The Good, The Bad, and the Cockroach

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When taking a trip to Southeast Asia for 3 months you have to expect some negative experiences to occur, its only natural. The good always comes with the bad and sometimes the ugly, but it's these experiences combined that make these kinds of trips worthwhile, hopefully you come away a better person with more maturity and a different way of looking at the world. In the last 2 weeks a lot has happened and I hope I can remember it all starting from mean tailors to giant cockroaches. But it's not all bad, just bare with me.

We've already written two blog posts about Hoi An but we spent so much time there that there's even more to say. We spent the majority of our time right in the city and took only one sightseeing trip to the ruins of My Son, it's what remains of the ancient Champa civilization. It was first built in the 4th Century as a temple to worship the Hindu god, Shiva, but it burned to the ground since it was constructed out of wood. Later in the 7th Century they built it out of stone and brick and what's left today has endured a lot of time, weather, and a war where American troops destroyed most of the temples in a single week of bombing; you can actually still see a crater from a bomb near the temples. UNESCO named it a world heritage site in 1999 because of its example of change and evolution in culture and recognizing that it was built by a civilization which is now extinct. UNESCO is working with the Vietnamese to restore some of the temples but most are beyond repair. There were over 70 structures before the Vietnam War (they call it the American War here) but after the bombings there are less than 20. We were in awe that we were looking at something so old, it was built over 1400 years ago! I really can't believe its standing at all with the heavy rains that come every year. Vietnam has 2 seasons, the dry and the rainy season, the average temperature year round is about 80 degrees, of course there is lots of humidity too, and when it rains it can really pour for days at a time. After walking around the ancient ruins we headed back to town and decided to check out how Joel's tailored winter jacket was coming along.

