Travel Blog Chapter 7: Hanoi and the beard

By this time, my beard had grown quite long and was starting to look rather unkempt in my opinion. But you just don't bother so much with how you look when you are traveling. I had limited sets of clothes as well and basically I looked like I just came out living in the jungle. Now....where was I before this?

Oh yes..I reached Nam's friend, Drung's house at approximately 9pm the previous night, had a long needed shower, got introduced to his family and enjoyed my first North Vietnamese meal. I was beat, to say the least. I collapsed onto a very comfortable queen size bed and fell fast asleep. I thought that I had died and went to heaven. It was awesomely comfy.

I woke up to the sun shining through the windows at around 7am. I was getting used to the early sunrise. I had a good hearty breakfast with Drung at this colonial looking coffee house. Hanoi was an interesting sight. I felt that I have been transported back to the 1900s or late 1800s. The architecture was very colonial looking. It seemed that the city was suspended in time between a colonial era and an industrialized one. On my journey via the train to Hanoi, there were also a lot of French and Soviet architecture styled buildings in Vietnam. Hanoi was the cultural capital as well as the state's capital so that explains the preservation of all the colonial architecture.

Coffee in the alleyway

Colonial feel

Anyway I noticed another interesting thing, the people were much taller in Hanoi than in Saigon. I thought it was just me until Nam pointed out the same thing. On the first day, I basically just ease myself into Hanoi city life. The temperature in Hanoi was lower compared to Saigon as we were nearer to China. The traffic was less crazy as well. But you still have to activate the skill of crossing the road in the midst of ongoing traffic. That I must say, was a cultural experience on its own. And that also explains a lot of accidents that happen in Vietnam. In 2 weeks I saw 3 accidents. Two in Hanoi, the worse of the 2 was an old man knocked down by a taxi, curled up in fetal position in his own pool of blood. That really woke me up to be more careful when crossing the road.

Street in Hanoi

Cinema but not in the mood for movies

Motorbike country

Nam arrived in Hanoi the next day and the three of us hopped on to our motorbikes with me riding pillion and went to an expensive looking steamboat restaurant. It was awesome. I ate till I was seriously full and it was really cheap compared to the same thing with that kind of ambience in Singapore. It was only around 15 USD. The rest of the day was spent exploring Hanoi with Nam. We visited the bookshops and shopped around at night at the old quarters. The old quarters used to be the residential area of the Europenas during the colonial days but was now transformed to a shopping vicinity. It is akin to the bugis street of Singapore and the Luang Prabang Night Market of Laos. So there was the purchasing Lois Vuitton belts and adidas merchandize at bargain prices. Most of these pirated stuff come from China.

Posing as ushers

I lost quite a lot of weight. Looking skinny here.

Really classy buffet steamboat restaurant

And...yes the beard. Vietnamese dig beards. Especially the women. I have been complimented for that a number of times. It looked macho and manly. haha... People stared and stared again at this wonderful spread of facial hair. I almost couldn't recognize myself when I looked in the mirror sometimes. Anyway the beard is a wonderful thing to have when you are traveling. I'm sure, even though this is not statistically proven, that muggers will think twice before robbing you. And by the way, I was no longer Singaporean. I was Japanese, Korean and I had a name everyone started to know me by when I was alone further into the trip. I was Shane, the Japanese because Shane has a Japanese beard.

Travel Blog Chapter 6: Inside the Train

Vietnam is a long country as you can see from the map. The journey from Ho Chi Minh City all the way to Hanoi would take 36 hours and would passed through the major provinces. The plan was to travel from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi and head to Halong Bay which was 4 hours away from Hanoi and eventually go up to Lao Cai which is near the border of China. From there I would be taking a bus to Sapa, the mountainous region of Vietnam that experiences 4 seasons throughout the year.

As I left off from the previous post, I was at the train station early. I went to a cafe to chill in the time I have before boarding the train. I realized that there were Coffee Bean outlets in Vietnam but no Starbucks. Everything is cheap in Vietnam. A ice blended coffee cost half or lesser the price of a similar kind in Singapore. I met a nice Australian couple in the cafe and we started to talk. Found out that this was their first trip after their honey moon and they were going to do Vietnam in 2 weeks. We were going to be on the same train but they would be getting off at Nha Trang Beach which was a 6 hour or so train ride from Ho Chi Minh City. The couple owns a motorbike spare parts and a carpentry company in Australia and it was great hanging out with them.

