Last day in Saigon

1/29/16

   
    
    
    
    
   
   

    
    
 

(An additional note: I met two really awesome ladies when I was in Vientiane, Laos: Devon and Sarah. We have been playing leap frog in terms of cities, but always managed to meet up. Actually, Devon deserve the credit, she stopped me in the streets of Luang Pabrang. They are the most awesome traveler I have met: always cheerful, resourceful, deals everything with a calmness that speaks of their mental maturity: even though they are and look young. For my last nights, I spent dinner and beer time with them and my 2 new friends: Liviu and Leon. Leon and Ihad some great conversation about political systems, and Livius is just a all around cool guy: adventurous and outgoinf. We had a really good time [well, at least I think so] , and I feel disapponted that I am not traveling with them. I really think we will have lots of fun traveling as a group. Just for example, our conversation went from weird sex fetishes to IUDs to war crimes to traffic to motorcycle laws. I sincerely wish the ladies and guys all the best of luck: Sarah in Taiwan, Devon in Australia, Leon in Italy and Liviu in wherever he chooses to be. I miss you all already. Safe travels mates.)

Whenever I travel, I often meet some pretty awesome travelers along the way. Since I am someone who likes to stick to a plan (even if it is not working out well: I call it perseverence, some call it idiotic), I often miss the change to travel with these great people. Actually, i sometimes wonder if it is because I like to be alone. It is often easy enough to change my plans and routes, but I never quite felt the urge to make drastic changes. Even after traveling for so long (or short, depending on how you view time), I am still a big follower of plans and schedules. 

It is quite a shock: this is my last day in Saigon. Tomorrow, I am heading to the airport early to get to Singapore. I am still debating is this blog will continue when I am there, since I won’t be in traveler mode: I am mostly meeting up with friends and just chilling around. (Seriously, this blog could become a boring blog on my dietary preference and general mumbles: wait, that is exactly what this blog had turned into…) I woke up a little later than usual, grabbed the poor man’s breakfast at the hostel and started to get dressed. I ran into Leon and Liviu (yeah, I still can’t pronounce that name), two friends I met at the hostel. We all decided to grab some  breakfast at the nearby ABC cafe (somehow that reminds of of Le Miserable..yeah my kind is weird), and we all indulged in some very tasty pastries and coffees. After that, Liviu wanted to try getting his ear picked/clean, and so we all went searching for a barber shop. While I had gotten my ears clean a few times, I have never watch it live. It was surprisingly fun to see someone squirmed and winced while getting poked in the ear by various instruments (maybe I do have a sadist streak afterall…). After Livius is all cleaned, we all moved onto the local market: Ben Thanh. While the others indulged in shopping, I realized that I really be did not want to carry anymore things. I ended up walking away empty handed. 

In the afternoon, since it is my last day in Saigon, I decided to visit the independence/reunification palace. This restored building used to the presidential palace of the south Vietnam before its fell to the north in 1975. It was like A time warp to 1960s. The furniture, the room decoration, the meeting rooms are all still on meticulous condition. There are also many photographs of the administration and the last days before the fall. With the weather being blisteringly hot and drowning kt humid, it was a welcome relief to stay in the palace and enjoy the occasional cool breeze. After that, it was a quick hot and sweaty hike to the tallest building in Saigon: the Bitexco Financial Tower. Towering at 68 stories over the city, it is quite a sight. Supposedly, the architect drew inspiration from the national flower: the lotus (err…I really failed to see that). Also, there is a helipad, which is rumored to be non-functional die to poor structural design. I went up to the 52 level helibar and enjoyed a nicely overpriced drink and the scenery of the city from very dirty Windows (the melted sand variety, not the operating system). It was a nice way to spent the afternoon, although my wallet did complained bitterly about being much lighter. 

I guess the last day of anything is actually a little anticlimactic. I really wish I can travel with some of these new found friends, but also know that my time in Vietnam is up (according to my travel visa). As I prepare to leave this beautiful but sometimes fustrating land, I can’t help but wonder if I will be back. Like many who left during the war and vowed to return, maybe I will try to return soon and travel across this country more extensively. Now that I know what I know, hopefully I will be more patient, and note prepared for weird situations. One thing is certain: I am sure to meet more friendly travelers along the way, and make lots of new cool friends. 

