Backpacking in Southeast Asia

In November 2004, I started on a six month trip through Southeast Asia. I left with my backpack, lots of prayers, and a list of people to visit. My route took me though Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Philippines. During my trip i sent out monthly emails to let my friends know what i was doing. Since returning home i thought it would be cool to post the emails as a synopsis of my trip. I've added some pics, but left the text pretty much as is. (click "read more" to see the rest of this post)

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November 18, 2004
hi,
wow, the day of departure is finally here. just a quick note to say thanks and to let you know tonight i am joining the mission team for a 19 hour trip to the phillipines. God help me. :-) that's a long time.
as i was previewing the email list that i compiled over the last few weeks it was so cool to see so many names of people that i care about, and know that they care about me and what i am doing. that is really encouraging. thanks.
if you pray, or even if you don't, please remember me in the next two weeks. it is going to be an intense time with all the new adjustments, and also the team dynamics between the six of us going together.
hope you are well. take care.
and as a friend of mine says, "see you on the flipside." literally.
matthew

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December 7, 2004--Mission Trip Completed
hello from Asia. so much has happened in the last two weeks that i don't know where to start. please excuse my typing mistakes in these emails. since i am paying by the minute to use the internet i am typing fast and not correcting mistakes.
the flight from lax was actually 16 hours with an hour stop in HI for fuel, but we couldn't get out of the plane. the team was great, and we all got along well. most of the trip was set up for american's, exept for the food. like toilets, beds, and air conditioning. i tried balute(picture), squid, and dorian. it's fun to experience. they all teased me about eating everything. it's funny. we did a lot of ministry with kids like storytelling, singing, and games in the kindergarten classes in nearby villlages. they are so cute. at a local church i was asked to preach a little sermon, and share my testimony. that was scary, but i think it went ok. the local people there were really nice and friendly. i liked the philippines a lot and look forward to going back.
after one week in the philippines we flew to Thailand. we helped with an english camp for a couple days, then visited schools for the rest of the week to speak english with the students. we also helped teach in an english club. the students were very receptive, and we were able to build good relationships. team unity was a little bumpy the first couple days in thailand, but then it smoothed out. most of the trip i was pretty confident and flexible, but there were certainly some hard, stressful times. thanks for praying. it really helped.
at the end of the week i decided to not stay and teach english. a difficult decision, and the leaders there took it pretty hard. they were really looking forward to me staying, but i didn't feel right about it. teaching english is ok, but not what i feel called to do right now. after we left Yala we stayed in Krabi for a couple days to relax. it was a nice beach resort. i went on a little elephant ride and got to sit behind it's head. that was fun. fyi, elephants have the biggest farts ever. the team and i said goodbye a couple days ago in bangkok. i found a cool little hostel that has everything i need. bangkok is a really big city, and has a lot of pollution. my next plan is to meet up with a friend and travel north. right now i am just enjoying not doing anything. looking to what is ahead gets me really excited. i've wanted to do a long tour like this for long time, and now i'm doing it. thai language is pretty hard, but i am going to try to learn as much as i can.
well, that brings you up to date. i hope all is going well.
take care,
matthew

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December 24, 2004
hello,
happy holidays to all. i hope this email finds you well.
things have been slow here, but that has allowed me to relax and plan. here is what has happened since my last correspondence. i spent a few days in Bangkok just kickin' it and buying presents to send back to the fam. i also met an aquaintence from CO, and we decided to travel north together to Chaing Mai. a bit of culture shock finally set in, and i ended up staying there for a week trying to recoup and figure out what i wanted to do for the next few months. my new friend and i realized that, although very cool individuals, we were also very different, and decided not to travel together. she is now in India. i am still in thailand.
i eventually left Chaing Mai and headed north with dual purposes. i was headed to the Myanmar(Burma)--Thailand border to get a visa renewal, so along the way i stopped at a few small towns and villages. i saw lots of temples(a temple is called a Wat). Thailand is 90% Buddhist, so they are everywhere. kinda like churches in western countries. there are also many monks that wear orange robes. i even got to speak with a few. i've also got to meet a lot of tourists from other countries. most everyone i've met is really nice and interesting. on one leg of my journey i took a small 10 person flatbed river boat down the river to another city. everyone spoke french except me and woman from the UK. (note to self: take a french class when i get home) Toward the end of the voyage there were elephants walking in the river beside us with tourist on their backs. we stopped for a break, and i took a photo with one.
i visited Burma for about 3 hours, and then returned to Thailand with a new 30day tourist visa. now i am in Chaing Mai again where i plan to spend the next week after Christmas at a retreat center called the Seven Fountains. i've been wanting to do a solitude/silent retreat for a while, and this was a perfect opportunity.(and cheap) so maybe after that i will know what i want to do with the rest of my life. yeah, right.
there is one adjustment that i would like to make to the last email i sent. i said that i am paying for the use of internet here, so i tend to hurry and make errors. however, i didn't mean to discourage anyone from writing to me. i will always have time for that(except in Myanmar-no internet). so if you want to write, please please do. i would love to hear from you, and will definitely reply. besides, it's only a fraction of what it would cost in the U.S.
again, to those that pray, thank you, thank you, thank you. travel is going very well, and i feel very safe here.
Every best wish and blessing on you this Christmas.
Matthew

