13 in 2013

Well Hello February. My first realization of 2013 is that I am becoming the queen of the unfinished projects. Sticky notes with never ending to-do lists are strewn around my apartment and unfinished blog posts seem to be filling my computer files. When I left my old job to take time to travel I realized that everyday life’s schedule, repeating over and over, surprisingly leaves little time to do new things. There is so much comfort in what we know, but, I’ve found when you break away from that daily routine to learn and feel so much more. Not always positive, but it brings awareness to who you are. My New Year’s resolutions are a combination of activities and conscious moments. Being home I’ve realized that my comforts have limited my conscious perspective. Therefore I’m adding them to my Resolution list so I am ever so aware and with hopes of gaining new perspective, which was easier to obtain while traveling abroad.

I was so excited to ring in 2013 with hopes that it was going to be a wonderful year. I don’t even really know what gave me that hope. The big 30 celebration this year which is looming over my shoulder seems to be more powerful than I thought. I know I wrote “Age is just a number” but there is something about this year that has a power over me… makes me a little crazy, sometimes irrational, but excited as well. I have come up with a 13 to do in 2013 (in no particular order) and I am going to use Prue.Simple.Bliss and you all to be my witness so that I can follow through:

1. Run Hood to Coast Relay: This just happens to fall on my big 30 weekend, but my sister and brother-in-law talked me into it so watch out Oregon here we come!

2. Complete my first Marathon: I have wanted to do this for a while and with training to run a relay two months earlier I figured why not, Chicago Marathon 2013.

3. Make every recipe in the cook book Forks Over Knives: I’ll get into more detail about this soon, but so far I’ve learned some amazing cooking tricks and my belly has been very satisfied.

4. Add into my yoga practice Head Stand: This is a combination of fear and strength, two things I am happy to work on.

5. Add into my yoga practice Hand Stand: See above

6. Complete my yoga teacher training certification: I am well on my way and will have updates soon. Currently I am in the middle of our anatomy section, after getting over the “gross-ness” of the descriptions I can’t believe how intricate, strong and yet fragile the human body is. Maybe if we were all a little more educated we would realize why we need to take better care of ourselves.

7. Try to learn to appreciate meditation: For a mind that is always on go I cherish the moment I can sit and focus and clear my mind.

8. Start up and cultivate my Yoga Gives Back project: Again a realization I had a while back, one of those unfinished blogs, but I will post more soon.

9. Set a new half marathon PR: Number 5 will hopefully give me a new PR.

 

10. Finish my travel writing about Vietnam: These pictures should say enough.

 

 

11. Challenge myself outside of my comfort zone: While traveling I was constantly challenging myself, and in the end I really liked the person who came out of every challenge. I want to find a way to keep cultivating this growth without having to leave the country.

 

(Trying some type of herb wrap to bring good fortune in Vietnam)

12. Learn what it means to be content: An idea that is both scary and foreign. As American’s we are taught to go for the goal, be number one, constantly competing. While I value our ambition I don’t know if it leads to happiness. It’s a theory that needs some work, but I want to know if it is possible to be content and yet still motivated in life.

13. Have fun dating: uh… er… ah, dating blows, I love when people who are off the market say, “oh I loved dating I’m so jealous that you can still do that”. I pretty much want to give that person the finger. But you know I need to change my perspective and get out there. One of my friends jokingly said “you could blog about it.” Well maybe I will! Yesterday I was looking at a profile the guy said “Loves: Meat, vegetarians and vegans need not apply.” If only they could all be that honest!