(Well, I think they are cool. They may think I am an idiot…)

War and War

1/28/16

   
    
    
    
   
   
    
    
    
 Before I start this post, I have to declare: I have never lived in China. When I was in Hong Kong, it was a British colony, and my family left for Singapore before the changeover. While my family is all back in Hong Kong now, I have not lived there for many years. Therefore, it is always an interesting conversation when fellow travelers ask me about living in a communist country. Actually, I don’t think any country in the world is current a communist country, following the manifesto ideals set forth by Karl Marx that set forth the Bolshevik Revolution. I think most went the way of socialism and never managed to proceed to the next step. Interestingly, the people who like to discuss these more philosophical questions (that I have met so far) are usually from Europe and South America. 

After talking to many fellow tourists, I decided to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. This tunnel system, located in the village of Cu Chi, spanned 250 km on length, had three different levels and was used by the Viet Cons during the war against US. Along with bunkers built underground, the system provided medical, supply, transportation, and communication channel for the army. It is said that many of the peasants farmed during the day, and became  soldiers at night. The US arm forces were never able to fully penetrate these tunnels: from the small size entrance to the narrow spaces, the locals joked that the Americans were just too big to fit through (I’d like to say: I refrained from making the obvious jokes here). Nowadays, it is ma inky a tourist attraction, where visitors can crawl around the tunnels and pretend they are earthworms. The tourist site also has old machine guns and rifles for visitors to shoot (using leftover billets from the war). I was picked up at 8:30am, and the journey to the village took more than 2 hours (70km away, and we also stopped by a tourist trap along the way). While we were driving, the guide went on a long and convoluted explanation of the history: from the French war to the American war. It became slightly strange when he proclaimed how great Vietnam is (hmm), and how instead of seeking revenge, they chose to “forgive” the enemy. He also went on a long lecture on how wrong the US was, how Vietnam was always the victim of wars, and how they suffered hugely, and how children learned how to kill enemies to revenge their families. After a while, I filtered out some of the more propaganda-ish speech and  just nodded along. 

The village is actually pretty small, and is now a full on tourist attraction: no one lives there anymore. We wandered around various exhibits, learning about traps and explosives set for US forces, watching videos glorifying children killing soldiers, and how they made the tunnels. These tunnels were made at 3 meters, 6 meters and 10 meters depths. It housed hospitals, meeting rooms, kitchens, and supply areas.they disguised cooking smoke using bamboo shoots (making tiny wisps that resembles cigarette smokes), and used spices, cigarettes and clothing on authors to avoid detection by canines. It was all very informative, but also a lot different from other war museums and exhibits I have seen. Instead of condemning war and the associate atrocities, these exhibits seemed to promote cruelty and praised violence- as long as they were done to the enemy. After a brief stop at the machine  guns (I passed on shooting- the guns were fixed and clamped down, so all you do is press the trigger), we were allowed to go through a small section of the tunnel. Everyone had to bend over, and sometimes even crawl to different sections. It was also extremely hot and humid underground, and we were all hot and sweaty coming out of the confined space. 

In the afternoon, I went to the war remnants museum. It housed a lot of the leftover US war machines: helicopters, tanks, bombs, etc. There were also lots of exhibits and photos on the atrocities committed by US, and the effect of Agent  Orange. The wordings and captions are, of course, pretty one sided. Interestingly, it was also the busiest museum I have been in so far, with every level packed by tourists. There were lots of comments on how awful US armies were, how things have not changed. I even heard someone comparing ISIS with Viet com; on how they were misunderstood and we are all influenced by the media. I was a little shocked by that, and decided to leave quickly before getting drawn into an argument. 

