traveling with claire

I had 5,000,000 dong in my wallet (roughly equivalent to about $200US) – I was a millionaire in Vietnam.  I already loved it but then I learned two things about Vietnam that will forever keep this country in my heart… in this place, sugar and coffee are kings.

Find one of the many street vendors and have them whip up an iced, milk coffee (strong coffee with sweetened condensed milk and chilled on ice) or a freshly squeezed orange juice loaded with scoopfuls of sugar for about $1US.  Or just walk around any street and you will find some funky, hip coffee house with all sorts of coffee treats! Vietnam is a coffee culture that puts sugar in everything. Had I found my heaven? Additionally, the street food is delicious. The banana pancakes are fantastic as well as the chip -like-pancakes cookies.  One would never guess just looking at the set-up, which doesn’t inspire confidence, but this is one area where you cannot judge a book by its cover.

In Ho Chi Minh City, there is a constant buzz from the scooters.  At first it was like, look at all of the scooters.  I have about an hour of filming the scooters because it is awe-inspiring. Then it becomes, look at all of the scooters; I just want to cross the street.  Some streets are better than others but it’s a bit like living in a hornet’s nest.  The amount of noise and activity, especially at night, is astounding. Both Jen and I were overwhelmed by the crush of humanity that surrounded us on an evening stroll. Ho Chi Minh City is alive.

Next we ventured to Phu Quoc Island and I really fell in love with Vietnam. It was like a National Geographic magazine, mostly unspoiled by too much tourism or growth.  When I packed for my trip, I didn’t bring my big girl camera. I thought we would just be at the beach and wouldn’t need it.  Overall, I wish I would have brought it but then I remembered part of a book I just finished called Long Way Round by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. It’s about their epic motorcycle ride around the world. In the book, McGregor says something about not taking as many photos the farther they got into their trip because his life had become the journey and I thought, my life has sort of become that; a journey.

While on my scooter ride, two things popped into my mind regarding the camera situation.  It’s tough on the group to stop and take photos when everyone just wants to get moving.  And then an even bigger question came to me… was I a photographer or a rider?  In that moment, under that glorious sun with the beach to my right and a jungle to my left – I was a rider! I did manage to snap a few photos with my trusty point and shoot but out of the 350,000 photos I saw in my head that day, I probably snapped about 10.

One of my favorite parts of my trip was that scooter adventure.  It was Yitzach, Sam, Elliott, and I scootering through the landscape of this beautiful Vietnamese island.  But I have to confess; I really had trouble with left hand turns. For some reason, I kept pointing my left knee out, for what reason I don’t know why, to help me with these turns.  But Sam was very patient and said I just need to find the right speed and balance to turn – much like balancing a stick shift on a hill.  Sam is Yitzach’s 18 year old son who motorcycled across Vietnam before meeting up with us in Phu Quoc.  Boy, I wish I had the guts to do that when I was 18.  It also reminded me of how much I completely and utterly miss my nephews.  I so wished they could have been there with me, riding around. They would have LOVED it. But even more, I would have LOVED to have them with me. God I miss those four, goofy boys.

The great part about the ride was how dirty I was when it was all finished.  Suddenly, I was back on Palm Avenue with Bob and Brian, motoring around the dirt hills before any of us knew any better.  The roads on the island were a mix of paved, red earth, and gravel.  Gravel is the worst for me, just unpredictable and unstable.  There were also some steep hills and old, rickety bridges.  There was one that I just couldn’t cross but Sam rode it across for me.  I felt like such a girl, but a girl without lacerations or contusions! At one point, I was heading down a steep and somewhat slippery slope.  Yitzach was at the top, waiting to make sure I got through okay, when suddenly, the bike got away from me.  However, for some reason, I managed it.  I could see in Yitzach’s face the fear and then surprise that I didn’t crash miserably, it was grand!

Now a warning to anyone traveling through the Vietnam International Airport: before you go through security, there is a very innocent and clean looking place to eat on the third floor called Confettis.  DO NOT eat there. Now, if you have ever had food poisoning, you know what it’s like.  If something wants to get out of your body when it has a bug, there’s no stopping it.  So imagine being in a car for two hours (thanking God you spend the money instead of taking the subway), dealing with food poisoning, with a driver that doesn’t speak English, and absolutely no rest stops along the way. All I am going to say is, it wasn’t pretty.  I threw out the clothes I had on that day.  Yeah, it was bad.  I would go into more details, but this is a family blog and I am sure you can use your imagination!  On a positive note, I think I lost about 5 lbs. that night!

A couple of tips for entering Vietnam:

1)    Get a Visa letter ahead of time and bring about $30-$40 dollars US to pay for the actual Visa.

2)    Bring a passport photo (or they can take one for $5 US)

3)    Be ready to wait a bit

A couple of tips when in Vietnam:

1)    Try the street food (the banana pancakes… heaven!)

