Vacation! Vacation! Vacation!

I know it's hard to get excited about my vacation since, well, I've basically been on a vacation for the last three months. And well, some would argue I've been on vacation for a year and a half. That said, if you can't get excited for me going on vacation, be excited for Huyen.

Over the last 11 days Huyen took her first trip outside of Vietnam. Her family was nervous to say the least. My family was nervous too but perhaps for the first time ever, I could say my mother wasn't the most nervous mom. Our itinerary was quite simple: two days in Bangkok and then nine days in Myanmar (please insert your Seinfeld, "It'll always be Burma to me joke." here).

There's nothing controversial about going to Thailand but I know there's lots of differing opinions about traveling to Myanmar. I can't write the blog without weighing out the pros and cons of going to a country with a horrible human rights record as well as an oppressive government. My timing was, well timely, with Aung Suu Kyi being sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest the day before I departed for Yangon. I obviously deplore the treatment of Aung Suu Kyi and understand many people's feelings that that alone is reason enough to boycott the country. However, I don't believe that ignoring a country is the way to enact change. I personally think that visiting somewhere and meeting people and having them see the freedoms you enjoy is a way to help spark change. Aung Suu Kyi herself even recently changed her stance on tourism saying that she thinks it might help draw attention to the oppressive military junta.

In all the pro-tourism literature I read, there was one thing that was unanimously said: don't use government industries/packages/tours/etc. Besides paying my visa fee, exit fee and archaeological fee (50% supposedly goes to the archaeological sites) all of the money I spent was put into the hands of private people: hotels, food, taxi drivers, etc.

But my Myanmar entries are a few days away. As a teaser though, I can tell you that traveling in Myanmar was one of the most interesting experiences I've ever had. But first some fun was to be had in Thailand....

Huyen and I flew Air Asia together to Bangkok. You know your girlfriend is REALLY ASIAN when she wears a surgical mask on a plane:

And you know your girlfriend is REALLY REALLY REALLY ASIAN when she wears a surgical mask on a bus too:


We stayed at Ko San Road -- AKA the cheap backpacker area -- which, despite the thousands of tourists, was a great place to get pad thai and amazing fruit shakes.

(PICTURE: Huyen with her first ever pad thai.)

(PICTURE: When not sleeping, I average a fruit shake ever 180 minutes.)

After eating and sucking down liquified mango, Huyen and I wandered around the city checking out temples and hordes of tourists all wearing the same tank tops with Thai beer logos on the front.

I'm luke warm on Bangkok but it was really exciting for me to see Huyen in another country. Huyen was pretty wide-eyed at all the tall buildings and the infrastructure of the city itself. To her, Bangkok was like how Vietnam would be in the near future.

Traveling was quite exhausting for Huyen so at the end of the day I treated us to foot massages. Huyen fell asleep approximately 82 seconds into her massage. Ah, money well spent. After the massages we drank two Thai beers (the tank tops brainwashed us) and listened to some live music on the street.

(PICTURE: Beer and cards = good times.)

It was a great start to the vacation...minus the fact that the singer played some pretty depressing songs that he probably thought had good meanings. For example, Phil Collins "Just Another Day In Paradise" which is about homeless people. Here's a little video of the massage and music:

Happy 1st Birthday, Lilah!!!

(It won't feel like too long before Lilah is driving a real car.)

Happy Birthday to my niece Lilah! She turned 1 today!

In just another case of how quickly time goes by, it feels like I was just writing a blog about Lilah being born.

Back soon...

Huyen and I have been on vacation and my blog was blocked. I have a list of about 30 blogs to write about some of the crazy/weird/strange things that have happened over the last ten days or so.

We fly back to Hanoi tonight and I'll get back to blogging tomorrow.

Hope everyone has been well!

Ben

Vietnamese Lesson: Tay

"Tay" in Vietnamese means foreigner (Anyone who isn't Asian). "Tay" is also the adjective for big.

Crew Cut

(PICTURE: With my friend Lori nearly five years ago when I was sporting a crew cut.)

Before I left Vietnam I had a haircut from my local street barber. The guy chopped off all my hair which isn't what I wanted him to do, but gave me a good reason to save $20 on a haircut in America. The day I returned to Hanoi, Huyen and I drove to the barber to get a trim. However, it must have been his one day off during the year because he wasn't there.

The next day we randomly pulled up to another street barber and asked him to cut my hair. I told Huyen to tell him to just cut a little. She told him that and gestured how much to cut off. He said that he understood and then chopped off all my hair. Huyen said to him, "I said just a little!" The barber said, "Yeah but he will look better without his curls." I now have the shortest haircut I've had in a good three or four years. Looks like I won't need to get another haircut until after Japan!

Fuzzy Fruit

Yesterday I mentioned how expecting parents should beware of giving birth on certain days of the lunar calendar. Well, here's a second warning: pregnant women should not eat fuzzy fruit unless they want hairy children. Actually that's not totally true -- you can eat fuzzy (or hairy as they say here) fruit as long as you remove the skin.

We're talking about the future of your children so heed the warning! If you want hairy children eat a peach every day. If you want hairless children stay away from the fuzz!!!

No Peanuts In The Pool

When I went to Cape May with my family last month, I remember that Lilah was required to wear a certain type of diaper in the pool at the complex we stayed in. Silly me thought that all diapers were water-proof and didn't realize there's extra special water proof diapers for pools. In America they're such sticklers for hygiene (read that sentence with sarcasm).

As you can imagine the rules for kids aren't as stringent in Vietnam as they are in America. The other day I went to a pool with Huyen's family. The pool was huge and packed with probably a hundred Vietnamese people. I attempted to swim laps but there was really no shot it was going to happen. I was also slightly grossed out by the bottom of the pool which clearly hadn't been cleaned since...well, maybe ever.

Huyen's nephew Viet Hoang decided to he wanted to "swim" and was carried around in the pool by Huyen. Viet Hoang kept saying, "Let me go. I can swim." Huyen, using her better judgement, didn't let go since Viet Hoang would have sunk like a rock.

After a few minutes, Viet Hoang's dad took Viet Hoang out of the pool and much to my surprise took off his bathing suit. It was an even bigger surprise when he then encourage Viet Hoang to jump back into the pool. It was then an even bigger surprise when Viet Hoang proceeded to jump towards me! It was like slow-motion as this naked three year old catapulted in the air at me. I caught him in my arms and gingerlly held him at arms length until Huyen took him from me. I was then an even a bigger surprise when the lifeguard -- the lifeguard himself being the biggest surprise of the day since I've never seen a lifeguard in Vietnam -- blew his whistle and ran over to us. I thought to myself, "It must be against the rules to swim naked in a community pool." The lifeguard said something to Huyen and Viet Hoang's dad and they both started to laugh. I asked what he said and Huyen told me that, "There's no peanuts in the pool." I then asked if Viet Hoang needed to get out and she said, "No! He was only joking."

Yup, no rules.

For the record, in defense of Vietnamese people, I asked if Viet Hoang knew not to pee in the pool. Huyen told me that he knew that and said that Vietnamese people don't pee in the pool...and well, that's more than I can say for all of us Americans!