Bittersweet Emotions- Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon): July 1-7, 2007

Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam, fell to communist forces on April 30, 1975. By that point, the United States had officially been out of the conflict for about two years. As the South Vietnamese positions fell with incredible rapidity, a mass exodus of remaining American officials and fearful South Vietnamese refugees began. Most of us can easily identify the famous photo of the CIA UH-1 Huey lifting off from the roof of the U.S. embassy while hordes of anxious South Vietnamese clambored up the stairway to try to get onboard. Those who fought for the south and were left behind faced an incredibly bleak future. Many were sent to reeducation camps, intellectuals were forced from their prestigous positions and to the streets, and the relatives of lost soldiers received no compensation, no recognition, and no solace. The scars of war still remain in this bustling city of stunning contrasts. Disabled veterans hobble about the streets on crutches or in crudely constructed wheelchairs in front of elaborate shopping malls selling the best the west has to offer. Men who once worked as doctors or university professors now peddle tourists around on cyclos for pennies- if they can find work at all. Yet, the city itself is Vietnam's richest, the center of foreign investment and the hub of Vietnamese modernity. Hanoi is sleepy- Saigon buzzes with electricity and life. But behind it all lurks a thinly-veiled sadness. Hope tarnished by a brutal past. Bittersweet.

Our last stop in Vietnam has been emotional and bittersweet for us too- for these reasons and a few of the more personal variety. We arrived in Saigon (now officially known as Ho Chi Minh City after the cult-like leader of the Vietnamese independence movement) full of hope and energy. Our week of diving in Nha Trang had given us a renewed vigor that even another overnight bus ride couldn't spoil. We were in the midst of formulating new plans- perhaps a working holiday in New Zealand, farm work in Australia- the sky was the limit. Unfortunately, reality has a bad habit of rearing its ugly head at precisely the wrong moment. Our reality has changed quite a bit over the last several months. Our relationship has strengthened, our goals have changed, and our personalities have grown. We had to come to the unfortunate conclusion that this adventure had to come to a close in order to accomodate all of these changes. It's been one of the most difficult decisions either of us has ever had to make, but it's something we both feel like we needed to do- and now that the decision has been made, we're both beside ourselves with excitement at what the future holds.

Many of you already know that the two of us got engaged a few months back while exploring the thin air of Tibet. Even before the trip began, we were both pretty certain that if the adventure went smoothly we'd be getting married at some point. Ben had even concocted a grandiose engagement scheme involving Faye's birthday, Istanbul, and a romantic proposal in front of the Aya Sofia Mosque. Of course, our travel plans changed- as did the timing of the "romantic" proposal. While a dusty hotel room in Lhasa certainly lacks the flair of Sultan Ahmet Square, the engagement was no less fulfilling, and we've spent the past three months dreaming up as many schemes for our future domestic lives as our immediate travel plans. As our checking accounts dwindled and the credit cards became more and more relied upon, we began to see the dangers in continued travels. Neither of us wants to start this next phase of what is sure to be a beautiful life together in crippling debt. We did something atypical for us- we listened to our heads instead of our hearts. Of course, the heart had a lot to do with the decision as well. Neither of ours wants to be broken by circumstances dictated by an unrecoverable financial situation. We wanted the trip to last, but not at the expense of our future. It's time to come home.

We've also realized that the project itself has run its course. We've learned so much over the last nine months of working together, and we really feel that our writing and the websites have improved dramatically since those first clumsy posts from Maine and North Pole. We've had a tremendously positive response, and the blog has become a dual obsession of ours. We love doing what we're doing- it's difficult to think of doing anything else with our lives. It's been a life-affirming experience to take all that we love and value and put it into words and pictures for our followers- and to have all of you tell us you've learned from and been inspired by us. When summer vacation hit, however, we lost a huge part of our audience. Having the bright, curious, and inquisitive minds at Mahoney Middle School and North Pole Elementary following along made the project truly important. It still sickens us to think that an entire generation of Americans are growing up without geographic education. How can we be good citizens of the world if we refuse to teach our children about that world? To have had the opportunity to bring this small part of the outside world to the students of Mrs. Mingo's and Mr. Towle's classes has been incredible to the point of rendering us speechless. But now, those kids are out doing what they should be- playing, exploring, fishing, riding their bikes, and hopefully staying far from anything televised, computerized, or digitized. Unfortunately, if we keep travelling, it will be nearly impossible to reestablish those personal connections once school resumes in August. And that's what made this project different from similar projects- the personal connection between the students and us. So, we're coming home now so that we can begin planning the next outreach adventure. As soon as the wheels of the plane touch down, we'll be looking for teachers to talk to, grants and scholarships to apply for, and ways to make our next project even more interactive- hopefully incorporating live video chats with our student followers. We think this next big adventure will take place in and around the Mediterranean Sea over the winter of 2008-09. We're going to be building a homepage when we get home, where we'll keep you all up to date on these plans. This will also be where all of our blogs (including a new "Alaskan Adventures" edition) will be linked and archived. Stay tuned for that.

