Its just a tad late now but Merry Christmas guys and gals!!!
Well, y'all are hopefully all tucked into bed back home, overly stuffed and maybe a bit buzzed. I'm quite envious in a lot of ways- I miss the snow, the mac n cheese, the tacky old Christmas decorations we still use and, most of all, all of you. As my dad said, the holidays are about being grateful for what you have, and I couldn't agree more. I am so grateful for this oppurtunity to travel, but I am even more grateful that I have such a wonderful group of people back home to miss and go back for.
I did have a good christmas though and i also feel very fortunate for that.
I got to enjoy Jesus' birthday (a day earlier than everyone back home) with Jaap and Theo, a not-so-great plate of chile con carne, and three bottles of Dalat wine. The boys even got me two rather tacky porceline buddahs that are very awkwardly shaped and will be fun to pack around for another month or so. My best presents though: waking up on (Asia) Christmas morning, I recieved two wonderful emails from my papa and Andy (both brought me to tears) and then found out, as I was making my Christmas phone calls back home, that Andy is flying me out to meet him in Hong Kong for new years (I was just a bucket of happy tears that morning sitting in the lobby). Due to a last minute work trip and Andy's plethora of miles, he was able to book me a roundtrip (and business class) ticket out of Siagon- all I have to do is get to Saigon by the 30th- he arranged everything else. Amazing this boy!! Made a few alterations to my very tenative and flexible schedule and will be starting this new years off with someone I love more than life in a place I have never been before- the best of both worlds!
Christmas day also included a Christmas breakfast with the boys, a stuffy six hour bus ride to Mui Ne, and walking about 3km with all my stuff as every hotel here here was full. It was all fine and great though- honestly I was just floating last night after finding out about this trip that I could have slept on that stuffy bus and still been happy.
Spent the day today booking an overnight bus for tonight, eating a few good meals, drinking green coconut juice and just lounging on the beach here. Mui Ne is a beautiful little beach strip (not really sure if you could really catagorize it as an actual town) filled with resorts and bungalows and restaraunts. The beaches themselves are white sand and very peaceful aside from the eight hundred kite surfers in the water- honestly looks like the scene in Mary Poppins where they are singing 'let's go fly a kite'. It is a pretty cool sight to see but really ridiculous as well. Because there are numerous kite schools, there are people everywhere in the water who are just flailing with their monstorous kites- which are juat dragging the people (who appear to be swallowing gallons of sea water) away from their boards which they are so desperately trying to swim back to... It's a bit sketchy- but rather entertaining as well. The end result of my day: really bizarre sun burned patches in a very awkward fashion, one split open toe that I so gracefully stubbed as I was walking out to see the sunset, about 50 pages read from my book, and a solid 12 hours or so of 'freeloading'- the overnight bus doesn't get here till 2am (retarted bus company)- so I get to stride around this little town till the bars close and then jump on a bus for a few hours to Saigon. Woohoo! I made friends with the family at the homestay though so I have wifi and a place to store my bags and a toilet and even a shower so i have a home base at least. Going to try and be in the Mekong Delta are by mid afternoon tomorrow... Wish me luck!
To back track slightly, I'm gonna post a blog that i started when I was in Dalat but never posted... I'm sorry for slacking on this whole posting thing- will try to get some routine going. K, here is Dalat (and a bit of Nha Trang) in a nutshell:
Made my way from the beaches of Nha Trang (which I got to spend about two hours enjoying as the rain finally broke for a couple hours) and am now in Dalat, a small city set in the central highlands of Vietnam. Sitting at nearly 2,000m, the town itself is bigger than I expected but is easily managable once you realize that many of the streets loop back on themselves and figure out which way on your map is 'up a hill' or 'down some stairs'. There is a huge lake near the center of town where you can rent a paddleboat creepily shaped like a ginnormous swan or take some pictures of ponies draped in flowers being held by a Vietnamese guys dressed as a cowboy. The garbage trucks here play the tune of 'its a small world after all' (not joking!) and the towns' cell phone tower is shaped after the Eifel tower. Despite the hoakyness though, it is a nice little town to wander around in. The beautiful mountains around the area are home to countless flower, fruit and vegtable farms as well as tea and coffee. In fact, I learned on my little tour (details to follow), that over 60% of Dalat's population is comprised of farmers of one sort or another. Thus, the streets and main market in the middle of town are chuck-full of the freshest looking produce and flowers. And, much to my liking, they also make wine here which is, actually, really great wine. I'm no wine conosoure (spelling?) or anything, but (as my tahoe roomies could confirm) I had grown quite fond of having at least a glass of wine before bed everynight- especially after those doubles and triples we were so good at pulling- that wine is right up there with Mexican food on my list of 'things I miss from home'. The two times I have ordered wine on this trip has been sheer disappointment. There was the glass that Andy and I shared in dirty Phuket that was okay but was overpriced and tasted slightly expired; and then there was just the other night when the Kiwi boys had dressed up in their newly tailored outfits and we all went out to dinner- as a promotion, we were offered one free drink with dinner- we all excitedly ordered red wine but were brokenhearted when we found out it was served cold and out of a box. Overall, I am content here in Dalat for a few days... Between the wine and the fresh food and chilly nights, it's as close to home as I think I'm gonna get for my 'christmas in vietnam'.
Dalat is home to the Easy Riders- a group of motorbike tour guides that were started by a group of unemployed men when VN opened their doors to tourism. I hired one of these Easy Riders the night I got here after much haggling and negotiations. Mr. Lulu, as he called himself, picked me up the next morning and showed me around the area for a solid 7 hours. At times, it seemed a bit silly as we would pull off on the side of the road and he would tell me some story about whatever we were looking at and then he would always end with:'okay you take picture'. But, overall it was interesting and informative. We stopped at flower, veggie and fruit farms, saw how silk is collected and produced, learned how coffee and tea are harvested at a 'plantation', saw some bamboo weaving, explored a pretty sweet waterfall, walked through a few temples where we got to view tons of different buddahs and even went on a few 'treks' (I told him I wanted to do a trek in the area so he would just drop me off on the side of the road and point to the top of a hill and say: 'Go trek. Good excercise'- thanks Mr Lulu).
The Dutch boys found me that night just as I was heading out to dinner... Caught up over a nice dinner and a bottle of wine before I went back to the hotel. We made a resolution that first night that we should drink a bottle of wine a night (which we actually one up-ed as we had one the first night, two the second and three on the third) and had a good routine going by day #2: we would all do our own thing till maybe 6 or 7, drink some wine at the hotel, go out to dinner, finish another bottle, and then come back and finish whatever we had left. It is not a stressful life here.
It is Christmas eve now and I leave for Mui Ne tomorrow, so trying to soak up all that Dalat has to offer. Walked around some nice walking paths earlier, cruised around the lake for a bit (turned around after some guy meowed at me) and am now sitting and enjoying a VN coffee and artichoke tea and am enjoying the view as it sits right above the lake where all the vendors are- an awesome people-watching location! My favorite sight right now? A Vietnamese man who is dressed up in a really bad Santa suit who has taken one of the ponies from the Vietnamese cowboy and is holding him as he sits on a motorcycle- and the kids are lined up for pictures! Oh and the coffee shop I'm at which is part of a really boutique-y hotel is playing the quinessential techno-remixed Christmas songs I have been hearing everywhere lately. Merry Christmas!!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Someone understands me!
Andy just sent me this article he read while flying back home...
http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/2009/12/01/ramblin-man/
It, so much, parallels what I have been feeling recently while traveling: I love what I am doing and the places I have been exploring, but I am often torn being so far away from those I love the most.
Isn't there a way to have the best of both worlds? Can't I fly my mama out everytime I see some exotic flower or a local shaman? Maybe take some cooking asian classes and drink some local beer with my daddy ooo? Can I just hold Andy's hand as I see these breathtaking views and meet the most beautiful people? Go rub some buddah belly with Sammy poo or sit by a river for a few hours with L.Parker?
I love it here, I'm not ready to leave, but these travels have only confirmed the fact that I have a lot to come home to...
http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/2009/12/01/ramblin-man/
It, so much, parallels what I have been feeling recently while traveling: I love what I am doing and the places I have been exploring, but I am often torn being so far away from those I love the most.
Isn't there a way to have the best of both worlds? Can't I fly my mama out everytime I see some exotic flower or a local shaman? Maybe take some cooking asian classes and drink some local beer with my daddy ooo? Can I just hold Andy's hand as I see these breathtaking views and meet the most beautiful people? Go rub some buddah belly with Sammy poo or sit by a river for a few hours with L.Parker?
I love it here, I'm not ready to leave, but these travels have only confirmed the fact that I have a lot to come home to...
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Hoi An: much needed downtime
So, the overnight bus over here was a pretty hairy ride- the seats put your body in the most bizarre and uncomfortable position ever- but I ended up running into three kids from Vang Viene and the couple that sat next to us from Laos to Vietnam so we were, at the very least, in good company. Took another quick bus from Hue to Hoi An and were checked into a nice hotel by lunchtime- comfy bed and a pool and a shower with doors that close all for five buckaroos. Grabbed some amazing veggie food and then went right back up to our room to collect a few more hours of sleep we lacked.
Finally got up the motivation to move and headed for the town center... Oh and the relief I felt as soon as we got into the heart of Hoi An! After a week solid of moving and busing from one place to another and dealing with mean city people, I just wanted a small town to chill out in for a little bit. And walking down the small streets and alley ways that first night, I felt so relieved to have found just that. With a mixture of eastern and European buildings (all mostly painted a golden rod yellow and semi covered in mold), the main streets run along a stretch of river that floods over at night when the tide rises (the coast is only 5km out). Only scooters and bicycles are allowed down these main streets so everyone walks lazily through the streets. Hoi An is famous for it's plethora of tailors and prides themselves on the fact that you can have a shirt or suit made in one day if you really wanted to... And for dirt cheap. Thus, the town is litered with these tailors along with souvinere shops and a slu of restaruants that all serve the same food. There are tons of little street carts and a huge market that sells the typical stuff: bizzare meats, fruits, veggies, flowers, tiger balm, inscense, ready made rice and 18 different kinds of noodles. The city is covered in colorful lanterns and old women in cone hats selling peanuts and fruit. Everyone here is trying to sell you something but, unlike the north, they are still nice and plesant to you when you decline their offers. And the food here is the best I have tasted in Vietnam so far: there is cau lao which are wheat noodles with meat and veg served in a broth and with crutons and the country pancakes which are made from eggs and pork and shrimp and are rolled up in rice paper with veggies stuffed inside- so good. They also have 'fresh beer' that all the restaurants downtown serve which is the Vietnam equivalant to keystone light. I'm not sure if it's home brewed or just a cheap keg that they all have, but a glass of fresh beer is literally a fraction of the price of all the other beers. A bottle or can will cost you anywhere from 9,000 to 30,000 dong depending on what you order while the fresh beer is a measly 4,000/ glass- you can't even get a soft drink or a coffee for that much! All in all, I really like it here... Though it is still a touristy town, I feel more content and relaxed here than I felt the entire week we traveled up north (Sapa excluded).