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January 2, 2005--Safe From the Tsunami
hey ya'll,
just wanted to let you know that all is going well, and i am safe. thanks for your concerns.
the retreat center said they had an opening for me to stay a few extra days. so i get to extend my retreat and make it a ten day like i wanted to. i will write more when i get out of the retreat.
take care,
matthew

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February 3, 2005--From Cambodia to Vietnam
Hello,
the world isn't small after all. but cambodia is. i feel that i got a good intro to the country during the last three weeks. after my ten day retreat in Thailand i went southeast to the border. my first stop was Siem Reap where i spent three days touring the Ankor ruins. it was fun, but also difficult to transition from the Thai culture to the Cambodian culture. it's a beautiful country, but also very poor with a heartbreaking past. the weather right now is pretty dry and warm. all the rice fields are mostly dead and dusty with no rain for another few months. after that it all turns green during the rainy season.
after Ankor Wat i took the bus to Phnom Penh and met a friend, Lang from Grass Valley, CA. he grew up in Cambodia, so it was really nice to have someone to show me around and get me familiar with things. i spent a lot of time hanging out with him and his family and friends. also while i was there i saw the royal palace, and the S21 prison camp of the former Khmer Rouge. a pretty somber experience like visiting the nazi prison camps in Europe.
i left Phnom Penh for the coast and spent a few days in a small resort town. the excellent weather made for a great time just relaxing on the beaches, swimming and snorkling. and also eating chicken feet.
when i left the coast to return to my friend's house i felt a little pain in my throat. it progressed rapidly and by that night i was super sick with a massive sore throat and fever. i was very glad to have a friendly place to recoop and a friend to take care of me. by the time i got better i had enough time to go with Lang to visit some of his family in a small village in the countryside. i watched our host climb a tree and cut a few coconuts down so that we could have fresh coconut juice to drink. super nice.
After that i left for Saigon. the bus ride was pretty short, and border crossing went smooth since i already had my Vietnam visa. last night i met the niece of a Sacramento friend of mine. i had a great time touring the city on the back of her moto(moped). i really like Saigon so far. it's beautiful, and it has a pulsating energy 24/7. there's probably a 5 million motos on the streets merging in and out of all the crazy traffic. it will be really cool to observe the Chinese New Year (Tet) on Feb. 9. after that i am planning to head up the coast to Hanoi.
i attached some pics. hopefully they all made it.
keepin' ya posted,
matthew

