In Vietnam (II)

Sorry about the past non-BCc: e-mails. You'd think I'd know better... :)

So here we are in Vietnam. The heat and humidity are still insane (I hear it's 29 in montreal now, so you have the same awesome weather). We're barely surviving with A/C. On our last day in Bangkok, we saw the Grand Palace, which was the hottest and most humid we've encountered so far, and Ryan almost passed out. Now, all of our days are compared to that. Not to mention the fact that Ryan's shirt is completely soaked with sweat almost every day. ;)

The remainder of Hoi An was getting our clothes refitted, fixed on the spot and running off. We took the rest of our time there pretty easily, just sitting around renting bikes. The only thing about Hoi An were the locals. They ended up driving me crazy (along with the heat). As a foreigner, I can't walk two steps on the street of Hoi An without getting accosted by people. There are wandering women running around the town who will grab you (by the waist) and steer you over to their shops to check it out 'just for one minute'. And if you pass by a shop, there will be people in front asking you to take a look for one minute. It's very overwhelming. I got very very burnt out because of this. Our guidebook says that the locals see tourists as insanely rich since we're travelling 'without working'. As Ryan said, the Vietnamese see us as wet sponges that they have to squeeze as much water out of as possible; our job is to be rocks which they have to squeeze blood out of. I walked out of Hoi An's clothing market with one pair of capris, two straight skirts, one cheongsam, two ao dai, one dress, all tailored. Ryan got two pairs of pants, two silk shirts, one silk vest, two linen shirts. All for about 200 USD.

I picked up Catfish and Mandala (Andrew X Pham), which is teaching me a lot about Vietnamese and Viet-kieu (foreign Vietnamese). It's a really tough read. In fact, all the books I've seen about the region look like very hard reads - emotionally trying and so on. So I'm reading the Catfish and Mandala book slowwwly. The 4-year old Rough Guide we picked up is giving me a good primer on Vietnamese history as well. I had no idea that the states had an embargo against Vietnam all the way up until 1995. Quite a stunner for me (of course, Ryan was expecting that).

So we took a harrowing bus ride from Hoi An to Hue yesterday along the coast, which reminded me of Hwy 1's reputation. The only thing here was that the guardrail was very low and made of concrete, and the lanes were very narrow with large buses going in either direction and insane hairpin turns all over the place. My stomach wasn't feeling so good on that ride. The vistas were incredible again - green as far as the eye could see and the bluest water imagineable. I assume that the beaches of Koh Samui will top that, but we'll see.... We got confused about the bus stop (language language!) and after I finally went up front and asked them which one was Hue, we got off, only to get accosted by some people from the hotel across the street.

The enterpreneurship of the people here is amazing, but the 'in your face' part of it is very trying after a while. Very trying. Our friends went off to the beach in Hoi An and were surrounded by Vietnamese trying to sell them stuff the entire time they were there.

Hue hasn't been as bad as Hoi An (it has its moments), but we're starting to get pissed off at the whole "let's rip off the tourists" attitude. As soon as a vendor sees that we're foreigners, they jack up the prices at least 2x. While the prices are pennies to us, the feeling of getting ripped off is not fun.

Today we went out the sidewalk and bought bun bo hue for only 5000 VND (dong - about 12000 dong to 1 CAD). Everyone here serves food on the stalls with the tiniest kid's stools and tables, so it was quite a site for them to see Ryan on the stools, and to see foreigners eating soup just like a local. Then we took a private boat tour with lunch to see some of the tombs around Hue - Tu Duc's tomb (with the empress' tomb, the minor concubines' tomb, the poetry pavilion...you get the picture), a temple and one pagoda. The woman taking us made us lunch and served it to us on the boat - on a large mat on the floor. Excellent meal, but it was sooo hot!! Finally it rained in the late afternoon and cooled down somewhat. Then we wandered around town, had a massage, ate more food at a local stall, did some shopping and now we're here.

Tomorrow, we're going to be checking out the Citadel and taking a sleeper train back to Hanoi. On Friday, as soon as we get off the train, we're going to Halong Bay for a day tour, and then staying the night in Hanoi. Saturday morning at 9am, our flight leaves Hanoi to Bangkok, Bangkok to Koh Samui. We're hoping that Koh Samui will be our relaxing vacation rather than crazy (like it is so far). You'll hear from me when we get there.

So far, Vietnam is the most beautiful out of Cambodia and Bangkok, but I still have to wait until Koh Samui to see. :)