Southeast Asia: Final Thoughts

This was my first time traveling in 'the developing world' and it was certainly a very interesting experience. Especially in Vietnam, any traveler was seen as a walking, talking ATM. People constantly tried to squeeze money out of you, either by selling you a service, item or cheating some extra dong out of your pocket. I myself got cheated on the cab ride from Hanoi airport, using a non-metered Taxi. They warn you about that in the Lonely Planet, but the guy knew the first rule of sales. He didn't take no for an answer, and like a moron I got in the car. Luckily I only parted with an extra 20 bucks, painful but not super painful. Heck he TRIED to cheat me out of 200 dollars! A lot of the scams in Vietnam are based off of the 16,000 VND per 1 USD. Thats a tricky exchange rate to get used to, and if you mess up on your zeros then you can easily overpay by a large magnitude.

When I tipped the rower at the perfume Pagoda I gave her 10,000 dong, which is 2/3 her daily wage of 15,000 dong (yes under a dollar per day!). Now usually if somebody gave you 2/3 of your daily wage as a tip, I'd think you'd be happy, but she was pissed and kept yelling "is small, is small, that one!" and pointing to the 100,000 dong note in my wallet. Yeah, right lady, you realize that the rowers who row pilgrims and not tourists don't get tips at all!

Phuket is beautiful, bit certainly it is a couples island. Do not go alone, you won't have anybody to talk to. Or maybe I'm just unfriendly.

The most interesting thing I learned though was not about Thailand or Vietnam, it was about Japan. Upon returning to Ishikawa, and then on my trip to Tokyo the following weekend, I noticed a distinct lack of Western tourists. Obviously Phuket was full of people, but so was Bangkok, and even Hanoi had far more obvious tourists than I saw in Tokyo. Most of the Westerners you see in Tokyo are living there. Now I know that Kyoto does have a very high percentage of visitors and tourists, but seriously, where is the foreign tourist in Japan? Of the three couchsurfers I have hosted two lived in country. Only one was visiting, and she was visiting for about four months, which is quite the visit!

So why is smelly Bangkok more full of tourists than ultra-modern Tokyo? Expense? English level? Sushi? I wonder...

Ha Long Bay

My final burst of adventure in Southeast Asia was a two day trip to Ha Long Bay, another dramatic Karst landscape about 170 kilometers east of Hanoi. There are thousands of limestone islands dotting the tranquil waters, creating an otherworld panorama of unsurpassed beauty. At least, you get that if its NOT horribly overcast and rainy.



I had booked the tour through the hotel at the same time as I booked the Perfume Pagoda tour. The Ha Long trip cost me 25 US dollars, and that was all inclusive of four meals, aircon van transportation, and one night out on the water. Not bad for 25 bucks.



The first stop was on one of the larger islands, one home to a pair of very large caves. The intricate stalactites and stalagmites were gorgeously lit. Unfortunately, in a trend that I have seen throughout my photos of Vietnam, the low shutter speed has led to some horrifically blurry photos. Alas, none of the pictures I took in the caves came out.



Our tour boat then anchored near a sea cave, and we got to paddle sea kayaks through the cave and into a sheltered lagoon. The steep green and black islands, combined with the constant din of the local bird population combined to create a very magical experience. I'd have to say it was one of my top travel experiences ever, it was just so interesting, enchanting, and utterly different.



That night though, there wasn't much to do, so after dinner I hung out with a pair of Czech travelers who were going to take the Trans-Siberian express back to Europe and an Australian couple who were spending three weeks in Vietnam and Thailand. We had a good time swapping travel stories over Tiger beer.



The next day, my final day of vacation, was a mess. I had a pretty bad hangover, was dehydrated, and had a headache the size of China. Add to all this a 4 hour drive back to Hanoi, and then a several hour wait before my 11:30 flight back to Osaka and I was NOT a very happy camper.

I made it thorough relatively unscathed, and the four hour flight back went without a hitch, depositing me back in Nihon feeling like I had been gone a month rather than a little over a week.

The Perfume Pagoda

I booked a tour to The Perfume Pagoda for my second day in Vietnam. What interested me about this particular Buddhist holy site is that it requires a two hour drive, followed by an hour boat ride to get there. The complex itself is nestled in the dramatic Karst landscape that typifies much of the beauty of Southeast Asia.



The pagoda is very popular among both tourists and devout locals, especially on religious holidays, so there are tons of boats waiting to ferry people downstream.



The journey itself was pretty amazing. The overcast day kept things much cooler than that sweltering pit called Bangkok. It was still plenty hot, but far from unpleasant. The steep hills were dramatically shrouded by the heavy air, being slowly revealed as our boat paddled ever closer.



Actually, shortly after we docked the heavens opened and it poured down rain. We really were remarkably lucky, making port mere moments before the rain began in earnest. The tour group opted to eat first, and hike the few kilometers to the pagoda later.



As with all the tour groups I went on in Southeast Asia, the food was pretty good. Certainly nothing terribly dramatic, but considering the cost for the entire day, food included was 15 dollars you can't really complain. The fare was tasty and plentiful.



The hike up the wet mountain was tricky but not horribly treacherous. You had to watch your step, and as always in Asia, watch out for umbrella toting old ladies who are liable to bash your head in.



The trail actually pointed to one of the many serious problems plaguing Vietnam, and the developing world in general. Trash. Trash was everywhere along the trail, in great piles. Especially when surrounded by such glorious natural beauty and such interesting cultural heritage, it was a real tragedy.



Another tragedy was that I didn't bring my tripod! The heavy overcast weather restricted the light levels a lot, so a vast majority of my pictures didn't come out. I had to use some pretty long shutter speeds, and sadly, a lot of them were just a bit too long. Alas.



On the bus ride back to Hanoi one of our group mentioned that he owned a restaurant there, and invited the whole tour group out for dinner, on the house! The restaurant, Bunta, was a trendy modern reinterpretation of Vietnamese cuisine. It was amazingly delicious. I tried the recommended apple juice for my drink, and it was tart and tasty and honestly I have to say it tasted 'green'. Really a perfect cap to a pretty amazing day.

Welcome to Hà Nội

Since my flight from Bangkok was an hour late taking off, I didn't make it to my Hotel till almost 5. This didn't leave much time for exploration of the city, and of course most tourist areas were closing or already closed. I did get to see the famous traffic of Vietnam. Bikes, motorbikes, cars, and more all jockeying for position. There are no road rules in Vietnam, or at least nobody follows that ones that exist. The only real rules are, use your horn whenever possible, and the biggest vehicle wins. Yikes. I hear the HCMC (Saigon) is even worse than Hanoi! The humanity!



I did have time to walk (carefully) down to the old quarter, and check out the beautiful and tranquil Hoan Kiem lake. The park was really quite nice, and even with the roaring honking traffic on the road behind me, the area just exuded peacefulness.



While this was really my only time to see Hanoi, and I left all the real touristy stuff the city has to offer unseen, I'll admit I took a liking to the capital of Vietnam. The French Colonial architecture is pretty interesting, and the tree shaded boulevards are a marked contrast to the wide hot streets of Bangkok.



It also helped that my Hotel was much nicer. It still had a bit of 'faded glory' but overall I was pretty impressed. The large room was a nice change to my living conditions in Japan, and the marble tiled bathroom just reeked of luxury.



The bed was gloriously comfortable, and despite both the fact that I had done almost nothing all day and the crazy traffic outside my window, I quickly sank into a deep sleep.