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About to board the over night bus to Saigon, then catch a flight to Bangkok. Then half a day there, and board a half day plane flight home.
Can’t wait to see you all and catch up! It’s been a lovely month. But home needs me. I need home. My heart belongs to the world.
.
Fatal Attraction or Travel Romanticism?
Another remarkable day.
Last night we all met at Guava club, took it easy with just a few drinks. It’s like Cheers here, where everybody knows your name! And the drinks you fancy. Met with the 2 Belgium guys, Australian guy, Shanghai girl, German girl, Gerry and the managers we been hanging out with every night. We’ll call it our bubble of debauchery, trainwrecks & good laugh. Ever since I got to Nha Trang beach, I have felt like I’m in a Hedonistic society. Every moment has been filled with laughter, everybody we’ve met has been so witty & clever, everything we’ve done has been so fun. I could easily live here for a few more weeks.
Today at noon, our whole group from last night met to go motorbiking down the coast 45 minutes to a waterfall. There were about 10 bikes, 2 on each bike and we followed each other down. Another amazing ride down, beautiful weather, passing by empty beaches, docked boat. Once we got to this waterfall, it was about a 20 minute hike through the forest, then another 20 minute climb through steep rocks of all sizes to get to the first one. Many of the boys jumped off the cliff which wasn’t that high, but I am forever traumatized from my cliff jumping experience at Lake Mead a couple summers back when I almost broke my back!!!
It was quite sunny out, perfection. We hung there for a bit, then headed over another little waterfall area. This whole place was not commercialized at all. Just a few locals with baskets of cold water selling beer & soda. I have to say, rock climbing isn’t really my thing, and holding a beer in one hand didn’t make it easier. But it was sufficient exercise I DEFINITELY needed!
We left around 5 with half the group left and road up the coast during sunset. Absolutely Surreal. Unbelievable!!! I love Nha Trang!!! It’s sooo relaxing, everything is sooo easy, it’s pretty safe for the most part except ur occasional pickpocketers. They say the trend is they’ll be 4 girls in the middle of the night picking out solo sloppy drunken people, mainly men, and pretend to be all over them asking if they want to hook up, touching their crouch, one touching the buttocks and stealing all their stuff. I heard there were these 3 ladyboys that would infamously ride motorbikes every night and go pickpocketing. Then they got kicked out of town, so they havent spotted them for awhile. We also saw 2 prostitutes at the bar last night. They were actually kind of pretty and not so trashy looking, sitting there not speaking to each other, sippin a drink. Probably more expensive.
After talking to many of the club owners in the area, they tell me the waitresses make about 100$ a month. Shitty thing is most people dont tip in these countries.
I’m off to a shower, then meeting the group up for some Indian food and our last night out!!!! Tomorrow night we take an overnight bus back to Saigon, then a flight to Bangkok. Spend half a day there shopping my life away, and then boarding the bus at 5 am to come back to home sweet home. Back to the hustle.
Back to my obligated blackberry usage/lap top/50$ gas tank/SUV/10$ lunches/jam packed Corporate meetings. Back to my US face mask. A bittersweet feeling of course because I miss home, I miss Cali, I miss all my material possessions that tie me down. But I’ve fallen in Love with this beach town, and the nomadic life living out of a backpack w stinky clothes, a few bracelets, a journal, free to roam in any direction you please, in countries so cheap to get through you can pretty much do anything. Even pay off cops if you end up getting in trouble. That’s what happens when people get caught smoking weed on the beach. Periodic moments in the day I’ll just think to myself.. “Life is good. Not a bad life here, eh mate!?” I’ve begun speaking like the Brits because I been hanging out with too many bloody of them!! 
See you in 2 days mi amigos.. Bittersweet.. Bittersweet.
You could really live like a king in these countries. It’s a temporary skewed thought, relative to perspective (and space). I hear the average income over here is about 100-200$. Although it is run by a Communist government, Capitalism is on the rise and there seems like much room for growth.. more than Cambodia and Burma at least.
Today Gerry the promoter invited us for a motorbike ride up the coast for seafood. Chad rented one, and I hopped on with Gerry because I am absolutely mortified of driving here. There is no rules for the road. Dividing lines do not matter, people will drive over sidewalks to get in faster. It’s as if the roads are lined as a grapevine. People drive ruthlessly not giving any concern of pedestrians. And that’s the crappy thing is that I don’t think they have life insurance here, so if you’re hit as a foreigner, your loss.
