Times Are A'changing...

Forget the first 100 days of office. Obama has been President for less than twelve hours and already the world is changing. The proof? I can blog again!

Yesterday my local IT guy came over (he climbed one floor up) and showed me how to blog. I'm not gonna reveal the secret of how I'm avoiding the new anti-blogging laws but lets just say my server is no longer in Vietnam.

We're beating the system!!!
(PHOTO: My IT guy -- Ryan "Yes We Can" Tharp.)

As everyone knows, last night (or this afternoon for those in America) Obama was inaugurated. Ryan, my boss Jim and I watched the swearing in at 12:30 AM here (that's with the half hour Vietnam news delay). I was filled with emotion last night and despite the gigantic obstacles our country has to overcome, I think Obama can do it. Hell, if I can blog again we can do anything!

A few things I found interesting about the ceremony:

1. Ryan said it best about Cheney being in a wheelchair: "It's symbolic of how he left our country."

2. It's fitting that a Bush appointee, Chief Justice Roberts, fumbled over his lines.

3. Uh, how big was Joe Biden's bible?

4. My friend Jennifer in LA emailed me a question that I'd like to know the answer to: "Do you think Michelle had to write her kids a note to skip school?"

5. Lots of talk was about Obama seeing Bush off in the chopper. However, I thought the best part was that Bush's Dad and Mom were in the chopper. It was like the kid had finished playing president with his buddies and his parents picked him up to take him home.

6. I thought the most touching part of the whole ceremony was the benediction. I had never heard any parts of the "Negro National Anthem" before and thought it was really touching. Here's the lyrics to the full anthem:

Lift every voice and sing,

'Til earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chast'ning rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,

Out from the gloomy past,

'Til now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,

Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who has by Thy might

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,

May we forever stand,

True to our God,

True to our native land.

I'm glad to be blogging again. I've got A LOT to catch up on: Laos, Tet, Vietnamese roller skating.... Stay Tuned!

Important Ahoy Hanoi Info

Ben has told me that Blogspot is not working in Vietnam, possibly due to the Tet Holiday. Ben will continue to check the website every day and if the site still doesn't work after Tet he'll switch to a new blog host. Stay tuned, and Happy Tet everyone!
Hannah

New Friends

(PICTURE: Hannah, in her famous sideways pose, standing in the "bat cave.")

Although our three day jungle "trek" was a lot of fun, it was also quite falsely advertised. On the first day we were supposed to go to a "Bat Cave." We went to the cave, which was pretty cool, but there were definitely no bats.

On the first night we were supposed to stay in an ethnic village. However where we stayed strangely had no villagers. The next day was our big trekking day and I think we only actually walked for about three hours. This to me was the big disappointment of the trip. For a "trekking" trip there was a big absense of "trekking." Overall I would say we hiked no more than 8 miles in three days. I was hoping to hike at least 8 miles a day.

Despite the lack of exercise we still saw a couple gorgeous waterfalls and more importantly made a bunch of new friends. Hannah and I met a really nice couple from France named Pascal and Raki. We met a great kid from California named Riley who was taking a year off from college. And lastly, we met Cathal and Lucy, a really cool couple from Ireland. Here's some pictures of our new friends:

(PICTURE: The Irish couple with some puppies)

(PICTURE: Pascal and Raki. This is really a video. They were frozen with fear)

(PICTURE: Riley is in the back left. Hannah has a lot more pictures of him on her camera. I guess I'm not as interested in taking pictures of single dudes as she is...)

Oh, and we had a pretty good tour guide too. Although like most of the trip, he was falsely advertised. He didn't exactly speak English. However, he spoke the universal language: MAGIC. He taught us a handful of sweet magic tricks. All I need is a string and I can blow your mind!


(PICTURE: Our tour guide/traveling magician.)

Look What We Found!!!

Hannah and I found elephants!!! It turns out that they are really easy to find when they're chained down in the middle of the jungle.


After a couple days in Chiang Mai Hannah and I decided to do another jungle trek. On the first day we hiked through the jungle until we came to a little village/base camp. At the bottom of the camp were a bunch of elephants. The next morning we got to ride them.

When we started out on the elephants there was a "driver." Although after about fifteen minutes the guy just jumped off and told us we could drive the elephant. Hannah went first and slid down to the elephants neck. Once she was done I got my turn.

I will say that I was slightly torn about the whole experience. It was definitely fun to ride an elephant but clearly it was sad that their lives are spent lugging around tourists. Okay, yeah, I feel pretty guilty.

Anyway, check out this video of our elephant tearing a tree out of the ground:

Chiang Mai

I had high expectation for Chiang Mai since my buddy Marc -- my friend who met me in China for the World Team Table Tennis Championships back in March -- had lived in Chiang Mai for a few months in 2007.

