See You Again Vietnam

I wake up the next morning feeling horrible in both mind and spirit. I feel bad in the mind because I am hung-over. I feel a little down from the night before and the general loneliness of being in a beach town alone. I think the second feeling is compounded by the fact that I am hung-over. I decide I need to leave, but I have two problems with this decision. First, I think the hotel might not be happy of the short notice and charge me an extra day. I am also worried about my bus trip. I am supposed to give one days notice for my open ended bus ticket to secure a seat on the bus.

First I walk down the stairs and tell the receptionist I am leaving at 6pm, and I ask if I can leave my things at the hotel while I hang out at the beach. She said no problem, and that I just have to be out of my room by noon. First problem has been taken care of. Next, I settle the second problem. I walk down to the travel agency and I ask the girl if there is anyway I can get on the bus that leaves at 6pm and apologize for the short notice. She does not even blink an eye and confirms a reservation for me on the 6pm bus. Both problems were easily taken care of in a matter of fifteen minutes.

I still have one problem though. I have six hours to kill with a hang-over. I was planning on seeing some of the sights around town, but the horrible feeling in my head prevents this. I decide to head down to the beach. The beach just amplifies my loneliness. I am however able to successfully kill some time down at the beach. I run into a fellow named Murray from New Zealand who is also traveling alone. He has come from Hanoi, so he is a useful source of information for my trip north. My next stop was supposed to be Hoi An, but talking to him I feel like this town can be skipped. It is only four more hours to the next stop Hue. I am feeling like time is of the essence now because I want to go back to Thailand for a week or so and then I will spend three weeks in the Philippines, so I cannot spend a whole lot of time in Vietnam.

Finally the bus picks me up and I head north to Hue. It will be a long trip made longer by the fact that I have a hard time sleeping on a bus. The highlight of the bus trip was some spectacular views of the ocean from high cliffs right along the coast that the highway followed. Once it got dark you could see thousands of little fishing boats out on the ocean as far as the eye could see. Each boat uses this bright fluorescent light that lights up the boat very bright. It is an absolutely dazzling view with the boats and their lights. I am told they are used to attract the fish. They use to use dynamite, but it was found that the explosions damaged the ocean floor, so now they use fluorescent lights instead.

Since not much happened on this day it is a good time now to explain one of the favorite English expressions of people in Cambodia and Vietnam, which is “see you again.” This is said in a heartfelt way to tourists hoping that you have enjoyed your stay so much that you will want to return to their country/city/hotel/guesthouse and that they will in fact see you again.
Three stories that represent this expression or feeling:

Story number 1:

I was staying in Nha Trang in Vietnam at this family owned hotel. A wonderful place that I think I have raved about in previous sections of the story. The daughter of the owner is named Huong, and she may be one of the sweetest persons I have ever met. Every time I come in she greets me with a huge smile and wants to know where I have been and how I have liked it.

One night I was thinking about going out and on my way out I ended up talking to her for an hour. The conversation was basically just a repeated set of questions that I have answered now it seems a thousand times. It was funny because she would ask “is this your first time in Vietnam?” Yes, I would answer. Then she would think really hard and then ask “how many people in your family?” I would answer three, then I would ask how many in hers. After an hour of this I grew sleepy and decided not to go out and went to bed instead. When I went to bed she said “thank you for talking to me.”

The day I was leaving I approached her and I asked her how she was. She told me she was sad that I was leaving. My bus was leaving at 6pm, and check out time was noon, but they let me leave my bags at the hotel, and I hit the beach until my bus came. I ended up walking around a lot and got kind of sweaty, so I asked when I returned to the hotel if I could take a shower before my bus came, and I would pay for it. She said no problem and took me to a shower and refused to take any money. Then I had a picture of us together in front of the hotel and got her email and told her I would email the picture. When the bus came she followed me out to the bus and waived at my window until it was out of sight. I was almost in tears. Here is a girl I have never kissed or held hands with was seeing me my off to my bus like a girlfriend seeing a soldier going off to war. The last thing she said to me was “see you again.”

