Hawaii: A Feral Chicken Story

Any visitor to Maui who has set foot outside of his or her resort complex will likely have encountered a feral (read 'wild') chicken or two. In fact, there's a reasonable chance that you'll see one before you even make it across the parking lot to collect your rental car at the airport.

They say that Kauai has the largest population of feral chickens, but Maui has quite a few! I should explain that the majority of my time on Maui was spent away from tourists and resorts. I lived and worked in the Upcountry, high on the slopes of the Haleakala volcano. Although further from the beach, its a popular spot with the locals; the air is cooler, the views are killer, and there is still a fair amount of small-scale agriculture. Between the roaming cats, the feral chickens, the goats, and the barely weather-proofed wooden shacks interspersed among the more affluent homes, you'd be forgiven for momentarily wondering if your pilot landed you in a 3rd world country.

                       
                                                           One of my domesticated hens begging for food scraps

The hens are fairly quiet. They can stay. But the roosters are a different story. Even with earplugs and a 'white noise' app, I still woke up cursing them during my first weeks on the island.  To be fair, I probably had it worse than most because my neighbor (who, I later found out, is an uncle of one of the maintenance guys at my hospital!)  kept half a dozen roosters in cages in his backyard to be used in illegal cock fights.  Miraculously, over time, I did develop the ability to sleep through their super out-of-sync sunrise greetings- at least for the most part.

                                          Have you heard the one about the rooster that walks into a cafe?...


White people who live on Maui are called 'haoles.'  It isn't really a derogatory word as far as I can tell, but, if your ancestors aren't Native Hawaiians and they didn't come here to work on the plantations, then you're a haole. Even if your family has been here for generations. I'm saying all of this to provide some context for the feral chicken story my 'haole' nurse friend Jade told me the other day:

This friend lives in Haiku, another area of the island with lots of locals and limited amounts of tourists.  As she was collecting her mail, a neighbor stormed up to her, waggled her finger in her face, and said that she wasn't doing her part to keep the neighborhood chicken population under control.

Unsure what this lady meant, Jade was a little taken aback. "I don't quite understand," she said. "Are you suggesting that I'm supposed to kill the chickens?? Because I'm not going to kill an animal. I can barely kill a spider."

"You don't have to KILL the chickens," said the lady, "Just get rid of a few."

"Get rid of them? How?" asked Jade.

"Catch them, drive a couple of valleys over, and let them go again," the neighbor explained.

"How do I even catch a chicken?" This seemed like an impossible task to Jade, who was picturing herself chasing poultry all around the yard, chickens squawking and feathers flying.

"Its easy," said the lady with a hint of exasperation. "Just figure out where they sleep at night. Once they're roosting, they become super slow. You just walk right up, grab them, and throw them in a pillowcase. Tie a knot at the top and you're good to go."

And that was basically the end of the conversation. I don't know how the neighbor kept tabs on who did their chicken removal duty and when. I'm pretty sure Jade's going to let those chickens go on roosting and crowing in peace, but I'm not sure the neighbor will! That's Hawaii for ya.

Hawaii: Hono

'Honu' is the Hawaiian word for sea turtle.  The honu symbolizes wisdom, endurance and good luck and is almost as synonymous with Hawaii as coconuts and Hawaiian shirts.  Encounters with these creatures are less rare than you might suppose for frequenters of Hawaiian waters, but honu sightings retain a magical quality whether it is your first sighting or your fiftieth.

My experience with sea turtles prior to arriving on Hawaiian shores was limited to the female loggerhead turtles that come ashore on Seabrook Island (where my parents lives) to lay their eggs.

I have a wonderful memory of waking up early in the morning and following the 'Turtle Patrol' crew along the beach to the site of a nest in the midst of hatching. Watching these tiny turtles make their way across the sand, their little flippers unfolding more and more with each step, was something I'll never forget.

                                           Baby loggerhead with a faulty flipper (July 2009)

Like many species of sea turtles, once the baby loggerheads hit the water, the males never return to land and the females return only to lay eggs. Here in Hawaii, however, the green sea turtles often come up on the beach and bask in the sun for hours a time. Your chances of encountering them in the water are even greater.

I've had the good fortune to see them both on in the water and on the beach.  In fact, I found myself swimming with sea turtles my very first time snorkeling here on Maui! I had my waterproof camera with me and took lots of photos. Unfortunately, less than a week later, that camera found itself resting at the bottom of a waterfall on the Big Island. The wrist strap broke at the MOST inopportune time and the turtle photos had NOT been uploaded off the camera. *grrr*

When my mom and sister came to visit, I took them to that exact same snorkel spot over in Kihei- we swam around and around- on two different days- and there was not a turtle to be seen.  (Sorry, Mom and Stephanie).

