Round the World

Greetings all in this our 30th blog entry. In our last entry, we asked y'all what the former name of Ho Chi Mihn City was before 1975, it was Saigon, and the very first person to answer was Hien from Kuala Lumpur. He will be receiving a nice postcard from Vietnam in the following weeks. We also had our 100th comment posted by Morgan. She will be the proud owner of a new Vietnamese postcard as well. Now you can hope to get your very own Vietnamese postcard signed by Nadine and I only if you are the next person to correctly answer this week's question OR post the 150th comment. It's always good to set goals.

We are still in Thu Duc, Vietnam, the city outside of Ho Chi Mihn City, or Saigon, if you knew the answer to last week's question you would have known that. We just finished teaching English to a group of nuns and are about to resume traveling north through Vietnam. Before our trip started, Saigon would have never been a city either one of us would have thought we would end up staying in for a month.

After our first week of classes, we were eager to hit the road again, even if it was for a weekend. We jumped on a late night bus and headed to the beach town of Mui Ne where we arrived early in the morning. Our only plans for Mui Ne were to soak up some sun on the beach and a little more on top of some sand dunes.

As we walked the beach under a cloudy sky, we were amazed by 2 things, 1) the number of white people/tourists, as we had seen none in Thu Duc, unless you count looking at each other, and 2) the number of wind and kite surfers gliding across the water. Everywhere there was someone in the water flying in the air or roughly being dragged by the wind. Mui Ne was the perfect place to take in some wind or kite surfing. Because as you walked on the beach, you were either face first into a slapping wind, or pushed down the beach by the wind. Kind of like that nagging relative trying to get you to eat that old fruitcake from last Christmas. Alright, I'm going grandma.

From these aerial escapades, we walked back along the safety of the wind blocking, tree-lined road. Within the hour, we ran into two people that we had met earlier in our travels, a girl from Quebec, and a couple from England. We had met the girl from Quebec at the Vietnamese embassy in Laos a month earlier and the English couple in New Zealand back in July. I have a strong suspicion that the English couple may be following us. We caught up with all three of them, made plans for dinner, and headed right back to the cloudy beach where we spent the afternoon watching people get battered by massive waves and an old scraggy looking dog playing with an old fishing net. Oh, the pressures of travel.

White Sandhills

The followingt day, our jeep greeted us in front of our hotel to take us on a tour of the area and sand dunes of Mui Ne. We passed our first sight, the fishing port, being that we wanted to see the sandy sights while having enough time to catch our bus back to Saigon that afternoon. We were on a tight schedule here.

At the white sand dunes, we jumped out of the jeep, and walked to the top of a couple of steep sand dunes. The only drawback was that fact that the wind was blowing like an angry stepmother and it felt like small needles piercing our skin, so we ran away, and went to a smaller, less windy hill.

Tilt your head to the left, now you can enjoy this video. Talk about an adventurous hill to take on!

After sand had entered many of our orifices, we jumped back in our jeep, even though I'm not sure why we needed a jeep anyways since we were on a paved road the entire time, except for a small portion of sand at the White Sand dunes, and made our way to the Red Canyon. This small clay canyon was a great spot to climb and take some panoramic photos of the South China Sea, Nadine, and some red clay. While we were searching for a way to reach the top, we crossed a group of monks bypassing all paths and climbing straight over the rocks to the top.

Deep in the Red Canyon

After a few photos, we started making our way down. Instead of returning from the point where we just came from, we decided, what the heck, why not go the other direction. Other than having to lower ourselves down some rocks and climb over a few fences, the way down wasn't that difficult, even though we happened to be the only ones going down this way, but we made it back to the original path safely. Later on, when Nadine asked a local why that area had been fenced off, they promptly responded that "some of the rocks had been crumbling and falling down, so officials didn't want anyone to get hurt." Oh! Maybe we shouldn't have come down that way. And that is where we just came from. I can't believe a pregnant woman like Nadine was making those type of dangerous decisions. Shame on her. Clare, I promise you, it was your precious daughter's decision to go down that way, not mine.

We finished the jeep tour by visiting the red sand dunes, but after the red canyon, it didn't seem quite so red, more of a light pink. We then ran back to the hotel like Lloyd Christmas in Dumb & Dumber while the driver drove, packed our stuff up, and waited for the bus out on the street. Unfortunately, our bus was about as on time as a 9 fingered Alberquerque kid with a date with a hand model, not very. More accurately, our bus was two and a half hours late. That left us enough time to do several sets of jumping jacks on the sidewalk and have a strawberry shake.

