sleepwalking through the mekong

the mekong sky

4 hours in a bus + swarming mosquitoes + constant swamp-@ss = weekend fun in the mekong! though i truly was a sloppy, sleepy mess the whole time, the title of this post is also a tribute to another new band in my life: dengue fever (listen to 'sleepwalking' as you drift through this post).

floating market

a smaller branch of the mekong

the brick factory

i was meant to learn something here, something about labor and craft if i understood the handout correctly... and i'm sure i would have been totally into it had i understood a word that was said. to give you an idea of what i'm dealing with down here: imagine you're an intermediate speaker of english and you're speaking to... say, a mechanic in lovelady, texas or ellaville, georgia! the drawl!! it was pretty depressing. i did, however, thoroughly enjoy photographing the bricks...

...and the birds. the one in the middle cage speaks vietnamese and english!

adeline and oliver (also known as dan anh and bao) on the saturday morning "death ride"

after a restful sleep in a guest house eerily similar to the camp val verde girls' cabins in waco, texas (the only thing missing were the daddy longlegs) and a quick breakfast of egg sammies eaten on the boat, our friendly tour guide loaded us onto bicycles and ran us through the countryside: roads no bigger than sidewalks but shared with motorbikes, children, chickens, bananas... and there were bridges, tons and tons of tiny bridges crossing the little mekong fingers... i discovered, crossing one of those bridges, that these conical hats, though amazing for the sun protection they provide, tend to slide a bit. for a few terrifying seconds, i saw nothing but straw. and in that moment, i'm not kidding, i was luke skywalker.

at one point, our guide stopped and got off her bike in front of a tiny cafe. "yes," i thought, "time for coffee!" but instead she points to the monkey bridge. i've got no picture of my own - didn't dare bring my camera along - so i borrowed one from some dude named andyllama, who has posted his vina-pics online (thanks andyllama!). and i am happy to report that i made it over and back... looking only slightly like a gi-normous, ridiculous westerner. hooray!