Vietnam: Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

This city reminds me of Bangkok - it's hot, it's humid, and it seems to be filled with people who are always in a rush to get somewhere. Pay for dinner and the waiter barely has time to glance at you. Probably not a place I'd like to spend a lot of time personally, but then again this is only my first impression and I don't speak the language or really understand the culture. It's highly developed and fashionable although it doesn't exude the same effortless style and finesse of Hanoi. Filled with markets and vendors of all kind, apparently everything is for sale here and you better bring your bargaining skills. Vietnamese people are savvy salesman and expert bargainers - no joke, shopping in Vietnam is tough if you don't know the language. In one shop on a busy street I'm struggling to get a fake pair of North Face shorts for less than twice what I know they actually cost. The tags on the shorts are in Chinese and surely came from Guangzhou. This is what happens when you're caucasian and you don't speak Vietnamese, but start at 30-40% of the ticketed price on something in a market or small shop, especially if it's anywhere near a tourist site.

While I was in Saigon I stopped at the American War memorial site. It's a condensed museum which recalls all the tragedy of the American occupation and its engagement with the North Vietnamese. If you go, prepare to leave with a heavy heart as you're emotionally bombarded with photographs of dismembered children, tortured Vietnamese prisoners, napalmed villages, and gruesome casualties and collateral damage. Seeing it from the Vietnamese perspective is fascinating and something I recommend though as this is a war which has been heavily propagandized by the United States. As many American casualties as there were (a virtual mountain of bodies), it is nothing compared to the losses that the Vietnamese saw - 40% of which were innocent men, women, and children who died unimaginable deaths. The memorial was a painful but rewarding experience.

I found an incredible massage school at the intersection of Phan Ngu Lao and Cong Quynh in District 1. Walking on the street I saw a courtyard that looked like a kung fu training school which turned out to be a well known blind massage location. The building was two stories high, concrete, freshly painted white, and had "enfance espoir" written on the front wall. Inside there are two massage areas, one for men and one for women, and a 60 minute massage runs you just under $3. Even for me this is really cheap - typically massages in this region will never get cheaper than that. As it turns out the massage was great as well, but awkward at first when the blind guy tugged at my shorts, trying to communicate that I'm supposed to take off my shorts and lie on the table covered by a towel. The guy had a slightly ghostly appearance (go figure, blind people) but was as friendly as could be and gave a good massage. Vietnamese massage is slightly noisier than Thai or Laotian varieties, a lot of chop-like hand movements on the back which in rapid succession result in a clapping sound. After the massage I discreetly handed him a big tip for being such a nice guy, trying not to let the cashier with functioning eyes see me. There was a bit of fumbling involved in that gesture. This massage place isn't just an office for these people, they live there and are cared for by people who run the business.

Vietnam: Mui Ne

A beach resort area east of Saigon, about 5 hours by bus. The town, if you can call it that, is really a strip of guesthouses and resorts on one street which runs along the coast. The beach here, which is on the east coast of Vietnam, is beautiful but brief. It runs for a few kilometers and then turns into rocky coast and choppy water with a strong undertow. Not great for swimming but the sea here is dotted with wind and kite surfers as far as you can see. And actually kite surfing does look really cool. I didn't go swimming at all in Mui Ne - aside from the water being choppy, much colder, deeper, it's filled with kite surfers and doesn't seem very safe when you see those guys ripping through the water at 30mph led only by the wind. Wish I could say that the town compensates for the lack of swimming awesomeness but like I mentioned, it's not even really a town. It's a string of accommodations for tourists where you won't find a single Vietnamese person who isn't either selling a room, a tour, or a seat at a bar or restaurant. The food seems mediocre by Vietnam standards (which I hold high, but not as high as Thailand at this point, only two weeks into Vietnam) and is overpriced due to the never ending glut of tourists which these local entrepreneurs can bleed dry. The bar on the street just outside blasts Green Day and Nirvana onto the street as bored looking westerners sit at tables on the side of the road. Really, this is the kind of place that I really loathe and you're lost here unless you came as a couple as you virtually never see non-couples walking the street here. If you're content to check into a clean resort or guesthouse for about $25/night and read a book or sit in the sun all day and have a beautiful landscape in front of you, it meets those standards.