Nadine teaching in a traditional Vietnamese hat

For the past two weeks, Nadine and I have been teaching English, and staying in one place longer than 4 days. It has been great, and we have found a solid daily routine. We wake up at 6:30, get dressed, catch the bus to the nunnery, eat breakfast with fresh orange juice, teach English for an hour and a half, take a 20 minute break where we try to avoid eating all the food being offered to us by the nuns, finish our morning session at 11, eat a healthy lunch of fish and fruit, either take a siesta, check email, or both, teach from 2 until 4, eat dinner with the nuns or on our own, return to the hotel, go to the gym to lift and run 2 miles, and finally back to the hotel and off to sleep. That has been our consistent routine for the last two weeks. And you know, it's nice to have a routine every once in awhile. But then again, after these two weeks of work, we are ready to start travelling again. It's amazing what two weeks of hard work will do for you.

Using a scooter to get to the next clue

We have tried to make the past two weeks educational AND fun for Sisters Vianney (Sr. Fix-It), Thuy Linh, Thu Trang, Tuyet Tring, Rosa Bong, Marie Marthe, and Mi Hanh. We played Go Fish one day, bingo another, and had a couple entertaining Scavenger Hunts. Once again, we went in wanting to give of ourselves in a concrete way, but we came away feeling that we had received so much more than we were able to give to these Sisters.

I know where the clue is hidden

One of the gifts that we are coming away with is a pair of fat pants for Nadine. Now that her belly is expanding, and we are positive it's not a result of some occasional gas, we have had to get an extra pair of pants made for her, some Hammer pants. You know the pants I'm talking about, the same pants M.C. Hammer wore back in the 90's. Big, baggy, colorful, you can pull them over your shoulders they are so big, or even hide a small animal inside them. You probably have a pair yourself. If you would like to be in solidarity with Nadine, pull them out this weekend, and sport your very own pair of fat pants. Even if people laugh at you, just think of the fact that Nadine is wearing hers around the world and not letting it bother her at all. I know that at least her friends from JVC Washington are wearing theirs. Anyone that wears their fat pants and emails me at jwhit003@gmail.com with a pic of them, I will post it on our next blog entry.

State of the Belly, Part 1

Here is our inaugural State of the Belly video report. We will post a video report of Nadine's belly every couple of weeks so you can follow her expansion. It might also help you to better guess the sex of our baby in the near future.

Once again, we are both feeling good and energized to complete the last two and a half months of our epic around the world trip. We will barely have enough time to break the ice in that tiny country we call China, which we will follow with Hong Kong, Macau, South Africa, and Italy. Then we make our return to the U.S. to embark on a miniature tour of the Midwest.

This week's question is the following. First correct answer will receive a personalized Vietnamese postcard signed by both Nadine and I.

In alphabetical order, what coutries border Vietnam? Spelling does count!

Peace and love from Vietnam
JW

I know where to get you a balloon?

Thanks to Travellerspoint and our nifty little digital camera, we are now able to upload videos to our blog. We've received a few requests and overwhelming people want to see videos of Nadine. Thus, at the end of this witty blog entry, you have your wish, Nadine in the video form. We've also added a few photos from Angkor Wat and other spots, in addition to two new videos of Nadine, one on this blog entry, and one entry from Thailand. Links are on the bottom, enjoy.

Also, the currency of Vietnam is the dong, and everytime we have to pay for anything with dong, we sing it just like Nelly's Thong Song. Thus, the reason for the title.

So after our crazy Christmas Eve Mass at Notre Dame, we spent Christmas Day just like anyother Christmas. We woke up to cake for breakfast. We found out we couldn't go on a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels, so with no other choice, we went back to sleep for another couple of hours. In the afternoon, with a few errands completed, we called our parents to wish them a Merry Christmas from the other side of the globe, and then went to the gym. I sure that is what you did for Christmas too? Needless to say, Christmas was a little different than usual for us. We did miss our families quite a bit. It would have been great to be with them and friends, but we did enjoy our last quiet Christmas for the next 20 years. Next Christmas, we will have another another member of the family joining us. Make your bets now whether it will be a boy or girl.

The day after Christmas, better known as Boxing Day to some, or St. Stephen's Day if you are Scuba Steve, we were on a bus to the Cu Chi Tunnels with Mr. Bean, our guide. Mr. Bean promptly informed us that he had indeed worked with the American forces during the Vietnam War and that all American women have big asses. I didn't see the coorelation there, but I would agree with him that quite a few do, but not all American women. That was pretty unfair generalization, and maybe a little unprofessional. Probably acceptable in New Mexico though.

