Seoul, South Korea-2012

Not long ago I went to Seoul, the capital of South Korea. I only had six hours in Seoul, since we were part of a tour from another area of Korea, and it had been a hectic week at work so me and my buddy decided to see where the bus dropped us off and figure out what to do from there. Turned out that the bus dropped us right off the Itaewon International Market Street. We got to Seoul at lunch time and were hungry after a few hours on the bus so we found a cafe that served Italian with a Korean twist. I got a pasta dish in a rose water sauce that was kinda spicy but really good and an apple juice that was awesome before starting walking again. Ever on the lookout for good jewelry or bead stores, I convinced my friend to go to the “fashion road” first. I was disappointed to learn that all the stores were merely boutiques of ready-made outfits by lesser known designers. My friend told me a fact that made me a little less disappointed at not finding beads. She said that she had looked on Google to see what was said about this street and learned that many designers try out new ideas in Korea before sending them out on the shelves around the world. I hadn’t known that and found it rather interesting. By now we had been walking about an hour without seeing anything worth buying and were slightly grouchy but once we got to Itaewon Street, we found an underground “market” and bought some souvenirs at good prices that got us in better moods. The underground markets on that street are large rooms with a number of stores but no walls. The stores are established there all year round, so it’s not like a market with stalls, but there are walking paths separating the stores and they are designed to be different shops that complement each other. Many of the markets sold jewelry and clothes but the one we went to had jewelry, souvenirs, blankets, baseball hats, and mens suits. We walked around for a few more hours and got souvenirs as well as seeing the International Food Street with restaurants like The Guinness House in Seoul, the Taco House, The Moon Club, My Thai House, Scrooge Pub, and Buddha’s Belly.
After a fun afternoon of shopping and window shopping we got back on the bus for a long ride back to our beds that night. I can’t say that I saw a lot of Seoul, but what I saw was what I needed that day and shopping therapy can be awesome some days.

Sapporo Snow Festival 2012

After seeing the Chocolate Factory, as I posted about last weekend, we got back on the train and went back to downtown Sapporo, Japan to see the 63rd annual Snow Festival. There are three sections to the festival: one parkway has huge ice sculptures with smaller snow sculptures in between that get judged at the end of the week, a boulevard of smaller ice sculptures that will get judged as well, and a park outside the city that had a huge slide for tubes, a maze, and other things designed to entice international travelers. This is my second time at the festival and I've yet to get to the third place but I'm not upset. I seem to have gotten less used to cold weather so I've never pushed to explore Sapporo. When I go out we usually stick to the plan and don't stay out too long. :)
Once we got to the festival, we walked as much as we could and took a lot of pictures, which are on my Flickr page, and tried to enjoy the afternoon. Unfortunately the air pressure, cold air, long work week, and long day of sightseeing got to us both and we both got headaches. Luckily mine was less than my friend's was so I still got a lot of pictures but we headed in as it got dark. We wound up eating supper at a German bar that had very little German food but the Japanese food was good and either being inside the mall or eating basically got rid of my headache while it was too late for my friend. She slept off her headache on the train and bus before we got ready for bed and she seemed better the next morning.
It was a fun visit to Sapporo, I just wish the weather was a little colder. As much as I was cold and my fingers were numb from taking pictures on my Ipod (that's what I get for forgetting my memory stick), it was rather annoying that we were there on the second day of the festival and the sculptures were already melting. A mermaid on a guy's back had lost her arm at the shoulder, we passed a freshly fallen bust of a girl the police were circling, and there was a sculpture labeled "Raising Dragon" that I would have loved to see but it was only a set of legs by the time we got around to it. However, the huge Disney scene, the animal scene, and the huge buildings were still lovely so I can't really complain.
All in all it was a fun trip and am not surprised the Snow Festival made it into my book on where to visit before you die. It is definitely an amazing place to be.

