a little more about vietnam

Ok, let's back track.  I got a little ahead of myself with that last post... but since one person's crisis is another person's funny story (thank you schadenfreude), I wanted to post it as it was happening!!

Back to Vietnam.  I realized that my only Vietnam stories were of not-so-great circumstances, and I don't think I made it clear how much I LOVED Vietnam (but really, what country DON'T I love?? I mean, I'm a hard person to piss off past the point of no return... I always forgive...)

Vietnam was SUCH an amazing country.  It has so much history, so much life, so much beauty.  It was  an exciting place to be... although the horn honking and lack of road rules made it scary at times it kept your adrenaline pumping... you have to feel ALIVE when you are the the midst of so much chaos.  People are always on the streets, eating, drinking, sitting with friends and family (like, literally, on the sidewalk...you have to walk around them... then dodge the motorbike that almost hits you).  And the FOOD ... yummy... pho, fresh spring rolls, deep fried wantons... sign me up!!

just hanging out on the sidewalk in the middle of the day

 

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi were both VERY busy and chaotic cities.  But it was interesting and lively... lots to see and do... and just wandering around the streets was an adventure.  When you want to cross, you have to go one lane at a time and stand in the middle of traffic whizzing by you... You can't hesitate, and you can't run... that's when you get hit.  Oh, and the power lines in those cities!!!  I couldn't stop staring at the FIRE HAZARD!!

power line in Ho Chi Minh

intersection in Hanoi

Hoi  An was my favorite.  It's a city in the central-ish area on the coast.  It has such a safe and neat feel to it.  You can walk the streets at night, shop in the market, take in the smells (incense) and sights (cutest little shops and lanterns lining the street) and feel completely safe.  Also (in my opinion the best part) you can get ANYTHING tailor made for you.  You walk into a shop and they have one of everything, you chose what you want and the fabric you want it in, and they have it ready the next day.  ALSO you can get anything duplicated, so I splurged and got a purse made for just for me (thanks to a certain generous uncle).

lanterns everywhere

made to order shop

Ha Long Bay was BEAUTIFUL.  We spent a night on a boat in the bay amidst the islands... so many of them, all like little mountains of rock and forests jetting out of the water.  The boat itself was on the shabbier side of things (moldy pillows, damp bed, chairs with missing legs... NOT what we had seen in the brochure) but the experience was absolutely worth it.  I would recommend staying on a junk boat (that's actually what they are called... just a coincidence that ours happened to be junky) for a night, it's a great way to see the bay.  Just don't have too high of expectations for the food or accommodation...

Ha Long Bay

my junk boat

I do admit, the beaches were not as nice as Malaysia or Indonesia, but they were still beautiful.  (Just missing the soft white sand and green waters.)  Really, I'm comparing them to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world... (I think I spoiled myself by having Bali the first place I traveled abroad... now everything will be forever compared to that paradise.)  They were still beautiful  beaches in a tropical country, you can't go wrong with that (unless of course there is garbage everywhere).

Mui Ne

Mui  Ne

Oh, and I love the houses here.  They are all really skinny and tall, and only the front is painted.  That makes sense in the cities where the buildings are right next to each other, but they are like that when they stand alone as well.  It looks really interesting... a beautifully finished and painted front, and then grey cement sides.  I kind of saw it as a reflection of the collectivistic society... houses are built to be joined with others, not stand alone.

notice the contrast between the front and the side

The main thing about Vietnam (and well, every country I have visited thus far) that makes me sad is the amount of garbage everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.  But, that is just the reality of these countries.  That's what happens I suppose when the government has more pressing issues, and the people are enduring a daily struggle of survival.

the kitchen in a small village we visited

the joys of international travel

So I'm currently in one of those situations where you think "one day I will laugh about this" ...

I keep on thinking of what one of my professors (who was very well traveled) said before I left... she told me to stay calm in airports.  That international travel means there will be inevitable problems with border crossings and visas and customs... so just enjoy your time, don't be in a rush, and take it as it comes.  It will all work out in the end, it has to.  With that in mind, rather than sit in the middle of Bangkok's international airport and cry, I have decided it would be more productive (well... somewhat productive) to write about it and just laugh now.  I mean, what can I really do but laugh??

What's the crisis you ask?  I thought I would leave you hanging for a little while longer...

ok....


now I'll tell you.