Were my encounters with Hawaiian sea turtles to live on only in my memory? Thankfully not.  Ho'okipa Beach, located on Maui's north shore, is not only one of the best windsurfing spots in the world, it is also a favored place for sea turtles to gather around sunset.  I didn't know about this early on (again, sorry, Mom and Stephanie). When my friend Melissa was here visiting, however, I was armed with knowledge and we planned ourselves a perfectly romantic evening- we picked up an entire pizza from Flatbread Company in Pa'ia, sat on the beach to watch the windsurfers for a bit, then migrated over to the east side of the beach to watch giant turtles pull themselves up onto the sand while the sun painted the sky vibrant shades of orange and pink.  On a 'beautiful evenings' scale, this one clocked in at 'seriously stunning.' See for yourself:

And then! The icing on the cake!

I went with my friend Anders to the west side of Oahu.  We set out in search of dolphins and had to 'settle' for sea turtles instead.  The turtles were hanging out at a 'turtle cleaning station'- a large clump of coral where turtles gather to have the algae on their shells nibbled off by small fish- a sort of  'shell shine,' if you will.  These turtles are amazingly mellow and don't seem to mind if you dive down to say hello. With GoPro in hand, you can get some amazing photos!

 

                                                        That's me! What a dream come true!
                                                                 
          Many thanks to the Hawaiian hono for making my ocean explorations here so magical!

Hawaii: Transportation and Shelter

I feel extremely fortunate because things aligned just beautifully for me during my first week here in Maui. Let me document my first day:

The romantic in me hoped that I would disembark onto the tarmac and have a beautiful floral lei being bestowed upon me in welcome.  We've all seen those movies. It turns out that this classic Hawaiian greeting is now reserved only for those whose friends and loved ones pay for a lei in advance. Alas.

Even without the heady scent of plumeria around one's neck, Kahului Airport still has a tropical feel to it- Baggage Claim is roofed but otherwise essentially open to the air so passengers can catch glimpses of palm trees and lush northern slopes of the West Maui Mountains almost immediately.  I grabbed my luggage and piled myself into a rental car.

As far as I can tell, travel therapists are fairly evenly divided regarding what to do on the transportation front. Some will rent a car for their entire assignment.  A 3-month rental takes quite a chunk out of one's paycheck, as you can imagine, but it does keep life simple.  The other option is to purchase a cheap and cheerful 'Maui Cruiser'- these tend to be older, often imperfect cars (A/C is definitely not guaranteed!) and cost in the ballpark of $1000 to $3000. Driving an old car make you much less of a target for car thieves (yes, car thieves live in paradise too),  and,when you leave, you just knock a couple hundred dollars off the price and sell it on to the next person. Do a quick Craigslist search and you will find an absolute abundance of Maui Cruisers.  They are super easy to come by- but you run the risk that they might break down on you, or at least cost a chunk of change to repair and leave you wishing that you'd just rented a car in the first place.

When I landed in Maui I still wasn't sure which route I wanted to take, so I booked a rental car for 5 days and decided I'd get the lay of the land before making a final decision.  And housing was a higher  priority anyway- I didn't actually have a place lined up to sleep that first night. I did, however, have 3 Craigslist appointments that afternoon, and I was just hoping that one of those would be 'move in ready' so I didn't have to resort to my back-up plan of a bunk bed in a beach hostel.

Option 1 was a room for rent in a lady's house, Option 2 was a cute little studio, and Option 3 was the main portion of a cottage with three separate living spaces.  I had my hopes pinned on Option 3- because I also had high hopes that at least a couple of friends and family members would make good on their promise to come visit me, and I wanted to make sure I had enough space to accommodate them!

Well, the owner of Option 3 (the cottage) had already left for Michigan for the summer and her friend wasn't available to show the property that day. The owner texted, 'Door's unlocked- just go on it and check it out.' So I did. I walked in, looked around, gave her a call, and said I'd take it. Then I brought in my bags, unpacked, and went to bed because it was basically dark by the time I got there. No money actually exchanged hands for at least a week after that and there is definitely not a rental agreement in place.  When I tell people here that story they say, 'Oh, that's so Hawaii.'  So I guess I did get a sort of Hawaiian welcome after all!

And get this-  I ended up buying a car from the travel nurse moving out of Housing Option 2, the little studio.  It is a cute old 1995 Mercedes sedan. I know next to nothing about cars (sorry, Dad!) which is why I was hesitant to dive into the world of Maui Cruisers, but the guy who owns the studio is a 'car guy.' He actually owns the exact same car and helped her pick this one out. When I was debating out loud the pros and cons of renting versus buying a car he said, "I guess you have to ask yourself, 'Am I feeling lucky?'"- but he also basically said that he would help me out if anything went wrong with the car, and that is basically what convinced me to buy the car.

This is my car, The Silver Arrow.

And, as if things hadn't already worked out better than I could have hoped, check out what I saw out of my living room window (and bedroom and bathroom windows, for that matter) when I woke up the next morning.

This is my view (at sunset)!

This is my little upcountry cottage.

Not that life has been totally smooth-sailing since (by Week 3 I was convinced that I had used up ALL of my luck during Week 1), but I completely landed on my feet when I got here, and for that I am very thankful!

Bye-bye Bay, Hello Hawaii

Aloha, dear readers!