My days here have been spent rather lesiurely and usually begin with eggs and toast and a freshley brewed cup of VN coffee with condensed milk and tend to end with a few fresh beers and a sampling of the local cuisene. The time in between has been filled with wandering around the markets, a bit of shopping for loved ones back home, reading, journaling, iPod touching when I have wifi and taking it all in. Saha was here with me for the first few days and she was really good about doing a few tours around, but it was nearly impossible to motivate me to do anything tour-related right away after our terrible Halong Bay experience- though I'm maybe regretting not doing anything sooner as the weather has turned monsoonish.
It was sad saying goodbye to Saha (who actually spells her name Shachar, by the way, but if I start writing it correctly I start pronouncing it incorrectly), but she wanted to head out earlier than I did. She has only a few weeks to see Vietnam and make her way into Cambodia so she is more limited in time. She is also much better at going to a place and doing everything in a day or two and then moving on. Contrary to me, who, as I have come to discover, likes to travel and learn about a place through osmosis. I like to sit and absorb a city, figure out what I really want to do or see there and then finally doing it before heading to my next destination. I like to know the best place for a good breakfast, to be able to navigate the streets on my own accord and try my hardest, with my blonde hair and blue eyes, to blend in a bit. And I'm such a better person to be around when I'm not stressed out and lost and sleep deprived when I'm constantly moving from one place to the next. (These are all facts I am finding out about myself along the way as I go, by the way.) Anyways, goodbyes suck- especially with a travel buddy who was just as independent as I was. Saha and I were good at having heart to hearts at times and not speaking for hours during others- perfect when you are with someone consistantly for a week and a half- and I feel like we both posess similar mind sets and outlooks on life. I'm grateful for the time we had but am looking forward to being on my own again as well. Though it's never long before you stumble upon another group of gypsies.
Right after Saha left, I went out to go find some food. Walked around and see if the market was open and along the way was checking some menus out. Got stopped at this one restaurant where the owner and another guy were sitting outside and they started talking to me. They offered me some shark that the owner made (so good!) and then offered for me to sit down and join them for some rice wine and food. So I did. Now this is not something I would normally do but we are talking about a grandfather and a forty five year old guy sitting around slightly wasted in a very quite and friendly town... The owner splits his time between here and traveling Europe cooking but has had his place open since Vietnam opened it's doors. He is married and has three daughters and three sons and one grandson who I got a picture of as he was dressed in the VN paraohanalia as the womans soccer team won that night. The other guy was from equador, has been living in Nepal, is 45, has been married 8 times and I'm pretty certain makes his living selling lots and lots of weed. An interesting duo I found myself with. The drugdealing devorcee told me the second I sat down 'well sweetheart you are way too young for me so why don't you look out for a thirty some year old woman for me and I will look for a twenty some year old guy for you'... Thus, I got to share with him rather quickly that I appreciated his offer, but that I had an amazing boyfriend back home. This spurred a very long and slurred (on his part) discussion of relationships (coming from the guy who has been married and divorced eight times) which started with him calling BS on having a relationship while traveling and ended with him begging and pleading with me to please fly home as soon as possible to be with Andy. He told me I was lucky to have found someone that I am so excited about and continually asked me over and over again: 'why are you here? What you want is home not here... Go home!!'. I definitely am not going to change my plans around after my little heart to heart with the drunk south American/Nepali drug dealer, but it was a very enthralling dinner convo as our restaraunt owner would just sit and laugh and would take our spoons and individually make us spoonfuls of goodness (shark in a saffron curry sauce with green papya and mango, dipped in a clear, citrusy sauce and dusted with chili and a little piece of puffed rice cracker on top). The night ended after a few more dishes of delicious food, another bottle of rice wine (I only had three sake sized glasses mama so don't worry please), and after a few more people joined our table and the festive drinking and eating. I excused myself shortly after the couple from the bus sat down and joined our little group- I was full and tired and ready for bed by that point.
I woke up that night to find my little loft room (that I had been moved to after Saha left) partially flooding as it poured buckets. Found two pails and tried to catch as much water as I could but by the morning, half of my room was covered in a half inch of water. Luckily, the hotel was able to pit me in a nicer room (for more money anything is possible here) which I am very grateful for after my body started retaliating against something I had injested. I had tried booking my bus out to NhaTrang after the bus was already full and was dissapointed to have another two full days in this rainy town, but they came in very handy as I was unable to do much more than walk to the market next door for crackers and OJ and massive amounts of water. I canceled the moto-tour I was going to do and attempted to heal. Ran into Jaap and Theo (my Dutch friends from Luang Prabang) who were staying right next door to me, but I was quite the Deb Downer being sick and all. I guess it's bound to happen sometime along the way though...
Just survived another overnight bus ride that was more comfortable but also more wet and a bit late (3 hours) and I now find myself in rainy Nha Trang. To be more specific, I am in a cafe that looks quite snazy from the outside- everything is white and very modern and along the wall is written 'wifi.cafe.wifi.cafe'. Inside this place though is just...so...wow...Asian?? Inside this bright white building is low low lighting and cheap-looking furniture that probably once belonged in a nightclub and now overcrowds the huge floorspace. There is a DJ blasting Christmas music (it's 10am) and there are five plasma TVs playing Terminator and XXX. There are a few christmas decorations and even some blue jewish stars wrapped around a pole decorated in red and green streamers. Oh, and it smells like cigarettes and pee. And despite everything being in english (the menu, the music, the subtitles on the movies with no sound), no one speaks English here... Gotta love it. Just had a very delicious breakfast though with my three new kiwi friends and I am feeling much better so, despite the smell and the rain outside, I'm rather content at the moment.
Heading to Dalat tomorrow morning which is in the Central Highlands. It's a nice little mountain town I am told and is where I will be spending Christmas (as will the Dutch boys and the Brit couple I keep running into). Excited to get to some nicer weather and to a place with some more outdoorsy options to choose from. It will not be home or Colorado, but I will be in good company and in a mountain town- Think it's the closest to home in Vietnam I will be getting!
Happy early Christmas/belated chaunaka to y'all back home.
Finally got up the motivation to move and headed for the town center... Oh and the relief I felt as soon as we got into the heart of Hoi An! After a week solid of moving and busing from one place to another and dealing with mean city people, I just wanted a small town to chill out in for a little bit. And walking down the small streets and alley ways that first night, I felt so relieved to have found just that. With a mixture of eastern and European buildings (all mostly painted a golden rod yellow and semi covered in mold), the main streets run along a stretch of river that floods over at night when the tide rises (the coast is only 5km out). Only scooters and bicycles are allowed down these main streets so everyone walks lazily through the streets. Hoi An is famous for it's plethora of tailors and prides themselves on the fact that you can have a shirt or suit made in one day if you really wanted to... And for dirt cheap. Thus, the town is litered with these tailors along with souvinere shops and a slu of restaruants that all serve the same food. There are tons of little street carts and a huge market that sells the typical stuff: bizzare meats, fruits, veggies, flowers, tiger balm, inscense, ready made rice and 18 different kinds of noodles. The city is covered in colorful lanterns and old women in cone hats selling peanuts and fruit. Everyone here is trying to sell you something but, unlike the north, they are still nice and plesant to you when you decline their offers. And the food here is the best I have tasted in Vietnam so far: there is cau lao which are wheat noodles with meat and veg served in a broth and with crutons and the country pancakes which are made from eggs and pork and shrimp and are rolled up in rice paper with veggies stuffed inside- so good. They also have 'fresh beer' that all the restaurants downtown serve which is the Vietnam equivalant to keystone light. I'm not sure if it's home brewed or just a cheap keg that they all have, but a glass of fresh beer is literally a fraction of the price of all the other beers. A bottle or can will cost you anywhere from 9,000 to 30,000 dong depending on what you order while the fresh beer is a measly 4,000/ glass- you can't even get a soft drink or a coffee for that much! All in all, I really like it here... Though it is still a touristy town, I feel more content and relaxed here than I felt the entire week we traveled up north (Sapa excluded).
My days here have been spent rather lesiurely and usually begin with eggs and toast and a freshley brewed cup of VN coffee with condensed milk and tend to end with a few fresh beers and a sampling of the local cuisene. The time in between has been filled with wandering around the markets, a bit of shopping for loved ones back home, reading, journaling, iPod touching when I have wifi and taking it all in. Saha was here with me for the first few days and she was really good about doing a few tours around, but it was nearly impossible to motivate me to do anything tour-related right away after our terrible Halong Bay experience- though I'm maybe regretting not doing anything sooner as the weather has turned monsoonish.
It was sad saying goodbye to Saha (who actually spells her name Shachar, by the way, but if I start writing it correctly I start pronouncing it incorrectly), but she wanted to head out earlier than I did. She has only a few weeks to see Vietnam and make her way into Cambodia so she is more limited in time. She is also much better at going to a place and doing everything in a day or two and then moving on. Contrary to me, who, as I have come to discover, likes to travel and learn about a place through osmosis. I like to sit and absorb a city, figure out what I really want to do or see there and then finally doing it before heading to my next destination. I like to know the best place for a good breakfast, to be able to navigate the streets on my own accord and try my hardest, with my blonde hair and blue eyes, to blend in a bit. And I'm such a better person to be around when I'm not stressed out and lost and sleep deprived when I'm constantly moving from one place to the next. (These are all facts I am finding out about myself along the way as I go, by the way.) Anyways, goodbyes suck- especially with a travel buddy who was just as independent as I was. Saha and I were good at having heart to hearts at times and not speaking for hours during others- perfect when you are with someone consistantly for a week and a half- and I feel like we both posess similar mind sets and outlooks on life. I'm grateful for the time we had but am looking forward to being on my own again as well. Though it's never long before you stumble upon another group of gypsies.
