A Journey to Stillness

The pond is still, cherry blossom petals resting on its surface, surrounding a thick island drop. A tree, poses serenely for centuries in the center, surrounded by younglings. Stillness. A bridge from one place to another , without motion, lays near. Green – deep, rich, on black water, in shade – drenches all. This is the scene that is so close to my heart now. It’s a mixture of a 1000 different frames, each special, each peaceful. It’s a misty rice field among a million, endless hills in China, or a gray, calm, stone lake in the heart of pulsing Hanoi. It’s a giant elm tree enveloping me in silence, away from the bustling bay front of Sydney. It’s a house, on a plateau, with a forest of flowers, idly flourishing in Melbourne. It’s the silence, before crawl of dawn above the spires of Angkor Watt. It is the act of doing nothing, all day, on a white beach, in front of a world of still blue water in Vietnam. Or the beauty of a billion lights, silent, forming the endless miles of Hong Kong Skyline. Or the moment, in a beautiful woman’s arms, of oneness, not urged by desire, but rising from the perfection of the moment.

I have found moments of peace here – there - those places. They will be with me, laying just under me to be ushered up to consciousness on a frenetic moment’s notice. Moments when self was almost no more, and the moment, the place, the silence was all that was.

Glenn and Jonathan's Journey Summary

Kyoto, Japan (Apr 22-25)

Kyoto

My Impressions of Kyoto
This is the Paris of the East. It’s a friendly, spiritual place. It’s a place for walking. My cab drivers here have all engaged me in conversation, though there English was pretty much non-existent. On the way to Sushi, one told me that even more than sushi, he liked Kentucky Fried Chicken and Starbucks. We both got a laugh out of that.

This place is very different from Tokyo. It has been built with a gentle hand. The main train station houses almost all of the large shopping centers. Its big, but not ugly or badly done. All else is a fluid mixture of temple, shrine, garden and buildings. Over 100 temples just on the tourist map. They vary in size and magnificence, but all that I have seen have been beautiful.

Day 1
The bullet train was smooth and somewhat exciting. Going 160 miles an hour on the ground is not something you do every day. The first temple we saw was Sanjusangendo, a Buddhist Temple with 1000 golden statues of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. The temple was founded in 1164 and its present structures date from 1266. The main hall, which houses the statues, is over 100 meters long and Japan's longest wooden structure. Each of the statues were slightly different, for example some with the eyes totally open, some somewhat closed.

After that, we walked to Kiyomizudera Temple, one of the highlights of our time in Japan. The temple and its 10 or so buildings are set on the side of a mountain overlooking the entire city. A view juxtaposes wooden temple, trees and city beautifully. It is being touted as one of the 7 New Wonders of the World.

Day 2
Sleep was difficult, and I woke up exhausted for the tour the next morning. We saw Nijo Castle, a Shogun palace. The boards in the palace all squeaked intentionally to warn the Shogun as people approached. Never can be too careful with those Ninjas lurking about. The Castle was built almost 1000 years ago, and the paintings were restored over a 2 year process due to their complexity.

Kinkakuji Temple or “Golden Pavilion” was built by a 29 year old Shogun who retired early to dedicated himself to good works. He built the impressive Pavilion when he was 37 and gave it to Shinto caretakers upon his death. It was exceptionally beautiful and redone recently with over 20 KG of gold.

The Imperial Palace was the headquarters of government for Japan when Kyoto was the capital. From the outside, it looked similar to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, but now we could go inside. It was impressive and beautiful.

At night, I decided to have a high-end Sushi meal. My hotel recommended a place called Naka Ichi about 20 minutes away. It was a set menu, so I was a bit worried, but as soon as I arrived and all my fears were relieved. I ordered the 10,000 yen meal, (about $80) and sat back for the best Sushi meal I have had in a while. I knew I was in the right place because of the 12 other people in the small restaurant, 8 were couples where the man was impressively dressed and 20-30 years older than the beautiful girl to his side. This was where rich playboys took their young girlfriends to impress them – the sushi had to be good. And it was.

The first course was a salmon slushy mixture that was awesome. Then some sashimi (not sure what kind of fish it was, but it was good), then soup, then they started with the endless amount of Sushi. A French guy named Ewen sat next to me. The only other westerner in the place and he was bald with a beard (like me) and worked on structured products at Citicorp in London, a job similar to what I had done at Goldman for my last year there. We talked for a long time as we enjoyed our Sushi. He had accidentally gone into the place next door and they had basically booted him. Before he left, he saw a beautiful girl who he thinks was Geisha. Most of the restaurants along the secluded street were most probably private clubs. Hotels sent their premium guests to Naka Ichi because I they are one of the only ones that would serve “our kind”. I left and went home to sleep.

My Last Day
Let me tell you of my journey today. I woke late. Sleep has been hard to get at night, not because of anxiety, but more because the hotel rooms are stuffy and its noisy outside. Also, though Glenn has been the greatest of travel companions, it’s tough to sleep in the same room with somebody if that room is stuffy and noisy.

I woke with an open mind. I went up to the Ginkakuji temple (Silver Pavilion) and also the start of the Philosopher’s Path. I started with an indifference to what I would see, only that I felt I would follow the right path. Ginkakuji had beautiful gardens, many parts covered in a warm, furry, green moss. I stood for a while, looking out past the moss, past a fence and into a forest of slender, tall trees.

I left the Temple and walked along the Philosopher’s Path, a part stone, part gravel path along a canal, surrounded by cherry blossom trees in a northeast suburb of Kyoto. The architecture of each building blended with a unique Japanese flow and mystique. The canal was shallow, flowing moderately, peacefully. People and bicycles occasionally drifted by. A few bridges down, a sign pointed east, up the hill, directing towards a Temple. I followed the path, found the temple, but it was closed. I continued up the hill, as the homes quickly turned steeper, more aged, more beautiful. At the top of the street, a ways up the hill, there was a house that looked more like a shrine. It blended into the wooded side of the mountain. The air felt cooler here. I entered the woods and a deep calm silence covered me. I stopped and rested.

I walked down the hill and back to the Path. Two woman walked in front of me. I passed them and heard a enthusiastic conversation about a previous trip they had been on. On that trip, everything they had packed had wrinkled except their jeans, so they spent the whole trip in those unwrinkled jeans. I heard them chatting back and forth as they fell into the distance. I stopped at another temple and meditated. Two tourists looked at a map deciding their next visit site. I continued on, stopping again at Eikando Zenrin-Ji Temple. I took off my shoes at an empty sanctuary entrance and meditated in the corner. When I opened my eyes, ten others were praying in the room. I watched them, focused, saying things, bowing. I walked around a bit and heard “Amida”, the name of the Buddha Eikan’s believe saves us all. Their prayer is the recitation and repetition of the name. They believe that if anyone says the name of Amida from the heart, he will be reborn in the Pure Land Paradise and become a Buddha. I entered the lavishly decorated sanctuary and saw a young monk reciting “Amida” and occasionally hitting a spherical bong. Two French tourists watched as well. It was mesmerizing and spiritual.

