Gooooooodddd Mooooorrrnnniinnnnng, Vietnam!

Okay, so my Robin Williams impression lacks....well, a lot. However, that didn't stop me from enjoying myself on my most recent excursion to Vietnam. Due to a flight change, I was stuck in the Kuala Lumpur airport overnight, but after a 10 hour love affair with the Plaza Premium Lounge (in which I made them amend their free flow beer rule), I headed to Ho Chi Minh City. Theeeen I almost had to turn back. Never trust Wikipedia (*cough* Dingle *cough*) or any other online resource that says you can get a visa on arrival in Vietnam. Without pre-approval from a Vietnamese embassy


and 4x6 photo, they will kick you straight back to wherever you came from or, in my case, charge you 200 big ones for an emergency visa. Needless to say, this trip was not starting well.

With my wallet and emergency funds considerably lighter (and when I say lighter, I mean empty), I made my way to the hotel. First thing I noticed:  Ho Chi Minh is pretty clean. I wasn't expecting Jakarta, but I didn't think it would be anywhere near Singapore. Pretty nuts. Super friendly people who loved tourists and, surprisingly enough, there WERE a lot of westerners there. I didn't think it would be a hot bed of world travelers, but I think there were a greater amount of bules per capita than in Jakarta. 

After 12 hours of hibernation, I awoke ready to do all the touristy things HCMC had to offer: I went to the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Independence Palace and the Vietnam War Museum. The latter was...interesting. The way things were portrayed in that museum...it was the first time I felt uncomfortable as an American. I hope that doesn't offend anyone. I appreciate everything our vets do and did for our country, but.....shit. Pictures will ensue on Facebook if anyone is curious. I couldn't bring myself to photograph some of it. I felt that bad.  Needless to say, I needed to drink those memories away as soon as possible. Vietnamese beer is....wildly mediocre? Good phrasing? I'm very close to saying that I miss Bintang...gross. Things that make you go 'blaaahhhahhh'.

After an eight hour train ride (on what seemed to be a relic from the war era), I made my way to Nha Trang. Supposedly the best beach area in Vietnam, it didn't quite compare to past vacations. Pretty standard for the beach, but a very chill place. I only had a day and a half there, but Nha Trang isn't known for much outside of the beach and beach-related activities. I spent half of the first day at a spa with mud bathes. Once I moved past questioning my heterosexuality, it was actually quite nice. A mud bath, mineral bath (essentially a hot tub), Italian food, beer and laying in the sun for $25. Boleh! After leaving with silky smooth skin, I broke the bank at the first microbrewery I've seen in Southeast Asia: Louisane Brewery. Compared to Bintang and Anchor, this was magical. Wheat, red ale, dark and pilsner swirling around in my belly was comparable to....drinking tears of a unicorn. Over exaggeration? You're probably right. Sigh, I miss 'Merica. The last day in Nha Trang consisted of exploring the town a bit, beach buming, a Vietnamese massage and some Vietnamese/Tex-Mex combo. Sounds weird, but it was quite good!

An overnight train ride back to Ho Chi Minh, a layover in Malaysia and bam! Back in the Big Durian. My next update will probably be after Christmas break. That will have the big news: what I plan on doing next year. To stay or to go....that's the big question. Update: though I plan on hammering out some sort of extension (won't sign anything until January though) with my current school, I have a Skype interview with a school in Istanbul and will be attending an international teachers fair in Bangkok in January. Until my December visit back to the States, everyone enjoy the cold weather. I'll be drinking a Budweiser by the pool, getting a tan and thinking of you guys. Your only solace is that Bud here costs $4.50. Sad day....until December all! 'Merica!

PETA is going to freak out....

Gila. That was my most recent trip in a nutshell. For all the bules reading this, "gila" means "crazy" in Bahasa Indonesia. So now, even if you hate the rest of this blog post, you can walk away saying "hey, at least I learned something."

Andrew, Ben and I took off for Kuala Lumpur the Friday school ended. Just get us outta here. Exploring the Bukit Bintang province of Kuala Lumpur was quite weird. A lot of white people. We see so few bules in north Jakarta (outside of school, of course) that we start to whisper along with the other locals when some crop up. "Oh my, there's four white people" "what are they doing here?" "This is so weird...white people! Really?!" But the Bukit Bintang area was like being in a dirtier version of California. Some people's night went better than others, but really quite fun overall.

We then made our way up to the Cameron Highlands for a couple days to frolic through the strawberry patches and tea plantations. Super fantabulous! Pffft. I went golfing. The other two were frolicking. Granted, I spent way more money and was pretty horrific on the golf course, but at least the Japanese group I was paired with learned plenty of English curse words. I should apologize to Andrew and Ben though. I wasn't the best company of the trip up until I satisfied my hunger with a Snickers. I can only imagine that it was just like their old commercials.  Bitching until you take that first bite, then everything is better.

After another brief trip to Kuala Lumpur and the Central Market, I sped off to Boracay. A relative pain to get to where you need to go, but the best beaches I've ever seen. Makes Lake Red Rock look like a sewage dump. Apologies to anyone who is going onto Red Rock soon. Try to avoid that massive log that's hiding right below the surface.

