More to come when I have some free time!
Showing posts with label Pictures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pictures. Show all posts
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Monday, July 26, 2010
All my pictures are now up - here are the links to the albums I posted today.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
No shirt, no service (aka my day in Bangkok)
Yesterday, for my one and only day in Bangkok I decided to meet up with someone I had met earlier in Luang Prubang. We started off in Chinatown, but unfortunately the corner of Chinatown we started in was the industrial one. All the store front were machine shops, auto mechanics, etc. It's like this in Asia - it's as if there are few or no zoning laws. You have these storefronts near the centre of the city that are more industrial than anything else. All the big cities I've been to (i.e. Hanoi, Saigon, etc.) are the same. Hong Kong wasn't much in this way though.
Anyway, we hopped on the metro and went to the park. At first you think this is an ordinary park, even with a nice lake and all, and then it happens. You see a large four foot long lizard! There is hundreds of them just swimming and strolling around the park. They are not behind a fence, and as far as I can tell there is nothing technically stopping them from walking right out of the park!
Now I knew to expect this, because my friend told me the novelty of the lizards is why I might enjoy the park. She was right!
All of the sudden we saw some storm clouds in the distance so we decided to go find somewhere to have dinner. I have never seen darkness descend on a city so fast. The clouds moved so quickly, that within a couple minutes they went from being at the edge of my field of vision to right on top of us. Needless to say, I got absolutely soaked by the time we found a restaurant. After a delicious dinner, my friend had to go back to her apartment to make a phone call back home to North America, and I wanted to go back to my hostel to get into dry clothes.
After talking to three motorbike drivers, I finally found one willing to go to my hostel (we were kind of far). He wanted more than I was willing to pay though, so I decided to take the metro closer to my destination and find a motorbike taxi there (even though it ended just two stops in the direction I was going).
Well, they wouldn't let me on the subway! First I went through security (to get on the subway in Bangkok you must pass through a metal detector), and thought I was OK after I explained my disdain of wearing wet t-shirts, holding up my soaked t-shirt for effect. Then I saw another security staff, who asked me to stay put while she called over another person. He in turn called over someone else, and I tried to explain to them that while I had a shirt, I really don't like wearing wet t-shirts (honestly, I really don't. The metro in Bangkok is air-conditioned, which sucks if you're wearing wet clothes). I told them I didn't want to cause trouble, and that I would rather take a taxi if I had to wear my shirt. They agreed I should take a taxi, so I did (more on that later).
Apologies for the picture formatting... I rotated it on my computer, but when I uploaded the picture it wasn't rotated upright anymore...
Anyway, we hopped on the metro and went to the park. At first you think this is an ordinary park, even with a nice lake and all, and then it happens. You see a large four foot long lizard! There is hundreds of them just swimming and strolling around the park. They are not behind a fence, and as far as I can tell there is nothing technically stopping them from walking right out of the park!
Now I knew to expect this, because my friend told me the novelty of the lizards is why I might enjoy the park. She was right!
All of the sudden we saw some storm clouds in the distance so we decided to go find somewhere to have dinner. I have never seen darkness descend on a city so fast. The clouds moved so quickly, that within a couple minutes they went from being at the edge of my field of vision to right on top of us. Needless to say, I got absolutely soaked by the time we found a restaurant. After a delicious dinner, my friend had to go back to her apartment to make a phone call back home to North America, and I wanted to go back to my hostel to get into dry clothes.
After talking to three motorbike drivers, I finally found one willing to go to my hostel (we were kind of far). He wanted more than I was willing to pay though, so I decided to take the metro closer to my destination and find a motorbike taxi there (even though it ended just two stops in the direction I was going).
Well, they wouldn't let me on the subway! First I went through security (to get on the subway in Bangkok you must pass through a metal detector), and thought I was OK after I explained my disdain of wearing wet t-shirts, holding up my soaked t-shirt for effect. Then I saw another security staff, who asked me to stay put while she called over another person. He in turn called over someone else, and I tried to explain to them that while I had a shirt, I really don't like wearing wet t-shirts (honestly, I really don't. The metro in Bangkok is air-conditioned, which sucks if you're wearing wet clothes). I told them I didn't want to cause trouble, and that I would rather take a taxi if I had to wear my shirt. They agreed I should take a taxi, so I did (more on that later).