I left and walked home, stopping to admire the homes, the beautiful integration of old a new, nature and building, the holy and the daily life.

Impressions of Japan
So, in the two cities I saw two of the sides of Japan- each impressive and beautiful in its own right. Like the moon that you might see as crescent on one day and full another, Japan is one whole, that I can only hope to see glimpses of in my short trip here. I can’t possibly hope to understand this ancient, complicated, and spiritual place. But it was fun trying.

Tokyo, Japan (Apr 18-22)

Tokyo

Day 1
The flight into Tokyo is all luxury, even in coach class. They come by often for drinks, the meal is good. The TVs are filled with movies that we want to see. Best of all, the airplane has a camera in front. When taking off and landing, you can see what the pilot sees. SOOOO cool. You feel like you are in a real flight simulator.

Day 1 –
We got to our hotel, the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, in all its humongousness, and settled in. Happily, our rooms were was much bigger than we had expected them to be. We got lucky (and had a good travel agent). The hotel, in true Japanese way, had an 80 lane bowling alley (packed at all times of the day with groovy Japanese Youth), about 10 restaurants, a cinema, shopping center (3 of them actually), and much more.

Like all first nights, I was exhausted from travel. But I was also incredibly excited about being in Tokyo. At 12:30 at night I had my clothes on a ready to go…..and then decided that it was too late and we had three nights here. I needed sleep but because our air conditioner was broken, I wound up not getting anyway.

Our tour the next day was OK, but not as exceptional as I thought it would be. Our first stop was Tokyo tower, which, though the view was OK did not provide the thrill that other views had given. (In a few nights, we would be wowed by the amazing view from the Park Hyatt.) At 150 meters, we already had bunge jumped off of the height! We then went to Imperial Palace, which we could only walk for 5 minutes along the outside wall and couldn’t see anything inside. Asakusa Temple was a beautiful temple complex, with a 5 story high pagoda.

We came home, slept and prepared for our first night out in Tokyo. We were told the place to go was Rappongi. Upon arrival, we were immediately knocked over by dozens of Nigerians hocking a range of different strip clubs. We learned quickly that there were very few Caucasian woman (ratio of 10 to 1) And this pushed Caucasian guys into pretty expensive "alternatives". Strip clubs were 60 dollars to get in and 60 dollars a dance (3-4 minutes). In addition, there are clubs where you pay about the same amount to have drinks with a woman. Drinks and conversation, that’s it. And we met a woman on the street that works at one of these places. You would almost have to pay me to talk to her.

Our nights out in Tokyo were interesting, but it definitely is a different scene. Some locals we met took us to a “great club”, which had a $30 cover charge. Crowded it was. Great it was not. Located in a suburban area basement, it had a DJ spinning what would have been good live jazz/fusion music, but it was not live. It was a DJ. When the artists (on the album) would finish, people would clap. Ummm, guys, it’s a recording. Instead of dancing with each other, they faced the DJ, like lost sheep in need of a leader. And, they couldn’t dance to save their lives. So, its definitely different.

We did have some amazing experiences in Tokyo. On our last day, we took a beautiful walk though Yoyogi Park. It was Earth Day and thousands of people were all around, enjoying the ‘60s being relived, the groovy bands, the tie-die colors, the people playing drums like they were in central park, and just enjoying picnics on the endless gardens. It was an idyllic day and the people seemed happy.

Also, we went to the Park Hyatt where they filmed Lost in Translation on our last night. Except for the steep prices for drinks, we had a great time enjoying the magnificent view and meeting some interesting (though somewhat frigid) woman.

Beijing, China (Apr 15-18)

Beijing

Day 1:
Beijing is a huge city with 16 million people (33 million if you add in commuters). It stretches forever, with wide roads that can only be compared to the strip in Vegas. Buildings, with maximum height of 35 floors line the main streets forming what seems to be endless suburban office parks.

We got in late, ordered from room service, instead of going to the 24 hour McDonald’s right down the street, and went to bed. As we have for most of the trip, we are staying in a upper end hotel, this one a Novotel, filled with foreign business people and tourists.

But even here, English is a problem. And the language barrier is SOOO high here. It’s crazy that you can’t even gesture things correctly here. When they are talking or writing you just have NO idea what they are saying. Directions written out in Chinese characters are incomprehensible – do they say the place, which streets to go on? Sometimes our concierge or somebody helping us will write long phrases. Sometimes just two words. Sometimes a cab driver will look at these directions/destination and mumble stuff negatively that I think means they don’t know what is written. Sometimes another cab driver will look at the same writing and say something that seems positive, so we will get in the cab. It’s a complete guessing game. But fun! Always pretty fun.

The hawkers here are brutal. In Cambodia, they were all about “Chicklet?” or “Taxi?”. Here they grab you and tell you about their drink special. Or “Lady Bah”, which we haven’t really heard since Bangkok. Walking down the street, they can be relentless, with one or two following you while new guys come up to you and just grab and yell at you. However, believe it or not, though somewhat annoying, this game of avoidance and “Bu Yao, Che CHe” (no thank you) is quite amusing, at least for the three days we are here.

Day 2: Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven
Now we are talkin’! These are the most impressive sites we have seen on the trip. For good reason. Ankgor Wat was interesting, Guilin and Houlong Bay were beautiful, but Forbidden City (and the Great Wall) are truly amazing. The temples in Bangkok are sizable (especially the giant reclining Buddha) and often works of great achievement, but they were often gaudy and missed the aesthetic mark. These sites, starting with The Temple of Heaven, are truly beautiful. Their Fung Shue (spelling?), their aesthetic, their feel, are breathtaking. The temple of heaven is a cylindrical tower temple where the Yongse Emporer of the Ming Dynasty would come to pray for good crops two times a year. It is beautiful and captures the imagination and craftsmanship of the Chinese people. It was built over 500 years ago of all wood (and is restored about every 25-35 years these days), but has stayed perfectly consistent with the initial design.

And that’s the incredible thing about China- the age and consistency of their heritage. Our tour guide’s family has been in Beijing for 400 years! Holy cow. Through good, bad, strife, war, invasion, 2 dynasties (Ming, Qing) plus Koumintang, and the current communist government; through wars (which killed 10’s of millions), through the cultural revolution (which killed millions), the great leap forward (which killed 30-60 million), though Japanese invasion (which killed millions), through revolution – they have been in the same city. After 18, I have only stayed in the same city for at most 4 years. Um, a little different.

Nothing in a large radius around the Temple of Heaven can be built higher than it, so the view from the courtyard is vast, though the skyline of Beijing is unimpressive – one medium sized, fat office building after another.

