Home, Sweet, Quiet, Somnolent Home
Wow. I actually made it back. So, Doug and any of the rest of you who were betting on this being the time I didn't come home, tough luck! The call of home has brought me back once more to England's Green and Pleasant Land (freezing though it is at the moment).
My last few days in Hanoi were spent split between a comfortable, alcoholic haze and occasional bursts of tourist acitivity. I went down for a daytrip to the Perfume Pagoda complex south of town (which was okay, with quite a cool cable-car ride up the mountain but not worth the time or the money it took to get there, let alone my having been sensible the previous night and hence missed out on possibly the biggest drinking night of my time in Hanoi *sighs*). I went to see Ho Chi Minh (aka "Uncle Ho")'s mausoleum. Which is a big-arse pile of granite (or some other deep grey rock) surrounding a marble chamber containing a hard-wood-and-glass coffin-type-thingy containing either a) the embalmed body of Viet Nam's independence leader or b) a wax-work, depending on which version of affairs you believe. And it's impressive enough, more for the guards than anything else, if a bit spooky. I went to the Jade Mountain Pagoda out on an island in the Returned Sword Lake (home to Viet Nam's equivalent of the Excalibur myth, only it features a bloody great turtle) in the middle of Hanoi. And, between all this, I socialised, largely on Halida beer.
So, it's all over red rover. 1 month in Viet Nam, 3.5 months in SE Asia, 5 months back living out of my pack, and 18 months away from home. I'm back in Caldecote, which is probably about as different from Hanoi as I'm likely to get. After a few days back, I've sort of got my perspective on things, so here's the results of my thoughts.
Things I will miss about Viet Nam:
- The smiles. There's something about the Vietnamese grin (admittedly more common down south than up north) which just lights up the person's face and makes the day seem happier than it was.
- Bia hoi. Yes, Vietnam's very own uber-fresh micro-brewed beer, available for the comedy price of around 10p a glass. Light on the taste-buds, light on the alcohol front, but a very nice way to get the evening going.
- Pho. As a certain well-known guidebook series put it, "the dish that built a nation". Slight hyperbole there, but it is one of the few ever-present things from where I travelled in Viet Nam (and one of the fewer good ones). And seeing how much it was in a Vietnamese restaurant in Cambridge nearly gave me heart failure.
- Hanoi Backpackers' Hostel. Yes, it's expensive for a dorm set-up in Viet Nam. Yes, it's run by Westerners (well, Aussies, but we can give them that much). But the atmosphere is fantastic, and the crowd there were some of the better friends I made in my time in SE Asia.
- Crossing the road. I was faintly terrified of this on arrival, but a month in country convinced me it's entirely natural that you should not worry about avoiding the traffic, just let it avoid you. The feeling of invincibility this imbues is intoxicating (and probably bad for your health), and it all just seems to make more sense. Of course, if I tried it in London I'd probably be dead in 2 minutes flat.
Things I won't miss about Viet Nam:
- The vendors/hawkers/touts. "You buy something?" is possibly the most irritating thing I have heard on my trip. I don't mind so much getting touted at if at least the person has something specific they're flogging, but having stall-/shop-owners decide that just because I happen to walk past their premises I'm going to become a customer is really annoying. Work out what I want and try and sell me something specific!! Or else just leave me alone. Grrrr.
- The motorbike-taxi riders along all streets where a tourist might be found (NB this also applies to Cambodia). "Moto-bike you?" does not count as a good sales pitch. Even if you do accompany it with the "hands on handle-bars" symbol that appears to have taken root in international sign-language to mean "Excuse me, good sir, but could I perhaps interest you in a ride upon a motorbike taxi to wherever you are going?". Just because I am white and I am walking somewhere, it does NOT mean I automatically want a moto.