Exterior of the train

Water Dispenser beside my cubicle on the right

The train was seriously uncomfortable. I like to have spatial freedom to move about and really there wasn't alot of that. I saw the cubicle that I was going to sleep in and I almost regretted. The size of the cubicle was seriously the size of maybe 2 public toilets cubicle. That cubicle had 6 beds, triple decker and would be shared by yea 6 people. That was still alright...wait till at night when the locals close the door to the cubicle. You start feeling claustrophobic and with the air conditioner blowing directly at the face of the person that sleeps at the top deck, you would start coughing and sneezing in no time. So as luck would have it, my ticket allocated me the top deck to sleep in.

I waited anxiously in the beginning of the journey hoping that my cubicle would be just me alone. Fat hope. I was going to be sharing my cubicle with 3 adults and 3 kids. Cubicle meant for 6? No...it was meant for as many people as possibly could squeeze in. That was the start to a 36 hour train ride.

Now...the thing that I have picked up from my years in school, in long journeys was that if you were going to have no comfortable place to take a dump, don't eat. Or eat as little as possible. That morning I had my breakfast but all throughout the rest of the day, I scrimped on food. The toilet was in between carriage and how the heck are u going to do your business when it was such a rocky ride. Anyway...I only drank most of the time.

View from the train. Not really sure where I was.

No idea where in Vietnam I was

Dan, 1 half of the Aussie couple on the train

 I met up with the Australians again and we hung out at the bar in the train. Passing through the length of the train, I was able to see people sprawled on the floor of the train sleeping in the Softseater carriage. I almost wished I had taken the soft seater as I would rather not be in a cubicle. There is one thing that I learned about traveling in Vietnam, people would buy very cheap tickets and they would not have any place to sit or sleep. So what do they do? They bring a mat into the train and go between your legs and sleep under you. This happens in trains and buses all the time. It was one of the things I hated most in transiting between places in Vietnam. My travel companions got off 7 hours later, train was delayed and I made friends with the Vietnamese family in my cubicle. Well you know before I left off, my friend warned me not to talk to strangers because most Vietnamese will try to con you. But you simply cannot not make friends if you are going to sleep together in a cubicle. There were 2 families in my cubicle and the father of one started to converse with me in Vietnamese. Haha..this is where sign language came in. I had to signal to him that I did not understand what he was saying and got an idea to use my note pad as a means of illustrating what I want to say. I drew the map on my notepad and asked him a few times where we were. I found out that he was going to Ninh Binh. As you can see from the map, Ninh Binh was not that far from Hanoi. So there goes my hope that perhaps they would get off that night and I could have the cubicle all to myself.

The bar carriage

It was really uncomfortable at night and with the musky smell and the cold air blowing into my face I drifted in and out of my slumber. I got out of the cubicle eventually at 2am and stood by the window staring into the night. The father was up also and I guess it wasn't only me that found the cubicle claustrophobic. I was shivering as it was actually quite cold in the train at night. The numbing sound of the wheels and the vibrating carriage kind of make me feel abit depressed that I was gonna be spending another whole day in that train. To my pleasant surprise, he made me a cup of hot coffee with water from the dispenser and offered me the drink. Well...my impression of nice Vietnamese up to this point was still intact.

In the morning, the train passed through Danang and it was seriously jaw dropping beautiful. The train was on a railway track that wound through the mountains and I could see the glistening sea in the early morning sun as well as the surrounding green mountains. It was breathtaking and amazing. I would later meet 2 women for Danang in Halong Bay. I have to say the women are beautiful as well.

I made friends with the kids in my cubicle and I started playing with them. Okay, one thing anyone traveling to SEA needs to know is this. Never give a coin, money or any monetary souvenir to people. I was playing with the kids using a 20 cent coin for a magic trick and eventually just gave it to him for keepsake. For the rest of the morning, he kept asking me to give him more money in Vietnamese. I wondered secretly if his parents were the ones that encouraged him. Anyway that cubicle was getting to me and I spent the rest of the day reading in the train's bar with drinks to accompany me.

That evening I returned to my cubicle and we were approaching Nin Binh. The father chatted with me again and introduced me to a nice lady who got up at Than Hua. As they were going to get off earlier than me, out of concern, the father told me to hook up with the lady as she would let me know when to get off and she would help me along the way if I need anything. To my pleasant surprise, the lady spoke good English. Found out that she was a English Teacher and had decided to go to Hanoi to find a new job. She felt that teaching in Than Hua was not developmental for her career as well as personally. I had the most interesting talk with her. I believe I would never forget this encounter. She was paid very little in Than Hua and felt shortchanged of what she could actually do. She had ambitions to do more for her life. In Vietnam, women are marginalized and acculturated to be submissive and take on the role of a housekeeper. This woman wanted to travel the world and do something different for her life. She was married and had a very young daughter who shared our cubicle after the 2 families left. She told me she was going to give herself a month or 2 in Hanoi to see if she could find another job so as to take her first step towards accomplishing what she wants to do in the future. She had a dream to travel to different parts of Vietnam teaching underprivileged  people. She felt really oppressed where she was and as she was sharing her eyes were wet. I encouraged her to do what she wanted to do and not give in to what society expects of her. We had a good talk and exchanged contact details. She invited me to visit Than Hua and she would show me around if I do.

