Learning Vietnamese After living in Vietnam for 9 months and having long lessons in pronunciation and learning how to read, we still got in a taxi today and failed to make the taxi driver understand our pronunciation of our address!
Foreign Languages Thanks for your very interesting story that you have studied several languages. Younger generation here better strive to learn communicative languages specially English, free from the conventional way of "too much focusing on grammar".
Regarding Japanese education for foreigners, surprisingly, the official text books ,putting emphasis on respectful, modest and polite way of expression and the related words, are very complicated enough to discourage the learners against carrying out. If I were a mater of the usage, I may have lost a lot of friends and co-workers even bosses. "Friendly expression" is much more important, I think.
Foreign Languages Again you write a very interesting article and I have enjoyed reading all you have written. Learning Vietnamese is really hard and I gave up, sorry. Keep up the good work. Cheers from Charles
English You will be alright with speaking English in Vietnam. I have found that there are more people in Vietnam who can speak English than in China, Japan and Thailand. Chinese is not popular here, so your basic Chinese mandarin may not be usable. You can learn basic Vietnamese very fast when you meet and talk with the locals everyday. I believe everyone will love to help you.
Love the read Love the read, can hardly wait to go to Hanoi myself (for my internship) 6months :) . But your post frightened me, do you think i will manage in vietnam with English and Basic chineze mandrin or am i....scr?*wed? Anywho keep the posts coming love them!
Travelling with a companion I just returned from my trip to Ho Chi Minh city with a friend. She was my room mate when we travelled to Beijing in 1995. Since then, she has been asking if we could travel together should I go somewhere. Somehow, it did not materialise because I could not get away everytime she asked me.
My niece invited me to her wedding on August 15 in HCMC. I asked this friend if she wants to come along, although I warned her she has to be on her own during the weekend when I will be at the wedding. She said she can handle that and off we went.
Things did not work out well. Firstly, it was more than 10 years since we last travelled together. Now, this friend is in her seventies. She did not tell me she had problems walking down the stairs, and walking long distances generally. On our arrival on the 1st day she complained about having to walk too much after we visited Ben Thanh market, which was 5 minutes from our hotel. The next day posed no problem since we joined a tour with Sinh Cafe.
On day 3 we joined the HCMC tour with Sihn Cafe again. This trip proved to be a memorable one for me. In the morning we had the pleasure of having a very experienced and professional guide who took us to Chinatown and its famous sights.
In the afternoon, he was replaced by another guide who happened to be our guide the previous afternoon. From our experience we knew it was not going to be good. This guy is not a guide at all. He often goes off on his own without taking care of the group. He cannot speak well and gave information by repeating them by heart. It was really dull listening to him. Even his joke fell flat and nobody laughed.
Halfway through the tour at the Reunification Palace, some of the ladies saw the toilet and decided to have a break. My friend told the guide we were going to the loo. We were the last two in the group to come out. I came out earlier and quickly looked for them. I could see my group in the distance but could not follow them immediately as my companion was still inside. As soon as she came out I told her to hurry and I went after them. After a short chase I lost them when they went down the stairs. I was not sure which floor my group went to. My companion, on the other hand, insisted that they have gone downstairs because the staff were closing up. We rushed outside downstairs. After waiting for about 15 minutes my friend decided that she was wrong and suggested that I go up and join the group (which was impossible by then!) Then she started saying that after all, the things inside were not very interesting, we could see them at home, etc. It was most frustrating for me. I almost burst into tears.
We waited for about half an hour and finally saw our group emerging from the building to catch our bus. As we were walking towards the guide he questioned where we had gone. I told him he should checked if everyone was present before taking the group elsewhere. He retorted that there were so many of us, how can he keep track of us... I then went to my seat on the bus. When he went up the bus, he told everybody that we should follow him closely etc. Nobody responded to him.
Out of the 4 places we visited that afternoon, we were left on our own to wander around for some time on 3 occasions. Most of the time little or nothing was said about the tourist sights.
We decided to cancel our plan to join the Cu Chi tunnel tour for the next day. For myself, I will not go back to Sinh Cafe for any more tours. Most of their guides are untrained and unprofessional.
As for my travelling companion, she was contstantly complaining about things. During the weekend she was not feeling well and became even more difficult. I was running around looking for bread rolls, Milo, medication, etc because she did not feel like eating this and that. She even implied that I took her to places where mostly beef was served (which was not true). Still, I tried my best to please her by taking her to Quan an ngon for dinner on Sunday evening.
Bargaining at Ben Thanh market was also a problem. She was also very picky and she spent quite a bit of time looking for things which she wanted to buy. The breakfast at the hotel is always not good enough etc. The She cannot understand what the guide is saying. When I tried translating to her, she would not listen. She complained that the food she ordered is not what she expected. I can only tell her what is written on the menu. Since I have never taken most of the food in my life before I cannot give a very good description. On top of that most of the time the waitress/waiter could not speak English. So one can imagine the situation.
