Saturday, September 17, 2011

Southeast Asia...better late than never:)

Here I am traveling again and I never posted my last blog for my time in south east Asia...I suppose re-entry to America was a bit distracting. My apologies. I'll be posting from Egypt soon:)
Laos
The sun here, especially in LPB, seems red and like it struggles to shine through the smoke of fires. The only comparison I have is when we had those fires in the O.C. I remember how strange the sun looked and felt on my skin, how even though there was less light the heat had been intensified. Very post apocalyptic.
Here, they say "Hey lady, hey lady!!" every where you go, but after India I'm just happy not to be called sir anymore.
Cambodia
Here the ATMs gave US dollars and although American currency is accepted in most foreign countries, preferred in many, I hadn't seen prices given in dollars since I left the states.

Vietnam
Tonight I went out with the girl I met here in Vietnam and her husband. Well, I call her a "girl" only b/c she looked so young, but cute couple. Although they hardly looked old enough to drink, they already had a daughter in first grade!! She's very nice and this was the second night we hung out. Last night we went out to a local bar and played pool which was really fun; alcohol is the great uniter after all. Tonight though she invited me back to her home where she she said we would have a "cooking class" and she would teach me how to cook authentic Vietnamese food!! It was exactly what I look for opportunities to do while I'm in these countries: hang out with a family, bond with the women in the kitchen and drink with the men afterwords. I had homemade liquor (which I could remove my nail polish with between shots) and I ate fox for the first time! That will go on the list right next to eating sting ray in Malaysia:) Sting ray btw is the most fantastic meat I've ever eaten...if you ever get a chance to try it do!!
Halong translates as ‘where the dragon descends’ and Hanoi translates to 'where the dragon ascends'. Legend has it that the islands of Halong Bay were created by a great dragon that lived in these mountains. As it charged towards the coast, its flailing tail gouged out valleys and crevasses. When it finally plunged into the sea, the area filled with water, leaving only the pinnacles of the rock formations visible.
Russians may have taken over Goa, but the French and the Germans have Southeast Asia in a choke hold!!

Malaysia
Don't bother to ask taxi drivers in Malaysia what country they are from because according to Malaysian law no one except someone born within the country is allowed to be a cab driver. But I found Malaysian people to be quite friendly:) They are fluent in English, quite helpful (which I find common in Islamic countries) and although many of the women wear abayas and the black robe the smiled at me from under their covers. Malaysia had the better qualities of the eastern culture including the cuisine, but brought in the Indian masala as well; Kuala Lumpur had development and building sizes comparable to Los Angeles or Capetown in the center, but if you walked 10 minutes outside the hustle and bustle you'd finds Chinatown and street meat vendors who's grill aroma was simply hypnotizing.
If Asia is the capital of false eyelashes then Malaysia is it's mecca. Every make up counter here has a "lash bar". Yes, you heard me correctly-lash bar. You have the strip kind that are layered, you have the kind that are colored, you even have the individuals which are a bundle of 4 or 5 eyelashes which are glued to the lid. When they aren't trying on the latest lashes they are drinking tea and discussing numerology. Many times over coffee several interpretations of the numbers in my date of birth gave rise to in depth discussion as to what it meant for me and my personality.
The percentage of foreigners here are from Switzerland.

China
While there may be less people in China than there are in India it sure didn't feel like it. In retrospect India may have been crowded and you may have been sure that people were going to run into you or worse run over you, but surprisingly they would come within centimeters from you and with skill learned only in a country that overpopulated, they never even touched you. In China they mow you down and not think twice about it.
It's VERY clean here, but I quickly figured out why. In a communist country everyone works for the common good, but EVERYONE works. Well, there are a lot of people here to find work for. I was in the store to buy shampoo, this is one of the lesser complicated of my tasks...usually. I mean how complicated can it be- there are pictures and smells to choose from. (Try using these criteria to identify meat...not as easy-or as relaxing.) So I pick up the first bottle, frosted green with an ergonomic shape. These are things I notice now. I don't think anything of the swarm of people both staring at me and speaking very loud- both culturally specific to Asian countries and most pronounced in China I have found. I puck up the bottle and hold it close to my nose, as 2 more people knock into me, and replace it on the shelf as a vision of my 3rd grade teacher is nostalgically brought to the forefront of my mind. (So many scents in the world, why do they always seem to smell of things/people I don't care to remember?) Here's the weird part: I put the shampoo back on the shelf and out of no where a guy wearing all white stands it front of it, straightens it, leans down and squints one eye like he's going to take out the eight ball and satisfied with his work disappears as quickly as he had appeared.
As a communist country China's government essentially has carte blanche. You have only as many rights as they allow you to have and the long arm of the law extends to the internet as well. The powers that be have blocked You Tube and Facebook for all including tourists. The locals have come up with a nickname for the national firewall: they call it the"New Great Wall". Clever huh?
As in Malaysia, all the taxi drivers are Chinese and although they were strongly encouraged by the government to learn English (or at least the essentials) for the Olympics, clearly it made no difference. One thing you can count on the cabbie for though: he'll roll the window down after no more than 2 minutes-EVERY time. Why you ask? They say westerners smell funny; they attribute it to all the milk we drink. They say that must be what makes us smell so sour. Ha!!
They are big on accessorizing here, accessories are as ubiquitous as eyelid stickers and perms, as effeminate men and wearing socks with sandals.
Interestingly, there is a huge Japanese influence here because of all the immigrants. They have the money to afford their creature comforts from home and China is willing to oblige...for a small profit of course.
The Chinese have a reputation in Southeast Asia as the cheapest tourists to visit. They were the tourists in Vietnam who would haggle the price of a one hour massage for $6 down to $4.

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