Tam biet / Bye!

So, now that I've been home for over a month, it's time to finally sign off this blog. Thanks for checking it out. Stay tuned for more adventures somewhere else in the world.

Did it!

Dear friends and family,

I did it! And I never could have done it without you!

This week I rode every mile of the 545 mile AIDS LifeCycle. It was an amazing experience, on many levels. I've been involved in the AIDS LifeCycle for many years through friends and family, but participating as a rider this year was truly special. First off, I was very touched at the amazing support from all of you. You helped me to raise a total of $3,558! Collectively the fundraiser raised over 13 million dollars this year, making it the largest AIDS fundraiser in the world. As a first time rider, I was very apprehensive about the large fundraising requirement. However, I was so impressed by the response from my friends and family; I received donations from over 50 people. It was amazing to see who stepped up to donate. I want to give special thanks to all of my peers who donated. I know many of us are still starving students (and starving graduates) and it was moving to see you give. I was definitely in the minority as a young rider, but happy to proudly represent my demographic!

Being a part of AIDS LifeCycle this week, I felt the importance of the cause we were supporting. On the ride this year, there were over 300 riders and roadies (volunteers who make the whole thing run) who are openly HIV positive. Hearing their stories, and the personal stories of others affected by HIV/AIDS made a big impression on me. It was powerful to hear these stories from the riders I had chatted with at rest stops, or the roadies who had parked my bike. Before this week, I didn't fully understand how very personal and significant this event is for many participants who have the disease, or have lost friends to it. I felt very humbled by the courage of many of many fellow participants. I also have great respect for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, as well as the AIDS LifeCycle staff and roadie volunteers. As a rider, I felt like just a piece of a larger puzzle; the ride works because of the combined work of so many roadie volunteers, you the donors, sponsors, and supporters along the way.

The AIDS LifeCycle was not only a meaningful experience, it was also a huge physical challenge and breathtaking tour of California. I rode longer than I ever have (107 miles on the longest day), and got to see the many landscapes of California. I rode through the fields of the Salinas valley, over golden hills, on the shoulder of 101 (yuck) and down the Pacific Coast Highway. It was astonishing to see the number of supporters along the way. So many people came to cheer me on, along every part of the way. One lunch stop was in a town with a population of 120 (and we were over 2500 riders alone!).

Throughout the ride, I was often asked if I will sign up for 2011. My answer was a conditional "yes!" because I'm hooked and would love to do it again, but I'm not too sure where in the world I will be next year. But I would encourage anyone and everyone to participate, it was a beautiful and meaningful week. And anyone can do it...the oldest rider was 83 years old!

Thanks again for all of your incredibly generous support and for allowing me to have this fabulous experience!

AIDS LIFECYCLE IS HERE!

Tomorrow I leave for the ride! I've got to bike 82 miles to make it into Santa Cruz! Woot woot! I'll be sure to take tons of photos and send a big update at then end when I finish in LA on June 11!

Everyone's invited to closing ceremonies in the VA center in LA. More info here:

Home again and gettin ready

Home again!
Still riding...
OH MY GOD people are equipped for biking in this country! Going from the sublime to the ridiculous. My old clunker and my flip flops in Vietnam have been replaced by a snazy Raliegh Street bike, padded bike shorts, special road tires, clip in shoes...that's just the beginning. I felt like I was shopping for jewelry when I was buying my clip in pedals. Now I've got to get used to my clip ins and pretend that my shoes are not brand new sparkling white....

This is how I feel about my new clip ins...its a bit hard to get used to

The last days....

Last days in VN,
filled with crazy work schedule, getting everything in, eating all manner of Vietnamese foods for the last time...
Had to return my trusty blue bike yesterday. A hard goodbye.

Opened a tearoom at HWH Shop - a cool thing to leave behind. A giant final push.

Minh Mang Tomb

To Minh Mang Tomb

There is a whole lot of significance and important history, which I kind of overlooked during this visit. Mostly I wanted to ride to a destination - Ming Mang tomb was a pretty epic one even if I don't know who's buried under there




Not a bad ride, and with good company. Lan and Mimi joined in. Even though Lan was only in Hue for 20 hours during this short trip we managed to get some good biking in.

