Blog, July 19th, 2015
Hello, My Faithful Readers:
I’ve included a few pictures. The first being the “stairs
to heaven” in the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia. This was the access to the 3rd
level of Angkor Wat; but, I just could not find the courage to do this. Just
looking at it gave me dizzy feelings. During the Cyclo Ride, in Hanoi during the typoon, is a photo of one of our drivers (everyone in plastic). Me on the tender boat going to our "junk" ship in HaLong Bay and me on the top deck of the "junk" ship in Ha Long Bay. Finally, me in the Ba Dinh Square (Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum) we were soaked from the typhoon rain (but, honestly no one really cared) - smiles.
I have returned from my vacation in Vietnam and
Cambodia and I am back in Sagarejo. Words really won’t adequately describe all
the places that I’ve been, the things I’ve seen, the people, the food, the Mekong
River…I could go on and on. However, I do want to share with you many of the
highlights and hope that you will enjoy traveling with me as I re-live my
adventures as I write my blog. I did travel on my own; however, I was traveling
on this eighteen day adventure with an organized tour group.
Food and Water update: During my travels I took (3) showers every day.
This was so much a part of the adventure (smiles). Going from showering once a
week to showering three times a day; well, I think my body was in shock (but it
was wonderful). As for food, well, I ate three meals a day and then some. The
seafood was amazing. I had Vietnamese/Cambodian
soup every day for breakfast and sometimes for lunch. It was prepared at a soup
station in the hotels and on the ship. Bacon, peanut butter, blue cheese are
foods that I don’t get here in Georgia. They were available every day and I
took full advantage. It was so wonderful to wake up and know that I had FOOD to
look forward to.
The fruits and vegetables available were mostly
unknown to me. I tried everything and at times really had no idea what I was
eating; but, it was delicious. I ate myself silly and surprising to me when I
returned to Georgia I had lost two pounds. Of course after all the eating there
as all the walking and climbing; so, being on the go all day seemed to offset
the extra calories I was eating. The starving Peace Corps Volunteer went to bed
each night totally filled to the brim with food and dreaming of what was to
come tomorrow J.
I will begin at the beginning of my travels;
however, first I wanted to acknowledge my feelings as I returned to Georgia. As
the plane landed on the runway in Tbilisi; I could feel myself take a deep
breath and I said to myself “I’m home.” This surprised me as it was a new
feeling for me. Over the past 14 months I’ve felt at home with my host family
on the mountain; but, this was different.
Even though I don’t fully have command of the language; I nevertheless
felt like a native Georgian as I got off the plane and made my way to
immigration and clearance to enter the country.
I collected my luggage and made my way not to the
taxi stands at the airport; but, I was able to navigate myself to the autobus
stand and save (35 Lari) by taking the bus into Tbilisi (which cost less than 1
Lari). It was the perfect end to one of
the most perfect trips/adventures that I’ve had in my life.
A couple of items related to Georgia before I talk
about the trip. I had another article in my series approved and posted on the
OpEdNews.com web site (link below). Also, as I may have mentioned in another
post; the Peace Corps liked one of my articles so much that they asked me if
they could post on their Peace Corps Passport on-line web page. Of course, I
was thrilled and honored that they wanted to do that; so, that link is also
posted.
Thank
you for recently submitting "I will never say "Never" in
Georgia" which is located athttp://www.opednews.com/articles/I-will-never-say-Never-i-by-Catherine-Lawrence-Living_Thinking-150711-615.html
Also, This is very
exciting for me. I’ve been selected to do some voice-over work. During my past
life as an actor/model; I trained with casting companies to do voice-overs and
also with the teleprompter. So, I am going to get to use my skills (although I
am rusty). I will give an update in the
next blog. The project is: USAID’s New
Economic Opportunities (NEO) Initiative has been filming interviews with
project beneficiaries to highlight the results and impact of NEO activities
over the past four years. They are looking for native speaker Volunteers who
would be willing to help our on a video project. As a volunteer I would be recording the
highlights (in English) – another doors opens.
Arriving in Vietnam was like a dream. I was actually
going to see places I had only read about as a teenager/young adult growing up
during the war. Driving to the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi I tried to envision
what I would have seen on the road and streets if I had been in Hanoi during
“The American War.” I know that Hanoi
was bombed during the war; however, I could see no evidence of it in the areas
that I visited. I felt safe (from people) to walk around on my own; however, I
did not feel safe from mopeds and motorcycles (Hanoi does not have a metro). Crossing
the street was taking your life in your hand. Tourists are told not to run
across the street; but, to walk slowly and (my opinion) to pray. There are
traffic lights and cross walks; but, it seemed that traffic came out of nowhere
even when I thought I had the right of way.
I’ve attached the below link which cannot adequately
give you a real feel; but the citizens call the traffic “organized chaos”.
. As part of the tour we visited the Hanoi Hilton,
AKA – Hao Lo Prison where American’s were held captive during the war; The Ho
Chi Minh Tomb and the Temple of Literature. The links below can give more
information if you are interested.
The Metropole hotel has a bomb shelter that has been
identified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The below link can provide way more
information than I can. I was lucky to be part of one of the tours given.
Two final thought before we leave Hanoi, and believe
me I could talk about this city for pages and pages; but, we went on a http://www.hanoicyclotours.com/
Cyclo ride through Hanoi (which was lots of fun).