The Forbidden City is massive, with tall front gates and colorful pagoda-like buildings throughout. We entered through the living quarters of the Emperor, where many emperors of Ming and Ching Dynasties had slept. Their quarters included room for their 3000 concubines. Now, though it might sound glamorous, the life of a concubine was, well, not all that attractive. For starters, they are taken from their villages without their choice. They are prepared and trained for 3 years. They spend their lives “pleasing” the emperor, though after every sexual encounter they are told whether to “drink the soup” or not, the soup being a natural birth control mixture (hmmm, marketing opportunity?). If they have children, they get promoted. If they do not, they stay low, without much say in their lives. Their lives are endlessly boring, with nothing really to do but sew and walk around.

When the Emperor dies, it gets worse. If they have not had a son for the emperor, the concubine is buried alive in the tomb of the dead emperor, sometimes with all of the concubine children of the emperor (that are not selected to rule) – so they can serve the emperor in the afterlife. Not really a good deal, eh? The only thing worse is to be a guy who had to take care of the concubines…..can you say eunuch?

The last day, we went to see Ming’s tomb, which actually contains the tombs of 14 emperors since the 15 century. Tranquil, guarded by huge limestone statues of lions, elephants, dragons, and others, the tomb is just the top of tombs that lie 100’s of feet below the ground. All tombs except for one have been left intact, unopened because of fear that the low water level would force water to rush in and destroy the contents, as it did for the one tomb that was opened in the 1930’s. What’s most impressive is that though the Japanese and communists sought to destroy all things old and Chinese, these things were, for the most part, untouched (or able to be rebuilt). The limestone statues are so hard at Ming’s tomb, that Japanese soldiers who tried to cut into them were unsuccessful and they remain intact.

Next on the tour of the Forbidden City was the living quarters, complete with actual furniture. The first thing that strikes you is, though the forbidden city is vast, with 9999 rooms (well, not exactly “rooms”, but “rooms” where a room is defined as an area surrounded by 4 pillars), the actual furniture of the Emperor was small and the bed wasn’t even a king sized bed, it was more like a Full. The irony. All the power in the world, 3000 concubines….and a small bed.

Many of the items in the Forbidden City and in the Summer Palace were greatly enhanced or change by the Dowager Empress – a pretty bad ruler who started as the head concubine for a Ching Emperor, and then, upon his death, was the mother of his only son. She controlled her son, and then once he died, the nephew (who she eventually killed) and finally, “the Last Emperor” of movie fame. She is blamed for single-handedly ruining the empire and expediting the fall of the monarchy. Her classic dumb move was taking a large amount of the navy’s budget and spending it building a huge marble boat at the Summer Palace. Nice job.

The central court of the Forbidden City is expansive and beautiful. Leaving it through the main entrance, you reach Tianneman Square, which is militaristic and impressive. In the middle sits the Mao Mausoleum and the whole thing looks like a much bigger version of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum area in Hanoi. Embalming was all the craze with founding Communist dictators. Its big. There are a lot of people there. We asked our tour guide about the protests n 1989. They obviously did not see them on TV, but in her 1000s of tours of American’s, she has learned all about it and even knows where the famous tank scene was.

Which leads me into the most important discussion of all. It’s not communist. I have no idea what pinko ideas they started with, but China is NOT communist. They might be a one-party dictatorship. They might have total control to take and appropriate land and hotel rooms. The telephone company, airline, trains, taxi’s, apartment buildings, etc. might all be owned by the state. But this is NOT a communist country. Everything here is as capitalistic as you could imagine. From the hawking of copied DVDs to the very nature to the huge supermarkets (these ain’t no Russian bread lines, these are fully stocked markets that put Publix to shame) this country is letting its people earn their livings through free markets. Also, the internet has opened up freedom of speech for most, with almost all the citizens able to log onto CNN or yahoo in Chinese and reading criticisms of the government in their native tongue. However, there are still some remnants of the socialist way of life, and capitalism brings with it many bag things – a growing discrepancy between the wealthy and abject poor, etc. We’ll see where they wind up.

The Summer Palace was the most beautiful palace of all, integrated perfectly into nature. It was about 20 km from the other palaces, in an area that, just 20 years ago, was rice fields and now is built up. But the gigantic man-made lake, man-made hill and luxurious pogado’s and temples made this site calming, beautiful and interesting. It’s also the location of the famed marble boat. Ugh.

Nightlife in Beijing
At night, we went to the Sanliturn Bar Street, recommended in Lonely planet as a ex-pat and tourist hangout. Except for amazingly annoying hawkers, on this Monday night, it was close to abandoned. However, after eating an OK dinner where the restaurant tried to charge us $15 for tea (remember, this is China where tea is most of the time free), we explored some more empty bars. We went to one bar that was supposedly on weekends so crowded, you had to grease yourself us to get to the bar to order a drink. It had three locals in it.

We then went to Yao Club, a Chinese dance club, where we were the ONLY westerners. By the difficulty we had ordering drinks, I would guess it had been 6 months since they had served a Westerner. While we were there, other Caucasians walked in….and then walked out – I would guess to be the usual situation.

However, having practiced our “Dominate on the Dance floor” routine in Yangshou, we were ready. Here, though, nobody was even really looking at us. No Hawkers. No “hello sir”. We made our way up to the dance floor which had about 15 woman and 1 guy dancing. Guys in Asia don’t know how to dance and don’t dance. Woman for the most part at least move a bit, but wouldn’t win any dancing contests in the states. I started dancing, Glenn started his controlled flail and we were off. Within seconds, the woman crowded around us. I chose a scantily clad, somewhat attractive local and we danced for about 15 minutes, getting progressively more dirty. I was a bit reserved in the beginning, but, as I learned, the shy ones can get quite crazy when given the chance. Jo-Jo (obviously Englisized) knew a bit of English, and after our dirty dancing session, we went to the bar with Glenn and his chick (a friend of Jo-Jo’s) to grab a drink. We talked for a bit, but it got. Neither Glenn nor I wanted to close on our prospects, so we left.

We were going to go home when we ran into 4 French students from Dauphin University who were going to meet up with their gang at Shooters. I instantly clicked with Catherine, an attractive Brunette. After walking around a bit, and getting some good footage of the Hawkers, we went over to Shooters and hung out with 20 fun Frenchies (who would have thought). Included in the wild dancing, was $1 shots all night long (which helped).

Day 3: The Great Wall
We went to a closest section of the wall to Beijing, which had LOTS of tourist stuff around it. Much of this part of the wall had been rebuilt from the original 400 BC stuff in the 15th century by the Ming. It was not a flat part, but a steep climbing wall with over 1000 steps leading to impressive views. It was both inspirational and physical challenging. The wall is the ultimate feat of man – 6,000,000 people worked on it for decades. Its height, solidness and relative success (it did protect the border for a significant amount of time) was unmatched in history. Though each small section is no grander than any other old wall (think Israel, Greece, Rome, Cambodia, etc.) in aggregate it is breathtaking.