After these, I decided to sit down and process my feelings (yes, I have those too). One on hand, I am against war and all its associated atrocities. There is no innocent bystanders in war, and everyone is harmed. I think there is a solution to all problems, and as long as we all work together, we can make the world a great place. However, I am not a fan of blaming the war on everyone else, which is what I see in vietnam. I am not sure if it is because the government still controls the media, but I have not heard on person the talk about the after effect of the war: the depressed economy, and worsening standard of living, and how the country went backwards in term of development. I could not help but wonder about this: Korea also had a war, and it split into south and North Korea. For this exercise, let’s say Saigon is just like Seoul. If given a choice, would the current people loving Saigon prefer to be more like Seoul, or the current Saigon? If history can be rewritten, which would be preferable for the people? While I like the idea o communism, it had been proven to be a failure: none of the communist country succeeded, and all have to revert to the market economy to progress. If that is the case, why not just admit communism is an ideal that is not achievable at this stage, and just let that go? Instead of spending time and energy to justify a failure, maybe those resources can be put into better use with training the citizens, updating traffic infrastructure, and improving living conditions.

Bye Bus (reprise)

1/27/16

   
    
    
    
    
 It is always awkward when you have to share a tight space with strangers; or as someone overly friendly once claimed: friends you just have not met yet. I am relatively sure that speaker who proclaimed that love for all mankind have never been on a tightly packed bus for 6 hours. After traveling for the past few months, I have come to appreciate the terms “privacy”, “personal space”, and most of all “leg room”. I know I was seriously spoilt by the South American bus system, and have been unfairly comparing south East Asian bus system with it. (And if you want to know, it is like comparing high school students with university students. No, I am not saying some people like the younger generation. Where was I?) If you have never been on a long bus ride, it is definitely something to do when you are still spry, flexible,  and generally in good health. Afterall, you never know what a “short” and “simple” bus journey can lead to. 

Today is a day of traveling: I am heading to Ho Chi Minh City (or as everyone else call it: Saigon). It is a short 5 hours bus ride from Mui Ne to Saigon, and for some weird reason they gave me a seat in the “sleeper” bus: they have seats that automatically reclines so you have no choice but to lie down for the duration of the ride. As with the other sleeper bus I took, it is also an acrobatic challenge to go up and down the 2nd level seats. Add to that the challenge of taking your shoes on and off everytime you step on and off the bus, you have a full exercise routine mapped out. Knowing this was coming, I spent the morning running on the beach; enjoying the sunrise and the sight and smell of fishermen fishing (by smell I mean the smell of seafood roasting somewhere for breakfast); packing my bags; watching some tv; lounging around by the pool before the inevitable time of departure. It was one of the most relaxing morning I spent in south east Asia thus far.

The bus picked us all up at 1:25pm. I was assigned the first seat on the second stack, so I happily climbed up and deposited myself onto the reclined seat. As the passengers got on, i noticed a trend: they are mainly Koreans, Chineseand Russians; mostly of upper middle age. My guess is that Sinh tourist (the bus company I have been taking), it slightly more expensive (but more reliable and is generally safer and known to be less thieving) and draws the slightly more well off but not too rich tourists. (The rich one flies, the poor ones will do backpacker buses?) While this is interesting to ponder over, it also presented a problem: some of the tourists are just not flexible or have the body strength to climb onto seats. This, coupled with taking shoes on and off and the awkward seating pattern, really makes it tough for them. I seen many struggling to get into their seats, and had a lot of difficulties getting in and out. I tried to help, but the tight space made it difficult to provide any asistance. The bus ride itself was pretty decent: we stopped once for bathroom and food break, and arrived in Saigon at 6pm. The scenery was still amazing as always, and I enjoyed a nice sunset over the Mekong River. 

After getting disoriented (lost) a few times, I eventually  found my hostel and checked it. As I was eating dinner in a nearby restaurant (I needed the air conditioning), I realized: this is the last city I am visiting in Vietnam. I will be leaving this country soon, and on my way to Singapore. For a minute, I was actually a little sad: I have come o like the weirdness of everything and starting to appreciate erg mentality of  taking everything as a challenge. Afterall, even though a well executed trip is great and relaxjng, one filled with unexpected events and challenges actually promote personal growth (and anger management). Maybe I was thinking the wrong way: the elders may actually be enjoying the difficulties, embracing them and overcoming them, giving them lots to talk about to their friends m  when they get home. It is true: age is not a determining factor in anything these days (well, maybe except R and X rated movies). Embracing challenges maybe exactly what the tourists were trying to do on their vacation. 

(Hmm…I sense a paradox in my last paragraph…)