Nha Trang- Ho Chi Minh- Mekong Delta, Vietnam

I really don't know how they did it!

Working my way south I stopped for some more beach time in Nha Trang. This place has an amazing beach with a fun night life to go along with. From here I work my way into Hoi Chi Minh City. Tons of history here, sad sights to see and crawling through the small tunnels that the Vietnamese people practically lived in during the war made me wonder how they did it. I was glad to leave here since everything is so depressing but, I learned a lot and I was glad I stopped here. On little side trip I did while I was here was take a trip to the Mekong delta and go up the river. Great little spot in the world and I'm really enjoying S.E Asia.

Hue and Hoi An, Vietnam

If you want to talk about miserable lets talk about traveling on the sleeper buses for a guy my size in Vietnam. The beds on the bus are so small and I felt so cramped, I tried to take sleeping pills but that didn't do the trick. I can actually say that in this sense, I miss the transportation in China. On the way to Hoi An I met a couple of Swedish girls and for the one evening we celebrated Evelina's 30th birthday, which I could really relate with! What I really like about Vietnam is the people and the food. Didn't do anything overly special here but checked out the old city, ate a lot, spent a day at the beach, and enjoyed a bike trip to the outlying villages to see the people. As I work my way south it is getting warm very quickly and it's time to say goodbye to cold weather clothes for now! Another small stop for me in Vietnam was in Hue. A few hundred years ago this was the capital of Vietnam and they have something similar to the Forbidden City in China. The Purple Forbidden City was not as glamorous but it is definitely worth a visit.

Hanoi - Halong Bay, Vietnam

Most travelers I talk to don't rave about this capital of Vietnam. In Hanoi it is semi chaotic to get around, but the city has quite a few things to check out if you like history. My favorite experience was a conversation with a student in a museum about Communism and the history of Vietnam. Hearing history in Vietnam although some of it is not really true, makes you really wonder how people feel about the rest of the world and how most of the world is wearing a very dark pair of sunglasses to even their own history. Another thing I really enjoyed was taking a tour through the prison which Senator John Mc Cain spent 5 years in. I really got a kick out of how the tours make it seem like American POW's were at nothing more then a summer camp. This was a very educational stop for me and next I have decided to take a 3 day trip to Halong bay for some fun in the sun, kayaking, caving, and the best part.....Everything is included for 40 USD. Unfortunately the weather was not as nice as I was hoping but it was like a 3 day party with a ton of activities. The people on the trip were great, scenery was beautiful, and I had a lot of fun so that's all that really important! While we were on a hike, a girl twisted her ankle and she was freaking out because she didn't know how she was going to get back. Lucky for her I am like a pack mule and I carried her a couple of miles. I was actually surprised that I wasn't even tired or sore from this thanks to South America.

Sapa, Vietnam

I left Yichang China on a 5 hour train to end up in Wuhan China. That evening I took a night train which I expected to be there sometime that next morning. I didn't realize that train ride was going to take 32 hours and I didn't account for the extra day of traveling. When I arrived in Kunming China I had to immediately hop on a bus and exit the country otherwise my visa would have expired and I would have got a 110 USD fine for each day I overstayed. After being in motion for around 40 hours now and immediately getting on a night bus which for a guy my size you could say a nightmare bus for 16 hours, it didn't seem too appealing. I decided to grin and bear it and by the time I arrived in Vietnam from 3 solid days of trains and buses, I was exhausted. My first stop in Vietnam was a really cool mountain village called Sapa. My first though was, "Holy cow there are a lot of tourist in Vietnam." As far as Sapa goes the place is beautiful and a visit to the local tribes (Black Mong) will really amaze you with their colorful outfits and interesting habits. One really sad thing about the people in this area is they have a bad addiction problems with drugs (Heroin) and while talking to some of the locals around, many of the children are addicted to drugs and Aids is running rampant through out the tribe. I met a guy from Germany who was trying to adopt a little girl who has a bad addiction to heroin at the age of 7 and both of her parents are dying of Aids. He is trying desperately to get her from them before she contract aids from her parents since they are all drug users. Outside of the local tribes the Vietnamese people definitely seem very different from the Chinese. Before I left I would have had no clue on how to tell the difference and I really can't describe it in words, but it is very noticeable. For my time in Sapa, I met a couple of friends to hang out with within an hour of arrival and for the most part walked around or rented a scooter to go see the out lying villages.

China Thoughts

This lady had the coolest hair doo in China!

Try to fit this much stuff on your bike!

Comparing China to Latin America, and possibly due to the fact it's wintertime in China, I am astounded on how there are so many less travelers here. On another note I never dreamt that China was going to have this much pollution. When I go home I have taken a personal goal to try to avoid things produced that are such a burden on the environment. The people here have a big problem with just throwing their trash on the ground and they really like to spit a lot. It really seems a bit overboard to see someone spit on the table in a restaurant and wipe their face with the tablecloth. The other thing that was amazing was how much they smoke here in China. It was nearly everyone and they have no respect for a non smoking sign. China is a different world and there is no such thing as rules when it comes to standing in line. About every time I was in line, someone would cut right in front of me. At first I would just deal with it and then after about a hundred times of it happening, I would just push them aside. As far as the trash goes I really wonder if they even care about seeing it or just don't know better. One of the controversial issues that is going on is the Yangtze River Dam. It is thought that since they backed up the largest river in China and the flow of the river has been slowed up so much that the water will become unable for consumption and soon be the worlds largest sewage pit. It really doesn't help when you watch them all dump anything and everything in their water supply. I really can't over emphasize how bad the pollution is, and although China has all this new and amazing architecture and it's only a few years old, it is in rotting overdrive. I really hope that the world helps China move in the right direction and things change. We could all feel a little guilty for sending our factories to China for cheap labor and also to avoid emissions laws. I really hope all of you all who read this, just think about the things your buying before you buy them.
On a different note China seems to be one giant construction site and if you looking for a life changing even,t go and check it out. I have never seen so many tower cranes and multi-story buildings going up. A fact I read said that, 50% of the worlds concrete is being used in China, 1/3 of the worlds steel and over half of the tower cranes in the world are in China. China will not be the same place that I went to see and the culture is really starting to dissapear. I am really fortunate to see China this day and age and I am curious to see how the future unfolds.

Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Yichang

How could I resist?

To see this sign in China has to be about as funny as it gets!

Me and the Sis!

My Mom and Sister have arrived and now its time for POWER TRAVELING! In 2 weeks we are going to tackle as much of China as possible and as I told my sister before she left as she was asking me what to pack, I said "Less is more!" When she arrived I couldn't believe how little she actually brought! I have seen people fit more things in a purse and she was always the quickest one to pack and I figured after 10 months I would be waiting, but I was completely wrong. On the other hand Mom's pack was also small, but we spent a good amount of time digging through her pack to find stuff that seemed always missing in action.(THE HAIR BRUSH) In Beijing we saw a Chinese Acrobatics show which was amazing, visited Tienanmen Square, tried the famous Beijing duck, went to the Forbidden City, took a bus tour to see the Great wall and we were lucky enough to pick one of those extra special tours that that included an extra 8 hour shopping extravaganza for free! For me we were stuck in shopping hell and after we stopped for the 4th time to be led through a maize of isles with people pressuring you to look at their stuff our attitudes had gone from disgusted to one of the hardest laughs I have had in my whole life. The last time we stopped, which was well past dark we had some guy take us into a special room and show us all these special things with a laser and he was showing us how strong the jade was by scratching glass with it! Everyone else on the bus, who consisted of Chinese people and us was in complete awe. We obviously had no idea what they were saying the whole time, but it was as clear as daylight that it was a complete scam. When they brought out the stuff the Chinese people were fighting to buy things that they hadn't even looked at yet. They were throwing their money up and just grabbing things. One lady who bought a bracelet went to put it on and it broke. You could see it was just cheap string. Everyone on the bus spent a ton of money and they all seemed so happy about what they got! I myself would not have paid 1 dollar for the things they were selling and I couldn't believe how gullible they were and we all felt bad watching people getting ripped off. After Beijing we headed to Xian via sleeper train to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. When we arrived in Xian we hired a guy to get us around town as quick as we could, saw a few tombs, Terra Cotta Warriors, the town and that same evening we were back on another night train to Chengdu. In Chengdu we went to the panda reserve and took a day trip to see the worlds largest Buddha.(I am not talking about someone's rear side!) From there we headed to Chongqing to find a boat for the 3 day trip up the Yangtze to see the 3 gorges valley and the worlds largest dam. As soon as we arrived we found a boat that was leaving in about an hour and we all thought it was going to be impossible to get money and our bags and get back in time to catch the boat. We decided to split up, I would get the money out, they were headed to get the bags, and we were going to meet back up at the agency with the trip. I couldn't pull enough out of the ATM for all of us so at 8PM I was trying to find someone to exchange USD. I had a cab driver who I offered to pay good money to just drive me around. He must have been freaked out by me running like Forest Gump and he just ditched me really far away from where we were leaving with out taking any money at all. Some how I found another cab who helped get some money exchanged and although he didn't understand me, I used my best caveman conversational skills to get back to where I need to go. Along with running about a mile I got there just about a minute before the boat was leaving and it was a miracle that we made it! Like everything else we did in China, there were only 3 other travelers on the boat that weren't Chinese but it was a nice trip up the river. Looking back at the nearly 2 weeks we spent together we had some really good laughs, lots of food...ice cream....(my favorite), Pizza but most importantly memories to look back on for the rest of our lives. I really want to personally thank you both for making the time in your busy lives to come spend time with me on my journey. It really means the world to me. We split ways in Yichang and I headed toward Kunming to leave China and they took the train back to Beijing for their return flight home!

Harbin, China

After sitting on a 48 hour train ride from virtually the bottom of China to the top, I arrived in Harbin to go see the famous Ice Festival. It was another amazing and different experience and with that said, I really enjoyed it. The only disadvantage of this place was it was absolutely FREEZING! In Harbin you can also go to a Siberian tiger park which will allow you to donate food to the tigers. What this means is you pay for a cow or a chicken and they let one loose in the cage full of Siberian tigers. Harbin also has a very interesting history with a lot of sights to see along with my favorite which was a Germ warfare base that was very similar to what you would find in Germany during WW 2. Harbin was although about as far off the tourist trail that I could find and found it about the most difficult place that I have traveled so far. This really isn't a problem when you have as much time as I do, but if your short on time you might be lucky to figure it out fast enough.

Yangshou, China

No such thing as a photo in China with out the haze.

Yangshou is a for sure must see with an endless amount of things to do. I definitely can say that China feels very different then anywhere I have been so far and I am really excited about all the new experiences to come. I am also getting excited that in about a week my Mom and Sister are coming to visit for a couple of weeks, and although I know it will be difficult trying to move quickly through China, we will have fun and it will be great to see the Fam! In Yangshou I saw one of the most amazing shows and if you get a chance you shouldn't miss the Illusions show which has 600 performers all choreographed by the same guy who did the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics. Here I also went hiking, caving a couple times, watch a Chinese fisherman and his trained birds catch fish from the river, along with a bamboo raft trip down a river with some of the most amazing views you have ever seen in your life!