The end is close

Recently, a lot of things have happened in a very short time. 

Firstly, since Kelly left Vietnam about a week ago, I had to find a new place to stay ( for the 3rd time). The hefty search first lead me to a local guy, who seemed very odd from the beginning. The first night he got my number he sent me numerous text messages about all the wonderful places (beaches) we could visit together and how much fun we'd have. I was open to those ideas so I went along with the exhilaration. The next day, when we were supposed to meet on the street,  he sent me messages like this:

"... I wait u. motorbike is red. ah u have hetmex"

"oh my god. huhu. what are u doing. "

"i see u kaka"

and my personal favorite: 

"blue t shit??? are u "

Once all the text messaging was over and we had happily found each other, me, Kelly and he (named Quang) sat down at a cafe. He started talking about all the places me and he (note: excluding Kelly) could visit and how much fun we'd have. He also introduced the possibility of staying over night at his university dorm with 3 other guys. When I asked how it would be possible for Kelly to join in on the tourism, he simply answered that "you can take motorbike with me, Kelly can take bus". As if that weren't bad to begin with, he also told me that the only way he could host me is if I come to his hometown for a week. Then I felt I was being pressured too much into spending time in little private rooms with him, so I canceled everything. 

The second host I found was much nicer and much less awkward though. She lives in a 3-story house with her family and this has been a good way to plug myself into the local culture. The first thing I had to do when I arrived here was I had to eat crab with the family and drink rice wine with the father. Rice wine is actually rather good, it tastes like cognac, but doesn't have a high alcohol percentage. After the lunch, everybody proceeded to sing karaoke in the living room. Karaoke sets are very popular here in Vietnam and karaoke in Asia as a whole is prime entertainment. 

The next day I discovered my stomach was behaving funny. The day after that even more. And it continued like this for 3 days with occasional fevers, a weight loss and innumerable visits to the bathroom. Something very wicked got into my guts, but luckily it passed. It's funny that every foreigner I know here has had numerous problems with their stomach and some couldn't even live a week without diarrhea. The locals are fine though, I guess their immune system has already met all the food-borne problem makers. 

The host's dogs

Secondly, we've already had 2 workshops in the past week and more are coming this week. We are having them  in English clubs – places where the youth gathers to practice English and meet foreigners. Our workshop plan consists of a 30-minute presentation and a 35-minute debate followed by a discussion. The topic of debate is "HIV-positive people should / should not be discrminated against."
The first workshop we had was with Korean AIESECers and some locals. The Koreans were almost illiterate (in English, of course) and therefore hopeless in the debate.

First workshop  

The second workshop was with Vietnamese students who were terrific in English, debated like veterans. In the Q&A round I was particularly amused by a guy who, when he had to answer, employed the style of speaking something for the whole 3 minutes without saying anything. I’d say his inspiration came from (some) politicians. I got a motorbike ride home that evening by a workshop attendant who called himself the Monster of the Roads. Definitely a positive guy to be on the motorbike with, given how common accidents are here in traffic. I asked him to slow down a bit, so, being a nice and polite guy he gently cruised around with 60km/h for me, whereas he usually goes with 80…100 km/h. Having seen all his scars from past accidents, I happily jumped off the bike once I reached home base. Nice to meet you.

The second workshop

    Besides the workshops, I took charge of a photo exhibition a few weeks ago that’s gonna be held in October. The name of the exhibition is going to be  "Living with HIV" .

The poster for the exhibition 

    Once I get all the pictures made, I’ll upload them into my blog. To top up my last week’s experience here in Vietnam I made a lot of plans to visit several orphanages, faith groups and a clinic to get the pictures so I’ll have a busy period ahead. It seems that I’m gonna have to do this all running and directly hop on the plane next Sunday. I already feel nostalgic about leaving Vietnam.

    Some additional shots of everyday life in Vietnam:

I see this salesman every day on the bus that I take home. He is incredibly
persistent and hard-working. 

Jade Emperor Pagoda

Jade Emperor Pagoda 

Sipping on Ca Phe Sua Da - a traditional mix of Vietnamese coffee, condensed milk and ice.
It tastes strong, very sweet and.. perfect. 

A motortaxi driver

The Banh Bao are essentially buns that are filled up with minced meat and duck eggs. There are much
more elaborate versions available though, with other kinds of fillings

This selection of fruits is a standard among the Vietnamese fruit stalls. Right now I'm eating some of these fruits like
crazy because I don't know if I'll ever see them again. 

A market woman posing with two carrots -hehe. Everybody surrounding this scene laughed
their asses off :P

A scene your eyes are probably never going to witness again

Why only grill parts of the pork, when you can just use the whole thing ? In a way this is more rational than
cutting the pig into pieces and then using only some of them for food, because here they really use every part
- even the skin

A daily dosage of propaganda in the centre of town 

Uncle Ho (the man on the left) is sort of everywhere here

This man came on the bus and offered everyone a concert. He seemed to be blind. The music was really good.
I like the local music because the Vietnamese language (which is a tonal language) gives it a special sound.
Otherwise the traditional songs have a very mellow synth background, some guitar play and drums.
Here is an example of a Vietnamese song:
http://mp3.zing.vn/bai-hat/Diem-Xua-Elvis-Phuong/ZWZCC888.html

The places where you can get fresh fruit juice

Picture time

Hello, dear readers!

