VIETNAMMMMMMM IN YOUR FACE!

excuse me for a minute but...HOLY SHIT. hanoi is nuts.

vietnam didn't welcome me with open arms. when i went to apply for my visa, i had to pay $25--specifically in USD. i only had $16 USD (maybe i brought this for show and tell? i dunno, that was 11 months ago version of nicki), but i figured lots of people would have this problem so the airport prob had an exchange place right next to the visa window.

NOT. two people ahead of me were short on cash, too. when they asked the visa guys what to do, they sort of shrugged like, "welp, guess you're SOL. no vietnam for you." lucky for them, two canadians with extra cash were standing nearby. when my name was called, i went up to the window and asked if i could use thai baht. sure, they said, for 1000 baht. that's a $5 rip off, but i didn't have a choice.

already, vietnam? really? you couldn't make this easy, could you?

i got my bag--one of the last three on the thingy--and proceeded to the exit. first, to get some vietnamese dong. this is money. it's a hilarious name for currency and it will never NOT be hilarious. anyway, i got over four million dong and told the exchange guy they had crazy money. he laughed. i walked away and this guy walked up to me offering me a taxi. yeah, i'm going to the old quarter, where friggin everyone goes, you can take me there? i dunno...but he was really nice, and because i've been living in thailand for a year i'm used to nice people being genuinely nice. so i said ok, let's go.

he and his pal took me upstairs. i waited outside a door by what looked like the exit ramp from the airport. the main guy went outside to get his friend. all of a sudden his pal grabbed my bag and was like "LET'S GO!" and rushed outside. main guy hopped in a taxi and a guard type figure started blowing his whistle and pointing angrily at us. main guy got out and the taxi drove off.

BAD SITUATION, NICKI. stupid. of course this is a scam. i told the guys i forgot, i wanted to get a sim card, i'm gonna go downstairs and get one. "they're twice the price here..." i heard them say as i dashed off. idiot nicki. this is NOT the southeast asia you know.

so i go downstairs to ask the information girl about  a taxi. she says i should prob call my hotel first to make a reservation cuz there's this big celebration going on and there might not be room. i'd read it's hanoi's 1000th birthday or something, but i didn't think it'd be a big deal allllll year long.

NOT. super nice information girl and i spent an hour trying to find a hotel with an open room. she must've called at least 10 different places for me. sweet, sweet girl. finally we found one that was semi-affordable (free breakfast/internet/tv though!) and in a good location and had a room.

by this time it was almost 6 pm. i'd arrived two hours ago. as i got into the cab with the driver who spoke basically zero english (and i absolutely zero vietnamese), i was starting to think hanoi was a mistake. this city is too fucking crazy, especially by myself, and it's already been hard and expensive and maybe i should just look for the next cheap flight out of here. i was stupid for coming here alone.

but then i got to the hotel. and it's a sweet room with cable tv. so i sat down for a minute, wrote in my diary, literally screamed a bit to let out some frustration and shock, and calmed down.

this is what traveling is. it's hard. it's being stuck in a situation you can't find an easy way out of. it's being wildly uncomfortable. it's not knowing what to do.

it's figuring it all out anyway.

i decided i couldn't take the wussy way out and stay in my hotel room all night. after all, i had to eat. so i went out of my room and turned left. i didn't see anything and the traffic was crazy and i was terrified of getting lost, so i turned around. whatever, i'll go hungry.

no, nicki, don't so that. i went the other way instead and came across this HUGE shopping street, peds only. hundreds and hundreds of shops, thousands of people. there were kids, babies, teenagers, grandparents, locals, tourists, sellers, buyers, EVERYONE. i smiled a gigantic grin. yes, this is insane, but you're not gonna die. i walked down the street about half a mile and i don't think i stopped smiling the whole time. i got a kebab (OH MY GOD it was good) and some ice cream. as i was walking back toward my hotel, fireworks started going off. everyone started screaming and running toward them.

instead of going straight back, i followed the crowd. there are literally thousands of people out right now, watching fireworks, shopping, eating, doing god knows what for this celebration. i stood at an intersection filled with cars, motorbikes, and tons of people (everyone was right--traffic in this city is something else) and just laughed at it all. a few people caught me and laughed with/at me.

hanoi, you're a tough one, but i think i'm gonna love you.

the lao lao experience

i decided i'm only gonna drink local alcohol from now until this trip's over. i've been drinking beerlao all week, which has been delicious and wonderful (and the only dark beer i've had since oct 2009), but i'd had yet to try lao lao. it's this bootleg rice whiskey made only in laos and everybody talks about how crazy it is.

so of course i had to try it. btw, no, i don't let traveling alone stop me from drinking. i think ordering one drink as a solo person lets off this "i'm such a strong and confident individual" vibe. slash maybe i'm just telling myself that because i like drinking and i don't want people to call me an alcoholic.

i sat down for a late lunch today and flipped to the drinks menu. there were four drinks called "lao cocktails," none of them with flavors but instead given colors. when the waitress came over, i asked her if the drinks had lao lao in them.