In an earlier blog post I wrote that Hoi An has an absolutely insane amount of tailors, its really impossible to check out every single one of them but I did some research online and we visited the ones with the best recommendations online. Strangely enough we went into a shop that we hadn't read any reviews about, Joel saw a jacket he liked on display and he liked the price one of the assistants quoted him, $45 for a long wool jacket. I decided to hold off on getting my own jacket made until I saw what Joel's turned out to be. Unfortunately the girl taking Joel's measurements was only the assistant, a very nice young lady. We soon met the owner of the shop who had a major attitude problem and an overall sour disposition. She kept telling Joel what he did and didn't want in his jacket. (We went to SUM on 102 Tran Phu St for any travelers visiting Hoi An.) The assistant had already told Joel $45 so when he showed her the length he wanted she kept saying, "No you don't want it that long, shorter looks better." This is exactly what other travelers we met along the way warned us about when dealing with tailors, they don't take your suggestions and when somethings not right they say, "it's suppose to be that way". So we took the advice of others and put down a very small deposit of $5, she originally asked for $25 but I said no way, if we didn't like the jacket we'd be out a lot of money and we could be unhappy with the final product and eventually she agreed with the small deposit and she said we could have it back if we didn't like the end result. Well we went back the next day and Joel's jacket looked pretty darn good, the lining looked a little sloppy, but other than that it fit and the material was good quality. He asked her to change only one thing, he asked that the pockets be changed slightly so he could put his hands through to reach the pockets of his jeans (its a guy thing). She said no way, she would have to take out all the lining and he should have told her that beforehand. Ok, not exactly what we wanted to hear but it sounded reasonable. Because his jacket turned out so well I decided to have one of my own made. I told her exactly what I wanted, she drew a sketch and we agreed on a price of $60 with another $5 deposit for my own. Later that night at one of the cooking classes I went to another student was really upset by an experience she had just had with a tailor. She said she was a seamstress herself and when she tried on the 3 piece suit she had made it had some major flaws, the sleeves were puffy, the skirt didn't fit right and when she told the tailor what she wanted altered the tailor said, "It's suppose to fit that way." So she just laughed and told her no, the sleeves should certainly not be puffy and if she sat down the skirt would likely split in two. The tailor got so mad at her for asking to make changes that she stormed away and wouldn't come back! And this was at Yaly's one of the most highly recommended places I saw online, we went there but it was really expensive so we searched elsewhere and found SUM. When we went back to our shop to pay for our purchases Joel noticed that the lining in this jacket had several moth holes in the hood. When he pointed them out to the tailor she COMPLETELY ignored him, wrapped up our jackets and put them in a sack, handed them to us and demanded the rest of her money. Joel said, "Wait a minute, I want to talk about the holes in my jacket first." He offered to pay $100 for both jackets which is a mere $5 less than the asking price because of the holes in his lining. Well you can guess it went downhill pretty quickly from there. She said it was no big deal, he should have noticed them at his first fitting so it could have been fixed, the lining would have been easy to change, (then why didn't she change his pockets the first time he asked?) it was only on the inside not the outside so no one could see it, etc. When Joel said it shouldn't have been him who noticed the holes first but the tailor she said, "The tailor doesn't see too good." We stood in perplexed silence for a good 10 seconds before Joel just laughed. Joel asked if she was in his position if she would buy the jacket which I think she actually paused to think about for a moment before launching off that it was no big deal again. He said he didn't want the jacket if she wasn't going to give him a discount because the holes could easily get bigger over time and he didn't want to pay full price for a jacket that was already worn with holes. This did not make her happy. She said she spent money on the material and she might not be able to sell it to another customer, Joel again made her an offer, this time $90 for both jackets. No way, she said, then she came over to me and pointed at a hole in my t-shirt, proceeded to stick her finger in my shirt and wiggled it around making the hole twice its size! Now Joel and I were both hot. We both raised our voices at that point (hers had been raised this entire time) I asked her why she did that, and she said "See, you have a hole in your shirt and he doesn't want to buy a new jacket with a few small holes on the inside". The fact that we were dealing with someone unreasonable was already apparent but now it was just plain crazy. Joel said, "no way I'm buying that jacket now, we'll pay for hers because she likes it and its a beautiful jacket, but I don't like the way this situation is unraveling and we'd like to pay and leave now." Eventually she came down on the price, $95 for both, but at this point Joel was dead set on getting both for $90 or leaving his at the shop. We paid for my jacket and as we left she used some foul language to let us know how she felt. My advice to fellow traveler's wanting tailor made clothes in Hoi An? Save yourself a lot of time and grief and go somewhere in Hanoi or Saigon where businesses have been open for decades and not popped up out of nowhere to be made in sweatshops for tourists. As we walked around the city we literally saw warehouses full of men and women on sewing machines popping out the same suits and jackets we saw in all the shop displays. We always seem to learn our lessons the hard way.
On a different note..

My ties to Vietnam come not only from my father who was born and raised in Saigon, but also from my mother's side. My Uncle Don died in the Vietnam War in the highlands of central Vietnam very far away from his his family and his country. He was a true hero if there ever was one, falling on a grenade that another solider tripped and saving the other soldiers in his platoon once he realized there was no other action to be taken. Hero's are made in a flash of a second when there's no time to think about consequences and because of him other men are alive today. Before we left my grandmother showed me a map of a US military landing zone called Hawk Hill in central Vietnam. She showed us a newsletter from the 70's that stated a plaque had been erected in his honor at Hawk Hill and she asked us to try and find this base if at all possible. So many doubts plagued my mind at that moment, first of all the map she showed us of the base didn't have any recognizable markings, it could have been ANYWHERE in Vietnam, and its a really big country! And in addition, was the base still standing? It's been over 30 years since he was there. Thankfully I stumbled across a blog from a Vietnam Vet that gave really great instructions on how to get to Hawk Hill and since we were in Hoi An we knew it would be the closest we would get to finding this place. Still doubts came into my mind, to get there we would have to travel Highway 1, the road that stretches over 700 miles from Hanoi to Saigon and it is heavily traveled. Buses, cars, motorbikes, and bicycles all travel this perilous road and its not like traffic laws exist in this country. Joel is the reason it happened, he said, "lets do it". And we did. And we found it.