The Chocolate Factory: Sapporo, Japan

Last weekend my friend and I went up to the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan and visited the Shiroi Koibito Chocolate Factory in Sapporo, Japan and the 63 Snow Festival. To get there we took a twenty minute bus ride from where we’d slept to the train station and a seventy minute or more train ride up to Sapporo, passing Hiroshima on the way. By the time we got to the Sapporo train station it was lunchtime and we were hungry. I remembered from last time I was here that there was a shopping mall on the floor under the train station so we went hunting for lunch and found a pasta place. Neither of us spoke Japanese and they didn’t have an English menu so we went to the entrance and pointed to what we wanted to order. Now, try to picture this: there are about ten dishes of pasta and rice in three rows at the bottom of the display case, all on the same level with two shelves of drinks and desserts above them and two American women who don’t speak Japanese are trying to point at our dishes and drinks to two Japanese people that don’t know English? Are you laughing? We were by the time we were done ordering. Luckily we got the dishes we’d ordered but I got a lemon-ish soda instead of the blueberry shake-looking drink I’d tried to order. Oh well, the seafood pasta covered in slightly spicy ketchup with extra salt was rather good and there was miso soup and the complementary water to wash it down with.
After a little more navigating (the nice way of saying maps can only get us so far) we got to the Chocolate Factory. It turns out the factory is part factory, part museum. It seems they gathered a lot of collections from collectors, such as chocolate tins, hot chocolate tea kettles and cups, and Columbia themed things and arranged them in exhibits relating to the history of chocolate candies before showing how chocolate is refined from the cocoa beans to usable chocolate. Then they explain how their famous cookie, a thin square of white chocolate inside two thin butter cookies, is made and large windows show the actual production line in a large room beneath us. After that we went upstairs where we could have baked and decorated the butter cookies, bought sugar-craft items (such as a lady in a hoopskirt made of sugar), or had hot chocolate and cakes. The next floor held more exhibit rooms they didn’t bother to connect with chocolate such as the gramophone gallery and a few themed rooms full of toys from before the 1990’s or so.
After stopping at the store to pick up some of their famous cookies, we went outside in time to see the Chocolate Carnival. “A parade of jolly singing and dancing mechanical dolls,” as their brochure says, occurs every hour on the hour that the factory is open. The courtyard is a village of children’s houses and roses (covered for the winter when I went) and everywhere I looked something was moving to the music. A parade of mechanical animals circled the clock tower, chefs were singing and dancing on one all while other mechanical chefs across the courtyard played trumpets and birds swayed to the music. The three little pigs from the nursery rhyme peaked out of their houses and a dog stood up every few minutes.
After we toured the small village of play houses it was time to get back on the train for central Sapporo to see the Snow Festival, but that story and all those pictures will come out next weekend. If you want to see more pictures of my trip through the Chocolate Factory, check out my Flickr page.

Tokyo 2011, Day 2

The next day we again had trouble leaving the room on time and got to the restaurateurs’ street less than an hour before we had to be at the theater. This street, which I forget the name of, is full of ceramic dinnerwear, pots and pans, and fake food made to look like real food which people buy to use or display at their restaurants. In Japan most restaurants have a visual menu outside the main door as well as the written menu inside. The visual menu is plastic food created to tempt the taste buds of passersby and look very realistic. My sister really wanted to buy a few pieces but when they’d gone during the week things had been closed. This time we found one store open in the first block and she got something and I picked up a keychain of a small crepe. (Trust me, you should not come to Japan without trying one of their crepes. Hm, my favorite is the strawberries and banana slices with cream and chocolate sauce topped with whipped cream and wrapped in a thin French-style crepe. Delicious)
Our next stop was the Japanese National Theater to see a traditional kabuki play. Unfortunately I have no pictures of that as cameras weren't allowed. The traditional theater of Japan, it is based on the acting, not the story. Coming from the Western idea that the acting complements the story, it was hard to see a play where the story complemented the acting, which was the real art. It was also impressive to see a “Living National Treasure” on stage as one of the actors. It was also hard to follow the story as the day only showed three parts of a ten part story, which is typical. Counting two twenty minute breaks, we were in the theater from a few minutes before it started at noon to 4:15 when the third part ended. It was a good experience and was interesting to see a number of Japanese patrons wore the basic kimono to the traditional theater. I felt a little under-dressed in my good jeans and nice shirt but other people were in less formal wear and no one commented on my outfit so I guess I wasn’t doing anything wrong. After a trip to a Christian bookstore where I finally found The Screwtape Letters and a good trip to Mcdonalds, in which we each tried the local sandwiches not offered in the States, we went back to the ryokan. They were going to stay another night and fly down to Okinawa that Monday but I had work the next day and gathered my things before saying ‘bye and taking the train back to my place. As usual, got started later than hoped as we took a while to finish our conversations and I got back to my place at ten but it was a good weekend and I had a lot of fun with my sisters.

