Viet Nam: 9/20 – 10/11

Prologue

I still do not know what changed my mind from backpacking in Machu Pichu to Việt Nam this summer. Whatever it was, I think it was a great decision. After all, Việt Nam has many right reasons for me to visit and to explore. It is a country that I called motherland, a place where my childhood belongs to, a place with many familiar faces that shaped up the person I am today, a place with many of my childhood tales which I never got to listen, a place where I can truly learn about my root, my ancestor, a place where I have a sense of belonging. I was not a tourist. I went home for my very first time!

This is my first little documentary trip. This documented a feelings and experience of a grown up man visiting his own country for the first time. This documented one man’s vision of changing his country. This documented the poverty life in Việt Nam. This documented the life I once lived in.

Photos

Saigon | Long Thanh | Buon Ma Thuot | Ha Noi | Hai Hau | Ha Long Bay

Da Nang | Hoi An | Da Lat | Nha Trang | Sapa & Coc Ly market in Bac Ha | Hue

Part I: Finding My Root

From South to North

My first eight days were all about going back in time and places to find out who I am. I started out with the last placeI lived in , Sàigòn aka Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh. I began my journey from the place with the most memory to small countryside town which I was born in where my recollection of the place does not even exist. I made my way from the south to Hà Nội in the north where my bloodline was traced back to.

The address

The old alley

Chào Cờ đầu tuần (Monday flag salution & meeting)

Sàigòn was the longest as well as the last place I lived in. I grew up and schooled there from first to 7th grade. My very first thing I did after dropping off my luggages at Dì (aunt) Huệ, my mom next younger sister, was walking back to my old house. If my cousin Hoành was not there to point out the old house I could never recognized it. The alley/street was much smaller than I would imagine. Most if not no one in the neighborhood actually recognized me. Some families still there like Chú Chuối, he used to sell bananas for living and lived next door to us, and Bi Biển’s mom whose son was one of my hung out friend. I wanted to go inside but it was no longer my house. Someone else lives there now and I was afraid to knock on their door. About 100 yards down the street is Nhà Thờ Thánh Anthony (St. Anthony church) where my first communion and confirmation took place. On my second day, I woke up early to visit my 6th grade school, Trần Văn Đang. Students are still required to wear khanh quàng, red neck tie, which I think it is not so pretty at all. The only reason for the school to grant my request to be inside the school to take pictures was that Thầy Hiệu Trửơng (vice Principal) is my friend Tiến sáu ngón’s brother. Tiến does have 6 fingers on one hand. On my way back, I stopped by Thầy Trung’s house, my math teacher. His eyes went from semi blind when I left to completely blind now. He rarely goes outside, and if he does, someone got to lead the way for him. For the first time we talked like men. I was no longer a math student but rather a grown up man he had once educated. We talked pretty much about everything from life to politics.

A ride to the old house

About 80km northeast of the city is xã (city) Ấp Mới in huyện (county) Long Thành belongs in tĩnh (state) Đồng Nai where I was born. My family moved here after the war as part of the reeducation reform by the new communist government. To get there I took local bus with Dì Loan, my youngest aunt, and the only one left in the family lives there. My cousin, Beo, took me on the back of her motorbike to my old house but there was nothing left. The land was sold and a new house was built. This area is well known for rubber trees. There are acres after acres of rubber trees. They do not smell good though. This place is not fully developed. There are not a lot of paved roads, they are still dirt and they get really muddy in the rainy season. I remember I got to spend almost every summer down here. At the time Dì Huệ family was still here, and all of us cousins would hang out in the farm riding buffaloes and oxes, and at night we would gathered around Chú Cảnh, Dì Loan’s husband, to listen to Shogun story. He was such a great story teller and still is.

