An American in Vietnan

2007.09.22 - Hanoi
by Brandon

Well, here I am at the end of my adventure in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Tomorrow morning I will be leaving Hanoi on a short plane ride to Saigon and then back to San Francisco via Taipei for 14 hours. Since this is my last entry let me get caught up here.

Last you heard I was on Cat Ba island in Halong Bay on a 3 day tour. That next morning we left Cat Ba and cruised around the bay more while getting the chance to swim off the boat and sunbath on the deck. Still hopping along with Aussies Amber, Rebecca and our tour guide Hoang (who accompanied the four of us the whole way) we decided to give Hoang a little something back...an impromptu guitar lesson. He had already played a bit but was very humble about his ability and didn't want to play in front of us. John breaks out the travel guitar and Hoang, armed with the one from the boat learned the three basic chords that would help him learn many songs: G, C and D. Some of these he already know so John showed him some others including a few bar chords. We all were amazed that he was able to pick everything up so quickly. Truly his mind is like a sponge, especially since he actually learned English through intensive studying over 3 months! He hasn't even spoken it for a year but you'd swear he'd been using the language for years. 

Once we arrived back at port we were shuttled off again to a restaurant for yet another seafood meal. Don't get me wrong, the tour was great and the meals were really good, but given the fact that we were running the entire time previous to the tour on 2 meals a day this all just seemed a bit much. After lunch we got on the bus for the three hour white knuckle ride back to Hanoi. When I say white knuckle I mean it, because the way people drive on the open roads around here is crazy! There is constant passing and overtaking (frequently on blind turns), no real acknowledgement of lanes or even direction of said lanes, and the incessant honking as the bus driver made any sort of move to pass or change lanes. At one point the driver was passing a semi with another semi heading towards us in the opposite direction and no one was backing down. As the three vehicles met they all just kept their position and went right past each other with the narrowest margin of width between them. Another time a donkey putting a cart was in the middle of the road and the driver along with several motos had to swerve just to avoid it. And crossing the street is an art form unto itself. I finally got it down...the secret is to move at a very steady pace into oncoming traffic and they simply will adjust their course to avoid you. It really gets dangerous when fear takes you and you stop or move backwards...it really throws them off and endangers your life. To fully understand and appreciate this system you have to see it in action. Let's just put it this way, I would be very reluctant to drive anywhere around here and I would never dare ride a moto...and I ride one all the time!

One of the perks of going on an organized tour is getting to meet other travelers from all sorts of places. On this trip alone I met a couple from Hong Kong, a Swiss motorcyclist, two German rock climbers, the crazy Aussie family, Amber and Rebecca, and now Tori and Pierce, a young couple traveling the world for a year or two and Sarah, a doctor from London who is in the process of moving to Sydney, Australia and taking 2 months to get there. Over the past 48 hours I have gotten to know Tori, Pierce and Sarah quite well, particularly Sarah. Although they were on a different boat than we were they were still touring with the same company and our paths crossed a good deal.

Since John was heading for the mountain village Sapa via the night train shortly after we returned I was going to be on my own  for the rest of the trip. Not so...in steps Sarah who after getting to know off and on over the tour  took a liking to me (and vise versa) and I basically spent the remaining time I had here with her. We made plans to eat at Koto, a street kid run restaurant that we both were interested in trying, later that night. (Koto was patronized by Bill Clinton and his entourage when he was here in 1999...though that had nothing to do with why I wanted to go.) After returning to the Viet hotel, cleaning up and taking care some basics John and I set out to Koto to meet up with Sarah. When we get there we find her waiting and she takes us up to the second level where it was more like a lounge than a restaurant and who should be sitting in at our corner table...Tori and Pierce. We ordered up, had several round of Mojitos and discussed our various travel adventures here in Vietnam and beyond. After a bit John had to take off to catch his train. We said our goodbyes as this would be the last I see of him until he gets back to the States. It was quite the time with him and I must say that he is a very solid traveler and a good time (at least when he doesn't have Dengue!) Thanks John, you made this possible for me and I am all the better for it!

