South East Asia on a Hamstring Articles
South East Asia on a Hamstring – March 4Hoi An, Vietnam – March 4, 2000
The group left me to Hoi An and banana pancakes and off to the train station.
I had to move my stuff from the Cua Dai Hotel to the Hai Yen Hotel just up the road. It was slightly less nice and no doubt I’ll be back to plain old [...]
Hoi An, Vietnam – March 3, 2000
Lochie’s alarm went off at 7. She dragged herself down to reception to tell the others that she wouldn’t be going to see the Cham Ruins with them. I hadn’t planned on it anyway, fortunately.
She came back to the room.
“I have never done anything like last night, ever, [...]
Hoi An, Vietnam – March 2, 2000
Over the mountains and through the roadworks we went.
Landslides had shut down the road a few months ago and we had to steer around the construction. At the very top of the mountain, we had a potty break at the site of the American bunkers. The sun was peeking [...]
Hue, Vietnam – March 1, 2000
At around 7:30 in the morning, a train employee came by and shoved some mushy snack at me. I glared at him and said something along the lines of “good god, no” and he left me to my grumpiness.
I looked out the window. The trip south had not yet [...]
Hanoi, Vietnam – February 29, 2000
We checked out of our individual rooms and into two dayrooms – the men in one and the women in the other. I had the hotel breakfast, gritting my teeth and dealing with the daily bread and jam.
Our morning excursion was a cyclo ride to the Ho Chi Minh [...]
Hanoi, Vietnam – February 28, 2000
At 7:30, I met the group for breakfast. I wasn’t feeling unusually social – I just didn’t want the group to get the impression I was being my usual aloof self and I was already skipping the day’s activities. The group was off to view hilltribes in small villages and [...]
Hanoi, Vietnam – February 26, 2000
Breakfast at the Viet My was included, but unfortunately consisted of a baguette, jam, and a very greasy fried egg. This wasn’t so bad on the first day. Repetition is always my problem with food.
I started the Wendy-tip envelope rolling – it’s a curse of being American that tipping is [...]
February 24, 2000
The morning started off badly.
“All Tevas stink,” was the uniform, across-the-board statement agreed upon by several members of our group.
Mine don’t, I thought, and dug a little further.
It turned out that the individuals that were complaining had purchased leather Tevas. I could barely stop myself from pointing out that if you buy [...]
Vientiane, Laos – February 22, 2000
I joined Wolfie, Tom and Wendy for a hotel breakfast and before we knew it, an obnoxious American had inserted himself into our conversation. He lived locally and his wife was Indonesian. He was originally from Ohio but moved to Canada in 1975.
After he left, Tom pointed out the obvious, [...]
Vientiane, Laos – February 21, 2000
The Intrepid trip notes say:
“There are serious concerns about the operations of Lao Aviation with regard to its safety standards and maintenance regime…you are advised by the Australian Embassy to limit travel…to essential travel only.”
I re-read the notes as we sat in the Luang Prabang Airport, waiting for the 40 [...]