The last couple of months have been quite a blur but, as the dust starts to settle and the particularly frenetic energy of the last few weeks begins to dissipate, I find myself carving out a new little space to work and live and breathe here on the island of Maui.  Instead of moving back East, as I told many of you I would, I ended up moving even further West!! Let me give you a little of the backstory...

Reluctantly, after more than a year, I decided that it was finally time to take my leave of the Bay Area. I say 'reluctantly' because it is really difficult to walk away from a good thing! I won't go into detail about all the things that make the Bay Area great- a quick Google search or a flip through a Fordor's or Lonely Planet travel guide can tell you that- but, on top of everything else, I liked my hospital, LOVED my co-workers, and had fantastic roommates. But the cost of living there- and specifically the cost housing- is just unbelievably high. I really want to live somewhere where I can reasonably afford to buy my own home. Somewhere where the traffic isn't so bad and I don't have to worry about my car windows getting smashed (did I mention on the Blog that that happened to me back in January?). But mostly the exorbitant housing costs.

I had also decided that it was maybe time for me to stop traveling as well. Now, don't get me wrong- there are still a million places I'd like to visit and explore. I love the fact that, working as a travel OT, I get to immerse myself in a place for a couple of months, rather than just zooming in and frantically hitting the tourist trail for a few days,a couple of times a year.  But, as I approach my mid-30s, the novelty and the excitement of this lifestyle is no longer really outweighing the lack of grounding and the instability that comes with it. I have been a travel OT now for almost exactly 2 years.  My dad always talks about my 'gypsy lifestyle.' Parts of this lifestyle that suit me really well-  but parts of it don't. I find the in-between times, when I don't know where I'm going or what I'll be doing next, really, really anxiety-provoking. Like, unhealthily so.  And over the past few months I haven't been worrying so much about where my next contract would be, but where in the world I would choose to settle down once my travel OT days were over.

I poured over all sorts of 'Best Places to Live' lists: 'Most Outdoorsy Cities,' 'Top Up-and-Coming Cities,' etc. I would narrow it down to a couple of places- and then start second-guessed all my parameters. Nevertheless I persevered: picked a couple of cities, checked the job boards every day, submitted applications, did some interviews, got some offers.

But Jenny, one of my first travel OT friends, recently took a travel job in Hawaii and messaged me on multiple occasions telling me how much she thought I would love it there. At least a third of my OT co-workers vacationed in Hawaii during my time in the Bay Area (a trip to Hawaii for West coasters is the equivalent of going to Mexico or the Caribbean for the rest of us), and my Hawaiian license was one of the first ones I got when I started working as a travel OT. It was always my intention to get to Hawaii in some capacity while I was on this side of the country so, when a couple of Hawaii jobs pop up on the job board, I submitted my application- then went back to planning my cross-country road trip. When I received the offer to go to Maui, I actually left my recruiter a voice message turning it down, telling myself I was making the 'responsible' decision.  My friends couldn't believe it and my recruiter called back and said, "Are you serious, Merrillee? No one turns down Maui."

That day Itagged along with my roommate, Nachelle, while she took the dogs for a walk. She tends to see things as much more black-and-white than I do and she also has a great seize-the-day/what's-the-worst-that-can-happen kind of attitude. Moving to Hawaii SOUNDS great, but its not the easiest thing to organize logistically. Nachelle graciously offered to store my things in her entry closet and keep my car parked in her boyfriend's driveway. I felt like the Universe was paving a path for me so I gave my recruiter the green light, cancelled my job interviews for the upcoming week, and booked a plane ticket to Hawaii!

Thailand: Bangkok

Another all-day bus ride took us across the Cambodia-Thailand border. Interestingly, our bus couldn’t cross the border. While we stood in line for an hour or so, all of our bags were loaded into a giant wooden cart and dragged across the border by guys on foot- I took half a dozen photos because the whole process just seemed so laborious. I felt like creating a Kickstarter campaign to get these poor guys a couple of oxen or a pair of mules at least! Then we got on a different bus on the other side of the border and took off for the capital.

                                             Transporting luggage and goods at the Cambodia-Thailand border

In Bangkok we went out for a farewell dinner with the group then took quick stroll through Chinatown before heading to SkyBar at the Lebua Hotel. At 63 floors above street level, it is the world’s highest open-air bar- we enjoyed pricey cocktails with exotic fruit garnishes, incredible views of the Bangkok at night, and pretty good people watching too.  We found it pretty hilarious that, while some people were pulling up in sports cars, we made our entrance in a noisy little tuk-tuk!

                                                               Sky Bar at the Labua Hotel

The next day, we played tourist like it was our job.  We chartered a little boat to zoom us up and down to a few of the temples along the riverbank Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn).  I’m pretty sure we got majorly ripped off in the process, but no longer had our ‘Chief Experience Officer’ (tour guide) there to tell us what we should reasonably expect to pay!

Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest reigning monarch, passed away in October, 2016, after 70 years on the throne (!!) and the people of Thailand were still in mourning. While we were wandering around the Grand Palace and being blinded by the sun bouncing off all of the gold buildings, people dressed all in black were lined up under the awnings of the buildings, waiting 2-3 days to view their King’s body and pay their respects.