If all else fails, read the map...or not

Never underestimate mountain passes! When I casually looked at the map this morning, the two dots labeling the Phuoc Tuong and Phu Gia mountain passes somehow escaped my attention. It's not that I didn't see them, they just looked so unassuming as little dots.

Let's start from the beginning. This morning I started off bright an early, planning to eat my very favorite breakfast: bun chay, vegetarian noodle soup. Vietnam is predominately buddhist, and its a custom here for buddhists to eat only vegetarian foods on the first and middle of the lunar month. I was sorely disappointed to see that my stand wasn't there - but I substituted with some fabulous Mi Quang...how to describe...flat chewy noodles with pork, egg, shrimp, peanut and a sweet soupy sauce and lots of fresh greens and sweet pickled veggie and some cruncy rice cracker sprinkled on top. Maybe I should rethink my favorite breakfast choice actually...



Well, off to Lang Co beach. This time riding solo. While many of my friends have been awesome troopers joining me in my rides, they all learned pretty quickly that riding with me is no walk in the park - so if you're not training, I understand how it can be a bit too much. In the end, I was happy that I was alone because it was in fact WAY too much and I would have felt responsible if anyone else had joined me!





The route I took to Lang Co is about 90 km, along the coast and then cutting back to the highway. It was the same route we took last weekend to my friend's village, but further. When I arrived at the village I stopped for lunch and took my time. When I hopped back on the saddle in the afternoon, I asked some locals on the side of the road how far Lang Co was. (This is always fun - usually they're super excited when I say something as simple as "beach? where? far?", and they repeat it back to one another "did you hear that? She said 'beach, where, far?'"! Its good fun but sometimes hard to get your answer..) They responded by saying "OH, far!"...which they usually say to me when I bicycle, and then suggest I take a motorbike instead. But this time I pulled out my map, and unfortuantely, confirmed that it was in fact quite far. Looking at that "little" bay on the map, it looked a whoooole lot bigger looming there in front of me. In my excitement this morning I didn't plan my pacing very well... nor did I take into account the MOUNTAINS between me and the beach. Yes, I saw the mountains in the distance from my friend's village, and last week even commented on how beautiful they looked in the mist. But somehow did not put two and two together. Well, I very quickly put it together once me and my rickety blue bike were battling the mountainous terrain along the lagoon and then switchbacks over not one but two passes! Beyond my burning thighs and calves, the giant trucks careening around the curves did not make it any easier.

My usual style is to just kind of go for it, and see what happens, which usually ends in adventure. I was counting on this today, however, my adventure had a deadline at 3:30pm, when I had to catch a bus to get back home (I chose to go one way this time, to be able to reach a far destination, and then bus home with my bike). So there I was, just me my rickety blue bike and over 35 kilometers of mountain pass in front of me, and the sun already fading into late afternoon. There was nothing to do but kick my ass into gear! (Well, only one gear because I've got a single speed bike...) I munched a few dried lotus seeds to power me up and then bombed up those hills! I would have loved to be one of the villagers that rode past me - I'm sure they were wondering how a foreigner ended up zooming by on a secluded road, with only an old cruiser bike!



The image of my friend Kelly kept coming to mind: of the story she told me about when she climbed Mount Fugi in the middle of the night with only a keychain flashlight. I was perhaps a bit more prepared but not much. Throughout my climbs and exhilirating descents, I kept flip flopping between pure joy, utter fear, all the while asking myself "What was I thinking!?" In the end, I rolled into Lang Co beach at 3:30 on the dot. It was perfection: sometimes things just happen so magically. I don't know how I ended up making it in time but the whole trip was perfect in its imperfection. I've got a nasty heat rash to show for it, but besides that all in one piece. And did I learn my lesson: to plan ahead and to carefully read the map? NOPE, not at all. Because if I did it again, I'd do it the same way. Where would the adventure be otherwise?

