Photos

Wat (temple) in Vientiane, Laos


Retired statue in Chiang Mai, Thailand


Tree along the road near the Gibbon Experience, Laos


Temple guardians, Chiang Mai, Thailand.


Lantern, Ha Noi, Vietnam.

Just a few random ones. I'm currently working on uploading and writing a post about the Gibbon Experience but it's slow going.

Certified Scuba Divers

We completed day 4 of our certification process. 2 ocean dives, complete with the last bit of skills and we are certified. Funny story though, on the 2nd dive we attempted to navigate a few meters using compasses and snorkels. I placed my face in the water, took off at 60 degrees, and promptly had my mask flood. Not being able to see my compass, I attempted to clear my mask and look like I knew where I was going, but in fact I actually steered another 30 degrees to the left, cutting off Emilia and our "classmate" Sam. After causing both of them to pull up short and stare at me in amazement, I finally gave up and lifted my head from the water only to have the 2 instructors, Emilia, and Sam all start laughing at me. Heh.

Everything else went rather smoothly. We removed our masks underwater and replaced them. We tried to hover at neutral buoyancy, which is harder than it seems as Em can attest. She tried out about 20 positions during her 2 minute attempt to stay at hand level with the instructor before he gave her the OK sign.

Emilia is going to go on to the Advanced Diving Course, a 3 day, 5 dive experience. I still have a few hours to sign up, but I'm leaning toward taking a break from diving on this trip. I had a hard time with my ears the first few days and I'm still having problems hearing. So we'll be in Nha Trang for another 3 days after today while she finishes this up, then on to Saigon.

Scuba Day 3

Today we completed 2 45 minute ocean dives. The first one was to get us used to decending, neutral buoyancy, and swimming. We toured a coral reef and only practiced a few skills. The second dive started in a large sandy patch, practiced quite a few skills (such as mask removal and finding our regulators in case they popped out). Then we toured another reef. The aquatic life is quite abundant. I was surprised at how much there was and also at how muted everything was. Visibility was about 7 meters, so maybe that had something to do with it. Saw clownfish (think Finding Nemo), hundreds of other fish, corals, and other plant life. It was incredible.

I'm still debating whether to take a camera tomorrow or not. They run $30USD (but are reusable)...but I'm not sure I would have enough time to actually take photos between trying to learn buoyancy, keeping close to my buddy, and making sure we're close to our trainer.

Tomorrow, we have 2 more dives, then we will be certified for open water.

Scuba Day 2

Today was just as fun as yesterday. We completed sections 4 and 5, passed our final exams (I scored 98%!!!), and then we jumped back in the pool to finish up skills. Today we went to the bottom of the deep end with full gear. I have issues adjusting my ears, but managed to get through it. Picked up neutral buoyancy rather quickly. Practiced removing weight belt, the gear, swimming without a mask, swimming with no oxygen, and buddy breathing. It's a bit surreal thinking that we could use these skills in an emergency over the next 2 days, but still fun. Better to be prepared than to panic without knowing what to do.

The weather here has been absolute crap. Rain nonstop (or almost nonstop) for 2 days. You'd think we were in Seattle! Tomorrow, we head out on the boat to complete 2 ocean dives at the coral reef. Nothing strenuous, just getting us used to the water, neutral buoyancy, and some basic skills. We have 2 more dives the day after tomorrow, then we'll be certified open water divers up to 18meters.

Food post part 2

I take it back. We found a pho joint that sold medium bowls for 20,000 dong (just over $1 USD). Beef, noodles, broth, green onions, basil, and some greens that I couldn't identify. There were the full condiments too: hoisin, chili sauce, thai chili peppers, fish sauce. It was almost what I had envisioned before we came out here.

Then dinner...spectacular failure. I've been craving lasagna so when I saw it at a restaurant tonight for a decent price, I ordered the vegetable version. I should have known better. A huge piece of "lasagna" came out on a plate. It looked ok...melted cheese on top and everything. I took a bite. No...this is not lasagna. Let's see if I can list what this dish contained: rice noodles that were mushy, ketchup, peas, carrots, onions, bamboo shoots, and banana leaves, with a hint of tasteless cheese on top for looks. I'm not sure how, but I managed to choke down 3/4 of it before giving up.

Scuba Day 1

We signed up for a 4 day training certification course in open water scuba diving. Today was our first day. We woke up with enough time to grab a breakfast sandwich from a street vendor (baguette, veggies, chicken, things I can't even begin to decribe) and made it to our destination (Rainbow Divers) at 8am to begin training. For 3 hours, we watched training videos and completed 3 of 5 quizzes. We broke for lunch, had a cup of coffee, and wandered out to the streets to find pho.

Quick sidenote about today. It rained like nothing I have seen before, nonstop streaming water which quickly filled the streets with 4+ inches of standing water. Now I understand why all the shops have a step or two from street level to the interior.

We found a good (read: cheap) pho place and settled in to watch the flooding. Content with our meal, we put on our ponchos and went for a wade around the block. Arriving back at the dive local, we boarded a bus and went to the public swimming pool to start learning the basics. The pool was originally built by the navy and is quite deep at one end. Our trainer mentioned that they can't keep the pool filled to capacity because the locals would drown. Guess swimming isn't taught often. Because the pool isn't filled all the way, the filtration system doesn't work, so the visibility can be limited. We were lucky today and could see almost to the end of the pool.