That day we saw an emerald Buddha, we even saw a 5-ton golden Buddha, but of the hundreds- probably thousands- of Buddha images we saw during our trip, the reclining Buddha we saw at Wat Pho that afternoon was probably my favorite and most memorable. He is 150ft long and has swirling mother-of-pearl inlay on his feet!

Thailand is renowned for its silk, and it owes this reputation in large part to an American named Jim Thompson. We visited his home- now museum- and it is completely charming in every respect. The gardens are idyllic and the 6 teak buildings, all over 200 years old, have been beautifully preserved and thoughtfully decorated.

Thailand is also known for its knock-offs and we spent a couple of hours at the MBK shopping center. This place is 8 stories high and has roughly 2000 shops.  For a decisiveness-challenged, shopping-averse, haggling-inept person like me, this place is a sort of living nightmare. After a while my mom and sister just had to leave me at a coffee shop while they had a field day finding the handbag stores with the most authentic-looking knock-off Chanels.

On our last morning, before taking off for the airport, we decided to put the tourists maps aside and set off on-foot to explore the neighborhoods around our hotel.  It was amazing how quickly things changed just a hundred feet from the main roads.  We discovered little dead-end streets with tiny shrines at the ends and glanced into smoky living rooms with bunk beds that doubled as couches lining the walls.  Just a stones’ throw from our hotel, we even found a couple of traditional- and very slanted- old wooden houses. 

Multiple times during the trip our tour guide, PC, commented on how incredibly fortunate we all were regarding our countries of birth (America, Australia, England, Germany, Holland, Japan). Financial situations aside, just being born in those countries gives us rights and opportunities that are denied to millions of other people around the world.

The Vietnamese and Cambodian people that we interacted with during our trip were all generous, friendly, and seemingly quite happy in the moment, yet the wealth disparities and signs of poverty were evident everywhere. Our final walk through the side streets of Bangkok brought us back to that same refrain, “We are so lucky.” 

I feel so lucky that I was able to take this trip and share these experiences with my mom and my sister. I’m also feeling pretty proud of myself for actually managing to get it all documented!

Cambodia: Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

After an all-day bus ride, we arrived in Siem Reap just in time to take a fantastic sunset quad bike tour.  I didn’t expect to enjoy all of these motorized bike tours so thoroughly, but they allow you to get off the main roads frequented by the big tour buses and instead go down the dusty back roads and out into the countryside to get glimpses regular life away from the touristy hot spots.

As it turned out, the countryside was extremely dry and we kicked up so much dust that face masks were warranted. We drove through fields and around cows and past children playing. Watching the sunset over the rice paddies made for a really beautiful and memorable experience.

Siem Reap is a resort town in northwestern Cambodia- practically everything and everyone in this town caters to tourists in general and backpackers and budget travelers in particular. One of the main streets is called ‘Pub Street,’ if that starts to paint a picture for you. Glamourous it is not, but its prime location just over 3 miles from the Angkor archeological site makes is the default basecamp for anyone wanting to visit these incredible ruins.

The temples at Angkor were built by the Khmer between the 9^th and 14^th centuries as the Earthly representation of the abode of the ancient gods and are a point of pilgrimage for all Cambodians. Because the temples are a UNESCO World Heritage site and are even considered by some to be the ‘eight wonder’ of the ancient world, tourists from all over the world now flood there too.

Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious building- the outer wall encompasses roughly 200 acres and is surrounded by moat 620ft wide. The temple is built upon a series of terraces that culminate in a central tower that rises 213 above the ground. There are 5 main towers and we, along with literally thousands of other eager tourists, got up nice and early to watch the sun rise over their iconic silhouettes and the reflecting pools below. A 3:30am alarm might seem overzealous for a rendezvous with the sunrise, but we all had to wait in line to get individualized photo IDs before entering the complex and jostling for prime positioning.

The Angkor Wat temple is vast and was never actually completed. Many of the intricate carvings on internal stone pillars are only partially completed. I was enthralled by the monks- the looks of the faces of the people receiving their blessings and the beautiful contrast of their brilliant saffron robes against the gray stonework.  I quickly learned, however, that we were not supposed to take their photographs… We waited in line to climb up the tallest tower, which provided a great, almost-aerial view of the entire complex.  If you don’t want to climb the stairs, you can go up in a tethered hot air balloon to get the same effect!

The temple of Bayon is incredibly unique. It is comprised of 54 towers decorated with 216 enormous faces (4 per tower in case, like me, math isn’t your strong point).  They are the faces of Avolokitesharvara but, at least according to Lonely Planet, they bear more than a passing resemblance to King Jayavarman VII, the person who commissioned them. I loved the fact that you could actually climb up and be ‘face to face’ with these massive carvings- they weren’t barricaded off or towering high overhead.  You could walk around and see a dozen or faces at any given time, staring out in all directions across the kingdom. This would have been a good day to own a FitBit-I don’t know if we covered a lot of distance, but we definitely climbed a lot of super steep stone stairs.