Former U.S. Military Tank

Back to the Cu Chi tunnels. They were tunnels built by the Viet Cong to move around without the American soldiers being able to spot them. They were small underground tunnels that had three levels. These tiny tunnels functioned, and they left the small Vietnamese undetectable while they still fought, ate, slept, cooked, all underground. They were miracously able to travel every night 3 miles to nearby American bases and steal their weapons. It wasn't until after the war was over that the Americans learned of these tunnels. As Nadine and I submerged our large, oversized American bodies into these tiny tunnels, I couldn't believe they were able to do this for years. When the first exit presented itself, we had a choice of continuing down to the second level or up to fresh air and room to move my arms, I was out of there.

Not only did the mountain of negative comments from Mr. Bean about Americans continue non-stop, he was even alienating several of the non-Americans on the tour. Two of those folks were Irish, Jacqui and Josephine. We began to chat with them, and broke the ice by saying that because of Mr. Beans' words of enlightenment, I now hated Americans as well. Recognizing the dry humor, they laughed along and mentioned that Nadine and I were indivudually responsible for everything wrong in the world. As we walked together recounting all the horrible things we've done together, I was able to cynically convince another young American girl from Philadelphia, that everything Mr. Bean was saying about the U.S. was absolutely true.

Me - "Everything that Mr. Bean says about the U.S. is absolutely true! I know it is."
Naive Philly girl - "No, it's not all true. He's wrong with a few things."
M - "I know it's true. I've been to the U.S. once before. And it's all definitely true."
N.P.G. - "No!!! It's not true!"
M - "But it is! I have been there once!"
N.P.G. - "No it's not! I'm American! I should know."

It was at this point that Nadine gave me "the look" as the Irish girls looked on curiously at this little interaction between two Americans. What made this interaction funny was that I didn't change my voice at all to sound French, English, or from anywhere else in the world accent. I was speaking English with a slight Texas drawl. To avoid making her look even more foolish, I admitted that I too was Texan and American. I then had to end my cruel little game, but I couldn't get over the fact that she didn't even suspect that I might be American. Segway to Dumb & Dumber, "let's put another shrimp on the barbie!"

That afternoon we spent lunch with the Irish girls, and laughed about the day's tour and our Philly girl. Hope she isn't reading this blog. We said goodbye and walked to our respective hostels. As we were walking, we came to find out that we were going to the same hostel. As we had sat in the hostel that morning waiting for our bus to arrive, we groggily didn't notice each other in the very small lobby of our place.

Next day we were eager to do another tour, and this morning we did notice J.J. in the lobby, and we both hoped that Mr. Bean wouldn't be on board with his bag of slander. As we waited in our hostel chatting, guess who came to pick us up. None other than Mr. Bean himself. With looks of worry and grief on our faces, he drove us around the block a few times, until we were moved to another bus, and out of permanent earshot of Mr. Bean.

The Mekong tour carried us to the massive Mekong River that runs from China and through the vast majority of Southeast Asia. A selling point of this tour was the chance to see floating markets. Floating markets turned out to be a couple of boats just sitting in the middle of a tributary of the Mekong. But an interesting factoid was that the handful of boats selling would hoist up their vegetable of choice on a stick to identify what they were selling to buyers, but other than that, the "floating market" was a sinking letdown. As we passed the few boats in the water, we all looked at each other perplexed wondering if this was it. It was. So we dutifily took photos like a good tourist.

I hope this python has had his lunch already

The rest of the afternoon, we stopped at a coconut candy making factor, excellent candy without processed sugar, a rice popping exhibition, and an authentic Vietnamese lunch on a large island in the Mekong River. Before eating lunch, I stopped to throw a python around my neck to squeeze a little extra space for the meal. The perfect way to quelch an appetite for others. For the rest of the time on the island, we sat in a hammock rocking the afternoon away.

The tour up to that point, felt like a big shopping tour around the Mekong, and as we neared our last stop, a brick factory, we began to wonder if they were going to sell us some bricks. "The prefect gift for your loved ones, an authentic Vietnamese brick to put in their Christmas stocking." I couldn't get over the fact that they took us to a brick factory. What?!?! What did the people who designed this trip think when they included, "to complete the tour, why don't we visit a brick factory. People will love that." Nadine made the most of it to learn, but I just keep shaking my head and wondering why we were there, as I took obligatory pictures of a pile of bricks. I can't wait to show my pictures of bricks when we return home.

This crowd in just 15 minutes!