Right after Saha left, I went out to go find some food. Walked around and see if the market was open and along the way was checking some menus out. Got stopped at this one restaurant where the owner and another guy were sitting outside and they started talking to me. They offered me some shark that the owner made (so good!) and then offered for me to sit down and join them for some rice wine and food. So I did. Now this is not something I would normally do but we are talking about a grandfather and a forty five year old guy sitting around slightly wasted in a very quite and friendly town... The owner splits his time between here and traveling Europe cooking but has had his place open since Vietnam opened it's doors. He is married and has three daughters and three sons and one grandson who I got a picture of as he was dressed in the VN paraohanalia as the womans soccer team won that night. The other guy was from equador, has been living in Nepal, is 45, has been married 8 times and I'm pretty certain makes his living selling lots and lots of weed. An interesting duo I found myself with. The drugdealing devorcee told me the second I sat down 'well sweetheart you are way too young for me so why don't you look out for a thirty some year old woman for me and I will look for a twenty some year old guy for you'... Thus, I got to share with him rather quickly that I appreciated his offer, but that I had an amazing boyfriend back home. This spurred a very long and slurred (on his part) discussion of relationships (coming from the guy who has been married and divorced eight times) which started with him calling BS on having a relationship while traveling and ended with him begging and pleading with me to please fly home as soon as possible to be with Andy. He told me I was lucky to have found someone that I am so excited about and continually asked me over and over again: 'why are you here? What you want is home not here... Go home!!'. I definitely am not going to change my plans around after my little heart to heart with the drunk south American/Nepali drug dealer, but it was a very enthralling dinner convo as our restaraunt owner would just sit and laugh and would take our spoons and individually make us spoonfuls of goodness (shark in a saffron curry sauce with green papya and mango, dipped in a clear, citrusy sauce and dusted with chili and a little piece of puffed rice cracker on top). The night ended after a few more dishes of delicious food, another bottle of rice wine (I only had three sake sized glasses mama so don't worry please), and after a few more people joined our table and the festive drinking and eating. I excused myself shortly after the couple from the bus sat down and joined our little group- I was full and tired and ready for bed by that point.
I woke up that night to find my little loft room (that I had been moved to after Saha left) partially flooding as it poured buckets. Found two pails and tried to catch as much water as I could but by the morning, half of my room was covered in a half inch of water. Luckily, the hotel was able to pit me in a nicer room (for more money anything is possible here) which I am very grateful for after my body started retaliating against something I had injested. I had tried booking my bus out to NhaTrang after the bus was already full and was dissapointed to have another two full days in this rainy town, but they came in very handy as I was unable to do much more than walk to the market next door for crackers and OJ and massive amounts of water. I canceled the moto-tour I was going to do and attempted to heal. Ran into Jaap and Theo (my Dutch friends from Luang Prabang) who were staying right next door to me, but I was quite the Deb Downer being sick and all. I guess it's bound to happen sometime along the way though...
Just survived another overnight bus ride that was more comfortable but also more wet and a bit late (3 hours) and I now find myself in rainy Nha Trang. To be more specific, I am in a cafe that looks quite snazy from the outside- everything is white and very modern and along the wall is written 'wifi.cafe.wifi.cafe'. Inside this place though is just...so...wow...Asian?? Inside this bright white building is low low lighting and cheap-looking furniture that probably once belonged in a nightclub and now overcrowds the huge floorspace. There is a DJ blasting Christmas music (it's 10am) and there are five plasma TVs playing Terminator and XXX. There are a few christmas decorations and even some blue jewish stars wrapped around a pole decorated in red and green streamers. Oh, and it smells like cigarettes and pee. And despite everything being in english (the menu, the music, the subtitles on the movies with no sound), no one speaks English here... Gotta love it. Just had a very delicious breakfast though with my three new kiwi friends and I am feeling much better so, despite the smell and the rain outside, I'm rather content at the moment.
Heading to Dalat tomorrow morning which is in the Central Highlands. It's a nice little mountain town I am told and is where I will be spending Christmas (as will the Dutch boys and the Brit couple I keep running into). Excited to get to some nicer weather and to a place with some more outdoorsy options to choose from. It will not be home or Colorado, but I will be in good company and in a mountain town- Think it's the closest to home in Vietnam I will be getting!
Happy early Christmas/belated chaunaka to y'all back home.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Vietnam: long and long overdue- my apologies
After almost a week in Vietnam, I still feel like I'm trying to figure this place out. The changes between here and the rest of souteast Asia have proven to be much more prominant than our previous country-hoping experiences. The dong is around 19,000 to 1 USD and the food mostly consists of rice and noodle soup (com and pho) so that's easy enough, but the people and the architecture and the overall feeling towards the westerner is completely different here.
The written language uses Latin letters but is spoken in tones like the rest of Asia. The buildings are mostly built from concrete and tend to be tall and slender and have various colored walls and tiles. And the people here... well... they are still a mystery to me. In general, they seem to be more pushy, less personal, and more likely to rip you off. I think their livelihood depends on tourism but they hate the tourists (which i can totally empathize with coming from a year of dealing with bay area kids on our mountain or on our lake in Tahoe). But we have been overcharged, yelled at and even grabbed since being here and have felt purely disrespected. On the other hand, there have been a few people that seem to, genuinley, be some of the nicest people we have met in all of Asia thus far. So we aren't too sure what to think quite yet. Oh! and the driving here is sheer, white-knuckle craziness. Red lights are regarded as yield signs and everyone's horn is beyond overused (especially irritating when everyone has 'pimp my ride'-ed their car/bike with horns that sing songs or play different tones). I think I have felt more on edge in these last 7 days than the whole of my trip combined... but I am in no rush to leave- I am curious and intriqued and am excited to see what the rest of this country has in store for me. Just have to cowboy up...
Hanoi:
We arrived in Hanoi after dark and after a grueling 36 hours of travel time on overcrowded buses, waits for repairs, and a very hectic border crossing soooo, to say that I wasn't quite a bucket of sunshine is probably a huge understatement. After a nerve-racking taxi drive from the bus station, we finally arrive in the old quarter. The place we were looking to stay at was full so we wander outside to be bombarded by a few hotel owners. One tells us that he has a room- $6 each, hot water, free wifi, free breakfast, very nice, follow me please. So we follow. The room IS very nice and even has a huge tub and flatscreen tv. Put down our stuff and tell the guy we will take it- 6 dollars each, right? Well no, this one is actually $9 each because it's our deluxe room. K, well we don't need deluxe so show us to your 6 dollar room please. Well, excuse me my friend, I'm sorry but we have no 6 dollar rooms left. Ok well we followed you here because you told us six dollars so we pay that or go. Okay my friend, you stay tomorrow and we will give you six dollars tomorrow night but tonight 9 dollars, okay? This goes on for about five minutes- we agree $7 tonight, $6 tomorrow night. Fine fine. Settle in and get a knock on the door two minutes later: excuse me my friend, I am the manager- there is a problem with the water in this room, can you move to another one upstairs? Fine. Walk up to our new room which is the same minus the big bath tub. Whatever. There is a lamp on our bed stand with the cord completely cut and the mini fridge has two bottles of water that are half drunk... This, we learn quickly, is the way things work here in Vietnam. Get the hot water finally on and running, argue with the lads some more as their wifi is not working, and just give up and grab a delicious sandwich from the most honest woman in all of Hanoi (seriously, after a week I can still say the sandwhich lady is one of the nicest people here!), and go back to watch some television and veg while watching two year old project runway episodes (such a treat!).
The next day is spent exploring the city after sleeping in and grabbing our free breakfast of white bread and bananas. The city is actually quite nice once you gain your bearings a bit- which is cake once you locate the lake and are able to use that as your default landmark. The old quarter is filled with old European-looking buildings, food carts and mini markets and blocks of stores- there is a long block of rice makers, an entire block of christmas decorations, a block of dentists and even a block of stores that all sell coffins. There are a million and a half motorcycles and vehichles-all who lay on their horns CONSTANTLY!! (No joke... It is absolutely maddening how much these people use their horns), and crossing the roads is a daunting task but just has to be done slowly and very consiously- frogger style- as people do not stop for you but will drive around you.
We went to go look at an old prison/museum nearby that was actually the place where John McCain and other POW were held. It was a bizarre experience. I'm sure that everything is shown with a heavy bias, but they showed pictures and told stories about shooting down all of the B-52s and other American fighter planes, saving the soilders and taking them to this prison. They then showed all these pictures of the Americans playing basketball and volleyball and having a Christmas feast and their own chickens they took care of and ate- it honestly looked like summer camp. Meanwhile, they show you how the Vietnamese prisoners that were held in the prison were tourtured and held in isolation. Wierd. Saha and I then went and found some street food where we were fed half as much and charged twice the price- we felt like victims of racism! When we tried to object, the woman just started screaming at us and shoved her three chubby fingers in our faces screaming 'thirty! thirty! thirty! thirty!'- it was Jerry springer like the way this woman was arguing with us- she wouldn't let us get a single word in as she just repeated the same word over and over again. Annoyed and hating the world, we paid and went back to the room to decompress.
We opted for some alone time so split up- Saha going out to explore while I phoned home. After some much needed phone convos with my loves back home, I felt rejuvinated enough to try this city again. Walking around aimlessly in my typical 'in a new city' fashion was actually quite nice... once you learn to drown out the honking and not get offended when people push by you on the streets, you start enjoying it more. It was Saturday evening at this time and I passed 17 pairs of brides and grooms all taking professional pictures by the lake- so silly to see when two couples are taking pictures literally five feet from one another- also interesting to see the different styles of dresses the girls were wearing: some had more traditional red Asian dresses on, others had the white fluffy dresses we are used to and some wore dresses that were beaded and colored like prom dresses.
The rest of our time was spent mostly wandering, eating sandwiches daily from our sandwich lady, sipping vietnamese coffee with condensed milk, researching our next destination and taking advantage of the free wifi and western television shows, so it wasn't all bad by any means. It was just an interesting mix of people and experiences I came across all along the way though. There was one girl who came up to me as I was walking around the lake who wanted to practice her english with me. Her name was Yan and she was a student and wanted help with her 'American English' since she was only taught 'english english' so we sat and chatted for a good bit before heading our seperate ways. Thought I came across a similar situation the next day when two young girls stopped me as I was crossing the road and asked me where I was from. As they started talking to me, they told me they were students and they were doing something for the red cross (selling toothpicks I thought they said bit I saw no toothpicks?) so that they could study? I was so confused and trying to ask them more questions about what they were trying to raise money for as they started touching my earrings and rings and saying 'oh so pretty... Very expensive... Beautiful... Expensive'. I'm not sure if these girls were really trying to raise money for a good cause or not but I knew they wanted my money- which they were pointing out I could afford with so much 'expensive' jewlery. I apologized and said my no thank yous and suddenly turned from 'friend' to 'foe' as the girls were just giving me death glares as I walked away. Add them to the list of 'people that were mean to us in vietnam' list. There was the restaraunt that charged us for napkins and the bakery lady that straight up ignored us, but there was also the girl that befriended Saha and showed her around all day and the guy who helped us to cross the street, so it's just a grab bag of personalities and outcomes here in Hanoi.