Mom's dad grave

On my 5th day, I ventured all by myself to a city that I have never been to in my life. Buôn Ma Thuột is about 380km north of the city, yet the bus ride was dreadful. I left at 10am yet arrived at 630pm. Flying is another alternative. The road to Buôn Ma Thuột is quite small and windy. In Buôn Ma Thuột I still have Cậu (uncle) Long and Dì Thơm. This is the place where my family first settled back in 1954 from the North when the country was divided in half. This is the place where my folks met and got married. This is the place where Ông Bà Ngọai (my mom’s parents) were buried. The weather in Buôn Ma Thuột is very nice, very chill with low humidity. Here is also the home of Ede minority. This city has had a lot of French influence. A lot of monasteries and churches still have French priests and nuns live there. Buôn Ma Thuột is also well known for coffee – the largest region for growing coffee in the nation. If you like to ride elephants, this would be a good place for it. There is not much of a night life here, everything closed early.

Tường & I

Tường & I 25 years later

My cousin,Tường, and I are only 1 month apart. He’s much taller now compare to the picture we took 25 years ago. We both had the same height. We are the only 2 bachelors left in the family. Others same age cousins are already married with kids. He is actually the last one on my mom side carrying the last name. Life in Buôn Ma Thuột is much easier than in the city. The traffic is much lighter and the air is definitely cleaner. Unfortunately, my journey did not end here. I still have hundreds of miles left to go.

Bus tickets

Leaving Buôn Ma Thuột behind, I headed north to the capital city Hà Nội via flying. Prior my departure to the capital, many of my relatives and people I talked to have warned me about bắc kì (nickname for Hà Nội people) that they cheat, lie and steal. Unless you speak northern dialect and accent, taxi ride, hotel stay and food usually cost two to three time more. Unfortunately to get to where my ancestor lived, going through Hà Nội is the easiest way. While waiting at the airport to the capital, I befriended with a young Hà Nội couple. They went south for vacation/honeymoon. They actually looked very decent and honest. Little by little I picked up their dialect and accent. I also found out that from the airport to Giáp Bát bus station, which will take me to Hải Hậu the next morning is about 40km, and that would cost me about $15-$20 USD. This couple was nice enough that once we got off the airplane they actually waited for me and showed me how to take local buses to save money. Before seeing me off on the first bus line #07, they actually warned me just like everyone else that I should look out for my belongings. After one hour plus on bus 07, I got off and transferred to bus #32 to Giáp Bát bus station. Again, right before I got off the first bus, the deckhand warned me to watch out for pickpocketing here in Hà Nội. At this point, I was very glad that all these strangers have been looking for me. After about 2 hours of bus rides I finally got to Giáp Bát bus station. It was 930pm. The thought of continuing on for another 3+ hours to Hải Hậu had diminished. I was so tired and hungry. My backpack somehow felt much heavier than ever. Under such circumstances, I decided to spend a night in Hà Nội near Giáp Bát bus station and wake up early the next morning. It was easier said than done. There was no hotel in the area, only nhà nghỉ. Hourly “motel”. They all look dark and sketchy, and here I was, all alone with a backpack on my shoulder and a camera bag. Even if I know the dialect and accent, there was no way I could hide the fact that I was backpacking. After about 1 mile of walking around the area and I completely ran of energy, I found the most decent place for $100,000VND. $6 USD. The front desk lady asked for my passport but I refused to give it to her. I offered to pay in advance instead. After unloading my stuffs, I walked around the area for dinner. It was around 1030pm and I found a phở place for $12,000VND. What a great deal I thought. Phở in Việt Nam is not that good. The soup quality is not there. The whole entire time I was eating, these flies from the neon lights kept on falling into my bowl. With not much a choice and I was starving, I hurried and finished my phở, headed back to the motel. I didn’t get much sleep that night. I left the room light on and pushed the chair against the door just in case someone would break in. It was the longest night of this trip.

rice

Woke up at 5am on the 9/28th, I caught the 6am bus to Nam Định for $45,000VND. Nam Định is a big city about 2 hours south of Hà Nội. The early ride was actually well worth. There were only 4 people on the bus. Along the free way stretches beautiful golden rice farms ready for harvest. About 35km inward lies a smaller city called Hải Hậu. To get there from Nam Định, I took another local bus #02 in for another 1 hour plus due to stoppings. According to the local, Hải Hậu is

