Action In Relaxation

I’m saving all my words for Vietnam so no greeting this time. It’s going to be very hard to describe all 3 weeks we spent in Vietnam in one short email, but I’m giving it a shot (if anyone values brief communication, it’s me). Although we stayed at seven very unique places (Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa, Hue, Hoi An, Na Trang, Saigon) I definitely see general themes and characteristics that ring true for Vietnam as an entire country. These include 1.Insane/Incredible Traffic; 2.Karaoke; 3.Interesting Food; 4.Unique Transport; 5.Football (soccer); 6.Contrast.


1.Traffic – I know why they don’t shoot car chase scenes in Hanoi, because it would be pretty uneventful when the hero crosses to the wrong side of the road weaving through cars going the wrong direction and pulls up on a family of 3 on a scooter doing the same exact thing while transporting their chickens to the day market. Traffic in Vietnam mirrors the ocean where the whales (buses) and big fish (cars) cruise along without a worry while all the minnows (motorbikes) jock for every square inch of space and dip a dodge their way to their destination.


2.Karaoke – Vietnamese love karaoke and will always invite you to enjoy these private rooms of bad singing, fruit plates (sometimes flying), and endless snacks and drinks.


3.Food – If it is alive, it can be eaten in Vietnam (with one exception, human), and the more obscure the more of a delicacy it is. I’m very proud of our American stomachs (and tongues!) through everyone of these cultural delights/fear factor challenges.


4.Transport – woven boats the shape of a rice bowl, bicycle and human rickshaws, tuk tuks, 3 person bicycles. They’re all fun


5.Football – this sport is everywhere (except America), especially Vietnam.


6.Contrast – contrast is seen in Vietnam on so many levels. The people have a huge contrast in personality between their tough-negotiating, thick-skinned business owner/vendor vs. their warm, welcoming, friends as family hospitality shown to outsiders who are willing to connect. The country is a great contrast between old world tradition, craftsmanship, and practice vs. new generation modernization, tourism, and technology. If I give more examples, I’ll have to make a sublist in this list which would just be confusing so on to the pictures:


North Vietnam with our crew of 5.

South Vietnam with the remaining 3 munchskateers.





Cambodia will be coming soon! Until then, eat something crazy…


Love and Wahoo’s fish sandwiches,


Tyler

Dear Jane (America),


I’m breaking up with you because I have a new woman in my life, her name is Asia…


I am totally kidding and still do love you America(ns), but if Laos were a girl she’d be one of those secretly beautiful ones like the movie……….thinking………. “She’s All That” (one of those really cheesy Freddy Prince Jr. movies where he’s this stud who transforms the nerd girl into the prom queen) Anyway! Laos is Asia’s best-kept secret beauty and I would’ve never ever ever thought of visiting it (except I just did, and I’m glad I did).


I think Laos is still off our American radars as a travel destination because:


1. It is still developing and totally not a part of our first world yet


2. It doesn’t have any major natural resources that we’ve found a way to exploit (Totally Kidding about the exploit part, I’m all for industry specialization/trade creating wealth/all other global-economization-omics-etrics-ology)


3. MOST IMPORTANTLY, it is a very humble/mellow place that doesn’t boast of it’s beauty and potential tourist attractions.


To elaborate on #3, this is seen in it’s happy and laidback people, who may be selling something at the local night-market but don’t hound tourists with “You Buy! Cheap Price! etc.”, but rather sit there content and greet any interested parties with a smile and a hello “Sapaidi”; as well as in the scenery which is beautiful and tranquil but also seemingly humble with careening rivers, perfectly green and peacefully maintained rice paddies, even the egotistical cragged limestone cliffs of Vang Vieng are softened by unique and dense vegitation. Ok, I’m starting to sound like a tour book full of run-on sentences here so I’m going to get on with the happenings….


The 5 of us (Tai Lai Lai, LBJ, Swoops, iMatt, and Biceps) immigrated from Thailand to Laos via longboat over the Mekong River. From there we caught a 2 day slow-boat that stopped in Pak Beng overnight to the town of Laung Prebang. We bussed from LP to Vang Vieng and then later bussed to Laos capital Vientiene. Highlight reel:


 I found bullets that are Apple icons, iMatt would love this! (if the bullet points don’t show up right, you’re obviously not on a Mac so get hip and buy one now, after saving up for a couple years)


 Boat Trip: Playing guitar on the roof of the boat, being told to get down, acting like we didn’t understand and having our disciplinary take a group photo of us


 Pak Beng: Going to bed at 10pm when all the town’s power (that runs on generators) is shut off


 Laung Prebang: The cruiser bikes with a banana seat over the back tire and pegs. Pegs rock!