During our time in Ho Chi Mihn City, Nadine successfully set up a teaching job for us. We would teach English for two weeks to a group of nuns in the town of Thu Duc outside of HCMC. On the day before we began teaching, the nuns took us up to the mountain village of Long Dien. Here we met what seemed like half the village who worked with the Congregation de Notre Dame des Missions. Not knowing that there was going to be some foreigners visiting, they set up an impromptu concert and presentation in the spam of 15 minutes. One of the most amazing organizational jobs I've ever seen. Along with Sister Marie Therese (Australia), we were treated like royalty and to a concert. They also asked us to come back and bring our friends, because they would love to learn English. So, if you want to teach English in Vietnam, we know just the place.

Can you find Nadine in this photo?

As far as our responsibilities of teaching, we've been running the nuns through a gauntlet of speaking and writing exercises in the morning, followed with a quality nap at noon, and then finishing up in the afternoon with readings and pronunciation. When you do come to teach English, they will properly respond to all your questions with an interjected "y'all," "yes maam," and "I didn't know there was a New Mexico either" in their best Texas drawl. During our first day of pronunciation of the letter "p", I sucessfully managed to have a nun say the word "poop". It could be useful.

These nuns are honestly some of the nicest people on earth you could meet. Others might be just as nice, but none nicer. Great people with big hearts. Even though their Vietnamese New Year is in February, they celebrated ours on January 1st with us and by presenting us flowers and necklaces.

What is Nadine teaching these nuns in the middle of the video?

Another quality that they own and have in common with my grandma White is that they will feed you until the cows come home. Everytime we turn around, it's "would you like some more fish, or some bread, or maybe some lemon juice. We have some tasty chocolate in the fridge. Nadine, you should be drinking more milk." So in preparation for our weekend trip to the beach, they even bought us some beer. They are doing us up right. Maybe we will have to stay longer, or maybe that is what they are trying to do by giving us a six pack of beer, bait us into staying longer.

You never wear your shoes inside

Here are links to videos and additional photos that we have added.
Video of Nadine in Thailand, at bottom - Oh Koh Lanta, Get Off My Jungle Gym
Pictures from Angkor Wat - Running Among Cobras and Angkor Wat
Pictures from HCMC - Christmas Scooters Gone Wild

The person with the correct answer to this weeks question will win and receive a postcard from this weeks answer;

What was the former name of Ho Chi Mihn City before 1975?

Good luck. Life is good for us. We are doing well and enjoying teaching. Hope you enjoyed the 29th blog entry from our trip around the world!

JW

Nadine and I are back together here in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam after my week of running around Angkor Wat and Cambodia solo. We are glad to be back together again.

My bus from Cambodia chugged a little faster across the border than Nadine's plane, so I was the first to touch Vietnamese ground, and thus I had the responsibility of checking into and finding our hostel. After a diverted taxi ride around central HCMC to simply go two blocks, I was in our hostel. But as soon as I dropped my bags in our room, I was back in another taxi to pick up Nadine at the airport.

I was at the airport an hour early so I took advantage of the time to eat and talk with people outside the airport exit. Because my banter impeded my ability to watch consistenly the exit, Nadine exited and I never noticed. As she walked around 5 minutes looking for me, I then decided to walk around looking for her, and just as I began walking, Nadine rounded the corner with an instantaneous relieved look. Back together again at least. Just imagine two folks running across a wheat field in a made for t.v. movie in slow motion, except Nadine was lugging her backpack and a little peanut sized baby.

Your first impressions of HCMC right off of the plane and bus are not going to be "this is a beautiful, quiet, relaxed place with a couple of scooters and cars." Heck no, you are hit upside your head that this place has either began cloning scooters with great efficiency or all 6 million people here own 2 of them. HCMC doesn't have alot of green space so I can't say that this place is way too green, no, I might say that it's way to gray in contrast.

As you walk around HCMC trying to avoid being hit by scooters or cars, you realize this place is just plain chaotic. But, a big but here, there are a few parks that provide refuge. Just jump in one of these and the pollution, bleeps from horns, and passing vecichles are now 400 meters away, and you are in your little land of bliss. Momentarily.

Crossing the street is a true adventure!

During our time here, we have spent a good amount of time looking for temp teaching jobs, but we did go visit one place of interest, the Reunification Palace. This was the presidential palace until Viet Comm took over the palace in April 1975. What really makes this place interesting other than the fact that it was once a presidential palace was all the great furniture, carpet, and styles directly from the 70's. Shaggadelic baby! Oh yea!