 

Oh No Caught In A Scam

In Thailand, and now I’m finding Vietnam there is a saying “Same, Same.” And then occasionally the locals add in “Same, Same, but different.” It get’s confusing because you hear same, same and then you wait for the different and then you get everything mixed up so you don’t know whether it’s the same or it’s different. Well I never really knew how to use this phrase until I got on the train in Sapa to head back to Hanoi. I had paid for a roundtrip train ticket and therefore my expectation would be that the train you arrived in was the train you returned in, Same Same… but no the train I left in was Same Same only because it was a train, but it was oh so different. While I wouldn’t have said my first train was high class, now, in comparison to the return trip, I was blatantly informed that I arrived in style and was leaving in cargo. As I walked on the train I was transported to a frat house surrounded by loud, rowdy men. For some reason these men thought that it was ok to get as comfortable as possible while traveling and stripped down to their boxers. I don’t know what part of a  public sleeping train reads get as comfortable as you do in your own home, but I prayed that none of this rowdy bunch was sharing a car with me and climbed around them to get to my berth. Luckily a old Chinese man was below me and I was thankful that the party wouldn’t be continuing in our sleeper.

That was until the family of eight loaded in. They put all their bags on the top bunk and piled into to the lower bunk. Imagine this,  lying on the bed I barely fit head to toe. I tried not to stare but I was just so amazed that eight people could fit on one bed, and the fact that I didn’t realize purchasing one bed meant you could stick as many people as you wanted on it. Well 30 minutes into our journey at one of the stops two men came in indicating that they were actually the ticket holders for those beds and the family of eight left. Realizing I may be getting some sleep, I put my earphones in and played the soundtrack of Garden State on continuos loop for the rest of the night. Of course restless is the only way to describe my sleeping patterns on a train and when we pulled into the station at Hanoi at 4:30 in the morning I was just so grateful that I had called my previous hotel and paid for a half day stay so that I could get a couple of hours of sleep. Groggily I climbed down from the top bunk and walked out into the hallway. The floor was strewn with cigarette butts and playing cards. I obviously missed quite the party.

And then my amazing travel judgment seemed to vanish into thin air as I stepped off the train into the morning madness. Cab drivers huddled around the entrance just waiting to grab you as you walked off. The first guy to get my attention grabbed me and dragged me out of the station. I should have known, I’d been forewarned not only by the books but also by my hotel. There are only specific taxi services to use in Hanoi, because the rest are scammers. They have fixed their meters so that they run at a high rate. But with the chaos, yelling and lack of sleep I got into the cab with a sick feeling in my stomach.

The minute we entered the empty streets I knew I had been played, the meter read 5,000 then jumped to 35,000 and then hit 100,000. To give you some perspective my ride from the hotel to the train station three days earlier cost me a total of 24,000 dong. My heart started to race. I wasn’t going to pay that. No one was going to take advantage of me. But it was 4:30 in the morning, the streets were empty and dark and I am a woman traveling alone, I needed to be smart. When I started to see some familiar street signs I told the cab driver that the meter was broken and I wasn’t going to pay that amount, it had now reached 143,000 dong. Not speaking English but understanding that I knew what was going on he pulled over. I got out and luckily was able to get my bag from the trunk of the car. Not knowing what to do I started to walk towards my hotel. He got out and told me to pay him (this entire conversation took place in very broken English). I told him that I knew the meter was broken and that I wasn’t going to pay him that price. He countered and said fine 100,000, I told him no he couldn’t negotiate a price that I would only pay 24,000. Now you have to understand at this point I was motivated by principal. It’s one thing to try to sell your goods on the street for a price that may be a little high, it’s another thing to take advantage of a woman, or really anyone at 4:30 in the morning while they are alone. This man may have thought he was in for an easy steal, but no, you don’t mess with me because not only will I not pay you I’ll also kick you in the balls (figuratively). Ok, so no violence was resorted to, but when I threatened to call the cops I then realized that that statement carried no threat at all. I knew I needed a third party to intervene. I went to the hotel in front of me and knocked on the glass, mean while dealing with the driver who was now asking for 50,000 dong. Thank God the man on night watch heard my knock because he immediately became my interpreter. I explained the situation and he told me that the driver was saying he had driven me three kilometers. I asked what the rate per kilometer was and he said 15,000 dong. I then told him to tell the driver I would pay 45,000 dong. Needing change I asked the doorman if he could break a 100,000 and we stepped into the hotel. As I was taking the money out my hands where shaking uncontrollably, mainly from adrenaline rather than fear. But the sweet young man who had come to my aid saw my hands and said “mam everything is going to be all right.” Well all my courage broke and I burst into tears. Whether it was exhaustion or simply being completely overwhelmed I apologized for having to rely on him. He gave me the change and I walked outside and threw it into the cab and told the driver he should be ashamed of himself. While he may not have understood what I said I know I made his job a little more difficult which made me happy.