Apologies for the picture formatting... I rotated it on my computer, but when I uploaded the picture it wasn't rotated upright anymore...
Monday, July 19, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Shooting an AK-47 and M16
During a break in the Cu Chi Tunnel tour you have the option (for a price) to shoot guns at a firing range. Steve and I shared 10 rounds each on an AK-47 and M16 (so we each had 5 shots on each gun). I don't think either of us hit any of the targets, but it was interesting to feel what firing a gun is actually like. The guns are bolted in (for safety) so you have a limited range of motion, but it was still a cool experience.
The range was REALLY loud though. I wouldn't be surprised if most soldiers with long deployments come home hard of hearing (or if they wear earplugs in the battlefield... although I imagine you wouldn't want to dampen any of your senses in a battle).
One wonders where the guns and ammunition come from. I think it's safe to say the guns come from the Vietnam War. Not as sure about the ammunition. This may be naive of me, but I'm hoping all the munitions are also surplus stock from the Vietnam war, and not lining the pockets of some arms dealer.
Cu Chi Tunnels
One of the most popular things to do while in Saigon is to take a trip north of the city to the Cu Chi Tunnels. This network of tunnels is what allowed the Viet Cong to effectively control a swath of territory that was under 100km from Saigon.
The tour we did was one of the more striking examples of propaganda I have come across on this trip. As a Canadian, I couldn't help but wonder how an American would feel doing the same tour I did (I don't think anyone on my bus was American, so there was no around to ask). I couldn't even fathom how someone would feel if they had a close relative that fought in the Vietnam War.
Before I get ahead of myself, I want to write about how much one has to admire both the craftiness and the persistence of the Viet Cong. They would have lived in these tunnels for decades if that's what they had to do to get the American army out of their country. Living in the tunnels for a couple days may be a neat/novel experience, but I think I would go mad living in those tunnels in such cramped quarters, for weeks at a time.
The Viet Cong dug a network consisting of three levels, and hundreds of kilometres completely by hand. All they had were bamboo dustpans and steel shovels to excavate the tunnels. They thought of everything - a system of filter rooms so that steam and smoke would not give them away while they were cooking, hidden shoots of bamboo going up to the surface to ensure a supply of fresh air, and connecting the tunnels to the Saigon river so that when the Americans tried to flood the tunnels the water simply passed through them into the river.
The tunnels really are a marvel of design and engineering, even more so when you consider that tanks were roaming just metres above them, not to mention the constant bombing raids from American bombers. I guess the clay earth helped make for sturdy tunnels, since I did not see any wood support shafts that most mines seem to have.
Anyway, time to get back to have the tour of the tunnels made me feel. While I admired the resolve of the Viet Cong, I felt that the tour lacked any semblance of balance, and that my guide basically thought the death of an American soldier was a laughing matter. It's one thing to turn the death of one's enemy into a joke when you are producing a piece of fiction, such as in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds (yes, I admit I laughed a few times during that movie). Tarantino did a wonderful job of turning the killing of Nazi's into a joke, while also weaving intensely serious moments into the movie.
While showing us a number of the different traps the Viet Cong set to kill Americans, our guide was basically laughing when he showed us the different mechanisms belonging to each trap.
Not every American soldier in Vietnam committed war crimes, and not every American soldier
in Vietnam was there on his own free will (although I guess they could have deserted and fled to Canada - an extremely difficult decision for most to make). If my father or grandfather had died from one of those traps, I would have wanted to punch my tour guide. Lucky for me, I basically have no family that were American citizens that far back (please correct me if I'm wrong!).
Nonetheless, I am glad I went. It was a great learning experience, and getting to crawl through the tunnels was really cool. Steve and I decided to go through the 100m tunnel - the second longest one they have for tourists to go through. We would have done the full 140 or so metres, but we didn't see anywhere to keep going once we got to the 100m point. There was a couple from Australia right behind us - the boyfriend was 6"6. I couldn't believe that he fit through!