Sapa:
We arrive in Sapa half asleep and pretty fricken cold around 7am. Our overnight bus had nice big seats and pushy drivers that would occasionally grab and move us or scream at us or play karaeoke music at 3 am- but overall, it was not too bad (we have gotten used to the abuse already). Checked into a guesthouse and laid down for a bit longer before getting up for some breakfast. Found a good little spot in the heart of the town and ended up running into my kiwi friend, Joel, as he was having breakfast as well. Spent the rest of the day walking around in the little town, taking in the views and booking a trek for the following day.
This little town is absolutely gorgeous. Built up along the side of a mountain, the streets and old buildings look down into the valley below where numerous villages live and work on the terraced rice paddies. There are taller mountains above and a heavy fog every morning, but the sunshine was strong once it cleared the clouds and the temperature was perfect. Due to the heavy increase in tourism, many of the villagers come up and sell their handicrafts around the town center- thus, there are women everywhere dressed in the traditional black skirt/shorts with their leg wraps and red or green headscarf and huge loop earrings that make their earlobes sag. It is great to see the traditional dress and culture still alive, but it is also a bit disheartening as they are only dressed that way to sell to tourists. They are relentless, these little old village ladies and young girls decked out in traditional gear. They will follow you around asking you 'hello, what is your nameee?', 'hello, where are you frommm?', 'hello, buy from meee?' and when you answer 'no thank you' they follow with 'yes thank you'. I had one woman who followed and talked to me for a half hour before she finally gave up on me and left. There are great little shops and galleries in Sapa but even more food and gifts are sold on the streets- fresh fruit and veg being sold on the stairs, a whole market for meat and fish, an infinite amount of vendors selling pho and fried balls of goodness, hidden rooms with silks and earrings, and countless stores selling North Face and Columbia jackets (bought myself a North Face fleece for a whooping $11).
Got up the next morning and put on all of our warmest clothes for the trek and met up with our tour guide after a quick breakfast. Our guide, Zin, is a little ball of fire. She is 25 and has three kids- she used to live in the first village we came upon first but she is now part of her husband's village- the one we were staying the night at. She has been leading treks since she was 12 and she gets a lot of heat from her parents for now being 'too western' as she wears jeans and puffy coats instead of the traditional clothes. She thinks she should have let her parents arrange her marriage because now she is stuck with her husband who she swears is crazy. I love this girl- standing at least a foot and a half below me, she has two years on me and a life experience completely opposite of mine... Despite our life differences though, she is really no different from us- same same but different.
Our trek starts out down the steps of the Cat Cat village and through little shacks set up for the tourist- shamen medicine men doing their dance for a chunk of dong, a weaving demonstration that ends in a shop, and we are starting to get worried that this is what our two days are going to look like. Fortunately, we got off the beaten path rather quickly and started heading to the more remote villages. We walked down the valley and along these rice paddies that are just absolutely mind blowing really. The way they make these terraces and how they don't just wash away is a mystery to me- the terraces follow the curves of the mountains in a fashion that reminds me of Dr. Sueses' 'Oh the Places You'll Go'. And the scenery around these curving rice fields is astounding as well- lush, green mountains up above and a winding, clear river below us. There are animals everywhere and they all have little babies with them- baby water buffaloes, baby chickens, baby pigs, baby dogs and cats- it's like those childrens books 'baby farm animals' I used to read to River and Daisy.
We went from one village to another, walking through more rice paddies and streams along the way and ate lunch in a nice and shady spot along the river (as it was actually hot by 10am) and continued along. Near the end of the trek, Zin actually took us up and into a funeral service that was taking place. She assured us it was okay and led us up more terraces to where the hoard of people all dressed in black were. Apparently funerals are a six day event and today was the sixth day. For the first five days, the body is propped up in the house he/she lived in as family and friends are invited in to say their goodbyes and give their blessings. On the sixth day, the body is burried and a celebration-of-sorts takes place. Walking in, we were greeted by a girl throwing up and a whole buffalo killed, skinned and ready to be cooked and eaten. Everywhere we looked, people were pissed out of their brains. Apparently drinking rice whiskey since the early hours of the morning, these people were well beyond hammered by mid afternoon. To be honest, I hated being there- I know their culture is not as private as ours but I still felt it was a bit sick to be sitting there observing all this when we had no relation at all to anyone there. I finally had to get out of there after a few people were snapping pictures of an old man crying over the coffin- just not where I wanted to be at the moment. We walked just a couple minutes down the road and settled into our homestay around 5 or so. Had some tea and coffee, some fresh lemons- picked right off the tree- dipped in sugar (you eat the rhine and all here- delicious!), and hung around the common area as the sun went down. It got chilly as soon as the sun dissapeared so we all layered on our warm clothes and went into the kitchen to help with dinner. Though there were 5 of us now (2 people drove motorbikes there and one other Dutch guy was with us the whole time), we didn't get to participate as much as we just tried to stay out of the way as Zin and the mama did their thing in the kitchen. The end result of our helping/staying out of the way was a feast of veg soup, tofu with tomatoes, chicken, pork, cabbage stir fry, a side of fries, and rice. Before we eat, we all cheers with a shot of rice whiskey and finish just about every morsal of the dinner we prepared. The night ended with much conversation, some psychadellic karaeoke movies, and some seed-chewing. I started feeling really bad really quickly (like food poisioning coming on) and of course had no meds with me. Zin, however, gave me this spicy seed called something like carmal that was apparently used to treat all kinds of 'bad stomach'. So her, Saha and I all sat cuddled underneath a big blanket and chewed these little seeds that made your mouth burn like you were eating raw ginger and, wouldn't you know, I felt a hundred percent better within the hour- I need to bring some of this stuff wherever I go!
Morning comes and brings another beautiful day which we begin with a heap of banana pancake/crepes and powdered coffee. There is less walking today but it is a bit more hairy in spots- overall though, it is just as beautiful and filled with all kinds of farm animals and cute little kids (I honestly think that the kids in sapa are by far the most gorgeous beings I have yet to interact with- Elena you were right). We stopped at a waterfall for a bit and then continued upto another neighboring village. Here, Zin shows us into the house of a little old hunched-back woman and her three grandchildren. It is here where we are told to sit down and were not allowed to do anything to help- this little old woman was so hospitible: getting up and grabbing saha's hand and leading her over to a chair with a smile. The granddaughters (who were 12 and 13 but looked more like 9 and 10) helped to sautee the veggies that Zin chopped as the grandmother kept on feeding the fire. We were served noodle soup with veggies a few minutes later and an apple and pear cut up for dessert- it was perfect! We sat and chatted with the little old lady for a bit as Zin played translator and I loved every minute of it. I think you find the most genuine love from these old women and men we come across. They tend to know little to no English, but they always seem to radiate the most amazing energy- it is never an act, there are no alternative motives- it's just pure old-age love. And it makes me excited about being old some day...
The rest of the trek is down the valley and up the other side to the one and only road. We get to chat with a few beautiful children before our old army jeep comes and picks us up and drives us back to town. Shower up and grab some food and hop on our overnight bus back to Hanoi- this one is not so nice and played karaeoke music the ENTIRE ride back. It is pretty funny to see the cultural differences that appear when you ride a local overnight bus. Take, for example, how it is acceptable to blast music all night or how it is actually 'cool' to listen to ALL of your phone ringtones for all to hear (even at 4 am) or how it is okay to cough or sneeze without covering your mouth. So yea, got back to Hanoi around 5am with less than three hours of sleep under my belt and sat on the steps of a backpackers with other fellow nightbussers and truly lived up to the name 'freeloader' till a few shops opened up and we went to grab a much-needed VN coffee with condensed milk.
Halong Bay:
So I won't go into too much detail here as a lot of my typing about this will be bitching and moaning but it's one of those great 'learn from my mistakes' stories if you ever come to VN.
Basically, we had it worked out with one company to book 2 days/1 night everything included to halong bay. Stay the night on a boat, kayak in the morning, cruise around both days and then come back. She told us to come before 10 and there would be no problem- we could leave that same day. Show up at 8:30am after our bus ride and book, pay and then find out the boat is full so we will stay in a hotel and no kayaking because there won't be time. Okay, money back please. We have only 15 mins before all the tours leave so go across the street and get a similar story: boat full but you can go kayaking today instead- fine, sign us up. Pay a few dollars more and hop on a bus that is waiting for us. Three hours on this overcrowded bus later (minus the one stop at the 'tourist stopover' located in the middle of no where that sells everything for 3x the price) we arrive at halplong city. Sit around for a good bit and then get ushered into one of many boats lined up on the harbor. Drop our bags and eat an okay lunch with Saha and a new group of Isrealis we have met (Isrealis traveling in a large group??? surprise surprise!). Things are looking up.
The bay here is really beautiful and we are lucky to have a clear and sunny day to see it all. There are thousands of these huge limestone islands jutting out of the ocean and they are all grandeous and lush with vegetation. The scenery here is almost exactly like that of Phang gna that Andy and I got to explore last month.
We continue to cruise for a bit after lunch and then all hop off the boat to tour two caves set on a little island. We all head up the stairs inside the first cave. This cave is massive and really is quite impressive but is covered in rainbow colored lighting. Oh my god, it is atrochious (spelling?) what they did to this beautiful natural phenomonon. Once you get past looking at the tacky multi-colored lighting, you start to see where they drilled in wiring and paved a path and added eighteen hundred metal trash cans shaped as penguins and dolphins (?). I'm not sure I would exactly call it Eco-tourism as much as I would call it Disneyland-like. The next cave was smaller and not so lit up so that was sweet but we just took a quick peek before hoping on the boat again. Cruised around for a bit and then made a little pit stop so that Saha and I could do our kayaking- which was definitely the highlight of the whole trip. We were only given 30 minutes, but that gave us plenty of time to check out these two massive caves-of-sorts. We paddled into these small tunnels that led into a sort of crater that opened up into a large pool and no open to the sky up above- both were almost perfect circles. I didn't want to get back on to our big, touristy ship but the entire crew was waiting for us so we reluctantly got back on. More cruising for a bit until we reached Cat Ba island. This is a huge island in the middle of Halong Bay that has a road system, an established town and many hotels and guest houses for those who want to stay on the island. We got driven over to our guesthouse and cleaned up a bit before dinner- which was exactly like lunch. The huge group of Isrealis were there with us as well so they all put on a mini Chuanaka candle lighting and sang all the songs that came along with it. Then bed.
The next day was entirely frustrating as we were shuffled from one form of transportation to the next. Bus, wait, more bus, wait, boat, wait, off the boat, wait, bus, wait, lunch, wait, bus, bus, bus.... So irritating! This is why I haven't taken tours before on this trip and this is why I will be avoiding them like the plauge for the remainder of my travels: I hate not being in control, I do not like being herded like cows from one place to the next, I do not like the way they treated us and I was pissed we paid for a 2 day tour when the entire second day was us just getting moved from point A to point B. If any of y'all decide to come do Halong Bay, I would suggest doing it by yourself if you have the time and/or take a tour organized through a backpackers so it's a guarenteed party- we talked to other kids who did the same trip but were wasted the entire time and they loved it.... Looking back, I think a few brews could have really helped to alter my mood a bit and may have made that whole second day a bit more enjoyable.