I have a definite soft spot for Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, and all of the other pseudo-archaeologist treasure hunters that have graced the big screen so I was particularly excited to see the temple of Ta Prohm. Take Prohm is often referred to as the Tomb Raider temple because Lara Croft did some of her plundering there with film crews in tow. It is also known as the jungle temple and is easily differentiated visually from the other main temples due to the massive tree roots that literally engulf parts of the ruins. It is bittersweet to watch Mother Nature at work; the trees have taken root in the nooks and crannies of stonework placed centuries ago and, as they grow, the stones buckle and give. The temple ruins are slowly but surely crumbling and being reclaimed by the surrounding jungle.

                                                           Can you see the temple amidst the tree roots??

                                                     Did I mention that the whole place was super crowded?

The temples were incredible, don’t get me wrong- but I wish we had seen them earlier in our trip.  Although they regulate visitors by printing photo IDs on each ticket, they don’t actually regulate the NUMBER of visitors that enter the UNESCO site. I’m sort of ashamed to say that, between the oppressive heat (in winter!) and the crowds and the sheer scale of everything, we crossed into the ‘templed out’ zone pretty quickly.  You could easily spend days wandering around here and still not see everything- but a couple of leisurely half-days would make for a more relaxing and enjoyable experience.

(Talking about corruption, which was a common theme during this trip, it is a little unclear who actually pockets the revenue from Angkor Archeological Park, which generated almost $58 million last year in entrance ticket sales. Although the park is now run by the Cambodian government, there is speculation that the money pulled in by Cambodia’s biggest tourist attraction is being funneled to Vietnam as a ‘thank you’ for helping the Cambodian PM regain power.)

After the temples, we did more wandering around Siem Reap, visited a few hundred more market stalls (only a slight exaggeration), negotiated prices for some touristy tank tops and, of course, found more food to eat.  

One of my favorite memories from Siem Reap is a wonderful laughter session at a little tourist trap called Dr. Fish. You’ve probably heard of this gimmick before- you dangle your feet into a large fish tank and the little garra rufa fish obligingly nibble the dead skin off your feet. The efficacy and validity of using these little guys as a spa treatment is widely debated, and the practice is banned in several parts of the US and Canada if that tells you anything. But back to Cambodia… The thing is, to say that a few dozen fish nibbling your feet is a little ticklish- is a massive understatement. Many people find the tickle factor- especially in the first tank with the smallest fish- almost unbearable. (There are even three tanks with progressively larger fish with correspondingly larger mouths resulting in proportionally bigger nibbles). The squeals and shrieks these little fish elicit- absolutely hysterical to witness! My mom had my crying with laughter watching her reactions! For 2 USD, you get a beer, unlimited foot ‘pampering,’ side-splitting laughter, and prime curbside positioning to watch the backpackers in all the various stages of bohemian-ness walking by- bargain!!

                                         Because I know you really wanted a close-up of our feet

Cambodia: Phnom Penh

We had to disembark from our bus and complete the Vietnam-Cambodia border, crossing on foot but it was pretty quick and painless- pay some money, walk in one side of the building, give some fingerprints, get a stamp, and walk out the other side. From there we re-boarded the bus and headed to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

We did a cyclo tour around Phnom Pehn to get ‘the lay of the land’ on our first day.  Cylcos, or cycle rickshaws, can come in a variety of configurations. I am used to a sort of tricycle-style contraption where passengers sit in the back. These, however, were more like giant strollers, and I must admit that I felt quite pretentious being pedaled around in one.

I have never seen so many high-end SUVs- Range Rover, Lexus, etc. The contrast between extreme wealth and extreme poverty was quite startling and the government corruption very evident.

Phnom Pehn also has a Red Light district that Mom, Stephanie, and I managed to miss completely. While some of our male touring companions were being propositioned and offered drugs on the streets below, we were about 6 stories up having a cocktail on the roof of the Foreign Correspondents Club, once THE place for journalists to hang out during the Vietnam War.

                         Inside the Royal Palace compound with a few hundred school children

Our first dinner in Phnom Pehn was quite memorable. During the first, I summoned some bravery and ordered fried tarantulas and red tree ant soup.  The tree ant soup was very manageable. The ants were miniscule and you could basically convince yourself that they were little pieces of dried oregano floating on the surface. The tarantulas, however, were another matter entirely. First, I was expecting one spider- and ended up with a plate of 3. Second, my American brain translated ‘fried’ to mean that they would be deep fried in batter and essentially unrecognizable. No, they just looked like sleeping tarantulas with their legs nicely tucked.  With deep breaths, positive self-talk, and a few gulps of water, I was able to eat one. With some peer pressure, I managed to get my dinner companions to eat the legs of another. I felt pretty guilty about leaving a whole spider sitting untouched on the plate so, we thanked our lucky stars that we were seated at a table in the garden- and discretely through his little body into the bushes!!