- "Why not?". This is the ultimate irritating answer to the most commonly-used phrase in Viet Nam, "No thankyou!". Why do I not want to buy a motorbike ride/T-shirt/set of postcards/bottle of water/bag of marijuana/assistance in getting "boom-boom"? Could it possibly because I don't need said items? Or even just don't want them? As has been pointed out enough times, albeit in different circumstances, "No means NO!".
Things I will miss about South-East Asia:
- Cheap, cheap food. Wandering through Cambridge today I saw a hot-dog barrow selling its product for 1.65GBP. This is not so ridiculous in the UK, but that equals 50,000 Vietnamese Dong or 120 Thai Baht or something similar. I could get, in either case, a decent meal for that and still have change left over.
- Cheap transport. Again, I looked at transport to maybe go down to my old Uni town of Bristol and back. Cheapest fare would be around 35-40GBP return. This for a trip lasting around 3.5-4 hours. By contrast, a bus-journey of similar length in Viet Nam would cost maybe 4USD, or around 2 GBP. An overnight sleeper train from Hue to Hanoi, going nearly half the length of the country, cost me around 14 GBP. A sleeper from near Melaka up to Kota Bharu in Malaysia cost me about 6 quid. And all of those services had a good chance of being on time.
- Polite, enthusiastic small children grinning their heads off when you respond to a wave and a cry of "Hello!".
Things I won't miss about South-East Asia:
- Being unable to understand the vast majority of what's going on around me.
- Being totally unable to fit in in a crowd.
- Spending most of my time on alert for who is trying to rip me off at the moment (honourable exemptions from this to Malaysia and SIngapore).
- The incessant smell and noise of millions of motorbikes, especially the damned tendency to use the horn every 5 seconds or so.
- Nearly concussing myself on the door-frames of bathroom doors in the morning when I'm not paying attention.
- Minibuses. 'Nuff said on this one.
- The "walking ATM" syndrome. Just because I'm a Westerner, does not mean I have cash to throw around the whole damned time.
- Sweating my arse off the whole time.
Things I will miss about backpacking:
- The sheer pace and intensity of life. I have more experiences in two days on the road than I often did in 2 months at work at home.
- The camaraderie. Especially in Asia, where we all stand out a mile off, the sense of community amongst backpackers is very handy. And the recollections of people who've recently travelled to a place are generally a far-preferable way of getting info on there than reading the Lonely Planet.
- The freedom to go do what I want, when I want.
- The endless stream of new friends. If anything, this is generally my favourite thing about travelling.
Things I won't miss about backpacking:
- Living out of the same clothes week in, week out, for weeks and months on end. It's been such a shock to come back and find that I do actually have a wardrobe (both literally and metaphorically) again.
- The less-pleasant aspects of communal living (at least when in dorms). Snorers, early risers, people who feel the need seemingly to stuff their packs with plastic bags to rustle, people who seriously contaminate the air of a communal bathroom (and don't even have the decency to look sheepish), people who, shall we say, reach levels of intimacy not entirely appropriate to a dorm...
- Early morning departures.
- Traveller-snobs. You know the kind, the ones who think that unless you travel with less than 10kg of stuff, sleep in the cheapest flop-houses, avoid any concentration of more than 2 Westerners and are capable of surviving on instant noodles for weeks at a time, then you aren't a PROPER backpacker.
- Keeping track of an endless succession of exchange rates.
I think that about sums things up.
Those few of you coming up to Caldecote at the weekend, I'll look forward to seeing you then. Those down in London, I'm still hoping to get there next week, maybe on Wed or Thu night. Those in Bristol, it's not looking like I'll be there any time before January, as Xmas has people oh-so-busy. Those still on the road, I hope you're still having as good a time as I did. Even after a few days, it feels a little like a dream that's fading slightly from the memory, so I'm getting this down while I still remember it all.
It's been fun (well, mostly) passing on these tales, and I hope you've enjoyed reading them (I know some of you have). After this, I might drop out another e-mail once I have some more stuff updated properly onto my now-very-quiet blog, but otherwise that's it for another bout of travelling.