Christmas in Minnesota

I made it to my home state last Monday, two hours before I left Japan that same day, thanks to time zone changes. It was good to be home, even if there was no snow. I had gotten little sleep on the way so I was a little out of it by the time I met my parents at the airport but it was late anyways. I had them stop at Walmart so I could pick up things I hadn't wanted to pack (like shower stuff I hadn't wanted to take through security and snacks) before heading back to our place. We headed out to IHOP for breakfast (hmm...) then went walking in the Mall of America. As usual, I went into Beadniks, a bead store there, and Barnes and Nobles and spent way too much at both but I rationalize that it will be a while until I'll be in a position to get the stuff in those techniques. (Let's ignore Amazon for now, okay?)

The next day we went to Khan's Mongolian Barbecue for supper (yummy)and Thursday we went to the neighborhood deli. That's about when I realized how short this trip was and how little I would manage to get done of what I'd planned. Anyways, Friday I stayed home and worked on my projects while the parents went out and I didn't leave again until church on Saturday. This morning there were two church services before gifts and a quiet afternoon. It's nice to be home and not have the deadlines and red tape I need to deal with, even if my body thinks it's time to suddenly be wide awake after midnight when I just want to sleep. Oh well, that's the joy of changing time zones.
It's been awesome to be home and see some of my favorite places and people for a holiday designed for family get togethers and memories. I hope you all have an amazing holiday season and the best of luck in the New Year. I hope 2012 is your best year yet and I'll see you next year. :)