We arrived in Hanoi at around 8pm. I was exhausted by this time. I left the train station to meet a friend of Nam who was supposed to pick me up on his bike at the station. I would be staying with his family for a few more days in Hanoi. I helped the kind lady to carry her luggage off the train and met her brother whom she was going to be staying with during her time in Hanoi. I bidded goodbye to her knowing that I may never see her again. I prayed that she will achieve what she has sought out to do. I saw my Hanoi friend and we took off into the night on his bike leaving all the persistent taxi drivers behind.

Travel Blog Chapter 5: Leaving Saigon

Left Cuchi early the next morning and headed back to Ho Chi Minh City. That day I got to talk to Nam's very old grandfather whose dad migrated from China and had lived through the Vietnam war. To my pleasant surprise he was able to speak mandarin. We chatted for awhile and I asked him how it was like to live through the Vietnam war. It was amazing to talk to someone with such experiences. I left him to have his afternoon nap after that. Vietnam is an amazing country. Despite the pollution, the not so polished culture, the people were very warm and friendly. I could learn to live in Vietnam. I would find out later that the culture varies as you travel between South and North Vietnam.

Dinner at a Jap restaurant

The hot topic was beautiful Vietnamese women

năm giác

I went to book my train ticket to Hanoi in the afternoon and conveniently purchased a few postcards. I did not know it at that time but that would be the most agonizing train ride I would have. That night I met up with Nam's friends again and we had our dinner at a Japanese restaurant. We had a great time laughing and talking about everything under the sun. As usual, the hot topic was women. And by this time I agreed with them whole heartedly that Vietnamese women are gorgeous. After that we went back to Nam's house and we had năm giác. Fertilized duck egg with a nearly developed embryo. I had to psyched myself up to eat that. Looks disgusting abut taste awesome. It is banned in Singapore by the way. It was bitter sweet as we spent the last night together. I was ready to move on from Saigon to Hanoi and I was sad to say goodbye.

My last breakfast in Saigon

Saying goodbye to the meathouse

Sending off by the motorcycle gang

Packing my backpack, saying goodbyes to my hosts was a bitter sweet affair. I have grown to love my hosts and the culture in Saigon. The crazy roads where crossing the streets required skills. You had to continue moving the moment you stepped out on the road and motorbikes would just weave their way around you as you make your way to the other side. The warmth, the openness of the people in Saigon.We had a breakfast with Nam's friends and I was ready to go. I was told that Hanoi was going to be very different. I said goodbye to Nam's mum, his aunts, grandparents and all the relatives. I still can't get over how warm they are. His mum wished me good luck in Vietnamese and I hopped on to Nam's bike and took off to the train station. My train was supposedly going to leave at 12.30pm but I was there almost 2 hours earlier as Nam and the rest were going to a water themed park that day. To my pleasant surprise, I was met by Nam's friends who sent me off at the train station. We made a point to continue to keep in touch. My friend would meet me in Hanoi but he would leave 1 day later and would be flying. I chose train because it was cheaper and I wanted to see the scenery from Saigon to Hanoi. It was going to be an experience I would never forget.

Travel Blog Chapter 4: Roadtrip to Cuchi

Very early in the morning, Nam and I prepared for a road trip to Cuchi which was just outside of Ho Chi Minh City. We were going to the countryside! I was a bit tired of the city life. To me the city was monotonous with routine processes that occur everyday. Being in the city too long makes a person boring.

After having a very oily breakfast near our house, we loaded up our stuff and prepared for our 3 hour motor bike ride out of Saigon. In the time that I have been in Saigon I have not had diahorrhea, nor any stomach upset or cough which was great. I read that you shouldn't drink any ice water in Vietnam due to the lack of processing in their tap water as ice water was essentially just frozen water from the tap. I made a pact to myself to refrain from doing that before I came but you just can't drink hot water in Vietnam due to the weather. And the best thing was that I did not get any dihorrhea or fall ill during the time I was there after drinking all the ice water and eating all the streetside vendors.

