Puppet Show

Our last night in Vietnam, we took in in a Vietnamese water puppet show.  This traditional art form originated close to 1000 years ago on flooded rice paddies in North Vietnam.  Even though we couldn't understand any of the narration, we still enjoyed it for the most part.  I'm glad, though, that its one hour runtime wasn't any longer, as I was starting to get fidgety.

My favorite part was a dan bau solo during the musical prelude:

Puppets gone fishing:

Back to Hanoi: And Now For Something Completely Different

During our first stay in Hanoi, our daily plan was to wander around the city and we didn't take in any of the sites, besides the Hanoi Hilton.  Returning to the city from Halong Bay, we decided to focus on the sites, especially those in the Ho Chi Minh Complex.  I don't want to sound culturally insensitive, but it was a bizarre experience.

Halong Bay

Magge and I have spent the last three days on a boat in Halong Bay, in northeastern Vietnam.  A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the bay is littered with nearly 2,000 limestone karst islets. Tantalized by pictures we've seen on the internet,  we've been looking forward to seeing it since we put Vietnam on the schedule.  Seeing it in person, we were not disappointed.  The scenery borders on the surreal; the bay and its jutting rocky islands look like the whimsical paintings you see in shops in Chinatown, but assumed were based on some mythical land instead of somewhere that could possibly exist naturally.

Hanoi

It took me five minutes, the time it took the taxi to take us from the train station to our hotel, to decide I liked Hanoi.  Even at 6am, its tree-lined streets seemed to drip with character and we were looking forward to doing some exploring.  Three days later, both Magge and I have decided that Hanoi is our favorite city that we've visited on this trip.

31 Hours on the Reunification Express

From Saigon we needed to get to Hanoi, 1,000 miles away.  It would have been easy and not prohibitively expensive to fly, but what would be the fun in that?  Instead, we opted for what is often referred to as the Reunification Express, a train that runs the distance between the two cities. 

We boarded the train in Saigon at 11pm, June 15 and arrived in Hanoi at 6am, June 17.  In between, we shared a tiny compartment with a father and his two children, got two surprisingly decent nights of sleep on paper-thin mattresses, barely ate (and what we ate wasn't good), and went through an hour-long stretch of scenery that must rank near the top of the best train experiences in the world.  As you can see below, our digs weren't exactly the Four Seasons.

Pictures from the Hai Van Pass in the full post.  Despite the poor quality due to being behind the window, they still show how amazing that area is.

Pictures from South Vietnam

Here are most of the pictures that should have made it into the last post.  If anyone has any ideas on how to avoid getting viruses when using computers at internet cafes, I'd love to hear them.

Boat ride from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Chau Doc, Vietnam

Slow Start in Vietnam

Note: we got a virus on one of our camera cards, so this post is light on pictures for now.  Will try to add some later.
 
Our time in Vietnam did not have auspicious beginnings.  I woke up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia with a pounding headache, not looking forward to the six hour trip that was ahead.  After almost vomiting during our steamy shuttle bus ride to the jetty, I tried to sleep away most of the three hour boat ride down the Mekong River.  Apparently, it was a nice ride.  Maybe I'll see it next time.  By the time we crossed into Vietnam, the headache was the worst of my life and I no longer chalked it up to general fatigue.  That night my eyes felt like they would pop out of my skull.  Combined with the unrelenting urge to throw up, it meant I didn't sleep that night in Chau Doc.  As I wrote in another post, we determined that I had contracted dengue fever.  We were supposed to continue on to Ho Chi Minh City (still called Saigon by most residents, and referred to as Saigon in this post going forward because I like the sound of it better) the following day, but I wasn't going anywhere.  As I attempted to rest on our hard bed, the skies opened up and the rainstorm proceeded to pour water into our depressingly dark, and clearly not water-sealed, hotel room.  Hello, Vietnam, nice to be here.

Khmer Rouge

OK, I'll admit it: prior to coming to Cambodia, all I really knew about the country was that there was an abundance of places to get cheap massages.  And yes, I'll also admit that inexpensive spa treatments are really all that is necessary to get me pretty darn excited, which is why I incessantly pestered Jeff about adding Cambodia to our list of destinations despite being unable to name a single other reason why I wanted to go.  But I guess that is why this trip is so amazing: the world has become our classroom. 

The Wall, Upon Further Inspection

I apparently left out a possible reason for hitting the wall: being in the early stages of a dengue fever infection. After a few days of the worst headache I've ever had, I think I'm getting better, and am proud to be part of a husband-wife duo to stare down and defeat a flavivirus. It's all part of the experience.

The Wall

I've hit it.  I suppose most people who engage in long term travel do, but until now, I had not experienced a drop in energy since since left home seven months ago.  There was just too much to see, too much to do.  Now, sitting in Phnom Penh, I'm feeling a little worn down.  Maybe it is because we've been constantly on the move since leaving Trujillo just before Christmas.  Maybe it is the incessant heat and humidity in Southeast Asia.  Maybe it was the three days spent in a hotel room in Battambang tending to my dengue-infected wife.  Regardless of why, it is coming at a bad time, as tomorrow we leave for Vietnam, one of the countries about which I was most excited.  We'll probably just take our time over the next little while and try not to do too much.  If we find a decent beach, we'll probably take a few days to relax.  We were supposed to be in Thailand right now, with a virtual smorgasbord of the world's best beaches from which to choose, so maybe the blame for the wall goes to the Thai coup-happy culture.

Do Not Get Sick in Cambodia

Four days ago, Magge developed a debilitating headache, stomach cramps, fever and a rash on her torso. Using my extensive medical skills (trust me, my dad's a doctor), I determined she had dengue fever. We went to one of the few clinics here in Battambang that supposedly has an English-speaking doctor to confirm the diagnosis and see what our treatment options were. After a short wait, we were in a room with a doctor who seemed to understand English.

Magge: "I have an intense headache and really bad stomach pains."
Doctor: (blank stare)
Me: "She also has a rash on her stomach," while pointing it out. I thought the visual would trigger the proper reaction.
Doctor: "Is it itchy?"
Magge: "No."

The doctor then wrote a prescription, and instructed Magge to take one of the medications in the morning and the other that night.

Doctor: "This will help rash."
Me: "That's it? We're not worried about the rash."
Magge: "The bigger problem is my headache."
Doctor: "Are you taking anything?"
Magge: "Yes, extra strength Tylenol."
Doctor: "Keep taking Tylenol."
Me: "What do you think is wrong? Is it dengue?"

The doctor didn't respond and started to get up. Magge and I exchange confused looks.

Me: "Does she have dengue?"

He handed Magge the prescriptions and repeated the instructions to take one in the morning and one at night. We were lead to the cashier, given the medications (and told again to take one in the morning and one at night) and charged $10. We walked out of the clinic, armed with only antihistamines to combat a tropical fever.

Magge's condition soon worsened, but there wasn't much we could do besides keeping her hydrated. After a few rough days, she's now on the mend. If she had deteriorated further, though, the owner of the guesthouse where we are staying said we'd have to go to Bangkok rather than go to Cambodia's other large cities for treatment. As he said, "you picked the wrong country to get sick in."