Take care, have fun, and happy travels, now and for the future.
Pat
My last few days in Hanoi were spent split between a comfortable, alcoholic haze and occasional bursts of tourist acitivity. I went down for a daytrip to the Perfume Pagoda complex south of town (which was okay, with quite a cool cable-car ride up the mountain but not worth the time or the money it took to get there, let alone my having been sensible the previous night and hence missed out on possibly the biggest drinking night of my time in Hanoi *sighs*). I went to see Ho Chi Minh (aka "Uncle Ho")'s mausoleum. Which is a big-arse pile of granite (or some other deep grey rock) surrounding a marble chamber containing a hard-wood-and-glass coffin-type-thingy containing either a) the embalmed body of Viet Nam's independence leader or b) a wax-work, depending on which version of affairs you believe. And it's impressive enough, more for the guards than anything else, if a bit spooky. I went to the Jade Mountain Pagoda out on an island in the Returned Sword Lake (home to Viet Nam's equivalent of the Excalibur myth, only it features a bloody great turtle) in the middle of Hanoi. And, between all this, I socialised, largely on Halida beer.
So, it's all over red rover. 1 month in Viet Nam, 3.5 months in SE Asia, 5 months back living out of my pack, and 18 months away from home. I'm back in Caldecote, which is probably about as different from Hanoi as I'm likely to get. After a few days back, I've sort of got my perspective on things, so here's the results of my thoughts.
Things I will miss about Viet Nam:
- The smiles. There's something about the Vietnamese grin (admittedly more common down south than up north) which just lights up the person's face and makes the day seem happier than it was.
- Bia hoi. Yes, Vietnam's very own uber-fresh micro-brewed beer, available for the comedy price of around 10p a glass. Light on the taste-buds, light on the alcohol front, but a very nice way to get the evening going.
- Pho. As a certain well-known guidebook series put it, "the dish that built a nation". Slight hyperbole there, but it is one of the few ever-present things from where I travelled in Viet Nam (and one of the fewer good ones). And seeing how much it was in a Vietnamese restaurant in Cambridge nearly gave me heart failure.
- Hanoi Backpackers' Hostel. Yes, it's expensive for a dorm set-up in Viet Nam. Yes, it's run by Westerners (well, Aussies, but we can give them that much). But the atmosphere is fantastic, and the crowd there were some of the better friends I made in my time in SE Asia.
- Crossing the road. I was faintly terrified of this on arrival, but a month in country convinced me it's entirely natural that you should not worry about avoiding the traffic, just let it avoid you. The feeling of invincibility this imbues is intoxicating (and probably bad for your health), and it all just seems to make more sense. Of course, if I tried it in London I'd probably be dead in 2 minutes flat.
Things I won't miss about Viet Nam:
- The vendors/hawkers/touts. "You buy something?" is possibly the most irritating thing I have heard on my trip. I don't mind so much getting touted at if at least the person has something specific they're flogging, but having stall-/shop-owners decide that just because I happen to walk past their premises I'm going to become a customer is really annoying. Work out what I want and try and sell me something specific!! Or else just leave me alone. Grrrr.
- The motorbike-taxi riders along all streets where a tourist might be found (NB this also applies to Cambodia). "Moto-bike you?" does not count as a good sales pitch. Even if you do accompany it with the "hands on handle-bars" symbol that appears to have taken root in international sign-language to mean "Excuse me, good sir, but could I perhaps interest you in a ride upon a motorbike taxi to wherever you are going?". Just because I am white and I am walking somewhere, it does NOT mean I automatically want a moto.
- "Why not?". This is the ultimate irritating answer to the most commonly-used phrase in Viet Nam, "No thankyou!". Why do I not want to buy a motorbike ride/T-shirt/set of postcards/bottle of water/bag of marijuana/assistance in getting "boom-boom"? Could it possibly because I don't need said items? Or even just don't want them? As has been pointed out enough times, albeit in different circumstances, "No means NO!".