Travelling alone is much much better. I did that when I visited South Africa. It was so much more enjoyable. I will not allow anyone to join me on my future tours. There is no freedom to do what I want at my own leisure. It was really tiredsome having to make adjustments all the time so I would not offend a friend.
I will visit Vietnam again and bring my Ao Dai like Hanoi girl. Have not bought the conical hat yet. But will do so during my next visit. Definitely want to visit Hanoi, Hue, etc and all the other places.
Dear RedRiver,
I have to say that traveling alone as some advantages like being free of choosing the destinations, local trips, and lots of practicalities. However, I found that sharing with a companion the feelings of the discoveries or whatever adventures we have is much more enriching.
Pat
I often travel alone too. And I traveled in Vietnam alone too :) And I often hear same opinions from people that its boring and that some would never be brave enough to do it. I do not mind traveling with people, but traveling alone is such a unique experience. And I like the feeling of accomplishment that comes after trip is over. I had some more or less scary situations in my travels too, but it always turned out to be alright.
I think you should look up couchsurfing.com, which is a great community for travelers. I use it all the time I travel and never had bad experiences. Good luck in your travels.
Great blog I enjoyged reading your blog. Sounds fascinating...I too travel alone here in the USA. You can see some of my photos at my online gallery, www.journeyamerica.org
Go alone or stay home? Easy choice for me too :) - though travelling with someone of a like mind and easy going nature has enhanced the experience on the occasions it's happened. Again - lovely thoughtful blog.
loneliness "I cannot sit and wait all my lifetime until someone agrees to go with me." is a good expression. My recent trips with someone who agreed to go with me are well arranged in safety without waisting any minute. It's , however, much more boring instead. Thanks for your photos of attractive Ao-Dai.
Kob
Your blogs Hi, I can share those feelings. I'm enjoying your travel blogs and I like how positive they are! Look forward to your next installment. Happy travels! Dawn
So true! I really enjoyed reading your love of travel and how it diifers from your siblings. I also do not invest in material things but rather save to travel to a destination. My husband jokes it would be easier if I was in love with jewerly as he could finance that easier than my traveling. I have 2 kids and I still travel and bring them along because I want them to see the world and its diffrent beauty and cultures. Safe travels to you!
Solo Travel Hello Hanoi girl,
I really enjoy reading all of your blogs entries. I like to travel also either alone or with friends. In a few weeks I will be taking a big adventure by myself in traveling to Vietnam. This will be my first time out of my country (USA) and I am really excited. Your blogs have inspired me and also provide some good traveling tips and ideas! I look forward to reading more from you.
-Chris
Travel Enjoyed reading your travel blogg again. I've read all of them and look forward to all you new ones. I agree with you on traveling alone can be lonely; but rewarding. I just returned from 5 weeks in your country, staying this year in Hue, Central Highlands and HCMC. I try to visit Vietnam every summer to tour and visit family. Wishing you the best. cheers from Chas
Very special Yes, you are very special. I agree with you 100% because I feel exactly the same way about traveling solo. Sometimes it´s hard, some others it is wonderful, but most of the time it´s like FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!! I hope to see you in November. Love, Graciela.
Beautiful Hello Hong Ha,
It is a pleasure to read your travel blog again as I always do. Being able to travel for the sake of traveling itself is very rare. And you being able to do that is really nice. I always like the stories and the lively and vivid experiences that you write about in your blog. It makes them very different from other travel writings. In fact, thanks to you I got to know lots of things about these places. Indeed, there are always dangers we face as travelers, but that doesn't mean we must stop traveling. I would always wish for you to travel to many more places (safely) so that I get to read more about them in your blog. All the best. ~ Atur
Phở Sướng Interesting ! Where can we get information that pho first appeared in 1920 ? In your opinion what would be the best restaurant serving pho in Ha noi ? I went to a place called Phở Sướng near Hang Be in Ha noi and it was quite tasty. In Saigon, we went to a place called Pho 24 near Ben Thanh market and it is a clean place to eat pho there.
Never heard of Phở thịt vịt (duck meat), Phở thịt lợn (pork), Phở chua, Phở cuốn etc.
Construction site Dear Hong Ha
I'm glad to know you are enjoying both working and travelling. And, you are so beautiful in various Ao Dai blended-in with historic sights.
Best Wishes
Kob
I am a Hanoi_girl who loves to travel. When working for a Japanese construction company in Hanoi, I had the chance to travel to 28 countries and to all the 63 provinces in Vietnam, including 25 trips to Huế city. Egypt, Mongolia and Italy are my love, and other favorite countries are Australia, France, New Zealand, Nepal, Fiji, Japan, India, Indonesia, Belgium, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, China (8 trips, 15 cities), South Korea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Cambodia (3 trips), Brunei Darussalam, the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Laos (3 trips), Malaysia (4 trips), Singap... full info
liliram
liliram
Very nice, indeed!
This is one of those off the beaten paths that I would venture to take if I were in the area of Hanoi. Thanks for sharing this.