Indochina travel notes: epilogue/ramble

I've been back for exactly a week now, almost to the hour. The jetlag is milder than any I've experienced upon returning from Asia (or Australia). I'm adjusting to less-fresh food, and to having to cook it myself. But I do love staying put night after night, at least for now. I've been shaking the dregs of my cold; I was pretty much over it by the time I got back, but I was still having residual coughing fits on the return flights, and it wasn't until Tuesday that my ears cleared. It was actually good to come back to work, good to see my work family. Gracie was thrilled to see me; she was more affectionate than ever. It's even been easy to adjust to winter, perhaps mostly because I brought the good weather back with me; it's been mostly pleasant ever since I returned. We weren't here for the 0-degree days.
The trip back was rough, but that was to be expected. Nothing went wrong: no delays, no logistical mishaps, no consistently screaming babies. But 30 hours is 30 hours: 8 hours from Saigon to Dubai; 3.5-hour layover in Dubai (the terminal's not as nice as you'd think; take that, Tom Friedman); 14 hours from Dubai to Boston (excellent entertainment, decent vegan food... but 14 hours after 8 + 3 hours is... a lot); 3.5-hour layover in Boston; short flight (albeit next to obnoxious seatmate) to DC.

What made the flights tolerable: (1) Bose. I get no kickbacks from Bose, but seriously: Bose. Don't fly to Asia without them. (2) Free booze. (3) Lots of movies to watch. I'm disappointed with how little I read during the trip, but my brain was fried. That said, I caught up on movies. Loved "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Maleficent," and the last X-Men. Hated "What If" and "Lucy." Enjoyed "The Book of Life." Had mixed feelings about "Good Morning, Vietnam." I didn't think it was funny, and I noted the misogyny (and Jay, the homophobia) but I valued the perspective on the war. I also thought it was interesting how unchanged Vietnam looked. The most unrealistic thing to my eye was that there were so many cars on the road, and not so many motorcycles. Was there another film or two? There must have been, but they left no impression.

In the middle of the flight to Boston, Jay joked about smoking in the bathroom so that we'd get an emergency landing. At the moment, it was the funniest f*ing thing I'd ever hurt. I laughed until I coughed. 

You can imagine I was thrilled to land in DC. My conical hat made it relatively unscathed, as did my other hats. I'll be able to have a veritable gardening party, with hats for several helpers, once it gets warm. My backpack didn't fare as well; the MENSA candidates at TSA couldn't figure out how to close it (you'll probably be able to figure it out from the picture) so they just taped over the top, with my dirty underwear (not pictured) sticking out.

And that, my friends, was my backpack for two-and-a-half weeks (I also carried a smaller daypack). At the bottom were my babies, my dresses. I couldn't wait to hang them up; I can't wait to wear them. I lost a few pounds during the course of the trip--as you do when you're walking all day or climbing over ruins or kayaking--and I suppose I'll have to gain them back for the dresses to fit, but that shouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, I unpacked, called my parents. I'd sent them regular, almost daily emails from the trip (I'd never been so connected on vacation; so much wifi). Seriously: the buses in Vietnam had wifi; the train stations did; every cafe did, and certainly every hotel. Of course, this helped us "wing it" in terms of not having every detail figured out ahead of time.


I crashed on schedule that night (the mild jetlag has likely been helped by the fact that I got in just in time to settle in and go to bed), and started dealing with my pictures first thing in the morning. Picasa being the piece of $hit that it is, I lost three hours of work (one hour at a time, because I was slow to turn to the Panasonic importing software, which isn't perfect, but it didn't keep taking hours to download thumbnails only to lose everything before the photos were actually transferred. Around 11am--the time I'd have been going to sleep in Indochina, with its 12-hour time difference--I drifted into a nap. I woke up a hilarious Skype video message from my parents, in which my mother took on the role of the voice of reason:

Dad: Hi! We're just saying hi, seeing how you're settling in...
Mom: Let the child sleep!
Dad: Well, her Skype is on... anyway, no need to call back, we just wanted to see...
Mom: Why are you still talking? Let her sleep!
Dad: That's it, the message is recorded. We're done.

I didn't call them back. I continued to deal with my photos, which were disappointing at the time. The actual images were still fresh in my mind, and the photos didn't do them justice. A week later, the photos are less disappointing, though Kuang Si... you just have to see it. Angkor, you just have to see it (though the details came out well).

People have asked me what was the highlight, and I didn't have an answer. It was all pretty awesome--Angkor in its own way, Luang Prabang and Kuang Si in their own way, Ha Long Bay in its own way. It wasn't just the relentless beauty; it was the incidence of having our mind blown. Of not realizing how what we would see next could be more amazing than what we just saw, but it always (or at least usually) was. I wondered whether I would have loved Hoi An as much if it hadn't been our first exposure to Vietnam (answer: probably, at least almost; the lantern festival, also difficult to capture on photo, was worth it in and of itself). I wonder if I'd have appreciated the tombs and citadel around and in Hue had I already seen Angkor (answer: who cares; they were awesome in their own right). Koh Rong Samloem was paradise. The Mekong Delta was magical. Even our stop-over in Dubai held its own.

The food was its own highlight--the fresh fruit and vegetables, the soups and stir-fries. Not only did I have just a single bad meal (that one at Angkor, outside Neak Pean), I had a single incidence of upset stomach--from a muffin at Hanoi airport (it was literally the only option). No issues whatsoever with the food; ate the garnishes (mine and the guys'). Brushed my teeth with tap water, too, and no issues there.

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Now that I've uploaded and shared the photos, and written up the travel notes... now that I've reviewed all the hotels, as well as the Ha Long Bay cruise (Garden Bay 1)--I still need to review the restaurants on Happy Cow, but that won't take long--what reminders will I have of the trip? Once I clear the rest of its remnants from my dining room table and put all the dresses away, once I definitively quit feeling nightime in the middle of the day... the trip will fade from my consciousness. I guess I'll have my smashed phone as a reminder (I forgot it was on my lap as I got out of the cab in Ben Tre, after the bus from hell). I'll have my Vietnamese planters (purchased at Ten Thousand Villagers over the summer, not hauled from Vietnam). I'll have the local pho places. I'll have dreams of my next vacation.