Chick on a stick...not actually very tasty.

While in the Philippines, my cousins and uncles have been trying endlessly to gross out Hugh with “exotic” Filipino food. I think this is a pretty common practice around the world, where rather than be embarassed about some local delicacies, most people consider Americans (and its usually Americans who are so grossed out by foreign delicacies) to just have boring diets. And honestly–with our health, who are we to be grossed out by what people eat? I’ve come to consider the giant bowls of fat they serve at restaurants back home to be pretty foul.

However, Hugh’s a pretty adventurous eater so he always ends up grossing people out in their attempts. In Japan we/he sampled such delicacies as: bees, sake with a dead snake coiled in it, raw horse meat, not to mention many of the more normal things like seaweeds and shellfish that some people would find repulsive. In Laos, we tried silkworms and water buffalo. I’ve had turtle-shell jelly in China and Taco Bell in America. It isn’t about trying to gross each other out, or be adventurous or anything. There are certain things we won’t do–I won’t eat anything killed before my eyes (like the snakes and their beating hearts in Vietnam) which are often done just to be grotesque for tourists and not because the majority of the population eats it. But we figure that if people in a culture eat this sort of food, then it’s certainly worth trying. At worst, just don’t eat it again. It PROBABLY won’t kill you. We rolled our eyes at tourists in Laos who would go on and on about how horrible it was that Laotians ate certain things (civet cats, random wildlife, birds), never realizing that certainly certain groups of people think the Western diet of beef is possibly horrible, or that Laotians are poor and hunting game in the forest isn’t about sport, but about survival.

Food is all very cultural anyways. I never grew up on fancy cheese (many Asians don’t) and as a result, I often find the cheeses that my European friends love smell and taste like vomit, or worse. I mean really, do you know WHY blue cheese has blue flecks in it? My point is–blood pudding or dog meat or whatever. Food is food.

Saddam Hussein pizza?!

In the Philippines there are delicacies such as dinaguan, a stew made of pigs’ blood, which isn’t really that strange to some cultures who eat blood puddings or marrow, but most infamous with non-Filipinos is balut, which is chicken embryo.

Somehow though, Hugh managed to finally put my family’s taunts to rest when he ate a day-old chick which are served whole on a stick and meant to be eaten as such–bones, innards, head, feet and all. My uncle who will eat balut seemed positively disgusted by the fact we ate it, though you could joke and call it overripe balut. My cousin Jean made him do it and he heroically did so, announcing “tastes yolky!” as he did so.

Being in Vietnam too has been interesting. So many people have come to me and said, “I hope you win, I hope Obama wins,” and that sort of thing.

Hugh is also very excited as he will one day become an American citizen and this fills with some hope, perhaps even some pride. I think we can both go back to America and feel comfortable with it.

Also, I think McCain’s concession speech was beautiful. I can only hope his supporters listen to him…

The actual beach has litter everywhere: cigarette butts everywhere, wrappers, plastic bottles. There’s a gross brown film that you can see on the water. And there’s the fact that every 2 seconds you get harassed by the same 10 people asking, “Hey, buy something?” We’re polite to everyone, but I was irritated at a man who came with a box of books all in Vietnamese. When I said I could unfortunately only speak English, he walked off muttering under his breath. No idea what was said, but I can guess it wasn’t pretty.

Which leads me to whom most of the travelers here seem to be: creepy single European men. Hugh and I had a really weird experience where an old man flat out STARED at me the entirety of breakfast. Hugh finally moved his chair between the man and me, and I saw the man sort of grin. When we finished and left for the elevator, the man followed us in and started talking to us. I saw him later on the beach sitting on a bench and staring at us (and others.) Later, a random Vietnamese woman came up to him and they started talking. Shortly after, they left. I’m not going to presume anything, so I’ll let you do that. =P

What I noticed pretty quickly is how familiar Vietnamese people are with one another. It’s nice, but also sometimes a bit surprising. I watched strangers offer bits of their food to other people’s children. I saw a lady help an old man into his seat, and later she was unfazed as the old man smacked her on the ass to get her to get out of the aisle. That wasn’t the only time I saw someone spank someone adult to get them to do something either.

At one point this giant moth was flying around the train. The Vietnamese didn’t care at all, didn’t even blink an eye. I’m not trying to be patronizing, but in Asia I’ve found people are generally (at least outside of the big cities) more “in touch” with nature. I know on any train in America people would freak out over a moth the size of someone’s hand. Needless to say, when the moth flew towards me I started trying to hide (but didn’t scream! I was trying!) while Hugh was attempting to catch it in a lunchbox, only to have an old lady come up and just grab it in her hand and THREW it to the back of the train (at a sleeping woman, lol.) She gave me a big grin. She saved me again from Mothra a few hours later.

Anyways, the train ride was surprisingly fun. Minus the 7 hours of blaring television showing pretty much the most GOD AWFUL television possible. I’m talking about Cholesterol Man attacking ladies while Barley Tea man comes to save the day (all live action, taking place on a stage.)

We’ve had a really good time in Chicago and New York, basically blowing pretty much the entire budget for Vietnam and Laos in just 2 weeks in America, but it was worth it.

We got our hair cuts, got our backpacks filled, maps, itineraries, plans and dreams and we’re heading off tomorrow (well, depending on how you judge time. I don’t consider 2:45am to be “tomorrow” if I haven’t gone to bed yet!)

We’ll be in Japan on the 5th (Japan time) and the trip officially starts on the 8th. Don’t ask me why Japan doesn’t count as part of our trip… okay fine, I’ll tell you why: Japan has always been sort of like a second home to me, lord knows I’ve spent more time there than anywhere else except Indianapolis. It ceased to be an exotic locale ages ago, which is sad, I suppose, but also nice to “come home” if you know what I mean.

Anyways, thanks to the people on LiveJournal who gave us scavenger hunt suggestions… they’re awesome and we’re doing all of them, except um, 2 =P

Testing the travel blog Hugh and I will be using for our Asian Tour of Asia…and maybe for future travels as well. Who knows… We intend to try and update a photo every day from the start of our trip on September 4th. Those of you on LiveJournal will be able to read along without having to leave LiveJournal, but you’ll have to comment on my site. Hah!

This was only a test…