Hanoi & Homecoming

My journey has finally come to an end. After spending nearly a week in Hanoi meeting up with friends I had met in previous cities and meeting new people in my hostel, I made the long series of flights via Tokyo back to the United States.

This past week in Hanoi and all of Vietnam was exciting for it was the 40th anniversary of the reunification of the country. On April 30th, 1975, Northern Vietnamese troops invaded Saigon, finally signalling the end of the long and brutal war that plagued the country for over a decade. My week was spent not doing a whole lot of activities, but rather enjoying relaxing and getting into a little routine with my days with working out at the local gym, reading in the park, eating meals of pho and bun chau (a delicious Hanoi meal of rice noodles and pork in a succulent broth) and hanging out at my hostel.

The hostel I stayed at was called Drift Backpackers Hostel, located in the Old Quarter of the city, and was one of the best hostels I stayed at during my SE Asian trip. For $2.50 a night, I stayed in a clean dorm bed, got free breakfast of coffee, tea, a baguette, and eggs, while also getting free keg Bia Hoi beer every night from 7-9 PM. While one of the cheapest hostels I had stayed in during my travels, it was also one of the easiest to meet people and staffed by some of the kindest and helpful Vietnamese people. An awesome place that I would recommend to anyone looking for a cheap place to meet cool people from all over the world.

While I type here from my brother and sister-in-law's apartment in Los Angeles, CA, I look back to all of the amazing experiences, wonderful people, and beautiful places I had the pleasure of encountering during my trip through Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Many people ask me what my favorite place was during my trip. That question is terribly difficult to answer because out of every country I visited, each place offered completely different wonderful experiences and people, leaving me unable to narrow down even my favorite five places.

Another question I was asked frequently by the locals I met during my time in Asia, was,  "Isn't traveling alone scary, lonely, etc?" I always answer that while yes, sometimes traveling alone can sometimes be lonely, but in general, one can meet people from all over the world extremely easy at hostels, on transportation, and in just random situations throughout the day and night. I also have found that traveling alone is wonderful in that you have the freedom to go anywhere you want, eat wherever, whatever, and whenever, and generally do anything you want. 

During my travels, I occasionally spent a few days at a time traveling with others ranging from one other person to a group of five others. While traveling with others is nice in that you always have someone to hang out with and talk to, it does limit you in the experiences you have. Traveling alone forces you out of your comfort zone, causing you to do things that you shy away from when you have a group of friends to retreat to. Also, random and wonderful experiences happen more to people alone than those in groups because someone alone is more easily approachable by others and without having to think of someone else, you can change plans at any moment to follow any unexpected experience.

While the feeling of being back in the United States has not set in yet, I am sure soon I will start to notice the differences of culture and the shock of being back in my native, yet now seemingly foreign, country. I know I will miss Asia in due time, but for now I am excited for reuniting with friends and family, seeing familiar sights, and moving on to my next adventure of working as a Wilderness Ranger in the White River National Forest this summer in Colorado.

I'd like to end my first ever blog with two quotes that I read from the book Blue Highways, an account by William Least Heat-Moon, who writes about his two month long journey driving around the backroads of the United States and living in his van around the year of 1980.

"If a man can keep alert and imaginative, an error is a possibility, a chance at something new; to him, wandering and wondering are part of the same process and he is most mistaken, most in error, whenever he quits exploring." 

--William Least Heat-Moon, from Blue Highways

"I can't say, over the miles, that I learned what I had wanted to know because I hadn't known what I wanted to know. But I did learn what I didn't know I wanted to know."

--William Least Heat-Moon, from Blue Highways

 

Sa Pa

Arriving back in Hanoi after leaving the islands of Halong Bay, Jazz and I booked a bus to the northern reaches of Vietnam. Sa Pa, a town at an elevation of 5000 feet, is located just south of the China border. The area surrounding the town is beautiful with green mountains and terraced hillsides used for rice farming. The population of Sa Pa and the surrounding area is unique in that the majority of the population are not the ethnic Viet people but the Hmong and Dzao (pronounced Yao) and other smaller ethnic groups.

One can tell which ethnic group one belongs to by the clothing worn by the people. The women especially dress in traditional garb, with both the Hmong and Dzao people wearing handmade indigo clothing, while the Hmong wear indigo hats and the Dzao wear red scarves on their heads. While the town itself has been opened to the tourist market, there still is a feel of an older time with the many people in their ethnic clothing.

Upon arriving in Sa Pa, the difference in weather was immediately apparent from the rest of Vietnam. With so high of an elevation, the temperatures never crested 20 C. Fog covered the area the entire time we were there and it rained on and off, from a misting to outright downpours. Though the weather far from ideal, I welcomed the cooler temperatures and finally used my winter jacket that was unused since my time in Tedim, Myanmar back in February.

Jazz and I rented a motorbike for two days and explored the winding mountain roads, taking in the breathtaking scenery. We wandered about the town, eating almost exclusively pho and pineapple. At one small restaurant, we noticed an unusual platter filled with dark cuts of meat and four paws. Immediately I thought that it had to be dog, which is served throughout Vietnam, especially in the north. We tried a small bit each and I ordered a bowl of dog pho, more so for the experience of trying dog. The taste of the meat was okay at best to me, but to many Vietnamese this meal is a delicacy.