We arrived at the wall at about 11:00. This section goes around in a circle, with other connecting parts destroyed and not rebuilt until. The next section of Wall were over the ridges on both sides. So when you are climbing it and you get to the top, you are in essence at a dead end.
Through the climb, we learned a trite, old lesson, in the best way we could have ever done so. It’s been told at least a billion times, but I have never seen such a clear example. I think its relevant to our task. Glenn and I visited the Great Wall a few days ago. Our site along the wall was on a hill, and to walk on the wall, you had to climb about 1300 steps. I am in pretty good shape now, so we began fast, passing people as we went up. We passed this one guy who was going slowly. After a few watch towers, we needed to rest, then we sped up and then needed to rest some more as we inevitably got tired. We were motivating each other to go up, pushing harder. But it was tough work. It was not too long until the slow guy, walking perfectly meticulously, not speeding up on the easy steps, not slowing down on the steep steps, passed us. We sped up and passed him, but sure enough, his turtle beat our hare and eventually he was way ahead of us.
Tired, emotional, panting, sore, we finally slowed down and imitated the guy. We walked deliberately and slowly, always at the same slow, but consistent pace. We began passing people. We weren’t panting, we weren’t sweating. We were no longer sore. We no longer need to hype up our emotions. We just kept moving forward. Now that we weren’t focusing all our energy on just getting up the stairs, we started talking to each, noticing that we were really on the Great Wall and had a great time.
Meanwhile, there were some young kids that kept passing us in the beginning of this exercise. Sure enough, we made it to the top long before they (panting) did.
Upcoming in business, I am my partners have a very high wall to climb. The only way to do it is through the slowest, most deliberate execution of the mundane. I now see how that should be done. No exasperation. No emotion. No sprinting. Just the slow, meticulous, emotionless execution of the long slow hike.

The third night we went to dinner and then stayed in, getting rest in preparation for Tokyo.

Guilin & Yanghsou, China (Apr 12-15)

Guilin & Yangshou

You know you are in China when…you are still in the bathroom and the airplane starts taxiing and as you are getting closer to runway a guy just stands up and goes to the bathroom. Also, when you have blaring advertisements on plane.

Got to Guilin – The smoke and dirtiness of this relatively un-industrial city still hits you as you exit the terminal. Our initial hotel rooms were taken by the government for some convention, so we were moved to new hotel – 5 stars. Went to eat – not many (any?) Caucasian tourists. Took 10 seconds leaving hotel to be asked if we want “woman”. Beautiful pogoda’s of sun+moon = bright future for Guilin. Dinner was nothing special and it was difficult to order.

Very tired. All the traveling is finally taking its toll. We got little sleep the first night in Guilin, and had to be up early the next day for the boat ride down the river. Chris, our awesome tour guide, showed up and we were off. Unlike other tours, we were on a boat with many other people, including a group of high schoolers from Piedmont, California. Among other entertaining things they were doing, they had caught the Rubik’s cube craze full on. When I was in 6th grade, I could do the cube in about a minute and would charge $1 to people for me to do their cube. Always the entrepreneur. However, I have since forgotten almost everything about doing them. It’s not like riding a bike. So, I borrowed one of their cubes and did one side, and figured out the basic movements of the pieces. They offered to help, but I wanted to figure it out from first principals. I was mid way through the sides when we docked. I will continue in the pleasant comforts of South Beach.

Guilin has amazing views of Karsks, but they were somewhat wasted on me during the trip. These were fairly similar to those we saw 5 days before in Houlong Bay, outside of Hanoi, and my fatigue was making it difficult to appreciate the beauty. As the long line of tour boats snakes through the Li River, we heard tour guides point out the nine horses, the beautiful girl – all questionable objects in the rocks. Overall, the tour was amazing, just it would have been better had we not seen the same thing a week before and had more sleep.

On the boat, I met Stanley, who was traveling with his wife. They were from California as well. At 55, he thought he would work for the company he was at “until I didn’t want to come in anymore”. At 57, he was called in to the boss’s office and laid off. He initially thought that day was one of the worst of his life. But, since then, he has come to see that it’s the best thing that ever happened to him. He wakes up happy every day glad to be alive. He travels and is seeing everything he never saw before. He was reborn.

Yangshou – Day 1
Yangshou is an amazing city. Unlike the more industrial city of Guilin, this smaller city 65 km away is pure tourism. Surroundedby amazing rock formations, it’s literally set in the middle of beauty. Lonely planet points out its a tourist haven …but almost all of the tourists are Chinese.

When you get off the boat, you enter into West (Xi Jie) Street, a very long street filled with vendors, restaurants, bars. It’s very touristy, but done in very attractive, authentic Chinese style. This is not the schlocky vendors of yesteryear. The newest bars targeting Asian tourists are complete with stocked alcohol walls, thumping sound systems and light systems that are like mini-SoBe. The vendors range from totally schlocky to foot stores that could have signs above them reading Foot Locker. The products are pretty consistent throughout and, in general, good quality. Its rainy season but still the main tourist season for Yangshou, so West street is crowded from morning until midnight, when it starts to empty out. The sounds of bargaining – “OK…..$150, come back! I give you!”, the punching of prices up on calculators to break the language barriers – the hawking “sir, good price for you”, it’s all here, pulsating, beautiful. Capitalism alive and well in red China.

When we got there, Chris took us to our hotel…..5 km away from West street and the center of town. We got there and said “No”. He got on the phone, and like he did a few times, got things done and got us switched to a the Magnolia hotel right in the middle of town – noisier during the day, but a small price to pay to be near the heart of this funky place.

The first thing I did was sleep for 4 hours. I was exhausted. Then, got up and walked the streets of Yangshou. Once you got off the main drags, it was completely Asian tourists, but on the main streets, 5-10% was Western visitors. Glenn and I went to dinner at a fantastic vegetarian restaurant attached our hotel. Throughout the trip, finding stuff that is appetizing, filling and that is vege for Glenn is always a challenge and time-consuming. This was the easy and delicious choice. Dining, we met Alexi, a student from Univerisity of Virginia who was studying in Shanghai and down in Guilin traveling of the weekend.

After dinner, we hit the town. We started at MC Blues Bar, owned by an Aussi, and right off the bat, met 2 of the 5-10 Caucasian woman – Abigail and Kristie. Abigail had just returned from 4 weeks in England, where she was from. They had both been in Yangshou for about 2 years and worked for China Climb, a climbing guide company across the street. Kristie was set to leave for 6 weeks in Vancouver in a few days. They were good friends sharing a drink. Oh, but things were not that simple. Abi had broken up with her boyfriend Corgan, who she had dated from 18 months, and Kristie had dated before him for a few months before that. While Abi had been away, Kristie had fooled around with Corgan again. Abi was ok with that, but after being dumped by Corgan, was love sick and wanted him back. Oh, the drama….

Anyhoo, Kristie was a very interesting person. She was heavily in yoga, meditation, tantric energies and had done a number of retreats. Her tattoos coordinated with her beliefs and she showed us (almost) all of them.

When we left MC Blues a few hours later, much of the streets had emptied and we realized that Yangshou did not have much to offer in terms of Caucasian woman. We went to another bar where I met, Chelsea from Melbourne. She was waiting on her long lost love who would be back in a 4 weeks. We danced, but no luck for the bald guy.

