PADI Certified

Flew to Kota Kinabala, N.E. Bali. We landed in the rain at midnight and cabbed it to a guest house i had made a reservation at. I had also called a couple days before to book a four day dive course. that next morning we walked up the street and signed up for our Open Water Dive Course. We started imediatly. We filled out a personal report, when it got to the medical record one of the questions had to do with broken leg or arm. I didn’t want to lie, so i marked a YES were there needed to be a NO. During the lunch break i was asked to go to a nearby clinic to get signed off as being healthy enough to dive. I waited in line at the clinic for about 2 minutes, talked to the doctor about America and California.I bent down at the knees, stood back up, $15, he signed my paper and i went back to the class. We finished at 5pm. We were going to be picked up the next day from our guest house and taken to a nearby island to finish up our training. We found out that we could camp on the island so that night we walked to the mall and searched high and low for some sleeping pads. We found some for $20 each. The sleeping bags here look like they are made for kids so we decided to walk to the open market and buy a set of sheets, since it was bound to be hot anyways. I found a little store that had matresses out front. I went in and asked for a sheet or blanket. They couldn’t understand my English or my sign language. I finally laid down on the floor of the store, and pretended to pull a sheet up over me and sleep. They laughed and i soon had a cheap blanket. We got picked up in the morning along with two young Brit Boys. the island is set up for divers. There are a few dive operations there and quite a few people scattered around. We rented a tent, set it up and met the rest of our group over in our area. Our class is the two Brits, Johnny, Malika, and myself. Our instructor Ray and his two assistants. We got all of our equiptment ready and headed for the beach. In about 3 feet of water we did some skill practicing and went over hand signals to comunicate with. the first time breathing under water was sure strange. We all had trouble with the bouyancy part. We did some work on what would happen if you either ran out of air or lost your regulator. Ray says it does not happen very often, but you need to know what to do. We did two 20 minute dives, including instruction dives. We did get to do a little sight seeing, but during this time we all just tried to stay floating upright or breath in a relaxed way. We spent the night in the tent, and it was one of the worst night sleeps i have had. I choose to head back with the Brits yesterday and sleep at their guesthouse in a proper bed. It was terribly hot and my $20 pad was worthless. Yesterday we learned a bit more and did our first boat dive. I liked this cause we hit water in the Jacques Coustoue still flipping backwards off the boat. We did a couple more underwater lessons and then followed Ray around some reefs. It was an overflow of sea life, fish of all colors, Baracuda, different corals, i wish i had an underwater camera, just to get a sample what was down there. We finished up the last of our class room lessons, took another boat dive and came back and had our final exam. 80% I missed a lot of the math parts. There is a chart to use to figure out how long you need to stay out of the water after you dive a certain depth for a certain amount of time. You need to know how long to stay out in order to release the extra nitrogen in your system. They also sell computer watches that figure this stuff out for you. As Ray corrected my test, he suggested i invest in one. 80% is passing so i am now a Certified Open Water Diver. Woo Hoo! As we were taking our exam it started to rain, then it straight up poored. So bad that the tent flooded and we all headed back to the mainland. We are being picked up this morning and taken to the island for our fourth day of diving. Two boat dives hopefully. We are done with our training so this will be all for fun, or if we feel we want to work on anything.
Tomorrow afternoon Johnny and i fly to Sandakan to check out Turtle Island. Malika is staying in Kota to climb a mountain and visit some monkey sanctuary.

