To cleanse, or not to cleanse

Everyday during our volunteer program, we start our day with yoga. A local instructor walks to our place to teach an hour of yoga. He suggested, if want, he would hold a cleansing day for us. After pondering the idea Alissa said, "What the hell, let's do it!" So, along with 7 other volunteers, we each handed over the 400 rupees. We were told that there was a long cleanse, which entailed vomitting, and a short cleanse, which didn't. We opted for the short cleanse.

Today was the "cleansing" day, so we all met at the Yoga center @ 7.30am to commence the "cleanse". Until we arrived at the yoga center, we were still a little unclear about the whole cleansing process. We were about to find out.......

When we first arrived at the center, we were all handed a soft mat to sit on, it was very relaxing!
The Yogi dude was busy preparing the boiled water. We started to fall back to sleep, when the cleansing instruction commenced. The Yogi explained that the short "cleanse" entailed drinking 6-8 glasses of salt water (long cleanse entailed drinking 16 cups of salt water) and after every 2 cups we were told to perform yoga poses to enduce bowel movements or vomitting. Great! We were told that there would be no vomitting, we have been duped! We were allowed to go to the bathroom only if we need to, and we were not allowed to "force" anything out. If nothing happend after 2 mins, go back to drinking.

The "cleanse" offically commenced at 8.15 am. We all took our hot glass of salt water and drank it as we squatted in a circle. The Yogi told us to drink as fast as we can, when we stopped to take a breathe he screamed, "faster, faster!" The girl from Crete finished her first cup and said that the taste was awful. I told her that she had 15 more to go! I barely got through the first 2 cups, then ran over to the mat to perform yoga positions. Alissa was still working on her 1st cup and complaing about the taste;)

I was in the middle of the 3 position, when Alissa stated, "Man, I have to poop already!" She only drank one cup!! (She lied about drinking 2 glasses) She commpleted her poses and ran off to the toilet! The rest of us completed the poses and went back to the drinking and squatting, whil the Yogi yelled, "faster, faster!!". Alissa returns from the bathroom and the Yogi sidekick questioned her bowel movement, stating that she faked it or forced it. Alissa proclaimed, "No I didn't it came right out, SUCCESS!" She was told to drink her "third" glass of salt water. At that point, I was working on cup 4, but was taking my time. The girl from Crete, Popi, and I were having a hard time putting it back. It was getting tough, and we were both very full! The rest of group has already finished the 3rd and 4th cups and were in the midst of yoga poses. Popi started burping and I decided that I was not going to finish cup 4 and move onto the poses.

At this point, people starting going to the bathroom. In the middle of the 2nd pose, I felt a movement and needed to use one of the 4 bathrooms provided. It worked, sort of. Most of the others did not have the same success that Alissa and I enjoyed. The 3 girls from Belgium were champs, they finished first. But, they weren't feeling so well. None of them had a bowel movement, so the Yogi told them that they had to vomit. Marie was first, she proceeded to the bathrrom and yaked for 10 mins --- it was gross! She came out and described it to the Yogi, he declared her cleansed! The other 2 Belgians quickly ran into the bathroom and proceeded to vomit. Another Success!!

Alissa lied and finished her last glass and declared herself cleansed! I was reprimanded for no finishing half of cup 4, but I did make it through 5 and half cups. Alissa can't say the same thing.

The short cleanse was almost over, but the long one was only half way. This is where is started to get ugly. The Belgium girls were now lying on their mats because they were exhausted from the vomitting session. The 4 girls doing the long session were working on their 10th cup. The next thing ya know Popi didn't make it to the bathroom and was vommitting all over the garden. The next thing ya know, all of them were vommiting all over the place. We were trying to relax (after completing our cleanse) but we were listening to horrific noises coming from every direction! It was chaos, the Yogi was telling them to keep vomitting! Once they were done, they went back to drinking the salt water.

After the cleanse, they were instructed to perform a nasal cleanse. Everyone was dumping water down their nose, and then vomitting. It was worse than before!!! Finally, after 2 hours, it was all over! We laid on our mats waiting for "lunch".

We were all starving. When the food came out, we were so excited! We tookd one look and taste and almost vomitted. It was rice and lentils, not our idea of lunch. The Yogi told the long cleanse people to eat as much as possible. The short cleanse people we saved, we didn't have to eat as much.

At 1pm, we had to leave this amazing experience (alissa needed to go to the doctor). As we walked out, there were bodies lying everywhere. Some we still rushing to the bathroom, but most of them were in recovery!

To celebrate this great day, we went to G's Terrace and drank Bagpiper and sang "Take Me Home, Country Roads". What a day! I hope tomorrow can live up to this experience!

Nepal contact info July 23-25

We will be in the Hotel Tradition for the next couple of days. You can contact us at 0977-01-4700217. We are in room 503.

