roll n rave, los doyers, hasta la vista baby

Seeing all the bros and broettes back in the States was great.  I dahnced three days off my life to Just ridic electronic music in the desert with Bert and Co,  caught up with SF peeps and even saw a Doyer game with Herm.  It only took us an hour and a half to get from Downtown to Dodger stadium.  Gawwd.


The seats, though, were well worth the wait.  Right field bleachers, all-you-can-eat.  Double bobblehead night to boot.  Boom baby.  


But I'm excited to hit the road again manana.  Gonna go to Costa Rica and on to Guateeeemala.  Since madre morbidly asked what country I'd rather be buried in, without dignifying that with a response, I'll just say wherever it is, have the mortician put an f'ing smile on my face.  No need for an unflattering, solemn look.  There.  It's public. 


Anyway, I's gonna post my numba when I get a sim so for now I'll leave you the song #2 of the summah: La mano arriba, cintura sola. Da media vuelta guurl.

headed home

Just chilled my last few days in Saigon and pretty much just focused on eating. Spent last night in Hong Kong with my favorite person from Lynchburg, VA. Nathannnnn!!! Wah!!!

Interestingly enough, his roommate and I went to the same high school though we didn't know each other. We grabbed some dericious dim sum this am and now just waiting to board my flight to LA.

Godspeed brethren.

boom boom, river dance, back in saigon

The Delta Tour was just a big circlejerk so I bailed a day early and got some money back. I'm actually immensely disappointed by the tour since the Mekong was a major attraction for me in Vietnam. Unlike the other tours I've had like in Sapa or Halong where we had plenty of free time to explore on our own, this tour was Jurassic Park style. Get off the boat or bus, snap some shots of some pathetically touristy attraction, then back on the boat to the next hell hole. To make it worse the attractions were all staged boring things like "how they make coconut candy". The Mekong's such a natural beauty but we stuck purely to these stupid tourist traps. Honestly we might as well have been wearing matching Mickey Mouse hats and throwing up peace signs as we hehehe'd from spot to spot.

Whatevs, you live and you learn. Next time I know to take more time and do it on my own. The homestay I did for the one night I was there was really nice though. We stayed at a house right on a secluded tributary and helped cooked dinner. Then after dinner we shared some rice wine with the host and talked Vietnamese politics which was really insightful.

Said goodbye to Alby the other day so I'm back to flying Hans Solo in Saigon. I don't know why but without him I've been getting harassed nonstop by hookers and pimps asking if I want boom boom or Thai lady for rong time. Luckily the ~10 phrases in Vietnamese I know have really come in handy to hammer the point home that they need to piss off.

So I have a couple days to chill in Saigon now. I've seen all the major sights so I took the afternoon to get lost in some back alleyways without white people or special white people prices. Started the morning off right, with pork? meatball noodle soup and Vietnamese iced coffee. Wandered around for a bit and then ended up at the zoo somehow. I had to usar el bano so for $.40 I figured why not relieve myself and check out a third world zoo. Goodness those animals are mistreated. The elephants are f'ing chained to the ground. The river otters are trapped in a tiny space with two measly puddles of stagnant water. Watching the otters cry for help I couldn't stop thinking that what if it were Bert and the ROC in the same situation!?!? Stay safe Bert.

Found a cool street market for some din din tonight and hopefully gonna meet up with Jodie and Lee.

Oh! And change of plans. Long story but Kenya's not in the cards for me anymore. I'm gonna wait a year or so and go with Eric and Kijani Grows when the time's right. Headed to Costa Rica at the end of April.

Vivir para viajar cabrones!!!

smashing!, bonzai!, born in east LA, old friends

I can't stop eating in this bloody country. Good god, 4-5 meals a day but I keep losing weight. We had this awesome dinner of noodles with all these different beef bits (tongue, liver, shank) and then some mystery dish that was like grilled yucca or potato with egg tonight. We just happened to run in to Jodie and Lee (from Sapa) earlier in the night so it was cool to catch up with them.

Saigon's an alright city...kinda an overwhelming place but cool nonetheless. Alby FINALLLLY found zebra fabric so he had a smashing zebra suit with hot pink lining made. Man, I'm actually jealous of him.

After he got fitted ayer we walked through the plaza across from the market where we stopped to watch a 20-man game of hacky sack. We were almost immediately swarmed by a dozen university students looking to practice their English which turned out to be a really awesome experience just swapping stories of our cultures and childhoods. I also had the opportunity to cross #18 off my bucket list of teaching English a la "Born in East LA". Wus appppeninggg.

And if you haven't seen that movie, you should, because it'll make you a better person.

We ran into Catherine and Sabine last night so we caught up over some street beers and were treated with some odd/haunting/mesmerizing street performances including a 1-legged Michael Jackson rendition and 10 year-olds swallowing snakes and razor blades and spitting fire.

We visited the "War Remnants" museum today which even moved a callous cunt like myself. War really is hell. Don't mean to get all political here friends but we're subjecting the same 18-20 year-old kids to similar trauma today for really no good reason.

Headed out early manana to the Mekong Delta which has me all excited inside. I asked for a fishing tour but that was ~$600 so looks like I'm not fishing. It's all mel though.

Take care evurboday and godspeed.

no worry chicken curry, HCM trail, typhoon, abortion, messi

The 3 day motorbike tour across the Central Highlands was really sweet. Like thuper awesome. My mind just went blank as we winded through the mountainous jungle on the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Some of the mountains still showed scars from Agent Orange during the war. I also couldn't help but imagine slogging through the trail as a muddy dirt road with 50lbs+ on my back.

The journey overall was a welcome relief after Nha Trang. In fact, it was the exact opposite. We probably saw 5 other white people over the course of 3 days.

After playing Pauly D for a couple days in NT, I was sooo ready for some water and comfort food our first night into the ride. Well f me, we walked into the restaurant to meet our guides to the sight of a liter of rice wine and a dozen half-hatched quail eggs. AKA quail fetuses, feathers and all. Couldn't say no so it was time to nut up or shut up. Blah, never again haha.

At least we then migrated to some noodles and grilled beef. One of the more poignant moments of my trip was when Anh showed me a picture of his father, who fought for the American Army during the war. He was killed in these very same highlands in 1974, though his remains were never recovered.

The highlight of the ride was staying in Dak Lak in a traditional Lak longhouse nestled in the mountains along Lak lake. Prob a town of 200 people living with no toilets, running water, etc...though almost every house did have satellite TV. We had some time to kill so we watched this kids play soccer on a harvested rice field which was just a patch of mud with two sticks in the ground serving as goals. They were playing with a soccer ball that was at least 20 years old but were having an absolute ball. For some reason the euphoric looks on their faces made me start thinking of all the bitches (myself included at times) that I grew up with, always demanding the newest baseball bat or running shoes from mommy and daddy. These kids had nothing but were having more fun than anyone at home ever had playing sports.

Along the ride we stopped for this unreallll goat hotpot which I could eat a thousand times over. Our drivers were completely insane. Safe drivers and all, just absolutely nuts. Anh's cackle could get me going anytime.

We made it to Dalak and then hopped on a bus down to HCMC. We drove through the outskirts of the typhoon which didn't look fun to drive in and we got in late last night. Gonna hunker down here for a bit to let the weather blow over the the Mekong.

Righteous.