Saigon Shakes!

On your bike!





















Single room in the Hanoi Hilton


Whoa, has it really been a week since my last post?! Time has passed in such a blur of beach chairs and cheap beer that it’s been kind of hard to muster up the resolve to open up the good old laptop. On that note, if you’ve ever thought of getting freelance work so that you can “lay on the beach, sip a Mojito and work at the same time”, then keep dreaming. It is simply not feasible to do anything productive outside when the weather’s perfect, and let’s face it, why would you even want to be outside if it’s not? Anyway, the upshot is that I now already find myself in Saigon with but one measly post from Vietnam. Shame on me.


Admittedly we have been rather picky about which places we visit on this trip, but still two clear favorites have emerged: Hoi An and Nha Trang. Both are situated on the beach, and have relatively little to offer in the “must-see”-category, but all the more stuff to both see and do if you’re wandering around in a more aimless fashion. The first of the two, Hoi An, is a charming little seaside town sitting quaintly on a riverbank, dotted with crumbling colonial buildings and winding little alleyways that just beg to get lost in. If you’ve ever had an image in your head about what Colonial Indo-China looks like, this may well be very close to it. Lounging around by the pool pretty much filled our days without much effort, and come night-time the town also provided a pumping little backpacker bar called King Kong which turned out to be exactly what we were looking for: cramped, cheap and slightly seedy. By some accounts, the bar was run by the local mob and we even heard rumors of the staff using the pool-cues to persuade unwilling customers to part with their money every now and then, but we certainly saw nothing of the sort. Then again, we were more than willing to part with our money.


Nha Trang on the other hand is your typical, run-of-the-mill Southeast Asian beach-resort, with all the pros and cons that come with said status. Tourists very nearly outnumber locals, and touts hound you relentlessly with what has to be the crappiest sales-pitch I’ve ever heard: “Hey you! Buy something!” If you decline, they simply move further up the menu of human desires with a hearty: “You want bum-bum?” Despite these nasty side effects of a booming tourist-industry, Nha Trang does also have excellent diving opportunities, a great range of restaurants for anyone who’s sick of noodles and an outrageously fun bar-scene! We ended up spending a week there and could’ve easily doubled that without getting bored.


Now, sitting in a guesthouse in Saigon, I can’t help but wonder where all the time went. I came to Vietnam not expecting to love it, but it has definitely grown on me. The food is terrific, the coffee good enough to kill for (seriously, don’t EVER get between me and my java) and in many ways, I find myself liking the Vietnamese even more than the Thais. And yes, I know what you are thinking, but stereotypes are a real timesaver ;)


By the way, I think I finally found a mode of transportation even less comfortable than Burmese buses. Take my advice: if ever in Vietnam you see pictures of a night bus with rather cozy looking beds and soft mattresses, don’t be fooled. We took one of these medieval torture devices from Ninh Bin to Hue, and regretted it almost as soon as we had settled in. In principle having a surface to lie on that’s *almost* level and *almost* long enough for you is better than sitting, but in practice it is far, far worse. You end up shuffling through various postures throughout the night, never quite finding one that’s comfortable enough to sleep in. At least on a normal sit-down night-bus you kind of pass out at some stage and get a small modicum of sleep, but these iron-maidens-on-wheels just keep you in utter agony until the very last minute. Anyway, the upshot was that our day of sight-seeing in Hue was slightly marred by the fact that after a sleepless-night, both of us were functioning at about a tenth of the speed of the world around us. I personally remember staring at a puddle on the street for several minutes in utter awe of its beauty. Having learned our lesson, the next time we opted for the night train from Nha Trang to Saigon, and slept like babies in impeccably comfortable sleeper-carriages for mere dollars more. Take note: night-buses are a definite no-no.


So what next? Well, after a quick tour of the infamous Vietcong tunnels near Saigon tomorrow, we will be heading to Cambodia, possibly via the Mekong Delta. Of course, one of the defining moments of my entire (and let’s be honest, rather modest) academic career will take place in Phnom Penh, where I believe a certain Master’s thesis has a date with destiny :)


P. S. Totally underrated song from Spiderman 2, probably one of my all-time favorites.


Dashboard Confessional - Vindicated


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf5qrVdD9E0