The ancestor

well known for gạo thơm. The rice has a very unique and fragrance smell once it’s cooked. During my bus ride in, I’ve counted at least a dozen of churches and most of them have dated back to the 1800s when the French was still in Việt Nam. I got off the bus once it’s arrived at Yên Định bridge. From there I first went to my great grandparents’ (my mom side) house/land. The owner of this place runs a coffee karaoke business. Nothing from the old days were left. They told me that some of the beam structures were taken by the government to some Hà Nội museums. Đông Biên cathedral is within walking distance from the house. It was built in 1864. It was one of the most frequent visited church by my mom. Another short motorcycle ride took me to Triệu Thông cemetery where my great grandpa, Vũ Viết Nhuần, was buried. Vũ was actually the original last name on my mom side and later changed to Nguyễn during the Nguyễn dynasty.

I ended this part of my trip with a small lunch in the area and got on the 2pm bus straight back to Hà Nội bypassed Nam Định. My trip to Hải Hậu gave me a new perspective about myself. I felt like I have learned a lot within the last 8 days. I started out with the most familiar place to a place I knew nothing about. Throughout the remaining of my trip when local people asked me, “quê ở đâu?”. Where is your origin? I answered with pride, my hometown is Hải Hậu/Nam Định for I have walked the bridge of Yên Định and ate the rice from Hải Hậu. I’ve been to my ancestor’s graves, burnt incense and laid flowers. I have the dirt from the street where my ancestor had used to live on the bottom of my sandal. I’ve been there!

Part II: The Exploration

From North to South

2.1. Sapa – The city of fog

Black H'mong girls

Almost everything in Sapa is within walking distance – the market, church, park, etc. From downtown Sapa to Thác Bạc (Silver Fall) and back is about 3 hours leisure walk. Except on the way back, the climb is on the moderate side. This route can be swamped with tourists but worthwhile. Scatter along the way down to the fall are H’mong đen (black H’mong) houses and shops. The name black H’mong derived from their fashion. Most of their clothes are in black or darker color. On my way down to the fall I have casually promised these five young lovely ladies that I will buy their stuffs on the way back. Guess what? They actually caught me at the peak of the hill on my way back when I was exhausted from the climb to sell their stuffs. So I did buy their goods after a long long long negotiation process. It was all in English because they do not speak any Vietnamese. Their English, by the way, is really good though. On top of that, they must allow me to take their portraits. What a great deal I got there! To capture a grand view of Sapa, climb up to Hàm Rồng Fall. Due to time limitation, Fansipan would be a great mountain to climb. 3,143m (10,000 ft), Fansipan is the highest mountain in Indochina.

About 30 minutes drive outside of Sapa is a small village called Tả Phìn. Majority of the people there are Dao Đỏ (Red Dao) for they are wearing a red headband. Two main attractions in Tả Phìn are an old deserted monastery dated back to French era and a cave which takes about 2 days and nights to go through it. We stopped at #24 out of 200+ stops. One thing that you might not like here at Tả Phìn is that village people will follow you around during the visit to sell their stuffs, but they are harmless. I found it was more amusing and sort of enjoyed their small talks all together.

Sapa at night is very quiet. There is a small night market opens ’til 10pm or so. Most restaurants in Sapa cater to westerners, therefore it can be hard to find real Viet foods. Speaking of food, cơm lam (cơm=rice, lam=xanh=green) and apple wine originated from this area. Cơm lam is just regular sticky rice but they cook it inside of a bamboo. Of course there are other Sapa specialties; unfortunately I didn’t get to try.

2.2. Cốc Ly market – Minorities’ Colors

H'mong at Cốc Ly market

After Kinh (that would be me), H’mong is second largest ethnic group in Viet Nam. Cốc Ly market is about 2.5-3 hours drive from Sapa, and the home of H’mong Hoa (Flower H’mong). Again, the name was based on their fashion – very colorful indeed. To get here, it is better to go with a tour. I was not aware of any public transportation. The market is small but interesting. Only 1/3 of the market has touristy stuffs, the rest of the business is for the locals – meats, dishes, fruits, just about everything and anything. The weather in Cốc Ly is not the same as in Sapa – humid and hot. As for me, I went to Cốc Ly not to buy the stuffs but rather to meet another group of H’mong and checked out their day to day activities.

