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Published: November 13th 2008
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I dont really know who reads this, but welcome to the 3rd installement of my travel blog.
I am currently in southern Vietnam in Nha Trang, a cool beach community (more on it later).
About 2.5 weeks ago I arrived in Nam excited for a change of culture and scenery...I got it. Vietnamese are a different breed than the Thais or folks from Laos. They are colder, more persistent and overall a tough people. I arrived with a dutch fellow that ive been travelling with who was incredibly sick at the time. We were looking for a taxi to take us downtown ($10 was the going rate). We were wisked into a car by an overly friendly young vietnamese man in a suit...we were lazy and with my friend being sick we didnt look into what kind of cab we were getting into. Unmarked and with no meter we took off on the highway in Hanoi with two men in the front seat. Now it is worth noting that the Vietnamese are known to be aggressive drivers...this is an understatement. They use their horns instead of mirrors to know where other cars/bikes/people/cows etc are. Countless times we would attempt
to pass the cars in front of us through the narrowest of gaps...its terrifying but they all seem to be on the same page.
We agreed on $10 for the cab and entered the city, once we paid the driver(s) they asked for 1,000,000 dong (roughly $70 US) as a "welcome to hanoi fee". we laughed thinking it was a joke...they were dead serious. With our bags locked in the trunk we argued for 30 minutes, to which they threatened to take us to the police if we didnt pay. We glady wanted to go to the cops...so we did. the officer we approached a) didnt speak english and b) could give two craps about two confused foreigners. Knowing they were going to steal our bags and with my friend on the verge of collapsing we negotaited what we called a "F*ck off fee" of 100,000 each....Hanoi is also very loud...4 million motorbikes = 8 million horns. We ran into a Swedish fellow looking to share a room to cut costs, and found a place for us 3 to stay. With my friend being sick I gave him the solo bed and shared the other one with the new
Swedish guy. With my malaria meds and sleeping in the same bed as a foreign Swedish guy who could have been a serial the dreams made sleeping a chore. A quick example was one where I was being chased by the IKEA man screaming at me to come to the "Summer Super Sale"...the starrt of vietnam sucked.
Spent some time exploring the city with a 3 day boat trip out to Halong Bay (a beautiful bunch of islands). With me, the dutch, 2 canadians and 6 Russians we left. All the Russians I have met are quite similar, and hopefully Lana isnt reading this, but they are some of the coldest most terrifying individuals I have ever met. And of course as a solo traveller I got paired in a room with the most frightening one...Artiem. After a full day on a small boat and many failed attempts at small talk, I found a common ground to which I ascended from an outsider to a "comrade"...my bread and butter: Karaoke.
I tore down barriers with an electric rendition of "Blue Suede Shoes". In Russia they don't get much exposure to how we dance now-a-day in the rest of
the world, so as I sang for them they did the Twist, the Mash Potato and all the other things my parents still do. I actually felt like the King for a couple minutes. The next day...they were cold again.
I returned to Hanoi to head south but got caught in the most rain they have had in 35 years. It was amazing to see motorbikes submerged in water, the death toll in Hanoi was around 20 when I was there and 90 if you include the landslides just North. Needless to say airports, trainstations and busses were all closed down...and I was stuck again in Hanoi. With more confusion I made it out a couple days later on a Bus filled with miserable wet people all dreading the 12 hr bus ride...but looking forward to some dry time.
Spent a couple days in Hue (ancient capital) where I shared a room with a british girl who was a blessing sent from god. My feet were pretty torn up from spending 8 days in wet, dirt-filled sandals...and this girl was a podiatrist. That night I met an aussie couple and had dinner. Nearing the end of a meal
we saw an older american fellow, so we invited him over for a drink. He ended up being a vietnam war veteran (or as they call it here "american war" veteran). He was in Hue (which is near the border of the north-side divide, so a very war-torn area during the war) as the final step of his rehabiliation process sponsored by the Veteran Association...Were talking a 40 year recovery process. After the war he became a self-medicated disaster and is still getting over what he did and what he saw. He was with his daughter and came back to make peace with the place he only knew filled with hatred. I spoke with him for near 2 hours...even though I have no direct ties to the war, I was incredibly moved by his story and was fortunate to have met someone speaking for their first time about an amazing and sad life.
From there I moved to Hoi An, a cool, laid back beach community. Spectacular food, cheap suits, and beautiful beach made it tough to leave. Typical day was to wake up eat, get a suit fitted, jump on a motorbike and hit the beach for fresh
seafood and sun.
Hear I met my next travel partners, a cop from Australia and a waiter from Norway. We left for Nha Trang, where I am now. It is amazing here, a small city with alot to do. A local invited us squid fishing one night. We took him up on it, and in a cheap, small boat originally used to smuggle people and goods we took off in the pitch black with a small chimney-style BBQ on deck and a couple cases of beer. the Fishing lines were thread on a peace of bamboo...the most basic you can get.
We caught fresh squid, pulled them straight from the ocean and plopped them on the make-shift BBQ...eating a squid from the ocean, whole, like a popsicle, was unbelievable. Took a boat out the next day to see some islands and I was offered fresh sea urchin straight from the ocean...it was amazing. Im being spoiled.
The dutch fellow I was with was robbed by a hooker on a walk home one night...people shrug it off here.
Other than that I head to Mui Ne (another beach community) to learn how to kite-surf tomorrow, followed by a couple
days in Saigon. I will not leave Vietnam until I try Cobra, so I will keep you all posted with how that goes.
I am in good health, meeting great people, and still havent shaved (7 weeks now). The vietnamese are fascinated with my beard...a man rubbed his baby's head on it for good luck, and another old man sat me down and combed it. Ive posed for many pictures with the locals.
Until next time.
Dave
(ps...im too tired to proof-read this so cut me some slack).
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