Things that Never Happen at Home #3

Being out here traveling is so fundamentally different from my day-to-day at home that I often find myself pondering these differences. There's the obvious - Not sitting behind a desk + computer all day; Not having neck cramps from holding the phone to my ear with my shoulder as I multi-task; No stress; No set routine. Now, in contrast - We brave the hot sun + freezing cold outside; My cramps are now in my legs from walking all day long; We ARE free to do as we like, but we're not out here with endless time or money to burn so we ARE judicious in our spending + in making each day count. When I reflect back at the end of each day, week, month... What are the things that seem worthwhile or even important??? It's the experiences of meeting memorable local characters or other like-minded travelers that you can picture yourself being friends with at home; Of tasting some delicious + unique food that you never even knew existed that you'll try to replicate for friends; A wonderous, soul-inspiring sight that burns itself into your memory and which you revisit later in your dreams; AND those rare moments when the big, bright lightbulb in your head goes off and you gain a new insight. THIS will be my ongoing attempt to capture + relate some of the latter. Here goes...


Social Commuting

Sitting by yourself in a sealed-up metal box on wheels on your cell doesn't count! I'm talking about real, organic communication. We are LOVING the two-wheeled mode of transport here in Vietnam. Motos + bicycles RULE the road and you can often look up and down the street without a car in sight. For BLOCKS! AMAZING, Huh?! And while that's cool in and of itself, the fact that many people are riding side by side is even MORE interesting. We've seen a bicyclist prop their leg up on a moto to get a cruise while chatting, 2 on one bicycle and various other combinations of people using their time to get from Point A to Point B as a social hour. Even WE have been included, and in the numerous times we've now rented bicycles or motos many people have driven up along side us, matched pace, and struck up a conversation - Hello! Where are you going? Where are you from? etc., etc. Always accompanied by a huge smile. So we started doing it too. What fun to surprise THEM! Being a two-wheeled culture has other advantages too - No trouble finding parking, less injury accidents because of the slower pace, AND there are more trails here to explore this side of Holland.


Check the "link" for more photos from the Central Highlands + Hoi An

Simple Pleasures

Nha Trang - January 7

We're in a town on the central coast of Vietnam with not much to recommend it except for the fact that it's made two weary travelers feel at home. There's a locals neighborhood we've been spending time in, a nice mix of residential + commercial, where we've never seen another tourist, but also have been made to feel right at home by the residents. We've found a good corner bar, where there are even WOMEN drinking. This makeshift "bar" is actually just a dozen child-sized tables + chairs in front of the owners home, but it's a nice place to relax + enjoy 50 cent beers at the end of the day. Nearby, there's a made-to-order vegetarian restaurant "Co Tam" which makes a tasty cabbage-chicken salad, served with black sesame rice crackers + iced tea for only a dollar. A couple blocks down we do our I-net in what is also just the front room of the home of a very nice family. Only seven computers and only 13 cents an hour. Not bad, huh?! Our guest house is also family run and we scored a large, upstairs room with two black-lacquered double beds, a private bathroom with very hot water and tub, toilet + sink all in dark plum color. The whole effect being somewhat bordello-like and a steal at $5. And then there's breakfast. Fantastic, strong coffee (only 13 cents) served by a beautiful, fortyish Vietnamese woman + her mother who go out of their way, even during the morning rush, to teach us new Vietnamese phrases every day. To go with it, coconut pastries from another woman at a little stall across the street who beams with pride every time we tell here "Ngon lum!" (tasty).

Pleiku - January 10

We're the only foreigners in this central highlands market town. Another place with nothing to recommend it. We spent the last hour or so shopping for makings for dinner. What an experience! The people here are SO curious and really try and engage us. Everyone wants to know what we're buying and when we show them our collection of rice noodles, tofu, vegetables, pickled radish, peanuts + herbs they nod in approval. The magic words "Doi un Chay" and everyone respects that we're vegetarians. Most of the people follow a vegetarian diet at least twice a month in accordance with Buddhist protocol here so it's been very easy to get by. Besides curiosity, they love to laugh, usually at our expense. They tease us constantly about our height (they are very tiny people), our ratty clothing (everyone here takes care with their appearance and wears clean clothing + quite stylish too for the younger generation), and our mispronunciations (one screwed-up word out of our mouths will be accompanied by big belly-laughs while being circulated throughout the market, so that we're serenaded with laughter). None of it's malicious though and we've found the people to be getting more + more friendly as we've headed north from Saigon.

These are just some of the simple pleasures that we've come to treasure as long-term travelers. The longer we're out here, the more we appreciate that it's not always about seeing a "site", but simply strolling through a town and getting a feel for how other peoples' lives differ from our own. Trying to make a friendly connection. Cultural exchange.

In-Tense-City

Saigon - January 30

I stood transfixed for over half an hour by what was the equivalent to a 4-espresso-shot rush of adrenaline. Rush Hour, at the busy intersections of Tran Dung Dao + Nguyen Thai Hoc - Utter Chaos! Motos are up to 60 deep and a dozen across at it's thickest, all four directions, and there are loads of bicycles and some cyclos, cars + buses too. Kids have just gotten out of school and they clog the sidewalks, making it difficult to manouver through even on foot. It's a massive, mobile sea of humanity unlike anything I've ever seen. On one moto was a family of four nestled in to one another; Another had a man with a REFRIGERATOR strapped on and towering over his head; A teen girl in mini skirt, high heels + face mask to protect her from the sun; An old woman with conical hat attempts to skirt the traffic on foot balancing pots of hot food from a long pole over her shoulders; Beautiful schoolgirls in traditional, white Ao Dai cruise by on old bicycles, defying the flow of traffic. They all expertly weave in + through each other like schools of fish. It truly IS a sight to behold... I just wonder how many days of my life were taken off by inhaling all those fumes :(


Saigon - January 31

The War Remnants Museum - Heavy Duty! Frozen images captured on film. Many by photographers who died soon after the shots were taken, some within minutes. Men in ditches, families struggling for survival, guns, death, torture, blood + tears. And then too, the aftermath of horrific substances like Napalm + Agent Orange which have damaged millions of lives + livlihoods, apparent to this day. Has the U.S. ever even sincerely apologized? And even if we could be humble enough to do so, would/could the Vietnamese accept it? In disbelief I've spent the past ten days in country puzzled by the fact they they don't hate us, and stranger still, idolize America (at least American pop culture) and move ever faster to be more like us. I've come to realize through previous travels in places like Latin America that people don't hate US, just our government, but still I keep waiting for the spittle to fly and the disgusted cry, "American!", and all I'm getting is smiles.

Check the "link" for more photos of Saigon + the Central Coast of Vietnam