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Published: March 14th 2008
In SouthEast Asia....I had a taste of what it is to be a minority, to stand out amongst all others more so than in any other places I have ever traveled. I had children stare at me, some excited as if I were a celebrity and would smile and wave and run to look at me; while, others were scared of me, all because I was white and I suppose many hadn't seen a white person before.
Is SE Asia...People are gracious. Litter is abundant, toilets are often smelly porcelain holes in the floor. Toilet paper cannot be flushed in Thailand even in a "western style" toilet.
Tourists are welcome and wanted, even relied upon. It is relatively a very safe place to travel. Petty crimes are taken seriously, since the economy relies so heavily on the tourism.
Men: Asian men don't seem any more attracted to us than we are to them. This was a notable difference after Argentina and Brazil. 😊
I was so excited for Thai food and Vietnamese food, since these are some of my favorite restaurants in Chicago. However, the food is not at all the same and truly wasn't my cup
Thai Islands
This guy walks around and will grill you a cob of corn on the spot. Yum.of (green) tea 😊
Thailand:
Bangkok is big and hectic and a bit dirty. I didn't see it all, but I never found the beautiful areas. However, street markets are galore, as are temples and thai massages. Thai Massage is offered everywhere and very cheap; you wear all your clothes and they twist your body in all different crazy ways, sometimes it hurts a little, but feels good when it's done. The street markets offer a fun opportunity to try varied foods and buy fake name brands of everything, as well as homemade crafts. Temples are beautiful and often in gold and have some type of Buddha; they are often beautiful.
Sex tourism is prevalent throughout Thailand, especially Bangkok and certain islands (Pataya and some in Phuket, so I hear). Beyond the prostitution, there is a commonality for young women to have several men act as her "boyfriend" and pay her/take care of her well while his wife awaits elsewhere. All of this bothers me, but the women make the choice, so it doesn't bother half as much as the young girls and boys sold for sex. Several Southeast Asian countries are popular among pedophiles, who travel
from America, Germany and everywhere else. Apparently a virgin is considered a delicacy. I guess I am learning a few things about the world I didn't want to know. I believe it goes without saying how deeply disturbing this is.
The islands are beautiful, but the larger islands are over commercialized. The first island I was at (Koh Samui) actually felt more busy and hectic in its downtown area than Chicago, but in a different way. I was very disappointed to find a Pizza Hut, Haagen Daaz, McDonalds and a Starbucks!! Maybe these islands would have struck me differently if I were 22 years old and wanted to party night and day at beach bars and clubs, because they never stop. I stayed in another area of the island and stuck to my healthy spa stuff, still found a beautiful artistic area called "Fisherman's Village" which was quaint and lovely and full of great little tourist shops, and more importantly for me, great restaurants on the beach.
I skipped Koh Phangan, which is the "party island" where the famous full moon party crowds the beach all night long with over 10,000 people once a month. It sounds like
spring break times 10.
Every drug you could want is supposedly available, a very popular one is the magic mushroom shake. However, possession of drugs is treated severely and often immediate Thai jail time is enforced, not something I would want to try out for the experience!
The next island I visited was the smallest around, (Koh Tao) and famous for scuba diving. This had much more character for me. It allowed you the chance to partake in the beach bars, but also to relax, have a great meal on the beach at inexpensive prices. They display several types of fish on ice and you choose and they grill it. The landscape and beach holds extreme beauty and that cannot be taken away. Scuba diving is beautiful and amazing here.
The islands in general are constantly looking to get all they can financially out of the tourists. They will rip you off and smile and laugh with you as they do it, appearing as if they are sweet and being helpful. It actually amazes me the way the Thai agency go to such extremes to lie to you and mislead you to get more money out of you.
Vietnam:
Lots of farming, rice fields galore. Pigs, chickens, cattle and numerous water buffalo roam the land freely. The animals seem to have good lives. One fellow traveler from Holland said she may not be a vegetarian if she lived here. 😊 In the cities, the motorbikes zoom. Sex tourism is still prevalent, but I didn't feel it the same as in Thailand. The men and women wear the bamboo tent hats everywhere, many bicycles and motorbikes everywhere. The women ride side saddle behind the men often, it is cute to see the older couples in the countryside going to town together for supplies on their bicycles together. In vehicles, people beep every second to let you know they are there...this I won't miss.