Story number 2:

When I booked the booze cruise trip through a travel agent the girl asked what hotel I was in. I said Blue sky hotel. Then I thought, wait it is Blue Star, so I said no sorry it is Blue Star. She said Blue Sky again and wrote this on my ticket. I wasn’t quite sure what the name of the hotel was, so I did not say anything. May be she knew better than I did. Later when I was back at the hotel I realized it was Blue Star and that she had written Blue Sky on the ticket. This is a problem because they pick you up at the hotel. Instead of taking care of it right away, I blew it off and said I would deal with it the next morning.

The next day I was running late and like a jerk, I showed up at the travel agency five minutes before the bus was supposed to pick me up and told her that I was not staying at Blue Sky. She told me there is a Blue Sky hotel in town also. She calmly picked up the phone and called the bus driver, and she asked if it was okay if I waited there for 30 minutes. No problem, I said. She then asked me almost to a tee the same exact questions that Huong had asked me the night before. The bus had to totally reroute its schedule to come back and pick me up. This is no big deal because Nha Trang is small, but I appreciated the fact that they did not roll their eyes and say stupid foreigner. They just did what they could to make it easier for me. The driver came and picked me up and the travel agent Vy said to me “thank you for talking to me. See you again.”

Story number 3

When I arrived in my next town yesterday, called Hue, when I got off the bus I had left my hat in the bus. I was taking a shower when I realized in a panic that I forgot my hat. My hat cost me 3$ in Chiang Mai, but I have become kind of attached to it for sentimental reasons. I hurriedly dried off and ran down the stairs. A guy from the hotel greeted me with a big smile. I told him I had left my hat on the bus. I asked if we could call the bus and ask that they drop it off at a travel agency, and I could get it later. He got a serious look on his face, and he said, “come with me, we will catch the bus.”

I got on his moto-bike and we were on a madcap dash around the streets of Hue looking for my bus. We stopped at a couple of travel agencies and he yelled something in Vietnamese to the girls behind the desk. They replied back in Vietnamese and pointed, he pushed the pedal on the gas and we took off again in the direction they pointed to. Finally, we found the bus stopped in front of a hotel. He asked the hotel clerk and the clerk said the driver is sleeping. He said that I could come back at 5pm. I said ok, but first let me make sure it is in there. I tried to look through the dusty windows to see my hat. I got to the door side of the bus and realized it only had one door. The bus I was in had two doors. Just at this same moment my driver was informed the same thing. I told him, “this is not the bus.”

He pointed to the back seat and we were off again. We stopped at another travel agency and he yelled at the girls in Vietnamese. They replied in Vietnamese and pointed to a seat. He told me the bus would be here shortly and we could wait. Five minutes later the bus arrived and I retrieved my beloved I am a tourist geek hat with a huge shit eating grin on my face. He took me back to the hotel. I was expecting him to pander for money, and I was going to give him some anyway, but he did not. I gave him 2$, and he at first genuinely refused, but I insisted and he thanked me. 2$ was almost more than the hat, but he deserved it for such a helpful attitude. I have not left this hotel where he works yet, but I know when I do if I see him again before I leave that he would say “see you again.”

Booze Cruise

From what I have written so far about Vietnam, readers might get the impression that I am unhappy or do not like the Vietnamese people. This is not the case at all if I gave this impression. When you are traveling here or anywhere for that matter and following tour books one gets kind of funneled to all the tourist spots. Along this tourist route there are many people that try to separate you from your money. This is the same in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and even in tourist places like Las Vegas in the United States. For me it just boiled to a head yesterday, and I needed to vent a little.

I think when you travel like this you only come into contact with 1% of the population. Of this 1%, half of them are tour guides, hotel workers, and people who are dedicated to making your travel easy and fun. These people are absolutely wonderful. Just today I was checking my fantasy basketball statistics at the hotel computer and this old lady at the hotel jumped up and turned on the light for me and the fan. When the connection was not working she yelled for her daughter Huong. Her daughter came out of her room and actually ran in a full gallop over to me to help me.

Another quarter of this one percent are people selling their goods that you want to buy. The other quarter are people hounding you with things that are not really needed and they can sometimes even ruin the pleasure of traveling. I think 80% of the rest of the Vietnamese people are probably completely wonderful people and the other 15% are mediocre people and the other 4% are assholes. I have not met any Vietnamese assholes or any Asian assholes for that matter, but every population has their share, and I think 4% is probably a pretty low number. Our asshole population probably lies between 10-15%. Sometimes manning the phones at Chase Insurance or waiting tables at the Big Bowl it feels much higher.