KK

Went out to the Bako national park. It has been a protected area since 1957. The brochure said. Likely to see wild animals. We took a .30 bus ride to the jetty and then took a boat down the estuary, it was high tide. We cruised out to Bako along dense jungle and high cliffs. It reminded me a bit of boating the fjords around Ketchikan but it looked more like the home of King Kong. We arrived at the dock and had reservations for a dorm room. As we stepped up onto the doc a kind German let us know that a few 300 meters down a plank walkway were a few monkeys. We headed down as quiet as possible. I found a few people standing around and they let us know that over in the trees were a few Proboscis monkeys, AKA big nose, AKA Jimmy Durante monkey. I soon spotted a small one, and thought "oh how cute" then i saw an adult. About the size of a small child. Bigger than Abbie, smaller than Henry. Johnny had his video camera on one and got a great shot of him leaping to another tree. They were soon done doing their thing and headed back into the thicket. We headed towards the lodges, on the way we came across some 30 Macaque monkeys, these are the little ones that you think of when you think of monkeys. It was about now that the mosquitoes came out in full force too. So we headed on down the trail, another few hundred meters ( we don't use feet anymore) i spotted a big bore like animal. I didn't know if we should be nervous or not. Soon another person came up and told us to pay no mind, aside from checking it out, not to be scared. It had big ole' teeth in the front and used its nose to rip up large chunks of grass and dirt in search of worms. It was like a piggy rototiller. We had been there for less than an hour and seen all this wildlife. We settled in and joined a night hike, there were like 13 of us so we didn't see much. The next morning we planned on getting up early. I actually woke up at 3am to the sound of thunder. I got dressed and walked down to the beach and sat and watched some amazing lightning for about an hour. At 7am i got us all up and we walked back to where we saw the Proboscis' There were none so we headed up the 45 minute trail. just a few minutes into the hike we heard some thrashing in the trees and spotted about 20 or so. We sat and watched them for well over an hour. What i also think is neat is they are only here in Borneo, No where else in the world not even in the Zoo, or so they say. A couple was headed up the trail so we left so that they could check them out too. Too many people would have scared them away. The rest of the hike wasn't nearly as cool, monkey wise that is. The landscape was great. Crazy big insects and plants i'd never even imagined were around. It isn't so much hot as it is humid, I was totally wet, but not uncomfortably hot. I was well doused with bug spray, so didn't end up with many bites either. At the end of the hike we saw three more of the wild pigs and the family of little monkeys again. We had only planned the one night so headed back on a boat, bussed back into the city and took a night flight to Kota Kinabalu or K.K. for short. The whole trip to Bako food, transportation, and lodging $20 each.
Now in K.K. I just finished day one of four on PADI Open Water Dive Certification. There was a little questionnaire that asked about any complications from leg or arm injuries. Since i marked yes i had to first see a physician. $15 and 15 minutes later i was cleared and oked to dive. Today was all in the classroom and tomorrow we head out to some island, very exciting. I have yet to buy a camera or hear back from Travel insurance people.