                    A live tarantula at a roadside stop- the bowls are filled with insect delicacies

Our next day was quite a somber one. We went to Choeung Eg, also known as The Killing Fields. Mass killings were conducted here and at numerous other sites across Cambodia as part of a state-sponsored genocide during the Khmer Rouge regime. It is estimated that over a million people were executed between 1975 and 1979, while an addition million people starved to death.  Bits of bone and cloth were evident in the dirt underfoot as we walked around and, although they have excavated dozens of mass graves, there are countless remains still in situ.

            Friendship braces adorn the posts around some of the mass graves at The Killing Fields

We also went to Tuol Sleng Museum- a former school that was turned into a prison and place of torture. Prisoners had their photos taken upon arrival, after torture sessions, and upon their deaths. These graphic photos line the walls of some of the buildings are a truly horrific and emotionally overwhelming.  What I also found so mind-blowing- and what I had to keep reminding myself about- was how recently all of this happened. Very few prisoners survived, but a couple of those that did come back to the now-museum every day to talk with tourists and tell their story! The even more uncomfortable realization is that, not only are some of the prisoners still alive, many of their torturers are still alive as well and living in the community with everyone else. In fact, per our tour guide, one of the former prison guards operated a food cart catering to tourists out in front of the museum! Our guide stated that he hadn’t been seen for a couple of weeks and had likely been offered a position in the government. Cambodia’s Prime Minister, Hun Sen, is a former Khmer Rouge commander who, cutting and pasting from Wikipedia, ‘assumed authoritarian power in Cambodia using violence, intimidation and corruption to maintain his power base.’ Cambodians will tell you that they live in a democratic country but, although Hun Sen did not win the majority of seats during the 2013 election, he still remains in the same role he has held since 1985. Our little G Adventures group all agreed that Cambodia does not feel particularly stable and that we won't be particularly surprised if a civil war breaks out at some point in the future.

Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) was not my favorite city so I’m not going to spend too much time on it.  Over 10 million people live in its greater metropolitan area- and this is projected to increase to almost 14 million by 2025.  While there is much that still appears ‘backwards’ to the Western eye, large parts of HCMC are modernizing, commercializing, and rocketing skyward at a dizzying pace. Stephanie and I spent a few hours doing Lonely Planet’s self-guiding walking tour of Old Saigon- and we were hard-pressed to find anything old!  

 One of the few old buildings we saw: The People's Committee Building, with 'Uncle Ho' out front

A few things stuck out for me during out Ho Chi Minh City wanderings:

Unlike in Hanoi, where many people live in the back of or above their shops- and therefore keep their shops open during all of their waking hours, stores in HCMC operate during ‘business hours’- and many of them close- or at least close early- on the weekends. We ended up doing a lot of window gazing!

For the first time in our Vietnam travels, we encountered fast food restaurants- and lots of them. Burger King, Popeyes, McDonalds, Subway.  It was surprisingly obvious that with more wealth comes higher rates of obesity.  The children here were also the chubbiest that we saw anywhere.  We checked out a recommended iceream parlor known for its exotic flavors- and the prices were equivalent to what you would pay for gourmet icecream in the states- very expensive by Vietnamese standards, but the place was absolutely jumping.  And coffee shops. Every third store was a coffee shop, and that's not even much of an exaggeration.

Whereas in other Vietnamese cities, you can shop for knock-off Coach, Gucci, and Longchamp to your heart’s content, HCMC has clamoring high end shopping streets where you can buy the real deal.  There is a lot of wealth here.  We went to a rooftop bar one evening to see the city lights from up high. Casting my eyes around at the DJ, the drinks menu and the general swankiness of the place- I could have been at a high-end rooftop bar in any major city around the world. Standing at the railing and looking at all the skyscrapers, my mom said, 'You'll be able to say that you visited Ho Chi Minh City right before it launched itself onto the world stage.'

We walked through the large backpacking district and the bustling Ben Thanh Market, and toured through the Jade Emperor Pagoda, the War Remnants Museum, and the Reunification Palace. The Reunification place is a great example of 1960s architecture- and the interior details have been left untouched since the 1st Communist tanks arrived at its gates on April 30^th, 1975. The basement contains a huge bomb shelter with a War Room, map room, and telecommunications center filled with massive old radio transmitters. We read multiple accounts of the lead up to and subsequent fall of Saigon- but there were so many secret allegiances and assassination attempts and hand-offs of power along the way- that we drove out of HCMC still feeling confused about it all.  

                                   Radios in the basement bunker of the Reunification Palace

Next stop, Cambodia!  

Vietnam: Hue and Hoi An

The city of Hue, population 361,000, is yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site- we managed to hit quite a few of them on this trip! It is situated on a bend in the Perfume River and was once the imperial capital of Vietnam. Unfortunately, this city was thoroughly assaulted by American forces when the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong seized control of it back in 1968. Whole neighborhoods were leveled and napalm was dropped on the imperial palace. Much of the Citadel, the heart of the city, remains badly damaged and it is only through foreign aid that renovations of areas like the Imperial Enclosure and the Forbidden Purple City have recently begun.

