I've missed the past couple of weeks posting because I have been on vacation. I had hoped to have time to post each week anyway, but I didn't really expect that to happen. Chinese New Year was on February 8 this year (they go by the lunar calendar, so it changes every year), and the Chinese have a festival of about two weeks surrounding the holiday called Spring Festival. Yes, even though it's cold and nothing is blooming, they consider this spring. Anyway, schools get out this time of year for an extended holiday. I had about six weeks of vacation for the holiday. Of course, I couldn't afford to travel for the entire time, so I decided to meet up with friends on their vacations since I hadn't traveled anywhere in Asia except China. That afforded me to see the opportunity to see more places than just on beach resort. But I did want to see at least one.
My Italian friend, Angelo, wanted to take a couple of weeks in Vietnam. We decided to base our explorations in Hanoi, a wonderful town that has, unfortunately, been overrun by tourists. The city is very big and sprawling and isn't terribly pleasant outside the city center. That historic center, however, is amazing. The streets are narrow and quaint, the food is fantastic, and they've taken on the french habit of sitting in cafes and drinking coffee while watching the world go by. And Vietnamese coffee is a unique creation. It's thicker than what we drink, served in a very small cup (you wouldn't want a full sized cup). And if you order it with milk, you get sweetened condensed milk poured into the cup before the coffee (stir vigorously before drinking). Some placed even give you the cup with a small press above it to produce the coffee at the table. You have to wait 5~10 min to drink.
Before we stayed even our first night in Hanoi, we went to the mountain town of Sapa on an overnight train ride. The town is nestled in beautiful misty mountains and is also overrun with tourists. People come here to 'trek' through the countryside (I'm not sure what differentiates this from hiking) to the local villages and spend the night in 'homestays' with the villagers. Don't be fooled, as I was, into thinking that a homestay means that you're staying in someone's home. It's just a term they use that is basically the same as a bed and breakfast. Village style. Angelo was quite distressed by the poverty and the sadness of the the children who were dirty and had to sell souvenirs on the street. Also, the children had runny noses. That added to the distress, I think. But all I kept noticing were the villagers driving by in an Escalade (I kid you not) and new scooters (popular all over Vietnam) as well as the several schools (one for each village, I think) that looked to be recently built. All of this has likely come because of tourism. Additionally, these 'homestays' were popping up all over the place and several served a dual function, such as homestay/ restaurant or homestay/ bar. Things seemed to be going pretty well and I tried to remind Angelo that children get dirty everywhere and have runny noses everywhere, and none of them seemed to be starving.
In any case, on to Da Nang. Well, close by. You may have heard Da Nang mentioned in films or television shows about the Vietnam War (called the American War in Vietnam). You may remember the '90s television show China Beach, which was set in/around Da Nang. Da Nang is at about the dividing line between North and South Vietnam during the war. The reason we went, however, is because the ancient town of Hoi An is located about an hour south. The town is quaint and cute, and located close to a beach. However, it's also overrun with tourists. My impression of Hanoi as having too many tourists was quickly corrected. There's nothing in the town except t-shirt shops, leather shops, silk specialty stores. Most of the food is western and very little has anything to do with Vietnam, let alone Hoi An. We did find a really good sandwich shot, though. The old structures are cool to see, but it probably wasn't worth more than a day. We spent three.
Our last few days before leaving were spent back in Hanoi. Angelo had some friends there and we met up with one for a traditional Chinese New Year feast. It was an enormous amount of food, which neither of us could finish. Angelo, because he's pencil thin and I, because I had a cold coming on and didn't have an appetite. Angelo finished the vacations with a trip to Halong Bay, an area close to Hanoi renowned for its beauty and I finished the day by strolling through the streets of Hanoi finding what are called 'communal houses'. These were originally intended to be meeting places for the village (when Hanoi was a collection of villages instead of one giant city), but eventually took on a more religious function as Buddhist shrines were added by royal decree in ancient times.
Next up, I left Vietnam to meet friends in Bangkok. We hadn't prearranged much and I had no real way to contact them upon arrival, so I didn't have much hope that I'd actually find them, but after getting here, I contacted them by email and found out they hadn't come at all. Which I knew was a possibility all along. So I set off to explore a bit of Thailand. After two breakneck weeks exploring Vietnam, however, this last week was going to be a bit more relaxed. I didn't see a single tourist site in Bangkok, experienced no culture, and the finest cuisine I dined on was a really fantastic hamburger and french fries at one of the ritzy malls. Bangkok has quite a few malls, it's worth noting. I can also tell you that the way to get around Bangkok is not the took-tooks, which are basically just motorized pedicabs, but the buses (as they usually are). I'm always amazed at how far people will travel to experience a different culture, then what lengths they will go to to avoid the local people. (It should be noted that it takes a few tries to get the hang of the local bus system, but that's part of the fun).
Another note on Bangkok: many tourists end up, as I did on a friend's advice, on Khaosan Road. If the armpit of humanity is your idea of a good time, then Khaosan is the place for you. Imagine upper Bourbon Street in New Orleans without all the class. Touts that almost outnumber the tourists, every available storefront is either a t-shirt shop or a bar filled with drunken college kids and it seemed most everyone was high. On a single walk down Khaosan after dark I was offered taxi services, massages, and the services of an expert prostitute. All by the same guy, in that order. Apparently his technique is to escalate available services. But I don't want to sour Bangkok's reputation. Oh, who am I kidding? That is it's reputation. But I got the impression that there are also tons of historic sites, too. But I was frankly tired of going and decided the last few days of my vacation should be a well deserved rest.
And that brings me to my current location. This is more or less the last real day of vacation. I start the journey home tomorrow. For the past couple of days I've been on a tropical island off the coast of Thailand. I left Bangkok by bus and 3.5 hours later I was on a shabbily assembled pier waiting on a ferryboat that took about forty minutes to get to the island. The island is small, but covered in tourists. There are a limited number of hotels, but some do look quite nice. I'm staying at a hostel in the town, but the walk to the beach is both short and pleasant. I spent basically the entire day at the beach yesterday and received a bit of a burn as a result. But I plan to go back to the beach today for a couple of hours. That will be a good end to the vacation.
I've never traveled this much at one time before. Also, never really traveled on my own. I'm grateful that I got the opportunity. It has proven to me that I'm capable of doing these sorts of things and having a good time doing it. I've also met several people on this trip, which is also partly what traveling is about. Part of the reason that I'm interested in continuing to work in this part of the world is that I'll be afforded the opportunity to travel more in it. I see endless opportunities for travel here, so I'm glad to have done a little. I'm looking forward to more in the future. Now I just have to see what options are available to continue teaching next year.
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