davethegrinch.net

Sarah says:

We have left Vietnam, we’re now in Cambodia. Vietnam was officially our 2nd country but we never really counted Hong Kong. It was always only a stop-over. Vietnam was always #1. For an entire year people asked us where we were starting our journey and, although I was never ever able to actually picture myself there, I’d respond without hesitation. My response always conjured feelings that were at first hidden, not so hidden toward the end: disbelief, amazement, excitement, fear. I cried the night before we left because I was so scared. Now, after all that time and all those conversations we had with countless people about our trip that always began with Vietnam, it is behind us, a part of our trip that is over, we’ve seen it and smelled it and lived it. (more…)

Dave Says:
There are two ways to travel from Saigon, Vietnam into Phnom Phen, Cambodia: the easy way and the hard way. The easy way involves a five hour bus trip from one city to the next and the hard way involves a boat trip up the Mekong Delta. Of course, the eager little travel agencies in Saigon are a little economical with the truth when it comes to detailing the boat trip. It basically goes like this: bus, boat, bus, boat, bicycle, boat, hotel, boat, boat, border, boat, bus, hotel. Each stage is a little different than the last and each degenerates in quality and speed. Think of it like this: bus, boat, bu, hotel, boa, bo, BORDER, bo, b, hotel. Our thinking, and call us foolish, was to take the more scenic way to another basically third world country.The upshot is what would have been a five hour bus trip ended up being about nine hours on a bus and eleven hours on a boat. (more…)

Dave Says:

So, Hoi An famed for all things cultural lives in the shadow of its low culture while supposedly high couture main source of income. Tourists love a bargain and word of the bargains in Hoi An spread through the grapevine as far north as Sapa. In fact, on route to Sapa was where Archer (please refer to Sarah’s previous post) first informed us that, like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, our fortune awaited us in Hoi An. (more…)

Dave Says:
Mike works at our hotel in Saigon. He is twenty six and like many amiable young
people in the big cities of Vietnam, sees a career in the booming tourist trade
as a way to make a little for himself and make a little of himself.

Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived today so we waited in the usual
Vietnamese hotel lobby containing only the essentials: the reception desk and
the tour booking desk. The only chairs are the ones by the tour booking desk
making it impossible not to interact with the friendly face beaming at you from
the otherside. Mike was today’s face although when I earlier mentioned he
“works at” our hotel, I really should have said “works outside” our hotel.
Mike is hired by the travel company in the basement to bring in tourists using
any means he can. I suspect he wasn’t really meant to be in the lobby but it
was hot today and the lobby had A/C. (more…)

Dave Says:

There are three things the small coastal town of Hoi An is famous for:

1) it’s speciality seafood

2) custom made clothing

3) it’s listing as a World Heritage town of cultural interest (more…)

Dave Says:
Hanoi is three cities in one, three distinct phases of human necessity squeezed into a few square kilometers of the Old Quarter. From the early morning to mid-afternoon the streets belong to regular commerce. Store fronts are packed with goods to sell. Unlike western shopkeepers, having a differentiator seems to be bad for business. All the shops that sell shoes, for example, are situated on the same street. Store after store of the same shoes, cheap Chinese imports and knock-offs of popular western brands. The same is true for all things the average Hanoi resident might need to either survive or portray a greater sense of wealth than their neighbor. It is often easier to name the street by what it sells rather than by the name on the map. There’s Towel Street and Bag Street, Lamp Street and Candy Street, Shoe Street and Washing Powder Street - every store selling exactly the same goods as the one next to it, stacked on the sidewalk in the same manner. (more…)

Sarah says:

sometimes i have to take a deep breath in hanoi to keep from going insane.

it’s just that sometimes the incessant assault of 2 million honking scooters,

or that one street corner that i pass everyday where motorcyle repair shares the same slab of cement with the chopping of raw chicken

or constantly being chased up the street with, “you buy something from me? madame, hey, madame, banana? pineapple?” (more…)