Our favorite experience in Hue was a motorbike tour that took us to many of Hue’s highlights beyond the Citadel walls. To clarify, we were the passengers, not the drivers. Being on two wheels enabled us to go through all sorts of back alleys, down dirt paths, and along causeways stretching across the rice fields. As we zoomed between sightseeing points, and it allowed us a glimpse into the lives and the living conditions of the locals.  A fantastic experience- we loved it!

From Hue, we headed further south to Hoi An.  Hoi An is probably tied with Hanoi as my favorite city of the trip, but they each have a very different feel. Unlike bustling, polluted, pulsating Hanoi, Hoi An is quaint, relaxed, riverside town that never progressed architecturally beyond colonial times and is now being preserved and cultivated into a tourist’s dream.  Because it was once a port town, a variety of different cultures and exerted their influence, as evidenced by the numerous Chinese temples and Japanese merchant houses. Photo opportunities are endless here- many of the buildings are painted a beautiful burnt ocher, vibrantly colored boats line the river banks, and thousands of jewel-toned lanterns are strung between building façades all up and down the streets.

Hoi An is a culinary hot spot- those who aspire to take a Vietnamese cooking class will be overwhelmed by choices here. It is also known for its silks and tailoring shops abound- for about $200, you can go in, have your measurements taken, and essentially walk away in a custom-made suit 24 hours later. Equally, you can take in a picture from a magazine (your favorite Oscars dress, for example) and have that whipped up within a few days too! A number of people in our group ordered suits and business shirts- and they all seemed quite pleased with their purchases. The coffee roasters and gourmet smoothie stores are moving fast, however, and massage parlors are multiplying as both locals and investors cater to the increasing stream of tourists heading this way.

To see the sights of Hoi An beyond the central old town, we did another truly fantastic bike tour- non-motorized this time. Along the way, we stopped to take a brief ride on a water buffalo and pulled over at a fishing village where we went floating through a water coconut grove in basket boats. We also paused to admire the gardens of one of the cutest old couples I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.  They are local celebrities thanks to photographer Réhahn, whom we also had the pleasure of meeting when we visited his newly opened Precious Heritage Art Gallery Museum in town.  If you enjoy portrait photography, I encourage you to check out some of his work:

http://www.rehahnphotographer.com/portfolio/portraits-vietnam/

Vietnam: Cruising Halong Bay on a Chinese Junk

After a meet-and-greet dinner with our delightful CEO (‘Chief Experience Officer’) PC and the rest of our group the night before, we rose early, boarded a bus to the coast, then hopped aboard a junk boat and sailed out into the emerald waters of Halong Bay.  Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site, contains approximately 2000 islands  or karsts which are basically towering pillars of limestone with large rain forest toupees on top.  It makes for some pretty stunning scenery. 

Approximately 500 junk boats are licensed to operate in Halong Bay. These Lonely Planet stats are about 10 years old but, of the 500 boats, about 300 are cruising the Bay at any given time and about 80 of them do overnight trips. There are only 3 designated spots for overnight boats- which means 20-30 boats per cove. So, while the scenery is stunning, you putt along a boat highway during the day and anchor in a little boat parking lot at night. Because all of the tourists are crammed into a tiny sliver of Halong Bay, there was actually a fair amount of trash in the water- I guess the good news is that hopefully this tactic is keeping other parts of the Bay super pristine?!  We hiked to the top of one of the limestone islands, then watched the sunset from the man-made beach below. The whole group visited a massive limestone cave and Stephanie and I did an ‘add on’ that included kayaking through a limestone cave tunnel into a little cove that is home to a band of wild monkeys!  While the monkeys were definitely a highlight, my favorite moment occurred when I was in my little room changing and suddenly heard rapping on the porthole window. A lady in a little rowboat was pedaling concessions- soda, potato chips, whatever she thought the tourists might want! I didn’t give her any business- although in hindsight I wish I had- but managed to snap a quick pic as she rowed away…

(They sky was always hazy during our time in Halong Bay so this special part of the world wasn’t at its photogenic best- or at least, my photos don’t really do it justice!)

Because we had quite a few long travel days built into our itinerary, G Adventures made sure that our rest stops always had something interesting to offer- on the way to Halong Bay, for example, we stopped at a crafting center that employs victims of Agent Orange. On the return voyage, we stopped by a pearl factory to learn how pearls are cultivated and harvested.  We enjoyed a few brief hours back in Hanoi (long enough for Mom and Stephanie to re-visit their favorite knock-off handbag shop!) before heading to the station to board on overnight train bound for Hue.

Overall, the 15-hour train ride was quite reasonable. Somehow every surface of the bathroom was impressively and unhygienically wet by the end of the trip, but Stephanie assures us that it was nothing like her overnight train experience in India where the ‘toilet’ opened directly onto the tracks below. We noticed that all of the foreigners were clumped together into the same carriage so, while ours was a flushing toilet, I did wonder whether conditions were equally nice throughout the rest of the train. Each compartment contained two sets of bunk beds- a rodent was intermittently gnawing on something between our compartment panel during the night- but I think we all got used to keeping our earplugs easily accessible on this trip and managed to get some sleep nevertheless! 