***New Photo*** Did he read the sign?

As the two videos illustrate, crossing the road here is truly an adventure in itself. There is a proven method to successfully crossing the street even if it does go against everything your mind and body tell you to do at the same moment. You begin walking across the street very slowly, but always keeping your eye contact with oncoming traffic and the drivers. They will slyly and very closely pass you, but not hit you. And if there are two and a half of you crossing, you hold hands just like you are in kindgergarden and stay shoulder to shoulder. The one thing you don't want to do is just stand there, that would throw them for a loop, and they would have no choice other than running over you for this bad decision.

***New Photo*** View of Royalty from the Royal Palace, HCMC

Everywhere you go in HCMC, you are approached to buy something, fruit, watches, tours, illegal substances, small children, individual cities, and coconuts. We have grown to love coconuts during our trip. After we walked out of the Reunification Palace, I figured we should take some video of me crossing the street safely over to the other side were two boys selling coconuts stood. Of note, they carry the coconuts with a bamboo stick over their shoulders attached to a pan with coconuts on one end and a cooler on the other. I figured I would have some fun with them, and I would help sell some coconuts for them. Maybe the novelty of a white westerner selling them would drum up some more business. A group of Japanese tourists did walk by amused and asked me how much they cost, but never bought any. They did laugh though. So I need to work on my coconut selling skills for the future.

My strategy from the street corner was to yell, "Buy your fresh coconut juice, only 10,000 dong!" Not only was this a surprise to tourists, but it was a big surprise to locals driving their scooters. Taking their eyes off of the road and focusing them on to me, I caused a scooter on car accident. As people cranned their necks around to look at me, they forgot about the immediate intimacy of each other. Fortunately noone was hurt in the scooter-car pileup, but the three people on the scooter were a little shaken, not stirred. I guess I have to find another corner to work on my coconut juice selling skills for the safety of us all.

Coconut seller and sellee

To properly celebrate Christmas, we decided to attend Christmas Eve night Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. As we walked towards the centrally located church, we found it more and more difficult to walk through thousands of people. Never expecting it, the Vietnamese were celebrating Christmas full throttle around the church. We had to walk through thousands upon thousands of people dancing, throwing firecrackers, spraying each other with shaving cream and silly string and the occasional tourist, and this was just to reach the front gates of the church.

Upon reaching the front gates with only glitter on our cheeks, we sat there with hundreds of people pushing up against the front gates. I felt like a piece of meat in a burrito, but I was a big piece of meat, so I could watch everything happen over the heads of the short Vietnamese squished around me. After 30 minutes of not being able to get into church, we used our "whiteness" to learn why we couldn't get in. They told us that the entrance was on the other side of the cathedral via a side door. Just like that, we were in church without the pressing crowd surrounding us. Once inside, we sat among a couple thousand Vietnamese and a few Westerners sitting down in pews, directly behind a pillar. So we sat and listened to Mass in Vietnamese staring at a big piece of concrete. Half way into service, the ushers opened the front gates, and a wave of people waiting outside rushed in. As the pews were already completely full, the crowd filled up the vacant aisles, and as we sat there, we were among at least 5,000 people. Without a doubt, this was the craziest Mass we had ever attended. Merry Christmas to all 5,000 of y'all, or at least the thousand of you within 20 feet of me!

To complete our Christmas week celebrations, we went bowling again just for the heck of it. We were both equally astonished as I started off our game with 4 strikes, that's a turkey plus a turkey leg. I was one pin away from 5 strikes in a row. After a weak middle section of the game, I finished off with two more strikes, and a total score of 191. Personal high score. Who knew we would realize our bowling prowess on this trip. Anybody from New Mexico want a game and think they can keep their bowling ball out of the arroyas?

Dancing. That is something we both like to do. During our travels we have created a new dance, the Under Budget Dance. Anytime we stay under our budget for the day, we end the day with our dance. Simply put both arms out like the macareina, do the cabbage patch, and sing "We're under budget," and you have successfully done the Under Budget Dance. Why is this of importance? We have stayed under budget everyday in Vietnam, so we've been dancing alot at night. So when you are sitting at work at 10 a.m. and feel like joining us, just stand up and do the dance.

Life is good for all two and a half of us. Our checkup with the doctor in Bangkok went well and all of the tests came back, and Nadine is in good health. We set up a two week stint teaching English to a group of nuns over at their nunery.

Enjoy your holiday break and have a great New Years. Have a drink for us and Nadine will have a juice and I will have Saigon Red for y'all.

Peace and Love
J.W.