Alissa has 2 infections in her ear, so we are staying in a hotel she gets better. We will return to the doctor on monday for a check up. It is not serious, but needs to be treated. Once we hear from the doctor, we will decide whether or not to return to the project. Also, we have been offered to teach some english to locals as an alternative. We will decide once we hear the doctor's orders.

Everything is fine and we are safe...no worries. I will write more soon.

Contact info for July 16- Aug 7

We have arrived in Nepal and will be here for nearly 3 weeks. Unfortunately, the gov't has cut the mobile service, so I can't use my mobile. I can only be reached by email. I will be able to call and will do so next week. I will make the usual rounds;)

It is all good and we are safe, no worries on the political environment. Alissa and I are staying together in a very small room in a family's house. It will be fine.

From Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

We arranged a bus ticket from HCM to Phnom Penh, we were told that it would take 6.5 hours. To their credit it was on time and they kept their word, but we were assigned the local section of the bus. We expected to get loads of sleep on the bus since we were not getting alot in the last week with all of the adventures. At 6am we left HCM, with our eyes covered with our eye patches and ear plugs. Within the first 15mins, their was an argument between a family on the bus and co-pilot. They seemed to be arguing about the visa requirements in Cambodia. The bus came to a complete stop and they were told to get off. Then 5 mins later a same discussion occurred between an old lady and the co-pilot, but it was very heated!! There was some hitting involved. She refused to get off, so the bus went on. Alissa and I became nervous because we were afraid that they might find fault in our 'valid' visas. (the visas were processed by our hotel in Hanoi and we were told that it would be OK) After about 45 mins of loud discussions, we attempted sleep. Another 45 mins went by and we were at the border! No sleep has occurred. The bus border crossings are always a adventure. You need to exit one and get your passport stamped, then go about 2 mins and stop again to enter the next country. We had no problem leaving Vietnam, it was all good. Then, we had to go to the Cambodia immigration to get our visas OK's and passports stamped. When they called the name Eme, I was so relieved to be let into the country. I was not going to pay additional money to the guards! After an hour and a half at the immigration stations, we were let back onto the bus. (this stop had the grossest of toilets, i will not comment any further). On the road again!
We went about 2 miles and we stopped again, not sure why. Alissa told me that she could see a fence and we had to wait to go further. The locals were trying to sell all kinda crap, including these green flower pods (edible), buckets of crickets and cockroaches. Next thing ya know, everyone is loading onto a ferry, including us. All these mini-vans with 100 people on top, big buses and farm trucks were loading up. Alissa is freakin' out because she can't swim. She says, "what if it sinks?" ...."oh, boy!" No worries, we made it across is 1omins, without any problem. On the road again!
We tried to get some sleep, but then, some bird noise comes out of nowhere. Great, what was that??? Alissa says, "great, we are going to get the avaian flu!" Then, we started hitting big potholes and dodging oncoming vehicles. The "bird" was making more noises. All of sudden we hit this really big pothole and the dude with the "bird" jumps up.....I thought the "bird" escaped. It didn't, he just dropped all of the stuff in his hands onto the lady in front of him.
The road started to get a little better, we slept about 30 mins. We woke up and the bus stopped in the bus station, and there were all of these locals trying to convince us to stay at their guesthouse or give us a ride to town. It was crazy!!!! We were still a sleep, since we didn't get any, and all of these people were mobbing us. We made a packed that we were going to walk to town and not given. We walked about 50 meters and 4 dudes were still following us and in our face about staying @ their guesthouse. I would yell Alissa's name and then they would say, "Alissa, come to my guesthouse." I couldn't take it anymore! Then this boy driving his tuk-tuk said, "hey lady, hey lady, I give you a free ride." We jumped on, with no hassle. He was nice, his name was Chung.

Hanoi

At 5.30 AM the train pulls into the Hanoi train station, and were aren't awake! We got up in a rush and got off the train before we were kicked out! searching for a hotel at 6am can be quite challanging!

Don't really have a whole lot to say about Hanoi. It is the Paris of Vietnam, with little cafes everywhere! It was nice, but the people are not friendly, especially to Americans. Once they realise that you are an American, you have no chance!

The best part about Hanoi was the hotel and the local supermarket. We scored a $13 place that had a shower, balcony and no foul smell! The first local supermarket we have visited since our travels commenced. Our new motto is.... GO LOCAL! It was a great experience and it was our intro to Choco-pies. We needed some food for the bus ride, so we loaded up!

However, the city is mad hot! Like over a hundred degrees and very humid! I think I lost 3lbs from sweating.

Onto Cambodia....

Love Market

Our friendly Vietnamese travel agent told us about the Love Market in Sapa, so we were eager to locate it. However, we found out from our hotel owner that the market has moved to a remote location because there were too many tourists observing the situation! FYI - the Love Market is where the locals pick up their dates!

