Vietnam; Anthony Bourdain calls it the place where everything is used – and nothing wasted in terms of food. That said, I thought it’d be fun to ask Twitter “what’s the craziest thing I could eat in Vietnam? Someone please dare me and I’ll film it.” I hadn’t done much research and didn’t know what to expect. @DohaMike replies and said I should eat Balut and included a Wikipedia link. A fertilized duck egg.
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“You’re lucky you’re not unconscious right now” the doctor said to me. Although I was shocked, I knew something was wrong when I had finally decided to get medical attention. I had the feeling of ‘pins-and-needles’ coming up through my body as walking became more difficult. Stephanie was there to hold onto me and to get me to the clinic. Luckily, this beach has dozens of clinics spread out all within walking distance making it quite easy to find one.
This is my third time back in Bangkok and I’m still not tired of it. I met up with Stephanie and her friend Liz at the airport as I arrived too. They had just come back from a camper van trip for two months in Australia. I was their tour guide for the first few days while I remembered all there was to do in Bangkok. Mostly aimless walking which is so easy to do in Bangkok. We were preparing ourselves for the bigger night out for New Years Eve though I did seem to forget how dangerous a bucket can be on one of our first night out. Puking on the streets of Koh San Road is not a good look but considering the type of parties that street has, I wasn’t the only one.
I missed last week’s update. It was bound to happen soon since I started writing these types of posts. These last few weeks have been much busier. I’ll try to catch up.
Today marks 600 days of living outside of the box. Over two years ago, I had this grand idea to travel the world and to see and experience as many things as possible. The more research I did, the more I felt I had to see and the longer I knew this lifestyle would exist in my life. For the first few months of my trip, it all felt like a dream. I was city hopping every few days (or everyday), going from village to village, going to every world heritage cultural site, and meeting an endless amount of people. The hardest part of my day was figuring out what to eat from the endless selection in every country. It was exactly what I wanted… or so I thought.
This is for my Weekly Travel Update. You can follow along in the Michael’s Travels category. If you haven’t noticed already, I like talking about my encounters with people. To me, the socializing aspect of travel is important.
The Chinese people have been some of the friendliest people I have ever encountered in my travels. Surprised? How is it possible when they’re pushing and shoving at the train station? When they seem to try to rip you off on souvenirs? When you can’t seem to get a taxi to pick you up? And when they call you fat?
This is an unusually long update. I got a little carried away. And sorry for the lack of pictures this week. I refuse to use Flickr searches for pictures that are not mine for these posts I put out every week.
Art of Backpacking turns two years old!
The first post went out on December 4th, 2008 with a simple picture of Grinnell Glacier Moraine. I was just testing the waters. Next was the ‘official’ first post by Teresa which was hardly a post. I had no idea what I was getting into and it started with really simple and lame articles. The site was hosted for free from a friend and we didn’t even have SEO friendly URL’s because the host didn’t have that functionality.
If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you may have noticed that I don’t have an itinerary posted anywhere. I didn’t even know I was going to have the two months of January and February off when I took my part time job. I’m an English teacher in Xi’an, China. The plan was to stay in China and only make small trips to the surrounding cities I haven’t been to. I LOVE Thailand and knew one day I’d be going back but it never came across my mind that I’d be for New Years Eve.
I’m sick just in time for the weekend. Sneezing ten times in a row, coughing, sweats, feeling week, and overall feeling like crap. The weather in Xi’an has been odd. It hasn’t snowed yet and from what I’ve been told, this is the warmest winter it has been in years. Today’s temperature is 45f/7c degrees. Although I’m from the New York City tristate area, this is still too cold for me.
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