Vietnam and Bangkok highlights

Ok now officially typing on a kindle touch screen. This is basically a typewriter style blog with no pictures and many typos now till December. Sorry if it's not as absolutely scintillating as usual. I just want to note some highlightsto keep youupdated and jog my own memory when I'm old and gray and hazy on exactly where Southeast Asia is. Vietnam -Ha Long Bay - they call it the 8th wonder of the world fpr a reason. One night cruise was beautiful. I managed to kayak through a cave into a cove without tipping the boat shocking all onlookers and especially Mark, who was in the back of the kayak. Visited an island named after the Russian astronaut who once toured there with Ho Chi Minh. Question : did they wear swim floaties? Amusing guide named Hong liked to say things like "30 minutes to relax and enjoy the life, then to go kayaking." And instructing us to "use the imagination "to see how much everything in Vietnam supposedly resembles mythical dragons. -Ho Chi Minh City - retro style and extensive bunker infrastructure at the Reunification Palace. Ridiculously opulent hotel complete with fake silver moose head and constant Christmas music. Slight stomach flu. -Hanoi - yummy bun cha (noodles broth pork spring rolls) in an alleyway establishment on tiny stools. Other less successful street food like organ porridge, which Mark somehow ate like the champion he is. R oast dog displayed in street like roast duck. Did not partake. Free walking tour with two great young locals c that incled the beautiful Temple of Literature from the 11th century and egg coffee. Like egg nog but coffee. Yum. Super friendly and helpful hostel employee who is ridiculously gleeful about his upcoming wedding. Lots of getting lost. Sitting by a lake with a temple in the center in the middle of town and listening to street musicians.filing past Ho Chi Minh 's preserved body at his mausoleum. Learning from guidebook that the body goes to Russia for two months every year for maintenance. Eerie. Visited the "Hanoi Hilton" prison. All the exhibits about the prison'l When it was run by the French were about how horrible the conditions were and how eve The prison was a tool to oppress valiant Vietnamese revolutionaries. Yet all the exhibits about when the Vietnamese held American POWs there were about what a great time the POWs had decorating Christmas trees and playing basketball. Funny how that works. Thailand Bangkok - hotel with rooftop pool. Souvenir shopping at Buddha market. Briefly becoming regulars at a super cheap restaurant with world's best pad Thai. Meeting up with an ETA friend at a breathtaking rooftop bar with views of the whole huge bustling city. Eating shark fin soup, fried duck tongues, and birds nest in syrup in Chinatown. Have finally met someonewho will eat just as much if not more strange food than me. The rest re: Bangkok i 'll tell you when you're older, gentle readers. -Phuket - here alone. Beautiful day at the beach. Overrun with Russian tourists, interestingy. Loong forward to lantern festival Sunday. A but lonely alone but fear not. Books The book of the courtier, castiglione Revolutionar Burnt shadows The Glass Palace EXCELLENT READ Three Act Tragedy,Agatha christie A super sad true love story, Gary Shteyngart. Hated it. Hate modern life and moderiting.

Ch ch changes

Writing from the free iPad in my hotel room in Ho Chi Minh City. I have officially made the transition from English teacher/cultural ambassador/halfhearted role model to footloose vagabond. I will be traveling for the next six weeks from Vietnam to Thailand to Myanmar to China. I'll have about a week in each of the first three places and three weeks in China. I still owe readers a few posts; I wanted to write one about life outside the apartment, one on crazy animal adventures, and one sappy end of Fulbright post. Alas, the time crunch of settling all my final odds and ends, final meetings,  socializing with dear friends whom I won't see for awhile, and a very badly-timed 24 hour stomach bug have pushed those dreams into the future. I'm traveling sans laptop and therefore can't do much blogging until I come home on December 17. For now I'll say that my emotions haven't quite caught up with me amidst all these big life changes.

 For once I'm staying not at a hostel but at a hotel that can only be described as humorously opulent. I'm awaiting the arrival of my long suffering boyfriend, Mark, who has just spent a few days in Tokyo on his way to meet me here. The revelation of the long distance boyfriend at this point in the blog may seem like a cheap plot device to add dramatic tension, but I assure you I was just too shy to mention him until it seemed unavoidable. That's all for now. Expect sporadic and poorly typed updates via kindle with no pictures. Thanks for reading all these many crazy months, friends.