The highlights of Mui Ne are some nearby ecological anomalies - a creek running through a micro Grand Canyon and a massive collection of sand dunes. Once you find the creek (or are led by a tour guide), you walk along is for 30 minutes through the ankle deep water on the sandy surface and it leads to some mesmerizing rock formations. Sedona Arizona-looking rock formations in Vietnam, along this tiny creek. You can see layers in the rock formations and the natural gradients which change from clay red to chalky off white, which along with the lush creek and deep blue sky make the scenery pretty stunning. Enterprising children offer to watch your shoes while you walk up the creek for whatever fee you're comfortable paying while less creative ones just beg for money.

If you think the Arizona landscape looks out of place in Vietnam, the sand dunes are straight out of Saudia Arabia. I don't understand at all how sand dunes of that magnitude can just show up in the middle of a tropical setting like that. They're enormous and span a large distance. I took a photo of myself that looks like I'm in the Gobi desert. You can walk around on the dunes a long way but it's hard work - the sand is hot, your calves get tired, and once you spend enough time up there you realize that it's just sand. Still it's a place worth checking out especially if you haven't found yourself surrounded by giant sand dunes before. You can pay a dollar to sled down the dunes. At first this was something I was committed to doing but I saw a Russian girl try this. Her family member climbed down the dune to the bottom of a steep bank and sat with his camera fixed on his eye waiting for her to make the plunge. She awkwardly sits on this sheet of plastic with two handles as a Vietnamese kid pushes her off the edge of this dune. She slides down about 6 feet and then stops. Tries to rebalance herself and slides down another 4 feet. She's like 200 feet from the guy holding the camera. Turns out sand isn't very slick or fun to sled on. So I decided not to do that.

One thing that was impossible to not notice in Mui Ne was that signs were in a language that I couldn't read that was not Vietnamese. Vietnamese uses letters of the roman alphabet with additional strokes to indicate tone but there's probably more written Russian in Mui Ne than there is English. This really baffled me. How could there be more Russian speakers here than English speakers? Like the Germans this remains a mystery to me but it's a fact that Mui Ne is filled with Russians. it's like a Russian parade on the main street all day. And they could not look more Russian - it takes about a second to determine who's Russian. Basically the vast majority of caucasians in Mui Ne are Russian. They're rude and hawkish and they treat Vietnamese people with utter disdain. Also they wear black socks with sandals. Tacky bastards. In the last year I've met some cool Russians who I've traveled with a lot (three in particular), but generally speaking I can't say they're much more charming than sharks. Due to the influx of wealthy Russians Mui Ne is being transformed into a tropical St Petersburg which is disappointing.

Vietnam: Hanoi

A brief rundown of the places I've been, each location will be a separate post:

Hanoi - Bustling northern city which is settled around a lake. A cultural capital swarming with countless motorcycles which ebb and flow around pedestrians like a stream around protruding rocks. I can't explain this in terms that you can understand if you haven't witnessed it, but the motorcycles in Hanoi are out of control. When I arrived on Valentines day at 9pm it was nearly impossible to traverse the city by automobile. Cars would get stuck in intersections as thousands of motorcycles would weave around each other on all sides of the few cars as they sit and wait for the ceaseless parade of bikes to leave an opening. This taxi ride alone would have been a suitable highlight but it turns out this is a reasonably charming city considering its massive size. It's clean and cosmopolitan - more fashionable and laid back than Bangkok but pulses with the same non-stop energy that the Thai capital has. The food is outstanding and the people (for a city of this size) are friendly.

Walking on the street taking photos of motorcyclists I stumbled upon a giant building with a small crowd in front of it. A performance venue for a Water Puppet show. Tickets for the next few days were sold out so I decided to save it for next time. I don't really know what's involved and I haven't looked it up but the tickets were $6 so I don't see how it could be disappointing if it's sold out days in advance. Nearby there was an especially large intersection with not a single traffic light in sight. And the traffic at this intersection was just.. really something. Along with Steve, a 29-year old surfing structural engineer who I met on the train across the Chinese border, we found a nearby restaurant on the fourth floor. We spent about an hour reclining on the balcony of this cafe looking down on thousands of people on motorcycles streaming through an intersection from all directions. I drank a bright green mint water which came with two straws (thanks but we're not boyfriends) and we watched the sun set over the lake from the peace of the fourth floor balcony as a cacophony of traffic horns floated up toward us.