From the market back to Lào Cai station that afternoon we got on a little boat and rode along Sông Chảy (Chảy river). Make sure to bring a flash light and request the tour guide to stop at a cave along the way. There are bats inside. After ~45 mins boat ride, they would pull over and transfer back to Lào Cai station via car again. Ended the day on 6 sleepers cabin without A/C back to Hà Nội.

2.3. Hạ Long Bay – Thousand Islets

Cruise boat in Hạ Long Bay

The train from Lào Cai arrived in Hà Nội at 5am. 8am the tour bus came and picked us up. If you want to take the stress out of your vacation, just sign up for a tour. The price ranges from $45-90 USD depends on how many * and how well you can negotiate. My original plan was to spend the night on Cát Bà island but timing was not right. It is quite a boat ride out to Cát Bà, therefore we did the boat thing. It’s more or less a little mini cruise. Once you checked in the cruise boat and had lunch, they will take you out to see Sửng Sốt (Surprise) Cave, Tí Tốp Island and kayak back to the cruise boat from there.

Sửng Sốt cave is well explored already. It is well lit and paved, there is not much of an adventurous but rather a leisure walk. The top of Tí Tốp island offers a magnificent view of the Bay so do bring your camera, which I totally forgot to bring with me. There’s a little sandy beach there but do watch out for jelly fish as there are plenty of them around. The locals use lemon to cure the sting.

In term of food, good or bad depends on the boat that you’re on. The chef on our boat was pretty decent. We had cá sóc (sóc fish) for dinner. It supposes to be the local fish. A night in Hạ Long Bay was extra beautiful. There was a little breeze to keep it cool, and the water was calm that I could not feel a thing. At night, entertainment really depends on the people you ended up with. I’ve seen other boats doing karaoke and dancing or just simply enjoying the light reflection on the water.

2.4. Hạ Long Bay/Hà Nội – The Capital

Hoàn Kiếm Lake

After breakfast, they took us out to a small secluded area to see monkeys. Unfortunately we saw none. They were nowhere to be found. At around 4pm or so, they dropped us back in Hà Nội. There are lot of things to do in Hà Nội but since I am not much of a big city person, I did not feel like doing much. I always try to avoid being in the city if possible. I guess I can skip out on visiting Uncle Ho, he doesn’t know me anyway.

Hà Nội is well known for chả cá (grill fish), phở and etc. I picked the grill fish dish for dinner in the Old Quarter. It was quite a walk there. My brothers I talked to at the end of trip liked it but I thought it was mediocre. It was not any better than here in San Jose. The portion, just like everything else I had in Viet Nam, was too small for me.

I wish I can tell you more about Hà Nội but big city is no really my thing. I also wanted to go down to Chùa Hương (Perfume Pagoda) but it is a day trip, a few hours did not do me any good.

2.5. Huế – The Imperial City

The front gate

I flew into Huế from Hà Nội for about $55USD. If time is not a constraint, sleeper bus or train is a better way to go for lesser money and less the hotel cost. From Huế airport to the downtown area is about 30-45 mins, which costs about 45,000VND. I rented a scooter in Huế for only $4USD/day. This way I could go anywhere at anytime I wanted, and plus it was a lot cheaper than taking taxi or xe ôm (scooter ride). Huế is not that big and streets are easy to find.

Just like everyone else, I visited the king’s palace. I have not been to that many king/queen palaces but Viet Nam imperial city is far the most depressing place. Except for the front face, trash piled up behind some of the buildings. I mean come on…with $70,000VND per visitor, the government can do more to preserve this place than that. There are also a bunch of tombs spread through out the city and they all cost about $35,000VND to get in. With that price, I only went in Lăng Khải Định (Tomb of Khải Định).  It is 10km remotely located outside of the city on a hillside with a beautiful view of the valley.