It is my fault that I have let this bother me and also my fault for settling for the tourist areas. I do like to hit the tourist spots and see the areas where other tourists come from around the world to see. However, I really like to break away from this at a certain points and see the real areas of a country and meet the real people of the country. The problem is here that they make the tourist areas so convenient with open ended bus tickets and convenient tours that it is so easy to get lazy and just follow along. The thing is that it is also so easy to break from this and take a bus to a village that no one ever travels to. It just takes a tiny bit of effort, but there is a fear of the unknown in this little bit of effort because these places are outside the travel guides. I made this effort in Thailand and was greatly rewarded for my small effort like meeting Lex who helped us out after we ran out of gas outside of Chiang Mai. For some reason, I never made this effort in Vietnam and only was able to have the type of non-tourist experience I was looking for from shear luck.

I woke up this morning and got on the bus for the booze cruise. I wrote earlier how Nha Trang reminded me of Provence, but after the cruise I kind of feel like this area is like Hawaii although I have never been. The ocean is a beautiful clear blue color and medium sized high hills or small mountains rise right up from the shore. The islands also are covered with tree covered mountains.

I was supposed to be picked up at my hotel, but there was confusion when I made the booking. I was not sure what the name of the hotel was just that it was Blue something or other. She wrote down the Blue Sky Hotel. That morning I looked at the voucher I had for the tour and it said Blue Sky and I looked up at the hotel sign where I was staying and it said Blue Star. I went and ate some Pho for breakfast and then showed up at the place where I made the booking about a half hour before the bus was supposed to pick me up.

I told the girl at the booking agency that I was sorry, but I told her the wrong hotel name. Instead of rolling her eyes at how stupid I was, she calmly picked up the phone and made a call. She said the bus would pick me up here in fifteen minutes. The girl’s name was Vy, pronounced Vee, and while I was waiting for the bus she asked me all the questions that all the locals loved to ask. “Where are you from?” “Is this your first time in Vietnam?” “Are you married?” “Who are you traveling with?” I am starting to get annoyed at all of these questions, but when they are asked from someone as sweet and nice as Vy it was difficult to get annoyed. Finally the bus came to pick me up and I thanked Vy for the trouble, and she thanked me for talking to her.

There was like 30-40 people on the cruise and the boat was crowded as we all had to stay in the main part of the boat while it was traveling fast to our destination. There were a few Vietnamese people on the tour, but the majority of them were foreign travelers like me. There were some really cool Swedish people that were going in the opposite direction I had traveled, so I gave them some pointers on Cambodia. There was also a couple named Ally and Jane who were from Britain that I had run into many times since arriving in Vietnam. That is one interesting part of traveling as there are travelers that you keep running into if you are headed in the same direction. I had sat next to Jane on the bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon and had seen them out a couple of times in Saigon. They were also on the bus with me from Saigon to Nha Trang. Now, here they were again on the boat tour with me.

The cramped quarters on the boat made me crabby at first, but soon we were able to spread out once we slowed down by climbing on top of the canopy part of the boat, which provided shade to the main area or going up to the front of the boat. Our first stop was a coral reef. We were all given snorkeling equipment and allowed to snorkel. They told us it was very deep and we could dive from the top of the boat. A couple of us brave souls went to the top of the boat. We all sat and waited for the first one to dive. A Swedish girl dived in first and then we all followed. I was surprised that not everyone on the boat chose to snorkel. Only a quarter of us got in.

The reef was amazing, and I swam around close to the shore gazing at some of the prettiest fish I had ever seen. It was like swimming through an aquarium. No sharks or anything, but many, many different kinds of fish. I have not snorkeled for like 15 years, so I was a little rusty. I swallowed quite a bit of salt water, but soon I got the hang of it and was able to dive down to the bottom and follow some of the interesting fish. The only problem was I got stung by a few jellyfish. It did not hurt that much though. It was a minor inconvenience compared to the beauty that I was experiencing.

After an hour we returned to the boat. The best way to wash a little salt water down is by swilling down some beer. We did just that as a round of Tiger beer was handed out. I got up on top of the boat with a bunch of other tourists and they then served us lunch up on top. Lunch was delicious and was highlighted by some deep fried shrimp rolls and an almost buffet of fresh tropical fruit.