Today we learned about our gear, how to properly check it, set it up, put it on, navigate with it, and use it. We spent a few hours in the pool learning to breathe through the snorkel, regulator, switching back and forth between the two, finding your regulator when it falls out of your mouth (perhaps if someone kicks it), and flooding/clearing the mask. We know how to safely decend and ascend. The hardest part is flooding the mask with water. Because of our contacts, we have to keep our eyes closed during this process. One thing we worked on was taking our mask off completely and breathing through the regulator for 1 minute...with our eyes closed. It's a bit strange.

Overall, I love the experience so far. I adore being in the water and can happily spend hours learning this process. I think we're off to have a beer and dinner, then off to bed so that we can do it again tomorrow!

Food

I wanted to use photos with this post, but am unable to at the moment.

Food on the trip has been pretty mundane compared to what I had imagined originally. That's not to say that we haven't had some fantastic meals. I had a bowl of wonton soup (photo was linked previously) that after some bland cuisine, was outstanding. Liberal use of fish sauce, fresh noodles, and vivid bits of cilantro made that bowl of soup stand out in my mind. Since then though, I've had one bowl of pho and a few bowls of cau lau (I think it's spelled this way) that have increased my standards.

Pho was on the top of my list of food to try, especially with the explosion of pho joints in the greater Seattle area. The quality of the broth is definitely better, less salty. Sadly, most pho in Vietnam consists of a delicous broth, a few bits of meat, cilantro, and noodles. No limes, no bean sprouts, no green onions. I was sadly disappointed.

We've tried local food when we could, but in the end, it's a lot of noodles and rice. There's only so much of that type of fare that we can eat before we start craving vegetables and fiber. Western food is prevalent here, but not quite to the "standards" that I remember from home. Pizza has been an adventure that we've tried a few times. The first time Em ordered a pizza, it was at this little bar in Chiang Mai called Pirates Cove. We tried it just for the novelty of the name and decore. Her pizza consisted of a tortilla with ketchup, a few basil leaves, and a few sliced tomatoes. We laughed at the time. I ordered a burger that was so salty, I almost couldn't eat it. Lesson learned, I've avoided burgers until tonight. More on that later.

I broke down and ordered a Denver omelette in Hoi An the last morning we were there just so that I could remember the taste of bell peppers. We've both been ordering a lot more fresh fruit plates and steamed vegetables vs fried. If I ever see another fried noodle dish in my life, it will be too soon. Back to pizza...we've split probably close to a dozen pizzas on this trip and each one is a surprise. The standard so far was a fairly plain pizza: tomato sauce, oregano, and cheese on a crust that reminded us of naan bread. I believe we had this in Luang Prabang but I could be remembering incorrectly. Other pizzas have come out tasting burnt or tasting more of ketchup than tomato sauce. It's an adventure.

One night in Vientiane, we attempted to find local food at the riverfront. There was a stretch of about 3 blocks with open air "restaurants" consisting of an open kitchen, tanks of fresh seafood, and mats or chairs under a wooden awning. My stomach wasn't doing well at the time, so I tried to order a noodle salad without meat. Em ordered something similar and was asked if she wanted it spicy or not. She said not spicy. When the orders came, both were so spicy that I almost couldn't eat them, and my tolerance to spicy is pretty high. My noodle salad also came with a pork sausage that I couldn't handle. We gave up about 1/5 of the way through our dishes, walked down the street, and found a French place to have pizza at.

Also in Vientiane, two good items. We found this place called Noy's Fruit Heaven. It became a favorite of ours, and we dropped in 4 or 5 times before we finished the passport business. Fruit shakes were the speciality, but they also had a decent breakfast. I ordered a banana pancake and they arranged the banana pieces into a smiley face. Cute touch. The second place was a little hole in the wall Japanese place run by a real Japanese (as advertised on the sign and menu!). We ordered gyoza, pork teriyaki, and a few other things and while the meal was expensive, it was definitely worth the price.

We've also eaten baguette after baguette after baguette. Some with butter and jam, some with hamburger, others with tomatoes and onions. What I wouldn't give for a slice of whole wheat toast.

And lastly, tonight's dinner. We dropped in on a Texas BBQ place that had just opened 7 days ago by an ex-pat from Florida. He originally traveled to Vietnam on a whim, met a woman, and decided to stay about 8 years ago. Nice enough guy, he exports shells to Florida for vendors to sell on the coast (which means the shells out there are not local, go figure!) and imports beef, chicken, and beer (Coors and Bud) to Nha Trang. I had a bacon cheese burger and Em had a BBQ pork sandwhich I think. Both were good. Bacon was the best reminder of home food that I've had since we started this trip. Even the fries, likely frozen, were reminders of home.

Speaking of home, we've been craving specific foods. I have wanted a fresh fuji apple for weeks now. I had a dream last night about cooking: black beans, tomatoes, onions, salt, pepper, cumin, and lime juice on crunchy toast. I woke up drooling. We both want fresh salsa. I want lasagna. The list grows bigger each day.