Huế is the home of bún bò Huề but I had a hard time finding out the right place.  Since the people at my hotel just could not tell me, so I ventured out to the local market with my motorbike.  After about 20 mins of riding around, I pulled over for some stall bún bò Huề and bánh cuốn (rice roll).  They were just ok.  Not as spicy as I thought it would be and of course not really favorful either.

2.6. Hội An – City in the water

Japanese Bridge from Hoi An Islet

If you are looking for a $20USD custom tailor wool jacket, this is the place to be.  Almost every other store is either a tailor shop or an art gallery.  Phố cổ Hội An (Old Quarter) is not that big.  Two to three hours would actually cover the whole thing.  I skipped Đà Nãng all together because I could not come up with a thing to do there.  Hội An, at least, offerred me some old architectures to look at.  Someone had told me that in the month of December, the water actuall rises and the whole Old Quarter will be in the water like Venice.  People would use boats to get around.  There is a beach 2km east of the Old Quarter.  You can rent an umbrella and chill out.

While walking around the Old Quarter, my hotel mate and I randomly came across a lady selling bánh bèo.  One small bowl was $2,000VND.  We had a couple to try out and surprisingly it was yummy.  Bánh đập and hến trộn (clamps & veggies) are also local foods here.  Despite the thunderstorm and the rain that night, we rode to Cẩm Nam island to try out the local dishes.  They were not that good but it worth trying.  At this point of my trip I started to lower my expectation for Vietnamese foods.  I always thought that foods from their origins should taste better but I was wrong in this case.  And also due to the fact that I did not eat at the right place.  For not knowing the right place to eat, stall foods are hit or miss.  It was 50/50 in my case.

2.7. Nha Trang (day 1) – White sand beach

Fishing boats

I was told when I was a kid in Viet Nam by some rich kids in the neighborhood that sand on Nha Trang beaches are white.  I thought they were just pulling my legs but actually some part of Nha Trang do have white sand now that I have been there and saw it with my own eyes.  Well, let get straight to the point here.  I came to Nha Trang with one and only one purpose – scuba diving.  I could careless for the foods, clubs…etc.  But my diving trip did not turn out the way I expected for several reasons.

Nem nướng (grill pork) is local specialty here and of course the seafood.  I really grill pork at Ngoc Tien restaurant on 58 Lê Thành Phương.  One order is $20kVND + $8kVND bier + $2kVND for pork ham.  My whole meal was about $2USD.  On my last day in Nha Trang I took some of my non-Viet diving buddies out to that side of the hood for some nontouristy foods.

Bars and night clubs are not hard to find.  They locate along Trần Phú street and inside on Biệt Thự street.  Unlike Huế and Hội An, Nha Trang is not quiet at all at night.

2.8. Nha Trang (day 2) – Diving

Photo by Duc Le

Not long before this trip I invested $90USD for an underwater point and shoot camera with casing, which I thought it was a great deal.  It was a great deal for $90USD.  For some odd reason, the batteries drained so fast when I hit the 15m depth mark.  With all that work of bringing the camera with me, I could only took one photo.  It turned out so clear and crisp (as shown on the left), too bad there was no spare batteries onboard to even purchase.  I was not happy about that at all.

The diving business in Nha Trang seems really slow to me.  The reason I said that because there are about 15 shops in this one small area.  I was the only diver on my first day, and 3 more with me on the second day.  I dove with Coral Reef on 6/0 Quân Trấn – Hùng Vương.  Their website is www.vietnamcoralreef.net.  My divemaster, Bình, was pretty good.  He knows the area pretty well and willing to take me to some really tiny and interesting caves.