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March 1, 2005--Halfway Mark
hello,
I've uploaded some pics onto a Yahoo site that you can check out at http://photos.yahoo.com/hartmanmatthew. this is instead of attaching them to emails. the pics follow chronologically. enjoy.
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was great. a very beautiful metropolis, and even kinda relaxing amidst the constant buzz of city life. i met up with a relative of a friend who is living there. on my first night there she took me around on her motobike and showed me some of the sights. the city traffic is...well...Awesome! it's amazing to me how a stream of at least 50 motobikes coming from different directions can weave together in the middle of an intersection without hitting anyone. i still flinch now and again when I'm on the back of a motobike and my driver goes flying straight into oncoming traffic. (granted there is the non-stop tooting of horns from everyone). i timed my trip to Vietnam so that i would be here at the same time as one of my favorite authors/teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh. He was exiled in 1975, and this was his first time back. i got to see him give a speech in a packed out theater in Saigon. Even though it was all in Vietnamese it was very cool to be there.
i was also fortunate to have the opportunity of visiting my new friend's family in her home town of Mytho on the Mekong Delta, and celebrate Tet with them. Tet is the Vietnamese New Year based on the Chinese calender. to give you an idea of what it's like, imagine combining Christmas, New Year, and the Fourth of July all rolled up in one giant week-long celebration. a great experience. i loved the Mekong, and got to spend a lot of time with a wonderful and very hospitable family. my friend's dad took me to his pagoda(Buddhist temple), which is the family tradition on Tet, and introduced me to everyone he knew, including a few of the monks.
unfortunately, when i was in the Mekong Delta the back of my ankles mysteriously began to swell, and by the time i got back to Saigon it was painful to walk. so after some wise council i decided that the best thing to do was to take a break from my travels and rest up in Saigon for a week to let my ankles heal. While i was there i visited the dentist, and got a new denture made for my missing front teeth. this one rocks, as i can eat with it in place. plus it was super cheap, and the dentist was very professional and sanitary.
the rest and care worked, and my ankles were almost normal when i left Saigon. after that week i was pretty restless and bolted out of there heading up the coast for Hanoi. i stopped along the way at a few cities, but didn't stay long anywhere. my time in Vietnam was limited due to my 30 day visa expiring, and i still had so much to see. Now i am in Hanoi. it's pretty cold and deary here. but i don't mind so much since i missed Winter back home. i kinda like the change from the heat too. i just got back from Ha Long Bay, but i haven't put those pics on my pics page yet. the bay is breathtakingly amazing, and for me actually ranks up there with the Swiss Alps. now only one more day in VN and i am off to Laos.
it's been over three months since i have left home and gone west. after two months i hit a wall, so to speak, and things were harder being on the road. i think caused by culture shock/adjustment. but now after about three months things have gotten better, and i am feeling back on track, focused and pushing onward with renewed tenacity.
walkin' my feet off,
Matthew

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March 29, 2005--A Place Called Laos
Hello,
i hope you are well these days. the last email i sent i was in Vietnam, and now i am in Bangkok again getting ready to fly to Myanmar(Burma). i'm recovering from the flu, but while in Bangkok i saw some sights and got my Myanmar visa. in my last few days in VN i went north to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay. i really liked the Bay. for me, it ranks up there with the Swiss Alps as far as natural wonders go. my tourist visa for VN was past expiration, but they let me leave with only a little fee. the bus ride from Hanoi to Laos was nothing short of pure transit adventure. the 26 hour journey was more than i bargained for, but i was glad to be across the border and in Vientiane, Laos.
Laos is amazingly green and beautiful and cheap. so right away it's my favorite place so far. it's also really poor, but the people are really friendly, the language is a little easier for me to learn, and i am convinced that it is at least 90% hills and valleys. all my travels were pretty exhausting, bumpy and crowded, but cheap. so i didn't mind that much. the most amazing place i visited was a little village in the north called Muang Ngoi that was only accessible by a 1hr boat ride up a river. there were no cars or motorbikes, and not that many tourists. quiet and relaxing. i rented a bungalow right on the river, and spent my time mostly lounging in a hammock or exploring the nearby beaches or caves. after a few days i left and made my way west to a small town near the Chinese border called Muang Sing. there i went with a small group of tourists on a two day trek to a nearby hill-tribe village in the forest.
at that point i made the decision to head to Burma via Bangkok instead of exploring the south of Laos. hopefully someday i will be back and can visit there when i have more time. so i am off to Burma and then the Philippines. there is not very good communication services in Burma, so i may not be able to write for the next few weeks. it's a very interesting and sad situation there right now. much political oppression. the leader of the democratic party, Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest by the military. if your interested check out this little explanation that helped me decide that i wanted to go: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/south_east_asia/myanmar/
or this longer one that has a cool map: http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/misc_images/burma.pdf
you can also check out more pictures that i have posted. they tell a better story than i. http://photos.yahoo.com/hartmanmatthew enjoy, and thanks for your prayers, thoughts, and warm feelings.
many blessings to you this Spring and Easter season.
Matthew