I am alone (it's been just over a day since Caitrin went home) and I am on my way to Australia to meet my friend Tina.  Flying from Bangkok to Darwin is expensive and time consuming.  When I was looking for flights most of them had a ridiculous wait (like 10 hours) in a tiny airport (like Denpasar) and cost too much money (up to and exceeding $1000).  I thought I was pretty clever when I found my own rout for only $350 (after researching incessantly and following flight prices for weeks).

My great idea was to fly with Air Asia from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City for $100 and from Ho Chi Minh to Darwin for $250 with only a three hour wait in between.  I was a little hesitant to be in transit in Vietnam, since it is the one Country in this area that wont give Canadians a Visa on Arrival, so if there were any problems I would be, well, in a crisis.  I snooped around on the web (places like Lonely Planet's travel forum and such, I couldn't find official things written in English that made sense) and found that other people had my same reservations, and many people had in fact used Ho Chi Minh as a transit airport.  Basically, as long as there are only a few hours in between flights you don't need a visa.  One man said that he was simply escorted to the baggage claim to get his bag, then back to departures.  So, I ensured that I had a paper copy of my flight details on me to avoid any unnecessary delays.

Right now, as I sit here reading that over, many "should have's" come to mind.  I should have booked flights with the same airline.  I should have done more research.  I should have gotten a double entry visa for Vietnam.  I should have asked the Vietnamese consulate about transit visas when I was there.  I should have avoided Vietnam and listened to my initial inclination.  I should have paid the $50 extra for the flight with transit in Denpasar (but it would have been 14 hours in a tiny airport with no air conditioning!)

Well, none of that really matters right now does it?  And there is no point living in past decisions that I can not change.

Here's the problem: Air Asia won't let me on the flight because I don't have a visa.  AWESOME.  It's not that I can not transit in Ho Chi Minh without a visa, the problem is AIR ASIA wont let me transit without a visa.  They say that they don't have a transit desk before immigration.  They told me I can get a visa and fly another day, or buy a ticket from another airline that is equipped for transit passengers.  AWESOME.  No refund, no help, just a stone faced no entry.  AWESOME.  Have I mentioned how AWESOME this is yet?

I mean, back to the "should have's" ...  I could have researched more, and I would have found that I CAN transit in Vietnam.  Maybe, MAYBE, I could have found somewhere that AIR ASIA in particular will not facilitate that... but really?  Really?  REALLY?  WTF?

There I was walking through  the airport, dragging my bag behind me (I had already zipped the backpack straps up to get it ready for the flight) looking for an airline desk to see if I could find another ticket to Ho Chi Minh, trying my hardest not to cry (what on earth is that going to do?  It's not going to get them to let me on the plane, it's not going to get me a refund, it's not going to get me to Darwin any faster) and a man in a suit came up to me and asked me if I needed help.  Perhaps I could have been more cautious (people try to scam you), but I felt tired and defeated and told him my story (through a few tears).  He found a place for me to sit and he and his colleague tried finding me another flight to Ho Chi Minh to get my connecting flight.

So, here I am now.  Sitting, waiting.  I am on standby with another airline (one that will facilitate a transit) to see if I can get a seat.  I am not sure how probable this option is yet... it is my cheapest option (costing only an additional $250 for this ticket... on top of the money I've already paid), and the most ideal, since I would still be arriving in Darwin on my original flight.  Two issues though: there is no guarantee I will get on this flight, and there is only an hour between when this one lands and my next one departs... it may not be enough time to get my bag (which is far too big for a carry on).  So, only a two hour wait to see if this will work... then I will explore my other (more costly and time consuming) options.

Oh, and to add insult to injury... My phone has run out of minutes (so I can't text and update my friend in Darwin to say when I'll be there), my text app crashed (so I can't text my sister and rant about what's happening) and I can't get a free wifi signal (so I can't make any phone calls with skype to... well, rant).

After waiting for two hours, a man came up to me to bring me to the check in desk for the flight they were trying to get me on.  Shortly after we found out that because the airline I was flying from Ho Chi Minh to Darwin on is a budget airline, I am not able to do a connection without a visa after all (to summarize, if I were flying with a regular airline it would be fine, but because I was using budget airlines I can't do a connection without first getting a visa to enter the country). AWESOME.

With no possible way of making it to my connecting flight, I had to consider the (more costly) option of buying a whole new ticket to Darwin. I was brought to the man's office to look for an alternative flight to Darwin (aaaah, it's a travel agency... that makes sense... that's why they are so nice and helping me).  And, of course, there were no more flights going to Darwin today.  Happily they did find me a flight tomorrow (and they were very proud that it was such a low price) stopping in Manilla and costing a mere $750.  AWESOME.  Well, at least I get to say I went to the Philippines too.