Tokyo 2011, Day 1

Last weekend both of my sisters came up to see me. They’d spent much of the week in Tokyo seeing the sights and on Friday afternoon we met in Kamakura and I took them to my new place where we would all sleep for the night before going up to Tokyo for the next two days. After I gave them the (rather short since there’s not a lot there) tour of my apartment, we tried to go to CoCo’s, a curry franchise (the food is the bottom picture and it tastes better than it looks), for supper. A favorite of the locals and the Americans around here, the place was full and the night was cold so we went to a ramen shop down the street. Honestly, I’d never had the ramen there, I’m not much for most soups, but I’d heard rave reviews from those I work with and my sister’s wanted to get the “Japanese experience”. I don’t blame them since one of them was only going to be in Japan for less than a month and I loved the shrimp fried rice the ramen shop sold so we went to eat there. I finally tried some of the ramen there, as we sampled each other’s meals, and it was good but we all agreed that the shrimp fried rice I ordered was the best choice of the three. After that I led them to a bar not far from my place and got us a chuhi to share. They didn’t feel much like drinking alcohol so I only ordered one and drank most of it (they were rather tired and didn’t want the alcohol to make it worse) but I wanted them to try it. The chuhi is a drink I have only found in Japan and can be bought like a soda in a can at any convenience store but around my place, it’s the favorite drink. A mix of club soda, flavored syrup, and a shot or two of strong liquor, depending on how strong it’s ordered, the drink seems like soda and sneaks up on a person. It tastes like a soda and a lot of people drink two or three before it starts to react with them and for some people that is too many. It’s not unusual for people to try it, decide the chuhi tastes good but is weak, and chug another one or two before the effects quickly overtake the person who’s never tried it before. A lot of Americans get very drunk their first night trying chuhis but I only ordered a regular which we each tried/shared so we didn’t really feel it. After they’d tried the chuhi it was time to get back to my warm room to catch up and get some sleep. The next morning we were planning to see my work and be on the train to Tokyo by ten in the morning.
Um, yeah, we left my place late, had breakfast at Cinnabon, and I gave them a tour of my workplace. We got lunch at a convenience store before boarding the train about noon for the two hour train ride up to Shinagawa Station where they had stored their suitcases for the night. On the way we went through a “learn your strengths” list my sister had found in a book and I realized how long it’s been since I had a good debate on psychology, especially about analyzing ourselves and each other. Each one of us has studied psychology with different aims in mind and it made for a very good conversation. My oldest sister is a drama teacher who works with children and young adults as well as doing some acting on the side so she’s studied psychology from a viewpoint of how people learn and how to teach children while my middle sister is in graduate school to be a Christian counselor to actually help people deal with any issues they may have. I just study psychology because it helps me understand people. (If you know me, you probably know I’m a very blunt person and like to know why people do what they do.) Psychology also helps me develop characters for the stories I write but I never intend to use psychology beyond that, except to play devil’s advocate with my friends. Three different perspectives on one topic and the ride just flew by.
After we (okay, my middle sister) navigated us through the Tokyo train system to the place we were staying, we dropped our stuff and went back on the train for the origami museum. We got there less than an hour before it closed at six p.m. and explored some. I’d never realized the intricate folding that could be done to make paper dolls that looked like the real ceramic court dolls sold in Japan or boats full of soldiers or full landscapes of places or crabs. We sat in front of a master folder who folded things like dragon heads and a traditional new years decoration and a puppy and a few other things before we got to pick one to keep and look around the store. I picked the dragon head and also bought some beginner origami books to add to my list of techniques I intend to learn but have yet to get around to before we left. After dark already, we decided to go to Ahkiabara, the area known as electric town. There we could buy just about anything with a current in it and we saw things like usb ports that looked like pieces of sushi, a screen that worked like an etch-a-sketch, antennas and gps gadgets for cars, and a shop that sold robots and parts to make them. By the time we left the neon town behind we were pretty hungry and finally found a sushi place to eat. In an area that didn’t see too many Americans, the patrons at the restaurant and the workers were very helpful. We finally ordered two plates of sushi to share and they brought out some pickled radish pieces for us to try for free. All was very good and we were ready to go back to the ryokan we were staying at. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese hotel with shared restrooms and the traditional shower/tub facilities. In Japan the tradition is that you shower outside the tub and then relax in the tub that is usually a one person Jacuzzi. Quite nice with the carefully manicured ground you could see through a small window by the tub after a long week at work.

Okinawa 2011

Last weekend I flew out of Haneda Airport to visit my sister and her husband in Okinawa, a large island on the Ryukyu island chain below mainland Japan. I left my place early as I wasn’t sure how long my route would take but the train system got me to the airport an hour before the plane took off. Taking the flight in the afternoon was an amazing idea as I got some awesome photos of clouds and the islands below surrounded by coral.

My sister picked me up in the airport and drove me back to her place. Once her husband got off work we went to a small restaurant down the street from them to talk over lunch. I had an awesome taco pizza appetizer, great curry fried rice, and tried pineapple wine. After that we went back to their place and laughed at their two playful cats while talking and catching up.

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast before heading out to a local native town. Called Murasaki Mura it was a historical village designed to educate visitors on Okinawan culture years ago. As none of us were quite in a crafty mood that day, we just wandered the grounds and looked at all the crafts we could do. Scared that my batteries were low on my camera, I didn’t take too many pictures there, but I did get a picture of my sister with a green goya, which is considered a native vegetable and she was excited to see it still on the vine. (The green and yellow vegetable to the right is a riper goya.) I also got a picture of a karate studio of a practicing dojo. (Interesting fact is that karate originated in the Ryukan kingdom which became Okinawa Prefecture.)