Borneo yo

I flew out of Hanoi into BKK I planned a night there to spend with my friend Peter who lives there. I got in late and headed straight to the Hotel. I had some left over Nam bucks and thought i would buy Peter a bottle of wine from duty free in Nam. Wine is quite expensive in Thailand. I got to the airport in BKK and as i was walking out to catch a cab i guy  grabbed me to see if i wanted to pay him three times as much for a ride into town. As i turned to say NO! the bag with the wine slipped out of my bag and crashed all over the floor, It was only $5 and Peter appreciated the gesture.
   Johnny had flown in a few hours before and pre booked us a room. I checked in and walked down the street to Soi Cowboy and met Johnny, Peter and Peters Girlfriend Nuct at the Cactus Bar. It was about midnight now. We had some drinks and good conversation and we were soon joined by our English teaching friends from Japan, Chris and Ean. That night was very fun and lasted well into the morning. I lost my watch a long time ago so when i got up in the middle of the night to pee i pulled johnny's watch of him to see what time it was, 10:30am Our flight was at 1pm, we were totally late. We flew up out of bed and just made it onto our flight to Singapore. the flight was great, it was two hours. The service was fantastic i asked if i could get an isle seat to stretch my leg and we ended up in the exit row with like 15 feet in front of us. We chatted with the flight attendants and a few people around us who told us about Singapore, Just weeks earlier i thought Singapore was the capital of Malaysia, who knew it was its own country? We landed and took a cab to a Youth Hostel, There and the whole way there, everyone we encountered was overly nice and overly helpful. Singapore is clean, and quiet. Muslims, Indians, Chinese, and Christians all living in harmony. I think the USA could learn alot from how the Malaysians live together. I thought maybe it was the fear of being caned for the slightest infraction that kept every one on their best behavior, but it is like that over here in Borneo too. This is a very nice change from the loud, dirty, You buy, You buy or Thai-Cambo-Nam
   We spent a couple of days in Singapore, just sort of walking around. It is a bit pricey, a bit like Canada, Which is not that pricey, but way over our budget. the drinks are crazy expensive. We went to one bar, we all wanted a Singapore Sling (when in Rome) We met some guy in the elevator. The bar was called the Loof, because they can't pronounce the letter 'R' for That bar up on the Roof. The guy was totally nice and bought us a round of Slings. $15 a pop, We had one more drink and left. The next day, today we took the bus to the other bus station, That took us to the border. We spent about 3 minutes at the Singapore immigration and well over an hour at the Malaysian immigration. We happened to be in the slowest moving line. I think it was the immigration officers first day. We then took a cab to the airport. Our driver, Indian was very friendly. I sat in the front and we talked about, Malaysian life, Religion, Gov. Subsidised fuel prices and medical and living expenses. About a minute after getting out of the cab i was Stoked to realise that i had forgotten my small bag on the floor of the cab. Camera, iPod, Journal....Gone!! Bummer. I was grateful that i had just put my passport into my pocket after immigration. I went to the info counter at the airport and the police station in hopes that it may be returned, I actually think it might? Even after that incident i am in a great mood, I love it here and we are all excited about what is too come in the next few weeks. We shared a cab with a few other whiteys to a B&B, the three of us did not like the price or the rooms so we walked on. We ended up finding a new Guest House with free Wi-Fi, a nice room with AC and the owners used to be in the travel business for 15 years and will help us to see Borneo with out going through expensive tour agencies. The have all ready given us the local bus route and told us how to walk most everywhere else. I think we are going to spend a few days here then head both into the interior for some jungle trekking and up the coast for fun in the sun. Tomorrow we shop for a camera for me, I'll be filling a claim through travel insurance too, and a rain coat, cause when it rains here in dumps.

March 8th the Hoi An part

March 8
Which is either Women in the world Day or Women in the war day? Or Mothers Day and i forgot?