Hannah and I arrived in the city in the evening and took a tuk-tuk to a guest house. After we BOTH showered (our first hot water since the first night!!!!) we went out to a Thai vegetarian restaurant. Following dinner Hannah and I grabbed dessert on the street. A very common dessert in Thailand are street pancakes. They're kind of like a crepe. Here's a pancake stand we went to on the islands:

After dinner Hannah and I walked around the city until we found a nice looking massage place. We paid a couple dollars and had traditional thai massages. At some point during the massage I passed out. I'm not sure if I fell asleep because I was utterly exhausted or because of the extreme pain I was in from this surprisingly strong Thai woman pushing on my pressure points.

After our massages Hannah and I went back to our room to go to sleep. I was dreaming away in the middle of the night when some disturbing noises awoke me from the bathroom. I got up out of bed and found Hannah sitting on the floor praying to the porcelain god (all these Wats must have inspired her):
Hannah claims to have gotten her first case of food poisoning. She thinks it was the street pancake. That said, I'm pretty sure her body was just rejecting the fact that she took a shower.

The next day Hannah was in pretty rough shape so we just took it easy all day. In the afternoon when Hannah took a nap I rented a bicycle and went for a ride around the city to get the lay of the land.

The next day Hannah was feeling a little better so we ventured out of our hotel. Hannah wanted to get some traditional Thai food for lunch so we went to a place honors the king. Not this king:



(PICTURE: The 81-year-old king of Thailand whose picture is everywhere.)

Instead we went to this king:
Hannah got the veggie burger and I had my first non KFC fast food in a year.

After lunch we continued to walk around the city. We stumbled into a random Wat that had some strange statutes in front of it. See if you recongize this Buddha:



Finally, at the end of the day Hannah and I went to the famouse Chiang Mai night market. Like most night markets in Asia they sold a plethora of cheap junk.

Hugging Karma

I consider myself a pretty big hugger. When I say goodbye I generally like to hug people who I feel close with. Sometimes I do the half handshake - half hug thing with guys but usually I go for a full-on hug if I sense the other person is down with it. Once or twice since living in Vietnam I've gone in for a hug with friends of mine who proceeded to stiffen up like a totem pole. It's definitely a cultural thing.

Well, Hannah's love of hugging definitely trumps mine...which resulted in a pretty funny story.

After we were dropped off from our jungle trek I said a quick goodbye to the Germans and our tour guides and sprinted into the guest house to go #1. It was a long drive and I had to pee really really badly. When I came out of the bathroom, Hannah was just getting back from saying her goodbyes. She looked at me and said, "You just missed the most awkward thing ever." Apparently Hannah said to everyone something like, "I just want to warn you but I'm going to hug you goodbye because I like to hug." Hannah then proceeded to hug the Germans and the Thai tour guides -- NOBODY reciprocated.

Hannah couldn't stop laughing about how everyone must have thought she was the weirdest person in the world and how she couldn't stop hugging everyone even as everyone stiffened up around her. In everyone's defense, at this point Hannah hadn't really showered, minus bathing in a waterfall, for a few days.

Anyway, Hannah and I joked about this awkward situation for the next day or so...until karma struck Hannah back.

While bike riding in Sukhothai, Hannah and I rode up to some old building with a bunch of elephant heads on it's side. As we rode up we passed a Thai man who was sitting under a tree. Hannah and I walked around the building and started to take pictures. After a minute the Thai man approached us and asked if we wanted him to take a picture of us. We said yes, thanked him and he took this picture:

After he took this picture he asked if I could take a picture of him and Hannah. The man excitedly walked up to Hannah and gave her a hug...AND THEN HE TRIED TO KISS HER!!! Hannah turned her head fast enough so that he only got her cheek.

Being the good big brother I am I stood there frozen and giggling. Hannah politely pushed him off and said to me, "Let's get out of here!" We rode off as fast as we could. I don't think I stopped laughing for about ten minutes.

Here's their intimate moment seconds before the kiss:

Hannah's First Prophecy

Hannah is not much of a bike rider. I remember as a kid our family once made a big purchase -- we all got mountain bikes. After the first day with our bikes, I'm pretty sure mine was the only one taken out of our garage more than two times. In fact, they are still all in our garage collecting dust as I type this (a million years from now archaeologists or aliens will discover all they ever need to know about human civilization from the never-throw-anything-out August garage).

One person who NEVER rode a bicycle was my sister. To be fair, I think Hannah was so young that she was the only one who didn't get a bike. However, what I'm positive about is that as a kid she never rode a bike. In fact, when she studied abroad in Belgium she rented a bicycle and never rode it because, "I couldn't ride on cobblestone."

Why am I telling this? Well, because Hannah and I went to Sukhothai, Thailand, a place that is highly suggested to be seen while bike riding. Sukhothai is the old kingdom of Thailand (It existed from 1238 till 1438...according to Wikipedia). The area of the old kingdom is pretty spread out and would have been a lot to see on foot. Our guide book told us to rent bikes so the day before we got there Hannah prophesied, "Tomorrow I will ride a bicycle." Well, call her Moses:



(PICTURE: Frog faces, our money pose.)

Overall Sukhothai was a great stop on our way to Chiang Mai. Most people go directly from Bangkok to Chaing Mai and miss this little gem of a place. If you're in Thailand and have an extra day, I would highly suggest going to Sukhothai...especially if you like bike riding.