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April 28, 2005--"There and Back Again"
Hello there. welcome to another addition of "Short but Sweet" update from matty. of course i've posted lots more pics on the yahoo site to follow. enjoy! http://photos.yahoo.com/hartmanmatthew
after site seeing a bit in Bangkok and being sick for a few days, i flew over to Myanmar. it definitely took a culture adjustment after landing in Yangon. things are a lot more poor and underdeveloped.
i landed in Yangon, and my taxi driver dropped me off at a guesthouse where i stayed for the week while site seeing. it just so happened that there was a church a few floors above in the same building as the guesthouse. so i wandered up to say hi and met a new friend Pastor Kimpi. he invited me to go with him to an orphanage outside of town. of course i went and didn't regret it. in an amazing way orphan kids can lift your spirit despite their circumstances. i also got to ride the public buses which was quite a unique experience for me. i learned early on that in Myanmar no matter what people might say or how it may look, the bus is never full, and there is always room for one more. be it one more person, chicken, goat, or ....
i eventually made my way up to Mandalay. then on to Inle Lake where i stayed for the famous Water Festival. the Water Festival is similar to the Vietnamese Tet. Everyone celebrates the new year by dumping water on each other for 4 days straight. it gets a little crazy in the big cities, so i took refuge in a small town. it was really fun to walk down the street and let everyone, young and old pour water on me. big smiles for all.
lastly i made my way to Bagan to see the ancient pagoda ruins. it was quite majestic, mystical, magical, and ......Hot. but i managed and eventually went back to Yangon to say farewell to my new pastor friend before flying back to Bangkok. while in Myanmar i finished reading The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and decided to give it to him as a present. books are hard to get there because the government is very restrictive and oppressive. i didn't witness much because the government keeps the tourists out of many areas of the country. especially places where there is fighting and soldiers are evacuating villages for no reason or warning. some stories i heard were pretty atrocious
so now i'm back in Bangkok, and in a couple days will be in the Philippines for three weeks.
till next time.
best wishes and many blessings.
matthew

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June 15, 2005--The Grand Finale
hi there friends and family! this is the last email about my trip to S.E. Asia. i returned to the USA on May 18th, and am now living in Grass Valley, CA.
my last email came from Bangkok where i hung out at Khao San Road and also visited an inmate at a prison. after a couple days i left for the Philippines. when i got here i had a hard time planning my itinerary because there is so many things to see and visit in a limited time. that's pretty much the theme to this segment of my trip--pushing like mad from one town to the next, and then running out of steam. i stayed in Manila for a couple days, and then went to the south of Luzon to Donsol. My reason for going there was to go swimming with Whale Sharks which was one of the best experiences of my trip. i went out for one day and swam with a shark on four different times. one time i swam with a 8 meter long shark for about 10 minutes. i wanted to go out another day, but time was limited. so i left for Cebu Island by night ferry-ordinary class which had about 500 bunkbeds packed together on the same level. very fun.
upon arrival in Cebu City i took a "rollercoaster" bus ride to Moal Boal on the other side of the Island. i went snorkeling here for a couple of days, and saw amazing coral and fish in the ultra clear water. from there i took a ferry to Bohol, then to Alona Beach. Accomodation was full and expensive there, so after walking around a bit i met a nice security guard that allowed me to crash on a bench for the night. the next day i went snorkling, then took off for Mindanao.
at Cagayan de Oro i met up with a family of a friend of my dad's back in America. after a couple days i left for Siargao Island. after the boat ride over i met a very nice couple on vacation. we shared a taxi, and then ended up hanging out together for the next few days at a beach resort. later they introduced me to their friend Vernie, and we all rented some motorbikes and drove though the beautiful island to an amazing lagoon-like spot for a swim. i also tried surfing, stepped on a sea urchin, and woke up to the most amazing sunrises ever in my life.
i had a very good time in the Philippines, and one day i will go back to see the other half of the country that i missed.
thanks for reading, and keep in touch.
also, see new pics at http://photos.yahoo.com/hartmanmatthew more pics to come soon from December and Jan.
yours truly,
matthew