Day 2 – The Bike Ride and Water Performance
The next day we slept late, had a leisurely lunch and then went on a fantastic bike ride out to the countryside. It was pouring rain for the first part of the trip and as we passed locals, they would yell and wave and cheer us on (or wonder what the heck crazy westerners were doing), but it was definitely an experience. The view leaving the city, surrounded by amazing, almost other-worldly rock formations, through the rain, with the saturated green rice fields and and hillsides, was something to always remember. After riding for a while, we stopped on a dirt path in the middle of rice fields, surrounded by dozens of Karsks and just stood there, admiring the beauty and uniqueness of the experience.

On our way back, we saw a water buffalo and took a picture of it, only to be harassed by an old lady that taking that picture would cost us 3 yuen. I told her I would give her 1 yuen. She wouldn’t take it. So I started to walk away. Then she took it.

Chris got us tickets at the last minute to a water show produced and directed by the most popular movie director in China. It is the most successful show in China. It was like “O” out in Vegas except not so much acrobatics and 50 times as many performers. The scale of this thing was immense, probably having up to 300 people on the big pond stage at one time. The story was of a fisherman falling in love with a popular singer/tea girl. It was easily understandable in any language. The choreography with colorful props made this almost bigger than life. And, set in the backdrop of the beautiful Karsks made it all the more incredible.

We came back to another night out in Yangshou. This time, we went to some all Asian bars, where we were the big hits on the dance floor. Where ever we went, people swarmed to us, the girls pushed one another into us and we were the kings of the cabana. However, the novelty wore off after 10-15 minutes and we would head to the next bar. In all of them, we couldn’t find woman that we actually wanted to “get to know”. The Chinese here are not exactly attractive.

Rock Climbing
The next day was the most exciting. My conversations with Kristie and Abigail convinced me that I should try rock climbing. We went out to Wine Flask ridge, a vertical climb on the side of a Karsk 15 minutes outside of town. It was me and two Brits (Simon “Xiao Si” and Abigail). This was Abi’s first time climbing since she got back. When I first saw the cliff face I was like “No fucking way!”. It was seriously high and seriously vertical stretching 5-7 stories up. I saw some people up near the top and climbing no longer seemed like a great idea. But luckily, you start at the bottom. I strapped in Simon belayed me. The first climb was rated a 5.7, and it was scary at first, but by the time I did it a second time, I could utilize all four appendages well enough to get up without too much trouble or falling. The second climb was a 5.8…..a lot harder. This one was Simon’s favorite climb of this hill face. Just watching him go up was a bit scary.

Now, when you are climbing, you are attached to a rope, with a “Belayer” being the counterweight below, so you are not going to fall. But that provides little solace when you are up there. On the second climb, there were literally 5 times when I thought “I have no idea how to get to the next step – what do I hold onto”. The face seemed shear at times and I had to look really closely to find the crag to grab or move my feet to. Two thirds of the way up, with the sun beating down on me, I thought “I’m going back. This is ridiculous.” But I pushed on. My arms began to hurt half way up and by three quarters of the way, I was resting two after every two or three movements. It was exhausting. However, fatigued and weary, I reached the top. I consider it one of the best accomplishments of the trip.

Hong Kong (Apr 9-12)

Hong Kong

This is New York on Steroids. It has the best skyline view in the world (of those that I have seen already). I arrived and took a walk down to the southern tip o f Kowloon. A student came up an asked me about my workout practices either for a business plan or a class project. On the survey it asked which continent you were from. I am sure that day she had filled out at least 5 of the seven continent boxes many times. This place is a true mix across nationalities, cultures and religions. It’s a nexus. Indian stores next to African next to Japanese, all trying to sell stuff cheaper and better than the next.

And selling is what people do here. It’s shopping. Coming back from my first exploration, I met Carry, 20, from Sydney, who was here on a shopping holiday with her parents. She was not going out per se that evening, she was going shopping, to buy more cheap things. Block after endless block of signs, watch stores, silk stores, cheap clothing stores, expensive clothing stores, everything you can imagine crammed together on a pretty damn small island.

Glenn still wasn’t feeling better, so I set off at night to learn the city on my own. The pub street just north of our hotel was pretty quiet at 10 PM, so I took the MTK (their subway) up to supposedly where night shopping was. Nothing much, but I did see a 15 story mall with an immense lobby and the longest escalators I had even seen spanning four or five floors. I met Eugene in the street. A Russian, he complained that Hong Kong was not as cheap as Moscow, where he was from. Coincidentally, he had lived in Kendall, FL for 3 years, 3 years ago. Small world. He thought Florida was hot. I agreed.

I then went down to Lan Kwai Fong, a collection of dozens of bars and restaurants in the Central district. Though not packed, it was quite crowded for a Monday night. The first person I met, Laura, was from Indiana and had lived much of her life in Orlando, before moving away 14 years ago with her husband who was a pilot. She said she was contemplating buying a condo in Florida and we talked about the market a bit.

When Laura left, I met Jeanine, an attractive jeans model from Manila. She was wearing a mini mini skirt and a tank top and doing a bad job of keeping either one on. She was absolutely crazy and we started making out in the bar – not an exceptional feat for the trip, but worth noting because of how absolutely without reservation she was, flashing everything to everybody. Eventually, she freaked me out a bit too much, and I left her (after taking her number, because who knows)

In the next bar, I met a group of early-20’s brits and a beautiful long-dark curly haired girl. They were teachers here in Hong Kong, but soon had to go home to get up for work the next day – leaving me broken hearted….for a minute. I then went to a small, but crowded bar with a great dance floor and I live band performing club dance music, something you don’t often see. They were pretty good. There I met Lafrancine (or that’s how I incorrectly heard her name) from France. She was about my height, and probably had me beat by 5-10 pounds, but wore it all well and was very attractive. We danced and made out until her friend joined, where she then started making out with her female friend (but wouldn’t allow me to join). Ahhh, Hong Kong! At 4:30 AM, I went home.

Day 2:
Woke up late. I slept in and didn’t go to the tour, which Glen said was mediocre, like most of the tours. They stopped by a fishing village, took the peak tram to the top of the mountain (but it was cloudy) and went to one of the surrounding islands. I woke up eventually, and I took the Lonely Planet suggested walking tour of old Hong Kong – which was pretty uninteresting. It took you around the older parts – the dried fish market, some very small, insignificant temples, the first place Britain placed their flag (unmarked). It was unremarkable, but did get me out to see the town.

Afterwards, I went over to the tallest building in the city, the IFC building 1 and went up to the 55 floor (about 2/3rds of the way up) to look around. Good view, but not spectacular and wouldn’t be as good as that from the Peak tram.