A bus stop favorite, fried tarantula

Nadine and I are back together here in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam after 6 days apart. I was busy running around Cambodia while Nadine remained in our home away from home Thailand.

There were several reasons that I wanted to go to Cambodia. The first reason was the simple fact of Angkor Wat itself and all of the other temples. The second reason was learning about the horrible regime of the Khmer Rouge. The first reason was happy-go-lucky, and the second making you ponder why humans do what they do to each other.

Waking up at 4 a.m., Nadine and I caught a taxi with a talkative San Diegoan, as we made our way to the airport. And just like that, I was on a plane to Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia. At the same time that I touched down and passed through Khmer immigration, Nadine was just returning back to the hostel. Great woman that Nadine accompanying me to the airport. My entire time of travelling in Cambodia included early rises and running around at a frantic pace.

Having the gift and approval of visiting Cambodia while my beautiful pregnant wife stayed back in Bangkok, I had to make the most of the limited time there. Outside the airport, a deluxe tuk-tuk carried me away to my guesthouse past poverty, smiling Cambodians, and dirty roads and sidewalks.

I dropped off my bags and hired another tuk-tuk driver for the day to carry me to all of the must-see sites of Phnom Pehn. Today was going to be a busy day of visiting the dark past of Cambodia.

Back during the very complicated Vietnam War, Vietnamese communist guerilla soldiers crossed the borders over into Cambodia and promoted Communism as they fled American bombs. The Vietanmese communists joined sympathetic Khmer communists which transformed into the group known as Khmer Rouge. Having conquered the capital of Phnom Pehn, the Khmer Rouge began to promote a society, errily familiar to what is happening in Burma, where the educated were considered to be "parasites," and needed extermination. Thus, over the next 5 years, the Khmer Rouge carried out the systematic imprisonment, torture, and extermination of educated folks. 2 million people died over this short amount of time. And of the most famous prisons was S-21, and that was my first stop.

S-21 Entrance

S-21 was a school turned into a prison housing thousands of prisoners by the Pol Pot regime. It was here in this centralized location that prisoners lived in horrible conditions and hopeless life. I walked around S-21 and past floors that still had blood stains on tiles from only 30 years ago.

The facts are horrible. 50 prisoners would sleep in a classroom with their ankles chained together. They weren't allowed to move, go to the restroom, or talk without permission or risk being beaten. Prisoners were required to write daily that they opposed the the country and its' regime, even if it wasn't true. Prisoners were beaten, guarded over, and tortured by guards, and sometimes the guards themselves were only 10 years old. Horrible things happened here. When prisoners were notified they were being relocated, they knew that they were going to be killed in the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, my next stop.

S-21 and the photos of prisoners who stayed and were murdered, including Westerners

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, 14 kilometers outside of Phnom Pehn, are reached by a dusty road. Reaching the fields, which are more like the size of a single field, are cratered with holes where prisoners were buried in mass. Prisoners would arrive by truck, be blindfolded, and be required to kneel down. It was at this point that they would either be shot or clubbed in the back of the neck to death. Khmer Rouge soldiers would then dump the bodies into mass unmarked graves.

One of many mass graves

It is amazing what humans are able to do to each other for the sake of power, wealth, or even over personal philosophy. Something like this forces me to sit back and examine what causes people to do these things to other humans, and want to fight to insure that it doesn't happen again. It still does though. But there is hope. We have to learn to treat each other as a gift of God and respect and lean on one another. After this, I was ready for something a little less grave and little lighter.

As I was leaving the Killing Fields, some workers noticed a snake dart into a pipe under a walkway. "Oh, it's a dangerous one. Alright, let's take a little look." The workers grabbed a waterhose and flooded the pipe which forced the snake to flee. As soon as he got to the "fl" of flee, he was a snake pancake. He was clubbed to death by a stick.

Me - "Really, what's so dangerous about this snake with a flat head?"
Worker - "It's very dangerous. Can kill you."
M - "What? It's not really that big. What type of snake is it?"
W - "It's a cobra."
M - "Oh, I guess that is the reason for the flat head. I'll stay away from those now on."

That was my first sight of a cobra in the wild. The rest of the day I kept one eye on the scooters darting everywhere around me and any rustling in tall grass. Fortunately it was the only cobra I saw.