Hoi-An Sweatshop Capitol of the world. I’ve been hearing a lot of “c’mon into my shop and buy” and “Hello motorbike” They are a little pushy on the You buy You buy over here, but you just smile raise your hand like you are about to wave and quickly flip your hand. Palm forward, palm backward and say “ thank you, No” I was unable to say No a few times and ended up with a suit, that i will probably never wear. I figure i am 37 and i have worn a suit once at Nathens wedding, but you never know? Two short sleeve shirts, three long sleeve shirts, two pairs of britches, and a jacket. I think i paid about two bills for all. Johnny tripled what i got.
We left Saigon via bus and headed north to Mui ne, which is a little beach town. No more busses for me. We sat in the middle in the very back, this is a city bus sized bus I had plenty of leg room and it looked like we were going to be alright for this 3 hour bus ride. As soon as we got underway the co-driver came back and yelled at Johnny and i and some old man with his son. He made us move forward one seat. He then started doubling people up even though the bus wasn’t nearly full. He did leave Johnny and i each in our own seat. I tried to tell him that my leg was broken and i need the space, but he was having none of that. A couple minutes later he laid down in the back and slept the whole way. I on the other hand found that the distance between my knee and my butt in sitting position is about 4” shorter than the distance between the back of my seat and the back of the seat in front of me. So i spent 5 hours quietly bitching and squirming around in search of a comfortable position. Johnny, who was sitting in front of my wasn’t too into it either. For fun every time he would switch positions he would look over his seat and i would shut my eyes and pretend that i was totally asleep, just so that he would think “ how can Bob sleep through this” We took the night bus so about 2am i tapped Johnny when we passed a hotel that i recognized from the book (the lonely planet guide to Nam) We stopped soon after to drop off a few people. I had over heard them earlier in the night talking like the lived in Saigon and came to Mui ne ever so often. They stayed in the same place every time. I expected to drive a bit further then be dropped in the center of town. Now that we stopped the bus wouldn’t stop, it is not a real bus ride unless your bus breaks down. I was about to get out and see if we could just walk from where we were, but as i headed down the passage way the bus started and we were on our way. We passed quite a few hotels and soon it looked like we were far away from anything. At about this time the co-driver came back to where we were sitting and asked if we were going to Mui ne. Yeah, that is what our tickets said, the ones you took 5 hours ago. He gave us a look like we should have said something as we had already driven through Mui ne. He yelled to the driver and the driver stopped and we ended up paying $20 to stay our first night a few Klicks outside of where we wanted to be. The next morning came very early when the Vietnam music started up at full volume. We went to internet and found out where Malika was staying, she had come the day before. Johnny and were both ready to hop a train and get out of there, but once we settled into where Malika was staying we found the place quite nice. Malika had ridden there pain free, but she is maybe 5’ tall. She met Hanita from florida so now the four of us are hanging out. We spent most of our couple of days on the beach. One day we went to some kind of cool sand dunes, they were not really that cool, but after a quick climb through scalding hot sand the view out over the China Sea was pretty amazing. We also climbed up to some kind of cool red mud cliffs.
We decided to book a train ticket to Hoi an. This proved harder than expected mostly because i kept getting quoted different prices. We argued about 30 minutes with these two girls about prices. It ended up being all in jest. We had to sit there while they waited for the train station to call back anyways. The argument revolved around Rich Americans and poor Vietnamese. They didn’t understand that the costs in the USA are much higher than Nam, therefore even though we make more $$ it is hard to live in the USA. Whatever, it is an old argument that we will never win. We ended up in a not very comfy sleeper. We did meet a couple guys Chris from Berkeley and Eaan from Australia who are English teachers in Japan. We hung out with them in the bar car. They are both very funny and we had a good time, went to sleep and woke up in Da Nang. We shared a mini-bus to Hoi An and split up there. We met them two nights later for drinks and dinner. Johnny and i earlier that day stumbled across a cafe that offered .18 beers on tap. We took them and Malika, Hanita, a Japanese girl whos name i forget and Jenene from Florida there. We emptied the keg and then went for great tasting Indian food. We ended up at some bar. Neither Chris or i can handle our liquor so we both headed out first. The rest stumbled home much later, but i felt fine the next morning which was nice.
We have one more night here in Hoi-an. We are going to meet Chris and Eaan again along with Wayne and Dimi who we met in Saigon. Then it is on the train to Hanoi..Oh Boy!

Hanoi (pronunced with a silent 'H')