Crunch time!

55 days! GASP!

So I realized that I never added a link to my fundraising page!
Here it is

http://www.tofighthiv.org/site/TR/AIDSLIFECYCLE10/AIDSLifeCycleCenter?px=2299971&pg=personal&fr_id=1320

Cam on nhieu ban!
Thanks so much, friends!

I thank you this much:

Epic excursion to the village

This Sunday we embarked on an epic excursion to Phuong's village! Phuong's a friend from work, and her family lives about 50 kilometers south of Hue, in a quaint village near the beach.

Thanks to my housemate Ute, we got quite a crowd, bringing along Marie, Doro and Peter!

Off at 7:30 am, we had a few hiccups along the way, when Marie's chain fell off her bike repeatedly. But each time, within 30 seconds, there was someone there to help us! Literally all we had to do was stop and a man with a wrench and some tools just appeared! The first few fixes involved packing tape and lasted just long enough for us to loose sight of the guy who fixed it, but finally we got a good fix!



After a few refuels and some nuoc mia (sugar can juice), we arrived at the village at lunch time. We pedaled to the beach, which was perfect, and enjoyed fresh seafood lunch! A giant grilled fish (which nearly jumped onto the grill from the bucket where it was happily swimming before), some shrimp, and also clams and veggies! Good thing we exercised...



After such a feast we got a late start back. And then took an alternate route on a smaller street through the country side, where we were greeted with "HELLO HELLO HELLO" at ever corner, and dodged herds of water buffalo. I wouldn't have done it any other way, even though it was 7:30 by the time we got home, and we somehow ended up on an unpaved road full of potholes to navigate by dark... troi dat oi!



We all made it in one piece and thoroughly enjoyed a celebratory bowl of noodles at Pho Saigon!

Cross training and fundraising

This weekend I spent at my friends house in Da Nang...so no bike but a beautiful beach where I could do some exercise in the morning!!
And then some shell art afterwords.

This weekend is the SPIRAL Foundation spring sale in the Pacific Palisades, LA, CA. A fundraiser for the disabled artists I work with here in Hue. And my generous boss has agreed to put a box to collect for AIDS LifeCycle for me! THANKS!

Check out the fundraiser
http://www.spiralfoundation.org/events.aspx?page=events/#springsale

Foiled

Foiled by the rain this weekend...a gallant effort was made to bike to the beach. But when the bike tire broke and we sat in the rain as it got fixed, decided today was instead a day for a cross training run followed by the hot springs .... ;)

Take me down to the Tomb City

This weekend to Tomb City!!

The longest ride so far - took over six hours. Took all day and I learned that my bike seat is not my friend.
Well worth the ride though - tomb city is literally a city of tombs, stretching further than you can see, full of beautifully ornate tombs (buddhist and christian, interestingly, yet all built in traditional buddhist/chinese style, some just have a crucifix on top!). It has the feeling of a holy place, not the spooky feeling of a graveyard. Each tomb is trying to outdo its neighbor, which makes for some remarkably outstanding tombs!

And then there were swan boats

Off for a ride last weekend, headed generally East with not much more of a plan than that. There was a temple I thought I might have seen from the top of a hill last week...well the temple was never found but I did find another beautiful temple with a giant bell on top of a hill that overlooked the city.


After the temple we stopped for some very local lunch and practiced our Vietnamese, finally getting some soy sauce (after getting fish sauce with lime, and fermented soybean paste...miscommunication).

And somehow we found ourselves at a giant gate, and I didn't recognize any of the words on the sign. In front of us was a van filled with children...and there was an entrance fee...we asked the lady at the window and she said "FISH!" and then drew fish with a circle around them. A lake! So we paid our fee...and then found ourselves doing some cross training - padding swan boats around the lake (and checking out the liliput fairy land on the other side!)





Oh Vietnam, always got something up its sleeve...

To the beach

This weekend was sun sun sun again, so a bike ride to the beach!
I rode my bike solo on the way there, but met up with my friend once I got there...and bicycling back next to a motorbike the whole way back was motivation to keep up my speed

I like to ride my bicycle I like to ride my bike....