Our tour conductor said we soon will have floating bar, but we needed to digest first. He said that the best way to digest was by listening to the band. The tour conductors then became musicians. The boat driver played guitar and vocals, the main tour guide sang, there was a drummer playing a makeshift drum, and another tour guy played the tambourine. The tambourine player had coconuts over his breasts and these exotic goofy glasses. They played woolly bully, obli-di-obla-da, Hotel California, and a few Vietnamese songs. These guys were really silly and were definitely the Vietnamese equivalent of They Might Be Giants. I am not sure what the fixation is with Hotel California here in Southeast Asia is, but it is by far the most loved American song. I have heard it everywhere and continued to hear it in every country I traveled after Vietnam.

After the entertainment the floating bar came out. This consisted of a circular device that was kept afloat by inner tubes. At the top of the floating contraption was a bartender. The bartender had a whole box of free wine, which he dispensed to all of us, which were all floating around the bar in our own inner tubes. You could even hold on to the bar with your feet. It was kind of tough to stay afloat with one hand frantically trying to keep the wine glass level, so as not to spill while using the other hand to keep afloat by paddling, but somehow we all managed. At one point I tipped over and my whole body went over, but I extended my hand straight in the air with the wine glass and it miraculously did not spill that much. It was an impossibility to not spill anything, but the goal was to drink as much as possible while trying to spill as little as possible. Once again, I think we were all successful in our own way doing this. There were a few Vietnamese people on the cruise and they were chanting this silly little song that went “more wine, more wine, more wine, more wine, more wine, more beer.” They kept repeating it over and over again, and of course I joined in.

Happy hour ended too soon and we went back to the boat. Next we docked at a government beach and did some more swimming. An impromptu sand volley ball game broke out and we played that for about an hour. I played on an all girl team consisting of some Swedish girls and I think Norwegian girls against an all guy team. The girls that I was playing with were tall an athletic and we gave the guys a run for their money. Next we went to some other dock and had the opportunity to ride some boats, but I was activitied out for the afternoon and just hung out on the boat. It was a great day and what was even better completely peaceful. The tour was completely protected from the army of peddlers.

After the tour ended, we were returned to our respective hotels. There was talk on the bus of a place called the Sailing Club. This was a bar close by to the hotel, and I decided to make my way there after dinner. As soon as I walked in, I recognized the Swedish group, Ally and Jane, and a few other people from the boat all drinking. I sat next to Ally and we talked music as we found that we had similar tastes in music.

A cute Vietnamese girl was throwing ice cubes at me, and I mentioned this to Ally. I went over and sat down and talked with her. She asked where I was staying, and I told her the Blue Sky. She said she could not come back with me there, but she knew a 6$ hotel where we could go. This was all right after hello. I returned back to the European group and sat down again next to Ally. Ally had to go to the bathroom, and he asked me to save his seat. The first person that tried to grab his seat, was Dave, who I had shared the taxi with my first day in Nha Trang. Kevin was there as well and I talked with them for a bit as well.

I try to get up and do a little dancing, but it can be pretty awkward being at a discotheque by yourself. It is much more fun going to a discotheque with your own date than trying to find one unless you get lucky. Luck was not on my side tonight. In fact, it was downright against me. The only interest I was getting was from a Vietnamese prostitute and also from a very large girl that ended up chasing me out of the club. I was walking to the bathroom when I ran into this very large Canadian girl that I had met and talked to on the government beach that day on the boat tour. She was one of the few tourists I had met that had been to the Philippines, so I was interested in talking with her as I was heading that way soon. When I saw her on my way to the bathroom she said to me “what is a nice guy like you doing in a place like that.” I almost threw up at the cheesiness of this stupid pick up line. I kind of ignored her and continued on my way to the bathroom. A little bit later I was sitting next to Ally when she plopped down in the chair next to me and unbelievably she reiterated the same horrible pick up line to me word for word. It is bad enough to be guilty of a cheesy horrible pick up line, but to use it twice in the matter of fifteen minutes to the same person is just inexcusable. She started to caress my arm. I excused myself for the bathroom, which I think is the international sign for I am not interested. She was incredibly persistent and cornered me again. Again, I excused myself for the bathroom and departed the bar altogether. I was tired of this prostitute infested, aggressive big girl place.

