi, Malaysia

This place is beautiful. The island is huge and there's lots to do here. It's a really strange change of pace, coming here. Since in Buddhist theology, people don't value life in the way westerners do. Because life is reincarnated, they don't tend to fear death. It's the soul you take with you, not the body. So coming here, to Malaysia, where there's more western thought, is really a change. Also the roads are paved and there are signs about "safety first" and "Keep Langkawi Clean" signs I never thought I'd see in SE Asia. There are a lot of muslims, but it doesn't have too much of a muslim feel (at least in comparison to Morocco). Alcohol is sold, but Malay people are not allowed to apply for liquor license (there's always a loophole though). The economy is stable, the locals are educated and speak English very well. It's really strange to be here after two months in Thailand and Laos.

We're staying at a guesthouse called Zackrys. It's the best place we've stayed at yet. The people are great and they have a lot of amenities for guests like free wireless, scooters on property for rent, cheap tours and a bar. The owner actually offered me a job here, maybe I'll come back and stay if things don't work out in the US.

We rented a car and toured the waterfalls and did some duty free shopping. Driving on the British side, was interesting, not as difficult as I had thought it would be.

The Last Two Weeks

So I know it's been a while since I've last written. To recap the last two weeks: New Years was fun, check typical beach party and fire dancing. The first four days afterward were detox days as we got diving certified. Diving is amazing, I feel that everyone should try it. I fell in love and am itching to get back into the water. Two days after certification, we said goodbye to our friends and hopped on a ferry to the mainland at Surat Thani heading to Krabi. Here's a snippet I wrote in my notebook about the day:

A long journey, but an amazing one. Leaving at 9:30 am to catch a 10:30 ferry to Koh Pangan, then another ferry to Surat Thani. We sat on top of the boat in pounding heat that went unnoticed because of the breeze and the beautiful open water view. Along with our Canadian friend, we baked in the sun. By the time we got to Surat Thani, we were crispy like bacon.

The boat ride itself couldn't have been more fun. We also met a guy from San Francisco on the boat, who guessed on the nose where I'm from. I guess I can't escape the valley girl persona, even 15000 miles away. He had spent 1.5 months of his two month holiday on one beach on Koh Pangan. The four of us talked about travels and our next destination while we listened to music from Dave's ipod speakers and drank some beers.

At one point, a bag had fallen off the boat and we had to turn around to fish it out of the water. We thought it was a person, because only minutes before Dave had recounted a story that two travelers had told him. They had been sitting on the boat and saw a dead body float by and didn't say anything to anyone. We had been talking about how screwed up that was and then the boat slowed. In the distance an object was floating. We were relieved when we saw it was a backpack. Regardless, it was a cause for excitement.

We docked at Surat Thani where a bus was waiting to take us to Krabi. There, I met a girl from Argentina, Sylvana, who was incredibly relieved that I speak spanish. We chatted until we reached the next stop where we all had to wait an hour for a different bus. The hour went by quickly for me because Wes had called. On the second bus, Dave and I shared music the entire ride. He's a promoter (the type of people I avoiod like the plague), but also a musician and contractor - an all around great guy.

At Krabi, Alison, Dave, Sylvana and I caught a cab to Ao Nang and then a long boat to Rai Lay beach, thus was born La Familia Rai Lay. We arrived at around 9 or 10 at night and went on a hunt for cheap rooms, which was vastly unsuccessful. I swear we must have circled the beach twice with all our luggage. The only room we could find was a severely overpriced double that Sylvana and Alison haggled down to a slightly more reasonable one, while Dave and I talked to some of the local Thais. They came back and told us that we would all have to share for the night and wake up to find cheaper accomodations.

The next day we found cheaper rooms, but they were still overpriced and twice as disgusting... the beauty of high season. So we ended up spending the next few days all together... four people in a room meant for two. It was great fun, we became a sort of family, cracking jokes and climbing mountains and enjoying the beautiful scenery. I could live on East Rai Lay. Although it is not an island, it felt like one. It was our little home (overpriced and full of smelly mangroves). Phranang was gorgeous with white sands and small islands in the distance that were truly a site. There were caves and climbing spots as well as warm green-blue water. Vendors were selling corn, mangosteen and other exotic fruits, spring rolls, beer, soda, and chicken.

I spent a lot of time climbing the mountains to the lookout point and then down to the lagoon (probably the scariest thing I've ever done). Granted, the climb was full of vertical drops with ropes (no harness) to belay yourself down. At the top of each drop, more and more tourists chickened out until I found myself alone, shitting a brick terrified. Not to mention, I was in sandals as well. I had to do it. We climbed up and over a mountain late the night before to get to Ton Sai (also in sandals and a short skirt). If I could do that, I could do this. I made down to the lagoon, which was not worth the climb at all (maybe it's better at high tide when the lagoon is actually a lagoon and not just muddy nastiness). I didn't care, I was glad to find Dave, Steve and Sylvana and proud of myself for making the journey.

Before it could get any better, or worse for that matter, Alison and I booked our way out to Langkawi, Malaysia.