I came back, slept and we went out again to “the area”. Glenn and I first went to a great Chinese meal on the street north of our hotel. I had a delicious chicken dish. We then went to Lan Kwai Fong and immediately ran into the Filipino chick, who was with 6 older Caucasian guys. She was hot! I got a picture with her and she was all over me and asked me where I would be later. During the day, Glenn had been told (as I suspected) to watch out for Filipino woman, because they would do anything, even drug you and steal your money. Combined with my inate suspicions, it was all enough for me to walk away from this tempting, but in the end not so tempting, offer. We saw a few woman other places, but wound up at the same club where I had met the Frenchie the night before. Here, Glenn met a crazy local cutie, who he was making out with within 20 seconds of meeting her (Hong Kong!). I met a few girls but nothing special, until I looked to my right and saw a cute girl. We started dancing together, 5 minutes later we were making out. 10 minutes later we left the bar (Hong Kong!) Shannon was a local now, but initially from Nova Scotia. She had come over here for adventure and to get away from NS. Her grandma had always joked as a kid – what are you going to go to Hong Kong? She finally did. She was teaching English and had, in her 7 years, earned a bit of seniority. Her apartment was small, 500 sf 1 bedroom, much like millions of small 500sf 1 bedrooms in Manhattan. The window AC worked when the curtain wasn’t in front of it. Her DVD player was so cheap that it only played certain DVDs. Her Kitchen was built into her wall. She was a great girl, content with her life in Hong Kong.

Day 3 – Peak Tram
Took the tram back to the hotel from Causeway Bay. It was a beautiful day (70 and sunny), and I went up the Peak Tram, which is a train initially built over 100 years ago (but obviously refurbished and updated since then), that runs to the top of the mountain overlooking Hong Kong, from which you can get the best view of the city and all its towering glory. The Mall at the top of the hill is in itself impressive, providing shopping options for almost anything you want. No mere small tourist trap, this is a huge tourist trap. The view was sensational, and though we couldn’t quite educate other tourists to take a good picture of Glenn and I (the idea of cropping is obviously too complicated for them), we did get some great photos and had a good meal.

I got back and went briefly to the science museum, which was unremarkable. I had messed up playing with the camera and erased my pictures of the Hong Kong, so, without really getting upset, but just accepting this loss of some pretty good pictures, I returned to the harbor overlooking Hong Kong Island and reshot better shots than the first. There, I met two guys who were working for Black and Decker. They were in town because Wal-Mart was holding their annual buying sessions in Shenzen, just north of Hong Kong in mainland China, where many of the factories for the products were. They had come down to check out Hong Kong and enjoy a few days of R&R. As I explained my journey, they did the normal “are you married…well, it’s a little different when you are married”. Which is correct. Glad I am not married (yet) then.

I then went back, slept a bit and then, after a dinner, went back to Lan Kwai Fung, but nothing was going on there. I took a walk up about half a mile to the Soho restaurant district which was mostly closed down for the night, but worth experiencing. Dozens of restaurants, snuck into street fronts, some with very high-end buildouts, some with themed décor. All in all, the area had an intimate, real feel, but still had new, international restaurants (stuff you could easily imagine in New York or Miami). I stopped into two places, but they were almost completely empty.

I walked back the long way, down the hill to LKF area and took a taxi home.

Macau

Day 4 – Macau
We woke up early and began the race that would become our day in Macau. We wound up having only 2 hours in Macau itself, and that, it turns out was more than enough. The first thing we saw was the Macau Tower, which resembles all giant satellite towers (Seattle, Sydney, etc.) From the top, you see Macau in all its “glory”. Not much yet. A bunch of older casinos and buildings and some construction. The only high end casino that is finished is the Wynn (It’s a carbon copy of the one in Vegas). The Venetian (also looks to be identical like the one in Vegas) will be finished later this year. Many more are in the works. All Sky Towers are cool, so this was no exception. AJ Hacket has also set up a Bunge jump and sky walk on the top, so you can do that as well. We didn’t have time to do a third bunge jump.

35 minutes into our 2 hour sojourn, we were off to the Wynn hotel. Unremarkable, except for the fact that yes, there was yet another Starbucks in the hotel. We ducked across the street to the Royal Lantau and saw the gaudy, somewhat dated casino there. The new tower for this casino was being built and it, too, looked tasteless and gaudy.

After our quick casino tour, we explored the “old city”, established by the Portuguese in their colonization. 5 minutes before we had to leave for the boat, we hit upon a beautiful and quaint part of town, different than the dirty, ugly parts we had seen. It was a courtyard, with colonial style buildings, hordes of tourists, and, in the sunny day, seemed ideal for a leisurely lunch and stroll….but, no time on the 2 hour tour. We went back to the boat, took the boat to Hong Kong (1 hour), train to hotel, rushed through a 15 minute lunch, bus to airport (after we missed the first one), a long wait in the airport, then the plane to Guilin, arriving after 11.

Hanoi (Apr 6-9)

Hanoi

Hanoi is dirty, but has a bit more of a French feel than Saigon. However, most of the buildings have no feel at all. They are ugly. The city is gray clouded by both the rainy weather and smog from the literally millions of motorbikes that horde the streets. Like locusts, they spring from red lights encircling traffic, randomly dispersing. The cars, like hapless beasts, turn into the mobs to make them slowly disperse and magically they do. This is not traffic as we know it. It’s the random, directionless, massing of carbon producing objects. On the third day, I finally got the nerve to ride on one of the bikes (see footage). It’s harrowing. A tourist chick we met, less quick than the rest of the herd, had been hit twice in 24 hours by the bikes. They obviously are picking off the weak foreigners one by one.

Our hotel is again “five star”, which is upper business, but by no means great. The view is grimy. Most of the travelers are in the old city, to the north of the Turtle river. We are way to the south, so throughout our trip we walk and ride a good distance to meet the people who speak English.

The first day we walk around town, walk up to the old city, browse some shops (many bargains but Glenn and I are not shoppers and do not buy). The streets are filled with annoying Hawkers yelling “Lady Bah”, “Taxi”, “Girl”. The streets are so filled with motorbikes that you must walk on the sidewalks. The sidewalks are so filled with parallel parked motorbikes that you have to walk on the street. We slug it out block after block, working our way through the city. Woman carry sticks, evenly balanced with big, heavy baskets of fruit on their backs. You have to avoid them and not upset their apple cart. We eat in a place in the old city and run into two girls from Britton who had the unlucky honor of being stuck in Hanoi for a week. Oy!

The tourist attractions in Hanoi are probably the lamest we have seen. We saw Ho’s house, which is small (intentionally, to show his one-ness with the people) and his next house. It’s quaint, but does not match up to Angkor Wat. After that, we saw the “one Pinar Pagoda” – or “One Pillar Pagoda” if you know how to pronounce “L”. It’s a very small temple built by someone a few centuries ago. It has one pillar. We went to the “Hanoi Hilton”, a famous POW camp where McCain was held for years during the war. Most of the prison has been destroyed to build a giant, new hotel and office complex. The rest is sanitized beyond belief. 99% of it talks about how the prison was built by the French and used by them to house Vietnamese prisoners. 1% alludes to the fact that it was used in the American war and that McCain was there. We heard a lot about the Water Puppet show. It had some puppets in the water with some really annoying “cultural” music and a plot that was all but impossible for foreigners to follow. Every once in a while dragons would come out. People would fish, sometimes. The music did not seem to change from one scene to another. NEXT! See pictures.