2.9. Nha Trang (day 3) – More diving

Photo by Yann

Diving in Nha Trang was a little bit better than in Oahu.  There are coral reef and caves, yet not much of exotic fishes like in Koh Samui, Thailand where my friends and I had seen a 30ft whale shark.  It was my best dive ever…part of it due to having the best dive buddy.  The good thing about diving in Nha Trang is that it only costs $40/day.  That included gear rental, park fee, pick up at the hotel and home cook lunch.  There is actually an island 2 hours boat ride off the shore but since there wasn’t much business so they refused to go out that far.  The boat ride to where I dove was only 45 minutes.

In this picture, I am the diver on the right along with my divemaster.  Photo courtesy by Yann, another divemaster (dive instructor to  be) from France.

2.10. Đà Lạt – The last stop

Long's studio

It was not about the city that brought me there.  I went to Đà Lạt to meet a friend but in our case to become friend.  ‘Til this moment, I still don’t remember how and where I’ve found Long’s website.  For the past 2 years I’ve been emailing him for questions about photography and commenting on his photos, and kindly enough, he had replied to all of my emails.  From Nha Trang I took an early 8am bus via a new freeway to cut down travel time from 5 to 3 hours to capitalize my stay in Đà Lạt. At noon on the 8th of October, I showed up in front of his studio on 4 Phan Bội Châu in Đà Lạt, and for the first time in 2 years we finally met.

It was a big change in weather going from Nha Trang to Đà Lạt.  It was much cooler and drier there.  Pretty much like the weather in California in October.  I didn’t even break a sweat during walking from the bus station to Long’s studio, of course with my backpack and camera on.

In addition to Long, I also met Luyen Nguyen, Long’s neighbor.  Luyen is also a hobby photographer for now as he has a couple of hotels to run.  All three of us then headed out to lunch.  It was nem nướng again, but this time it’s Đà Lạt version.  I like both versions.  Đà Lạt dipping sauce is thinner and lighter while Nha Trang dipping sauce is thicker and more coconutty. After lunch all 3 of us headed out for a photography field trip, instructed by Long.

Our first stop was the farming area.  Very much like Sapa, most of Đà Lạt is on the hill side, and so the farming style.  While people in Sapa grow rice,  Đà Lạt is well known for their vegetables (lettuce, carrot…etc.).  After the farm we headed out to Tuyền Lâm Viện (Tuyền Lâm Meditation and Learning center).  From here you get a grand view of Tuyền Lâm Lake, and it was beautiful – clear water and surrounded by mountains and pine trees.  Long, then, drove me down to have a closer look of the lake.

We spent the rest of the afternoon going through Long’s works and catching up with life stories.  Even though I didn’t get to go to tourist places (Prenn Fall, bontanical garden…etc) but that wasn’t the point of stopping by Đà Lạt.  At 12am on the 9th of October, I headed back to the city, Sài Gòn, via sleeper bus (Phương Trang company).

2.11. Sài Gòn – Working day

Morning in Sài Gòn

Got in the city at around 6am, I walked to and around Chợ Bến Thành for a bit before catching another bus back to my aunt house.  I got a glimpse of how the locals started their morning.  Exercises come in form of badminton, đá cầu (just like hacky sacks here in the States), running, Taichi…etc.  The interesting is, they all took place on the street and park.  Who likes the gym anyway!

My third reason for going back to Viet Nam is to see if there’s a potential to do some work in the growing economy.  My cousin and I went around to check out some shops…and finally went back to his company.  He roasts and distributes coffee.  There we just talked and hashed out some business ideas.

That night I met up with an old friend from the States.  She and her husband now live in Viet Nam doing “business”.  We had dinner at Quán Ngon.  They basically serve everything on the street in a clean environment for those you can squad and eat at the same time.  The food…was ok!

2.12. Sài Gòn -  The Grand Finale

The morning after

I spent most of my morning shopping for folks in the States here.  Some asked me to bring back dried mushrooms, karaoke machine…etc.  At this point my bargaining skill was off the hook.

That night it rained pretty hard in the city but that did not stop my cousins and I to meet up for our last supper.  As much as possible I always asked them to take me to nontouristy place.  So did they.  We went to a local nhậu (bier food restaurant).  We ordered: snake, some exotic snell-like, rabbits??? Don’t remember all because I was getting buzzy.  Almost all my cousins were there except for the older ones with kids or just simply party poopers.

