ding dong bell

dear jess,

im sure i thought of a reason to write. a theme to my life or just to manage the letter writing habit that is slowly going obsolete in everyone's life. the problem is i dont remember anymore what the reason was and the danger is i might rant on about things in my life that i might take for granted that that would in any way interest you.

still. here i am trying hard to remember.

i watched a film today. 1957 i think it was called. my partner rated it 2 out of ten and i couldnt really disagree considering i could have read a book instead and it might have been more interesting.

ah. and now i remember my initial thoughts. its hilarious really, i was at church the other day and a few people said they hadnt seen me in a while. i attributed it to me being away, here and there but i didnt get into the details. one said hi and asked where i was worshipping now.

*blink*

i should've given a bizarre answer, something i wouldn't hesitated at either, if i wasnt too much in shock. i should have said something really strange and jaw dropping.

what the heck, im sure ill be given another go at that sometime in the future.

yours,

jess

rain, rides and roaches

dear jess,

it seems that the typhoon signs have reached here. i see the bit of roof waving at my window and i remember our five hours "layover" for our bus down north. we were soaking wet, so that our umbrella that i had bought from home actually came in handy and yet not handy enough. little did we know that about 30km away the typhoon was about to kill five people. we bought our poncho's and walked to the tailors at hoi an, vietnam.

by the time we were done, all our clothes were wet, i had nothing to change into, but another semi wet pants. we had to change because we'd be doing another twelve hour bus ride, at least. we were then halfway through our 48 hour bus ride. we were given the impression that we would sit in the same confortable bus for 48 hours straight, yes thats a two day bus ride non stop but as usual, no one tells us anything in this country. we took a twelve hour bus ride from hanoi, which where we started our trip and were first greeted by men touching us, annoyingly asking us where we were from and women who had no patience or want to understand tourist. it was all becoming a cold country, just like the crazy typhoon.

the next thing we knew we were on the hard seats of those busses. it was, and i will never be able to do justice to the explanation, but it was like sitting on a horse (id imagine) in a bus. there were these five lines on the road, painted perhaps so vehicles should slow down, and every 10 seconds apart i could feel them grinding through my brain. the bus it seems, was not only hard seated, we could feel every bump, every grind and every horn, which the locals would do every 10 seconds or so. thats right, no one would be on the road and we'd still hear the horn.

my bus rides have consisted of a roach crawling on me, a vietnamese man leaning over my seat to sleep on my hair, an old aunty slapping my feet as i climbed down from my bunk bed, a vietnamese lady literally, yes literally kicking her BARE foot into my face and tossing and turning on the already hard seats only to be greeted with? stinky feet in our faces.

i think ive reached the point where i can laugh at those incidents. im not sure i can say the same for my travel partner..

yours,

jess

sleeper bus, we were given the impression we'd be in these for 48 hours...

a total of 60 over hours were spend in busses like this, cramped, hard and crawling wit roach

fifteen minutes to late

dear jess

im growing irritated of having to upload pictures in three different places and lack the want to write to you about my trip. and ive just realised that i can just post the facebook link. so this is parts of it and the rest will be on facebook, still being uploaded. vietnam has been one crazy ride but i dont really feel like writting. i suppose the blog is being phased out in my life slowly. perhaps?

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16828&l=54869&id=652088209

yours,
jess

ho chi minh's mauseloum, where they keep his corpse, despite his death wishes to be crimated. it was close, the body gets send to russia everytime this year for "upkeeping"

nine million population, four million motorcycles, and a honk from one vehicle every four seconds. imagine it. thats as far as you'd like it to be! its absolutely crazy

ladies selling the old fashion way

side stalls in hanoi, all chairs are small and scattered every side walk and street serving desserts to crabs and seafood!

market place outside our guesthouse, hanoi. all the streets in the old quarter look like back lanes.

baguette bread by the street, hanoi

kiss me?

dear jess,

for some reason i decided not to change the language of this blogger from vietnamese to english. partially due to the fact that my internet time is being charged as we speak.

ive had my first real shower in two days. 40 hours of sitting in a bus, one sleeper, three hard seater (thats why they call it that) few hours of waiting in between, two skipped dinners, sleeping across the seats, bus rides that threw us off our seats and getting all our clothes in our bag drenched, a bed and a shower is the best thing thats happen to me since.

the one significant trait of all backpackers. we all stink.

when the man comes up the bus, he goes "kiss me, kiss me, five minute for lan and the we go to the bust" translation? excuse me- lunch and bus.

its all good as long as i can shower. sometimes life should be that simple.

kisses,

jess