Now I am back at a hotel (which I paid too much for) with a beer to help nurse my disappointment.  As I reflect on the whole experience, I realize that it could have been much, much worse.  Honestly, when it comes to a crisis, this turned out pretty good.  I am getting where I want to go, just 23 hours later (and $750 more) than I intended.  This is part of the traveling experience.  This is what I signed up for.

harry potters night bus from hell

Have you watched the Harry Potter movies??  Remember the one where he gets picked up on the night bus and the driver is driving like a maniac, back and forth on the road, faster than can possibly be safe, and poor Harry is thrown about the bus...

yeah, that's basically what we were on.

We decided to take a night bus from Mu Nie to Hoi An (actually we had wanted to take the train, but we would have had to take an expensive taxi for an hour to the next town to catch the train, then pay twice as much as the bus to take the train, then take another expensive taxi from the city with the train station to the city that we wanted to be in).  So, 16 hour bus ride on a bus it was.  We were assured that it would be a comfortable ride on a "sleeper bus" (I was very interested to what how exactly they managed to fit sleeper berths on a bus) and we would have stops for dinner and snacks.

The bus came to pick us up at our hotel at 1 in the afternoon (well, actually it was closer to 1:30 by the time it got there, nothing ever seems to be on time around here).  The "sleeper" seats were... well, kind of a seat the reclines almost all the way back with a spot for your feet under the person in front of you.  There were three rows of these seats and two bunks.  Happily, there was a bathroom on board as well.  The first 4 hours were ok, I had a nice window seat on the bottom and had a place to prop my small bag behind me (my big bag was under the bus, and I keep all of my important things in a small backpack that stays with me all the time when traveling).  Besides the fact that I was right in front of  the bathroom (so you can guess what I got to smell at times) it was a decent ride... more comfortable and private than a regular bus, and the scenery was really beautiful (deep red earth with bright green vegetation, rolling hills, vast blue ocean and white sand beaches, interesting villages and cute little houses along the way)

see the little box thing under the seat? that's where your feet go.

After about four hours of travel we stopped in a city and people started getting off the bus... we knew our stop was at least 10 hours away, and this didn't look like a restaurant stop (no restaurants near by) so we stayed put... until a man started knocking on my window and told me to get off the bus.  ok then. (ps no one updates you on what city your in, where you are stopping, how long you are stopping, or any details at all)  We got off and there is utter chaos on the side of this busy city street.  People are walking in all directions, all speaking loudly in a language we don't understand (Vietnamese presumably) and a man hands us our bags... we say "Hoi An" (because we know this is NOT Hoi An, so why did you get me off the bus and give me my bag?)  They point us across the street to the office, we are changing buses (thanks for informing us).  When we get to the office they lady loudly says "ticket, ticket" and we explain that we gave our ticket to the last bus driver.  She repeats herself (as if that will magically make our tickets re appear) and we state again that we do not have tickets.  We tell her where we are going and she says to wait there.  Ten minutes later we are told to get in a shuttle (who asks us for our tickets as well, the motions for us to get on anyway), and are taken on a 20 min ride through the city.

We arrived to a large bus depot and were directed to our bus.  After putting our bags underneath we try to board, and are greeted again with "ticket?" We explained, again, that the last bus took our ticket and we don't have a copy of it.  The bus driver conversed with a man through his window and then kicked us off the bus. Great.  Another man says (again) "ticket" we inform him (again) that the last bus driver took our ticket.  (at this point I am visibly irritated) he then starts making this hand gesture, kind of waving his hand at us and looking at us expectantly.  I asked him what he wanted from us, and he continued with this hand gesture.  I told him (rather irritatedly) that I have no idea what "this" (and I mimicked his gesture) means, does he want us to go with him? To stand back? To go over there?  I started wondering if we should be trying to get our bags out from under this bus.  The man loudly asks us for tickets again, to which we replied (again) that we do not have them.  Then he just tells us to get back on the bus.  (well, that was a waste of time now wasn't it)

In a dither we finally get into our seats.  This time I was in an upper bunk, which suited me fine since I had a window again.  Unfortunately there was no where to put my bag, so I got to keep it right on my lap (yay).

just enough room for one

Now, there is no way that I can describe this to adequately relay what it was really like on this bus.  I mean, nothing I say is going to give you an accurate picture of this experience, it's one of those things that you would have to endure in order to understand.  But, I shall try.