After making our way through the village we went to a place called Sea Seed where they get coral seeds and grow coral to plant in the sea when it’s big enough to survive. They use a number of aquariums to educate the public while growing the coral and I got a lot of pictures a well as being able to hold a live starfish. After that we walked out on a stone bridge to a stone platform before going to the nearby sea salt factory.

With my time in Okinawa coming to a close, we ate at Freshness Burger before going to a Halloween picnic at my sister’s church. There we met up with a Japanese friend of my sister’s who brought us some kimonos to try on and we got pictures

Okinawa is an awesome place and I'm hoping to return there soon. For those of you interested in visiting there, here is a travel guide. I you want to see more pictures from my trip, visit my Flickr page and enjoy. I hope you enjoy the pictures as I had a blast taking them!

The Wildlife Dome in Cairns, Australia

How many of you know what a bandicoot, frogmouth, or wallaby is? They’re all animals native to Australia and I got to see some when I went to the Cairns Wildlife Dome on top of a hotel and casino in Cairns, Australia last time I was there. The Dome is a mini-zoo with galahs and other birds flying around our heads and habitats for other animals that we could walk through. It’s a bad picture but as you can see I also got to hold a koala (which has bristly fur instead of the soft teddy bear fur most stuffed recreations have) and I got to see some kookaburras, a bettong, and a few sleeping wallabies (which look like small kangaroos when awake). Here is more on the animals at the Dome and here are more pictures I took in the Dome. I hope you enjoy the pictures and I highly recommend a stop at the Dome if you get to go near Cairns, Australia.

Brisbane, Australia

Brisbane is the capital of Queensland, Australia and one of the largest cities on the continent.

The first night of my stay in Brisbane I stayed at an apartment hotel and that is the way to stay. The apartment had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, one with a washer and dryer in it, a living room area with couches, a TV, and a dining room table, and a kitchen area with dishes, a microwave, a small stove and nice refrigerator/freezer. Very nice for a night away from work with gorgeous views of Brisbane from a lot of floors up.

The next morning my friends that I shared the apartment with and I left the hotel room and wandered around town. The y wanted to find a place to eat kangaroo but we finally settled on going to a market held daily along the river. The market was fun, although the level of goods seemed more like a mall than a regular market. We decided to stop for lunch at a Mexican place and I had tacos and a chicken quesadilla near a stone statue of a carnival performer suspended in midair by cables.

After the market we decided to go see Transformers 3 in 3D at the local mall. It was a very good movie but I must admit that the 3D part was a bit overwhelming. I still prefer the old experience where the screen was flat and you just watched the good show. However, times are changing and I’ll have to adapt, even if the movie gave me a headache. After the movie my friends were still looking for kangaroo meat so we got in a cab to a cowboy style restaurant. There we found out that kangaroo meat is more of a get-it-when-available- meat than a seasonal or everyday meat so I had an awesome hamburger and they had beef and we went back to our beds on the ship.

I went out to the city a few more times for shopping and food before we left. One thing I was amazed at was that the country was based off of England many years ago but was more like the United States than my image of England now a day. Australia doesn’t seem to have a “native food” like most of the places I’ve been. They have Mexican places, French places, Thai places, Japanese and Chinese places, the typical fast food places like Starbucks and McDonalds, and almost everywhere has an alcohol menu (not counting the fast food places of course). It was amazing to basically be back in the States again for a little while, although I don’t know anyone that managed to stay inside their budget during our stay in Australia. Everything is slightly more expensive there and we could buy things like clothes that we can’t find to fit us in Asian countries. Trying to find pants that fit Western bodies in the stores designed for naturally skinny Asians is just painful.