 Vang Vieng: Two-way tie, 1a.Water Cave! and 1b.Swiss Family Robinson meets Cabo spring break Swim Bars with mud-pit volleyball, 30 ft water swings, sketchy waterslides, loud music, and the ability to simply tube (or kayak) down river if you want to leave


 Vientiene: Bowling at the LBC (Laos Bowling Club); FYI: Laos people love their recreation and are often seen playing hardcore badminton (seriously, like indoor arenas for badminton serious), bowling, volleyball, and extra difficult small ball giant table billiards.


For those of you who were lazily and improperly diagnosed with ADD, and should probably just have a little more patience, the pictures are FINALLY here.


Remember, we love you all and are just as jealous of aspects of your American life as these experiences may make you (weird sentence, good luck diagramming this one).


Until next blast,


Ty, Jay, Dubs, , & Benny


Ps. I love lists (can’t you tell). Realized I can’t even journal, even though many people have recommended it for this trip, so I’ve made a bunch of lists instead. I mean really lists are much more efficient, effective, visually pleasing, reader friendly, and convey a message to a much more broad audience. Go Lists


Pps. I’m kinda feisty in this email; probably because I had a full night’s sleep last night and am writing this from a full size bed next to a giant window, instead of on a crammed/sweaty/sickening buss ride. I hope I didn’t offend anyone too bad with my crass and immature and super-awesome humor.

Well-rested/Chipotle-eating friends,


We (Tyler, Jason, Ryan + Yuuki + Ben + Matt) are currently on a swaggering double-decker bus commuting between towns in Laos, I’ll tell you all about it later…I just wanted you to know that if there are any long pauses ____ and/or weird symbols #####, it was because I’m getting motion sickness and have to take a little time out _____ or am emptying the breakfast from my stomach #####. Lets hope for the _____ best.


So we now have a crew of 6 travelers with the addition of Yuuki (my elementary school friend from Japan who I haven’t seen in over a decade) joining us for 2 weeks, as well as Ben Watson (old friend from Littleton) and Matt Matteson (new friend from Colorado somewhere *I’ll ask him where later) who are joining us for 3 weeks. With new “wolf-pack” members comes new excitement, new energy, new jokes, and increased organized chaos in general; which is awesome!


Yuuki met us 3 “old wolfs” in Kuala Lumpur for a couple days where we relaxed, internetted, and wrote really really boring email blasts about boring Indonesia. We also ate amazing food in KL and had some great but seemingly uneventful (or at least not noteworthy) times. One thing to note: I bought a much much much needed new computer (a 10” dell minilaptop for $400) and after a long night of loading applications and fine tuning this beautiful new machine, I spilled a 2 liter jug of water straight on the keyboard and totally fried it, bummer, serious bummer. #####. It still makes me a little sick (obviously).


Our growing pack of 4 young strapping scruffly wolfs met Ben and Matt in the KL airport and we surprisingly had time to sample every snack in the airport candy story (6 times over) and hack the airport internet (Matt the Mac Guy). We arrived in Bangkok and sang with crazy annoying exitement on the hour bus ride from the airport to the city (don’t worry fellow Americans, anytime we do something annoying, we tell people we’re from Canada….seriously though, we actually do).


….enough intro junk, now to the good stuff. We’ve been pretty consistently on the fly/wheel/float/street beat since our friends have a limited time to see ALL of Asia. Because so much has happened, I’m going to refer to my favorite email blast format (no it’s not bullet points, that’s a close 2nd), PICTURES!


We arrived in Bangkok the evening of the 8th, took an evening bus to Kanchanaburi on the 9th, returned to Bangkok on a late afternoon bus on the 10th followed by a night train to Chang Mai (that we cut really close and almost missed) an hour later. This makes the 1st set of pictures.

We arrived in Chang Mai the morning of the 11th and had an executive committee meeting while riding in a Tuk Tuk to our potential hotel; we quickly decided to bus straight to Chang Rai because Chang Mai wasn’t quite the amenity-packed noisy Bangkok and also wasn’t quite the lush jungle-country Northern Thailand that we were expecting; this was a great choice and gave us more time to “settle down and relax” in Chang Rai for the 11th-13th. I had one of the top 5 days of my life here, thanks to Kwan and Mamaban.


I spilled the beans already and let you know we’re in Laos right now, but you’re going to have to be patient for the next email (always leave ‘em wanting more).


Much love from the howling wolf-pack,


Yuuki, Matt, Ben, Ryan, Jason, and Tyler


Ps. I know many of you (especially parents and family members) are plan oriented and wonder what’s next on our super-official, stone-inscribed itinerary. Well today is your lucky day/night. We’re spending the next week in Laos August 14th – August 21st, followed by Vietnam (traveling North to South). I hope that’s enough because it’s pretty much all we know right now…