Anyway, let's get back to the story. We loaded up our stuff and in my halting Vietnamese I went around the meat shop saying goodbye to Nam's family members. And off we went. My first road trip in Vietnam.

Topping up fuel before continuing the journey. They still have 92.

On the way to Cuchi

Reached Cuchi 3 hours later. Did I mention it was his dad's house we were staying in? After a long weary ride out of the city I was hungry and very thirsty. The family was very hospitable and it was the beginning of endless stuffing of food in the stomach. In the day time we went to Cuchi Tunnels with Nam's brother who just got married. This was where the Vietnamese fought the American Forces. They dug miles nd miles of underground tunnels to get away from as well as to use them as a means to trap the Americans. I had mixed feelings when I was told about the war. You see...according to South Vietnamese, they enjoyed the American Occupation because with the Americans' presence, there was prosperity. But the communist North Vietnamese was anti-american. As such they recruited the South-Vietnamese in their efforts against the Americans. What you get was Cuchi, the desecendants from the soldiers who fought the Vietnam War.

Mansion that I stayed in. Swimming pool to cool off the body

In front of a temple in Cuchi with my Nam's brother

In the forest where the guerrilla war was fought with Nam

The tunnels were very small and that was the point; to stop the oversized Americans from entering. I managed to squeeze myself into the tunnels and I must say that it was seriously claustrophobic. We had a tour guide and he led us through the tunnels. After the tunnels we walked around the vicinity of the forest where guerrilla warfare was fought. I saw the impact of the bombs on the landscape and it was sad to see the ravages of the war that had caused Vietnam to be what she is today.

Squeezing into the tunnel the Vietcongs dug

Deep indent in the landscape caused by a bomb

Spikes in the Cuchi tunnels to trap and kill unsuspecting American Soldiers

The communist nature, the propaganda machine that was Vietnam was still not felt that strongly in Saigon as compared to Hanoi as I would later go. Anyway, after that trip to Cuchi Tunnels I had a good evening with my Nam's family and met all the relatives. He has a 3brothers and everyone was married. I must really admit that the women look ravishing. So my hypothesis from my discussion still stands that the majority of Vietnamese women are really really good looking. According to a Singaporean I met later on in Laos who commented that the Vietnamese who crossed the ocean to Singapore kind of lost their good looks. The Vietnamese in NUS according to him could not compare to what we saw in Vietnam. I chuckled at that and through this journey that hypothesis was proven again and again.

Travel Blog Chapter 3: Life in the old capital

I woke up at 7.40am. The sky was already very bright when I woke up. The sun rose at around 5am in Vietnam when I was there. Things are really slow moving in Vietnam and the people there spend the day taking breaks at different intervals such as afternoon naps. Nam's family owns a slaughter business and that was by the side of the house I was staying in. Essentially I was staying in a shop house and directly below the room I was staying in, outside the living room was a compact dental clinic. It was just a small room for dental surgery. The arrangement was kind of strange I thought.

That day set me thinking since I had nothing much to do. Went out for breakfast in the morning and experienced the poverty first hand with beggars and old men and women selling lottery tickets in which they only earn a few cents from each ticket sold.

The motocycle gang

Vietnamese steamboat

The gathering

That night I met the rest of Nam's friends whom I eventually added to facebook. We designated who will ride pillion on whose motor bikes and went to eat steamboat Viet style at this reputable seafood restaurant. It was interesting finding out more about the Viet culture. One thing they were very enthusiastic about was how beautiful their local women were and this led to a discussion or comparison of women between different countries. I must agree that the Vietnamese women do look very exotic. It must be some of the french blood or something. Many of them look almost Eurasian.  Anyway we had a great night and ended off the night early after the steamboat.

Travel Blog Chapter 2: Saigon Love

The flight took 2 hours. Vietnam is an hour behind Singapore so I gained 1 hour when I reached Ho Chi Minh City. The airplane touched down and it was the bumpiest landing that I have ever encountered. The plane shook violently as it slowed to a stop.  Saigon Airport was no Changi Airport definitely but the overgrown grass and hedges around the runway just amplify all the more the questions I have in my mind about Vietnam.

I was supposed to meet a friend's friend at the airport who was supposed to settle me down before he arrived in Vietnam later at night as I would be staying in his house for a few days. The person I was supposed to meet was "Nuet" whom I got to enjoy the friendship in the short time that I was in Ho Chi Minh also fondly known as Saigon by the older inhabitants. I checked out of the Saigon Airport with ease. The beauty of hand carry luggage. In my mind there was a nagging concern about the communication barrier.