After cleaning off all the dirt and evil from the morning, I quickly visited the official residence of King Sihamoni at the Royal Palace. In addition to paying a $3 entry fee for this place, if you wanted to carry a camera and take pictures, you had to pay an extra $2. Being the penny pincher I am, I kept my camera firmly in my pack, and avoided paying the stupid "camera" fee. But once I reached the Silver Pagoda and the guard asked to see my ticket, he spotted the camera case hanging out of my pocket. I was forced to leave my camera with him AND pay the stupid camera fee. But, I did get some decent photos for you to enjoy and put one on this entry. So if you would like to look at it, you will need to send us a check for 20 cents for the following photo. If you don't want to avoid paying the 20 cents like me, keep your money in your pocket, and look away as you scroll down the page. Honor system y'all.

That is a 20 cent photo of the Royal Palace

After a busy day in Phnom Pehn, I was on an early bus to Siem Reap, closest town to the Angkor Wat temples. Fortunately on the way, I started talking with Rhonda from Australia who lives in Cambodia. She informed me of several things going on at Angkor Wat this weekend, a 40K bike race, a half marathon, and a ballet inside of Angkor Wat put on by the French Cultural Association. If I had my pick, it wouldn't be any New Mexican's choice of seeing guys jump around in pink tights. Either riding or running was more preferable to me.

Touching down in Siem Reap armed with Rhonda's great advice, I dropped off my stuff in my new home for the next 4 days, rented a bike, and made my way to the Temples of Angkor. Being that it was close to sunset, my only goal for the Temples of Angkor were to enjoy a nice sunset atop Phnom Bakheng.

Phnom Bakheng was one of the first temples built in Angkor, but is now famous for being the best spot to watch the sunset. Upon arrival, I was greeted with thousands of people fighting their way up stairs for a secluded Angkor sunset. I was more in awe of the number of people balancing on top of this temple than the actual sunset. After that sunsetting experience, that would be the last time I'd try to watch one there. For a secluded sunset at Angkor, Pre Rup is the place to visit.

Cycling home, I stopped at a local conveniece store to pick up some water for a long day of cycling the following day, but to my surprise, there sat cans of Dr. Pepper. What the heck?!? Of all the places you would expect to see Dr. Pepper, it would not be in one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia, but there in a fridge sat cans of cold Dr. Pepper. That would be one of my Christmas gifts to Nadine when we met up in Vietnam.

After riding to the Temples of Angkor the previous night, there would be no way that I could spend a day riding around in a crappy ol' bike. I found a quality mountain bike the next day that actually fit my long legs and I could easily rent it for 3 days for debtful price of $5. I was set for another 3 days of exploration.

My second full day among the Temples of Angkor, I planned on riding to 15 different temples in a 26K "Big Circuit." My riding carried me away from Angkor Wat so that Angkor would be my final stop of the day. My third stop of note was Ta Prohm. This is a temple that has been overrun by fig trees and vines sitting on top of temples, breaking through walls, and climbing on anything in its' way. This was a perfect photo op.

Massive fig trees among massive temple ruins

I followed Ta Prohm with a visit to Pre Rup, another temple off the beaten path. What made Pre Rup special for me other than being able to climb to the top of it was that from the top, you could see Angkor Wat in the horizon.

One of Preah Kahn's fig tree roots looks like an elephant trunk

I started the morning at 7 and at 4:30 I arrived to a sunset among the well preserved ruins of Angkor Wat. Similar to the previous evening, I was joined by thousands of neighbors. It was a great way to end a day of riding 26 kilometers through the Temples of Angkor.

By the end of the day, I had rode a bike 45 kilometers over 11 hours, and by the time I left Siem Reap I had rode 115 plus kilometers and ran another 10 kilometers. I was tired, and that made the decision whether or not to sign up for the half marathon that night being run the next morning at 6:30 in the morning through the UNESCO temples of Angkor Wat that much more difficult. But in the end, the experience overruled fatigue and I signed up for the shorter 10K race starting at 6:50.

***New Photo*** I never quite figured out what this elephant was looking at

Race day, I was once again up at 5:20, on my mountain bike and riding out to the Temples of Angkor and the Angkor Wat Half Marathon warm up for a nice little run around ruins. The run itself benefited the amputee victims of landmines. You can't go anywhere in Cambodia without seeing someone with an amputated leg, arm, foot.

I ran the race. I finished. I wasn't the last one. I did not puke. I did survive. In the end, I used a method of run/walk in that I would run one kilometer, walk 40 seconds, run another kilometer. This is a method I learned from Nadine and Nate Roller, another friend expecting a baby in the next couple of months, and it allowed me to finish without injuring myself. My final time was 49:31. My goal was to be under an hour having only run 6 times in the last 6 months. I was happy with my finishing time, but happier to have been able to do the run through Angkor Wat.

