But then we turned a corner and came across a quieter street with an old colonial building which is now the Museum of Fine Art and everything just got much, much better. The night ended with a Vietnamese meal which could best be described as spiritual (needless to say, we were too busy eating to take photos.) I guess sometimes it just takes awhile to get used to a place…

Walking down an alleyway next to the museum

An alleyway

Birdcages, clothes, and deadly power lines...

Uncle Ho Chi Minh guarding the post office

Former hotel, now home of the People's Committee

]]> http://traveltolivetotravel.com/blog/2008/10/23/ups-and-downs/feed/ 2 http://traveltolivetotravel.com/blog/2008/10/23/vietnam-culture-shock/ http://traveltolivetotravel.com/blog/2008/10/23/vietnam-culture-shock/#comments Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:29:14 +0000 Janelle http://travel.silvershining.net/wp/?p=143 It’s hot. It’s overwhelming. Everywhere we go we have to dodge motorcycles. Everywhere we go we hear horns blasting. There’s smells in the air, not often pleasant. Garbage in the streets. Holes in the sidewalk that lead to sludge-water. It’s pretty embarassing worrying over the fabled motorcycle purse-snatchers when you know you’re carrying a camera worth more than the average family makes in a year.

But yet it finally feels exciting and like we’re REALLY traveling. Parts of China were exciting and “exotic”, but we’re kind of spoiled owing to the fact we lived in Japan for three years (and thus could read quite a few things) and coupled with the fact some of my best friends are Asian-born Chinese (thus I was already exposed to quite a few foods, customs, etc.) We are finally in a place where we don’t understand anything going on around us. It’s overwhelming, but it’s fun.

Two delicious bowls of pho down, bring on more delicious food.

We booked at the Lucky News Classic Hotel (weird name, I know) which for the price of $50 offered free shuttle service from the airport, free breakfast, wifi, etc. When we arrived, we were surprised at how friendly the staff was and moreover, by how clean and nice the room was. It wasn’t 5-star for sure, but it was certainly nicer than some of the dens of evil we’ve stayed in around Asia before for that price. Needless to say, we spent more time than necessary wondering if we’d get charged for the soap, or for the fruit, etc. Nope, it was just a nice place to stay in transit. God, we’re newbs.

I usually love this sort of juxtaposition stuff, but instead we was hot and cranky and eager to find something to eat. After a remarkably long walk which wasn’t helped at all by the fact I decided to buy the WORST guide-book to Shanghai. It’s full of beautiful pictures and history on all the buildings, but it doesn’t tell you whether the building is actually functional (long history on the architect of a theatre, but no information on what actual is performed there) nor do the maps bother to list all the streets. I digress–finally, Hugh found a place and we were like, fine, lets go here.

Turns out it was a restaurant that has been around since the 1800s and it was at this restaurant that, finding myself simply overwhelmed, I almost burst into tears. I suppose it was a mix of the heat and the just being so unable to communicate when people think I can. I never know if someone is shouting, “Hey you! Watch out!” or what to do or say when someone asks me a question. You know, it was culture shock.

But remembered this saying we invented yesterday–Think: Luke!

See, I have always greatly admired anyone who went to Japan with me who didn’t know anything about the language or the culture. Me, I studied it for years and came to Japan near fluent in Japanese. It was easy for me. I could have never done what some of my friends did. This is where the phrase Think Luke! came from. We tried to think of one of our friends, someone who came to Japan non-fluent but kind of had fun with that and had a good attitude, smiled, tried to be positive about it, etc. So we thought of Luke (if you’re reading this buddy, you better be flattered ;P) When you feel let down, think Luke!

China is the first country I’ve gone to in Asia where lots of people don’t speak English–cause, well, why should they? They do in Cambodia because the economy in Angkor Wat is based around tourism. I’m just grateful for my Japanese ability which means I can more or less understand signs and read maps and sometimes even make a decent guess at pronunciation.

So anyways, after a delicious lunch and a pep talk, we set off feeling better — found a Starbucks, got our caffeine fix, people watched, pep talked a bit more (which made Hugh feel better this time. We then managed to spend the next 12 hours wandering around Shanghai on foot, amazed at just how sprawled out the city was and how clean it was. There’s always this impression that China was dirty, told to me by my Chinese friends nonetheless. Maybe it is, but Shanghai is near spotless.

At night we had arranged to meet a friend for dinner, but due to my shitty guidebook we found ourselves lost in the French Concession. So we decided to ask a waitress at a cafe, who proceeded to take my book and ask another customer where the location of an unmarked road was. In the end, the waitress asked me if I could read Chinese–I responded that I could a little, and she presented me with a JAPANESE advertisement tourism book that just happened to have incredibly detailed maps of all of Shanghai including all the street names in CHINESE characters and not useless English ones.

THANK YOU!

Anyways, dinner was fun (Yunnanese food) and in the end we got to a taxi and managed to make our way home communicating with the driver only with what limited Chinese we have learned, which, well, made me feel really good. I know I could probably get by just speaking English, but I’ve always felt when in a country every effort should be made to speak as much of the language as one can until the locals laugh at you and speak in English to you. Most of our broken-gibberish Chinese phrases has been greeted with Chinese spoken at natural speed, which tells me either they think we can understand them because our Chinese is just so awesome or they don’t speak English at all–so Chinese it is!

Anyways, after walking around for 12 hours straight we’ve decided that tomorrow is going to be a day of rest….probably.

P.S. I can’t seem to access LJ within China, if anyone knows of a proxy server, please let me know.