So at noon we met in front of Guava club and took a 30 minute journey up the coast. What a beautiful scenery! Such a liberating feeling when you are riding a bike. I’ve always had thoughts that crossed my mind about getting one back home, but I know I’ll never do it. Closest to it maybe being a scooter around town. That couldn’t hurt! The weather’s been perfect since we got to the beach, everything has run so smoothly. We’ve already created an inner circle of friends we see out every night and are friends with the owners.
Today was just as perfect of a day as yesterday. So we got to another beach called Long Beach, less polluted with tourists and went to a seafood restaurant Gerry goes to a lot, open air beach front, market style. There we met up with the manager of Sailing club, an Aussie we’ve seen out every night and a few new faces. There you choose the seafood you want from various tubs: squid, shrimp, clams, larger clams that the funny foul Aussie called ‘cock & balls’ cuz of the shape, fish and crab. We got a kilogram of everything. It was an amazingly huge seafood feast and I must have eaten pounds of it. We dipped the seafood in white pepper & fresh squeeze lemon. Soooooo good!! And the total came out to about 10$/person!
We hung out there on the beach til around 5 pm, sharing laughter and more insightful conversations. Everyday here, day and night I’m meeting awesome individuals with many stories to tell. Gerry mentioned a conversation he had about what everyone’s dream could be if they had 3. And one of them would most likely be to know every language in the world! Good point. Then the Aussie said, “My wish would be to sleep with a girl from every country of the world.” Why do I find that funny? I don’t know, but it was a good laugh.
Gerry’s story:
He is a Vietnamese 25 year old born and raised in Canada. He came to Vietnam about 9 months ago as a short vacation, and worked a little in promoting fliers for clubs and restaurant owners he’d become friends with. Then he had the idea of starting his own nightlife tour promoting company. What a hit! For such a young age, he truly is extremely street smart and very entrepenuerial. I love talking to people like that, I do believe in energy. And when you surround yourself with like-minded individuals, or people you look up to, you will prosper from their insight.
So his business he runs himself, where he organizes pub crawls 4 nights a week, called “Nammers”. He’ll meet people on the beach or just out and charge them 100 dong (5$) to take them to the hot spots. So every night they meet at Rainbow bar at 8, then Guava at 9, then to Sailing Club at 10. It’s a smart concept and good deal because you get a free shot at each place, and free entrance to Sailing club. He’s extremely well connected with all the expats here who are in the club business and a fun guy to be around. And his business is only growing. He’s going to organize tour busses from Nha Trang beach to the beach we were at today, similarly getting seafood on the beach, etc.
I can see why now so many people have come and decided to stay. It’s not difficult making some money and living well. Although I could never do it because I love the city back home, and I’d be a fat drunk if I were here working.
.
When the sun started to set, we hopped on our bikes and road back home. My ipod on the way there randomly played Bone thugs & harmony “crossroads” which was appropriate, riding a motorcycle in the mean streets of Vietnam. On the way back I played techno music. It really was an amazing feeling riding along the beautiful beaches!!
Then Gerry took me to a nice hotel spa, and we paid 10$. They had a series of things to do before the massage: sauna, steam room, soak in a rose petal barrel for a few minutes, tub with crazy jets, then a big pool, and lastly a hot jacuzzi and then a shower. Then a massage. The massage wasn’t the best I got because my lady was not smooth and a bit all over the place. She was also kind of annoying so that wasn’t too relaxing for me. Every time I told her to go softer or flinch because of a weird move she’d do, she’d start giggling uncontrollably.
It’s 10 pm now. Off to the pub crawls! Guava bar first!
Yesterday afternoon I took a walk around the beach, and found a cafe to read a bit and have a coffee. LOVE the Vietnamese Coffee! They’re so tasty and strong, with a drop of condensed milk. Yummy, and gets me at the perfect high.
We went to the Rainbow Bar, where I was the night before. I’ve found my local hangout spots already and made myself at home in this town Then we went to Guava club, which is also where I was the night before and reunited with a couple friends I had met. I ordered vodka soda the whole night, and the Vietnamese vodka was half the price of Absolut, so I got that. And then realized that it was 45% instead of 40% which is standard for vodka. It definitely crept in later! Around 11 we went to Sailing club, also the place I was at before and had a fun night partying on the beach, and with my new bff Jerry the Viet Expat promoter.
This morning I managed to stumble out of bed still intoxicated out of my mind onto our 8:30 shuttle bus for our boat day trip. Chad learned about this party boat from a local tour agency and had heard good things. It only cost 8$, so I went along for the ride, not knowing what to expect. Oh MYyyyyyy.. It’s moments like this I wish you were here with me traveling!!!! Photos and videos cannot capture it!