Anyways, Brisbane was a lot of fun and I’m definitely hoping/planning to come back before I die and I highly recommend it. Next week I’ll write about my trip to the Gold Coast so come back soon.

If you want to see more of my photos from Brisbane, check out my Flickr gallery.

Osaka, Japan

Not too long ago I took a trip with some friends, M and G, to Osaka, Japan. Osaka has been a center for trade for centuries and that meant a large population grew up in the area and merchants became rich and settled in the area. Lots of money in the area and a large Asian population means the area is full of historical buildings, especially temples and shrines. Named the country’s capital many times since the fifth century, Osaka is known for its castles, though not as well known as nearby Kyoto with its rich history and gorgeous landscape. The three of us set out that day planning to see some of the historic sites as well as the famous street with massive billboards.
We started out by taking the bus into town and had lunch at McDonalds. (I know, I know, eating McDonalds in Japan, so adventurous, but give us a break. It was after 1230 and none of us had eaten anything since supper the night before. It was next to the bus stop and we were hungry, so we stopped there for food.) Next we crossed the street to the subway station and went to Tennoji area looking for Shitennoji Temple. Built in 593 by Prince Shotoku, Shitennoji Temple was Japan’s first governmental temple. Seemed like a good place to go on our only day in Osaka so we went hunting. We followed directions and circled the train station to the main street. We got excited because we saw old Japanese looking buildings from the train station, but no, they were just decorations on roofs of restaurants meant to draw the eyes. We asked directions again and were told to follow the main street until we passed the temple so our journey down the main street began. It turned out to be quite a walk and along the way we saw two Japanese buildings hidden down an alley. Thinking those might be the beginnings of the temple we checked them out. Finding them to merely be bars, we took pictures and continued down the main street. Next we found a small shrine we explored. I rather liked it, it felt like a quiet place to worship and there were a few people praying there as we wandered and prayers hung up in places, either on wooden plaques hung near the prayer bell or on papers tied around string reserved for the worshipers. However, it didn’t take me long to realize that this peaceful shrine was partially made of plastic and it no longer seemed so restful. Maybe it’s just me but if you’re going to build a place of worship, go all the way. Don’t make everything look old and significant but have it made of cheap, modern materials. The others were still enjoying the shrine so I sat down to let them wander and not ruin their experience. Eventually we left the little shrine and saw an amazingly realistic mural of African savannah animals, including a male and female lion on a rock with a flaming sunset behind them. It was very impressive and life sized.
We wandered down the street some more and eventually found the Shitennoji Temple. The temple, “featuring a middle gate, a five story pagoda, a main hall, and an auditorium arranged in a straight line surrounded by corridors” (as the tourist guide explained), was awesome. Rebuilt after World War 2, the buildings were impressive and well maintained. The five story pagoda towered above the other buildings in the temple and the view of the modern buildings standing just outside the fence of the temple was slightly amusing. One thing I noticed was that although the statues were of Japanese monks, the artwork seemed to be in the Indian style. After a little more wandering I realized the art was Indian because the temple was a Buddhist temple. Yeah, that made sense then. We spent well over an hour at the temple but there is only so much silent respect a person can take before getting restless so we moved on to Dotombori Street.
After the walk back up the main street, the subway ride to Namba area, and a fifteen minute walk, we found the street known for its many restaurants and huge billboards. The original billboard, a massive runner crossing the finish line, seems to have been taken down, or I didn’t look hard enough, but I got a picture of the life size runner, a few bigger than life size crabs that had moving legs, a huge octopus wrapped around a sign with steam coming out its eye, and a dragon going in and out of a wall above a restaurant. We ate some amazing Korean barbeque with cucumber kimchee as well as squid rolls from a vender. After that it got dark and I got a picture of the neon lights on the street and we went back. We all had to work early the next morning and were pretty full so sleep sounded pretty good.
Although I was kind of disappointed by the reality of Dotombori Street, compared to the hype in the guide book, I had good company all day. It wound up being a really fun day and I’m looking forward to going on vacation there sometime soon.

