So, we’re off to Laos now. We will be arriving in Savannakhet in about 10 hours. I’m really excited about Laos because I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, though we might not have internet access for weeks… Off we go!

Being in Vietnam too has been interesting. So many people have come to me and said, “I hope you win, I hope Obama wins,” and that sort of thing.

Hugh is also very excited as he will one day become an American citizen and this fills with some hope, perhaps even some pride. I think we can both go back to America and feel comfortable with it.

Also, I think McCain’s concession speech was beautiful. I can only hope his supporters listen to him…

Cui Da beach

We have spent the past few days in Hoi An, a very quaint small city in central Vietnam. It’s definitely been the most fun we’ve had in Vietnam. For one, Hoi An is renown in Vietnam for its tailors. Apparently there are over 500 tailor shops to choose from. We tried one shop, and were unhappy and were pretty ready to leave Vietnam without getting anything made. However, while waiting for a shuttle we wandered into A Dong Silk, which we heard good reviews about but also that it was 2x the price of other tailors.

Needless to say, Hugh and I left with some awesome custom-designed jackets. It was so fun hopping around the store with the ladies and picking out all the fabric and finding the perfect lining, etc. I’m thankful we found the place on the last day or we would have left with soooo much more stuff than necessary.

Hoi An at night, it's gorgeous

We also took a trip yesterday to Cua Dai beach, which might be better known as a strip of the infamous China Beach. It was surprisingly beautiful and relaxing. Much better than Nha Trang, though I’m not sure the party people would agree with me. Even the touts on the beach were friendlier and nicer.

We are now in Hue, after a very tiring and taxing day on a bus ride full of suspense. I’m glad to be in a hotel with staff that’s genuinely kind and friendly. It’s been a bit rough lately. One thing I’ve learned on this trip is that service and staff mean much, much more than actual room quality.

This morning we woke up at 4:30am to take in the sunrise (and lack of tourists) at My Son, an ancient holy site of the Champa Kingdom. While it’s nothing compared to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, it was a beautiful site with shrouds of mist drifing off the mountains. While they’ve cleaned up some of the buildings, many of the buildings are overgrown with plants and trees. If you didn’t know better, you’d just walk by one of these millennia-old ruins and just think it was an odd hill. Time (and American bombing during the Vietnamese war, as well as looting over the ages) has pretty much worn the place down to the nub.

Stone in the grass

I love exploring ruins… I always wonder how much of our modern civilization will be left to the ages. Not much, I’d imagine, since glass and steel don’t seem to be able to last a few hundred years, let alone a thousand. Oh well, pictures say it better…

Apparently the Cham built a building first, then carved into it later

View of the main cleared out buildings

Small pond? No, bomb crater

Temple nearly completely covered with plants

This is a linga. Yes, it's phallic.

And this is the Yoni. It goes with the Linga. It's pretty obvious what it represents...

Last night I found myself just really feeling Vietnam-fatigue. This is by far one of the most difficult countries I’ve ever traveled in. While many people are kind and friendly, most people in the tourism industy seem to resent foreigners. I honestly don’t blame them considering the last 50 years of foreigners have brought nothing but war, agent orange, fat people in speedos, and pedophiles. But that’s not every tourist or traveler, and it sucks to have everyone either rolling their eyes at you, or muttering under their breath, staring at you with contempt, or just trying to scam you because everyone else who they’ve met has treated them like a slave or worse.

Anyways, the night bus was an interesting experience. The night buses are actually bunk bed-type seats. Not much room, but probably the best night bus I’d ever been on (Japan should import some of these things!) Nonetheless, it was a rough ride as the roads in Vietnam are pot-hole ridden and the bus driver drove like a maniac. After a toilet stop that horrified the foreigners, the bus soon started to smell of sewage (thanks to the over-usage of the on-bus toilet.)

Yet this morning, despite the smell and the cramping legs, I woke up to a ray of sun hitting my eyes. As I sat up and put on my glasses, I saw something out of a dream or a postcard, something that you never thought actually existed for anyone but National Geographic photographers and here I was sharing the view with a dozen other people from a stinky bus. The sun was bright red and rising right over a flooded rice paddy, violet-tinged clouds dotting the sky like they were placed there by the hand of God. In the middle of a field was a woman with a rice-hat on, bent over with a wooden sicle, doing the work she’s done every day, that her parents probably did, not posing for tourists, just going on with life. I wish I had a camera, but I don’t think the camera could have really captured this perfect shot that I have engraved in my mind.

Then of course, the enchantment was broken when we arrived at our hotel and once again it was another push-and-pull of smiling politely even when people are rude to us, or being bright and sunny (which I am not naturally) even when someone is looking me up and down and assessing how much I’m charging. Just another day in Vietnam, I guess, so much beauty made so ugly by tourism.

The actual beach has litter everywhere: cigarette butts everywhere, wrappers, plastic bottles. There’s a gross brown film that you can see on the water. And there’s the fact that every 2 seconds you get harassed by the same 10 people asking, “Hey, buy something?” We’re polite to everyone, but I was irritated at a man who came with a box of books all in Vietnamese. When I said I could unfortunately only speak English, he walked off muttering under his breath. No idea what was said, but I can guess it wasn’t pretty.

Which leads me to whom most of the travelers here seem to be: creepy single European men. Hugh and I had a really weird experience where an old man flat out STARED at me the entirety of breakfast. Hugh finally moved his chair between the man and me, and I saw the man sort of grin. When we finished and left for the elevator, the man followed us in and started talking to us. I saw him later on the beach sitting on a bench and staring at us (and others.) Later, a random Vietnamese woman came up to him and they started talking. Shortly after, they left. I’m not going to presume anything, so I’ll let you do that. =P

What I noticed pretty quickly is how familiar Vietnamese people are with one another. It’s nice, but also sometimes a bit surprising. I watched strangers offer bits of their food to other people’s children. I saw a lady help an old man into his seat, and later she was unfazed as the old man smacked her on the ass to get her to get out of the aisle. That wasn’t the only time I saw someone spank someone adult to get them to do something either.

At one point this giant moth was flying around the train. The Vietnamese didn’t care at all, didn’t even blink an eye. I’m not trying to be patronizing, but in Asia I’ve found people are generally (at least outside of the big cities) more “in touch” with nature. I know on any train in America people would freak out over a moth the size of someone’s hand. Needless to say, when the moth flew towards me I started trying to hide (but didn’t scream! I was trying!) while Hugh was attempting to catch it in a lunchbox, only to have an old lady come up and just grab it in her hand and THREW it to the back of the train (at a sleeping woman, lol.) She gave me a big grin. She saved me again from Mothra a few hours later.

Anyways, the train ride was surprisingly fun. Minus the 7 hours of blaring television showing pretty much the most GOD AWFUL television possible. I’m talking about Cholesterol Man attacking ladies while Barley Tea man comes to save the day (all live action, taking place on a stage.)

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.

Taiwan was great and felt like normalcy again (do remember Hugh and I have been in Japan for 3 years). Everything was efficient like Japan, but with 1% of the analness. I don’t think we had any real problems here except the rain one night.

No time now, but I’ll be updating this post from Vietnam with some pictures.