So we got on a mid-size boat with all travelers.. around 50 of us who quickly became one big family. Our boat tour guide is a local who nicknamed himself FUNKY MONKEY. He is wilddddddddd, crazy, hilarious, foul, very un-PC, and did i mention FUNNY??????????????? He was basically a stand up comedian with jokes after jokes, it was as if a monkey was juggling and doing tricks for us the whole time! The first stop on our boat ride was to a little island, where we all jumped off the roof of our boat into the water consecutively and floated around in rings for about an hour. Boys did flips off the top, music played. A lot of classics!! Bob Marley, Dire Straight, Eagles.. It was a magnificent view of an ocean filled with people from all over the world, stripped down to the bare minimum, sharing one common language: Laughter.
Then next stop we docked up to a shore for lunch/entertainment. The whole day’s event were just randomness after another, nutty to say the least. They sprawled out the wooden benches in the middle magically into tables, and quickly brought out about 7 different dishes (and about 5x the amount) around the table. Then we were given bowls and chopsticks each. We had to say something in Vietnamese like 1, 2, 3, GO! And then we all dug in like animals. It was funnn, food was cold and bland, but it reinforces that saying that it doesn’t matter how the food tastes (or where you are), as long as you’re in good company is all that matters.
Then the entertainment portion.. “Oh my buddha” (the guides saying, my new saying!)! Funky monkey announced that a famous boy band, bigger than backstreet boys would come out soon, they were flying on a private jet in. We knew that was a fibb, but didn’t know what to expect. Then all of a sudden, he and the kitchen crew came out with guitars and a drum and sang a few beats. Then it was KAREOKE time (there were no machines though). He called a Slovenian girl on stage, then a Bangladeshy, then a Taiwanese, then a French, an Aussie, English and sang a song with each of them to a popular tune from their own country. Very clever this funky monkey! Then he called me up as Miss America and he picked The Bangles “Eternal Flame” as our duet. I wished you could have been there! We acted out the song, “Close your eyes.. give me your hands.. (touching hands).. Do you feel my heart beating?? (acting it out).. do you feel the same.. DO YOU FEEL THE SAME!!!” We did twirls and basically gave the audience a show. (Sober) When the Columbian girl went up, he decided on La Bamba, so he made all of us get on our former dining table to dance. A pakistani man in front of me surprised me by shaking his butt and dancing wild. To say the least, we were in good company with a fantastic host!
Next stop, was to our ‘happy hour’. Didn’t know what to expect. And out comes some floating bar this guy has made… where its a large ring, he sits in the middle, has bars around where people can lay their legs on, and a little shot cup holder connected. He sat in the middle and poured us all some ‘funky monkey’ juice as we crowded around in a circle. Once again, the drink wasn’t so good, but in good company, nothing mattered.
To our last stop, some private island they charged us 1$ to get in. Which is ridiculous so a group of us sat outside to be rebellious. Then we had another hour to go by so we gave in. It’s just the principal! Where is this money going to? There was nothing special about that island! gagagaga. I was hungry again, and there were no food except a little lady sitting on a little chair selling quail eggs and hard boiled eggs. I got a bag of a quail eggs – just a smaller version of a regular egg, and ate it with some white pepper. What a snack. Then a yummy chocolate ice cream bar. Diet starts in August.
Finally we got back at 5:30, a lot of ‘see you laters’ to all our new friends around the world, and a promise to meet tonight. Theres a huge massive party on the beach that everyone has heard about. Some vietnamese fashion show, then I guess a rave like party at the Sailing Club which we’ve been going to.
Not a dull moment in the day. Full of laughter. Hedonistic life. I had a random thought, why can’t everyone in the world be funny entertainers? Then I realized that if everyone were entertainers, nothing would get done. We’d definitely all live in peace, but it would be a lazy world with no economy but drunken monkeys. But could it be so bad?
A few more days of debauchery and I’m ready to come home to the city!!! Ready to get back in the Hustle & make some money!
I finally feel relaxed. This will be my vacation from my vacation the last few days. Nga Trang beach is a Beach town.. reminds me of the Vietnamese version of Santa monica. Very city like, so it’s not a beach like Sihanoukville, Cambodia, or the Southern Thai beaches we were at where they were secluded beach islands w only a few beach huts. It’s streets filled with shops and restaurants. A working established cities where locals are making money, doing things with their own lives (doesn’t seem like they rely on tourism to make all their money). Most other places we’ve been to seem as if the most money was to be made in Tourism.
Burma was a peaceful country where no one haggled you or ripped you off. Cambodia and Thailand people bug the shit out of tourists. In Vietnam, they rarely bother you, besides a few motor bike taxi’s here and there. The people in this town at least seem the most sophisticated out of the other places we’ve been.