We finished dinner at 10pm.  The night was still young to go home so we decided to get a karaoke room even though we have a karaoke machine at home.  It was easier this way.  We could trash, scream without any complaints.  Two hours of karaoke went by so fast.  They kicked us out at midnight and left us homeless without a place to party.  We drove around the city for another hour or so to find a place to crash.  We ended with nothing.  What was the point of sleeping for a few hours on my last day?  We went off and bought some more biers.  This time we partied at my aunt house.  It was 2 in the morning.  We cracked open some dried fish to go along with the biers and played cards.

Phượng and I were one team.  Tí, Kha and Bong were all by themselves.  We first played tiến lên (Vietnamese 13 cards) then we switched around to black jack then to bài cào (Vietnamese 3 cards) until my poor cousin Bong lost almost all her money.  Just enough left for a taxi ride back.  We simply stayed up all night!  That was probably the first time I ever hung out with them like that.

My Final Thoughts

One country, 21 days, 10 cities, hundred of new and old faces I met and befriended with and 10 pounds loss at the end of my trip, I was exhausted when I arrived in my own little apartment.  My post trip conversations with friends and family lead me to believe that I did not have fun in Viet Nam nor did I eat at the right place.  Well, what fun to everyone else is probably not the same kind of fun I wanted to have or looked for in Viet Nam.  I found fun in my short walk with these old women in Tả Phìn, or deep deep down in the blue sea where I can filter out all the noises and the one and only noise I can truly hear is my own breathing.  I found fun eating off of the side walk instead of being inside a restaurant.  I would rather be high up in the Fansipan mountain or on a farm instead of being in a night club – that was my kinda fun.  And within this little trip I’ve found myself completely lonely and empty inside as I stood at the corner of the busiest street in Ha Noi watching people go by.  My sweat started dripping down my face.  The camera bag was heavier than normal.  I was tired.  I was lost, not due to the ability to find my way back to the hotel, but lost in my own world.  Lost due to my self-center and insensitive lifestyle. And there I still have a lot to work on.  How could I change a country and others while I, myself, still have all these flaws.

My trip to Viet Nam had somewhat changed me.  It was also the people in Viet Nam have somehow touched me on all surfaces.  I truly admired their humble and simple lifestyle.  I was touched by the warmest welcome I have recieved from Luyen and Long in  Đà Lạt.  The two strangers I met for the very first time.  I was touched when the local offered to ride along side with me so that I wouldn’t get loss.  I was touched to see with my own eyes that people with little to nothing to give give more than I and asked for nothing in return.  I was touched when I realized that I am living in the world of wastefulness.  I was touched when I found honest and trust in the place full with lies and deceives.  Should I not underestimate the power in the third world country. These people have a lot to offer and a lot for me to learn from.  Strangely enough, I found myself reborn in the country I was born in after so many years.  So there I said it, believe it or not is up to you.

China…China…China.  How much longer are they screwing the world.  I hear all sort of complaints about products from China.  People in Viet Nam are screaming for help but I wondered if Viet government is going to do anything about.  School is no longer a safe place for kids to stay for lunch.  Parents taking their kids home and feed them instead because the only safe place to eat and drink milk is at home.

Travelling in Viet Nam is easier than I thought.  With the exception of flying, taxi, shuttle bus can almost be booked within a few hours before departure.  I over worried prior this trip.  Booking agencies are every where to be found, even in your own hotel.  Viet Nam is not a cheap place anymore.  Not as cheap as I would expected.

Rich people in Viet Nam are still rich and the poors are still poor.  I saw less of beggers on the streets.  Compare to what some of my friends and other backpackers I have met during this trip, in Phillippines and Cambodia, beggers would come and knock on taxi windows and ask for money.  During the ride to Cốc Ly market, my tour guide said in his humor voice and guesture, there is more begger in Viet Nam, only lazy people.

With all that said and done…happy travel if you are in Viet Nam.

-D-