Annoyed in Hanoi

There is actually a whole other section that i wrote on Johnny's computer, but we have not found a place to plug it in. So we will just have to skip Hoi-An for now.
JG and i took the night train out of Hoi-An to Hanoi. I am wishing now that we would have stayed one more day. That last night we all met at an outside cafe. A few of us that have been running into each other on our travels. John, Malika, Myself, Hanita (who Malika met on the way to Muie-ne and is still with us) Chris and Ean. ( Chris is from Berkeley and Ean is Australian, they teach English in japan) Janene ( who Chris and Ean met from Florida) Dimi and Wayne (Johnny and i met in Saigon they are traveling overland from Singapore to Belfast no planes) We had a realy good time hanging out and drinking .18 beers. I was talking with Wayne and Janene about diving and Wayne told me had we stayed one more day he, since he is an instructor would take us out and all we would have to do is pay the rental fees on our equipment, but instead we took a train to Hanoi. We left the sun and fun and arrived at 5am in the rain. Everything was closed so we sat in the rain in front of our guesthouse for about an hour when the lady woke up let us store our bags and told us she would have a room in a couple of ours. So we walked around, all we really wanted to do was lie down. We couldn't find anything open even for coffee or food. We found a couple other hotel and almost decided to fork our $25 just for a bed. Finally she let us come in and wait. Malika soon showed up, she had taken the bus. The bus is much cheaper, but i can't fit my big ole legs in them little seats, especially not for 12 hours. The place was full but they had a second joint down the street. We followed the gal with our bags on our backs. On the way i slipped on some tiles. It was my bad leg so in fear of falling i kicked out my left foot for balance and kicked a couple of broken bricks. The toenail on my big toe bent backwards and the toe next to it split open. Inside i was crying and on the outside i was biting my lower lip. We got to the place and i asked for a towel, i had bloody black gutter muck all over my foot. I took a nap while Johnny and Malika went out. Later on i felt better and went for a walk. I had a map but quickly got lost. The People here in the North are not nearly as friendly as those in the south. I bought a bagget off of this lady. She tried to charge me 10,000. 16,000 is $1. this is 8,000 too much, but i was hungry so what ever. She handed me two and said 10k 10k. I said not just one. She pushed them into my hand and said ok 10k for two. I didn't even want two. I handed her a 50k bill and for change she gave me two 10k's and what i thought was 10- 2000dong notes but were actually 200 dong notes. So many 0's so confusing. That B.I.T.C.H. had short changed me like $1.80 You know you are tired when $2 pisses you off. Fine!! walking around Hanoi sucks because the traffic is every which way, you can't walk on the sidewalk because this is where every one parks so you end up in the street or the gutter. I was walking along the gutter when my foot slipped, I hate the rain, i could feel my sock filling with icky water as my foot was slipping down into the AbbyssAt the same time i am falling into the street when i hear honking, not motorbike honking but car honking. It was like slow motion. I put
my hand out at the exact time the car was passing me allowing me to use its momentum to push my self back onto both feet. I don't know what would have been worse, being run over or slipping into that drain. I finally made it back to the guest house. I was ready to leave and when we went out for dinner i stopped and checked to see if i could fly out early. The next day i decided would be better. We got up early and took a cab to the Ho Chi Mihn Mausoleum. The final resting place of Uncle Ho. The line was crazy long like 10 blocks easily. It moved right along though, like the pace of a slow walk. At one point we had to give up our bags and then a little ways down our cameras. there were a couple of security checkpoints. The closer we got to his place of rest the more in line we had to get. Two by two. There were more and more guards around. By