With John now off to Sapa it was just Tori, Sarah and Pierce. As the alcohol flowed and the Mojitos kept coming we all got to know each other...so much so that the place shut down around us. Things were getting fun just about know and we all were fairly socially lubricated (especially Tori, who couldn't have been more than 105 lbs.), we decide to keep the party going and find another venue. Now Hanoi is notorious for shutting down by 11pm and very few places stay open late for any reason. We catch a cab on the suggestion of hitting a pub that Pierce knew about. Upon not knowing (or perhaps understanding) the driver makes a cell call to figure out where it is. He then hands Pierce the phone and the person on the other end said they didn’t know where it was. "Well, can you tell him to take us anywhere where we can get a drink still!" Pierce asks in his subdued Irish accent. The operator tells him to return the phone to the driver, the talk for a moment and then the next thing you know we're all in the cab and have know idea where we're heading. He takes us pretty far outside of the city center and pulls into this long driveway that ends up leading to The Hanoi Sheraton. Expecting a lame hotel bar, we all were taken aback when we pull up to a full on nightclub scene complete with security running metal detectors over you. Good thing I'm not packing!

The club was called Nutz and it was quite the scene, full of beautiful locals mixed with some foreigners, all of whom didn't want the party to end at 11:30! After getting drinks the four of us headed to the dance floor and Tori broke out her camera to capture our uninhibited sides. The dancing set the stage, but the photos set the mood for fun! Let's just say that the next hour or so was very entertaining and Tori, the little Minx that she is, was not shy about inviting many others into our party. Once we got out of there she probably had taken nearly 200 photos. We caught a cab back to the hotels, made plans to meet up at 1pm the next day and finally called it a night.

The next morning I was up surprisingly early for a night of wild partying and tended to my things before meeting the gang at 1pm. I decided to leave a bit early and take a walk around town to check out the shops on the way to the meeting spot. After an hour of being accosted by guys wanting to give me moto rides, sell me lighters, wallets and hats, or just hand out money to them due to their destitution I was very happy to finally see Sarah there waiting for me. As we stood and talked while waiting for Tori and Pierce the barrage continued, including a woman who placed her had and fruit baskets on Sarah for the photo opportunity...and turned around and said that she had to buy some fruit off of her for doing so! I knew that was coming, but it was pretty funny at the time so she just went with it. After all that we decided the other two may not be coming and we went to a coffee restaurant that overlooked the lake and city center. While at the restaurant we chatted and got to witness on overloaded moto drop his cargo in the middle of busy Hanoi traffic and our waitress picking up a plate with a knife on it, only to have it slide off the plate and over the ledge of the building three stories down! She was really lucky no one was hit, though it barely missed a taxi.

After some time we went back to Sarah's hostel where she had to make a decision to stay another night and catch a 4am flight, or to take a night train. After going back and forth she finally ended up staying, thus giving us some more time together. We decided on another dinner...this time at the same restaurant John and I went to on Tuesday night. She eventually made contact with Tori and soon enough they were all sitting in the lobby of my hotel for another night on the town. After fighting all the street markets, people walking in the middle of the road and a pissed off cabbie (due to the aforementioned) we finally made it to the restaurant. We ordered the Chaca fish dish, the specialty of Hanoi, in addition to several other local dishes and the three of them loved it as much as I did three nights before. From there we hit the Jazz club again and had to say goodbye to Sarah here who left to catch her extremely early flight. Just after the band finished and the lights went out in the corner where  Pierce and I were sitting on a couch, Tori cries out "what's that!" She saw something moving along the top of the couch cushions. We saw it too. It was a rat. Just a simple reminder as to where we were at still. With that we decided to call it a night, walked back to their hostel and said our goodbyes. While my head tells me I'll likely never see them or Sarah again my heart says otherwise. "Remember, we now have a place to stay when we come to SF next year!" Tori explains and then gives me a big hug. Apparently I too have a place to stay, that is if I ever find myself in London.

