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I was woken up in the morning by a knock on the door. It was my friend again. She told me she missed the last bus home last night and decided to sleep in McDonald’s. She couldn’t get a taxi home because she let me borrow all her money the night before (I didn’t have any Malaysian money yet). At about 3AM some Canadians met her in McDonald’s and sneaked her into their hostel room where there was an empty bed.

We decided to see a movie (Martian Child) at a big shopping mall called Berjaya Times Square. Then I wanted to find a better place to stay, so we went to the Chow Kit area and I checked into Hostel Cosmopolitan.

There was a lot of walking for the rest of the day. Around Chow Kit to have some food, then down to Little India, the Central Market, and Chinatown. I bought some new pants around here since my blue jeans are so worn out they are falling down my legs.

Later I went to Merdeka Square and was surprised to see a nice musical performance with full orchestra. They played Malaysian songs and some classical (including one from “Hooked on Classics”). There was barely anyone watching it because I believe it was a dress rehearsal. Later I walked to the Old Train Station and then it was kind of late so I got back to the hostel.

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning and drove with Yu and her sister to a forest monastery. Here they offered food to the monks. Well, I helped because women aren’t allowed to hand things to monks. They hope this will gain them some merit and be good luck for the school. I was surprised to see another westerner there and he turned out to be from the USA. His brother is a monk there. They gave us all a tour of the monastery, which mostly lies up on a hill. The abbot was gone unfortunately, and he is apparently kind of famous (but I don’t have his name).

Back in the city I got on the bus (it left 15-20 minutes late) and then a little while later it stopped at a gas station for another 20 minutes or so. Then I started to get a little worried since  I wouldn’t have much time to get to my flight. After a few hours I could see the airport in the distance since it has the highest air traffic control tower in Asia. I got dropped off the bus, got in a taxi and went the 15km or so to the airport. There was less than an hour before my plane left, so I went over to the check-in counter, then went to immigration (long lines! I did ask one couple if I could go ahead of them), then to security (they had to hand search my bag too!), then ran the rest of the way to the gate. I was hot and sweaty after all the running, but I made it in time.

The plane didn’t leave on time, but about 45 minutes late. The airport was too busy and there was a long line to takeoff. It looked like a brand new airplane inside at least. Two hours later I arrived at the Low Cost Terminal in Kuala Lumpur. It sure was low cost, you walk down the stairs from the airplane, under the wing and into the terminal, which is all on the ground floor.

After buying a bus ticket into town I noticed the friend I was supposed to meet the next day was standing outside. I’m the one who is supposed to surprise people! But tonight I was surprised. We took a bus to Chinatown and was shown a few rooms. Finally I took a cheap dorm room with no blankets or anything.

Other than feeling tired and dizzy, I’m getting better. My fever is gone and I’ve stopped taking medicine.

Fifteen days have passed since the lunar new year and while in Chinese they celebrate a Lanturn Festival on this day, here in Thailand there is a holiday called Magha Puja. It was nice to see many people from town circling a pagoda with candles, flowers, and incense.

The next day I fed some fish at a local park and tried riding a motorcycle for the first time. I road down a little used road. No problem!

The rest of the time here I’ve just been resting and watching movies.

I was going to visit some places in Hanoi such as Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and the Temple of Literature, but I didn’t feel good enough to do anything like that. Plus I was running low on time and had to get to the airport. Today still feeling sick, dizzy, and not thinking clearly.

I took a $2 shuttle bus to the airport. I wanted to exchange some of my Vietnamese money, but I didn’t notice any currency exchange offices inside the terminal. I was in pain waiting for the plane. I think I was cold, tired, hands were numb, headache. Even sitting down, I could not relax.

The flight was on-time and only halfway full. Kind of nice because there five empty seats to the left of me all the way to the other side of the airplane. About 2 hours later, I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. At the airport I tried to get my Vietnamese money exchanged again, but no one would accept it! I think I had about $60-$70 in Vietnamese Dong left, but outside the country it is worthless. I might as well throw it in the garbage. Here in Thailand, it was nice to see a 7 ELEVEN again after so much time in Cambodia and Vietnam.

I took a bus to Chanthaburi and the English school again where I can get some help with my illness. Once I arrived, they helped me to go a hospital just down the street. I think they said my temperature was 38.6 degrees Celsius (or 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit). They took a blood sample and I asked them to check for Malaria, but thankfully no malarial parasites were found. The doctor suggested I say in the hospital to be safe. But if I have a choice, I wasn’t going to stay in the hospital (especially for $200/night). So I left the hospital with some medicine and might come back in a few days for a checkup.