Either way, Halong Bay was beautiful, the weather was great and we all made it back safe with all our luggage in tow- I should stop with the complaining and be grateful for the wonderful oppurtunity instead.
Next step:
Got a hotel room last night in Hanoi and are spending the day around the city before catching the night bus to Hue and then Hoi An. It is funny because we hated this city for the first couple days and were convinced that everyone was mean, but now we almost feel a sense of 'being home'- we know our way around, we know which places will try to rip us off and we always have our sandwich lady!
The written language uses Latin letters but is spoken in tones like the rest of Asia. The buildings are mostly built from concrete and tend to be tall and slender and have various colored walls and tiles. And the people here... well... they are still a mystery to me. In general, they seem to be more pushy, less personal, and more likely to rip you off. I think their livelihood depends on tourism but they hate the tourists (which i can totally empathize with coming from a year of dealing with bay area kids on our mountain or on our lake in Tahoe). But we have been overcharged, yelled at and even grabbed since being here and have felt purely disrespected. On the other hand, there have been a few people that seem to, genuinley, be some of the nicest people we have met in all of Asia thus far. So we aren't too sure what to think quite yet. Oh! and the driving here is sheer, white-knuckle craziness. Red lights are regarded as yield signs and everyone's horn is beyond overused (especially irritating when everyone has 'pimp my ride'-ed their car/bike with horns that sing songs or play different tones). I think I have felt more on edge in these last 7 days than the whole of my trip combined... but I am in no rush to leave- I am curious and intriqued and am excited to see what the rest of this country has in store for me. Just have to cowboy up...
Hanoi:
We arrived in Hanoi after dark and after a grueling 36 hours of travel time on overcrowded buses, waits for repairs, and a very hectic border crossing soooo, to say that I wasn't quite a bucket of sunshine is probably a huge understatement. After a nerve-racking taxi drive from the bus station, we finally arrive in the old quarter. The place we were looking to stay at was full so we wander outside to be bombarded by a few hotel owners. One tells us that he has a room- $6 each, hot water, free wifi, free breakfast, very nice, follow me please. So we follow. The room IS very nice and even has a huge tub and flatscreen tv. Put down our stuff and tell the guy we will take it- 6 dollars each, right? Well no, this one is actually $9 each because it's our deluxe room. K, well we don't need deluxe so show us to your 6 dollar room please. Well, excuse me my friend, I'm sorry but we have no 6 dollar rooms left. Ok well we followed you here because you told us six dollars so we pay that or go. Okay my friend, you stay tomorrow and we will give you six dollars tomorrow night but tonight 9 dollars, okay? This goes on for about five minutes- we agree $7 tonight, $6 tomorrow night. Fine fine. Settle in and get a knock on the door two minutes later: excuse me my friend, I am the manager- there is a problem with the water in this room, can you move to another one upstairs? Fine. Walk up to our new room which is the same minus the big bath tub. Whatever. There is a lamp on our bed stand with the cord completely cut and the mini fridge has two bottles of water that are half drunk... This, we learn quickly, is the way things work here in Vietnam. Get the hot water finally on and running, argue with the lads some more as their wifi is not working, and just give up and grab a delicious sandwich from the most honest woman in all of Hanoi (seriously, after a week I can still say the sandwhich lady is one of the nicest people here!), and go back to watch some television and veg while watching two year old project runway episodes (such a treat!).
The next day is spent exploring the city after sleeping in and grabbing our free breakfast of white bread and bananas. The city is actually quite nice once you gain your bearings a bit- which is cake once you locate the lake and are able to use that as your default landmark. The old quarter is filled with old European-looking buildings, food carts and mini markets and blocks of stores- there is a long block of rice makers, an entire block of christmas decorations, a block of dentists and even a block of stores that all sell coffins. There are a million and a half motorcycles and vehichles-all who lay on their horns CONSTANTLY!! (No joke... It is absolutely maddening how much these people use their horns), and crossing the roads is a daunting task but just has to be done slowly and very consiously- frogger style- as people do not stop for you but will drive around you.
We went to go look at an old prison/museum nearby that was actually the place where John McCain and other POW were held. It was a bizarre experience. I'm sure that everything is shown with a heavy bias, but they showed pictures and told stories about shooting down all of the B-52s and other American fighter planes, saving the soilders and taking them to this prison. They then showed all these pictures of the Americans playing basketball and volleyball and having a Christmas feast and their own chickens they took care of and ate- it honestly looked like summer camp. Meanwhile, they show you how the Vietnamese prisoners that were held in the prison were tourtured and held in isolation. Wierd. Saha and I then went and found some street food where we were fed half as much and charged twice the price- we felt like victims of racism! When we tried to object, the woman just started screaming at us and shoved her three chubby fingers in our faces screaming 'thirty! thirty! thirty! thirty!'- it was Jerry springer like the way this woman was arguing with us- she wouldn't let us get a single word in as she just repeated the same word over and over again. Annoyed and hating the world, we paid and went back to the room to decompress.
We opted for some alone time so split up- Saha going out to explore while I phoned home. After some much needed phone convos with my loves back home, I felt rejuvinated enough to try this city again. Walking around aimlessly in my typical 'in a new city' fashion was actually quite nice... once you learn to drown out the honking and not get offended when people push by you on the streets, you start enjoying it more. It was Saturday evening at this time and I passed 17 pairs of brides and grooms all taking professional pictures by the lake- so silly to see when two couples are taking pictures literally five feet from one another- also interesting to see the different styles of dresses the girls were wearing: some had more traditional red Asian dresses on, others had the white fluffy dresses we are used to and some wore dresses that were beaded and colored like prom dresses.
The rest of our time was spent mostly wandering, eating sandwiches daily from our sandwich lady, sipping vietnamese coffee with condensed milk, researching our next destination and taking advantage of the free wifi and western television shows, so it wasn't all bad by any means. It was just an interesting mix of people and experiences I came across all along the way though. There was one girl who came up to me as I was walking around the lake who wanted to practice her english with me. Her name was Yan and she was a student and wanted help with her 'American English' since she was only taught 'english english' so we sat and chatted for a good bit before heading our seperate ways. Thought I came across a similar situation the next day when two young girls stopped me as I was crossing the road and asked me where I was from. As they started talking to me, they told me they were students and they were doing something for the red cross (selling toothpicks I thought they said bit I saw no toothpicks?) so that they could study? I was so confused and trying to ask them more questions about what they were trying to raise money for as they started touching my earrings and rings and saying 'oh so pretty... Very expensive... Beautiful... Expensive'. I'm not sure if these girls were really trying to raise money for a good cause or not but I knew they wanted my money- which they were pointing out I could afford with so much 'expensive' jewlery. I apologized and said my no thank yous and suddenly turned from 'friend' to 'foe' as the girls were just giving me death glares as I walked away. Add them to the list of 'people that were mean to us in vietnam' list. There was the restaraunt that charged us for napkins and the bakery lady that straight up ignored us, but there was also the girl that befriended Saha and showed her around all day and the guy who helped us to cross the street, so it's just a grab bag of personalities and outcomes here in Hanoi.
Sapa:
We arrive in Sapa half asleep and pretty fricken cold around 7am. Our overnight bus had nice big seats and pushy drivers that would occasionally grab and move us or scream at us or play karaeoke music at 3 am- but overall, it was not too bad (we have gotten used to the abuse already). Checked into a guesthouse and laid down for a bit longer before getting up for some breakfast. Found a good little spot in the heart of the town and ended up running into my kiwi friend, Joel, as he was having breakfast as well. Spent the rest of the day walking around in the little town, taking in the views and booking a trek for the following day.
This little town is absolutely gorgeous. Built up along the side of a mountain, the streets and old buildings look down into the valley below where numerous villages live and work on the terraced rice paddies. There are taller mountains above and a heavy fog every morning, but the sunshine was strong once it cleared the clouds and the temperature was perfect. Due to the heavy increase in tourism, many of the villagers come up and sell their handicrafts around the town center- thus, there are women everywhere dressed in the traditional black skirt/shorts with their leg wraps and red or green headscarf and huge loop earrings that make their earlobes sag. It is great to see the traditional dress and culture still alive, but it is also a bit disheartening as they are only dressed that way to sell to tourists. They are relentless, these little old village ladies and young girls decked out in traditional gear. They will follow you around asking you 'hello, what is your nameee?', 'hello, where are you frommm?', 'hello, buy from meee?' and when you answer 'no thank you' they follow with 'yes thank you'. I had one woman who followed and talked to me for a half hour before she finally gave up on me and left. There are great little shops and galleries in Sapa but even more food and gifts are sold on the streets- fresh fruit and veg being sold on the stairs, a whole market for meat and fish, an infinite amount of vendors selling pho and fried balls of goodness, hidden rooms with silks and earrings, and countless stores selling North Face and Columbia jackets (bought myself a North Face fleece for a whooping $11).
Got up the next morning and put on all of our warmest clothes for the trek and met up with our tour guide after a quick breakfast. Our guide, Zin, is a little ball of fire. She is 25 and has three kids- she used to live in the first village we came upon first but she is now part of her husband's village- the one we were staying the night at. She has been leading treks since she was 12 and she gets a lot of heat from her parents for now being 'too western' as she wears jeans and puffy coats instead of the traditional clothes. She thinks she should have let her parents arrange her marriage because now she is stuck with her husband who she swears is crazy. I love this girl- standing at least a foot and a half below me, she has two years on me and a life experience completely opposite of mine... Despite our life differences though, she is really no different from us- same same but different.
Our trek starts out down the steps of the Cat Cat village and through little shacks set up for the tourist- shamen medicine men doing their dance for a chunk of dong, a weaving demonstration that ends in a shop, and we are starting to get worried that this is what our two days are going to look like. Fortunately, we got off the beaten path rather quickly and started heading to the more remote villages. We walked down the valley and along these rice paddies that are just absolutely mind blowing really. The way they make these terraces and how they don't just wash away is a mystery to me- the terraces follow the curves of the mountains in a fashion that reminds me of Dr. Sueses' 'Oh the Places You'll Go'. And the scenery around these curving rice fields is astounding as well- lush, green mountains up above and a winding, clear river below us. There are animals everywhere and they all have little babies with them- baby water buffaloes, baby chickens, baby pigs, baby dogs and cats- it's like those childrens books 'baby farm animals' I used to read to River and Daisy.