Finally, we realized that in order to accomplish all of this, we need to get our butts back to UAF and into class. We have so much left to learn if we want to pull off another of these projects and keep improving upon our methods. We've already started looking at geography, journalism, education, and multimedia classes to take this fall so that we're better prepared for our future outreach-based travels. The initial sadness that hit after making the decision to come home has been replaced by an ever-growing sense of excitement at the prospect of new classes, new plans, and new adventures to be had. Plus, we have a new life to start- finding a cabin, decorating that cabin, buying a new, energy efficient car, finding a way to make our lives more minimilist and sustainable, and planning a wedding...it's going to be a heck of a couple months!

We're not done yet though. We've still got five weeks of travel left- travel that's going to be hectic, exciting, and fast-paced. We bought our tickets home out of Singapore, the tiny, enigmatic city-state on the tip of the Malaysian Peninsula. That means we've got to make it through Cambodia, southern Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia (a new obsession of ours) before flying to Anchorage via Tokyo and San Francisco. To help ease our transition back into "real" life, we're going to spend a few nights in an Anchorage hostel and then take the train home to Fairbanks. Seems fitting, doesn't it?

Ben's been writing this post while Faye frantically tries to plan the next few weeks. She'll fill you all in now: With a newly set deadline, we need to maximize the time we have. For us, this means giving as much time as possible to the places we're most interested in- Cambodia's Angkor Wat and most of Penninsular Malaysia- while still getting a taste of Laos, Thailand, and Singapore. We're leaving Saigon tomorrow and heading to the Mekong Delta, where we'll catch a boat upriver to Phnom Penh. Another boat will take us from Cambodia's capital city, with all the scars of its tragic history, to the town of Siem Reap- the gateway to the celebrated temples of Angkor. We're giving ourselves three days to explore the area (recently in the news, by the way, for the floods of tourists that threaten to overwhelm it...)before getting back to the Mekong once again and following it up to the shaded islands, waterfalls, and highlands of southern Laos. Once we've crossed into Thailand it'll be a straight shot to Bangkok, where we'll be typically overwhelmed and out of element in the most famously crazy city in Southeast Asia. In addition to the streets of sin, temples, clubs, markets, and monkeys, Bangkok has a train station. We'll be fleeing there after a couple days, boarding a carriage, and riding it all the way to the Malaysian border. After catching our breath on one of the tranquil Perhentian Islands we'll cross the Cameron Highlands and check out the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. Just down the coast is the port city of Melaka, which exemplifies the blend of cultures that make Malaysia so fascinating. Two days or so there will leave us with just enough time to cut across the country to the east coast and Tioman Island, considered one of the world's ten most beautiful islands and home to some of the best diving in the region. It'll be a last chance for us to revel in the underwater world, and hopefully earn our Advanced Open Water certifications. It'll also be our last moment of tranquility before entering bustling Singapore, with its skyscrapers, back alleys, and ethnic neighborhoods, and embarking on a 33 hour journey back to Alaska. Whew. It'll be crazy and exhausting, but hopefully exhilarating as well. And now that we know we're coming home, we can step up the pace a bit. Like Faye's track coaches always said- "Finish hard!"

We're going to be cruising along pretty quickly, and won't have time to do the posts like we'd prefer. This is probably a welcome respite for those of you who have been trying to keep up with our increasingly long dispatches. Hopefully we'll be able to get something up from Bangkok, maybe even before... but maybe well after. Keep checking in! In short: we will be doing posts for every place we visit- they may just be delayed.

We'll be seeing you soon!
Ben and Faye