So hear I am, sitting along in the lobby of my hotel at 3am typing away on the internet to bring to you all an account of my journey to the far east and beyond. It has been a time of learning, experience, trial and personal growth in only the way that rough international travel can provide. One thing I have come to realize even more so since meeting everyone here is that we as Americans take many things for granted and as a result too many of us want to live in our comfort zone at the expense of closing ourselves off to experiencing the variety and vitality of life that other cultures have to share. People like Tori, Pierce, Sarah, Amber and Rebecca have all traveled the world over, often doing so on a shoestring budget or without any type of organized plan, and they all have gotten along nicely. I do realize that it takes a certain type of personality and particularly a great deal of patience, but the rewards of wisdom and understanding are so immense that they outweigh any troubles that you may experience along the way. It is sad that our culture does not reward or promote this experience. If you have ever had the desire to travel outside of our borders and your comfort zone I urge you to do so by any means. Take an extended leave or even quit your job if need be. Whatever it takes, just see the world. It is much more than what we know living behind the gilded walls that we do. Hell, I'm sitting in Vietnam right now! A country that has such a bad rap with many Americans due to a difference in political agenda that does not truly feel all that different when you are here. People are people, and they have dreams, and great potential to make things happen, in Vietnam, in Cambodia, in Australia, in England or in America...and they will. Just get out and experience the world in it's fullness. It may be the most important and rewarding experience of your life!

2007.09.20 - Halong Bay
 

Halong Bay that is! Since I may otherwise only have time for one more entry while I'm here I decided to squeeze one in while I'm here on Cat Ba Island in Halong Bay, Vietnam. John and I have been cruisin' on a 3-deck boat around this bay of nearly 2000 limestone islands that jut out of the water like a the body of a dragon (from whence the placed is named.) This is a world heritage site and an amazing natural wonder. There are a few other areas in the world that have similar protrusions in their oceans (such as Krabi in Thailand or a little further up the coast from here in China), but none are more concentrated into a single area than at Halong Bay.

Descriptions will not truly do it justice, nor will the photos I took since you will never get the sense of being surrounded by these things. Our tour package included the opppourtunity to explore several caves that are hidden within the islands, kayaking around the islands and through a cave into a sealed lagoon, an excursion on Cat Ba island (the largest of all the islands here) for some beachside relaxation and lots and lots of fresh local seafood! The beach we lounged at today simply looked amazing, the water temperature was perfect and it was completely secluded. The only way to get there was by boat or by a long, winding catwalk path that hugs the side of the rock and looks as if it may rust right off into the ocean! You could see the other islands in the bay from our thatched cabana and lounge chair that I rented for $1.45. When we arrived there were only 6 people there.

Last night we spent the night on the boat and made many new friends. We befriended two Aussie girls from Perth who ended up talking us into performing an impromptu jam for them. John broke out his travel guitar and I was handed the one hanging on the wall inside the boat and we broke into several songs for an audience of about 10. Most were Aussies, including a family or four siblings in their 70's who kept handing us concoctions made from the Wild Turkey and Frangelico they had brought aboard. These guys were the oldest of the bunch and still the wildest! Later in the evening one of the staff was having a birthday and the crew threw her a party, including lots of herrendous karaeoke singing, which when mixed with alcohol yeilds a wide array of results!

Tomorrow we head back to Hanoi and John and I will part ways that evening as he leaves for the mountain town of Sapa. I'll be hanging back another day in Hanoi before I fly to catch my flight out of Saigon. Maybe I can find somewhere in Hanoi that will sell some of their fashionable wears that actually fit me. "Noooo sir...you veery big. I not have yooouur size" Yeah, I've heard that before!

2007.09.18 - Good Morning Vietnam

Good morning, Vietnam is right...in fact our flight was so late due to tropical storms over Hanoi that we didn't get here until morning...1 in the morning that is! On a plane that had duct tape on the ceiling in several places no less (and this is the airline qualified for safety in the US!) We finally left Siem Reap yesterday evening on a whim due to unforseen airline taxes that brought up the cost of our discount fares out of Phnom Phen to be more than the price of the inflated direct flight. In fact the taxes for one flight was $30. The flight itself was $27! Despite the adventure junkie in me saying take the river cruise, defy the bandits and he shooting...get to Wat Disney (that is Wat as in temple, not misspelled as in Walt) firing range and spend a few hours shooting an automatic AK-47...it's worth the $40...but given our health conditions and the unpredictability of travel here and with a little discount bargaining at the travel agency we opted for the clean and easy, or so we thought.