We went from one village to another, walking through more rice paddies and streams along the way and ate lunch in a nice and shady spot along the river (as it was actually hot by 10am) and continued along. Near the end of the trek, Zin actually took us up and into a funeral service that was taking place. She assured us it was okay and led us up more terraces to where the hoard of people all dressed in black were. Apparently funerals are a six day event and today was the sixth day. For the first five days, the body is propped up in the house he/she lived in as family and friends are invited in to say their goodbyes and give their blessings. On the sixth day, the body is burried and a celebration-of-sorts takes place. Walking in, we were greeted by a girl throwing up and a whole buffalo killed, skinned and ready to be cooked and eaten. Everywhere we looked, people were pissed out of their brains. Apparently drinking rice whiskey since the early hours of the morning, these people were well beyond hammered by mid afternoon. To be honest, I hated being there- I know their culture is not as private as ours but I still felt it was a bit sick to be sitting there observing all this when we had no relation at all to anyone there. I finally had to get out of there after a few people were snapping pictures of an old man crying over the coffin- just not where I wanted to be at the moment. We walked just a couple minutes down the road and settled into our homestay around 5 or so. Had some tea and coffee, some fresh lemons- picked right off the tree- dipped in sugar (you eat the rhine and all here- delicious!), and hung around the common area as the sun went down. It got chilly as soon as the sun dissapeared so we all layered on our warm clothes and went into the kitchen to help with dinner. Though there were 5 of us now (2 people drove motorbikes there and one other Dutch guy was with us the whole time), we didn't get to participate as much as we just tried to stay out of the way as Zin and the mama did their thing in the kitchen. The end result of our helping/staying out of the way was a feast of veg soup, tofu with tomatoes, chicken, pork, cabbage stir fry, a side of fries, and rice. Before we eat, we all cheers with a shot of rice whiskey and finish just about every morsal of the dinner we prepared. The night ended with much conversation, some psychadellic karaeoke movies, and some seed-chewing. I started feeling really bad really quickly (like food poisioning coming on) and of course had no meds with me. Zin, however, gave me this spicy seed called something like carmal that was apparently used to treat all kinds of 'bad stomach'. So her, Saha and I all sat cuddled underneath a big blanket and chewed these little seeds that made your mouth burn like you were eating raw ginger and, wouldn't you know, I felt a hundred percent better within the hour- I need to bring some of this stuff wherever I go!
Morning comes and brings another beautiful day which we begin with a heap of banana pancake/crepes and powdered coffee. There is less walking today but it is a bit more hairy in spots- overall though, it is just as beautiful and filled with all kinds of farm animals and cute little kids (I honestly think that the kids in sapa are by far the most gorgeous beings I have yet to interact with- Elena you were right). We stopped at a waterfall for a bit and then continued upto another neighboring village. Here, Zin shows us into the house of a little old hunched-back woman and her three grandchildren. It is here where we are told to sit down and were not allowed to do anything to help- this little old woman was so hospitible: getting up and grabbing saha's hand and leading her over to a chair with a smile. The granddaughters (who were 12 and 13 but looked more like 9 and 10) helped to sautee the veggies that Zin chopped as the grandmother kept on feeding the fire. We were served noodle soup with veggies a few minutes later and an apple and pear cut up for dessert- it was perfect! We sat and chatted with the little old lady for a bit as Zin played translator and I loved every minute of it. I think you find the most genuine love from these old women and men we come across. They tend to know little to no English, but they always seem to radiate the most amazing energy- it is never an act, there are no alternative motives- it's just pure old-age love. And it makes me excited about being old some day...
The rest of the trek is down the valley and up the other side to the one and only road. We get to chat with a few beautiful children before our old army jeep comes and picks us up and drives us back to town. Shower up and grab some food and hop on our overnight bus back to Hanoi- this one is not so nice and played karaeoke music the ENTIRE ride back. It is pretty funny to see the cultural differences that appear when you ride a local overnight bus. Take, for example, how it is acceptable to blast music all night or how it is actually 'cool' to listen to ALL of your phone ringtones for all to hear (even at 4 am) or how it is okay to cough or sneeze without covering your mouth. So yea, got back to Hanoi around 5am with less than three hours of sleep under my belt and sat on the steps of a backpackers with other fellow nightbussers and truly lived up to the name 'freeloader' till a few shops opened up and we went to grab a much-needed VN coffee with condensed milk.
Halong Bay:
So I won't go into too much detail here as a lot of my typing about this will be bitching and moaning but it's one of those great 'learn from my mistakes' stories if you ever come to VN.
Basically, we had it worked out with one company to book 2 days/1 night everything included to halong bay. Stay the night on a boat, kayak in the morning, cruise around both days and then come back. She told us to come before 10 and there would be no problem- we could leave that same day. Show up at 8:30am after our bus ride and book, pay and then find out the boat is full so we will stay in a hotel and no kayaking because there won't be time. Okay, money back please. We have only 15 mins before all the tours leave so go across the street and get a similar story: boat full but you can go kayaking today instead- fine, sign us up. Pay a few dollars more and hop on a bus that is waiting for us. Three hours on this overcrowded bus later (minus the one stop at the 'tourist stopover' located in the middle of no where that sells everything for 3x the price) we arrive at halplong city. Sit around for a good bit and then get ushered into one of many boats lined up on the harbor. Drop our bags and eat an okay lunch with Saha and a new group of Isrealis we have met (Isrealis traveling in a large group??? surprise surprise!). Things are looking up.
The bay here is really beautiful and we are lucky to have a clear and sunny day to see it all. There are thousands of these huge limestone islands jutting out of the ocean and they are all grandeous and lush with vegetation. The scenery here is almost exactly like that of Phang gna that Andy and I got to explore last month.
We continue to cruise for a bit after lunch and then all hop off the boat to tour two caves set on a little island. We all head up the stairs inside the first cave. This cave is massive and really is quite impressive but is covered in rainbow colored lighting. Oh my god, it is atrochious (spelling?) what they did to this beautiful natural phenomonon. Once you get past looking at the tacky multi-colored lighting, you start to see where they drilled in wiring and paved a path and added eighteen hundred metal trash cans shaped as penguins and dolphins (?). I'm not sure I would exactly call it Eco-tourism as much as I would call it Disneyland-like. The next cave was smaller and not so lit up so that was sweet but we just took a quick peek before hoping on the boat again. Cruised around for a bit and then made a little pit stop so that Saha and I could do our kayaking- which was definitely the highlight of the whole trip. We were only given 30 minutes, but that gave us plenty of time to check out these two massive caves-of-sorts. We paddled into these small tunnels that led into a sort of crater that opened up into a large pool and no open to the sky up above- both were almost perfect circles. I didn't want to get back on to our big, touristy ship but the entire crew was waiting for us so we reluctantly got back on. More cruising for a bit until we reached Cat Ba island. This is a huge island in the middle of Halong Bay that has a road system, an established town and many hotels and guest houses for those who want to stay on the island. We got driven over to our guesthouse and cleaned up a bit before dinner- which was exactly like lunch. The huge group of Isrealis were there with us as well so they all put on a mini Chuanaka candle lighting and sang all the songs that came along with it. Then bed.
The next day was entirely frustrating as we were shuffled from one form of transportation to the next. Bus, wait, more bus, wait, boat, wait, off the boat, wait, bus, wait, lunch, wait, bus, bus, bus.... So irritating! This is why I haven't taken tours before on this trip and this is why I will be avoiding them like the plauge for the remainder of my travels: I hate not being in control, I do not like being herded like cows from one place to the next, I do not like the way they treated us and I was pissed we paid for a 2 day tour when the entire second day was us just getting moved from point A to point B. If any of y'all decide to come do Halong Bay, I would suggest doing it by yourself if you have the time and/or take a tour organized through a backpackers so it's a guarenteed party- we talked to other kids who did the same trip but were wasted the entire time and they loved it.... Looking back, I think a few brews could have really helped to alter my mood a bit and may have made that whole second day a bit more enjoyable.
Either way, Halong Bay was beautiful, the weather was great and we all made it back safe with all our luggage in tow- I should stop with the complaining and be grateful for the wonderful oppurtunity instead.
Next step:
Got a hotel room last night in Hanoi and are spending the day around the city before catching the night bus to Hue and then Hoi An. It is funny because we hated this city for the first couple days and were convinced that everyone was mean, but now we almost feel a sense of 'being home'- we know our way around, we know which places will try to rip us off and we always have our sandwich lady!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Right this second...
My life right now at 9:05pm on December 4th, 2009:
Reclined as far back as my seat will allow (not that far), sitting next to my blonde-hair-blue-eyed-Kelly Gray-lookalike-isreali friend, Saha, I am about an hour and a half into my 24 hour bus ride from the capital of Laos to the capital of Vietnam and patiently waiting for my sleeping pills to kick in. I am wrapped in two sarongs from the chilly air con, have my sleeping mask ready on my forhead and am sporting my glasses since my contacts were driving me crazy today- just looking like a champ. I have been on at least six buses/minibuses since 10:30am this morning and am now riding an overcrowded local bus that was parked next to a nice and shiny VIP bus at the bus station. Though our tickets say VIP on them, we were assured that the nice bus was not ours and would cost us an additional 230.000 Kip (our original ticket was 170,000) if we wanted an upgrade. We boarded our pathetic looking bus at 5:45 (supposed to leave at 5), only to wait another 1.5 hours as the employees kept walking back and forth to the rear of the bus to do some kind of repairs. With no apologies or explanations, we sat as the bus was sporadically driven about ten feet forward and then backwards and then parked and turned off again (the AC being turned off with the engine). After a few more false starts though, we were off. After we made a few more stops along the way to pick up some oversized pillows, a few more locals and some bikes and sand bags, we are finally out of Vienetiene- only 3ish hours late. Now I sit hoping that the pills hit hard, that the only toddler on the bus that decided to sit in front of me stays quiet, and that the woman sitting in the asile right next to me does not switch sides as she is currently asleep on my neighbor's shoulder. Oh and did I mention that they are playing a movie of some Lao standup comedy and that the speaker is right below my seat??
Please god... Let my sleeping pills hit hard and fast.
