Vietnam

Hello again friends and family,

I know I haven’t been wonderful with updating this blog. Part of it is I’ve been very busy with research and reading. The other part is there hasn’t been much to share. It’s not very interesting for y’all for me to write a new update once a week saying “I interviewed some people, I observed some people, I took notes and then I put those notes on my computer.” Plus, I don’t feel comfortable putting any of my findings up on the internet for others to read until I’m finished with my dissertation so there wouldn’t even be any information about what was in those interviews. It would just be me letting you know I had them. Not exactly riveting stuff. So here is the short update of the past few months: I’ve had a lot of interviews, I’ve done a lot of observation of puppets being made, I’ve picked up a lot of books to read, and I have learned a lot of things.

However, now I actually have a bit of something to update you on. I didn’t have a lot of things to do around the end of December, all of the craftsmen I work with were busy and most of my friends were as well. So I decided it would be a good time to take a solo trip to Vietnam. I’ve always wanted to go to Vietnam and since I had a week to kill it seemed like a wonderful trip to take. After realizing it would be a bit chilly up north and it would cost twice as much to visit Hanoi, I decided on Ho Chi Minh City as my first excursion into Vietnam. It would be warm, sunny (mostly), have tons of street food, and HCM has a very special coffee culture. We all know I love me some coffee. So I did it. In late October I booked a flight, booked a bed in a hostel dorm, got permission and waited. Then December finally came and I hopped on a plane to Vietnam.

Just for those of you who are wondering I did take Air Asia. I almost always take Air Asia when I am here. I took two flights: one to Kuala Lumpur and then a second to Ho Chi Minh City. Those two flights cost me less than one one-way flight to Kuala Lumpur on any other airline. Just to let y’all know Air Asia does have a really good safety record and before this flight they had never lost a plane. It is perfectly safe. Sometimes these terrible things just happen and to be realistic anyone has a much higher chance of dying from a coconut falling on their head than dying in a plane crash. Seriously, people have done the research. So don’t worry about me flying on Air Asia. Because I have a couple more Air Asia flight in March/April and I don’t want you to worry. So yes, on December 20th I hopped on a flight from Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur and then a few hours later from KL to HCM. My flights were fine except once I got to HCM I had to wait two hours for my visa. In order to get into Vietnam you need a welcome letter to get your visa and to fill out some paperwork and attach a 4×6 photo of yourself to the paperwork. I was told normally this goes very quickly but man this office must have been having a bad day. They had about 20 photos all over the floor of their office and they lost the paperwork of an entire French family while I was waiting. Including the welcome letter they couldn’t reprint because there were no printers in the area. Plus the ATM was broken and several people didn’t have enough US dollars to pay higher fees. Yikes.

I was supposed to have a car waiting for me from the hostel however two hours must have been too long for the driver to wait for me and since I couldn’t use my phone in the visa area I couldn’t even warn the hostel I would be late, late, late. Luckily my friend Spencer had already told me the two trustworthy taxi companies (Vinasun and Mai Linh if you’re curious) in HCM so I waited until I could grab one of those and had my tired ass driven to my hostel. I opted for a well reviewed hostel for this trip as I’m trying to pinch my pennies and it really is a good way to meet people when you’re traveling solo. I’m super pleased I chose Saigon Balo Hostel in HCM for this trip. I ended up in a room with the most wonderful people.

I was staying in the six bed dorm room and the other people who were there were just so fantastic. My trip would not have been anywhere near as amazing without the people in that room. For the majority of the time there was a girl from the UK, Kate; a guy from the UK, Dan; a guy from the US Fancy (yes, actually Fancy); and a girl from the US, Katie. They were so much fun the entire time. That room has quite possibly spoiled me for all other hostel experiences. The rest even agreed that out of their hostel experiences (which are far more extensive than mine) that this was one of the best. So after I showed up at the hostel I was exhausted from the flights and 2hr visa wait so I just talked it up with Kate and Fancy and then hit the hay.

For my first day I decided to get a lot of the sightseeing-museuming out of the way. I generally like to do museums by myself so I did this day on my own. I woke up and had my free breakfast up on the hostel roof, which had great views by the by, and then I walked from the hostel to the War Remnants Museum. It was a nice short walk and the weather was great for it. The Museum itself was interesting but hard to walk through. The Agent Orange room was specifically difficult. So was the recreation of the POW camps. Thinking of both American and Vietnamese young men and women going through what they did was horrible. This museum was, however, not my favorite museum dealing with difficult issues I’ve ever been to. I by far prefer the Peace Museum in Hiroshima. It discusses terrible and awful events but in the end focuses on what we can do to avoid these horrible measures in the future. I missed that part in this museum. Still worth a visit though, hands down.