2)    Try the drinks – orange juice/passion fruit

3)    You MUST try the iced, milk coffee. It will change your life.

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Vienam

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I glance over to see the serene gaze, the praying silence, and I am smitten with my new Buddha.  He still needs to be cleaned up quite a bit, but with this quiet divinity next to my lovely cabinet, I can’t help but smile.  Looking at him, it’s hard to imagine that he will be packed off and shipped to wherever my new home will be in six months time.  Right now, that can’t come soon enough.

Thank you to everyone for the thoughtful emails and comments.  Simply put, it warmed my heart to no end.  Like I told my one of my friends… gotta put on my big girl pants and deal.  Vietnam is right around the corner. Hmmm, I wonder if the airline would let me take my Buddha as a carry on…

Today is a particularly difficult day.  I want to go home today.  Like, California, mom’s hug, all the Christmas trimmings.  Right now, I miss it immeasurably.

We knew that we were being laughed at. Jen and I were walking through the Zhu Hai ferry station with our bags full of Chinese goodies on the way home after a productive day of shopping. Jen’s ‘spidey sense’ was on fire as she led us to a new area where we discovered Dude #1’s shop.  Essentially, Dude is any Chinese vendor who sells us great things. He’s Dude #1 because so far, he has sold us the best stuff without the Western price tag.

I have heard that many Chinese people in the countryside throw out what is now considered antiques. Some beautiful pieces of history are just tossed to the roadside.  Even today, it killed us to see beautiful, old doors just lying around outside.  Go into any Pottery Barn and the price would be astronomical.  I wanted to buy them all, not to resell them but to preserve them. As I watch China tear down old buildings in the name of modernity, there is just a sense that it’s all going away.

As we waited for our food order in the terminal, this Chinese guy looked in our bags.  By that I mean he peered over and stared into the bags to really get a good look at what we purchased.  I am surprised he didn’t put his hand in and dig around. As his friends walked by to pick him up, they literally laughed at us and joked that it’s just a bunch of old, household things.

Part of me thinks he’s right.  A portion of my purchases include six, small wooden items called moon cake molds from which people made… moon cakes.  I like them because they have these neat little carvings. If I grew up with these however, I probably wouldn’t think they were antique, just outdated.  It’s like phones.  Some people think the rotary variety are cool and vintage, while others don’t appreciate these single use devices.

It might be asked why would I go shopping in Zhu Hai since I am getting ready to leave China in about 6 months… it seems crazy for me to buy anything.  But for about seven years now, I have been searching for a Buddha and this morning, I happily found him.  There he was, sitting all dusty in the back of a dark hallway, underneath a stairway. Like a beacon, I just pointed right to him and said, ‘That’s the one.’ I just felt it.  He’s being delivered this Wednesday and I am SUPER excited.

So to the Chinese man in the ferry terminal, laugh away as we carry your garbage into our homes for decorative purposes. We could care less. We love our new things!

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Jen and I did a ‘burn and turn’ this afternoon to Hong Kong – we left on the 4:30pm ferry right after work, shopped (purchased the cutest trouser jeans), and then returned on the 8:20pm ferry.  So on the way there, as we chit chatted away, this random guy approached us.

The first I noticed was that he stunk.  And by that I mean he had really bad breath.  He then incoherently spoke to Jen in Chinese about going to Taiwan and needing $5,000 US dollars… we couldn’t really tell.  We both informed him that we weren’t interested, but then he sat down in front of us and gave the same spiel to another girl. As we checked to make sure our passports were safe, we witnessed one of the grossest things ever.  He started scratching his head.

This seemed innocent enough at first, but the thing was, he kept scratching it, like really scratching it.  Both Jen and I looked closer and we were horrified.  Not two feet in front of us, we saw tiny scabs and bits of blood on this guy’s scalp. I have never wanted a face-mask and a can of Lysol more in my entire life than I did at that moment.

Now, pre-China Claire would have sat there and just dealt with it. But living-in-China Claire looked at her BFF Asia and said, “We are moving seats.” We picked up our bags and reseated ourselves across the ferry, without a tinge of guilt. On the bright side, at least we weren’t on an airplane!

Quick post but I need to share.  I have talked about the pottery place here in the ‘Kou before, but today we found the secret room!  I found a ton of name brand stuff, like Rachel Ray.  I ended up buying several items for 147RMB… roughly $23US.  The Rachel Ray piece with the lid retails for about $50.00 (I looked it up).  I am attaching some photos so you can see for yourself.  This is one of those times that I wish I had a portal so I could bring all of my family and friends to get these amazing deals… my mom and aunt would never leave – it’s a bargain shopping bonanza!

Also, there are two pictures not related to the post – one is from HK – it reminds me of Christmas and the other one is my friend Jen with my iPhone – too funny.

