Vung Tau Pictures

Here are some pictures Amber took of the Vung Tau area and River Ray resort.

This is my mom and me with my shitty Vietnamese haircut. Asians don't know how to cut Westerners' hair.



Here's the port where we got off the hydrofoil:


Guy on a motorbike:


The grounds at the resort:

The "restaurant" and clubhouse:

Busted boats hanging around:

Every time I've ever sat on a tire swing I've realized what a stupid thing it is to use as a swing.

Possibly extremely disrespectful:

The karaoke room. We never went in:

The beach:

These are the kids of the couple other families that were staying at the resort:

Jesus Excursion

Our second excursion with Din was to Vung Tau to see a Jesus statue and a temple. Here's the statue from afar:

Um, I'm gonna say these are dinosaur eggs, so the architects of this whole shebang must have been from a looser faction of Christianity:

Statues of some little children:

Here's a fountain at the base of the hill that Jesus was on:

Here we are after a couple hundred steps or so:

Here is an example of Korean public affection--only same-sex allowed:

Here's me with like, the apostles or something? And the Lamb of God--not the metal band. There's really a lamb or two in there:

And Amberger:

This is the final stretch before the base of the statue. I can't remember for sure, but I think Din said it was 880 steps from bottom to top:

Maybe you know what important moment this is:

Ah, such angels:

Jesus Christ, that's a big statue:

It was a hundred or two steps to the top, too:

You can go out onto the arms and see the view:

Amber and mom had kind of a hard time with it, since they're afraid of heights, but I was okay. Here are my legs:

Here's the rest of me:

Here's Amber outside the opening to one of the arms. Din neglected to tell us that there was a dress code for this place. Amber's shoulders weren't covered, so she had to hold a towel around them the whole time. Those glasses got her a lot of attention everywhere we went:

Here you can see how narrow the steps are. You have to squeeze yourself against the wall when someone is coming up or down against you:

Here are Ambro and I on an observation platform that's at about the halfway point, which we stopped at one the way down:

Oh, you guys. You can't build ANYTHING without putting a cannon next to it:

Here's another little pond outside the base of the statue:

After the Jesus, we walked back down the steps and I counted something like 892, so I guess I either lost my place somewhere or maybe I counted things as steps that weren't officially steps or something. Then we went to some temple nearby where we put some money in a pot, had some incense lit for us, and were given little pamphlets that we couldn't read.

Nobody calls me chicken.

I'm not sure what the significance is here:

Here's my mom and a big bell:

Here's me playing with the bell:

Afterwards, we went into town for a seafood lunch.

I think we got crab. It was good, but a major hassle, as I recall.

We also learned that the very messy way we had been mixing our delicious iced coffees every morning was totally wrong and we were fools to have done it that way. Din watched me try to just pick up the little straining cup from the top of the glass and dump the unmixed hot coffee and condensed milk into the glass with the ice. Sorry I don't have visual aids. He spazzed out wicked and showed us that the cover of the straining cup can be used as a tray, so we could put the cup down, mix the coffee with the condensed milk, and then pour the mixture into the iced glass. He claimed that not mixing the milk into the hot coffee first would give us a stomachache (the milk probably isn't pasteurized, I guess), but we never had that problem. I was just pissed that we kept staining the white tablecloths everywhere, but for five days no one else had bothered to show us the right way to drink the damn coffee.

Anyway, to add insult to injury (on an unrelated topic), back at the hotel, Din decided he needed more than just a verbal explanation of the cost for that day's trip. So he brings this sheet with a bunch of day trips on it to show us the price. Reading that, we find out that there were at least two other trips, like going to caves to see monkeys or riding a little basket boat on the river, that we would have much preferred over some religious stuff. I'm sill kind of pissed off at the negligence and illogic of what was supposed to be a really great hotel.

Hot Springs

So, hey, I totally forgot that I never got to finish my series on my trip to Vietnam. I finally got the pictures that my sister took on a cd in the mail, so now I can share.

Our first excursion from the River Ray Resort was to a hot springs. Our tour guide drove us over, but didn't mention that the hot springs was a bathing suit-necessary activity. In the US, any hot springs my family and I had ever been to/heard of were more viewing-centered, with nature walks and such, but not actually getting into any water. Luckily, the gift shop sold some not-too-hideous swimwear for only the equivalent of $10-11 apiece.

Here are some pics of the place:

The first thing we did was have a mud bath. We got a private cabin with a big tub inside, which filled with the hot spring water while we put the mud on ourselves. An employee put a few bags of prepackaged mud and some scented oil in a bucket, and we just had to rub it on our skin and wait a little while for it to dry, while walking around outside. This was much better than the natural volcanic mudbath I had in Kenya, which left my bathing suit irrevocably sulphur-scented.

Here are my mom and I:

After the mud dried, we were supposed to wash it off thoroughly in the shower, which was extremely difficult, and then soak in the hot tub for a while. Our skin was kind of dyed darker in some places for a while, but I think the hot water got most of it out.

Then we got to go swimming in some of the pools nearby. They varied in temperature, from cool to pretty hot.

After swimming, we changed back into clothes in the restroom. I was reminded how modest Americans are when some woman (I think most of the other foreign tourists that day were German) came into the bathroom and got naked to change without bothering to go into a stall. There was even a window in the restroom door, but she obviously wasn't concerned. It's funny to get little peeks of how other people and other cultures operate.

Next was lunch at the resort's restaurant. It might have been the best meal I had in Vietnam. I don't even remember what it was, but it was very light and sweet.

Before we left, we walked around for a bit, checked email for cheap at the information center, and took some pictures.

Here's a fantastic thing:

Then we went home for swimming at our pool, supper, etc. It was a good day, and I got a new bathing suit out of it.

Mindblowing Update

Mindblowing for me, anyway. Relevant to some, irrelevant to others.

Anyway.

I applied to a new recruiting agency for my next year in Korea, because this other one is just as reputable, but also has opportunities in more countries than South Korea, unlike my current agency. The first year is spent in Korea, Taiwan, China, or Thailand (a gig much shittier than it sounds), and after that teachers can apply to jobs around the world. Pretty cool.

I was originally going to return to Korea in October, since that would give me time to get in a trip to the Caribbean, finish a bunch of obligatory logistical stuff related to returning and leaving again, and do a cross-country road trip for a few weeks to visit long-lost friends and family, plus have some time to relax in Maine. However, when I asked about all the positions I see online advertising for September starts, I was told that if I want to teach in a public school (which I probably will end up deciding on), that if I plan on going in October, all the best positions will be taken, and it'll be hard to find any public school position period. So I said okay, I'll change my available date to late August (because public schools have orientation and training for a week or two before the semester starts). I did stipulate that if there were any positions at private language schools with comparable pay (they usually pay more, actually) and vacation time, that I'd prefer that, but I doubt I'll get that. Hagwons with 3-4 weeks of vacation are around, but 2 weeks is the standard vacation time. I'm hoping they're not going to bitch about me thinking only about vacation.

So my plan to do the road trip is pretty improbable now, especially since a certain SET OF NEWLYWEDS chose to take their honeymoon straight across the best time for me to visit them in LA. I might be able to fly out there for a bit, but everyone in the middle of the country will have to wait another couple years to see me. This is the problem with all this advance major planning I've been doing. It keeps getting knocked around and replanned and rescheduled. Watch me end up not starting a new contract until like January or something.