However, we did this as a typhoon was hitting the coast of Vietnam. The drivers
wrapped us in plastic (each person had their own driver and cyclo) and through
the pouring rain and wind we had a tour of the old city. We were all soaked
through and through; but it was tremendous fun. We didn’t want to miss any experience,
so soaking wet, we then went to the water puppet show (a unique experience in
Hanoi).
We left Hanoi and traveled to HaLong Bay to board
the ship (which I am told is called a “junk”) for a two day and one night
cruise. Because of the typhoon many groups, that were suppose to sail before my
group, were not allowed out on the water due to rough water. However, the day
we arrived the sun was shining and all was calm. So, we all gathered in the
tender boats and made our way out to the “junk.”
HaLong Bay is s UNESCO World Heritage site that
honestly, dear reader, I didn’t know about until I started to research this
trip. The ship, the accommodations, the
food, the view – again, I could go on and on. We were all so excited about
sailing in one of the most beautiful places in the world nobody wanted to go to
sleep. We lounged on the top deck to watch other ships sail by and also to see
the sun go down and the stars come out. We got to see freighters enter and exit
via the South China Sea and the Gulf of Tonkin. HaLong bay has 1,969 limestone
monolithic islands topped off with jungle vegetation.
We traveled on tender boats to see floating villages
in the bay and also explored one the many BIG caves (called Surprise Cave). I
think they said there were 800+ steps to gain entrance and exit within the
cave. I’m glad I did it but I would not do it again.
This place was next to heaven (at least as far as I
am concerned). The peace and tranquility were unexpected as there were many,
many “junk” ships afloat. I was so sad to leave this place. I hope you take a
little time, Dear Reader, to explore the links that I have listed. I also
finally understood the term “IndoChina.” Never really had any idea why Vietnam
was called by this name and felt too stupid to ask (especially as I got older).
Overall, it was an extra-ordinary experience.
We left HaLong Bay and headed to the airport as we
were about to board a flight for Siem Reap (Cambodia). It was a flawless flight into the brand new
airport in Cambodia. Our Program manager
arranged for our checked luggage to go directly to the airplane; so, we didn’t
need to go thru the checking-in process. Wow, did we all feel like VIP’s or
what! We arrived at our next destination, that is, the Sofitel hotel very near
the Angkor Temple Complex.
We spent three nights at this location so that we
had the time to explore as much of this UNESCO World Heritage Site as possible.
The first day was spent touring Angkor Thom Temple, Bayon, Baphoun Temple,
Terrace of the Elephants, Ta Prohm and Terrace of the Leper King. So much history and information; I was dizzy
between the heat, the crowds and trying to remember as much as I could. I don’t
want to include any more links; so if you google any/all of the above names
tons of information will arise.
The trees were a part of this experience; as over
the years the trees have become inter-twinded with the temple stones. I was
just in awe of seeing how the forces of nature (over the centuries) have accomplished
this. I did provide a link of this as I
was just amazed. So much of this looked like something out of a scary movie. In
fact, I think someone said something about a movie with Angelina Jole (sp?)
being made at these locations?
I forgot to mention that at every location in Hanoi,
Ha Long and now Angkor we had guides that were native to the areas. As we
toured the sites many in the group, including myself, had to take notes in
order to keep up with the information. I am sure that I forgot more than I
digested. It was just overwhelming. Each one of these adventures could be a
life time of study.
The next day we spent at Angkor Wat. A group of us
wanted to watch the sun come up over the temple; so, we were up at 4:30am and
positioned at the holy site just as it started to get light. We were not the
only ones; as there were hundreds of people all standing around waiting for the
sun to break through. It was a wonderful
sight to behold. Standing on this holy ground and just feeling the sense of
history that goes deep into the roots of the temples.
I went up and toured two of the sections of the
temple; however, the 3rd section (which is called Heaven) I just
could not do. I have included a picture of the steps that had to be climbed
both up and down and I just could not fathom doing it. So many staircases
didn’t have handrails and at times (coming down) I had to come down on my “duff.”
The guides were not happy about that. They wanted to help me by holding my hand
and guiding me down; but, I just didn’t feel safe. I did the same thing when I
was in India (Khajuraho). Just cannot come down steps (lots of steps) without
handrails. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khajuraho_Group_of_Monuments
One other point was the heat. It was so hot; as
there are 2 climates in Vietnam and Cambodia…”hot and very hot” or “dry and
wet.” We were lucky as there was not a lot of rain (once the typhoon left the
coast of Vietnam); however, the heat was something else. I have no idea what
the temperature and humidity was as I purposely didn’t look to see the numbers.
I could not do anything about it; so the less I knew the better. Other than at
the end of the tour we were all soaking wet. The air conditioning inside the
hotel was fabulous and the pool was awesome also so we could cool down.
I think I will close here and begin again with the
next blog. I hope you are enjoying my travels and will begin again with more
adventures here in Georgia as well as continuing on with my trip. Although school is closed and I am enjoying a
summer that is work free (yippee); there is still lots of stuff going on. I
will soon be going out west in Georgia to help volunteers organize a summer
camp and I am planning a trip to Batumi to see the Black Sea. Of course, I am
enjoying my host family and the paradise that is the porch and garden here on
my mountain; however, my mind reaches back and I re-live so much of where I was
and what I experienced in SouthEast Asia. (I am not done with this part of the world - just loved it).
All the Best,
Catherine
Lawrence, G14 – 7/19/15
Peace Corps Volunteer/Georgia
The
contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of
the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.
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