This was the first time on my trip I was a little bit depressed. In my opinion, although beaches and discos can be enjoyable, I think they are more easily enjoyed with friends and lovers and not by oneself. Beaches are a place to walk hand in hand with your lover and discos are places to dance with them. If I am alone, which I am on this whole trip, pubs and jungles I think are much more interesting places to meet people and explore.

The Army of Peddlers in Nha Trang Wear out the Patience of Traveling Ted

Next morning I was hitting the beach and excited about it. I had a bowl of Vietnamese Pho soup for 50 cents for breakfast. The hotel is like a block from the beach. This beach is one of the most stunningly beautiful beaches I have ever been too. The scenery consisted of clear blue water with mountainous islands in the distance. The beach and the surrounding countryside is very similar to the Provence area in Southern France. I felt this way on the bus ride there as the landscape was rugged and dry like the hills I had seen in Provence. I felt this even more strongly now that I glimpsed the Nha Trang beach with its beautiful blue water.

I was really looking forward to the beach as I had been walking around in the jungle heat of Southeast Asia for over a month without much relief, so a whole ocean at my disposal was most welcome. Unfortunately, all this beauty and enjoyment was kind of ruined by the army of peddlers that stalk the beaches. You cannot sit for two minutes in peace without someone coming by and offering postcards, jewelry, guides around town, and many other items. It is really annoying. Then a bunch of kids came by and were running around me kicking sand on to me. Then they came over and started to bother me for money. This was worse than Cambodia. I had a taste of this at dinner the night before as we were eating pizza we had to shoe away a couple of ladies trying to sell items to us through the window. The beach was far worse. They come at you in waves and do not take no for an answer at least the first time. They had these women that carried this cardboard poster board that had these slots that were filled with gum, sunglasses, toenail clippers, candy bars, potato chips, et. . They were basically walking convenient stores. They would point to everything on their board instead of just taking a general “no” for anything you had to refuse the toenail clipper, then the gum, then the candy bar, etc. . Then five minutes later another peddler would come by with the same items, and you would have to go through the same procedure.

This adorable little girl came over and saw that I was writing in my journal. She started to draw pictures in it. Then she wanted to sell me postcards. I asked how much. For a set of 10 she wanted 3$. Yea right, you can get postcards for at most 10 cents a piece. I offer to give her a $1 for basically just leaving, but she tells me she does not want my money. Yea right. I finally settle on 2$ and some change and she thankfully leaves. My moment of peace does not last long as here comes a lady wanting to give me a massage.

I really enjoyed buying things in Thailand. The haggling in Thailand is pretty laid back and easy. They start out with a very reasonable price in the first place and then you barter until an even more reasonable price is agreed upon. It is completely different here. In Vietnam they start out with an outrageous price. When you try to barter they only deduct a small amount off the ridiculous price thinking that they can trick you into thinking the item is close to the crazy price first given. I fell for this trick and bought some very beautiful silk prints for about 5$ a piece. The sales dude started out quoting like 6$, so I thought that I was getting a good price by reducing it. As soon as he left another dude was selling the same thing, and I told him I don’t need anymore as I already bought some. He asked how much I paid, which kind of annoyed me because this was none of his business. He then told me he would have sold me the items for half as much as I bought them. This second salesman told me this thinking it was a good sales move to show that his were half the price, but it only enraged me, and I angrily turned him away. This happened again and again to me in Vietnam. The way you have to barter in Vietnam is to look interested in something then refuse the first, second, and third offer, but still seem interested. Then refuse and walk away. They will then drop the price in half, probably by two-thirds if you follow this route. Another good strategy is to get two people selling the same thing and make them compete against each other. This is easy to find as their are many peddlers selling duplicate items here.

I finally get the hell out of there. Later I went to dinner. One of my favorite activities is sitting at a roadside cafe, having some dinner, and drinking a beer while reading in between courses. Usually, I love this. Once again, here, I am pummeled by the peddlers as I try to enjoy my meal. The walking convenient stores again come and harass me while I am trying to eat and relax. I refuse them all. I mean it is convenient that these ladies walk around, but when it becomes too convenient it becomes annoying. They are either conveniently annoying or annoying convenient, I cannot decide which one. One thing for sure, if you lose your lighter, finger nail clipper, or sunglasses in Vietnam, do not fret. You will have the opportunity to replace it in five minutes. Just sit in one place for five minutes and the walking convenient store army will find you.

