Hello? Pensacola?

Come in, Pensacola? I had this line from Contact in my head from this morning. Well it's still the morning. Kate and I were talking about getting 2 way radios so we could communicate, and we were debating which ones to get. Well we finally decided not to go with the bargain basement ones, because in the words of kate she didn't want to be stuck in the desert sending out futile transmissions having the only function still working on the walkie be the dead battery alert. And then I thought "Hello? Pensacola?" And then there was a joke about prime numbers, and if you haven't seen Contact I'm sorry and I'll stop now. So why were we talking about 2 way radios, and what's this about a desert? Surely Viet Nam doesn't even have a desert. No you're right, Kate's not even in Viet Nam, she's in Kuala Lumpur right now I think. Anyway the guy that lived in this little flat before me left a few things on the wall, which I like. The first one is a picture of Ho Chi Minh, which is awesome because it feels like every vietnamese living room and half the offices because of that. The second thing is a world map, which is awesome because when I am bored I look at it and just marvel at some of the countries I've never heard of and their crazy flags. Tuvalu, I'd never heard of Tuvalu. In one of these staring contests with the magna carta I laid eyes on Mongolia, and in a flash of "wait a minute, this could be my chance" (We've all had places we've 'always' wanted to visit). It was one of those "well I am sort of in the neighbourhood" moments. So then I thought, Mongolia is big and empty, I don't really want to go there by myself. I mean travelling alone is great because you are mobile and get into hilarious situations, but I was in NZ and it's small and empty, so I thought big and empty. . . companion. Not surprisingly Kate was into it, she's usually up for the most dangerous, worst sounding ideas either of us can come up with, and this is a little above riding 400 km on a motor bike along the coast of Viet Nam in one day - to get a ripped shirt back. Also this will make up for that idea we had about buying a boat and sailing/motoring 2000k down the Viet Nam coast. . . which is, I don't know if I told you this, highly illegal. Anyway Mongolia, self guided horse trek, asian steppe, mutton for breakfast lunch and dinner, yogourt, hard cheese, broken temples, grid references, topographical maps, water filter, gps, strange language, new alphabet, and yes of course: 2 way radio. Now this is happening.

After Mongolia it's home to Canada, for both of us actually, so we can be bitter, asleep, laughing or drunk at the same time on the flights home, whatever makes the situation more tolerable, each flight is different really. This shit is starting up on the 19th, so until then I'm running small missions around Ha Noi, gearing up for the trip and seeing things around the city I live in at the same time. Also trying to organize pay from the school I teach at and all that, since I'm pretty sure mongolia is NOT going to exchange Viet Nam Dong for Tugriks. ugh. So I have to find greenbacks in this town. Frogskins, as it were. And those are a BITCH to find in Ha Noi, let me tell you. I know where to get them now, but the exchange rate sucks, since it's whatever the little old lady behind the jewellery counter decides. What do you mean got to my bank? You think MY bank, ANZ, Australia New Zealand Bank, reputable international bank that is is, will give ME, their customer with a bank account, my OWN money in american currency? Don't make me laugh! I tried to get $30 out of them for my mongolian visa fee and they were like "oooohhh, no no no, we cannot give you American money, only take." Why? "Because you could take your passport and money and go to other country and. . " and then she did this little motion of someone running amok, presumably this is me running amok with $30 USD in some other country. I just wanted to yell at her and say SO WHAT!? I live in Canada, in what country am I going to go to with my CRAZY thirty dollars? I could cross the border and run amok in America, now that would really be crazy! But I didn't say that because of 2 reasons. The first reason is that there's no need to be mean to someone like that in their own country, even if the policy manager a million steps above their head, or their government, deserves it. The second reason was that this is a bank that ran a promotion where if I kept more than 2,000,000 VND in my account until june 23 I'd be eligible to win half a kilo of gold. Solid gold. Only in Asia. Also they did sucker me into that deal, and I did not win, so we're both idiots and I'm in no position to yell.

So yeah, all in the name of the Mongol empire. It's big out there, and it's pretty empty, but I'm sure there are others out there wer'll run into, I mean they've gotta be out there, "cause if we're alone, well that's an awful waste of space." Contact? ANYONE?