the time we reached the entrance there was no talking, you could not have your hands in your pockets. look straight ahead and there was a fancy dressed guard in white duds and a riffle about every 20 feet. You walk up a marble staircase and soon you find your self shuffling past this little grey man lying peacefully in his glass tomb. It was neat in a very creepy sort of way. It was like a wax museum with only one statue. And we were done. I guess he goes on tour to Russia three months out of every year for cosmetic work. while we were milling around outside i overheard Malika and Johnny poking fun at Ho and how the Russian probably set him up in funny positions and take candid shots of him. I cautiously turned and said " I think Ho Chi Mihn is a pretty highly respected individual amongst the people of Vietnam and maybe We should keep it down a bit on the poking fun" i quickly realised what they had been saying and felt a bit ashamed. I was getting many looks form the people around us, so we thought it best to just leave. We booked an overnight trip to Halong Bay so we went looking for a jacket for me since, it was surely going to be wet and cold. Everything was too pricey and now one wanted to haggle down. Johnny had bought one the day before, but found one he liked better so he bought the new one and gave me the old. That day we hooked back up with Hanita so now it was going to be the four of us.
The mini bus came and picked us up in the morning and took us the three hours to the boat. The boat was and old Chinese Junk boats, the ones with the big red sails. I doubt it was old and they never even lifted the sails. I was happy that there were only us four two couples of older Italians and 5 Irish gals. We all stayed the night on the boat. First we had lunch on the boat. Very good eggrolls and cabbage, rice, french fries, noodle stuff. Then we cruised around stopping at some big caves that we walked around in. After the caves we stopped to do a bit of kayaking. Johnny and Malika in one and Hanita and i in the other. We took off for about 30 minutes. We explored a few caves and it was quite spectacular. it was damp out but warm. I changed into shorts but still had on my jacket. I decided not to take my camera since Hanita had hers and Johnny and Malika both had theres. Plus with my luck i'd either drop it of fall in. On the way back to the boat the boat people had us scoot our kayak around the back of the boat to the other side. The engine was running as we rounded the back end, but i know enough about boats to know that it was idling and even if it wasn't it would be pretty hard to find your way down to get chopped up into the prop. Hanita on the other hand did not know this and freaked out a bit, i don't know if she tried to stand up or lean way to far the other way, but we quickly found ourselves in the drink. The water was totally warm and i found it very funny as did Hanita. No one saw us go over because the were on the other side at the ladder waiting for us. Malika and Johnny were already on the boat. I knew Johnny would love it so i started yelling "Man overboard" Finally the crew came to see what was taking so long. They seemed a bit worried until they saw us laughing. Soon everyone was watching, i am sure some one has some good photos, except Hanita who's camera got drenched, she is shopping for a new one today. I was happy to have dry clothes to change into. That was actually the funnest part of my trip to Annoy. That night we had another great meal of fish. They split us up so i ended up sitting with the Italians, who i really liked. They are in their 70's and have been traveling together every year for the past 30 years. They have been every where. So we are thinking of going to Borneo for a couple of weeks. When i mentioned this to the Italians their faces lit up "Bella Bella!!" as this was one of their most favorite places. This makes me feel good.
Leaving Nam tonight, One night in BKK and then it is off to the second half of our adventures. I am happy about this because now i am headed to places i have never been. A couple of days in Singapore and we will soon be off to Island Malaysia and Borneo until April 1, Bali for two three weeks after, Hongkong and home.