I ran into Kevin and Dave from the night before and they were going to splurge at an expensive restaurant and asked if I wanted to join, but I refrained and went with the more budget minded option of the café across the street. In between getting harassed, the owner’s son at the restaurant named Daw came by and talked with me for awhile while I was eating. I did not mind this interruption as he was very nice. I returned to the hotel, which was my oasis of calm in this kind of annoying city. I played guitar and drank a few beers and pondered going out. Instead I walked downstairs and bought a beer and sat and talked with the adorable Huong for an hour. She ran off an array of questions I was getting used to as everyone asked these same general questions. After an hour of answering her questions, I grew tired and excused myself for bed. When I left, Huong thanked me for taking the time to talk with her. In this obnoxious town, at least there were a few diamonds like Daw and Huong that were enjoyable to talk to.

I was looking forward to the next day as I booked a booze cruise tour around the islands of Nha Trang. I was hoping that this would be more peaceful than the beach had been today. The boat advertised a floating bar, so I was pretty excited about that. All the tourists had raved about this tour that I had talked to, so I knew it was going to be a cannot miss good time.

Bus to Nha Trang

My next destination after Saigon was Nha Trang, which is a beautiful beach area north of Saigon. This was a twelve hour bus ride, and one-fourth of the trip was spent getting out of the city and suburbs of Saigon. Even in Chicago when you drive out of the city one eventually hits a country area or a less populated area. We just kept driving and driving and driving through populated areas congested with cars, bikes, and people. Finally, after three hours we finally got out into the countryside and the bus was able to make some decent time.

The scenery also improved once we got out of the city area. In order to enjoy the scenery, it is necessary to look past the side of the road. Unfortunately, the side of the road is basically one long garbage dump all the way to Nha Trang. In Vietnam and other places I have visited so far the people at stores are insistent on giving paper baggies no matter what you buy. If you buy one coke they want to put it into a bag. The result of this paper baggie fetish is omniscient as I can see them everywhere from my bus seat rolling in the wind like tumbleweeds. At one point there was a field that was swimming in an ocean of discarded plastic baggies of all different colors.

Vietnam is a very narrow country. No matter where you are, you are not far from the ocean. The redeeming part of the bus ride was some spectacular views of the ocean. The views seemed to get better and better the farther north we traveled as the landscape became more rugged farther north and we wound up and down treacherous roads with beautiful vistas overlooking forests full of green, mountains, and the sea. The bus I was taking was an open ended trip with various stops along the way. The first stop was a sleepy little ocean village called Mui Ne. I did not opt to stop here, but I kind of wish I did. The beach here was a mixture of sand and rocky outcroppings and the boulders along the beach were really pretty. There was not much to Mui Ne except a little village area and a few quiet hotels. We dropped a few travelers off here and resumed the trip to Nha Trang.

We finally got to Nha Trang and the bus took us to this hotel. They must have had a deal with the hotel because this hotel was kind of far from the main drag. A bunch of people on the bus started to protest about the bus going here and wanted to be dropped off closer to town. They were ignored, so a bunch of people got off. I asked one guy what was going on, and he said he and his buddy were grabbing a taxi and going into town and invited me to join them in the cab. They had a Lonely Planet guide too, and the cabbie took us to a hotel that was in our guide book.

We were greeted by the friendly and cute Huong at the Blue Star Hotel. The hotel is completely awesome. For 8$ I get a clean room with cable TV, a/c, hot shower, beach towel, and the front desk people are incredibly nice. They also have a guitar in the front room. I asked the front desk whose guitar it was, and he said it was mine implying it was for guests. So, I took it up to my room and annoyed the neighbors for two hours. It was the first time I have played in a month and a half. I was a little rusty and my fingers hurt, but I soon was playing decently.

After getting our rooms Kevin and Dave from Vancouver and I got dinner. They were the dudes I shared a cab with to get here. It was happy hour at Crazy Kim’s restaurant, which meant 2-1 San Miguel beers. We also ordered two large pizzas and nachos. No Vietnamese cuisine tonight. After dinner we returned to the hotel and crashed as we were all exhausted after the twelve hour bus trip.