Weekend in Vietnam

A buddy was visiting me in Singapore (early August) - so we took an excursion to Vietnam. One of my old roommates from Washington DC happens to be living in Ho Chi Minh City, which the locals still refer to as Saigon.

Other than being the most unpleasant language to overhear, it was a good city, albeit dirty and chaotic. It's trying to prosper, there is a sense of work ethic in the air.

The most fun was cut between going to a local bar, rocking out to an amazing cover band from the Philippines (all the best cover bands in this region come out of the Philippines), or eating 'pho' (a rice-noodle, spicy soup with chicken or beef) on a busy street corner while drinking Vietnamese coffee.

The most disturbing aspect was visiting the Vietnam War Museum.

Over a million Vietnamese are said to have been killed, who knows how many people from Laos and Cambodia were killed from bombs dropped by the US military as the war spilled over into their lands. Around 60,000 US soldiers were killed, 300,000 wounded. Countless amounts of biological weapons were used by the US military and their destruction lingers still as babies continue to be born with birth defects in the northern regions.

The War Museum is the perspective from the Vietnamese of the war...a superpower invades your land, kills your family and burns your village, and burns your village with chemical weapons to make that land uninhabitable for years to come. Against what appears to be an insurmountable and unscrupulous foe, you persist and overcome (with the help of other countries feeding you weapons to fight back).

The museum felt much like the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, except my government was the one that invaded and killed over a million people. I left the museum with many strong and negative emotions...one being despair as I thought about the current wars elsewhere on the globe...tears welled up.

Surprisingly, the Vietnamese that I briefly met during my time were very welcoming to Americans. They smiled at me and welcomed me to their country. They didn't seem to harbor negative sentiments. Perhaps they've moved on.

I didn't do a good job taking pictures - but here are three - the electrical wires there were very amusing to me.
Much love,
Jake

Few pics of Singapore (and one of Shanghai)

This past month has been a blur...with 4 visitors and trips to Vietnam, Thailand, and Hong Kong. Tomorrow I fly off to China for a week - going to Beijing and Shanghai...then a week in Singapore...then a week in India. I begin writing stuff but never finish...but I have some good and controversial thoughts/observations I'll get on here sooner or later. First picture is Shanghai. The rest are Singapore and the picture of the city street is the street I live on.

Rainforest Music Festival 2010

Perhaps the best thing about living in Singapore is the accessibility of South East Asia. Case in point: Three day weekend takes me to the Rainforest Music Festival in the Borneo rainforest (at the base of the mountain in the below picture)...lots of drinks, lots of mud, lots of fun. The cast of the play was Day Bow Bow (me), 2 A.M. (my roommate, Kartik), Sage (pronounced designer style, saw-j - coworker, Saagar), and Lil' Romeo (Jeff Pradhan). We made some local friends and did some binge drinking, dancing, and perhaps things that might be considered a misdemeanor in some lands.

Weddings

When I was back home, I was a groomsman in two weddings and was able to attend a third. I feel compelled to apologize for all my friends who may be reading this if I wasn't able to attend your wedding. When I was in the Peace Corps there was no way I could have come back and when I got home from Peace Corps I had no money to do anything.

When Gabe and Barrett asked me to be in their weddings, I thought I would be living in the States...didn't turn out to be the case but I'm happy I was able to make the weddings. I didn't have my camera, so I downloaded a few pics available from facebook of the events.

Much love,
Jake

Sorry - long time!

Hi Everyone - my apologies if you've checked the blog lately and haven't seen anything new. I was in the States for a few weeks - and times were rather busy...plus, I've been a little lazy when it comes to updating things. I like to get 8 hours of sleep, and this crazy world with all this stuff to do tries to rob that from me, so I fight back and some things fall through.

I was in two weddings recently - my good friends Gabe Miccio and Barrett Wheeler both got hitched! They got married to girls that I like as well - which is quite a relief. I think they are both girls that can put up with their husband's estranged friend, me. I was a groomsmen in both weddings - and they asked when I was in Peru and while in Peru, I thought I'd be living in the US after Peace Corps...didn't turn out to be the case.

I was also able to attend another friend's wedding, Kristin Franke (who walked out to a string quartet playing 'Don't Stop Believing). I also went skydiving with my Dad and to a rollercoaster park (King's Dominion) with my niece. Plus, I was working the entire time and had to do a lot of Asian hours (night hours in the States).

Then I was in Borneo last weekend for a Rainforest Music Festival - which was incredible. Borneo is the third largest island in the world - and is split between three countries - Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.

I'll be going to Bali next week - which is an island in Indonesia and known for it's unique culture, rice terraces, beaches, temples, and much more. Should be fun! I'll get some pictures on here soon - I have a bunch of great ones!

Much love,
Jake

From the Philippines

Went snorkeling with whale sharks, dune-buggying on an old lava river, and bbq-ing on the beaches. Was an awesome 3-day weekend. The whale sharks were too big to get a good picture, and while my camera is water proof, it's tough taking pictures underwater. After the first two whale sharks, I stopped trying. But, we saw a bunch of them, they are humongous and wonderful animals. I swam along side them and felt their peace and simplicity.

With things like the garbage patch in the Pacific, the oil gusher in the gulf of Mexico, acidifying of the oceans, mercury pollution, they'll probably all be dead in 30 years, so I'm glad I got the opportunity while it's still safe to swim in the ocean to see the world's largest known fish.

Trip to the Philippines

Below was the blog I was going to put on here, with pics from the Philippines - but there is no longer an 'attach picture' icon - so I need to look into how/why they've changed it. I might have to go with a different blog service.

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Sorry for the lack of an update...I was in the Philippines last weekend, snorkeling with whale sharks. It was incredible - I didn't get too many pictures of them, I was too concerned trying to enjoy them rather than trying to capture them on film. We saw probably 10 of them - basically, we have a spotter on the boat, they see one and the boat speeds up to get in front of them. Then we jump in and try to keep up with them. They swim along the surface while they are feeding.

We also took an ATV up an old lava river to the foot of a volcano.

Hope all goes well back home.
Much love,
Jake