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Just booked my ticket for Vietnam for about one week over the Christmas holiday with my Asia BFF Jen and her family.  Super, super excited!

Although situations can be good, bad, or ugly, there is something to the old saying that life is what you make it.

On Friday, there was a party for one of the girls that I blogged about as not being particularly nice to me and a big part of me didn’t want to go… but there was another part of me that did want to go.  It sounded like fun.  And she is also the type of person who brings the party, which is well, fun.

And when I say there isn’t a lot to do here; I am not exaggerating.  Think of living at a very small retirement home that is featured on a reality show – that’s the ‘Kou.  That’s why everyone travels during even the shortest breaks… nothing to do.

The party was at this Japanese restaurant followed by some Karaoke which I thought I would just watch.  Singing in the shower is much different than singing with people you work with.  I am just gonna cut to the chase. I am going on record to say that I should have been a rap star.  I killed it.  In Spanish (gracias Pitbull) and English (I heart you Jay-Z).  I did a bit of singing, mostly duets, but the rap… honestly, I was on fire.

And the best part of it was; I felt so good because for the most part, I know who I am.  Yes, I am a work in progress, but the freedom in not worrying about this or that was liberating because I think I just got caught up in it all for a moment.  Put it this way, I actually had a teacher mad at me recently (stink eye and snide comments included daily) because her husband, who happened to be drinking at the same bar as I was at with other people chatted for a bit… and he got home late.  That’s a true story. So yes, it’s just stupid but living in a fishbowl can do that to a person… but thankfully, something clicked inside me and I am focusing on other things.

And let’s be honest, who knew this Polish girl from So Cal had such mad skills?

So now I am planning a trip to Vietnam with my Asia BFF Jen and her family.  Should be fun and relaxing. I just downloaded the book Long Way Round written by the first man on my list, Ewan McGregor.  There should be some sort of motorcycle/scooter place there and I am all over it.

Life is good.

I am enchanted with Istanbul. Coming from a place that literally tears down or throws out any thing in the name of progress, to a city that revels in it’s rich history, I am memorized.  From a grey enclave to a landscape littered with the divine, I am sold.

Okay, the traffic is a nightmare in Istanbul; I can’t lie.  It makes going up the 5 in Los Angeles a bit of a cakewalk really.  And I know for a fact that the Grand Bizarre slick Willy did not ‘make me the best price possible,’ but I really love what I bought.  One really also needs to keep an eye out for unscrupulous ‘taksi’ drivers… but what large city doesn’t boast a few of those? The bottom line is, I am smitten with this city.

To begin with, I had my own cozy apartment, courtesy of my friend Maura and her school.  I met her at a tech conference and she said I should come visit her and her family… ding dong!  That’s just too good of an offer to pass up.  Well, like Istanbul, her family is simply lovely.  We spent my first day visiting with her husband’s family for a Muslim holiday complete with delicious food and other tasty treats.  I pretty much fell in love with Istanbul that day.  The warmth, kindness, and generosity of Maura and her family absolutely overwhelmed me – it felt like home.

The next beautiful aspect that I have to mention is the men.  Look, maybe I have been in China for too long, but let’s just say that is the real Turkish Delight.  Besides my dad, I literally saw two of the most attractive men (in person) that I have ever seen in my life.  I am not kidding when I say I fell in love 27 times. True story.

According to a couple of people I met, as a whole, Turkey is becoming much more conservative.  I saw many burqas. Look, whether or not it’s okay for me to comment, I just don’t get it… particularly the ones where only the eyes are visible.  I understand that in Turkey, this is a choice, but it just seems that it’s such a denial of self and individualism – maybe that’s the point.  It just seems extreme to me and always made me look twice. For all I know, they feel the same way about me. The pictures of the women in burqas were taken renegade style – I tried to be as respectful as possible as I took these photos undercover. It’s funny though because I saw one girl in a burqa taking a photo of me… well played lady, well played.

Overall though, Istanbul is enchanting. The buildings are a mix of old and new, ancient and modern.  In this city of 17 million, they may not build to code, but they preserve their heritage.  Crossing the Bosphorus, one just can’t help but feel the pull of history and wonder about a time way back when.  It’s in the air; it’s intoxicating.

I went to the recently opened Istanbul Modern and was introduced to Turkish women artists and discovered a painter Sukriye Dikmen. The next day, I was awe struck by the Hagia Sophia where I saw first hand the recently unearthed Christian mosaics.  I looked up in utter astonishment at the beauty, grandiosity, and wonderment of it all. I planned on staying an hour; I was there for four.

I feel lucky with my trip because I got a great taste of the local side of life as well as being a tourist. One of my favorite afternoons was spent at a local coffee house with a perfect view of the water.

If you ever have the chance to go to Istanbul, don’t hesitate. Go. Simply put, it’s enchanting.

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