Immediately they turned the lights out (booo no reading) which made me realize how late it was (maybe 7:30ish)...which indicated there would NOT be a dinner stop, or snack stop, or water stop... that's ok... I had half a bottle of water and some oreos... (what a great dinner that was, so satisfying, so nutritious, such a variety of foods).  There was nothing to do but try to sleep (at SUCH a late hour I was soooo tired), so I put in my ipod and tried to drown out the noise  of people talking around me.  Ten minutes later it died.

So. nothing to do in the dark.  empty stomach.  cramped seat (that is nothing like a bed).  backpack on my stomach, between my legs, beside me while I'm on my side, down where my feet should be when I curl up, etc. ridiculously cold air conditioning blowing directly on me (mixed with cigarette smoke... the driver was smoking and the ac made it permeate the entire bus.  have you smelled the combination of smoke and ac? not good).  It felt as if the driver was driving like a maniac.  He must have been speeding excessively, the bus jerked back and forth and back and forth (and I felt like I was going to roll right out of my upper bunk and down to the floor, so I had to hold on, or prop my feet up, or stuff my bag beside me so I didn't rock back and forth).  Most of the time the bus was going around corners so fast it felt like it would topple right over.  In addition to that the road felt like it was gravel half the time, rattling constantly. I told myself that it was ok, this was travelling, it's not that bad, it will make a funny story.  Then the horns started getting to me.  (have I told you about horn use here?  Back home people use their horn as a tool to tell someone they have cut you off, or because your about to get in an accident.  That's basically it. Here, however, horns have many, many, many, more uses.  Basically, you just honk your horn constantly.  Loudly, repeatedly, holding it down sometimes, or just doing many short honks.  I think they do this when they are passing someone, when someone is just going slowly, when they pass by someone pulled off, when someone cuts them off, and sometimes I can't figure out why, they are just honking wildly).  So, as I am trying to picture the bus rocking as a soothing, repetitive motion (and it jerks me wildly back and forth) and I find a somewhat comfortable position hugging my bag, I almost drift off to sleep.... HOOOOOOOOOOOONK HONK HONK HOOOOOOONK HOOOOONK HONK.  I jump!  Holy crap we are getting in an accident!! (in my sleepy state I assume honk usage as I have known it my entire life, and when someone honks like that, your about to hit them)  Never mind.  Just someone passing us.  I move my bag beside me to cushion from the wild jerking motion... maybe if I didn't have to hold on so I don't fall I could relax a little more... the honking is incessant... like, every few minutes at least... the bus is going down the side of a mountain or something, jerking more wildly and inching towards toppling right over ....

Hours pass.  The longest hours of my life.  I realized, with dismay, that although I am trying to have a positive outlook on this whole "adventure", this just might be one of the most physically uncomfortable, fear inducing, nauseating experiences of my life.  I could see the headlines "two Canadian girls killed on a bus in Vietnam" ... then, sometime in the middle of the night, we stopped and picked up about 20 more Vietnamese passengers.  Who (since the bus was already full) all sat in the isles like sardines and talked loudly (you know, not like this is a sleeper bus in the middle of the night or anything...) They guy behind me translated for his friends and informed us that the other bus to Hoi An had an "accident" so the passengers are all being moved to this bus.  (oh, how surprising).  People climbed around the bus like monkeys (scaling the bunks and climbing over each other) in order to reach the bathroom.  The air became thick with so many body's inside such a small space. 

I wanted to die.  (truth be told, it could have been a lot worse. Two girls we met were sitting in the back, five seats were all beside each other with nothing between them, and a solid five seat bunk was directly above them.  They had absolutely nothing to hold on to (just a propped foot to stay steady), the rattling and bumping was magnified from being right in the back, and strangers rolled onto them throughout the night... it's no wonder that Katie named it "Harry Potters night bus from hell")

Needles to say, we flew from Hoi An to Hanoi.

the bedbug saga continues

I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky... it's been almost two months since we have had to deal with the pesky little parasites that have plagued my nightmares... as soon as we stopped searching every inch of each new room... as soon as we started sleeping soundly even on the first night in a hotel... as soon as I had almost forgotten the sight of the dead bugs and bloodstains in the corners of my washed sleep sheet... as soon as we had let our guard down...

bedbugs.

