Since I
could not decline 'the invitation' (yep, they called it an invitation :) to the graduation, I spend few days in the office doing some marking and the usual readings/procrastination. Though, I forgot bout one tiny weeny mini detail - visa!
Even though Nat told me bout it, months in advance, I needed another remainder. Luckily, I joined couple of colleagues for a tea after work on Tuesday, and one of them asked me about visa - thanks Dato. It turned out to be no worries... The next morning, straight after the graduation, I was in a cab to the Vietnam embassy. Need visa the same day? - Ok, you pay me three times the usual fee. The guy pockets the money, and goes to work with the liquid paper, changing the dates on the visa application form that I have just filled in (I presume to make it seem as thought I applied for it weeks ago. (Nope, he was not Singaporean.))
Though visa cost me a bit more, I was quite lucky with the outgoing air-fare. Initially I thought that I couldn't, but none the less I managed to change the departure date for the Jetstar ticket for a fraction of the new ticket cost.
The good thing about my holiday delay was that I got to catch up w/ Mirror (aka Dave). He came back from India, to sort out his paperwork for Shanghai. We were up the whole night before my flight, together w/ his unacquainted love (just one of many - ladies), just mulling over all kinds of BS. My flight was at 7am, so - ignoring the fact that the two of us caught 3h of sleep the night before - there was no point of hitting the horizontal.
Unsurprisingly, I - basically - slept all the way
from my apartment till the rest room in
Pham Ngu Lao street - backpackers destination in
Ho Chi Minh City. And then, after check-in, till dinner time.
After dinner, while walking back to the room, I took a seat at the little square where guys were playing an interesting game, similar to badminton - well a 'ball' looks similar, there is no net, and instead of using the racket, they kick it, and usually they kick it over their head (i.e. the 'ball' first flies over the head and only then they kick it, at times jumping down on their hands, and doing 'donkey kick' - impressive). Just after few minutes of sitting there, something even more impressive happened. A young guy sat next to me and stared asking some questions, bit later there was another, one, and another one... up to 20 at one time. Some had notebooks (and pens), they were making notes... Every night they come there, and start up conversations with tourists, they practice English.
The next day I walked around the city.... Avoiding the traffic and people trying to sell you things you don't want to buy the whole day, during the hot summer day is rather tiring. As of now, after
Bangalore,
Chennai,
Bangkok and
HCMC, one day in a big, crowded, main city of a developing country is more then enough of time for me to spend in.
HCMC is same, same... not much different then other huge cities in developing countries of SE Asia I have visited; less chaotic (to my eye) then Bangalore, but more so then Bangkok. I liked
Dan's description:
"Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is the largest city in Vietnam and is located near the Mekong Delta, the mouth of the life vein in SE Asia. The city itself seems to be in constant motion with a soundtrack of techno drum beats, beeping horns, ringing cell phones, and 'xe om' drivers yelling "Moto? Moto?" The only hope a traveler has to survive the bouncing pulse is to move with the current of the city like a leaf rides the swirls and eddies of the river it happens to encounter. Fighting the river only results in exhausting and drowning. Floating with it results in mostly calm travels with the occasional bounce or jostle from an obstacle hidden from view.If HCMC was to adopt a symbol for itself, it would be the motorbike. A Honda motorbike more specifically. Motorbikes are popular all over Asia, but in HCMC, they make up over 90% of the vehicles on the road. I guess it makes sense because they are the cheapest mode of motorized transportation available, but nonetheless, it creates one wild scene. Watching from the side of the road provides a brief vignette of entertainment, but the real cabaret takes stage when a pedestrian decides it is time to cross the asphalt. The proper method is as follows: Wait for a small break in the stream, then step into the road looking at whichever direction the bikes are coming from. Make sure the drivers see you. Start walking. The drivers will likely encounter you before you have reached the other side, but whatever you do, don't start running. Running only decreases their reaction time. Simply keep walking at a steady pace and let the drivers avoid you. That is that. It's very odd at first, but you do get used to it. What a trip.Other than that, HCMC is much like is other Asian cousins, but perhaps with a little more neon."
One thing to add to Dan's description is that virtually everybody, especially around the
Pham Ngu Lao backpackers area, was pretty aggressive in selling, the 'front room' merchandise (books/suvenires/(moto)bike rides...) as well as the 'back room'. Possibly it was just me, guess a person looking like me, and walking around by himself is equivalent to asking for it. Maybe so, but not in this case.
The next morning at 7:30am I was happy to be on the bus to
Mui Ne... I had no idea what Mui Ne is apart from the fact that it is the closest place on the cost that a bus goes to from
Pham Ngu Lao.
When initially looking at bus routes, I thought I'll make it up north to
Nha Trang via few days stop in
Dalat. Though, as it was raining season, and Dalat's high up in the mountains, the info from travelers coming from north was that it's rather 'refreshing' up there, and I only packed my thin wind breaker along, as the only thing with long sleeves. Nha Trang on the other hand, is the city on the beach... more people, more happening then Mui Ne, and chilling out in a quite place sounded more enticing at the time. Though I had no winter clothes with me, and was happy taking it easy, the main reason I ended up stying in Mui Ne the whole time is due to wonderful human beings... or in this case being: Erik, aka Riki. Riki had the seat next to mine on the bus to Mui Ne. First part of the trip, he was happily enjoy scenery while listening to his music on his precious iPod, and I was reading the book. Naturally, eventually we got to chat... and we never really stopped for the whole week.
Regarding carrier, Riki is ex
Accenture senior-consultant/PM, Phd holder, with
enterpreneurship aspirations. Add to that his interest in
BS, and needless to say we had lots of common points to discuss and share ideas about.
Together with my room, I rented a bike for the duration of the stay as well - it was cool cursing around... Riki rented a bike for couple of days; when we went for the exploration of the near by town - called
Phan Thiết, with a big fishing harbor/marked; and the next day, of the sand dunes.
Evenings we spend at the small, sea-food, family restaurant; lots of eating, drinking, talking... meeting other travelers.
Though we had many nice chats with French couple that live and work in
Tokyo, as well as couple of
ABC professional chicks from
New York, the note worthy is the crazy British chick who was sitting completely naked, w/ shaved/pierced beaver on the beach amongst other 10-15 ppl. She was there with her boyfriend, whom she met after her girlfriend invited her over for a threesome with her, and at the time her boyfriend. Those were some interesting convers
Unlike me, who 'wonders' around SA Asia with no plan/s/ing, Riki was adding on the personal holiday to his business trip. He had a week, and new exactly what he wanted to do -
Kite surfing. Turns out that I stumbled upon place that is "
...quickly becoming a South East Asian Mecca for kiteboarding and windsurfing."
That reminded me of my childhood dream - together w/ friends, I used to sit at the shore and watch windsurfers during windy autumn's days - which was revived when talking with Theo in
Thailand. Though we were there in an off-season, a no wind season. Next t...
Luong, a friend from unimelb, lives in
Hanoi. Since I wasn't gonna make it all the way up North, he managed to arrange a 'business trip' to HCMC. Luckily I got to check my eM in time to leave Mui Ne and meet Lu for the dinner on my last night in Vietnam.
Next time, I'll have to fly to Hanoi and make my way south.
to be continued...!