Vietnam really impacted me, particularly the countryside and people in the more remote towns. The families live on dirt floors in shacks, yet smile from their hearts and are very generous hosts, appreciating your company, while the mother tells you how very proud she is of her children. You can tell she means it. The people cannot read or write English, yet learn to speak it from the tourists. Speaking English allows them
to make money off the tourists and has become a larger livelihood than the farming. For a communist country, I had a much different feel than I had in my experiences in communism in the past. When I was in East Berlin, Germany before "the wall" came down, it was gray and dismal (not just the weather, the buildings and the people), the streets were lined with armed men in uniforms. I felt scared at all times due to the large weapons they carried and felt sad for the people living there. Vietnam is nothing like this. In fact, the people act in a capitalist manner!! They are all trying to make money off of tourism and get ahead. The Vietnamese have developed so many businesses catering to tourism. For example, they have a group called the "easy riders" that will take you for a day or several days all around the country and show you the sites or the little hidden restaurants and beautiful non-tourist countryside areas...it seems like they have fun and make a good living doing so. Hanoi is very colorful, people and buildings alike. Throughout Vietnam, family is a number one value. The Vietnamese love to laugh and tease one another. It is a very typical part of their humor. For reasons I could go on and on, I loved my Vietnam experience!!
The following I did not visit, but learned a great deal that I found to be very interesting from personal research, other traveler stories and even others who live in the countries. I thought it was worth sharing.
Cambodia:
The Angkor Wat temples and ruins seem to be well worth the trip. However, it is a shock when you travel through the poverty stricken farmlands to arrive at Siem Reap and the area of Angkor Wat to see a mini Vegas, with 5 star hotels, built especially for the tourists, obviously. Cambodia sounds very sad to me. Their history has been rough on them as they underwent a strong nazi-style communist rule, where the educators were killed. The educated people, if not killed, were forced out to farm, in a communistic effort to create equality. As a result, there are no educated people left in Cambodia. Some Europeans I met that are living there, for 8 months now, trying to work to help the situation and the people, but find themselves dying to get out. It is impossible to even make friends since even the locals do not trust each other and therefore are not very social, only within one's family. They actually have signs out pushing to get this communist government back, believing it is the "people's rule" since they are ignorant to what it has done to them.
Laos:
I am quite sad I missed this. Somehow, I knew I would love Laos, and now I am even more convinced. Many said this was their favorite. It is perhaps the simplest, but that is the beauty of it. The people are actually "against" stress of any kind, as if it were a law not to "stress out". What a concept! Even if you offer them double payment to get something done faster, they will not do it, as the Lao people offer you what they believe they can right away and that's that. However at the same time, they will do everything to please you, invite you to parties, get you to dance and drink Lao beer and enjoy life with them. Everything is at the slowest pace and somehow when you step into this country, it happens to you too and you begin to love the slow pace and realize there is no hurry to your life. They seem very happy and again, very family oriented.
It doesn't seem to me that people from Lao and Cambodia ever leave their countries. In Chicago, I had many friends/clients operating restaurants from Vietnam and Thailand, but never met anyone from Laos or Cambodia, not even while traveling in SE Asia.
*Please note that these are only my impressions. I am in no way qualified to speak as an authorty on this, nor would I claim to be. My exposure is undoubtedly limited and my intent is only to share my experiences and observations with friends and family and possibly other travelers. I will be the first to admit that I am sure some of the things I say could be argued and that I am sure I am missing a ton! I hope not to offend anyone and apologize if so.
I do not judge our lives as better. These are simply all observations. In some ways, I admired different people's lives. I don't believe a big, beautiful house, great education, or fancy car brings happiness at all. Having a flush toilet doesn't affect the amount of love one has in their life or how often they smile. Having said that, I'm not about to give my western flush toilet up though either 😊.
The end result is that I would never change this experience for anything. I recently read that one thing you will never regret in your life is travel and I can fully believe that. I can't imagine anyone lying on their death bed wishing they hadn't seen as much of the world as they did. Our experiences make our lives rich. The people I have met and the places I have been in this short time touch me to such a deep extent. I feel truly blessed to have these experiences and more sure than ever than this is what I am meant to be doing at this point in my life. My heart is full of love for our world the creator and the beauty we have been given and most of all, the people that give their energy and love.
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Interesting insights and awakening...
I enjoyed reading through your blog entries and this summation, You have scratched the surface as a tourist, maybe next time you will "live" as a local and get a little further into the culture...maybe volunteer somewhere...or quit your job and teach English? Imagine a person from Thailand or Vietnam who comes to the USA for the first time (for 2 weeks, or so) and what they might think? Thailand is a puzzle that can never be truly solved by a person from the West on holiday. Great blog...