Sunset/Rainbow picture.
Click the picture to view a larger size. It's a pretty bad attempt at stitching 4 photos together to make a panoramic, but it gives you an idea of what it looked like.
Sleeping in Singapore
A 12 hour overnight layover in Singapore. Not quite enough time to get a hotel, but too long to keep yourself occupied in the airport. "It's a nice airport, let's sleep there."
Boracay
Our first destination, besides a 24 hour stop in Manila, was the island of Boracay in the Philippines. It was beautiful. Here are some pictures.
A couple of young skim boarders at the beach.
Snail on coral
A dog and I searching for something.
This was a narrow path that we had to walk down each day to get to the beach. Struggling to walk around this waist-high ditch each day was as annoying to the ditch diggers as it was to us.
Puka beach.
Fishing for crabs and lobsters.
Homemade sea glass collar.
Last Few Days in Taiwan - Photo Recap
My 13 months in Asia is over, and I am back in North America. Leaving Taiwan was a little harder than I thought it would be, and I'm not sure what I've taken from my time there. So until I'm able to think about it more, I'll recap my final month in Asia with photos. This will be the first, then I'll do one of the Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Vancouver.
My last days in Taiwan included my first typhoon. This picture doesn't look too ominous, and really the typhoon wasn't so bad. It made for some of the most beautiful and clear skies I've seen in Taiwan. The downside was that it rained during a very busy 48 hours of packing, shipping, and seeing friends. Driving my scooter in the typhoon was a little unsettling also. And yes, I did it barefooted.
Goodbye Thai dinner with sisters Dana and Katrina. Katrina is now studying in England, and Dana is the coolest insurance agent in Taiwan.
Ichieh, Our Chinese teacher, took David, Elena and I out for a nice lunch in a cave. An artificial artsy cave, but a cave nonetheless. One of my favorite dining experiences in Taiwan.
Elena and Ichieh
Dessert. Sticky rice with peanut paste.
Onion salad. Tasted a lot like Thai Green Papaya Salad.
Fried rice with little dried shrimp. I really grew to like dried shrimp, eyeballs and all. I'll have to look for them at my local Chinese grocer's.
We said goodbye to Ariel (tear), and our enthusiastic friend Mark drove us to the bus terminal.
My final Taiwanese meal. Chicken with typical pickled sides and seaweed.
And some final goodbyes...
Goodbye lady on the tiny scooter. 
Goodbye Tuesday night pizza friends.
Goodbye class. 
Goodbye Ariel. I told you he was violent, but you insisted on being his friend.
Goodbye beef noodle soup. 
Goodbye again Ariel.
Traveling Woes
>> Friday, September 7, 2007 –
travel
Every time I travel to another country, I don't know how to respond to the poverty that I see. Honestly, it doesn't often shock me anymore. Probably because I stick to the well-trod tourist areas. In Vietnam, I've come across so many people, shop owners, touts, and walking salespeople, that are desperate to sell me something. Its so tiring. And then there are the children selling things. I know know know that I should not buy from them, but I have on this trip. One kid said we could play tic tac toe, and if he won, I would buy a postcard. Of course he won, he's a trained tic tac toe professional. I didn't let him go with learning his secret though.
Yes, I know that by purchasing items from children, I am encouraging child labor, or worse, child servitude. I am perpetuating the cycle. If people didn't buy from children, then maybe they would be in school instead of out on the streets selling junk to stupid tourists. But I do it anyways. Don't ask why.
Today, after we had boarded a bus and were waiting on it to leave, a young guy, maybe 10 or 11, and maybe mentally handicapped, came on the bus to beg. One of the men from the bus company saw him and began shooing him off, then another guy smacked him in the back of the head while another one literally kicked him off of the bus. He went to the curb crying. I was so angry that they would treat him that way. Then, as soon as the man from the bus company was gone again, the kid got on the bus again to beg. This time, the bus man came back with a stick to hit him. I was shocked. Filled with righteous indignation as my former social work professor would say. You just can't treat people that way. I stared at the bus man, trying to burn a hole through his forehead. He smiled at me, I glared, probably for too long. How can a whole busload of people just sit around, see what happened, and not say anything. The bus man got on the bus and explained in broken English that the kid was a "professional pickpocket." It eased my anger a little, but only a little. Maybe the bus man was trying to protect us from getting things stolen, but you still can't just go around smacking children and hitting them with sticks.
I'm not sure where I am going with this story. But traveling always leaves me with the feeling that I am contributing to some sort of problem. Tourist dollars revitalize some communities, and many places really depend on them for survival. But it seems like tourism creates seedy, undesirable consequences in most of these communities. Prostitution, child labor, jobs that consist of hassling people all day long to buy your product or use your service.
I always look for the best deal on whatever souvenirs I buy. Sometimes prices are remarkably low. Does that mean that the person making these things is remarkably underpaid...and poorly treated? It makes me wonder how exactly one can travel ethically. It seems like everything you do these days contributes to one or more of the ills of society. Global warming, global poverty, unfair trade, inhumane labor...
Moo
Traveler's Diarrhea, or TD in polite company. It's a common phenomenon, and I had a run in with it in the Philippines, accompanied with nausea and a fever. I decided to visit a local clinic so I could move on with my vacation and enjoy the beach. This "clinic" was a run down wooden shack-like building on the main road in town. Under any other circumstances, I would have walked away, but I really just wanted something to make me better, and my options on the island were limited. The doctor prescribed a few things. I took them and was better in just 24 hours. I decided to stop taking the pills until I could look them up online to see what they were. All I could find was that they are not used in the United States, and when they are, they are only used as livestock antibiotics. Wonderful. It looks as if I'll have no bacteria in my intestines, good or bad, for a long time.
Read more...Vietnam
I've been in Vietman for almost a week, with more than a week left to go. Ho Chih Minh City, or Saigon, was crazy and busy. We took a couple of days to get out and see the Mekong Delta, which was great. We got to tour the famous floating markets.
We are now in a beach town called Nha Trang, but will be leaving on an overnight bus in 2 hours. A 10 hour bus ride will take us to Hoi An. It's supposed to be one of the most historically intact Vietnamese cities. Another bus ride will take us to Hue, of which I know nothing. Then we will spend some days in Hanoi and Halong Bay. All in all I will have spent more than 24 hours on a bus. An ipod, a good book, and frequent naps make the time pass quickly.
I have nothing genius to say about Vietnam. I think it is one of the most unique places I've traveled in. I'll post some pictures when I return home and have my computer again.
It's amazing that when I am at home I can spend a countless amount of time on the internet, but when I'm in an internet cafe, I have a hard time filling up the hour I've paid for. So much pressure. "Um boom ba bay Um boom ba bay Um Um boom ba bay bay pressure pushing down on me..."
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