Last night after my post around 9 pm, I went out looking for dinner. Chad stayed in so I was alone, but feeling safe to wander. I found a pub grill called Rainbow Bar, which I saw a lot of foreigners inside. I needed somewhere with more tourists so I felt safe. Most of the local pubs were filled with middle aged Vietnamese men. (Not my scene!!) They had everything on the menu like a traditional pub would. I saw sushi. I knew it’d be pretty unfresh and gross, but I had to have it. It was in our standards the most unfresh dry sushi ever, but it hit the spot. I needed my fix, whether gross or not!!
The owner apologized for the obnoxious drunken boys and noise. I said it was fine, I loved it. The owner of this bar, among all the other tourist run bars/restaurants are all run by Expats, individuals from Australia, London, Canada, etc that have stayed. (seen that everywehre we’ve gone). The owner introduced me to a Vietnamese guy who was raised in Canada but came to Vietnam 8 months ago and started his own club promoting company. His name was Jerry, in his late 20′s, real fun guy, reminded me of friends back home. He organizes pub crawls every night and coincidentally, this bar I was at was the first stop. I was introduced to the crowd, 5 girls from Ireland I ended up hanging with the whole night and a bunch of other college frattish boys on summer vacation. I felt at home again, in college, bar hopping in shorts and flip flops.
The next stop was Guava club. Very cool loungy club, owners/managers were all Canadians that happened to meet in Vietnam and are running it together. We played some bar game called 7-3-1. Where we had a pile of bottle caps and threw it at the lines of liquor bottles. And the one you hit you hit, the bottle 7 to the left, and 3 from the right, and 1 to the top, they mix into a shot for you. It could be yummy or deadly. 20 minutes there and chatting it up with the Canadian managers and learning their stories.. they blew the whistle, and we were on to our final destination of the night. The sailing club on the beach. Beauuutiifulll club right on the beach, open air, up to beat music (Heard INFINITY!!!!!! “Here’s my keyyy, philosophyyy.. a freak like me.. just needs infinity…”) It made me HAPPY!!!!! Me and 2 of the Irish girls ran around dancing and singing and taking pictures.
The club closed around 2 and some of them wanted an afterhours club. I preferred food like usual. We found a foot cart outside the club they wanted to go to, and got a baguette sandwich each. There were a few locals there, a woman in her late 30′s or 40′s, and 2 men. They were ODD. I guess any middle aged person hanging out at a street cart at 3 am would have something going on. The woman sat right next to one of the irish girls and started massaging her hands, then massaing her feet, and getting all touchy feely. Then a man sat on the other side of the other irish girl (I had jumped up and stood on my own by then — just a generic thing to do when I’m not given my proper space, esp. among strangers). And he attempted to touch her. Both the girls hopped up and said fuck off.
The girls were wonderful to walk me back to my guesthouse. Beautiful big room. Proper showers. Of course still no Hilton hotel, bed bug infested im sure, but comfortable.
I had my first bowl of pho today. Plain tasting, not so good, but I have a few more days here to find the best Pho in Vietnam!! Off to the beach now and some shopping. I have a goal to finish the books I brought.. “Day of Empire” by Amy Chua, “Major World Religions” by Huston Smith, “Nasty Bits” Anthony Bourdain, and amost done with the book I picked up here “Piano Tuner” by Daniel Mason. Very ambitious I must say, but I hope it happens.
We toured Dalat today which is a little town the French transformed years ago into their own little getaway. Call it the little Paris. Dalat is a very clean, pretty, simple colonial town, with hills & wide clean streets that looked like Berkeley. A place of peace & tranquility, a relief from the grungier areas we’ve seen. This town is definitely well-kept. I’d call it a mid-life crisis getaway or the type of destination only locals could enjoy, as we witnessed dozens of Vietnamese honey mooners. It has mountains on one side where you can go trekking or camping, a waterfall park, a mini amusement park for adults called the “Valley D’amores” (valley of love) with heart shaped ponds. I found it a bit tacky and was ready to move on. I’d recommend this for no more than a 1 day trip, but also easily a town worth skipping.
After a half day tour of Dalat, we boarded a 5 hour bus to Nha Trang beach.
In one Peace! Since the last post. We met the 4 awesome new friends we met while boating to dinner at our hotel. The BBQ special where you pick your own meat. I got the Squid again, YUMM, and we had a few beers. They were 2 guys from England who were school teachers traveling together and 2 girlfriends, one org. from Argentina now lives in Capetown, South Africa, and the other one who grew up there in South Africa. Fun times!