miss you all
bob

Nam

We are planning to leave Saigon today. We were in the little and overly boring town of Can Tho for two nights. The book said it was Capitol of the Mekong Delta and a very cosmopolitan kind of city. It was cute, sort of looked like Capitola, but there was just nothing to do, no cool markets or sights or really anything. It was more of a town that you would come to drop off and pick up goods, but nothing good. The street market was mostly boat parts, props, engines parts. I guess there was a Uncle Ho museum , but we never found it. there was a large Uncle Ho statue near the river that looked a lot like a big silver Col. Sanders. We decided to buy a bus ticket to My Tho a city three hours away. We went down to the local bus depot bought our ticket, that didn’t leave for three hours. We had already eaten, so like true Americans to pass some time we ate again. We ended up just sitting at the office waiting. I fell asleep and then was awoken by what i thought was a guy telling me that we could get on an earlier bus. He sat down next to me. His English was hard to understand, but he could write it OK. After a bit i understood that he was an English Teacher and wanted me to go to his school around the corner to visit his class. No, he had a car and was driving to Ho Chi Min and wanted to know if we wanted to ride with him and his family. No he was in the army up north and shot down a French plane?? At one point he lifted his shirt to show me a battle scar, he had a couple of buddies sitting around him by this time. So i did the same lifted my shirt and showed him my scar. The buddies all laughed since my scars out did his. After a few more minutes of writing, drawing, and a little charades he had been a pilot, was shot down over the north and jailed for 10 years. What he wanted was money. This had gone on for easily 30 minutes. So i gave him $5000 (.30) just for the entertainment. The whole time Johnny sat next to me looking off the other way. How strange that the guy didn’t come up to Johnny but instead woke me up. A watched this little girl and her sister for a while, spoiled little girl at that. If she was in the states she would surely have been on Ritialin. A lady would walk up selling candy, the girl would want gum or candy. She picked out mint flavored Mentos. Took a bite and spit it out, then wined till she got something else. Eventually she ended with chunks of sugar cane, that she would chew all the sugar out of the through them at people. She gravitated towards me and talked for a while all in Vietnamese. I just smiled and talked back to her. I think she was just asking me the same question over and over. Then she went over to the lady holding a baby put her hands all over the kid while the mother tried to push her away. She found another gal that had a box wrapped in wrapping paper the girl went up said something then started trying to unwrap it. The whole time the parents are sitting right across from us pretending like the don’t notice anything. Not a lot of discipline in the household.
We got in our little mini bus, we had the last two seats, somehow i had awesome leg room. I felt bad for the lady in front of my who was quite a few months pregnant and obviously sick. The road was a bit bumpy, and she used my knee to catch her balance. A couple of times. She would lay her head on it. I finally told her to bunch up her sweater and use my knee as a pillow.
We were going to be dropped off in My Tho on there way to Ho Chi Min City. The ride was most comfortable so Johnny and i were going to see if we could just ride all the way to HCMC. We saw the sign welcoming us to My Tho, but the bus never stopped so cool here we are in HCMC/Saigon. We did not do much the first day. The next day we booked a half day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. These are the immense network of tunnels used my the Vietcong. We thought we were going to be in a group of about 5 or 6 but instead a huge bus of about 45 people pulled up and took us away. the place was two hours away, but first we had to stop at the local crafts place and get pushed into buying local crap. Next stop was the restaurant that was in the middle of nowhere. We finally made it to the tunnels where they hearded us around like cattle amongst the other 500 tourists. the stuff was interesting but too fast. “Here is where the people did there cooking, Ok now we must move on” With 45 people in a group it was hard to hear and hard to see at the pace we were going. Johnny and i both decided that was probably our last group tour.
We hooked up with a couple of Cyclo drivers. Cyclos are peddled rickshaws. We had them take us to China town, cause Johnny wanted a bike seat like they used. Along the way we stopped and looked at some very cool vintage scooters. I asked about Chinese accupunture, so they took us to a place that did that too. Made an apt. for yesterday.
Yesterday i met up with my Cyclo driver who took me back to China town. We talked along the way. This is when i decided my favorite part of traveling is riding around talking with a local. I can ask him all about the country and be shown stuff you don’t see on group tours. He suggested i buy my own needles for the accupunture because of AIDs. I asked if he would translate that to the Chinese lady. He did and she gave us both a crazy look and shook her head showing us little packages of needles. She said we only use these once, everyone gets new needles. then looked at us like we were idiots to think she would re-use them. She asked where i hurt then took my pulse. She said that i had weak bones, not enough calcium. Either she said this because my leg is broken or she really can tell because that is what the American doctors say too. Also my kidneys are weak. When i had accupunture done in the States the gal told my she trained in China and the really good accupunturists can tell all your health through your pulse so?? I laid done she inserted a few needles very quickly then wrapped them with small wires and turned on a little pulsing shock treatment. She set a heating lamp above where the needles were and came back 30 minutes later. I think it felt good? This cost me $2. I also got suckered into buying an odd mixture of rice wine and jinsing that had all sorts of stuff soaking in it. plants, herbs, bugs, snakes, ?,?. I got the top of the line stuff that had Tiger bone in it. I take a shot glass full after every meal to strengthen my tendens and my bones. I had my first shot last night and it is gag worthy.
I have been seeing these older men with strange circles burned into their skin. I don’t now if it is like a tattoo or some religious ceremony. I asked my driver and he said it is a massage for Vietnamese. I figured i was on a roll of weirdness. so i asked him to take me there. They are not actually burns. they still rub your back but then take little mason jars with a small amount of rubbing alchohol, light it and attach it to your skin. It doesn’t really hurt, but then it doesn’t really feel good either. They did it on my chest too and i was able to kind of see what it looked like and my skin was like two inches high up in the jar. I am now covered in what looks like huge hickys Not too impressed with the massages over here, i think i am going to hold off until i get back to Thailand We are headed to the beach town of Muine tonight.