Ho’s Mausoleum was pretty interesting. A big square with thousands of Vietnamese school kids. Ho looks very peaceful as he lies in state. He was a very interesting guy, though not always the most ethical. He spent 25 years living in France and the West before coming back and working with the US in 1945 WWII to fight the Japanese. Like all of our enemies, we were the ones to initially arm and train our future enemy. He was a man of the people, ruling with an iron fist, but never accruing the wealth that other dictators took. He was a brutal warrior, however, did free the Vietnamese from centuries of oppression. Obviously, it sucked fighting him, but you have to give him some credit for kicking the foreigners out.

The night life was hard to crack into and not that exciting, but we had fun. In the end, they have quite a few bars, but not that many tourists. The first night we went to a fairly empty Blues bar and met a group of 6 Israeli girls (sidenote: Israeli’s everywhere). Some were cute and Glenn seemed to be getting close to closing with a very cute one. We agreed to meet them the next night at their hostel, but when we went to get them, only one (sick) was there and she didn’t know where the others were. Next!

On the second night (after our blow off), we walked around a bit and finally found “the” part of town. We went to the Red Mask, which played funky music. We met Timbo and Helen from Australia and hung out with them. The bar owner was petite and cute and we boogied around the dance floor for a while. We then headed off to Dragonfly, where Glenn met a wild and crazy Australian girl who he was mauling in the bar. She was 18. Not to be outdone, I was attracted to her friend, Laura Stewart, from Tazmania. Before long, we were making out. Oh, to be young again! Unfortunately, she was leaving the next day, but sooo cute!

The next day, we went to Houlong Bay – the highlight of Vietnam and one of the top highlights of the trip. The boat ride among the Karsks was amazing (see pics). Unfortunately, we were on our own boat, so we couldn’t meet other travelers, but it was good to be able to sit in silent appreciation and meditation among such rare and unique natural beauty. And, the boat owners tried relentlessly to sell us pearls, scarves, and various and sundry touristy trinkets. We tried to explain to her that she was barking up the wrong tree, but not sure if that translates well into Vietnamese because they eat dogs.

Nha Trang, Vietnam (Apr 2-6)

Nha Trang

Last night in Nha Trang, a vacation town on the ocean in middle Vietnam. It is a good litmus test for how capitalism is coming along in the country. The 5-star resort we were staying was the Sofitel Vin Pearl, built on its own Island about 3 Km off the coast. The resort hotel is beautiful, on a picturesque bay, with pristine white sand beach (kept that way by Vietnamese workers who pick up seaweed from it all day – you know labor is cheap when people are cleaning your beach). The resort was built about 2 years ago, and is accompanied by VinPearl Land, an amusement park with shopping center. The third stage of the project, a huge vacation community with condo’s and additional hotels will start next year. To get out to the Island, they have built the world’s largest Cable Car. From Nha Trang City, it looms as a hideous reminder what developers can do, even to pristine landscape. Luckily, from the hotel side of the Island, you can’t see it.

However, this place is basically empty. Its vacation season here, Nha Trang the city is bustling, but the resort is pretty much a ghost town. I think I saw maybe 50 people at the amusement park while I was here. Nobody ever seems to be on the cable car. The lesson I think is simple. Yes, Vietnam has great potential, and in the coming decades, developers will work hard to capture that potential. But….this stuff always takes much more time than people think. We ran into an American named Lou who works in the medical equipment business, who spoke about how quickly this place was taking off. It sounded similar to Melbourne-ites talking about Docklands. Things take time. The Vin Pearl though, is THE place in town.

This has been the absolutely idle, blissful holiday from the vacation that I wanted it to be. I basically did nothing. The last two days, I slept on the beach all day long, reading, meditating, swimming, eating, sleeping. Nobody really here to meet except Russian families and Asian tourists. Nothing really to do (there were bought trips and diving, but I opted out). I did go to town to do laundry and shop at the market, where I bought a $3 Diesel tee-shirt. But that’s about it. I have regained the calm I had back in Sydney, meditating in the gardens.

Seder Via Skype
One of the highlights of my trip so far, was virtually attending the Oleinick family’s Pesach Seder. On both ends, we hooked up Skype with a video camera and at 4:30 Am on Tuesday morning (5:30 PM on Monday Night in Cleveland, Ohio, 10,000 miles away) I joined in on my family’s Seder. I have only missed one Seder with my family, and that was 13 years ago when I was in Israel for a year. Every other year of my life, we have been together, along with 5-15 guests to drink, make jokes and read the story of the Jews departure from Egypt lo those many years ago. A few weeks ago, I thought of the idea of video conferencing in and helped the ‘rents set up their end.

It was truly an amazing experience. I felt like I really was there, with them, with my family and friends, celebrating the holiday. I even downloaded an open source copy of the Haggadah so that I could read, sing and pray along. Also attending, were the Schoenberg Jones (who we have been doing Seder’s with for almost two decades), my sister and my two nieces (Addi and Kasey), my Aunt Barbara, my grandma, and other friends of the family. I got to read aloud about the Matzah (why do we eat this?). every once in a while, I would ask my mom to “turn me” so I could face another part of the table. Very cool. And when they said the Motzi and were ready to eat, it was exactly 6:00 AM here, the time when breakfast is open – so I went and had a Pesach meal of my own of egg omelette. You have to treasure the time you have together.

The Sailing Club
Nha Trang has a very cool tourist scene. Though there are not too many bars and clubs, the few they have are top grade. We spent most of our time at the Sailing Club, which gets packed by 12 midnight, with a DJ that is one of the best I have ever heard (who would have thought?). Some of his mixes, throwing together 60’s hit “are you going to San Francisco?” with techno beats and Michael Jackson, are crazy good. The crowd is as international as you would expect. About 50% are locals or other Vietnamese. Lot’s of Brits, some Israeli’s, Russians, French. Nha Trang, in general, is becoming infiltrated with Russian and Eastern Block tourists, who are as close to here as they are to the Caribbean, but this is 1/5 the price.

I met a lot of people out. Also, I love it because it’s the first place with consistently good music for dancing, and have been averaging about 3 hours dancing a night. The first night here, I met Natalie, a Frenchie, who was rocking it on the dance floor. A great dancer. We fooled around, but I didn’t want to push it farther. The second night, I met Jeanine, a German who was with her friend Tom (not his real name, but I never could get what his name was). Tom had been living in Nha Trang since December because he wanted a vacation and this was the cheapest place he could find. In Germany, he and his business partner provided police and army props for movies. Tom hadn’t been in the Sailing Club yet. I know Jeanine and Tom were going out, but that didn’t seem to stop Jeanine from acting. Later that night, as I was going to leave, I met a Russian girl and we made out for a while as well.