But then I realized I had put myself in a worse situation because this driver knew my hotel name. Walking back into the hotel still crying the young man told me to sit and when he returned he gave me a warm glass of water to help calm my nerves. He then apologized over and over for taxi driver’s behavior, he said this was not what the Vietnamese people want Westerns to think of their country and that he was so sorry I had to experience it. I told him that up until this point I had truly enjoyed my experience in his country. Looking at his watch he told me his shift had just ended and he wanted to walk me to my hotel to make sure I was safe. For the entire three minute walk he talked about how much I was going to enjoy Hoi An and other parts of Vietnam. His kindness was so overwhelming that any animosity that had arisen due to my scamming altercation completely faded away. Once at the hotel he wished me luck and I wanted to hug him and thank him again for his kindness, but I knew that wasn’t appropriate so I put my hands in prayer form and bowed thanking him again for his help. The kindness of strangers can change your life, something to think about the next time you see someone a little lost.

Needless to say the train ride and taxi were same, same but oh so drastically different. I learned a valuable lesson about scamming, but with some time to reflect on the mornings activities I also realized that I need to be smarter about standing up for myself. This situation could have been drastically different and what for a couple of dollars? But I was riding on a cloud of principal and it was a good lesson to learn. Most importantly in the past a situation like this may have tainted my entire view of the city or country, but I realized that this was just one man’s actions and I didn’t let it spoil my time in Hanoi. Just remember when in Hanoi only use the Mai Linh taxi company which is the green taxis or Hanoi Tourist Taxi, and know that there are plenty of copycats.

Holy Hanoi!

Vietnam, a country that fills the pages of our history books with controversy and images of death that were the first to be viewed so regularly without censorship on the nightly news. This was how my generation was exposed to this period of our history. We were taught that Vietnam was a war with many different stories and sides and no real victor in the end. Other than my history education and the fact the the country is still communist today I really had no way to gauge where I was traveling. I’d heard many people exclaim how much they had loved their visits. But I had read many blog postings of travelers who fell victim to scams and whose trips were ruined by these experiences. Originally I chose this country because of it’s mystique. The pictures of scenery and culture where so stunning and yet antique as if the culture was trapped in time. And therefore I added it to the itinerary with hopes to experience the same charm and vibrance that radiated from the photographs.

For the first time arriving at the airport I wasn’t full of travel anxiety which I had continually experienced upon every other arrival, maybe I was becoming an old pro. As we started our drive into the city the chaos of traffic settled into a familiar rhythm I have grown accustomed to in this part of the world. The life of the city blurred into my view. My guide gave me some specific advice based on the area and pointed out various landmarks on our drive to the Old Quarter. As we passed a auto accident on the road she informed me that there were about 30 deaths daily due to the traffic and drivers inability to follow road rules. The chaos of the road didn’t fully sink in until a loud thud reverberated throughout the car. Looking around to see what we had just hit I realized the passengers side mirror had collided with a pedestrian crossing the street. The driver barely glanced in his rear view mirror to make sure the pedestrian was ok, and we continued on without pause. Looking behind me with fear and shock I realized that the pedestrian wasn’t too concerned either and continued across the street. I then realized I was again in a world so unknown to what I have possibly missed the most about the United States, order. As I sat in my hotel room I knew I could stay in this air conditioned safe haven or I could enter the chaos and explore this world. Going for the ladder I entered into the streets of Hanoi cautiously looking in all directions knowing my pedestrian status meant very little.

