With plans to head to Malaysia next, but finding myself bored in Singapore, I called an audible and went for what was sure to deliver the crazy, and decided to instead go to Vietnam.  For Vietnam I had to get my visa before arriving, which we will get to next post.  I obtained a 3 month multi-entry visa since my plans always change, for once I did the smart thing, kind of.  No, your eyes are not misleading you, that statue does in fact say “Mexico”.

Turns out I like to work, and I am pretty good at what I do, so when a opportunity came along which checked a lot of the boxes for what I was looking for, I couldn’t resist and ditched the Vietnam plan to fly home for an interview in case it worked out.  Unfortunately there would have been a few too many sacrifices with the new job, so I decided to withdraw myself from consideration.  I will wait to make those types of sacrifices when I am running out of money, it is to soon into this unplanned vacation for that, so since I was home I decided to go back to Mexico for a few weeks and see what developed.

I spent most of my time in Guadalajara, a city Paul and I had previously visited on the van trip, but had only stayed 1 week.  I decided to go chill out there since I enjoy cities for a few weeks here and there, flights out of Tijuana were cheap, good food, and I wanted a break from the heat I had experienced in Singapore.  I had no idea it was going on, but I happened to show up during the International Mariachi Festival, which meant free shows in the Centro every night.

There are also concerts all week at the Teatro Degollado, and since the  free shows had been good I decided to purchased a ticket for the last night, not really sure of what to expect.  I dressed up a bit since it was a formal affair, and man oh man were there some beautiful women attending, unfortunately with their boyfriends/husbands.  The women of Guadalajara have a pretty good reputation when it comes to looks, and these were some well off, fine looking women.  The show itself consisted of 3 mariachi bands from various locations in the world, that night consisted of 1 band from Mexico, 1 from Bolivia, and another I was not sure of.  They play a set each with the Guadalajara Philharmonic Orchestra, and then a set each alone.  The encore then has all 3 bands playing a couple of songs together on the shared stage.  It was a lot of fun, and any seat in the place looked like it would have been good considering the tickets were pretty cheap for such an event (up to 125USD).

I also took a quick side trip to Oaxaca, another city we had previously been to, mainly because tickets were cheap, and I wanted that cool mountain air.  It wasn’t the most exciting adventure, but one night a small parade festival broke out for a reason which I do not know.  I have read there is pretty much always some sort of festival going on there everyday or so, we can assume this one was because they heard I was back in town.

Now that I was back in Mexico, once again with my Latin American people, eating to much delicious food, I started to think about a moto trip.  I started ordering a few things to complete my adventure setup which was already pretty much ready to go, and planned to ride all over Mexico to see how my hands did.  I flew back to SD to hit up a music festival with some friends and pick up my new goodies, only days away from departure when my hands started to act up again…..so scratched that idea.  My 3 month Vietnam visa still had 6 weeks left on it, and since that was still in the back of my mind said what the hell and bought yet another plane ticket….essentially taking what may be the longest possible route to get from Singapore to Vietnam.

Edit: Since this was originally for the van trip, I am once again trying to get rid of these email notifications, but cannot figure out how to.  If I am successful, but you want to continue with the journey, check back in the next few weeks as I will be adding more contents, and you can re-signup if you wish after I purge the list, though chances are good I will not find it, so assuming you can figure out how to unsubscribe that may be your only option.  Thanks.