Well, to tell the truth this is not the first time we have seen one.  When we were on Gili T we found a lone bug crawling on our wall.  We tore the room apart and found no other signs, and luckily it never developed into anything more than a nerve racking wanderer.

So there we were in Vietnam at a beautiful place called Mui Ne: palm tress and beaches, the sound of the ocean at night, comfy restaurants with couches by the water.  We were soaking it up because we know this was the last beach side town we will be staying at during this trip.  We were so excited to have three full days laying in the sun on the breezy beach.  Even more excited because we had found a clean and comfortable room steps from the beach for only $18 a night.   Beer can be bought for less than $1, the food was great - new, interesting, and yummy... we had found paradise.

respectable hotel... right?

We were laying in our beds watching an episode of Damages (our guilty pleasure is to watch tv on the laptop some nights... it's nice to unwind and lose yourself in a show... life can be very chaotic when you are moving constantly...)  So after our episode, it was time for bed. 

I decided to use to mosquito net on my bed for the first time (I have as of yet not used one on our trip) as I seem to be a human buffet for all things that bite, and our window was open for a good portion of the day.  I didn't feel like dealing with a new slew of itchy bites.  Caitrin laughed when she saw me inside my little protective net... she asked if I had been bitten the night before (we were in the same hotel but a different room, we had moved to get a room with two beds) I admitted I did not, but said happily "I'll sleep well tonight knowing that I'm protected!"

cue the foreboding music

No sooner than those words had escaped my mouth did Caitrin see them.  Prompted by my use of the net she took a look at her own... and there it was... a bedbug... crawling down the net... she gasped... I instantly knew what was wrong.  I shot up in my bed and looked at my own net.  There they were.... half a dozen of them... crawling down the net to feast on my unknowing body... the smell of my warm blood had roused them from their daytime slumber and they were slowly inching their way toward their breakfast...

I shot out of bed and we inspected the situation... it appeared that they were nested in the wooden ring of the mosquito net near the ceiling.  If you looked closely you could see the tell tale dark stains of their feces. 

After assessing our situation, we decided that sleeping in that room was not an option.  We went out to the front desk to find out if perhaps there was still another room available, but all we found was a sleepy security guard with choppy English... all hotel staff were gone for the night.  After briefly considering breaking into a different room to sleep in, we decided we had to leave.  I didn't bother changing from my pj's... just grabbed my purse and put some shoes on.  After some deliberation we decided the bags and our belongings were safe, they only entered the room that day and the infestation didn't appear to be as bad as the last time... they weren't on the walls, in the bed, and in the pillows... just slowly making their way down the mosquito nets.  There would be no reason to suspect that they would travel around the room and into our bags.

We set off in search of a hotel that had staff working at this time.  First place... no one at the front desk but a security guard.  We walked on.  Next hotel, there was a man sitting behind the desk, halleluiah. No rooms. We walked on.  Hotel after hotel, either no one at the desk or completely booked up for the night.  We talked about the option of sleeping outside... we could wrap ourselves in our sheets and sleep on the hotels tanning chairs next to the ocean... as soon as we began to accept that our fate may be an outdoor sleeping adventure we stumbled upon a big ol swanky hotel... and thankfully, they had a room available (and at least it was only $50.... which is worth a good nights sleep)

swaaaaaaaaaaaanky

Early the next morning we made our way back to the bedbug inn, and kindly (and quietly) tried to inform the hotel staff of our discovery.  I had a picture of one on my iphone to avoid confusion (bugs don't seem to matter in these countries... I once had a conversation with a man who had giant ants crawling all over his body and he didn't seem to care...  but BEDbugs get the attention of people...)  The hotel owner firmly said "no."  (yep.  that's all he would say)  we assured him that we wouldn't have left the hotel in the middle of the night if we were sure of what we saw.  He again, simply said "no."  (like we decided to make the whole thing up or something). He finally came to the room and shook the bedding around, pulled at the curtains, and said "no"...  They left the room and Caitrin climbed up to the mosquito net rings and catch one, then she brought it back to the desk.  Still, they refused to admit that the room had bugs.  Later we did spot them cleaning the nets out of the room and killing the bugs individually.... but for some reason they refused to admit to us that there were bugs there.

Whatever.

We changed hotels, and chalked that day up to being a sucky one.  (by the time we got checked into our new room the sun was behind clouds, so we had missed out on a tanning day)  that's ok.  We all have bad days some times. At least we didn't get ravished by bedbugs. And we had the sound of the waves to calm our troubled minds.

all we did the next day