My life at 7:24am on December 5th, 2009:
I have no idea how many hours I have left on this bus but I feel a bit releaved to say that we at least made it into Vietnam. Border crossing was...wow. All I can say is that it was an experience that made me both homesick and so grateful for the functionality of our country. After our 4 hour stopover to sleep on the bus, we reached the border rather quickly. Were told to get off and pointed in the direction of the passport office we had to go to. It's about 6:30am, foggy and slightly raining. Get into the office after a little hike in the rain and enter into the building which apparently has no elecricity as the place is lit up by candles. Ask a few Aussies standing in a corner what I'm supposed to do. They tell me to drop my passport at that free-for-all at tgat window and then pick it up at that one, pointing to the next window over. There is no line, just a bunch of stinky people trying to shove their way into one of the three departure windows. I follow suit, keep a tight hold on my purse, push and shove, drop it off and try to get out of the mob with the least amount of gropping as possible. Then wait at the back of the next mob and listen for my name. There is only one window here and there is a huge group outside of it and I'm done touching and being touched. Get my 10,000 Kip ready and hand it over as some Asian lady calls out 'meegan from Texas?'. Done and done there. Don't know where our bus is but waived on by the friendly Vietnamese soilders and assume they are further up the hill. We don't see anything at all but the soilders just keep waving in that direction so we go. Finally find our bus after another good walk in the misty rain and are told to find our bags which are unloaded onto the ground and to go inside. Have to fill out some more paperwork, pay a dollars worth of dong I just exchanged my Kip for, wait again for my name to be called and then sent through an exray machine with my bag, temperature body reader thing and one last check before heading out again. Our bus moved again so continued to walk and found it again. Get on to discover my shoulder bag is gone... Shit! This has my copies of my passport and credit cards, my lonely planet, my camera cards, camera charger, etc all in it. I flip out. I'm one or the first back so i start asking our drivers who just look at me and shrug. I go back on and start searching when another employee knocks on the window and has my bag with three others that were apparently unloaded with our big bags and were not picked up- I had assumed he just got the ones under the bus... Anyways, everything was in it and I am just spent since that. After little sleep, way too much closeness and that shifty border experience, I would really enjoy a shower and a proper breakfast and maybe a quick nap in my own bed...
Reclined as far back as my seat will allow (not that far), sitting next to my blonde-hair-blue-eyed-Kelly Gray-lookalike-isreali friend, Saha, I am about an hour and a half into my 24 hour bus ride from the capital of Laos to the capital of Vietnam and patiently waiting for my sleeping pills to kick in. I am wrapped in two sarongs from the chilly air con, have my sleeping mask ready on my forhead and am sporting my glasses since my contacts were driving me crazy today- just looking like a champ. I have been on at least six buses/minibuses since 10:30am this morning and am now riding an overcrowded local bus that was parked next to a nice and shiny VIP bus at the bus station. Though our tickets say VIP on them, we were assured that the nice bus was not ours and would cost us an additional 230.000 Kip (our original ticket was 170,000) if we wanted an upgrade. We boarded our pathetic looking bus at 5:45 (supposed to leave at 5), only to wait another 1.5 hours as the employees kept walking back and forth to the rear of the bus to do some kind of repairs. With no apologies or explanations, we sat as the bus was sporadically driven about ten feet forward and then backwards and then parked and turned off again (the AC being turned off with the engine). After a few more false starts though, we were off. After we made a few more stops along the way to pick up some oversized pillows, a few more locals and some bikes and sand bags, we are finally out of Vienetiene- only 3ish hours late. Now I sit hoping that the pills hit hard, that the only toddler on the bus that decided to sit in front of me stays quiet, and that the woman sitting in the asile right next to me does not switch sides as she is currently asleep on my neighbor's shoulder. Oh and did I mention that they are playing a movie of some Lao standup comedy and that the speaker is right below my seat??
Please god... Let my sleeping pills hit hard and fast.
My life at 7:24am on December 5th, 2009:
I have no idea how many hours I have left on this bus but I feel a bit releaved to say that we at least made it into Vietnam. Border crossing was...wow. All I can say is that it was an experience that made me both homesick and so grateful for the functionality of our country. After our 4 hour stopover to sleep on the bus, we reached the border rather quickly. Were told to get off and pointed in the direction of the passport office we had to go to. It's about 6:30am, foggy and slightly raining. Get into the office after a little hike in the rain and enter into the building which apparently has no elecricity as the place is lit up by candles. Ask a few Aussies standing in a corner what I'm supposed to do. They tell me to drop my passport at that free-for-all at tgat window and then pick it up at that one, pointing to the next window over. There is no line, just a bunch of stinky people trying to shove their way into one of the three departure windows. I follow suit, keep a tight hold on my purse, push and shove, drop it off and try to get out of the mob with the least amount of gropping as possible. Then wait at the back of the next mob and listen for my name. There is only one window here and there is a huge group outside of it and I'm done touching and being touched. Get my 10,000 Kip ready and hand it over as some Asian lady calls out 'meegan from Texas?'. Done and done there. Don't know where our bus is but waived on by the friendly Vietnamese soilders and assume they are further up the hill. We don't see anything at all but the soilders just keep waving in that direction so we go. Finally find our bus after another good walk in the misty rain and are told to find our bags which are unloaded onto the ground and to go inside. Have to fill out some more paperwork, pay a dollars worth of dong I just exchanged my Kip for, wait again for my name to be called and then sent through an exray machine with my bag, temperature body reader thing and one last check before heading out again. Our bus moved again so continued to walk and found it again. Get on to discover my shoulder bag is gone... Shit! This has my copies of my passport and credit cards, my lonely planet, my camera cards, camera charger, etc all in it. I flip out. I'm one or the first back so i start asking our drivers who just look at me and shrug. I go back on and start searching when another employee knocks on the window and has my bag with three others that were apparently unloaded with our big bags and were not picked up- I had assumed he just got the ones under the bus... Anyways, everything was in it and I am just spent since that. After little sleep, way too much closeness and that shifty border experience, I would really enjoy a shower and a proper breakfast and maybe a quick nap in my own bed...
Vang Viene
December 2nd:
Well what they say about Vang Viene is all true: its touristy, its beautiful, its a shitshow but it is also what you make it. I came to this place with much hesitation but will be leaving with a new admiration for the place. I will be okay if I never make it back here again, but I'm glad to have seen what Vang Viene is all about.
After two nights back in Luang Prabang (Great to go back to a place you know so you can turn off your brain for a bit), I caught the early morning bus to Vang Viene. The drive takes four hours but is absolutely breathtaking. Fortunately, I ran into my three Dutch friends in LP and they were in the same minivan as me. Unfortunately, they had all gone out drinking the night before and one of the girls spent the entire drive with her head out the window- retching from a carsick/hungover stomach combo. We arrived in good time though and all settled into the SpicyLaos in Vang Viene- a cheap backpackers that looks like a bamboo treehouse/dollhouse, has an amazing comunal area, hot showers, and has free breakfast, coffee, and wifi.
The Dutch kids and I head into town to get some lunch and end up in a little bungalow down by the river. Order our food, start talking to our Isreali neighbor, Eran, who ends up joining us, and take in the view. And it is really beautiful...you can't deny that.
We were all a bit hesitant to come here as stories about this place usually consisted of the words/phrases: 'wasted', 'tubing from bar to bar', 'Friends, Family Guy and Simpsons', 'so blacked out', 'lost everything', 'bad decision', 'buckets', '...and that's how I got that scar', etc etc. For those of you unfamiliar with the reputation of this place, that pretty much sums it up- this small town lies on a river that has been taken over by westerners who tube the river (though a tube is uneccessary), get heavily intoxicated (from the bars set up along the river that serve free shots and buckets of drinks), usually hurt themselves in some way or another (usually on the massive rope swings and zip lines or by just being really blitzed), and then go pass out in restaraunts that consistantly show Friends, Family Guy and the Simpsons (and serve 'happy pizza' and sometimes just straight up opium on their menus). It's like the backpackers cancun; a frat party on the Mekong; tubing the truckee on crack times eighteenhundred. I debated whether to come at all since this whole trip has been much more about soul searching than partying, but I still had a few days till my Vietnam visa started and always came to the conclusion 'when in rome'. Well, here is Rome and here we are: the skeptics sitting on the beautiful banks of the Mekong admiring the beauty and already drinking a beer only a half hour after we have gotten into town.
Clean up quickly and then meet back up at a Family Guy restaraunt with Eran. Grab a beer where our hostel crew is far more drunk than us and are raging in fisherman pants and painted faces. Excuse ourselves from their celebration after a bit and head to the bars down by the river. A few buckets later, we call it a night as the bars shut off their music at the early hour of 11pm. Head to bed after a quick chill sesh with the crew back at the backpackers and after severely insulting my Irish dormmate when I asked her to please not puke on me as she was carried to her bed that was 6 inches away from me.
Woke up puke-free and feeling only slightly dulled by last nights buckets- spent the morning sipping my complimentary coffee and eating a toasted baquette with jam and banana (my standard Lao breakfast) and chill out in our little family area at the hostel as others peel themselves out of bed with face paint and spray paint still covering their skin. Get our crew together of the three Dutch, the tubing-veteren Eran and me. Lunch and then tuk-tuk up the river. Everyone has their opinion on whether to bring a tube or not, but the majority of our friends have assured us that a tube is completely unnecessary. Get dropped off between bar one and bar two tubeless and greeted by a heavily intoxicated fellow who was designated 'tour guide of the day'. He showed us a map of the bars (pretty easy to grasp the idea when the bars are named 1,2,3,4 and so on as you float down river), gives us our first 'tubing bracelletes' and tell us that the goal is 'to get as wasted as humanly possible'. Thanks drunk dude with girl shorts on and a huge bandage on your leg... I will be sure to heed your advice. Bar one is a simple bungalow-style open bar with a big deck over the river and a huge rope swing. We take our complimentary Tiger shot when we walk in and take a seat where we have a perfect view of the designated landing area for the rope swing (which is really pretty monsterous and potentially dangerous if you let go too soon). We watch some backflips get landed and some good flops smack the water for a bit before we decide to walk to bar 2... Or maybe it was bar 3 as a few of them all seemed to share decks. Buckets here were cheaper here and, instead of a rope slide, this bar had a zip line into the water. Though not as high, the zipline was equally entertaining to watch as there was a spring at the end of it- if you didn't let go before the spring, your body was flung in the most awkward position and twisted just enough to land in the water at an uncomfortable angle. More free shots, free bananas, finished our cheap buckets and then swam to the next bar on the other side of the river. This one also has a swing, a mud pit and free sweet potatoes with your free shots of Tiger. After a beer here, we head for the last bar or 'slide bar' as it has a ginormous slide that also throws your body off in awkward positions from silly heights. No drinks for me here and I end up walking instead of swimming as the sun has gone down and it is pretty chilly in just the swimsuit and onesie tank I have on. Sit and marvel at the drunkeness that are some people and decide to call it as the bonfire dies down.