The heat hit me in my face as I left the airport. I was wearing contact lenses and my eyes were beginning to feel irritated. I saw a person carrying a placard with my name on it. I almost chuckled to myself. My friend who had made the arrangement was really hospitable. I approached Nuet and introduced myself. And there began my first attempt to communicate with a Vietnamese. He was a University undergraduate and he was able to speak English. The wonders of globalization. He beckoned me to follow and told me we were going to take a bus. Or at least that was what I thought I heard. I waited outside a parking lot and out he came on his motor bike. I almost choke. "Bus" was in fact "bike". The pronunciation or maybe the heat was getting to me. And here began the most terrifying motorbike ride I ever had. With my backpack on my back I hopped on to his bike and we entered the city.

Vietnam is not called a motorbike city for nothing. There is no exaggeration to that association because as we weaved through the city on the roads I understood why. There was almost no cars and everywhere you turned you see motorbikes. Bikes coming at you, beside you, behind you.... Did I say coming at you? Yup.... Traffic rules were almost non-existent here. Anyway the air was excruciatingly smoky.

We stopped at a famous cafe or maybe I should say restaurant and had the famous "pho", the Vietnamese beef noodle. I caught a lot of curious stares as I walked into the restaurant. I would learn later that I was abit too muscular and oversized for a Vietnamese. Or perhaps it was the beard. I grew that...I am embarrassed to say to look more mature during this trip.

Anyway the "pho"was awesome. After that we visited the King's palace which cost me 40000 dong which was around 2 US dollars. Handling cash was an inconvenience which I experienced throughout my trip.

King's Palace from a distance

Walking around with my backpack

Eventually after walking around and doing abit of exploration round the city for a few hours we decided to go to my friend, Nam's place. I met his mum who was very friendly and got settled into my room. Took an afternoon nap. Was feeling very sleepy after a lack of sleep the previous night and spent the rest of the night reading and waiting for my friend Nam to arrive in Saigon from Singapore. Tried a few Vietnamese dishes before that in the evening such as tiny fried fishballs, coffee cake and "ice kachang" Viet style. Nam's mum prepared the most delicious dinner...chicken chop fried rice. The whole day of walking around made me very tired and sleepy. After eating...I settled into my bed and suddenly felt very alone. Occupied my time by reading a book from Jon Krakauer. Did I say I brought 3 books along? I would find out later that that was really insufficient and I would start reading Oscar Wilde's De Profundis like a bible because I had nothing else to read.

View from my bedroom

My room for the night

Blackout that night. The karaoke lights were still on though.

That night a blackout occurred between 9pm and 11.30pm. I lighted a candle and waited for my friend who eventually arrived home and I fell asleep quite soundly after the electricity came back and with that the air conditioner. I wondered what the next day would be like.

Travel Blog Chapter 1 : Leaving the Sunny, Claustrophobic Island

Almost 2 months before 26 May 2010, I went online and booked a flight to Ho Chi Minh City. On 26 May 2010, early in the morning on a Wednesday, my dad drove me to Changi Airport with my luggage that basically consisted only of a backpack stuffed full with 1 month's worth of possession. A budget backpack that was only 30 litres to serve its purpose; that is to be able to fit into the handcarry cabin of Jetstar Asia's Airbus. 

I didn't sleep that much because I was feeling very excited to at last do a trip on my own to Indochina. The plan was to start in Ho Chi Minh City as the first stop and eventually work myself to Laos. It was 6.30am when I checked in. The queue at the check-in counter was already very long at that time. To my surprise, I actually met a friend from NUS at the departure hall who was going to Thailand with his girlfriend.

Feeling very much awake by this time as I waited in my queue. Was feeling abit nervous as I only booked a ticket for handcarry and hoping anxiously that there would not be excess baggage. This mode of travel in which I have subscribed myself to would in fact turn out to be really advantageous later on in the journey.

Once I checked in without any hitch, with a sense of restlessness in my heart and excitement in my soul I hurried to the departure gate with a last glance at the airport, before proceeding to my waiting lounge to wait for my flight.

There is this sense of lethargy in Singapore that I wanted to get away from. Before this, there had been people who thought it was abit weird to go to Vietnam and Laos. Why? Well...Singaporeans if ever they go for holidays...usually go in groups and go to places like Bali, Bangkok etc if they were traveling within SEA. Vietnam and Laos...kindda ambiguous...which was precisely the point why I chose these destinations. Not really a lot of people I know have been to these places. And that was the exciting part. I didn't know what to expect.