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October, 2008 Going to Vietnam was a entirely new experience for
me, which is saying something considering the number of new countries
I've visited lately. But 'Nam was a whole new ball game. It's the
first country I've been to that isn't currently involved in massive
globalization of its culture. 'Nam doesn't to McDonalds or Starbucks.
Some people might be very supportive on those facts, but for me it
was kinda disappointing. Mostly because it's nice to stumble across
something familiar when you're immersed in a totally foreign culture.
None of the friends I traveled with spoke one word of Vietnamese,
so we spent our trip holding up our fingers to show numbers when buying
or negotiating the price of something. Trying to convey destinations
to cab drivers was a very creative endeavor. Here's the sample of
one such attempt, which left us all rolling with laughter. We crossed the border on foot and things went pretty
smoothly. Then we took a hydrofoil (speedboat ferry) down the coast
to our first destination city. The only problem was that the 1 1/2
hour journey turned into a 6-plus hour journey as the engine broke
on our boat about 10 minutes into the trip. And there was no food
or AC on the boat, and it was crowded. We arrived late at night and got checked into a hotel
that we all liked quite a bit. They had a great breakfast included
with the room. I got up early the next morning because I was longing
for more sunrises over the ocean ever since my Bali trip. We booked ourselves passage on a "junk boat"
and boarded just in time for lunch. We had an eclectic group of fellow
passengers onboard. It was fun getting to know them over the two days
we were riding together. Some from England, others were Americans
currently living in various places overseas. A fun bunch. And it was
a trip to talk with "real Americans" after being removed
from our own culture for so long. They were a great sampling of our
countrymen, with two Berkeley grads, one of whom was an on-again-off-again
vegan Two were female college students from the Midwest spending a
semester in Thailand, covered with tattoos and edgy short haircuts.
What a great group we all made! Our captain and crew were just as
full of personalities and we had a great time together. We drove to this bay with the "Surprise Cave"
at the tip. The cave was easily the largest I've ever been inside,
and had some significant history that the tour guide was going on
and on about... not quite sure... I walked off to take more pictures.
When we came out at the top we had an amazing view of the bay full
of more tour-boats. We went kayaking next. It was lots of fun. My kayaking
buddy was Julie from New Zealand - originally from California. We
had a blast getting to know each other as we rowed around these water-logged
mountains and even through a cave to a lake inside one of the islands.
Very beautiful. Very amazing. And Julie taught me all about the dangers
of people driving cars instead of walking or riding bikes, and the
changing trends in public transportation all over the world. I asked
her about sky diving and the job economy in New Zealand. We bonded.
By the end of our boating trip I decided I'd rather live in Bali. We traveled around many beautiful islands and explore
the wonders of Dad's creation, although
I'm pretty sure only 4 of us on the boat recognized it for what it
was. We put down anchor to have some swimming time. The sun was setting
so our time was short but my friends and I got one good jump off the
top of the boat before we headed off to a different spot to park with
lots of other boats for the night. We enjoyed another great meal and
then the crew broke out the Karaoke machine. My friends and I were
busy playing Euchre, but we saw that all the other passengers were
very uncomfortable with Karaoke so we helped them get the ball rolling
and break the ice. We ended up singing loudly and cracking ourselves
up for several hours before calling it a night. I got up well before sunrise to get a good spot on
the top of the boat before the other passengers all crowded up there.
I found 3 girls who had decided to sleep up top, which looked so comfortable
that I went and brought my bedding up too. The weather was just cool
enough to enjoy a light blanket as I watched the sky lighten from
the rising son. A crowd of sunrise watchers never showed up, which
allowed me to enjoy the peaceful morning and spend time thanking Dad
for the amazing moments He surprises me with. We traveled through a scattering of islands all morning,
had another enjoyable time for swimming and jumping off the boat,
and then headed back to the bay to depart. Our time on this boat was
definitely the highlight of my time in 'Nam. We spent the rest of our day exploring the bay and
the city nearby. We had fun conversations, a foot massage, and examined
a ton of very cheap pearls people were trying to sell us everywhere
we looked. Apparently that city is a main producer of pearls. Whatever.
The next morning we boarded a public bus full of
locals and headed to the capital of 'Nam. We made up games and asked
each other fun questions the whole way there. I'm really going to
miss these guys. When we arrived in the capital city we checked into
our hotel and explored the "French Quarter" the rest of
the evening. There were a surprising amount of small coffee shops
and Diet Coke; two things that we rarely see in the country I live
in. But for the most part, the area was an overpriced tourist trap,
and I was very worn out by the end of the day. I had a wonderful treat
when the married couple sang their tribute songs they had written
for me as part my prize for winning our weight loss contest a few
weeks ago. We got up in the morning with a plan to take a bus
to the border, cross over, and take a bus back home, arriving later
that night. It didn't work out according to plan. We arrived at the
bus station just a bit too late to catch the last direct bus to the
border, so we took a bus to a different city with a connecting bus.
That city ended up being the one we had started out at. And it took
us about 5 hours to get there for some reason. Once we arrived we
were transferred to another bus on the side of the road in the middle
of nowhere. That bus took another 4 hours to get us to the border.
We arrived just after the border had closed for the night. We caught
a hotel and found a KFC knock-off restaurant to have dinner at. Overall it was a fun trip, and we did some really cool things. 'Nam is a'ight but in my opinion; it's no Bali. |