***New Photo*** Great photo of Angkor Wat at sunrise

My last day in Siem Reap, I woke up at 5:10 to go and watch the sunrise among the ruins of Angkor Wat, the perfect way to finish my time there. I was only joined by a couple of hundred people this time, rather than the thousands you encounter in the evening. As people stood by the pond, I took this chance to escape to Angkor Wat by myself. So for the next 20 minutes, I was practically the only person walking in Angkor Wat, as I perched myself on a ledge to watch the sun come over the horizon. Sweet!

Sunset at Angkor Wat

To complete a very eventful time in Cambodia, my bus from Siem Reap back to Phnom Pehn made it a little more interesting. Two hours into our trip, our bus broke down. We were stranded on the side of the road for 2 hours watching cows munch on grass. Fortunately, I didn't have to be anywhere pressing. Once a replacement arrived, we were back en route to Phnom Pehn, but as soon as we hit the next city, high government officials were present, causing a roadblock. As a result, we had to find a small, random road to get around the city. 7 1/2 hours later, my feet touched Phnom Pehn soil.

Last note, driving in Cambodia had to be the worse I have seen, and I have had the honor of visiting a few countries. Khmer drivers and scooter kamikazie pilots never felt it necessary to actually look when pulling out into any road. Include the fact that scooters use the wrong side of the road to drive, you are constantly keeping your head on a swivel watching for traffic. The lesson is, be careful driving in Cambodia or you might meet a Cambodian up close and personal.

Life is always good. We are now here in the land of a zillion scooters looking to teach Texan English for a month. If we don't find any, we will move north.

Have a very Merry Christmas and have some egg nog for us. We'll have a Dr. Pepper for you.

Peace and Love from all two and a half of us in Vietnam.
J.W.

So after our short time in Laos, we headed back into our home away from home, Thailand. We took 3 forms of transportation and 6 different vehicles to get to Khon Kaen, our next destination. We took 4 different buses, a tuk tuk and a very full share-taxi. After quite a bit of searching on foot, we found a lovely hotel for two nights.

We had just missed the culmination of the silk festival, but a full day in Khon Kaen was on the way. One thing we have found throughout our travelling in Thailand is that we are attracted to malls. I know this sounds really weird, but it's true. I think it is a little bit of the comfort of feeling like we "could" be at home with some familiar shops, the lure of the air-conditioning, and the prospect of being able to see a movie.

Well, this particular mall had something a bit different of offer: cosmic bowling! We decided to give it a try as it was cheap entertainment. We thoroughly enjoyed laughing at ourselves demonstrating our poor bowling abilities. But, I was in for quite the surprise at in the ninth frame of our last game. All of a sudden, I bowled a strike...yippee! Then...another...what the heck? Next, I bowled a third strike, and I got a turkey! For those of you who are not bowling experts, this means you got three strikes in a row, something I had never done before. As a bonus, a turkey appeared on the screen after the third strike is complete. Later on I pondered, maybe the little bambino was giving me some good luck.

After the highlight of cosmic bowling, we headed to yet another temple. We were pleasantly surprised by this glowing gold Wat. We were not able to enter the temple grounds, but were happy just gazing at this beautiful architectural wonder.

We also got a glimpse of some young monks having fun staring at the white people gawking at their temple. They were glad to share some genuine smiles with us from a classroom upstairs. The actual name of the school was a little hard to pronounce, see below.

Try to write this on your resume!

The next day we headed back to Bangkok on the most luxurious VIP bus we had been on since the start of our travels in Thailand. We were in heaven with loads of leg space, a surplus of cool air rushing out of the vents, and even some decent food. The highlight was a seat that had built-in back massage! The hours passed quickly.

One thing on the list to accomplish while we were back in Bangkok was to see a doctor. We correctly assumed they had more up-to-date facilities compared to some of the smaller places in Thailand. I was very nervous for this appointment, but John calmed me. I was very happy after the visit with the doctor. It went extremely smoothly, and he gave me some good recommendations about the pregnancy. To boot, it was very cheap. I was glad to have that over with, for now at least!

The next day, before the crack of dawn, John left for Cambodia, while I stayed in Bangkok. I was unable to travel there because one of the areas is at high risk for malaria. So I was on my own for 5 days, until we met up in Vietnam. Well during this time, I didn't do a whole lot. I rested a lot, saw some movies, visited a few sights we had missed during our previous visits in Bangkok, read everyday, and realized how much I missed my other half.

Well now we are in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, soaking up the culture of a new people and country. We are excited to travel and possibly do some volunteering or work here for a short period of time. All is well and we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Peace and love,
Nadine