Cliff diving and perfect beaches behind me, I flew back to Manila to meet up with my friend/colleague, Joe and his buddy before turning around to Palawan in Puerta Princesa.  Poor weather didn't deter our trip. We ate crocodile, half born chicken fetus (balut) and washed it down with enough San Miguel to make my mother scoff ("Hmpf!  Joshua Carl!"). The cherry on top: the Underground River tour. Recently dubbed one of the seven Wonders of Nature, it didn't disappoint. The waiting time was terrible after such a long night, but the underground river itself was fascinating and well worth the trip.

Three more days in Manila yielded no great stories to speak of. Got to see some friends, saw some old Spanish architecture, etc. All the touristy things. Settling back for week 4 of the first term and this year has the makings to be a good one. Shout out to my friend, Kenny. Recently got engaged. Congrats man! More pictures are on Facebook. Only four months until our next reunion, but I'll give y'all another update about my Vietnam trip before then.

Men In Grey Suits!

 Forget any typos that may or may not be made as I had to do this on my iTouch. I'd be incredibly annoyed if I wasn't in front of a sea view bungalow that faces a volcano. Flores, Indonesia has been a great experience thus far and we only have one day left.  Plan on going to a market, check out the local goods, drink some Bintangs and pack up our stuff. 

Flores is part of the Indonesian archipelago that's north of Australia. Though it's in no way westernized, it's more beautiful because of it. For diehard cinephiles, it's like traveling to the island they used on Jurassic Park. Amazeballs. We stayed outside a town called Moni our first two nights in (what seemed like) one of the two available locations for travelers. Usually no electricity, no running water and mosquito nets. Cold bucket baths and some good ol' Indonesian home cookin' (aka rice). But, the conditions were necessary if we wanted to scale Mt. Kelimutu. I wanted to use the word 'scale' to make it seem like we did something more than walk, but we didn't. Mt. Kelimutu is know for having three craters that hold different colored lakes. I don't know who I have to talk to get it labeled as a world wonder, but I will find them. Not only are they different colors (black, brown and teal when we were there), but they change depending on the different minerals in the water at that time. Did I mention there was a waterfall at the bottom of the trail down the mountain? Uhh, cha! 

The rest of the trip was traveling to a different location (Maumere), going to a cave and snorkeling. We didn't explore the cave as much as we would have liked, but we were warned of pythons in the deeper, wetter part of the cave. No thanks. However, I did see (again, for all the nerdy cinephiles like me) the same spider they used in the 4th Harry Potter film. And yea, I understand how lame I sound writing this. 

Snorkeling was awesome. Not only was the water crystal clear, but we saw a rift that was caused by an earthquake at some point. Different types of coral reef then a sharp and distinct drop off. Looked insane and a little scary. Men in grey suits could have popped up at any point and we'd have little warning. Craziness.

Coming back to Jakarta will start the final push for the academic year. Preliminary tests (yes, you heard me right: preliminary tests) will start almost immediately upon return. After those two weeks are up, I have the next two weeks with the students to review the Prelims. At the beginning of May, they'll begin their ACTUAL tests that will last a total of five weeks. Franklin Delano! 

I plan on coming home mid-June for Ashley and Willard's wedding. Shout out to all three couples getting married. Apologies to Josh-Emily and Joey-Jessie for not being able to make yours. If this ends up being my last blog post of the year (my mom is now crying after reading that), I hope I get to see you all when I'm back. Two weeks is a small window, but I'll keep in touch and try to see as many as I can. Enjoy the everlasting winter in Iowa, I'll stay here and soak up some cosmic rays in the 85 degree weather. The only upside of the former:  plenty of time for drinkin' diesels. Have one for me and hope for warmer weather.

Crocodiles, Pythons and Bintang! Oh My!

Well, it's been a while.  Mama Youngman has already voiced her displeasure about the lack of blog posts, so here we are. Stuff has been crazy in these parts ever since coming back to Jakarta in January. It's still relatively early in the rainy season, but we've already had the worst flood since 2007 blow into town.  Neck high water, crocodiles swimming around and pythons being pulled out of the flood water with half-disgusted people in their bellies. Fantastic stuff. School was cancelled for two days leading up to the weekend, so the teachers in flooded areas were pretty much on lock-down for four days. We found ways to have fun without the luxuries:  girl chat, morse code with flash lights, etc.

Fortunately enough, I was outside Jakarta when the floods happened. I got roped into supervising the JC1 (equivalent to juniors) camp, which was still relatively awful. It didn't flood, but it was impossible to walk because of the mud. Couple that mosquitoes devouring my legs and you get the reasons why I hate camping. I came back right before the water levels started to rise to an apartment full of instant noodles and a small amount of water. We had to survive on beer mostly. Worst couple days of my life....psyche! It was awesome. On a more serious note, thoughts be with the families that lost loved ones. At least 20 people died in this flood.

Anyone who's been teaching more than six weeks will just only respond one way when asked (100 times by other folks) how classes are going:  meh, they're goin.  My 9th and 11th grade classes continue with normal lessons.  My 10th graders (who are in a major testing year) have been in revision mode since the beginning of the term in preparations for their tests in May.  Yes, you heard that correctly.  The entire 3rd term (10 weeks) is completely dedicated to revision for this one exam and they do this in all academic classes. Craziness.


I've got my flights booked to come back in June, though I'll only be there for a couple weeks.  Shout out to the future Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Willard, as they roped me into coming back.  Could have gone to Australia....but no, I had to answer Tree Beard's call. I hope to supervise a Sociology trip to Bali between Term 3 and 4. If not, hop over to Malaysia and check that out.