Vietnam part 1

Apologies for how long it took me to make this blog post but over the past two and a half weeks, I didn’t spend much time online or at a computer. On August 17th, Hanna and I left for our planned trip to Vietnam and Laos. We arranged to take a boat down the Mekong River, across the border and then to take a bus to Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon. The boat ride, while very loud, was pretty nice. Being on the water was pretty relaxing and I took a lot of pictures. After a few hours on the boat, leaving Cambodia required dealing with the always delightful Cambodian border police. I had overstayed my Cambodian visa by two days and the charge for overstaying is ‘officially’ five dollars a day but in this particular instance, the border police mentioned something about 30 dollars in ‘fees or taxes’ or some such nonsense. After a bit of arguing, pleading and notifying them that we are English teachers and don’t have much money, they finally conceded and let me get away with paying only what I was required to pay. I could probably spend a few paragraphs ripping on how corrupt and shitty the police and border police of Cambodia are but it wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Anyways, after crossing the border, making it through Vietnamese customs with no problems and some more time on the boat, we arrived in the town of Chau Doc, where we stayed the night in a guesthouse on the river. We wandered about the towns for a few hours, had some great food and took some pics. The next morning was spent eating breakfast, going on a boat tour to check out Vietnamese floating fish farms, and checking out a local village, mosque and some other sites. The few hours during lunch and after were spent on a bigger, more comfortable boat that slowly continued it’s way down the river. We eventually took a bus into Ho Chi Minh City, which was surprisingly much more developed that I expected. After wandering around a bit we managed to find a cheap guest house and went in search of food. We spent a few days in Ho Chi Minh, enjoying the amenities that have not been afforded by Phnom Penh the past few months, especially the movie theater. We saw both “Inception” and “Salt”, both of which we really enjoyed, while munching on some delicious and much missed popcorn. Ho Chi Minh is a pretty nice city to spend a few days in. There are some great sites to see, some museums worth checking out, especially the ‘War Remnants Museum’, which really gave me a much more accurate picture of just how costly the Vietnam War was. We walked all over the city and I took hundreds of pictures, which I will try to get uploaded to Facebook or Photobucket as soon as possible.

Based on information we’d heard from friends who’d traveled in Vietnam previously, Hanna and I expected Vietnam to be more expensive than Cambodia. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually quite a bit cheaper, especially with the low cost of ‘pho’ at a number of restaurants, often available for a dollar or a bit more. Travel across the country proved to be pretty cheap and easy as well, with a number of bus, train and plane services all over the country. Unfortunately, this leads to there being far too many travel agencies, many of whom have no problem ripping off foreigners, claiming to provide the cheapest available bus tickets while charging quite a bit more. Luckily, we figured out quickly that it’s much easier, smarter and cheaper to buy tickets directly from the bus companies when possible. Another thing I noticed about Vietnam, at least southern Vietnam, which I will probably touch on further, later on, is that the Vietnamese seem very indifferent to foreigners and tourists. Aside from the people who actually work in the tourist industry or street vendors, many Vietnamese people don’t seem to care much about people visiting their country. They are also a bit cold and less friendly. While in Thailand and to an extent in Cambodia, people are very friendly, open and quick to cater to foreigners and travelers, the Vietnamese just kinda go about their business and don’t pay much attention to foreigners. Anyways, more on that later.

From Ho Chi Minh, we went to Da Lat, a mountain town a few hours north, by overnight bus. Da Lat came highly recommended by our friend Chris, who is also working in Phnom Penh and did some traveling in Vietnam. After arriving early in the morning, checking into a guesthouse, passing out for a few hours, and eventually waking up to explore the city, the first thing we noticed about Da Lat was the lack of foreigners and businesses catering to foreigners. In most even somewhat popular tourist destinations, it’s easy to quickly find the ‘touristy’ areas, filled with t-shirt and souvenir shops, travel agencies, and restaurants and cafes offering western and Vietnamese food. It took hours of us walking around and exploring the city of Da Lat, which was quite beautiful and modern and reminded me very much of a mix of some mountain towns I’ve been to in the U.S. and European towns I’ve seen pictures of, before we found the touristy area, which wasn’t all that touristy. The roads were very windy and twisty, up and down, with businesses and apartments closely pushed together, surrounded by hills and mountains, beautiful green forest areas, rice paddies, and gardens. I took a lot of pictures in Da Lat but the photos do not do the city and surrounding countryside justice in the least.

Ok, I’ve been temporarily distracted by my desire for lunch. I will continue with more about Da Lat and the rest of the Vietnam trip, along with some pictures, asap.