It's being used for agriculture and livestock today but it was obviously a military base in its hey day. The ceilings are caving in, the walls are crumbling, but you can tell it was of importance many years ago. We didn't find any plaque dedicated to my Uncle, but after all this time we really didn't think we would. We thought it was a miracle we found Hawk Hill in the first place. My grandmother is currently trying to get my Uncle Don awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the truth of his death was not revealed until just over a year ago when my grandmother received a phone call from a solider in Don's unit who told her the truth of the circumstances surrounding his death. It's been a long process but our family is hopeful that he will be recognized for the hero he is and honor him in a way that he truly deserves. An Oklahoma Senator is taking his request to the President and we've been told it will be a long wait, but we've waited this long, why not a little longer?

After our adventures in Hoi An, where by the way, we ate some incredible food, we trucked on down to Nha Trang, the beach capital of Vietnam, and it has not disappointed. But our first night in Nha Trang was my worst moment on this trip thus far... We had a delicious dinner at Mecca Lemongrass, a Greek salad, pizza, beer, and a superb Bahama Mama. Everything was going so wonderfully until I felt something fall on my forehead....

I screamed in horror when I saw that it was a cockroach! Not just a cockroach my friends. A GIANT COCKROACH. It's not the first we've seen and it won't be the last but it was the first time it had fallen on my face during dinner and fallen on our table over our food. I jumped up in horror and immediately starting crying, and not just little tears of fear, but outright bawling. Joel told me leave right away, he would pay and meet me outside. I went around the corner and cried my little heart out. It was the combination of being away from home so long, the stress of traveling, and HAVING A COCKROACH FALL ON MY HEAD DURING DINNER! Finally, Joel found me and held me and told me how sorry he was, but the reason he took so long was because after I left the wait staff came up to him asked him what was wrong with me and when he told them why I ran out they called him a liar! One of the waitresses who I saw grab the the cockroach with a napkin accused him of exaggerating how big the cockroach was and said, "Vietnamese cockroaches are only this big", using her fingers to show how small they were. AS IF THE SIZE OF THE COCKROACH MATTERS. But truly my friends, I am not exaggerating when I say this cockroach was at least 4 inches long, one of the biggest we've seen since being here. Joel says two other servers had to hold her back she was so upset at why Joel said I left and he was in disbelief. It's not like he was trying to not pay the bill, he just wanted to pay the bill and leave but she caused such a ruckus other people got up and left the restaurant. You can't ever understand my level of trauma, I seriously have PTSD. I've dreamt of cockroaches at night crawling all over me and since then every time we enter a restaurant I look up at the ceiling repeatedly looking for the nasty things. I'm going to have to get therapy when I get back to the states.

Nha Trang is certainly not all bad, and because I was in such a funk the next day Joel took me to a spa and we had mud baths and soaked in hot springs and it was really really nice. Just what I needed. Then the next day we went snorkeling off some islands in Nha Trang Bay and the experience was really incredible. The waters were so clear, the coral reefs and fish so colorful, it was truly amazing. Of course taking a mud bath and snorkeling aren't really camera friendly so we don't have many pictures to share but it was a great experience. Like I said, the good comes with the bad, but life wouldn't be as precious if we didn't have the bad stuff to make us realize how great the good stuff can be.

We're off to Saigon where we'll book our next stops to Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. We can't believe we've been here 7 weeks and we have just 7 weeks to go! Thanks for reading my friends, we love you 😊

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Photos

Cau Lau at Cafe 43
Doughy noodles in a savory broth with fresh lettuce and fried wontons, SO GOOD! We ate here 3 times.

Hawk Hill
Military landing zone during the Vietnam War.

Bahama Mama
The place with the cockroach that landed on my head that we now call "The Incident".

Comments

[mom]

Honor
You have given your Grandmother much honor. thank you both from the bottom of my heart. i can't wait to hug your necks. love mom

[Carol]

enjoying your blogs
Joel and Whitney, your blogs are so interesting! Thanks for sharing! TTFN! love ya! Carol

[Mary]

Question?
Whitney & Joel I would like to know how high is the crime rate in Vietnam? Is it worse or better than ours? These are very interesting blogs I am enjoying them too, you guys just be very careful.Thanks for sharing.