So it's about time I got my booty in shape for the AIDS LifeCycle fast approaching in June....
So I found this awesome group called Cycling for the Environment. They meet every Sunday, take a bike ride and go clean up trash! This weekend we cleaned a canal, and also did a survey of the people in the neighborhood to learn about their options for trash collection and their knowledge of Environmental programs in Hue.
Morning well spent!

On traffic accidents to avoid / traffic accidents to seek out

Hue is full of cyclos: bicycle taxis with a rider in back, and a big cushy seat for the passenger in front. More than a personal taxi, the cyclo is a taxi for any and every event that life may bring. You'll see just about anything imaginable in a cyclo, defying laws of space, physics, time. Yes, I mean this. If a family moves to a new home, you'll see a parade of cyclos: the first cyclo with their furniture (dining room tables, wardrobes, mattresses, headboards) then their suitcases, then maybe some potted plants (cyclo driver peering out from between palm fronds), then the entire family (of course in one cyclo, pouring out like a clown car).

When I am riding by such cyclos on my little blue bicycle, I can't help but think of my own mortality. How long can any one cyclo driver continue to challenge the laws of nature? Every cyclo driver must have had at least one accident, one situation in which the laws of nature won? This led me to think about cyclo collisions I would definitely want to avoid:

-Cyclos loaded with about 15 cooler-sized blocks of ice...burrrrr...but this one's easy to avoid because you can tell where he's been by following the drips of water on the pavement as the ice melts
-Cyclos loaded with piping for underground sewage pipes. Ow. Yuck.
-Cyclos loaded with three months work of products made by HWH Shop (where I work). Three months worth of work in the hands of one skinny cyclo driver...ahhhhhhh

Clearly, there are cyclos to avoid. However...seeing as how cyclos carry EVERYTHING, there are, in face, some cyclos with with an accident may be kind of fun:

-Cyclos carrying a heap of bedding and pillows. Bouce!
-Cyclos carring heaps of fruit. Like being in the ball pit at a fast food place but with oranges.

THE LIFE.
I got to be the guinea pig for a new tour tubing down the perfume river. I gave it a thumbs up.

I'm a really person! Maybe.

Today I felt like a real person. Why? Because my phone rang hella times. I'm meeting people, making contacts, making friends. Usually I feel like I'm walking into walls...because I am. I don't think that I've really overcome that entirely yet, but after 3 months I'm seeing some growth. Slow, but growth just the same.

...Right now the weather is taking a turn...in a period of a couple minutes, the sky can turn black, the thunder starts clapping and then it DUMPS rain. In 30 minutes the streets can be full up to mid-shin. This kind of reflects my life here. One minute it's sunny and I feel like a real person, then completely unexpectedly, reality comes in a big dramatic dump and I realize I'm still not in my element.

All those snails were in my belly

The Shady Scale to live by

Note to self: there are varying levels of shady-ness in terms of street food.

So far so good in terms of my street food adventures in Vietnam... until yesterday I was taken down by a sweet potato. I quarantined myself to my room, knowing that if I let myself out, I would probably go buy another sweet potato, because I'm dumb like that, and it was delicious. So I've decided to live by a new rule: not all shady street food is created equal. Street food that gets multiple points on the shady scale is not OK. 1-2 points, just fine.

Here's my shady food point system:

-One point if it's cooked on a little grill on the curb (only a few inches from the ground)

-One point if the person who's cooking it is squatting on the ground

-One pont if you eat it squatting on the ground

-One point if there's raw veggies (...so all Pho)

-One point if there's unidentifiable meats or other ingredients

-One point if the food originally came from the ground and is not peeled (ie potatoes, but if you peel it, then it doesn't get a point)

-One point if the vendor originally tells you they don't have something, but the a few moments later, they tell you they do

-One point if the vendor is unphased if the food drops on the ground

So according to this scale, my sweet potato has 4, potentially 5 points. If only I had this reference yesterday.