Things I will miss about South-East Asia:
- Cheap, cheap food. Wandering through Cambridge today I saw a hot-dog barrow selling its product for 1.65GBP. This is not so ridiculous in the UK, but that equals 50,000 Vietnamese Dong or 120 Thai Baht or something similar. I could get, in either case, a decent meal for that and still have change left over.
- Cheap transport. Again, I looked at transport to maybe go down to my old Uni town of Bristol and back. Cheapest fare would be around 35-40GBP return. This for a trip lasting around 3.5-4 hours. By contrast, a bus-journey of similar length in Viet Nam would cost maybe 4USD, or around 2 GBP. An overnight sleeper train from Hue to Hanoi, going nearly half the length of the country, cost me around 14 GBP. A sleeper from near Melaka up to Kota Bharu in Malaysia cost me about 6 quid. And all of those services had a good chance of being on time.
- Polite, enthusiastic small children grinning their heads off when you respond to a wave and a cry of "Hello!".
Things I won't miss about South-East Asia:
- Being unable to understand the vast majority of what's going on around me.
- Being totally unable to fit in in a crowd.
- Spending most of my time on alert for who is trying to rip me off at the moment (honourable exemptions from this to Malaysia and SIngapore).
- The incessant smell and noise of millions of motorbikes, especially the damned tendency to use the horn every 5 seconds or so.
- Nearly concussing myself on the door-frames of bathroom doors in the morning when I'm not paying attention.
- Minibuses. 'Nuff said on this one.
- The "walking ATM" syndrome. Just because I'm a Westerner, does not mean I have cash to throw around the whole damned time.
- Sweating my arse off the whole time.
Things I will miss about backpacking:
- The sheer pace and intensity of life. I have more experiences in two days on the road than I often did in 2 months at work at home.
- The camaraderie. Especially in Asia, where we all stand out a mile off, the sense of community amongst backpackers is very handy. And the recollections of people who've recently travelled to a place are generally a far-preferable way of getting info on there than reading the Lonely Planet.
- The freedom to go do what I want, when I want.
- The endless stream of new friends. If anything, this is generally my favourite thing about travelling.
Things I won't miss about backpacking:
- Living out of the same clothes week in, week out, for weeks and months on end. It's been such a shock to come back and find that I do actually have a wardrobe (both literally and metaphorically) again.
- The less-pleasant aspects of communal living (at least when in dorms). Snorers, early risers, people who feel the need seemingly to stuff their packs with plastic bags to rustle, people who seriously contaminate the air of a communal bathroom (and don't even have the decency to look sheepish), people who, shall we say, reach levels of intimacy not entirely appropriate to a dorm...
- Early morning departures.
- Traveller-snobs. You know the kind, the ones who think that unless you travel with less than 10kg of stuff, sleep in the cheapest flop-houses, avoid any concentration of more than 2 Westerners and are capable of surviving on instant noodles for weeks at a time, then you aren't a PROPER backpacker.
- Keeping track of an endless succession of exchange rates.
I think that about sums things up.
Those few of you coming up to Caldecote at the weekend, I'll look forward to seeing you then. Those down in London, I'm still hoping to get there next week, maybe on Wed or Thu night. Those in Bristol, it's not looking like I'll be there any time before January, as Xmas has people oh-so-busy. Those still on the road, I hope you're still having as good a time as I did. Even after a few days, it feels a little like a dream that's fading slightly from the memory, so I'm getting this down while I still remember it all.
It's been fun (well, mostly) passing on these tales, and I hope you've enjoyed reading them (I know some of you have). After this, I might drop out another e-mail once I have some more stuff updated properly onto my now-very-quiet blog, but otherwise that's it for another bout of travelling.
Take care, have fun, and happy travels, now and for the future.
Pat
Labels: Asia, Background, SE Asia, Viet Nam
posted by Pat at 10:29 pm
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