Ah lala, ce que j'étais rendu comfortable!
1 mois passé à Da Nang dans un petit appart à étudier, manger et boire de la bière, ensuite 3 semaines à voyager avec mon père, à coucher dans de beaux hotels et être gâté...
Ma buddha belly est revenue, pour commencer. Je l'avais perdu après mon petit empoisonement qui m'a fait chier (littéralement) pendant 2 jours de temps, mais ça n'a pas prit de temps que c'est revenu.
J'ai sur-estimé la vitesse à laquelle je me déplace en moto... Aujourd'hui, après près de 2 mois sans faire de moto-marathon, je n'ai parcouru que la moitié de la distance dont je visais. Je la joue "safe". À 2pm, j'étais seulement à la moitié du chemin. J'étais exactement où je pensais être, à cette heure, mais j'étais beaucoup plus brûlé (fatigué, et coup-de-soleillé) que prévu, et donc j'ai décidé de me trouver un petit hotel pas cher et aller relaxer.
Après tout, j'ai pas d'horaire.
Je suis à Quang Ngai en ce moment, une ptite ville sur le bord d'une grosse rivière. En ce moment ladite rivière est couverte de sable, mais j'imagine que pendant la saison des pluies ça doit devenir assez rock n roll. La seule attraction est un musée qui parle d'un massacre qui s'est passé ici, mais c'est Dimanche alors c'est fermé.
Très bien. Je ne peux pas rester au soleil, et y'a rien à voir? Repos dans ma chambre sans remords.
Vers 4pm je suis allé boire un bon petit café et vers 8pm je suis allé à la recherche d'une bonne bouffe. Un de mes trucs préférés au Vietnam c'est que on dirait que chaque ville à sa propre sorte de nouilles, et c'est toujours absolument délicieux. Ici, c'était la Hu Tien, pour 1$.
En revenant je suis allé m'acheter une chemise pour proteger mes bras. Les 3 filles qui travaillaient là étaient absolument ravies de me servir et n'ont pas poussé la vente du tout. Un peu plus loin sur le chemin, des petits enfants me disent Hello. Des petits vieux fixent mes tattoos, un chien mange des restants.
Ce soir, relax, petit work-out et petit film, et de retour sur la route à 9am, juste après l'heure de pointe des motos.
J'estime que ça devrait me prendre 5 heures me rendre à ma prochaine escale. 5 heures de gros camions à dépasser, d'idiots qui roulent en sense inverse à anticiper, de champs de riz à croiser. Je pense aller me perdre pendant 2 heures en m'éloignant de l'autoroute pour aller découvrir la côte un peu... j'ai le temps.
En espérant que je ne brûle pas dans le cou demain!
Pour une raison, mes mains sont immunisées aux coups de soleils. Elle deviennent brune comme du cuir mais jamais rouge. Nice!
Showing posts with label danang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label danang. Show all posts
Sunday, 1 March 2015
Wednesday, 25 February 2015
Danang
Danang, la ville où j'ai passé le plus de temps au Vietnam. C'est au centre du pays, sur le bord de la mer. La ville est divisée en deux. Sur le bord de la mer, ce sont de gros hotels entourés de restaurants pas de murs, il y a juste un toît et plein de petites chaises et tables en plastique. Partout sur le bord du trottoir, de gros bacs plein d'eau pour garder la bouffe de mer fraiche. Des crevettes, des escargots, du poisson.
Ensuite il ya de petits hotels si mince qu'il y a seulement une seule chambre par étage, sur 7 étages. Des fois il n'y a rien autour et on se demande comment ça tient. Ajoutez de petits restos de Pho installés sous une toile orange et quelques palmiers, et vous avez Danang sur le côté de la mer.
Il parait que 5 ans passé, il n'y avait absolument rien, seulement de petites maisons et c'était encore très "old-school". SI vous regardez bien la nuit, vous remarquerez que presque tout les hotels sont complètement vides.