Sapa

We got off the motos and onto the plane to Hanoi. Upon arriving in Hanoi, we decided to tighten our budget -- we spent too much money in the first 3 weeks. I advised Alissa that she could only spend $30/day. So, instead of taking a taxi, we opted for the mini-bus, which waits to fill up and then heads to the city. Unfortunately, we were the first passengers and no one else seemed to join us. We sat for about 10mins when 2 dudes from Hong Kong jumped on. After 30 mins, we were still sitting. Alissa volunteered to go out and find more people to join -- no luck! Then a taxi driver decided to negotiate with us. We scored a $10 cab for 4 people! We arrived at the rail station about 2 hours later. It was chaos! People everywhere, some trying to jump trains and make it on the last minute. It was very confusing because no one spoke english and they were only letting a few, select people thru and not others. We didn't understand. Finally, the one train left and the chaos ended, crazy! We were then let thru to go on the train! 8 hours on the overnight train and we landed in Sapa in the AM.

We were in Sapa for 3 days, and it rained the entire first day! That was ok because we were completely nackard. Sapa is a small French-like village in the mountains bordering china in the north of vietnam. The only thing that you can do is trek and shop from the local tribal villages. We were too cheap to shop, so we trekked. We were told that to be able to get to the one village we needed to have a guide. Instead, we went to the village that didn't require a guide and took the local rice paddy trail through the valley to the "guide required" village. It was really nice not to be surrounded by tourists and were able to "chat" with the locals.

We met 2 couples from Ireland on our travels to Sapa. The the couple from Kildare/Wicklow were pretty friendly and gave us some advice from the other countries in which they travelled. They were really dissapointed with Thailand. They ranted on and on how expense the beer and drinks were and that we should consider to take less time and go elsewhere. They have convinced us that we should consider on going to Burma rather than spending 3 weeks in Thailand. We are looking into it. The other Irish couple was from some place west of Dublin, didn't understand where they were speaking of. We met them in lobby of our hotel. They met the owner and were invited for some drinks. They enjoyed Thailand and didn't think that the drinks were too pricey. Ironically, the dude, looked like Duncan's twin....hhhhmmmm.....

We had a nice time in Sapa because it was really chill! We made friends with 2 of the girls (Lu and Yao) from the Lao Chai village. They hung around to see us off and we promised to comeback with our boyfriends.

Off to the train and another 8 hours nite ride back to Hanoi.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

We met an ex-South Vietnamese vet who does tours of the HCM trail on Motorbike and decided to do the 2.5 day tour with him. We packed our packs on the bike and off we went!!! What a crazy trip!!! He is not affiliated with a tour company, it is his own little biz and gets customers by word of mouth. He explained that most tours don't go thru the backroads of the HCM and that he could show us and explain some significant War sites along the way.

The HCM was not what I expected --- it is a paved road!!! However, what we did get to see several of the 54 minority groups in Vietnam. They consist of remote mountain villages with people who work together as a community. They are subsistence farmers, who live off of their land and are not influenced by the westernized lifestyle. We would walk into villages and would be rockstars. Most of the people have never seen a Western person, if so, it was only a couple of times. At first, they were shy an timid, but then I whipped out my camera and the next thing ya know, I had 15 kids crowded around me. I wish that I could put up the pics, but I can't from these computers (Im not allowed). We drove through many small and big villages over the 3 days. The coolest part about it was that these people, especially children, were so happy to see us! When there heard our motorbike,they ran out of their house and yelled "Hallo",with a smile. It is nice to see that people are happy to be alive and living for the moment.

The one minority village they we stayed near, was lead by an 85 year old ex-Vietcong Commander. He invited us into his house, where he had a shrine dedicated to Ho Chi Minh himself! (note-We were entering the old north-south border zone, so we were advised to tell everyone that we were from Canada.) The old dude invited us in and chatted with us and told us that he liked Canadian because they helped the north in the war --I had no clue, just went with it! Then, his wife comes out of the back room with a bong in hand -- we still don't know what was in it because it did smell like weed. What a crazy village! So, to keep peace, we donated $10 to village.

The village was next to a town called Hiem, where we stayed in a "hotel" for the nite -- we were the only guests. The town was eerie. It was like an old communist town, it had no life. They even had a big tower which played talk radio every morning and nite from 5am to 8am and 5pm to 8pm at nite. I was glad to get out of the place!

We trucked onto Khe Sanh, on the Laos border. Khe Sanh was heavily bombed during the War and was declared unlivable for many years. (Many of the houses were re-built in the last 10 years) We met a girl (Cuc) our age whose parents left the area in the 70's because it was so badly damaged. She has now returned so that she can run the museum dedicated to the Khe Sanh battle. Cuc also told us about her uncle, who was in the war. The land around the area was contamined for many years and some parts are still unable to be farmed. After our tour of the museum, she invitied for coffee.

