Color Me Run - Hanoi

Yup, you read that right. Hanoi has a Color Me Run - AND I RAN IN IT!

Now, when I go to a race, I go to RUN. That however, was not the case for the rest of Hanoi. Let me tell you what happened.

My running crew and I get geared up and head to the course (it was a mid-day race). Once there, we see a FEW other foreigners in their gear, and TONS of Vietnamese in their Color Me Run shirts, with heels, hair/makeup done, jeans, etc. I then thought to myself "oh, they must be the spectators". Wrong again.

My Running Crew

So we line up at the starting line, but instead of starting the race: it's concert time! That's right. Instead of using our energy running, we first were supposed to jump around and learn a big group warm-up dance.

Concert Time?

After that, then we could start. We lined up, and they let us start in various groups. So once we were finally at the front and ready to go - it was running time!

Finally Lining Up

Ready to Run!

***If you've never done a color run, its a regular race but at certain intervals they throw powdered color on you, and by the end of the race you have gone from clean white to a rainbow. 

Upon the first "color spot" I saw it happening...a wall of Vietnamese people had stopped to take pictures, selfie, throw color. There was no way through. I was NOT putting up with it...I was here to RUN! So, I ran on the outside of the color spot, and kept going. I think I only ran through a total of 2 color spots - the yellow one and the red one. The rest were packed with the VN taking pix, so I ran around it.


Turns out, the race wasn't a 5k as advertised, but instead, a 3.6k. A little disappointing since I had been hoping for a 5k.

YAY WE FINISHED!

Group Shot of the Finishers!

I have never been in a race with so many walkers, photo-takers, SMOKERS, etc. It was DEF a bizarre experience. But, probably my fault for thinking it was actually be a RUN!

Xin Chao,
Apes 

Adventure Feet...addition

In case you haven't seen my feet in 4 years, there have been some ongoing additions to them. TATTOOS! Since living in my first foreign country (Thailand), I have been tattooing my feet in the local language. One simple word....Adventure. Of course! What else would I be putting on my feet? So far I have Thai, Myanmar, and Korean...until yesterday.

Yesterday I added the Vietnamese addition = phiêu lưu. Wanna see how it's going so far? Well, here's ya go...

Upper Left - My tattoo artist, Jack (at NinjaInk)
Upper Right - Before the addition
Lower Left - Getting it done!
Lower Right - The vietnamese addition

That's all for these feet...until my next move...

Xin Chao,
Apes :)

Vietnam 2.0

Whelp, time to head back to Vietnam. Yes, I have already been...BUT I missed out on the Chu Chi Tunnels so I HAD to go back. What's so important about the tunnels? Well, during the Vietnam War, the Vietcong lived in these TINY underground tunnels. Since they were open to see, of course I had to do it!

So I arrived in Vietnam on Saturday AM (Fri night) at about 1am. I grabbed a Taxi and headed to my guesthouse. I checked it by 3am, and went straight to bed. When I woke up, I had a day to do NOTHING but relax before my Tunnel Tour on Sunday.

So I started my day with a cup of Vietnamese Coffee. MMMM, I am 100% sure this is my FAVORITE coffee in the world (so far anyways). While sipping my morning feul I chatted the 2 older men beside me. They directed me to a great massage parlor, at which I spent my mid-morning. I get a GREAT oil massage, then treated myself to a pedicure as well. All for less than $10. Yup - I MUST be back in SE Asia!!

Afterwards, I grabbed some lunch and ended up sharing my table with a Kiwi named Allister. He bought me a beer since I shared my table. Friendship made. We chatted about life in "Nam (he lives/teaches there). His funniest story; "I was walking around District 1 (backpacking area) and I got tired of being asked 'what you want sir' so the next time someone asked me that I looked at the woman and said 'a husband' and she paused, thought a minute and said 'ok, one minute' and ran off" HAHHAHA. Those store owners can find you ANYTHING! After sharing stories, we headed to his rooftop to see the sunset, and go swimming (yes, a pool!!). Once the sun was set, I was ready to get back to the backpacking district, so I bid adieu and headed back to my guesthouse. Once at my guesthouse I had planned to go to bed early, but instead stayed up chatting with my 'dorm roommates' about their travels and even tried my first Macaroon (I know understand why they are Blair Waldorf's fav cookie!!).

Sunday morning it was CHU CHI TUNNEL TIME!!! So I got up, grabbed some breakfast from the lobby and waited for the bus. After a while of calling/emailing the tour, they FINALLY came to get me (they had forgotten lil' ol' me!!). Luckily, they forgot another girl as well, so we boarded the bus together. We arrived at the site of the Tunnels about an hour or so later...I'm not sure how long, I fell asleep. Here are some of the pix once we were there....

So you're just marching along, shooting the enemy, when all the sudden....

...the ground opens below you, and you fall onto the spikes and die.

This is how you get in and out of the tunnels....

...look at how small they are!!

Many more weapons from the Vietcong.

New friend Anne....with her in the tunnel, you can see how small it is!

You have to squat-walk in these.

Well, back when I was in 'Nam I was busy shooting guns in Ho Chi Minh City

So there ya go - my time in the tunnels. I wish the pictures would show more of how small they were - but I barely fit through, my arms touched the sides of the tunnels, and I was squatting the whole way. We only went 100meters, but I can't imagine how people survived actually LIVING in those tunnels for as long as they did.

Whelp, now that the tunnels have been crossed off my bucket list...time to head to Cambodia!!!

Gum awn,
Apes :)