It’s one of those places that you realize you are there, but it feels as though you are reading about you doing it. You are imagining yourself walking through a canal ridden city with odd shapes and sounds all around you. The haze of smoke on some small streets and nature in her perfection on others. So much life going on. So many choices. The whole city hums to its own tune. Doors far too small and doors far too large. Old and new, slightly slanted. Simultaneously spleenful and orectic. Not to mention, it is where I met HIM again.
Tag: backpacking
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The Memorial to the Murdered Jews, Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, Berlin
Situated near the Brandenburg Gate lies Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, a 25 million dollar memorial dedicated to the lost lives of Jewish people during WWII. There are no words. Nothing written. No sounds. Only you, and blocks of cement on a slope. I say it plainly because, to me, it is so facinating that the artists were able to bring life to cement blocks, to push the spectator to feel. While it does not compare, in my opinion, to the feeling I get when entering an old jewish camp, this piece of art comes creepily close. Never Forget.
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The Mae Song River, Laos
What was once the considered the soul of the Lao people, the Mae Song, today is considered the soul of the lost. They depise what it has become, because it is now the resting place of unrested souls. Ask me about this.
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Vang Vieng, Laos
When you only have about a week to spare and you are in Bangkok, go to Laos. The travel is pretty simple. Air Asia flys into almost everywhere from Bangkok, and where it does not fly to, you can bus to. I am not going to say it is going to be the most comfortable ride ever, but you will get there. I did it. And I loved every minute of my journey. From Bangkok, I took an Air Asia flight to Udon Thani in Thailand. From the airport, I found a bus that would take me to the Thai-Lao Friendsip Bridge, where I could get my short-stay visa. After exiting immigration, into Laos, it gets funny. Every taxi cab driver asking to take you where you would like to go, because from the immigration terminal, the bus terminal is a bit of a ways. So, chatter chatter chatter, you look safe, sounds great. Though I forget my taxi cab drivers name, our short 20 minute journey is unforgettable. So, I get into the back of his cab, old leather blue seats, ceiling carpet pinned to the roof, no radio, oh and it is a mercades.. an old mercades, the kind where there is no entry point to the front from the back.
So, we drive, we chat, I play bob marley for us, asking him if he knows the artist- he doesn’t. We giggle at the fact that we do not fully understand each other. And then it happens. Screeeeeechhhhhhhhhhhhhh, boom, ouch. Someone just slammed into the back of us and I cannot get out of the car.
How did this happen? Well, this cute little woman on a moped, tried to park her bike on the sidewalk and she didn’t settle it down before walking away. So, as she steps away to purchase her coffee, she sees in the back of her eyes that her bike is falling into the street. She bends down to pick it up, not looking at what is coming (possible decapitation), so we break. HARD. Slam, boom, I am stuck in the back of a wrecked vehicle. My poor taxi driver gets out, yells at the woman, yells at the man who just hit his sole source of income, and then thinks- and helps me out the car, over the front seat and out (for my door is jammed). I get out, thinking, what the heck is going to happen now? I needed to catch the next bus to get to Vang Vieng on time, and now where am I? Then I hear voices behind me inside the coffee shop. So, I go in and I wait. I buy a beer and wait. An hour later, after paying the taxi half his money, he calls a friend of his to come pick me up and drop me off at the bus station. Thankfully. And with no physical damage done to anyone, my new bob marley fan of a friend is left waving to sort out his own problem. Yikes.
But, I think, I want to get to Vang Vieng. I have hostel reservations and am supposed to meet up with my friend Michael. He will worry if not. So, to the bus station I go. I arrive pretty late, Michael is no where in site. So, I find wifi and facebook him. You can find me at “——–“, with a beer and some food. Hours later he shows, whew. And we begin to explore Laos, chat by chat, through mosquitos, new Lao friends, new British friends, watching screwed up tourists with hurt faces from falling, and little by little capturing the fact that Vang Vieng is not the real Laos. It is party tourist Laos. But, being there with no time to travel else where, we took it for what is was and sought to find the trueness of where we were: somewhere between lost and found.
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Ta Phrom, Angkor Wat Complex, Siem Reap
As long as your roots are strong, you can grow any place you like. Lesson learned. Attempting to live the same.
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Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
From Hanoi, we set out via private car to the port of the Gulf of Tonkin for our excursion to Ha Long Bay. The port is a mess of tourists, all being herded by vietmanese cattle drivers. You there, no no, come come, you wait. ATMs are hard to come by, and you need cash, so make sure to pull out your DONG here. Play on words, but seriously, pull out your DONG (Vietmanese Currency). Although some may accept USD.
After about an hour of moving from here to there, we got on our boat. Though I was simply a tourist, I felt like a pirate. Of course, all the boats are made to look like pirate ships and therefore make you feel all ARRRGG, but even though you know its a trick, the boats do the job. As a tourist, in the mist of the bay, I set out for an evening at sea. Darting through islands, looking at the stars and sipping cocktails. Eventually I make my way to your room, and settled in for a pirates nap. As I woke up in the early morning, after a soft night of sleep at “sea”, I was taken aback by the beauty of the bay.
Ha Long Bay is a designated World Heritage Site and feels like a magical land you seek only on epic, pirate’s tale kind of adventure. It is one of earth’s most spectacular beauties. Halong translates as ‘where the dragon descends into the sea’, and as legend claims, the islands of Ha long Bay were created as a great dragon from the deepest part of the mountains, sped towards the coast, creating valleys and crevasses in its midst. And as the mighty dragon dove into the sea, he filled the valleys with water, leaving only the peaks for human eyes to see.
As we carved our way to the end of the bay, I was seriously on the look out for that dragon. Ha Long is that mystical and beautiful.
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Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
The salvages of war can still be seen. The lack of governance and extreme poverty shine, like the new pair of Channel heels a Western woman stomps around in. Pollution so thick, grabbing one molecule of it seems feasible. Labor, especially for women, so back breaking… I could feel the pain as I sat my happy ass on the bus. The concept of development and developing countries, for the first time, is clear. And in all of this, I still came out amazed by the sheer brilliance and drive of the average Vietmanese man and woman. This connection I witnessed between my world and theirs, and the understanding I gained, will forever be with me.
Allison A Janssen 