I have to say that I think I have become too old for this sort of shinanigans. When handed free shots by bartenders, my first thought was: 'I wonder how many people have taken a shot out of this since it was last washed' instead of 'free liqour!!!!'. I sat on the ground as the tables all had wastey-faced people dancing on them and was able to sit there and look from one person to the next and just say to myself 'I do not envy you drunk girl with your boob hanging out', 'I do not envy you dude with a spraypainted penis on your back', 'I do not envy you drunk girl being carried off by three dudes at 2pm'. You see, I do not judge these people... I'm just over it. After four years of uni and a solid year in a ski town, I have done my fair share of drinking and partying and waking up with hangovers and drunk injuries... It is just not what interests me at the moment. I worked my butt off for the money to come over here and be where I am; I know I have to come back with some of it too as I make the move to Seattle with no job lined up; I know a medical bill or an injury could potentially cut my trip short and a drunken tube sesh on the river is just not worth it to me... Though I do have to admit that if I had been in Vang Viene when I was 19, I would have eaten up everybit of the party culture that it is.
Despite my efforts to go out for more beers after dinner, I give up pretty fast and head to bed to sleep. Next day, the Dutch leave and I hear from Saha who wants me to wait till the fourth so we can head off to Vietnam together. I agree after some deliberation and decide how to spend two additional days here NOT drinking. Hooked up with a group from spicylaos and we caught a tuk tuk to the blue lagoon and cave that's a short half hour drive down a very mangled dirt road. The blue lagoon is smaller than we imagined but lives up to it's name with it's tourqouise blue color. Hike up to the cave first and pop around there for a bit. I feel like I have been in quite a few caves over the past 7 weeks, but this one probably takes the cake as one of the best I have seen here in Asia. The sheer size of this thing was mind blowing and it went on forever... We didn't get too deep in before turning back though as I was the only one with a head lamp and was attempting to light the way for 6 of us- which got more sketchy as the footing was starting to become more complex the further we descended in. By the time we got out of there though, we were beyond ready for a swim in the lagoon.
There is a nice, big tree convienientely located on the bank of water with a few levels of jumps and another rope swing off it's branches. We all took our turns jumping in from various spots and then dried off before finding our tuk tuk driver to take us back.
Shower and downtime before dinner at the backpackers with the whole family there. Man this was a feast that Pong had put on for us: grilled fish, buffalo stew, cabbage nasi goreing, sticky rice and a sweet pumpkin/cocunut milk dessert. We had so many leftovers and the full group of 20+ were stuffed passed the point of comfort.
The next day was even more chill and consisted of breakfast and goodbyes with a group from spicylaos, lunch with friends, hammock swinging/reading/writing on the quiet part of the river over a fruit shake, dinner with Saha and about five episodes of Friends, back to spicylaos for introductions to the newcomers, and out for a beer with the Irish girls and Nathan and some other kids we've met along the way.
Tomorrow starts Saha and i's big journey to Vietnam. 4 hours bus ride to Vietnam, three hour layover and then 24 hours by bus to Hanoi. Not psyched about it but it will be good to have a travel buddy and a change of scenery.
Well what they say about Vang Viene is all true: its touristy, its beautiful, its a shitshow but it is also what you make it. I came to this place with much hesitation but will be leaving with a new admiration for the place. I will be okay if I never make it back here again, but I'm glad to have seen what Vang Viene is all about.
After two nights back in Luang Prabang (Great to go back to a place you know so you can turn off your brain for a bit), I caught the early morning bus to Vang Viene. The drive takes four hours but is absolutely breathtaking. Fortunately, I ran into my three Dutch friends in LP and they were in the same minivan as me. Unfortunately, they had all gone out drinking the night before and one of the girls spent the entire drive with her head out the window- retching from a carsick/hungover stomach combo. We arrived in good time though and all settled into the SpicyLaos in Vang Viene- a cheap backpackers that looks like a bamboo treehouse/dollhouse, has an amazing comunal area, hot showers, and has free breakfast, coffee, and wifi.
The Dutch kids and I head into town to get some lunch and end up in a little bungalow down by the river. Order our food, start talking to our Isreali neighbor, Eran, who ends up joining us, and take in the view. And it is really beautiful...you can't deny that.
We were all a bit hesitant to come here as stories about this place usually consisted of the words/phrases: 'wasted', 'tubing from bar to bar', 'Friends, Family Guy and Simpsons', 'so blacked out', 'lost everything', 'bad decision', 'buckets', '...and that's how I got that scar', etc etc. For those of you unfamiliar with the reputation of this place, that pretty much sums it up- this small town lies on a river that has been taken over by westerners who tube the river (though a tube is uneccessary), get heavily intoxicated (from the bars set up along the river that serve free shots and buckets of drinks), usually hurt themselves in some way or another (usually on the massive rope swings and zip lines or by just being really blitzed), and then go pass out in restaraunts that consistantly show Friends, Family Guy and the Simpsons (and serve 'happy pizza' and sometimes just straight up opium on their menus). It's like the backpackers cancun; a frat party on the Mekong; tubing the truckee on crack times eighteenhundred. I debated whether to come at all since this whole trip has been much more about soul searching than partying, but I still had a few days till my Vietnam visa started and always came to the conclusion 'when in rome'. Well, here is Rome and here we are: the skeptics sitting on the beautiful banks of the Mekong admiring the beauty and already drinking a beer only a half hour after we have gotten into town.
Clean up quickly and then meet back up at a Family Guy restaraunt with Eran. Grab a beer where our hostel crew is far more drunk than us and are raging in fisherman pants and painted faces. Excuse ourselves from their celebration after a bit and head to the bars down by the river. A few buckets later, we call it a night as the bars shut off their music at the early hour of 11pm. Head to bed after a quick chill sesh with the crew back at the backpackers and after severely insulting my Irish dormmate when I asked her to please not puke on me as she was carried to her bed that was 6 inches away from me.
Woke up puke-free and feeling only slightly dulled by last nights buckets- spent the morning sipping my complimentary coffee and eating a toasted baquette with jam and banana (my standard Lao breakfast) and chill out in our little family area at the hostel as others peel themselves out of bed with face paint and spray paint still covering their skin. Get our crew together of the three Dutch, the tubing-veteren Eran and me. Lunch and then tuk-tuk up the river. Everyone has their opinion on whether to bring a tube or not, but the majority of our friends have assured us that a tube is completely unnecessary. Get dropped off between bar one and bar two tubeless and greeted by a heavily intoxicated fellow who was designated 'tour guide of the day'. He showed us a map of the bars (pretty easy to grasp the idea when the bars are named 1,2,3,4 and so on as you float down river), gives us our first 'tubing bracelletes' and tell us that the goal is 'to get as wasted as humanly possible'. Thanks drunk dude with girl shorts on and a huge bandage on your leg... I will be sure to heed your advice. Bar one is a simple bungalow-style open bar with a big deck over the river and a huge rope swing. We take our complimentary Tiger shot when we walk in and take a seat where we have a perfect view of the designated landing area for the rope swing (which is really pretty monsterous and potentially dangerous if you let go too soon). We watch some backflips get landed and some good flops smack the water for a bit before we decide to walk to bar 2... Or maybe it was bar 3 as a few of them all seemed to share decks. Buckets here were cheaper here and, instead of a rope slide, this bar had a zip line into the water. Though not as high, the zipline was equally entertaining to watch as there was a spring at the end of it- if you didn't let go before the spring, your body was flung in the most awkward position and twisted just enough to land in the water at an uncomfortable angle. More free shots, free bananas, finished our cheap buckets and then swam to the next bar on the other side of the river. This one also has a swing, a mud pit and free sweet potatoes with your free shots of Tiger. After a beer here, we head for the last bar or 'slide bar' as it has a ginormous slide that also throws your body off in awkward positions from silly heights. No drinks for me here and I end up walking instead of swimming as the sun has gone down and it is pretty chilly in just the swimsuit and onesie tank I have on. Sit and marvel at the drunkeness that are some people and decide to call it as the bonfire dies down.
I have to say that I think I have become too old for this sort of shinanigans. When handed free shots by bartenders, my first thought was: 'I wonder how many people have taken a shot out of this since it was last washed' instead of 'free liqour!!!!'. I sat on the ground as the tables all had wastey-faced people dancing on them and was able to sit there and look from one person to the next and just say to myself 'I do not envy you drunk girl with your boob hanging out', 'I do not envy you dude with a spraypainted penis on your back', 'I do not envy you drunk girl being carried off by three dudes at 2pm'. You see, I do not judge these people... I'm just over it. After four years of uni and a solid year in a ski town, I have done my fair share of drinking and partying and waking up with hangovers and drunk injuries... It is just not what interests me at the moment. I worked my butt off for the money to come over here and be where I am; I know I have to come back with some of it too as I make the move to Seattle with no job lined up; I know a medical bill or an injury could potentially cut my trip short and a drunken tube sesh on the river is just not worth it to me... Though I do have to admit that if I had been in Vang Viene when I was 19, I would have eaten up everybit of the party culture that it is.
Despite my efforts to go out for more beers after dinner, I give up pretty fast and head to bed to sleep. Next day, the Dutch leave and I hear from Saha who wants me to wait till the fourth so we can head off to Vietnam together. I agree after some deliberation and decide how to spend two additional days here NOT drinking. Hooked up with a group from spicylaos and we caught a tuk tuk to the blue lagoon and cave that's a short half hour drive down a very mangled dirt road. The blue lagoon is smaller than we imagined but lives up to it's name with it's tourqouise blue color. Hike up to the cave first and pop around there for a bit. I feel like I have been in quite a few caves over the past 7 weeks, but this one probably takes the cake as one of the best I have seen here in Asia. The sheer size of this thing was mind blowing and it went on forever... We didn't get too deep in before turning back though as I was the only one with a head lamp and was attempting to light the way for 6 of us- which got more sketchy as the footing was starting to become more complex the further we descended in. By the time we got out of there though, we were beyond ready for a swim in the lagoon.
There is a nice, big tree convienientely located on the bank of water with a few levels of jumps and another rope swing off it's branches. We all took our turns jumping in from various spots and then dried off before finding our tuk tuk driver to take us back.
Shower and downtime before dinner at the backpackers with the whole family there. Man this was a feast that Pong had put on for us: grilled fish, buffalo stew, cabbage nasi goreing, sticky rice and a sweet pumpkin/cocunut milk dessert. We had so many leftovers and the full group of 20+ were stuffed passed the point of comfort.
The next day was even more chill and consisted of breakfast and goodbyes with a group from spicylaos, lunch with friends, hammock swinging/reading/writing on the quiet part of the river over a fruit shake, dinner with Saha and about five episodes of Friends, back to spicylaos for introductions to the newcomers, and out for a beer with the Irish girls and Nathan and some other kids we've met along the way.
Tomorrow starts Saha and i's big journey to Vietnam. 4 hours bus ride to Vietnam, three hour layover and then 24 hours by bus to Hanoi. Not psyched about it but it will be good to have a travel buddy and a change of scenery.
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