In the maze that is the Old Quarter of Hanoi I blindly wandered the streets on a food mission. Realizing on the plane that not only was there not a vegetarian option but that the salad that accompanied the meal was covered in meat, I knew that my Vietnam food adventure may include some unintentional animal products. But as I wandered through the streets this woman came up to me. Those look like doughnut holes, you can’t go wrong there, I purchased the three different types and immediately begin to sample them all. The darker of the three was the most sweet, with a sugary center. The other two were surprising, a subtle balance between savory and sweet. It may have been hunger or relief that there wasn’t pork filling, but I was content with my first purchase.

My next food stop introduced me to the newest love of my life… Vietnamese coffee, heaven on your taste buds. Vietnam is one of the largest coffee distributors. The Vietnamese tradition is to mix the coffee with sweetened condensed milk. I ordered an ice coffee with just a small amount of milk and I was in caffeine heaven. Every sip was strong and powerful, full of bold flavors I was so happy to be in the presence of real coffee once again.

When it was time for dinner I was on a street food mission looking for something authentic. Finding a kitchen with communal tables I sat in confusion not knowing whether someone would be taking my order or just bringing me food. I found someone who spoke a little English enough to understand that I wanted the noodle veggie concoction without meat. I was brought this, Bun Cha, usually it is sliced pork served with thin rice vermicelli noodles, a heap of fresh herbs and green vegetables, in a bowl of lightly sweetened nuoc mam (fish sauce) with floating slices of pickled vegetables. My order arrived without the meat and I dug into this new find, my culinary delight cost me a grand total of two dollars.

With some food success under my belt or in my belly I felt a little braver to explore the streets further. Wanting a sweet to end my night I found a smoothie shop. I ordered a papaya fruit shake and sat on these little benches that line the streets usually indicating a restaurant space. There I rested and savored all of my day. Thinking about how far I had come from my first introduction in Delhi. It’s amazing how quickly you adapt to your surroundings, I feel like a seasoned travel pro and yet my travel time is quickly coming to an end.

During one of my days in Hanoi I ventured outside the city for a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda, an amazing complex of pagodas and Buddhist shrines built into the karst cliffs of Huong Tich Mountain. Not only was the temple in the mountains and truly spectacular, but the ride to get there consisted of a hour boat trip paddled by these woman who seemed to poses supper power and strength. Then a hike to a gondola which flew you over the valleys and mountain scape to the top. The views and colors of this country are breathtaking, bright green rice fields, lime stone rock features and brown thick rivers flood every inch of view. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On my last day I decided to devote an entire day walking around the Old Quarter of Hanoi, a intricate stream of alleyways and roadways weaving around and around. I tried to follow the Lonely Planet’s walking guide, but realized within minutes that like everything else in the Old Quarter chaos seemed to control the roads and I couldn’t distinguish one way from the other. So my walking tour turned into a eating tour, attempting to sample my way through the day I tried various street foods. The highlight was the bia hoi, Vietnamese draught beer or microwbrew. Brewed without preservatives this light bodied pilsner is meant to be consumed immediately and costs about twenty cents a glass. The beer was refreshing and there was some flavor to it so I didn’t feel as if I was drinking some light American beer. Bia Hoi shops occupy many street corners in Hanoi, again with the little plastic stools and you see then men enjoying the beer together at the end of the day. 
My day ended with another trip to my new found favorite restaurant. Knowing I can get good street food with no meat, I’ve returned to this place nightly. There is just something about the warm noodles and broth mixed with the veggies and herbs, it feels so fresh but filing at the same time.

And with that I said goodbye to the chaos of Hanoi and realized that while the streets are insanely, overly crowded, and the cars and bikes are all consuming, there is something about the energy of this city that makes you smile. Maybe it’s the fact that in the hectic mess of life they have a system that works so well.