1/19/16
In the recent years, I realized I have formed a pretty bad habit: I like I invoke God’s name in vain. Well, more accurately, the one and only son of the Catholic church’s deity, to be exact. I have no idea where I picked up this form f exclaimation, but it became extremely apparent in Vietnam every time I try to cross a busy street. It takes about 3 “Jesus Chirsts ” for me to complete a crossing, more if I was not wearing bright color that day. Once, when I was talking to another tourist, he exclaimed that while the traffic is crazy, it seems to work as people are moving around and reaching their destinations.
I woke up feeling tired: the dorm bed is very firm, and I really prefer laying on less hard objects. I decided to visit two famous places of worship today: the Po Naga Cham Towers and Long Son Temple. The towers were built between 7th and 12th century, and is still used as a worshipping site. Only 4 of the 8 towers remained. Originally used as a Holy See for Yang Ino Po Naga, the representative deity of the southern Cham clan. It lies slightly outside the city, and since I had no idea if I can access it on foot, I decided to take a taxi. I got one off the street, and was then taken for a scenic drive. He actually missed the location, wanted to circle more until I stopped him (and got short changed because he claim he did not have the right change). I walked back over the bridge and entered the towers complex. It was actually quite a magnificent site. The towers are well decorated with stone cravings, with the architecture very similar to that of Angkor. I walked around taking photos while avoiding the massive number of Chinese and Russian tourists. One fun thing I notice: the Chinese tourist like to take photos, and I even saw a man taking a photo of his girlfriend/wife taking a selfie. After about an hour, I bid the towers farewell and left to walk to Long Son temple.
Long Son temple, also known as the white Buddhist temple, is located in the city of Nha Trang. Famous for its white sleeping Buddha and giant seated Buddha statues, it is one of the recommended places to visit in this city. To get there, I walked through a few non-tourists neighborhoods, and it was a sober reminder how behind Vietnam is. A stark contrast to the nice and shiny buildings of the tourist beach area, these places were dirty, gloomy and full of locals by the roadsides. Traffic was also a nightmare, as I encountered multiple intersections and traffic circles that have no signal or signs. It was a game of dare: are you brave enough to step in front of motorcycles and cars- but not in front of trucks and lorries since those do not stop for anything. By the time I reached the temple, my shirt was soaked with sweat: both the hot and cold kind. The temple itself was actually beautiful, and blessedly quiet. There were monks going about their lunch and the rude tourists taking photos of them eating. I walked up the stairs, bypassing the local salesmen who wanted to charge me to bang a gong (literally. Not some kind of crude hint!). I hiked up to see Buddha, both when he is sleeping or seating on a lotus (isn’t watching Buddha sleep an invasion to his privacy? Why are we encouraging that?!). I had a quick delicious and cheap lunch at the restaurant inside the temple (all vegetarian food), and then hiked back to the beach front. On the way, I tried to find a cinema that still show Star Wars, only to find it is no longer showing in theaters here. I spent the afternoon reading a book on the beach steps and the went for a short run.
As I was sitting in a cafe typing this, I noticed: there are more staffs than guests, and the staffs are more interested in their phone than actually serving people. In fact, they all ran away after I ordered: and refused to look in my direction. I think that correlates with the traffic problem. There is a lack on motivation to do things the right way. Instead of respecting stop lights and signs, people here prefer to just dash through the intersection, hoping to save time. They want the tourist dollars, but do not want to go for good customer service (I do have to say, I have met some pretty good devices here, but they are rare. They also mostly exist in good hotels and expensive restaurants, not in everyday live). There seems to be a lack of motivation, and a sense that the population want to move upward and forward. Hence, it is true that the traffic works: it is not efficient, is dangerous to everyone, but allows for the movement of people and goods. Is it performing at the best of its ability? Far from it. But unless people start to see why they should follow laws and regulations, good traffic is a lost cause. In the meantime, I will just be invoking Jesus a lot, and maybe throw on Buddha and Po Naga. Afterall, I need all the local help I can get.
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