Probably the most beautiful girl I have met on the trip so far was Hayli the Israeli. I met her the third night at the Sailing Club. Her gorgeous dark curly hair and face were radiant. And then I found out she was Jewish. Too bad, Ronen, her boyfriend of many months, was along for the ride. He was a cool guy, but…..

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam (Mar 30-Apr 2)

Saigon

We were prophetic in planning our trip, it seems, in making it parabolic in the complexity and modernity of each of the countries on our trip. Australia more than NZ, more than Bangkok, more than Cambodia (the nadir), then rising a bit to Vietnam, and we suppose China then Japan. It’s good to go to Cambodia before Vietnam, because you appreciate where they are in their development. 10 years ago, the communist government started opening doors and it’s amazing how open the society is. Internet, international papers, products from everywhere, tourists from everywhere. As to be expected from human nature, everybody here is pure capitalist through and through. From the vendors, to the street urchins to the business men. “Taxi, Taxi” and “Lady, Lady” harassments are heard every few steps as you walk along the way. But, we had been warned of thieves and danger, and we have seen none of them so far in our stay.

There is no better example of extreme capitalism than the nightlife. Bars and nightclubs frequented by tourists and filled with (relatively) attractive Viet Nam woman dressed to the nines. Many are sitting next to European or American tourists quite a bit older than they are. Some are prostitutes. But many are normal woman, who sideline in dating/one-night standing with men. Some ask for money outright, some just want some drinks. It’s a slippery slope, but 100% capitalistic. It’s all is about supply and demand. They all have trained themselves in moderate to good English and are pretty aggressive. Going into the Penthouse bar at the Sheraton is an experience. If you think Bova in Boca is filled with money-grubbing whores, then probably they are just a few steps above these fine specimens. Capitalism reigns in the new Vietnam.

We arrived in Vietnam on Friday night. Our hotel, the Renaissance Riverside Hotel was advertised as a 5 star hotel, but would pass as a 3+ or 4 star in a first world nation – not bad for $125/night. We learned quickly about the main tourist areas: around our hotel was one of them, De Tram Street another, and then many other areas in the surrounding areas, though not as filled with tourists. Each place is moderately full. Some places like Apocalypse Now, were packed, but with 97% Vietnamese people and very few tourists. Not much to do in those places. The language barrier is huge here. Even those that speak some English are so difficult to understand and have such difficulty understanding English, that it’s almost impossible to communicate even the simplest things. It makes even the most mundane conversations interesting. So, communication with locals is practically impossible except on the most basic level.

The first night we went to a number of places, before winding up in Allez Boo Bar, in the most touristy section. There we met Serpil and her friend, both Germans. Serpil was Muslim, originally from Turkey. Cute, black hair. They were stewardesses for Lufthansa. We talked for a while. They travel regularly all around the world. Serpil had been working for over 10 years for the airline, so had earned significant seniority and traveled a lot internationally – Southeast Asia, New York, Chicago, LA, Middle East and throughout Europe. In all the places, she got to stay over 1-3 days – not bad! From Allez Boo, we went with the Stewardesses to Go Go Bar, then eventually to Conrads, where the DJ was playing good dancing music. We danced for a while. We were out to 5 in the morning, including a night cap with Serpil.

The next day, we had a tour at 9:15, where we went with our tour guide, Hein, to the War Museum. There is not much to see in Saigon as far as tourist things, but this makes up for the lack of quantity. The Vietnamese government used to mandate that all tourists go to it if visiting the city. It’s the war from the Vietnamese side. As we have seen time and time again, history is written by the victors. It’s all propaganda, but probably over 95% is absolutely true. You walk away knowing the insanity of the war. Long after the US knew it could not win, our military turned up the heat and turned down any remnants of ethical behavior. On the other side, the Vietnamese used guerilla tactics that would make Osama Bin Laden look like a kindergarten playground bully. But, you can’t blame either side, once the war had begun. Then it’s just survival.

The real question is – how did we get there? Sun Tzu advises the best way to fight is not at all, terrorizing your enemy without lifting a finger, and the worst, is a prolonged occupation of a country. The wise warrior knows that swords and spirit dull with time. Any country, even one without civil liberties or free press to complain and shed additional light on losing battles, will lose an occupation, as weaknesses in their position create more and more targets for the occupied rebels. Russians learned this well in Afghanistan. The only escape from this fate is either (1) to keep the army intact and put a controlled puppet leader in place, utilizing your enemies strengths for your benefit or (2) completely destroy the enemy, leaving them without a shred of ability to fight, and leave as soon as possible, putting in a puppet ruler that rules with an iron fist. In none of these scenarios, does an invading army actually do the fighting once the country is taken, and the battles to take the country are quick.

Vietnam, and the Iraq war of present were huge failures of strategy and imagination on the US’s part. Without inspired leaders who could see past senseless fear and personal glory, our country went into situations that were unwinnable, without sufficient cause and we stayed too long, dulling our swords and energy.

None of this excuses the atrocities that we afflicted onto the Vietnamese people, or the barbaric tortures and killing methods the Vietnamese armies and guerilla’s inflicted on the US army. Sunday, we went to the Chu Chi Tunnels, an elaborate tunnel system that enabled the Chu Chi townspeople to elude US army capture and move freely to set up and execute attacks on US soldiers. At the site, Vietnamese tour guides show off the many traps and torture techniques they used against the US. All of these actions are praised in the opening video. The place and their methods are ingenious. The tunnels had air holes, disguised as termite hills. To avoid US soldiers torching the holes, they had multiple layers. To avoid detection by dogs, they put US Army uniforms around the entrance to the holes to disguise the scent. The holes went for 10s of kilometers, and were mainly used in daytime (at night, snakes would use them). But, capitalism wins out anyways. For $1 a bullet you could shoot any of weapon you wanted at a shooting range. Glenn and I shot a rifle. It was pretty impressive.

The war museum, as disturbing as it is, is also fascinating. In one room, all the countries and people that protested the US war are shown. All true. Though the real story is slightly more complex than what they say, the facts are still the facts.

The second night, Saturday night, was an early, but interesting night. We went to a bar called “17”, which looked like a Cowboy Western bar on the inside. Dressed in 18 gallon hats, the Vietnamese cover band played an awesome mix of 70’s, 80’s and 90’s hits. From Air Supply to Hotel California (which, by the way, is the most popular song in the country – you hear it everywhere). We were one of 5 non-Vietnamese in the bar and everybody was singing along, while watching Manchester United on the TV.

One more thing: Traffic. It’s unbelievable how people drive in this country. There are 1000s of motor bikes at every turn, and squirming between them, dodging as they come on all sides of cars, is too overwhelming to imagine. I can’t imagine that ANY foreigners could rent a car in this country. It would be nearly impossible to drive, unless you were brought up in this foreign madness. You could never turn, because you literally need to turn into a mob of motor bikes and be just pushy enough to get them to go around you, but not so fast that you hit them.

Looking at this disaster, I guessed correctly that they must be working on public transportation solutions. I read the next day that they were in the process of bidding out a 15, $4 Billion public transportation system.