This time I don't want to tire your eyes with much text, but instead I'll let the pictures communicate with you. 

In Cu Chi, a village near Saigon, there are 250 km of underground tunnels that the Viet Cong used during the Vietnam War to ambush the Americans. This entrance to the tunnels was found by poking the ground with a stick and listening
to the kind of voice that resulted - a hollow voice would indicate an underlying space. 

The tunnels are now with 80 x 120 cm dimensions. THey have been considerately expanded for the sake of tourists' joy. They used to be much smaller and completely dark though. 

The Cu Chi tunnels were not only a means of travelling to the American military bases - they were also home to the Viet Cong soldiers. The tunnels had kitchens, meeting halls, bedrooms. The kitchens had elaborate tunnels as well that directed the smoke far away to deceive the enemy. 

Saigon at night 

The mobile kitchen. Eating sometimes is very casual. 

Food decoration. This is made out a carrot. 

On the left are fresh spring rolls - a tasty miracle of the
Vietnamese cuisine. 

Hello, Khmers

Recently I went to Cambodia for a 3 day exploration near the town of Siem Reap. Cambodia is Vietnam’s neighbor and therefore the ride there was really short. It is a kingdom with a population of 14.8 million, that once upon a time constituted the mighty empire of the Khmers. The remnants of that empire are exactly what brings many people to explore this developing country. (The speed of development may be greatly enhanced by support from China, making the dispute over territories on the South-China Sea all the more complicated). Ancient Khmer cities like Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, built in the 12^th century, have been restored to a close resemblance with their ancient counterparts and offer a spetacular experience. The language there is totally different from it\s close neighbor, Vietnam.

Mon-Khmer ( Cambodian) language

Vietnamese. Compared to Cambodian, it is a tonal language

What’s funny is that my (14-hour) bus ride to Siem Reap was almost as shocking as the temples themselves. To start with, the bus to Cambodia was one hour late (happens with most travel buses here). The bus rode for some hours until it was 3 am and stopped in the midst of pitch black darkness in an empty parking lot in the middle of nowhere. The driver was nowhere to be found. The air conditioner was working on full intensity and it was so cold inside that windows had condensed water on them. Dreaming of better days, I dozed off for a few more hours and discovered that we had made it to the Cambodian border. I felt lucky. After the adventures on the border as well as mamy hours of rocky sleep were over, the country started to unravel itsself:

This image is taken by Stephanie Mausset. The houses we saw in little
Cambodian villages were much higher up in the air and looked
very dangerous indeed. 

•     In most of the villages that we passed, the houses were built on stilts as a protection from flooding and wild animals, and they were metres high from the ground. The entrance was connected to the  surrounding land with a bridge that looked veery fragile.
• When we drove in the evening, all the villages were in pitch black darkness – apparently the electricity was missing.
• Cows freely dwelled on the sides of the roads. They could move around as they pleased and sometimes cows would wander onto the road in the search of better grazing grounds.

Deer signs, like the ones in Estonia

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•      A man was praying in the middle of a road. Our bus driver didn’t seem particularly alerted by that and cunningly manoeuvered past him. I have to say the drivers are really good here, and at that day he was being helped by four other locals on the front seats who yelled loudly every time they saw something threatening on the road.   
•     Our nights in Siem Reap were accompanied by an orchestra of geckoes. They emitted the weirdest voice I had ever imagined an animal would do. I’m sorry I couldn’t find a recording of a similar sound anywhere on the internet. Maybe Cambodian geckoes are special.

Candles in a Cambodian pagoda

The sandwich maker

She sells sandwiches in a grim-looking room for motorbikes

A local boy

The little bastard who tried to sell us a book for 20 dollars that actually
cost 6 dollars in the supermarket

The Khmer people. The difference in appearance between them and the Vietnamese is slight, but it's there.

Angkor Wat's central part 

Angkor Wat 

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There is a total of 600 metres of carvings in the central structure of Angkor Wat. This 51 metre panel displays the
Battle of Lanka from the Hindu epic Ramayana. 

Little section of the 49 metre panel that displays the Battle of Kurukshetra. It shows the chariot of the army of
the Kaurava army.

Three of the 2000 Apsara dancers in the central part of Angkor Wat. Apsara dancers are representations of
divine dancers or celestial nymphs. About 200 of these ladies expose their teeth when they\re smiling.
Searching for the ones with teeth posed a great challenge :). 

Ta Prohm's ruins. Some piles of these stones had numbers on them that are used presently
to reconstruct the remains of this large temple complex.  

Me in a secret passage 

An impressive bug. When it opened its wings, the body under
neath looked shiny green

Ta Prohm has countless of these big silk-cotton trees that have
stretched their roots into the walls. On the one hand they offer
support to the walls and keep the temples from collapsing, but
during storms they are the agents of destruction. 

Riding on a tuktuk, the most popular form of transportation in Cambodia. It is different from an Indian ricksha in that
it consists of a wagon and a motorbike attached to it. 

Bayon, a temple in the ancient city of Angkor Thom ( stands separate from Angkor Wat, which is another ancient
city)

More Apsara dancers

Huge stone faces in the temple of Bayon. 

The Khmers in traditional dressing

Posing with the Khmers

The huge silk-cotton trees

A Saigon church with a huge rotating star and LCD tv on every pillar.

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Elephant terrace, Angkor Thom