Vietnam: Hanoi

My mom, my sister, and I are now most of the way through a 17-day tour through Vietnam and Cambodia. The tour started in Hanoi, Vietnam, and will finish in a few days in Bangkok, Thailand.  The trip was Stephanie’s idea- she has travelled with this company, G Adventures, twice before and had really good things to say, so- Voilá! Here we are on a mother-daughter vacation.

We all met up in Hanoi. Stephanie arrived a day early and already had the lay of the land when Mom and I showed up.  There are literally millions of motorcycles and scooters zooming around the narrow streets of the old city and shop wares and tiny plastic chairs from the eateries spill out onto the sidewalks. (By ‘literally’ I mean that there are about 7 million people in Hanoi and approximately 5 million motorbikes). The result is that you are constantly dodging objects both moving and stationary, you are sucking down exhaust fumes all day long, and your senses are generally overloaded in every possible way.

One of our local guides gave us some advice regarding crossing the street (traffic lights don’t seem to exist in the old city): “Close your eyes, think of the Happy Buddha, start walking, and the motorbikes will go around you.”

And, in my experience, he is pretty much right.  If you walk at a constant speed, the drivers can judge your progress and navigate around you. I felt a bit like Moses parting the Red Sea at right angles.

                        

                                                              A street market in Hanoi

Another tour guide said that he only frequents corner coffee shops so that he can chuckle at tourists trying to cross the street while he sips his coffee. He claims that he can tell how many days someone has been in Hanoi purely by how confidently they stride out into the busy streets.

Needless to say, Hanoi is a bit of a shock to the system.  We had roughly a day and a half to see as much as possible before the tour started so we walked around Hoan Kiem Lake and saw people doing their morning calisthenics, visited the Fine Arts Museum and the Temple of Literature, and wandered all around the French Quarter. Stephanie had already visited Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and told us that, given our time constraints, it wasn’t worth the wait.  Instead, on our second day, we went to the Vietnamese Womens’ Museum and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology where we stumbled upon a water puppet show already underway.  We had read about shows in our Lonely Planet guidebook- this art form originated with rice farmers in flooded paddy fields. They would stand in waist-deep water behind a bamboo screen and operate the puppets via bamboo poles concealed under the water. After 10 minutes spent listening to the piercing falsetto of the Vietnamese narrator and watching wooden puppets splash around, we felt like we sufficiently grasped the concept and never needed to watch water puppets ever again. Too harsh? Maybe the jetlag was making me a little more judgmental than usual… 

                                                         The actors waiting off-stage

Hanoi, while a little frenetic at times, provided a great introduction to the themes that have continued to pervade this trip: warm and friendly people, rabbit-warren street markets, motorcycle mayhem, rice with every meal, and photo opportunities around every corner.

Having my cake and eating it too in the Bay Area

Well, I enjoyed my time working at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland so much that, since my last blog post, I extended my travel contract yet again. In fact, I extended my contract so many times that I reached my limit. One can only work in a particular geographic area for 12 consecutive months and still retain the title of (and reap the tax benefits of being) a travel therapist. Longer than that, and it looks like you are ‘putting down roots.’  Alta Bates offered to hire me on as permanent staff member and I debated long and hard- agonized, really- over whether to accept.

Pros: I have wonderful co-workers here and the acute rehab setting is my favorite thus far; the Bay Area landscape is beautiful; the arts, music, and food scenes are all flourishing, and outdoor opportunities abound within a 4-5 hour drive.

Cons: the cost of living- and the cost of real estate, in particular- is incredibly high.  Many people with good salaries end up being life-long renters because they cannot afford to buy property; traffic is pretty terrible a lot of the time; it is on the other side of the country and multiple time zones away from my family and many of my friends and, because I would lose the tax benefits of being a travel OT, the pay cut would be significant.

It is more complicated than that, of course but, in the end, I turned down the offer. Although don’t want to accept a permanent position at the present time, I don’t feel ready to leave the Bay Area just yet either.  I basically want to have my cake and eat it too! There are 2 ways to ‘reset the clock,’ so to speak, so that I can resume work as a travel OT.  One is to take a 45 day break from working; the other is to take a contract greater than 45 miles away from Alta Bates, and then return.  Alta Bates would be happy to have me back but it gets tricky because, no matter which option I choose, there is no guarantee that they will have an active need for a traveler when I’m ready to return. And then I would have to find a position somewhere else in the Bay Area- in a potentially less enjoyable setting, and in a potentially less convenient location. It all depends on what is available at time. This is sort of what I imagine high stakes gambling would feel like...

My last day at Alta Bates was December 28^th. I’ve got my recruiter on the lookout in case any convenient short-term contacts pop up but my plan, at present, is to take 45 days off. And a chunk of those days are already accounted for by a trip to Vietnam with my mom and my sister!  In fact, I am writing this long-overdue blog post from my bed in the Lantern Hotel in Hoi An.  It has been a fascinating trip so far with so many sights and smells and sounds to take in.  We fly to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow and I’m hoping I can use the flight time to write a small post about what we’ve been up to so far.