Vietnam pictures

Okay, as usual, these are in the wrong order but that still works. This is one of the gaurds who gaurded the door into one of the cave shrines.

This is a view from the temple one the cliff over the city to one of the other seven hills the city had.

This is me standing about five or six steps above the person taking my picture on the stairs going up to the temple. Oy.

This is a view fro the bus of all the motorbike traffic.

This was a view from the bar we went to that first night, the highlight of the night was definitely the view and the company.

My first trip, part 4

The trip into Veitnam was in water that was a brownish yellow that was disgusting. I was ready to say Vietnam has the most disgusting water I have ever seen until I looked farther from the ship and saw the perfectly blue water. The river we were passing through most have been just barely deep enough for our ship so it churned mud from the river bottom into the surface water making the disgusting brownish yellow shade in normally greenish blue water. My first night out was not reaaly worth mentioning but I will anyways. I went out with a friend who just wanted to get drunk. Thank goodness she didn’t go that far, but she then decided to go to a club. Apparently an American that can’t dance trying to move some to the music is worth taking notice of in a Vietnamese club. Needless to say we didn’t stay long but we came back on a bus full of drunk or nearly so Americans from our ship. Yeah, I needed alone time when I got back to the ship so I went up to the main deck and stared at the stars. Pretty night so far removed from people.

The next time I left the ship was with a tour group. As the driver navigated the ever changing mass of motorbikes and mopeds, the guide told us stuff about the city. Apparently it is customary that Sunday morning everyone goes out to coffee with their friends and most businesses are closed until get-together is done. Interesting. As we passed the buildings I got the idea that the city was trying desperately to rebuild. Brand new buildings were cramped in next to buildings that should have been demolished years ago giving an interesting juxtaposition. Our first stop was a bank so people could visit the ATM. We got there just as all the cashiers were showing up for work and I saw the Vietnamese version of the ladies suit. It’s a fitted silk top with the high Asian collar that flows from the waist to about an inch from the ground in smooth silk. However, a slit on both sides from nearly to the ribs leaves the sides of the legs open so it seems like there is a cloth down the back and down the front leaving the legs exposed. Now, before you get scandalized I should mention they wear matching silk pants under to cover the legs. The only skin showing is a triangle on each side above the pants that shows some skin at the waist.

Our next stop was a beach, I believe it was called China Beach, that was gorgeous. The guide showed us the statue across the bay of the female Buddha that protected fishermen at sea.

The next stop was a temple on one of seven cliffs overlooking the city. Unfortunately, we had to climb about a hundred thirty steps dug out of the stone cliff at odd sizes first. Needless to say, we were all out of breath by the time we got up there. However, the temple was nice and the views were amazing. However, the really special part about this temple was that parts of it were built into the cliff. The tour guide led us through a number of caves that smelled pleasantly of the incense bought as gifts to the gods, or however they view it, and the rocks gave the area a natural appeal. Some of the caves with icons were mere niches cut from the rock while there were a few stone houses built to protect the statues from the mist of incense that filled the air and from curious fingers of the unrespecting. Next we continued our walk down the hill and passed a large shrine that had many roofs and many windows on a large tube of stone. At the end of the tour was a colorful temple that overlooked China Beach in the distance and a white stone Buddha that blessed the visitors on the trail up to it. Then we had to take another set of stone stairs down. Yay.

Once back on the bus we went to a marble sculpture store. Vietnam of that city is famous for it’s marble statues and this store sold every type of statue one could think of in all sorts of sizes. I got some gifts for family and a necklace of green marble for myself as well as a pair of marble balls that are small enough to fit in my hand and are stripped three different colors along with their small wooden stands to prevent them from going far. I was sitting in the bus later and watched them making a huge white dragon, I think, out of marble when a guy came in guiding a box that came up to his knees and had to be at least two feet wide on to the bus. The thing was being carried by two Vietnamese men that were struggling with it and must have cost well over a hundred or two hundred dollars American. Everyone on the bus rather thought him an idiot but the statue or table, I think he said, was put up front and we just had to be careful getting on and off.