"yeah, you don't like lao lao?"
"no, no, i do! i want it."
"oh, ok!"

i ordered the green one. two minutes later she brought me this kelly green drink with a lime squeezed in it. i took a sip and HOLY CRAP THAT'S STRONG. the first couple sips went down hard but i got used to it. my rice noodle soup came and i enjoyed my meal slowly. i could feel the lao lao right away, and it hit way harder than alcohol usually does. when i stood up, i REALLY felt it.

oh my god, i thought. i'm really, bizarrely intoxicated. i paid the woman and walked down the street, reveling in this new sort of feeling. i was hyper-aware of my body and i felt a little like i was floating or something. IT WAS INSANE, YOU GUYS. i've been drunk once or twice before so i know what it normally feels like but this was somehow different. man. i went back and took a shower then got some coffee to shake the feeling. now i'm all sober, no headache or anything. man.

i probably shouldn't write stuff like this on the internet. ohhhh well, my dreams of becoming president were dashed when fbook came out with photo sharing.

tomorrow i'm flying to hanoi (!!!), and i'll be there until the 7th. fbook is blocked there (communism!); no word on if blogger/twitter/gmail are, too. i may or may not be out of internet reach. please try to do your best without me.

a hammock and a promise to a book

i bought "the sorrow of war" before i left thailand. it's a northern vietnamese's personal story on the war in vietnam. it's incredibly heartbreaking and humanizing and shows the bloody, gruesome, these-things-tear-your-soul-apart side of war. it was banned in vietnam when it first came out. i promised the book i would finish it before i got to 'nam (friday, oct. 1).

i'm on don det right now. i was only gonna stay here for two nights, but i have a hammock on my balcony over (literally over) the mekong river and that promise i made to my still-unfinished book...so i'm staying for three. i love trips in southeast asia.

this is one of the most phenomenal places i've ever been. i wanna bring all over you here and show you the hot chocolate-colored waters, the rice paddies so green leprechauns would be jealous, the irrawaddy dolphins, the quiet, unassuming buffalo, the adorable piglets, the adorable chicks, the adorable ducklings, the adorable combo of curious ducks and chickens. the sunsets and sunrises here are unreal. for the last two days i've been biking across don det and don khon, another island just a few kilometers down the way and across a bridge.

someday, when i'm rich, i'm taking you all on a trip here. all you need are a few tshirts, a couple pairs of shorts, and a few promises to some books.

four different kinds of transportation

if you're my friend on fbook (and you have the privilege of seeing my statuses...muahaha) then this'll look familiar: a car, a van, a BTS ride, a taxi, a bus, four hours of waiting, another bus, and a tuk tuk ride later, I'M IN LAOS, BABY!

cars, metros, buses, and tuk tuks, oh my! i left suphan yesterday around 5:30 pm and after all of the switching transportation and border crossing shenanigans, i got to pakse around noon. checked into my room--plain but perfect--took a shower, and pretty much immediately went to lunch. chicken laap, sticky rice, and beer laos. i was sitting in this corner restaurant in this quiet little town and i couldn't figure out how life could get much better.

then i did: i could be doing this on an island in si phan don. so i'm going there tomorrow :-D it's just two and a half hours away, plus a ferry ride. nbd. but then i'll be tehre for three, potentially four days of waking up early (i like the mornings, ok?), drinking coffee, riding bikes through rice paddies, taking naps on hammocks, eating bread/rice/CARBS I LOVE CARBS, and drinking beer laos. the beer isn't even particularly delicious, but it's just something about it that makes it so great...maybe it's cuz there are advertisements everywhere, maybe it's cuz i'm in a communist country right now and this is the beer of the land...uh oh. maybe i shouldn't be mentioning that in a post from a laos computer. 55. oops.