After the museum I walked around the corner to visit the Independence/Reunification Palace. It was a beautiful building. I see why some people skip it though. I really enjoyed it but I, personally, like architecture, classic furniture, and history. My favorite part of this trip had nothing to do with the actual palace though. The day I went happened to be a day a bunch of students (I assume high school? They looked very, very young) were there in their cap and gowns to celebrate graduation. It was so cute to see them running around with balloons, taking photos, and just being adorable in general. My favorite part was when I was on the balcony of the palace looking out towards the front I saw five guys pick up one of their female classmates and toss her up into the air 3 or 4 times. They were having so much fun and she was so happy. It was just uplifting to see so much joy and happiness after such a heavy morning at the museum. After walking the palace I ended up behind the museum at a little cafe to have some Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk. One of many. Man, I love coffee. I spent the rest of the day walking around the city, checking out Ben Thanh Market, having pho at said market, walking more, having a super amazing banh mi sandwich (yes two lunches, don’t you judge me), and getting a feel for the area.

I then went back to the hostel in the early evening to rest up a bit. I met up with a few of the English boys who were in the hostel and we went out for a few beers and pool in the neighborhood. An hour or two later Fancy joined us and we went out to have some cheep beers on the street parallel to our hostel that is famous for drinking cheep beer while you sit on small plastic stools right on the street. An experience to be had in HCM, for sure. After the beers Fancy and I grabbed dinner (spring rolls) and watched a tourist have her purse stolen. That last part was not fun. She had a purse over one shoulder and someone ran by and grabbed it right off her shoulder and booked it. She screamed “someone stop him!” but no one moved! We were way too far away and behind a table to do anything but I was/wasn’t surprised no one else did a thing. She ran after him down an alley (maybe not the best idea) and about 45 seconds later another tourist followed her. That was an eye opening experience. I knew it happened, a lot, but hadn’t actually seen anyone get their bag stolen in a while. I always travel with a cross shoulder bag that zips all the way up for safety reasons. Not 100% safe really but nothing is anymore, is it? After that experience we were ready to go home and headed back to the hostel.

The next day I had set up to join a tour of the Mekong Delta. I booked it through the hostel which was nice for convince but apparently the $10 I paid was way too much as someone on the tour got it for $8 at another travel agency. However sometimes the $2 is worth saving time searching and time in the morning having to walk anywhere else to catch a bus. The tour wasn’t great. It was basically a forced shopping trip for tourists. We started the day by loading ourselves into a bus at 8am and being driven out to a workshop where the profits from crafts sold help those affected by agent orange. However there was no information about how the money was used or who it directly benefited or anything. It was just a store front. Plus we were only allowed about 10 minutes. An unnecessary stop really. Then more bus riding to visit a temple. The temple was lovely but again we were only given 15 minutes. So it was more like a sprint around the large complex than a time to enjoy a place of worship. After the short visit it was back onto the bus for us for a short ride over to the boat dock. We were then led to a small boat we would take around four islands in the Mekong Delta: Phoenix, Unicorn, Turtle, and Dragon islands. We visited two of the four for our activities. On one we went to a tea farm where we had a very small sampling of honey tea and then were asked to buy a bunch of things again. Then to a coconut candy place where we were asked to buy a bunch of things. We also went for a short small boat ride down some canals to a small area where we had local fruit at the end of the day. After the tea we went to another island to have lunch at a very strange restaurant/hotel/thing. We were given an hour-ish to eat and ride bikes or rest in hammocks. It was odd. The only parts I really enjoyed on this trip was when were were on the water. Being on the small boats was my favorite and even being on the larger boat was great. I felt like I was really seeing the area that way. On the small boats I even got to see some places where people in the area actually lived. That was what I wanted. Not a souvenir shop. However, with my time limits on this trip a tour was a much easier and really the only option. If I had weeks or months to spend in Vietnam I would have made my way down to the Mekong area and hired a local small boat to traverse the delta. Another day, another trip.

That evening was the 23rd and Christmas Eve night for the Vietnamese. It also happened to be the eve of Kate’s birthday. The hostel was great and threw a Christmas party for everyone staying in the hostel that might. I’ll write more about the 23rd, the party, and the following days in another post.

Aloha for now!