The first thing I did today was go to the US Embassy to get additional visa pages added to my passport. I’ve been to too many countries and ran out! I took the public bus and then walked the rest of the way. It was pretty nice since I was able to go to the special “American” line which had no wait. It was free to add the pages and took about 30 minutes.

I checked out of my guesthouse and went over to a hostel, hoping it is warmer. I figure with more people sharing a room it should be warmer. You have to keep in mind that no buildings have heat here in Vietnam. Unfortunately, I’m not feeling too much better today. I was walking really slow, eating lunch really slow. I decided the quickest way for me to recover is to go back to Thailand where it is nice and warm. So I booked a flight for tomorrow.

The overnight bus was pretty good. Inside there were three rows of beds, two levels high. The bus arrived closer to 6:30AM in the capital city of Vietnam. The bus didn’t drop us off in the middle of town, so a taxi was required. I teamed up with 2 Australians and shared a taxi to the Old Quarter. Then I found a guesthouse for $10/night.

The cold of North Vietnam started getting to me. I left my winter jacket in Thailand and now I wish I had it. As the day passed I just couldn’t stay warm. I put all six of my shirts on. I think I developed a fever which made it harder to stay warm. By the night time, I had really felt sick and vomited twice. I think the first time in years I’ve done that.

Since I had a room with two beds, I used two blankets to keep me warm all night.

Today I’m waiting for my 5:30PM “sleeper” bus to take me to Hanoi. It is supposed to arrive at 8:30AM tomorrow. I’m in the hotel lobby today and the hotel staff invited me to have lunch with them, which was very nice of them.

I used my time today to book a flight to China (March 7th). I was planning on going to Laos in a few days, but after reading the nightmare 24+ hour bus stories getting from Vietnam to Laos and reading about the pushing, shoving and chaos at the border, I’m having second thoughts. Maybe I can save Laos for some other time and go there from Thailand where it sounds much easier. After Hanoi, I’ll probably take a plane from there to Bangkok, Thailand or Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I chose a hotel here because it had free Wi-Fi and free buffet breakfast. Not exactly, since the Wi-Fi was broken (I was able to steal the signal from the hotel next door though) and all the food for breakfast was used up shortly after I started eating (no, I didn’t eat it all). Even though, at least the hotel has thick, warm blankets so I can sleep at night.

I set out to see the principal attraction in Hue, the Citadel. I shot a picture and I got an error regarding my memory card in the camera. When I put the card back into the computer it said the card was not formatted. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I kind of lost all the photos from yesterday (mostly the My Son ruins). After a while I ran some data recovery software and was able to recover most of the photos, but some were damaged. It is a good thing I’m backing up my photos to my computer almost daily.

Anyway, I did get to see the Citadel (similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing) and walked around the city for a while. Later I got a bus ticket for Hanoi tomorrow.

I got up early to take a bus to the ruins of My Son. On the way there the driver stopped the bus on the side of the road with no explanation. I thought maybe a flat tire or engine trouble, but I didn’t see anyone working on any problems like that. After 45 minutes the bus started up again and we continued. My best guess is we ran out of gas.

After arriving late, I really had to rush to see everything at My Son. It was not very organized. No one told us when we had to get back on the bus, so I had to guess. Also there was a 1.5km walk to the site. There was some transportation, but I didn’t take it. I didn’t know what to think of the military jeeps driving down the road. There were no signs saying to get in them. On the way back I did get a ride in one of these old jeeps which was pretty neat. My Son was really in ruins compared to similar sites in Angkor, Cambodia. There were only a few buildings that were intact.

I barely made it back in time to catch a bus to Hue, Vietnam. I took the rest of the afternoon driving to that city where I’m at right now.

I checked out of my hotel in Da Nang and waved down a bus heading south to Hoi An. I was the only tourist on the bus, the rest were locals including some high school girls who tried talking to me a little bit.

Hoi An is known as the ancient town. The center of the city is filled with old buildings, narrow streets, and no cars. I read the movie “The Quiet American” was filmed here. So I just walked around the city today. I also tried some local speciality food called Cao Lau (twice) and another called White Rose dumpling.

I happened to meet those students that I saw on the bus this morning again; it is a small town. A sizable grouped gathered talking to me and being friendly. But then they asked for some “lucky money.” I gave away 30 cents. But then they said bye and seemed like they didn’t want to talk to me ever again. I think that sums up the Vietnamese people. They will be friendly and talk to you until they get paid.

For dinner another Vietnamese person talked to me a bit. But then he started selling me a motorcycle tour. I think it is impossible to talk to anyone in this country without them asking you for money!

I’m in a dormitory room tonight, but it is only two beds. Kind of rare to have a dormitory room in this country (last time was in China), but good price at $5. A guy from Sweden is sharing the room with me.