cambodia and animals

There's lots of dogs here. I hope none of them bite me, or any of us. But if I had to choose, I hope a dog bites Gus instead of me or Joe.

We spent a day on Rabbit Island. I found this totally gross prehistoric worm thing in the ocean. Then we went and played in the ocean. Didn't see any rabbits.

The day before that, there were a whole bunch of monkeys just sitting in the street! Joe tried to get close to them, but the big monkey charged him and Joe had to back down. I don't think we could have won against all those monkeys.

It's hard to tell what you'd do in a crisis situation, but I think I would have run really fast and left Gus and Joe behind to get bitten and clawed by monkeys. I'm glad they didn't attack us. I'm also glad I was wearing running shoes.

Ho Chi Minh

Four Tucsonans sat together on a street corner somewhere in Ho Chi Minh City, ate a Vietnamese meal and drank some beer in mugs with ice. Gus had known them from before - Denise and Sonya - two expat English teachers in Vietnam.

We were joined by a bunch of their friends from Vietnam, Tasmania, the US, and Australia. While we drank, people would approach. There was a kid, probably no more that seven years old, who yelled "Hey!" and then started juggling flaming sticks. Then he ate a hot coal. He went around to collect donations.

Several females, from very young girls to hunchbacked old ladies, came to us with cigarettes and different foods. Sonya got us some lotus seeds and boiled quail eggs. They were both pretty delicious.

Rats and cockroaches shared our walk back to the hotel. As Gus said, the weather is perfect for living things.

Ha Long Bay (with rats)

After a karaoke session that ended with the Spice Girls, we went to bed in our cabin on the ship. I was as drunk as I needed to be in order to sing a couple hours of karaoke. Breakfast would be at 7:30 AM.

Gus and I both woke up at some hour in the middle of the night, and we could hear a squeaking noise. Still a little drunk and confused, I wondered aloud if that sound was the breakfast whistle?

It wasn't the breakfast whistle. First, it was about 3 AM. And as I would later learn, there is no such thing as a breakfast whistle.

The noise continued. It was inconsistent and every so often there was scratching. The noise was being made by a rat that was trapped somewhere nearby my head, most likely underneath the bed.

We discussed our options. Abandoning the room did not seem good. It was cold outside, and there were probably rats everywhere. I announced that I would take my mattress into the bathroom and lock myself inside. But Gus correctly pointed out that the bathroom was too small for this.

We could simply go back to sleep, suggested Gus. Perhaps that would work for him, but the rat was simply too close to my head to do this. I would never be able to rest as long as I could hear its cries and scratching.

We realized that we must pull out the bed and deal with the consequences. Perhaps it would be able to retreat back into it's hole. The worse outcome is that it would be free in our room, and in a foul mood. It might want to attack us, regardless of the fact that we are it's would-be liberators. I armed myself with a stool.

We were both on Gus's bed. I reached over and pulled on my bed. The bed moved, and then there was silence. This was the one thing we did not expect. I investigated. It was not under my bed.

The crying resumed. We realized now that it was coming from inside the wall.

Shaken and full of adrenaline, I went back to sleep. The rat eventually stopped crying. It must have died. However I could hear the scuttling of other rats, as they ran through their secret network of passages, so very close to my head.

Streets of Ha Noi

We traveled to a bar in Ha Noi whose online review promised rats. We didn't find any. We did find lots of beer. And when our beer was inside of us, our new friends, Nam and Dat, treated us to theirs.

There are three things men are good for, according to Dat: "Drinking, gambling, and fucking." This was just a piece of the wisdom that was given to us on that night.

I tipped a helpful man in the bathroom, and by doing so created a dangerous precedent, evidenced by his later attempts to earn his tip from Gus. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. And when in Asia, don't tip, unless you want your friend to get a neck massage while he pees.

Finally, don't eat Indian food in Ha Noi, particularly the one suggested by the Lonely Planet. The sweetest revenge of the trip was steering a curious couple away from these overpriced curry mongers. Eat outside and drink outside, on the streets, that's what Vietnamese culture is all about.

On the streets, I arm wrestled twice and lost twice. I also leg wrestled, which hurt.

Hong Kong: a 7/10th to scale person's dream

Hong Kong is the least spacious place I've ever been in. Although Gus assures me that New York is more crowded, I don't remember it that way.

(photo of the room)

Here's our room. Two people can comfortably stand in it at the same time, but if one of them started dancing it wouldn't be good. We are in the legendary Chungking Mansion - an enormous and compact monster of a building that smells much better than it should - like incense and indian food (the indian food here is amazing).

Nick took us out to Happy Valley. Hong Kong's famous horse racing track. We blew a few hundred Hong Kong dollars on some statistically sound wagers (horses with funny names), but luck was against us. Our losses will be the city/country/administrative state/whatever it is of Hong Kong's gain. The money goes towards public works, or something positive like that.

We had more luck in Macau - the Vegas of Asia. We sat down at a 10/25 HKD table (roughly 1.5/3.5 US), with buyins of about 2500. I was running pretty hot the whole time, and got up to nearly 5000 by the time I cashed out.

The table was full of Chinese, excluding Gus and I. Unlike the Walker Hill Casino in Seoul, although the dealers all speak Korean, the official game language is English. Here, the game was conducted in Chinese. It was still easy enough to follow, and if we didn't understand something, the dealer or someone at the table would explain again in English.

The Chinese players were good. It felt like it could have been any 1/2 or 1/3 game at home.