Let me back up a day first here and catch you up first. Last we heard our heroes were fighting deadly mosquito viruses in the dense jungles of rural Cambodia and ready to battle river pirates, disillusioned corrupt soldiers and the criminal underworld that is the journey to and within Phnom Phen, the capital of Cambodia. Well, after taking a needed day of rest because now I've developed a nasty cough and tropical cold we decided to hit up a tour of the floating villages at the north end of Lake Tonle Sap. These villages are set up on floating barges so that when the lake recedes in the dry season (it does so for several miles) they can maintain their livelihood...fishing, naturally!

We pulled up to the edge of the lake, children chasing the moto down the dirt road, and boarded a longboat that we ended up getting all to ourselves with a driver and a local guide, Bru. As we pulled away and towards the village Bru explained all the barges along the way...the school barge, the hospital barge, the police station barge, the machine shop barge, the Catholic church barge...they pretty much had it all. We even stopped at what must have been the Kragen barge to pick up an engine belt. What we really saw here was a way of life that really didn't center around tourism but rather a sustenance economy. People would be rowing smaller boats up to larger ones to do business, people lying in hammocks and kids playing in the water and daily life moving along before our eyes, It was pleasant, despite the poverty; peaceful, despite the occasional tourboat racing by. The people didn't seem to mind that we were watching them as if in some aquatic zoo...actually they seemed to enjoy the attention.

As we moved out further out on the lake Bru asks us "You want to drive?" The next thing you know John is trying to fit behind a steering wheel yoinked from a honda (logo still intact) and get his foot or the wire that is the throttle. I decide to ride out on the bow and enjoy the sun and fresh lake air. We eventually got to the point where the mangroves subsided and open water prevailed. I could see as far as the horizon and it was flat as Florida...just muddy water and huge fluffy white clouds are far as the eye could see. It seemed like the quietest spot in the entire country. As we headed back Bru suggests "You go for swim." I look at the light brown, opaque water that reminds me of only a giant 70-mile puddle. In Khmer Tonle means lake and Sap means fresh. Though technically correct, maybe their idea of fresh is a bit different than mine. I wonder what the Khmer word for mudbath is? I politely decline. "No thanks, I'm just fine here" is what I said. "No thanks, I don't need hepatitis" is what I thought.

We had drinks on an old riverboat and watched part of "The Killing Fields" that happened to be on broadcast TV ironically enough at the time. At one point there was a scene where some Cambodian prisoners were shot and as it happened Bru (who is only 19) laughed out loud at the sight. "Do you know this movie?" John asked. "No, I don't know." Apparently the significance of the film was lost upon him. We only looked at each other in silent disbelief at the intense irony. From there we say a fish farm and a crocodile farm. "You get in there and I take picture!" "No thanks Bru. Maybe next time." I got to drive as well through the village, but had to stop just short of the village center. "You stop now or you get ticket for no license." Some things are simply universal.

This is the point in the story that we had the airline ticket tax fiasco. In a last minute decision we bought tickets aboard Vietnam Air leaving Siem Reap for Hanoi at 8:20...4 hours. I spend the next two hours tidying up all my affairs here. As we left the guesthouse we stopped by a book cart that was manned by a man who had BOTH of his hands amputated. I had watched him for the past week from the restaurant in amazement as he would pull out a cigarette and actually light it for a smoke. I ended up buying a book on Angkor that I had already talked a vendor down to $6 for and still walked away from. Today I paid $8. I didn't even try to negotiate. It was my good deed for the day. He was very pleased and thanked us graciously. It was a good experience to end this leg of the journey on.

