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A Wimbo Whip...
My week started out uneventful. Monday was my last night at Peace House, I ate together with the girls in our dorm one last time before packing up my things to head to my new house... with HOT WATER. Not that I had the misfortune of cold water on a daily basis, but enough that I was genuinly looking forward to my new place.
Tuesday night I hailed a cab just outside the Peace House and it began heading behind the metal yard that was close to our back door. This was not a route I had ever taken as the driver began going north when my new place was directly east on the other side of the city. My concern began to grow as he headed into the night, through a small village that had been closed up as it was after 8pm. With all my belongings with me I decided to text Anh (my landlord/ house mate/ go to buddy) because I never I was either getting severely ripped off due to the fact the meter on the taxi was running or I was about to be a part of some horror movie I thought I best avoid. He ended up calling me, I handed the phone over to the driver and they ended up in a yelling match. The car stopped and I received a text to get out immediately and not pay anything. I struggled to get all my things collected before he launched one of my backpacks on the side of the road and furiously he took off. An elderly woman nearby got me another cab, whom Anh also spoke with and after 2 hours I managed to pack it home.
While unpacking I plugged in my laptop to find out in the means of that mess, my screen got cracked severely and now needs to be entirely replaced. I quickly became a zoo as I was still worked up over the car ride, and I needed the computer to help me find a job... the next most important thing on my agenda and it was all shot to hell. Lucky for Matt he received a phone call of me flailing... at least not all things change :D
My birthday was spent wandering the old quarter in search of somewhere to fix the damn thing, and after a couple hours I gave up because I didnt feel it was currently worth spoiling my mood. Alice came over and we headed to the lake, where we met up with the other girls at an Indian restaurant for dinner. The service was slow, but the food was amazing. We had a good night, and I was presented with an embarressing display of a giant balloon and Lo continuing to blow on some tacky horn thing a majigger. When I got home Deana (one of my new room mates) was nice enough to let me skype Matt before I headed to bed.
I ended the week up on my roof with all of my house mates, team America, Emily, Alice and some of their veitnamese friends celebrating Deans birthday. I had only recently discovered there was a patio up on our roof top and there is an amazing view of the river and the village of houses I live in. It is quite excellent at night.
Saturday we got up early and caught the bus up to Cuc Phuong, one of the countries National Parks. The 7 of us piled onto an overcrowded bus (welcome to Hanoi) and made our way south on the 3 hour journey into the jungle. The roads were all dirt, many I wondered how it was even possible for a bus to get down. They were lined with lakes, palm trees, goose and rice feilds. It was beautiful. We finally arrived and were dropped off outside the park gates. With no direction we headed down the long road up to the park information center. We rented a stilt house in the center of the park and then went to check out the Primate Rescue center. It had been funded by Frankfert Germany, and here 19 species of endangered primates were rehabilitated and then released back into the wild after 3 years. The researchers track each animal as they want to make sure they are able to adapt back into the enivironment. Unfortunately not all of them do, and with poachers being such a high threat to the weak animals some have to return to the center.
Together took a jeep type deal into the wild... Upon arrival we had no idea where we were going, at this point it didn't really matter. It was quite, peaceful and so gorgeous that I already knew leaving here was going to be hard.
We found our house, dropped our things off and wandered around. Making our way to the catina we had a late lunch, lunch turned into sitting and laughing for hours, then late dinner rolled around. 6 hours later, we still hadn't moved. Epic. We met a few other travelling and ended up sitting around a rock table, on rock chairs shooting the s*** while popping back sunflower seeds in the dim light of candles as hydo here is only available from 6-10pm each day.
Sunday morning we got up early, had breakfast and trekked out to an ancient tree that was over a 1000 years old. The sun came out and it was like being in a film. Surrounded by banana trees, vines and tropical plants we trekked up the side of a mountain to a cave and decided to see where it went. There wasn't much advertised for this and luckily we had flashlights on our phones and began the climb in. I still give props to Jenny as she managed this all in her flip flops. After quite the work out we sadly returned to get our stuff as we knew it was time to head home. Orginally we had planned to bus back but we were offered a private cab aka, our jeep type deal to take us back all the way to Hanoi for 10 bucks each. It was a done deal as we knew our patience level would remain stable having our own vehicle. We threw on some tunes and headed back to the city.
Yesterday I waited again for this man who was supposed to come and fix my computer.. after rescheduling 2 times already I began to get annoyed so my hopes were he would show. Buttttttttt he didn't. So today I took the liberty in finding a shop that would do it at a rate faster then well, never. I biked up to some street and waited for an hour, they told me to come back at 5. When I got home the rain started... I biked back to retrieve it. Soaking wet nothing had been accomplished with it, so again I wait. One of the guys took off and came back with a replacement screen. Lucky for me, it didn't fit... So after I discovered they also lost my computer case, I biked back home with it still broken. Oh right, I also forgot to mention on the way there, the break cables on my bike snapped. So now I am back to waiting. No computer, and now my bike is also broken. It's been a lovely day, so tomorrow I will be off to get the bike repaired, the computer repaired and eventually, HOPEFULLY soon. Be able to really conquer the finding a job that seems to currently be on the back burner... NOT GOOD.
I feel it is also important for me to mention the fact this country has really, really, really, REALLY amazing mangos which I am now completely addicted to.
:) Anywho, this is quite long. We are planning to go away this weekend again, which is excellent so I will have new stories soon!
- comments
Mom It's a good thing we love ya!!!! Have fun........
Anne T Ashley, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger! You are going to be flippin strong! Sounds like an amazing adventure! Missing you lots, Anne