After three days in the cold of the mountains, we booked a bus back to Hanoi where I will stay the remaining days until my flight back to the States on May 1st.

Halong Bay

After leaving Dalat, I split up from the two Germans and headed to Hoi An, a World Heritage City on the coast about half way up Vietnam. Hoi An is famous for its many tailors where one can buy custom fitted suits, dresses, leather jackets, boots, shoes, etc. With over 300 different tailor shops in the small city, the merchandise will run you a fraction of the price it would back in the States. Seeing this as a perfect place to buy a custom fitted suit to replace my $10 Goodwill jacket and pants, I purchased a perfectly fitting navy blue Italian cut three piece suit with turquoise silk lining, a burgundy shirt, and turquoise tie. 

I spent three nights in Hoi An, geting into a routine of going to the local gym and lifting with dozens of shirtless and sweaty Vietnamese men. Here also I befriended two Americans, and a Dutch guy, all of whom were motorbiking all of Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. My days were spent lifting, eating several meals of pho, chicken and rice, and bahn mi's, swimming in the ocean, and drinking 14 cent beers at night. Yes, the beer, Bia Hoi, are sold as low as 3000-5000 dong (14-19 cents).

After a few days in Hanoi, I took a long bus to Hanoi with Jazz, an English girl whom I met along with the two Americans. We spent a day in Hanoi in the beautiful Old Quarter before bussing off to Halong Bay.

In Halong Bay, Jazz and I avoided the expensive boat tours and cruises and took a slow ferry to Cat Ba Island, one of the biggest islands in the bay. Here we swam in the ocean, relaxed on the beach, and ate dozens of cheap and delicious pineapples. We also rented a motorbike and spent the day cruising around the beautiful island, visiting the Cat Ba National Park, which is home to the endangered species of orange and white langurs. While passing through a construction site, we passed some workers on the side of the road burning what seemed to be a small deer carcass. They saw we were curious and waved us over to investigate. The animal turned out to be a goat that they had just killed and gutted and they were burning off the hair before gutting it and cooking it further. They offered for us to stay and eat with them but with the butchering and cooking process in the early stages, we decided to continue on our motorbike journey.

Staying in the Halong Bay area for three nights, Jazz and I soaked up the ocean for one last time before heading back to Hanoi and to the mountainous region of Sa Pa.

Mui Nei & Dalat

After leaving Ho Chi Minh City, I took a bus northeast to Mui Nei, a tourist strip of a town on the ocean. On the way I met two German guys. We quickly became friends and hung out together during our time in Mui Nei.

One awesome attraction in Mui Nei are the sand dunes outside of the city. Renting motorbikes, we cruised over to the White Sand Dune, a vast dune resembling something out of the Sahara Desert. The rest of our time there was spent relaxing on the beach and eating a variety of Vietnamese and Indian foods.

After Mui Nei, the two Germans and I took the bus to Dalat, a city located in the mountains. Dalat is named "Little Paris" with beautiful winding streets, hundreds of cafes, and much welcomed cooler temperatures. Our days in Dalat were spent drinking lots of wonderful coffee in its many cafes, eating dozens of banh mi's (Vietnamese sandwich on a baguette), and going on a canyoning tour in the nearby river. The canyoning was truly awesome. We belayed and swam down waterfalls and jumped off an 11 meter high cliff into the water. A big adrenaline rush of a day.

Ho Chi Minh City & the Mekong Delta

Arrived in my final country of Vietnam on April 5th. Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is situated in the south of the country and is the largest city with a population of 7.4 million people. Spending three days in the city, I really came to enjoy my time here, walking around the motorbike infested streets, lively markets, and quiet city parks.

In one park in particular, local university students come in the afternoon to find tourists to speak English with. Seeing groups of students crowded around individual tourists on my first night, I walked to the park on my second night in an attempt to attract a group of students to talk to. Only 30 seconds after sitting down, two students walked up to me and we began talking. Over the course of the next four hours, I spoke with a group of twenty students. With varying degrees of English speaking skills, the students were interested in American culture, while I asked many questions about Vietnam and their lives. Students pulled out their English text books and I helped them with some exercises they struggled with, while one girl going to a job interview asked help in pronouncing words for her interview. I also taught them new words such as sibling and likewise, while they taught me different words in Vietnamese.

I went to the park two nights in a row and each time spent over three hours in the park talking with over a dozen students. Each night I also was invited by students to get dinner and some drinks at local restaurants. I feel very fortunate to have grown up in a native English speaking country because all across the world people are trying to learn English. In all it was a wonderful experience and a great way to meet the local people of Vietnam.

During my time in Ho Chi Minh City I also took a tour of the Mekong Delta where many people make their living fishing and selling goods on floating markets.

Cambodia

Video of some clips of Phnom Penh and the beaches of Sihanoukville and the island of Koh Rong. Like my days here in Cambodia, I am too lazy to write much, so just a video.

Siem Reap & Angkor

Siem Reap (See-um Ree-up) was my first stop in Cambodia. Spent four days there, with two days touring by bicycle the Angkor Archaeological Park, the number one tourist attraction in the country. It did not disappoint, with some amazing views of the ancient temples.

Siem Reap itself turns into a great night market in its downtown near the river every evening. Lots of food stands, massage places, and plenty of things to buy. Also there's Pub Street. Draft beer can be bought for 50 cents a mug of national beers Angkor, Anchor, or Cambodia.