Vietnam: Tougher than I thought

I've been traveling around Vietnam for two weeks now and am getting a better idea of what this place is about. After passing through Hanoi, Saigon, Phu Quoc, and Mui Ne, I'm finding that Vietnam is a tougher nut to crack than I had estimated. What I mean by that is that it's taking more time and effort for me to find the things that I really came here looking for. Due to language difficulties and a heavily entrenched tourist infrastructure, I find myself getting caught in tourist nets very often. It takes effort to learn the Vietnamese phrases necessary to connect with people who don't speak English and it takes time to find locations where I'm not treated like a 6'5" ATM machine. The next few posts will be Vietnam location specific.

in a hot tub in Halong bay when it was raining:

Vietnam: Phu Quoc

Southwestern Vietnamese island very near the Cambodian border - looks like it came straight out of a postcard. From Saigon if you don't fly you're in for a 7 hour bus ride to Rach Gia and then a 3 hour ferry from there to the island. In terms of appearance and landscape it's very similar to Thai islands on the Gulf and it's just starting to reach a high level of development. Outside of the harbor and most developed area (Long Beach), the roads are not paved. This is the kind of place I had come to Vietnam looking for. Outside of Long Beach the people are overwhelmingly friendly and interested in people who venture out to pay them a visit. The food is outstanding - several days in a row I ate fresh fish on the beach (red snapper, barracuda) which was caught and grilled in front of me.

The water on the island was perfect for swimming. Long Beach and the other remotely developed beaches are on the west coast of the island, where the sun sets on the watery horizon every evening. The atmosphere was really incredible and I didn't want to leave, having the strong urge that this island holds much more than I'd find at first glance. After all, it is 50 x 20km in size. I mostly stuck to the west coast, taking day long motorcycle trips up and down the coast and swimming every day.

Interesting quirk is that this island is heavily trafficked by Germans - and I never could figure out why. One afternoon I was trying to communicate with a Vietnamese man and when he struggled to understand my English and asked if I spoke German. I've never been anywhere in my life where German is preferred over English by non-Germans. I asked a few Vietnamese why there were so many Germans on the island (and evidently no Americans - it was all Europeans) and couldn't get an answer from anyone. I asked a middle aged German guy eating at a table next to me how so many Germans ended up on the island he took offense until I told him that I'm of German heritage. We chatted for a few minutes after wards but he didn't offer an explanation for the enormous German presence.

Vietnam: First Impressions

I've been in Vietnam for about 10 days now, traveling from the northern border with China past Hanoi to Saigon, and then further south near the Cambodian border. Although it lacks some of the trappings of Thailand, like many English speaking people, going on the trail that I've been on is relatively difficult - this is clearly a country with a very developed tourist infrastructure and an enormous population that relies entirely on income from tourists. So what you'll see are a lot of hustlers on the street with their tricks, trying to sell you this or that. Not quite as in your face as Cambodia where people will literally chase you down the street, yelling at you to buy their garbage for astronomical prices, but this is a country that you'll pay 200-500% of the real price for everything if you haven't traveled extensively, speak Vietnamese, or are traveling with a Vietnamese person. I've been to all of the surrounding countries in the region and I'm sure I'm still paying too much. But that's the price you pay when you go to a new country and don't speak the language.

Speaking of the language, I've been devoting about an hour a day to learn the basics - hello, thank you, please, ordering food, counting to 20, etc. My experience in China - starting from when I couldn't speak the language, up to the following years where I've spent a considerable amount of time and effort refining my language skills has taught me the impact of speaking to people in their native language. That is, people treat you totally differently. In China people show me great hospitality and generosity, but I can see the difference in how they treat me as soon as I speak to them in Chinese. It's the same way here, even if it's only thank you. Making this small effort shows that you appreciate and respect other cultures and are willing to come half way to make a connection with people. And that, to me, makes all the difference.

I'll expound on these thoughts and add some more (lets say, actually about Vietnam) in an upcoming post.

Passing Through Kunming

On my way to Vietnam I had to make a stop in Kunming to have my passport mailed to me from Chengdu and then have it dropped off at the Vietnam consulate to process a visa - so I'm here essentially watching the clock tick for four days. Not really sure what to do here! This is where I'm currently chilling:

Tomorrow my passport arrives and I'll go to the computer district to check out a Canon 40D which I found online for sale here. It will break the hell out of my wallet but I figure I invest in a new body once or twice a decade and my 300D is starting to die after tens of thousands of exposures.

I found this cool iphone application which I've been messing with called Orions. It's a turn based card game which is like a combination between Civilization and Magic: The Gathering. Real cool graphics and entertaining gameplay - turns out the iphone/ipod is a capable gaming platform. Bringing my DS with me on this trip seemed redundant.