As we motoed through some of the craziest traffic I've seen since we arrived here we got one last look at this faraway, exotic, chaotic land. We were glad to be moving on, and even more so to no longer feel trapped there. We pull up to the airport an hour and a half before our flight, say our goodbyes and wellwishes to Thaery and head on in to the small jungle outpost airstrip. Upon checking in we had an hour before the flight, plenty of time to get dinner, right? Wrong. I hear faintly over the intercom system in a heavy broken accent "VN844 passenger Bendon Oose please repot to gate 2." I barely heard it and John completely missed it. I run over and they tell me their boarding now...40 minutes before the flight is scheduled to leave! We rush out the gate and onto the tarmac, up the ladder and into the plane, the last ones to arrive. Just as we sat down the plane started taxiing down the runway. "They're leaving over a half-hour early!" John exclaims. I look at him and say "Would you expect anything less from a communist airline that still uses paper tickets 70's style and holds it's planes together with duct tape?" He gives me a questioning look as I point to the ceiling above his head to the strips of tape there. To think they have the best safety rating in the region!

We finally are circling over Hanoi and the pilot gets on the comlink and tells us that he is unable to land. There is an intense tropical storm that we're also circling sitting right over the airport. While the site is stunning with it's lightning bolts high in the clouds it is still our adversary, making us very late. "Good thing the plane left early!" I quip. After 40 minutes of circling the comlink comes on again..."We are unable to land in Hanoi due to the storm outside. We are now going to land at Danang airport." "Danang! That's halfway to Saigon!" God Danang! After landing in Danang and expecting disembarkment and a free room we end up sitting on the tarmac for refueling. After another 20 minutes on the ground another voice on the comlink says "Flight VN844 from Danang to Hanoi is now taking off. "What?" Apparently they reevaluated the charter to save face...convenient. We finally arrive over Hanoi with the storm now south of us and finally land at 1am! In John's words of wisdom 'I'll never question a safety decision, especially with these airlines." You had to wonder if the plane crash in Phuket just 3 days ago was heavy on the pilot's mind.

We breezed through the airport (it was 1am...who was there?) and grab a cab to a random hotel I found in my guidebook. The hotels in Hanoi are many, but frequently full. Worse yet, the town pretty much shuts down by 11pm, so may places would be locked. On the advice of our driver (conveniently named Nam) we tried a hotel that he said was nicer and newer than the one I suggested in the Old Quarter. We finally pull up and he gets out to check. Full. The hotel staff suggested another place around the corner, which thankfully was empty. John gets out to check the room and it turns out to be golden, and very cheap! They rush us in with clandestine urgency. They take our passports (expected here), shove us in the elevator, separate us and take us to our rooms. I was surprised they didn't lock me in the way the porter's demeanor was. Don't get me wrong, they were very kind, service oriented and very helpful, just kinda control freaks. I actually snuck out of my room to confirm plans for tomorrow with J. (The room was awesome though!)

The next morning I woke up to a constant barrage of beeping horns and moto engines revving. I looked out the window and didn't even recognize the street I saw last night. Hundreds of bikes, motos, a few cars even passing thru the intersection per light, all weaving around each other in what seems like total anarchy. People walking through the middle, women carrying counterweighted baskets on their shoulders and everyone going about their business. I couldn't even tell you what side of the road they drive on because you can't tell by looking. I was in Vietnam!

We got our free breakfast in the morning, and as it turned out the hotel is full tonight so we had to move. John got right on this one and checked out the Viet Hotel, the one that was full last night. Fortunately they had vacancy. The Viet is a private run business, whereas our first hotel was a government run business (which all makes sense now!) The Viet has free internet (which I am on right now) and the rooms are even nicer. The hotel helped us book our Halong Bay cruise, which I'm leaving for in 4 hours, and Johns trek to Sapa, the mountain village that I will have to miss. The staff here was so friendly that you couldn't help to love everyone. In fact, despite what we have read about people trying to overcharge tourists for their services, we have not run across it. People are very open and honest here. It is very metropolitan, though with a colonial asian flair to it and much more modernized than I expected...perhaps as much so as Bangkok.

We took a walk around town, visited the lake here in the middle of the quarter, ate a snack at a rooftop cafe overlooking the lake and bartered for fashionable menswear that didn't come in my size. Most of all we braved traffic every step of the way since what few sidewalks there are all had merchant booths set up on them. Crossing the street was literally the human equivalent of Frogger! After lookin' around town we had the local faire for dinner...fried chaca fish and ended up in the only jazz club in town drinking $2 martinis. Vietnam is awesome!