The tour we did was one of the more striking examples of propaganda I have come across on this trip. As a Canadian, I couldn't help but wonder how an American would feel doing the same tour I did (I don't think anyone on my bus was American, so there was no around to ask). I couldn't even fathom how someone would feel if they had a close relative that fought in the Vietnam War.
Before I get ahead of myself, I want to write about how much one has to admire both the craftiness and the persistence of the Viet Cong. They would have lived in these tunnels for decades if that's what they had to do to get the American army out of their country. Living in the tunnels for a couple days may be a neat/novel experience, but I think I would go mad living in those tunnels in such cramped quarters, for weeks at a time.
The Viet Cong dug a network consisting of three levels, and hundreds of kilometres completely by hand. All they had were bamboo dustpans and steel shovels to excavate the tunnels. They thought of everything - a system of filter rooms so that steam and smoke would not give them away while they were cooking, hidden shoots of bamboo going up to the surface to ensure a supply of fresh air, and connecting the tunnels to the Saigon river so that when the Americans tried to flood the tunnels the water simply passed through them into the river.
The tunnels really are a marvel of design and engineering, even more so when you consider that tanks were roaming just metres above them, not to mention the constant bombing raids from American bombers. I guess the clay earth helped make for sturdy tunnels, since I did not see any wood support shafts that most mines seem to have.
Anyway, time to get back to have the tour of the tunnels made me feel. While I admired the resolve of the Viet Cong, I felt that the tour lacked any semblance of balance, and that my guide basically thought the death of an American soldier was a laughing matter. It's one thing to turn the death of one's enemy into a joke when you are producing a piece of fiction, such as in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds (yes, I admit I laughed a few times during that movie). Tarantino did a wonderful job of turning the killing of Nazi's into a joke, while also weaving intensely serious moments into the movie.
While showing us a number of the different traps the Viet Cong set to kill Americans, our guide was basically laughing when he showed us the different mechanisms belonging to each trap.
Not every American soldier in Vietnam committed war crimes, and not every American soldier
in Vietnam was there on his own free will (although I guess they could have deserted and fled to Canada - an extremely difficult decision for most to make). If my father or grandfather had died from one of those traps, I would have wanted to punch my tour guide. Lucky for me, I basically have no family that were American citizens that far back (please correct me if I'm wrong!).
Nonetheless, I am glad I went. It was a great learning experience, and getting to crawl through the tunnels was really cool. Steve and I decided to go through the 100m tunnel - the second longest one they have for tourists to go through. We would have done the full 140 or so metres, but we didn't see anywhere to keep going once we got to the 100m point. There was a couple from Australia right behind us - the boyfriend was 6"6. I couldn't believe that he fit through!
Steven's Last Night in Town
Two nights ago was the end of an era - with Steve and I going on to different cities our two year run as room-mates came to it's end. We had a great night out to celebrate though, so it was nice for things to end on a positive note.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Cooking Class at Lanterns Restaurant in Nha Trang, Vietnam
This morning Steve and I took a cooking class with the chef of Lanterns Restaurant. Her parents were also restaurateurs, so she pretty much grew up with a paring knife in her hand. After graduating high school she went to a culinary school in Saigon. We had lunch at Lanterns the day we got here, and although lunch was more "okay" than great (at least in comparison to the food in Hoi An), we thought the cooking class sounded good.
We were both thrilled with it. Our main course of Mackerel was the best fish I have ever had in my life. More generally it was one of the best meals I've ever had. We also made fresh spring rolls as a starter, and made flambe for dessert (Steve did Banana flambe and I did Mango flambe).
First we went to the market in bicycle taxi's, where we bought all the ingredients we needed for lunch. We also got to have some fresh sugar cane juice, which was both refreshing and delicious. We went to the largest local market in Nha Trang, and did not come across another Westerner amongst the hundreds (if not thousands) of people packed into the aisles and stalls of the marketplace. It doesn't get much more authentic than where we were. It was a good thing we were both took it easy the night before, because the fish section of the market had a bit of a stench to it that would not go well with a hangover.
Since Steve and I were the only ones that signed up for the class today, we basically had a private lesson. Oh, and did I mention it was $18 per person, all in? Here are some pictures of the food we prepared/ate.
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