It’s funny how things work out sometimes. I was having an absolute s#%$ day. I was emotional, hormonal, exhausted and stressed about money. We woke up at 4:30 am to walk half an hour with our luggage to catch a ferry, on which I spent over an hour willing myself not to be seasick again while half the people on board were vomiting into red plastic bags and keeping the crew busy with cleanup.
Asia
The Life Aquatic
We’ve both yearned to scuba dive for ages. This trip, full of bucket list items, was the time to do it.
A to Z Full Moon Party
The Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan island, Thailand, is a massive celebration that attracts tens of thousands of partygoers monthly. What follows is an A to Z comprehensive guide to the full moon party.
Alcohol – Lots and lots of alcohol.
Buckets – Just a way to consume large amounts of alcohol. Take a pail that a child would use to make a sandcastle, then fill it with ice, alcohol, soda, and Red Bull. There are a variety of types of buckets on offer, with anything from Thai whiskey and Coke to Absolut and lime soda.
Crowds – So many people crowded onto the beach to party. Locals estimated there were about 25,000 people at the party when we were there, but the previous month saw 45,000!
Dancing – Each bar along the beach blasts music, competing to be louder than the adjacent establishments, while people dance atop the hastily erected stages on the sand.
Extended partying – The celebration is not limited to one day. While the night of the full moon is the main event, there are parties for a few days and nights before and afterwards.
Kicking back on Koh Samui
From Saigon, we flew with my parents to Koh Samui, Thailand’s third largest island, for some R&R.
While my parents wandered into nearby Fisherman’s Village, and had clothes made, Paul and I were content to chill by the pool or on the beach most of the time. 
One day, we did a brief tour around the island, and though our driver didn’t really speak English, we saw a few interesting sights, like the Big Buddha and a mummified monk. For some reason, the stray dogs at the Big Buddha had makeup on.
Once my parents left 🙁 we moved to the east coast of Samui, to a town called Lamai.
There, I had the loathsome chore of doing taxes.
It’s also where we celebrated St. Paddy’s Day. We were really excited when we found an Irish pub there. Pros: they had Guinness and live music. Cons: the Guinness was expensive and not very good. The live music was an English guy dressed as Elvis singing Bob Marley. Not exactly the typical Irish band one would expect. 
Scootering in Saigon
My parents flew to Saigon for a whirlwind Asian tour with us. Saigon is a bit of a paradox. It’s a hugely commercial city in a Communist country. Many of the sites of war are now tourist attractions. Even the name- it’s technically Ho Chi Min City, but everyone calls it Saigon. After the Vietnam war, it was officially changed to Ho Chi Min City, but most Vietnamese prefer its former name. 
In Saigon, we stopped by the Emperor Jade Pagoda, which was a cluttered, busy temple, made even more crowded, by the fact that we happened to visit on International Women’s Day. The temple is home to a teeming turtle pool.
We spent the better part of a day at the somber War Remnants museum, an institution dedicated to portraying the brutality of war. Mainly, it details the course of the Vietnam war. American tanks and planes are displayed around the premises. 
Many battles were fought around the city. We visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, outside the city, where the Viet Cong lived underground for years. 
As we walked through a very short section of tunnel, bent over with backs scraping the ceiling, sweating in the heat, it was impossible to comprehend how anyone could live there. 
My Dad and I tried shooting an AK-47. I don’t think either of us hit the targets though. 
As we walked through a very short section of tunnel, bent over with backs scraping the ceiling, sweating in the heat, it was impossible to comprehend how anyone could live there. 
My Dad and I tried shooting an AK-47. I don’t think either of us hit the targets though. 
A day trip to the Mekong delta allowed us a glimpse at country life.
Scooters rule the roads in Saigon. They clog the streets, and when there’s not enough room in the lanes, they drive on the sidewalks.
Rarely do they obey traffic rules. They drive on the wrong side of the road and proceed through red lights. Crossing the street in Saigon can be a treacherous endeavor. But if you can’t beat em’, join em’, right? With this mindset, we booked a nighttime Vespa food tour. Perched on the backs of bikes, we held on as the drivers navigated through the congested traffic jams that are a part of everyday Saigon life. 
On the way to different restaurants, we witnessed scooters carrying all sorts of wares: sheets of glass, any number of passengers (max number we saw was 5), and most outrageously, a full grown tree standing upright behind the driver.
Having a guide order local food for us was helpful. We tried pork spring rolls with pancakes wrapped in lettuce, fresh spring rolls, crab, mussels, and clam soup. The night ended with Vietnamese coffee at a private cafe with singers, and cocktails at a club.
Secrets in Dalat
Dalat is where Vietnamese people go on vacation. It’s known as the honeymoon spot. The surrounding countryside is popular for canyoning and rappelling, but the city itself isn’t that special.
However, there’s a really interesting hotel, called the Crazy House that we visited. Its peaked roofs, giraffe neck stairways, and dripping eaves seem misplaced in Vietnam, and better suited to “A Nightmare before Christmas”. If Tim Burton and Gaudi collaborated to design a hotel, this would be the result. It was fun to explore, with nooks and secret rooms and stairways to nowhere.
We learned more about Vietnamese culture while there. For instance, families tend to celebrate death days rather than birthdays. On the anniversary of a loved one’s passing, friends and family buy paper cars, cell phones, dresses, and wads of money. These paper items look like piñatas and children’s toys, but are very serious. They are burnt so that the deceased can enjoy the pleasures in heaven. We also learned how local women use curry as makeup.
They smush the beans for lipstick, and can use the prickly green outside coating as fake eyelashes. 
One custom we couldn’t welcome was the practice of eating dog. Not everyone eats dog; it is reserved for the wealthy, and is more popular in the north. What was even more shocking was that some people raise dogs as pets, take care of them, then eat them. Unthinkable to us, but a cultural norm for some Vietnamese. We both did a double take every time we saw a restaurant with signs advertising roasted dog.