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Outward Bound

My old friend Dave has recently landed in Medellin after over a year of traveling around the world and has finally found a city he can see himself spending time in. I'm glad for him but to me it seemed inevitable from the beginning that it was bound to happen somewhere. Quit your job and travel to enough countries and you're bound to find a beautiful place that meets or exceeds the conditions of your home - and I'm excited that it's Colombia because I'm sure it's stunning and fascinating place. A long time ago Sascha and I were traveling in Sichuan and spent hours talking about Colombia specifically. Discussing the details of how we'd relocate there - Sascha would find a job writing for a newspaper and I would integrate into the nightlife scene. Years have passed since that day which we spent daydreaming about Colombia but the thought has never left my head.

I got an e-mail from Dave a few hours ago:

Hey Charlie,

I think I finally know what it might've been like for you to arrive in Chengdu and know you want to live there.  I've been in Medellin 2 weeks, and have just decided to stay another 1-2 weeks to find out about the prospects of working (teaching english) and living here.  The music, the people, the dancing, the women (are beautiful), the cost of living (low), the geography, the weather, the party culture, my attempt to learn and speak Spanish.  It's all been great so far.

How/why did you decide to stay in China?  Any advice for me?

Dave

to which I replied:

I came to Asia off of a personal low point, having felt like I wasted 4 years toiling in corporate America. So by comparison China was a world of new experiences which I felt were more valuable than trying to climb the career ladder. It's hard to put into words but I think you know what I mean. I'd rather be teaching english and traveling around, always learning and absorbing new culture, rather than living in the states and working a 9-5 office job. And it's easy to live abroad as an American, teaching english is always an option no matter where you are, and there are always other opportunities which will emerge after you spend some time in one place. Living abroad isn't for everyone, but I'm certain that it's for me and I have a good feeling that it's for you as well. Spend some time there, see how you like it. Don't listen to people who tell you that you "can't" just pick up and move somewhere, those people project their insecurities onto you. You only live once and life is too short to waste. Stay long enough and I'll definitely come and visit, I'm fascinated by that region and I haven't even been there. Glad to hear you've found a place you really like, it was bound to happen-

charlie

Congratulations to Dave for following through with his plan to quit his job, sell his car, and make a trip around the world which so many dream of but so few commit themselves to. Of all the people I know I didn't expect Dave to be the one to complete such an incredible trip which requires more courage and determination than most people can muster, but now we share much more in common than history. I look forward to reading Dave's blog and seeing where he ends up. Check it out at gobackpacking.com/blog

Cambodia

A few days ago I took a 12 hour bus from the South East stretch of the coast of Thailand (across from Koh Chang where I'd spent a week with my family) across the border to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Siem Reap is several miles from Angkor Wat, the famous ruins of the Cambodian Empire. This has been a sight I'd always had interest in seeing, but hadn't seen until near partly for fear that the area has been too developed by the effects of tourism.

Over the last 10 years, since the re-stabilization of this country after the Khmer Rouge regime, tourism has become a major industry of this country. It doesn't seem to me like my fears of over development in this region were out of line with the reality of this place. The temples are incredible, but the environment as a whole is entirely underwhelming to me. The country is riddled with poverty, as can clearly be seen on the 6 hour drive through Cambodian country side from Pot Pet, the seedy, soulless border town which is filled with casino's exclusively for foreigner use (Cambodians cannot, by law, gamble in their own casinos). Upon arrival in Siem Reap the costs of living, for tourists, quadruple. Lunch yesterday was $18, dinner $24. The food is mediocre, not spicy unlike Thai food, and many people speak English to accommodate the perpetual influx of tourists.

When you set foot on the sight of Angkor Wat you'll stand in long lines of tourists, almost all European, who each take about 10 photos a minute. They should just include a cd-rom with digital photos along with the entrance fee. On your way out you'll be accosted by dozens of dirty peasant children who've been trained to say a collection of key phrases to catch your attention, sympathy, and then wallet, in that order. Things like "Hello where are you from?" and "buy water batteries t-shirt bracelet please". The way the all repeat the exact same phrases verbatim makes them sound like parrots.

I'm here with my father though and he's having a great time. I'm glad that he enjoys it, too. I'm looking forward to my flight back to Bangkok on Friday; I've already had enough of this place. I'm sure there are beautiful, more genuine parts of Cambodia, but this place feels like the spiritual equivalent of Disneyland to me.