After dinner on the beach front and a few drinks, we headed over to Monkey Republic, where we were the night before, a pub-ish place. I had been exhausted all day and got back at a reasonable hour. The girls did too. The boys however were up for a night out. I had decided that night that i’d board the 7 am bus the next morning with the girls to Vietnam. I was getting too bored at that beach, Chad was going to stay a few more days.
Around sunrise 5:45 am, Chad knocks on my door and had just finished his night out, wasted, and said he’s comin for the ride to Vietnam. He described their afterhours night, went to some club in town where many locals go, as well as prostitutes and lady boys. The stories were hilarious esp ones you hear first thing in the morning.
He had been talking to some Cambodian girl. Minutes later, it asks “Do you like lady boys?” He replies “No”. It replies, “Im a lady boy”. Chad “Cool.”
The lady boy moves on to Frenchie to talk. Apparently there were no signs of her looking like a man. Thin waists. Usually you can tell by their hands and voice if they are males, I guess it didn’t. Moments later Chad walks over and tells Frenchie that it’s a lady boy. I’m shocked it was so honest! It coulda tricked them back and had a 4 am surprise!!
I’m glad I stayed in and had a good night’s rest.
We decided to get some lunch. The bus station we were at was situtated in a little China town area of Phnom Penh, and we were all craving noodles. I spotted a man outside the restaurant pulling dough, and lead our group there. I guaranteed them the best noodles they’ll have because they are hand made. It ended up being a “Shan dong” restaurant which is a province in China where my grandparents on my mother’s side is from. They make the BEST noodles, bread, dumplings, EVERRR.
I got the beef stew noodle soup, they got fried noodles. Yummy!! For about 2$ a plate.
The border crossing to Vietnam was a smooth ride. Very procedural, very legit. No haggling, no beggars. Clean, organized. However one guy on our bus had a high temperature (they check your eyes w some machine that can determine your temperature when checking your visa). So they held him back for an hour to check if he had Swine flu.
He got on the bus moments later and announced he didn’t. Whew! The whole bus were filled with young backpackers, so it was a fun ride, meeting new people, sharing stories, many of them having been gone for a year or so. We finally got in to Ho Chi Minh city, formerly known as Saigon, South Vietnam around 9. They dropped us off right on the street we wanted to be and quickly found a hotel for 10$ a night.
We walked around for dinner, most of the restaurants around being trendy hip western joints with vietnamese fusion. Thankfully the girls & chad all prefer the authentic street stuff. We found a lady with a street cart in front of a hole in the wall restaurant. She had a huge silver pot of boiling red soup and crab meat. She said 2$ a bowl. It looked DELICIOUS. So you pick what kind of noodles you want: rice noodles or egg noodles. Then you pick the meat you want: crab meat balls, fish balls, sliced beef, pork, shrimp (all in a half-covered glass which means you’ll get some sprinkles of Flie eggs that’s landed). Then she tops it off with that soup, which I ended up figuring is some Seafood-Pork broth with lemon grass?? It had a hot and sour taste to it, very oily delicious!
It was a delight to share street food with girls, it’s a bonding experience. I dont think I’ve had a hint of estrogen since I started my trip 3 weeks ago, it was good discussing where to shop in SE asia and fem things. I’ve been so accustomed to hanging with the boys full of testosterone and beer. Making fried insect eating at bus stops seem ok and comfortably not showering for days.
Before we got to the tunnels we stopped by a factory shop selling souvenirs. The people working at the factory there were all handicap from the Dioxin (toxin) – Agent Orange that the US used on these villages. Which lead these people to be born handicap and deformed.
After the tunnels and learning the history of Vietnam, we went to the Re-Unification Palace in Ho chi minh city. Then to the War Museum. Wow. Shocking. Even more than the Teul Slung Museum in Cambodia on the killings of Khmer Rouge. The whole museum, 3 floors were filled with photos of dead babies, dead women, dead soldiers, deformed children/adults now due to the toxins we once splattered, US tanks that killed so many Vietnamese, quotes of American soldiers, things US did. Basically it was a museum dedicated to the damage US had done to Vietnam. These are things we did not learn in the text books. Yes we briefly learned that this event happened. But no more details than that. Whatever the reason US had for war, is NOT okay.
War is NOT the Answer!
MY SE ASIA trip started as a vacation away from home, to a gluttonous travel food sensation, to the reality of War (in Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar)… And that’s just 3/4 countries I visited in 1 month. What about Iraq today? In 30 years, I am sure to go to their museum to see the damage we’ve caused to their people.
Bring the troops home! Make Love not War!
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