The next stop was lunch and it was good. The restaurant was empty except for the two tour groups and was obviously a place designed for American tourists to experience “traditional” Vietnamese dishes. I put those in quotation marks because the meal was a high class seven course meal and it was well presented but some of the meal seemed to be Americanized. I don’t remember much about the meal except for three of the courses. The salad course was cool because it was supposed to be eaten on chips like nachos but it was a dish of greens. Another course was an egg baked around shrimp fried rice. The course I thought the most unique was a beef soup cooked and served in a coconut shell. All in all, the meal was amazing but my favorite part was the drink. The meal was included in the ticket but we had to buy our own drinks. I saw watermelon juice on the menu and thought I’d try it. Hmm, that was amazing. They literally just cut a watermelon from the rind and liquefied it in a blender so the texture was still the amazing texture of the fruit, just a little thicker than water, and it still had all the taste, maybe with a little sugar added. Needless to say, it was total bliss.

After the meal we went to a museum with all sorts of odd art from ages past. As I looked at the figures and took many pictures, it occurred to me how fun it would be to describe these things. I realized a really fun scene to write would be my main character exploring ruins, possibly of an ancient temple on another planet. Imagine how much fun that could be to be walking through a ruined building and seeing the ancient mythical figures of another species and how they once viewed themselves. Many of the figures I’d seen that day alone seemed to be from another species, so few of them looked human as westerners think of them. Needless to say, I got a number of pictures. Looking back on some of them, I’m surprised at a few that look like African art. I didn’t know they had met at that time.

After the museum, we went to a silk portrait store. The prints are really expensive, I saw a medium sized print for over three hundred dollars, but they are amazing. They look like well done oil paintings but are really sewn very carefully from silk thread on a thin background. They look really amazing. They are done from coal sketches done by the artist and then the artist and company decide the colors to go in it and the artist redraws it on a special paper that transfers the art to the cloth. Then the cloth is put on a big sewing easel and a sewer sits down and carefully sews with silk thread. The product is well worth the huge price for such amazing art.

The last place we stopped was a small store for souvenirs and mostly clothes. I bought a lovely teal dress and pants set while others looked upstairs at things like an elephant tusk decoration and nice wooden things. Lovely artistry.

All in all, the city I saw was gorgeous and I would recommend a visit but there is one major deterrent. Because the people here are quite poor, we got mobbed everywhere we went with street vendors, Vietnamese style. They followed us around like bees to honey shoving cheap ceramic bracelets in our faces trying to get us to buy them at exurbanite prices(okay, cheap by American standards but high for the product in Vietnam.) as their income. They were annoying. They literally got on their motorbikes and followed the bus all day and would wait for us to get out of buildings. There was usually a mob between the bus and whatever shop we were in. And it was really annoying to feel that pressured to buy, especially when they start telling me about all their kids at home and am I sure I don’t want a bracelet or two? It was really fun when I’d have one on each side fighting for my attention. Yay.

All in all I’d love to go back, especially when listening to some stories I heard from friends (one group of friends watched the cook butcher a snake and cook it in front of them, one of them drank the heart in a special alcohol drink and they love telling that story. J ) but will definitely have to save more money before I do. The good stuff is worth a pretty penny over there but it is really good quality.

Well, that was the last port on my first trip around the Pacific, stand by for more adventures in Japan and my next trip. I’m planning a weekend of fun for my birthday, but then again a weekend in a hotel would be more fun than the usual weekend in my neighborhood. I’ve invited some friends to go with me to a hotel and a trip into Tokyo and they both agreed. Then the next day they weren’t so sure. Simply put, I have other friends but I may spend the weekend alone and who knows what boredom and my 21^st birthday may drive me to. J stick around and find out. J

Well, that’s all for now. This is Li’l B signing off.