vietnam: perfume pagoda

the second day we were there, we decided to go see this place called the perfume pagoda. apparently, it's quite the big deal, and hundreds of thousands of people in vietnam and other countries make a pilgrimage there yearly.

this place is breath-taking. the only way to get in or out is through the river, and these sweet vietnamese people row you there and back. it is the most peaceful thing to experience, as it's pretty dead silent and all you can hear is the water going. it was definitely a great way to spend our first day there because we learned so much!

we had the CUTEST little vietnamese guy as our tour guide named tuan. he was so happy, and explained so much to us about the vietnamese culture, and more specifically about vietnamese buddhism (mahayana, or renovated buddhism).

i LOVED the ideology behind mahayana and there were two things that totally stuck out to me about it:

1. it allows women to practice the faith, and in the end allows them to become Gods.

2. the literal meaning behind the indian word is "bigger boat" or bigger vehicle. in the end, it just means that more people can be saved, and there's room for more. how amazing is that?

some other gems i learned about buddhism:

• you have to do 10,000 good things before becoming a buddah, which is why everyone is so kind, and always trying to serve
• each living thing has a soul and a cycle, all the way from a stone to a buddah. that's why they don't kill anything (including fierce looking bugs)
• in order to get reincarnated as the next best thing, you have to help someone. they believe that in helping others, you lift yourself
• everything is in odd numbers (when they pray they shake their hands, or the number of statues, etc.) to represent balance in their lives

tuan taught us that the mantra of a vietnamese person is: 

"the thing you can't forget, forgive, and the things you can't forgive, forget it"

i found many similarities between what i believe, the way in which i believe we should treat others, and buddhists/overall vietnamese ideologies.


ps. check out kate's most recent post about vietnam...and mostly how we met. how i love that girl.

vietnam: china hates us

we had a 14 hour lay-over both ways in china on the way to vietnam (after a 14 hour flight), and we wanted nothing more than to get out and explore china! well, after trying relentlessly to get a visa here in the US, we figured we could just try to get one while we were in vietnam. i mean, wouldn't china want us to spend our hard-earned cash there? wouldn't they just want to boost tourism/their economy?? you would think so!
wrong.
in the end, china hates us and wouldn't let us into their country without: a written invitation from someone in china, a perfect itinerary of where we'd go, what we'd do, who we'd see and smell and look at and smile at, how many steps we'd take total, and about how many inches apart each of those steps would be, what our outfit would look like every waking minute, and how many people we'd say "i love china" to on the street. instead, we were forced to go in circles in the smallest, dumbest airport on the planet. we may or may not have instead: spent hours doing our makeup in the duty free shops, gone to see buddahs to buy in the two shops total a FEW times, gotten a "milkshake" (read: milk with nesquick, oh and the disclaimer at the bottom: food may not taste like the picture, and yes, the chinese lady laughed at us when we complained) that cost something close to $15.00, and figured out which bathrooms had holes in the ground, and which ones you could sit on.
honestly, we were pretty bugged at china, and you know what? that's one of those countries that has been taken off my "to see" list for life!! (yes, us latinas know how to hold a good grudge!)

at the vietnamese/chinese border in northern vietnam. we were giving china attitude! take that!

we love vietnam!!

the road that takes you to china. in vietnamese: beware, china isn't very nice!! in chinese: enter at your own risk!

there you have it

picture i took in vietnam, quote i took from someone who told me...i can't remember whom, but it was good.

vietnam: good mooooorning vietnam!

well, i figured it's about time i blogged about vietnam.

here's the truth. are you ready? I.LOVED.IT. i've traveled to quite a few places in my 25 years, but let me tell you vietnam was definitely top three. however, i tend to fall in love with any new place i travel.


this was an entirely different experience for me, because i'd never been to a country where i didn't speak the language, or where someone couldn't translate for me. i went with two of my greatest friends brittany, and kate, and we had an absolute blast. i couldn't write quickly enough, and take quick enough notes on the things that i was learning!!


so this will be an introduction to the trip, of sorts, and i'll answer the most FAQs.


1. why vietnam?
well, brittany and i had been talking about doing an amazing trip for quite some time. we threw names out there like belize, south africa, india, istanbul, new zealand, and for some reason we just kept coming back to vietnam. we'd look at other flights, but secretly we'd both be google imaging vietnam for hours on end at work, and one day we both admitted it to each other and it was like it all CLICKED. the stars aligned, and it all came together before we knew it. it met all the requirements: a beach, new culture, indigenous people, somewhere we'd never been.

2. why brittany and kate?
because they're amazing!! britt and i had talked about going somewhere for a while (i was turning 25, she turned 30, celebrating 1 year of her divorce, lots of stuff). kate, on the other hand, i knew would be up for anything any time (background: we met in ECUADOR on trips we had planned to go on by ourselves two years prior, we're both adventurous only children, who have the no-one-can-stop-me attitude), so i told her we were going, and she didn't even think twice about it. we bought our tickets the next day!


3. where in vietnam did you go?
unfortunately we only had the pleasure of exploring the northern part. someday i'll go back and do the middle and southern parts of vietnam! and go see thailand, and ankor wat, and the philippines, and everywhere else in south east asia that blows my mind! so the cities we spent the most time in were: hanoi, ha long bay, cat ba island, and sa'pa. absolutely incredible, and i'd recommend it to anyone!!

4. what did you do?
we showed up with no plan. the only thing we knew we had was two nights at the hilton the first two days there, and one night the last night there. all we had were some travel books we bought right before leaving, our passports, some ca$h, and a duffle bag/backpack each....as for what we did and what we learned, stay tuned for more sporadic posts in the next few weeks :)