I’m hesitant to even write this one up because I know that I in no way did Vietnam any justice. I was super frustrated for reasons beyond Nam’s control before I entered the country as well as the whole time I was there and immediately after I left the country I was in great spirits again because I was meeting up with two of my dear friends whom I hadn’t seen in a long time as they had moved on to bigger and arguably better/smoggier things (China). I want to make it clear to all reading this that Vietnam is a beautiful lovely place, and I was in a crabby, exhausted mood when I got there as it was about five months into my backpacking trip. My friend Rog who has traveled even more than I have spent a month there last summer and considers it one of her best trips of all time, probably because that’s when she got really into using the term ‘canoodled’ which may or may not be a result of all the canoodling she did there.
To start with I was furious when I entered Vietnam because I’m irresponsible and like to leave everything to the last possible minute. I had been lurking around Cambodia for awhile because I (like everyone else) love Cambodia very very much. At some point I decided to slowly make my way across the border so while some people I had met on the road headed to the islands, I stayed in Sihanoukville on the visa grind. Not so much a grind as walking up to one of the large wolf packs of bikers around town and asking them to take me to the embassy on the back of their motorcycle, but as much as a grind as anything else in South East Asia really is.
I got the visa no problem and then went to get a bus ticket, which is generally no problem. The biggest issue I’d ever had prior to trying to get the bus into Vietnam was bus stand men trying to make me chew betel nut, because let’s face it; I don’t need any more vices. So I did not anticipate my buying a bus ticket for that night would be a problem, despite the fact that it was Chinese New Year. So far all Chinese New Year had meant for me was a slightly inflated price on hotel rooms (to the best of my recollection). But all of a sudden Chinese New Year meant I couldn’t get to ‘Nam and all my friends were gone, which made me petulant, like a child.
Then there was like eighteen mixups with the bus and everyone else got put on really nice buses and I was basically on a park bench beside some Swedes who became my friends when they told me about how one of them had been waited on Alexander Skarsgard and Kate Bosworth (she did not finish her meal, but said it was good). I returned the favour by helpfully pointing out that all of their things would probably be stolen from under the bus. When we finally got in it turned out everyone else on my bus had reservations. I will stand by the fact that this is a stupid thing to do in 99.9999 per cent of situations when traveling there. There’s a ton of smaller places that don’t have internet reservations so the ones that do can jack up prices like crazy. I met some dudes in Thailand that didn’t know any better and had booked 100$ a night rooms that were only slightly nicer than our 5$ a night rooms because they wanted to make sure they had something online. I know that I am perhaps too casual a traveler, but I feel like if you can’t find a place online, just go and figure it out. Worst comes to worse make some friends and sleep on their floor. My friend Kog basically does that even when she has a room booked, because she is fun.
At any rate, I found a place for 10$ in Ho Chi Minh city which is more than it should have been but I accepted because I was starting to feel sickly. I usually feel sickly so this was not totally unexpected, but it was slightly more debilitating than usual. When I took my room, I didn’t really care much about it being on the 15th floor. With no fridge. But when you are throwing up every ten seconds and so sick all you want to do is curl up in the fetal position, 15 floors takes roughly half an hour. I would wake up in the morning and think about how much I really needed to replenish and then put it off as long as humanely possible. My daily supply runs were no fun, is what I’m trying to express. I know I could have asked for help, but I can get stubborn about those things. The worst thing about this three /four day long ordeal was that the English thing on TV was a Glee Marathon. I thought I had it bad in Korea, with Korean channels. There are roughly four English channels there. One literally plays NCIS all the time, and the others shuffle through playing Transformers, Titanic, Indiana Jones and a few other movies that I’m ashamed I can’t recall on repeat. Nothing made me appreciate that more than that Glee marathon. You know what they say about not knowing what you’ve got until it’s gone…
My friend Zups came over to my house yesterday and under the influence of several Bud Light Limes told me my posts are too long and that she can’t get through them. After I finished crying I said I’d do shorter posts. So, enjoy a lot of hearing me complain, and basically nothing about Vietnam. Also I have no pictures of my time there because I didn’t stay in touch with anyone that I met, and at that point everything I owned (cam, cell phone) had already been stolen. So I’ll have to leave images of me in a lot of pain, watching Glee to your imagination.
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