Danang & Hoi An

We departed from HCM for Danang on Wed morning, then strait to a taxi which took us 30km south to a town called Hoi An. This is an old French colonial town that was not touched by the American War. It is crazy to see all of the buildings with the French architecture. Both Danang and Hoi An are on the coast by the water, and Danang was home to an air base during the War.

We didn't really know much about Hoi An upon our arrival, but everyone told us that we had to go! But, we accomplished alot in the 24 hours that we were in the town. The town is known for its handmade, fitted clothing --- it is like a town of "sweat shops". We were hounded by people who wanted to sell us cheap clothing, however we wanted to visit the orphanage in the town. So, we set out to find it, and we did! The director of the orphange was happy to see us and allowed to walk around the building and "talk" to the kids, who did not speak english. Upon entereing the room, we were greeted with "Hallo, hallo, hallo" -- the only english they know. They were happy to see us! I made friends with 2 little boys who doing there spelling lessons. I showed them how to use my camera, and next thing ya know they were taking all kinds of pics!!!
The school also has several handicapped kids with various health problems. A volunteer helps the school by teaching the kids to walk, speak, etc. We were asked to sing English songs, so we obliged. Can't say that Alissa and I were rockstars, but it was a success! After our visit, we decided to donate $20 to the school so that they could buy food for the kids.

We then set out for the post office, but this lady who tried to sell us clothing earlier in the day, tracked us down. Next thing ya know we were getting fitted for dresses. During the fitting process the lady felt my boobs, I think I was violated! After the sweat shop experience,we were trying to get back on course to hit up the post office. As I was running away from the sweat shop, this other lady approached me and told me that she saw all the hair on my legs and thought I should be threaded. I just wanted to leave, but she had to do a little demo for me. Bam! Next thing ya know she is treading my legs and Alissa is getting a foot massage. That was it, we had to get out of the market and stop spending anymore money!!!

The last thing that I decided to buy in Hoi An was a fruit shake from a street vendor. It looked good as I walked by, so I told Alissa that we need to sit down and share one. No one spoke English, we told her that we wanted one shake in the best vietnamese that we could. We sat down with the locals in their little mini chairs (which is the popular restaurant furniture) and the only thing people said to us was hallo and asked us for a cigarette. When we got our shake it included cherries, avocado, walnuts, and all kinds of other shit (I have no idea what was in it)....I drank it and paid for it!!

Ho Chi Minh

Our first port of entry into Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh (HCM). The immigration police were a bit intimidating at first. The man was very serious and stern, viewing our passports. So, I thought that we were in trouble, maybe our visas were not valid. I asked him what was wrong, then he he asked me if Alissa and I were friends, I replied yes. He tried not to smile, then asked if we were single. Upon saying yes, we were accepted into Vietnam! (note - I did tell him that I have a hot, irish bf in the states.)

As we picked up our bags, we were approached by a French couple who was looking to split a ride to the city. We had no where to stay and they told us that there hotel was cheap (music @ our ears), so we all headed off together to Hotel 211. The city was crazy, it was like a movie. All of the little Vietnamese with their bikes, scooters and rickshaws. There are no stop lights, except on the main street, so the crossing of traffic at intersections was mass chaos!!! But, there are no SUVs or oversized, what an original idea...maybe America should try this?
Even though the streets are crazy, the people are super NICE!!! Everyone helped us out with directions and answered all of our questions. They are so happy to have tourism in the country.

We didn't have a whole lot of time in the city because we wanted to go up the coast and eventually land in Hanoi. We went to a student travel agent, who hooked us up with plane an train tickets. This is the dude that I posted a picture of a few days ago. He really hooked u up. We got tickets on Vietnam Airlines for $56!!! sweet. Then, he started to tell us about the Love Market in Sapa (our final destination in the North). This is the place were people hook up and get spouses, so he told us not to accept anything or eat anything!!


After we got our tickets, we headed to the War museum. Kinda scary place! The museum is suppose to be about all of the wars in which the Vietnamese participated --- but, it is primarily about the American Vietnam War. The first exhibit showed very grotesque pics of babies born with defects and the physical deformities of people who were bombed in the war. This set the stage for the rest of the anti-American museum, needless to say I was not proud to be an American and it got worse as I walked on. Other exhibits included pics & mini-articles of American soldiers mis-treating the Vietnamese, worldwide demonstrations against the US occupation of Vietnam and the post-war life of the Vietnamese. But the most impressionable exhibit, was the one containing posters made by children and their view on the war. Most of the depicted the war planes of the US bombing their country and killing peole....what a great image.
I do know that there are two sides to the story and the other side was not told, but it was still sad.

That was all of the time we had in Saigon, next stop ---- Danang/Hoi An.