En s'éloignant de la mer on croise une rivière qui sépare la ville en deux. Il y a 5-6 ponts pour traverser, tous uniques. Mon préféré, le Dragon Bridge, est un pont dont la structure est construite comme un dragon jaune qui zig-zag de haut en bas tout le long du pont. C'est super beau! La nuit, il change de couleur, de jaune à vert à bleu, et des lumières blanches descendent du sommet de son dos, comme le reflet d'écailles. Samedi à 9pm, plein de gens se rassemblent pour voir le dragon cracher du feu. C'est plein de familles et de vendeurs de ballons flottants, des copies de Spider-Man, de Gangnam style, de Angry Birds. Le plus drôle, c'est qu'après avoir craché du feu, le dragon crache de l'eau... BEAUCOUP d'eau. C'est hilarant voir tout les gens se sauver comme si Godzilla attaquait, pour pas être mouillés.
De l'autre côté de la rivière, la ville me fait penser un peu à l'Avenue Mont-Royal. Il y a beaucoup d'arbres, plein de petits cafés remplis de petits viets qui jasent et jouent aux cartes. Y'a pas trop de grands buildings, sauf sur le bord de la rivière où il y a quelques hotels de plus et des restos à saveur de voyageur et où on paye 50$ pour un repas au lieu de 2$.
J'aime pas trop mme promener pendant l'heure de pointe (imaginez 5 scooters par auto normalement, c'est tassé, c'est tout croche, ça klaxonne) mais c'est là qu'on voit ma scène préférée: les grands-papas qui ramènent les petits de l'école. Imaginez, sur une petite moto, un Vietnamien agé, la cigarette aux lèvres. Il porte son habit du dimanche. Il s'est surement battu contre les Américains. Assis devant lui sur le banc, les petites mains sur le guidon, le visage insouciant, un enfant de 5 ans te regarde, les yeux tout grands. Woa! Un blanc!
Le soir, les cafés sont remplis d'étudiants au lieu d'hommes retraités. En passant devant les bars on peut les entendre crier MOT HAI BA YO! (1-2-3-GO!), leur version de "Santé", alors qu'ils se donnent en compétition, qui peut boire le plus de bières. C'est pas rare voir 2 gars transporter leur ami complètement torché.
Je vais m'ennuyer de cette ville, où il fait bon vivre et personne ne t'achale pour acheter leur cossins fait en papier.
Ensuite il ya de petits hotels si mince qu'il y a seulement une seule chambre par étage, sur 7 étages. Des fois il n'y a rien autour et on se demande comment ça tient. Ajoutez de petits restos de Pho installés sous une toile orange et quelques palmiers, et vous avez Danang sur le côté de la mer.
Il parait que 5 ans passé, il n'y avait absolument rien, seulement de petites maisons et c'était encore très "old-school". SI vous regardez bien la nuit, vous remarquerez que presque tout les hotels sont complètement vides.
En s'éloignant de la mer on croise une rivière qui sépare la ville en deux. Il y a 5-6 ponts pour traverser, tous uniques. Mon préféré, le Dragon Bridge, est un pont dont la structure est construite comme un dragon jaune qui zig-zag de haut en bas tout le long du pont. C'est super beau! La nuit, il change de couleur, de jaune à vert à bleu, et des lumières blanches descendent du sommet de son dos, comme le reflet d'écailles. Samedi à 9pm, plein de gens se rassemblent pour voir le dragon cracher du feu. C'est plein de familles et de vendeurs de ballons flottants, des copies de Spider-Man, de Gangnam style, de Angry Birds. Le plus drôle, c'est qu'après avoir craché du feu, le dragon crache de l'eau... BEAUCOUP d'eau. C'est hilarant voir tout les gens se sauver comme si Godzilla attaquait, pour pas être mouillés.
De l'autre côté de la rivière, la ville me fait penser un peu à l'Avenue Mont-Royal. Il y a beaucoup d'arbres, plein de petits cafés remplis de petits viets qui jasent et jouent aux cartes. Y'a pas trop de grands buildings, sauf sur le bord de la rivière où il y a quelques hotels de plus et des restos à saveur de voyageur et où on paye 50$ pour un repas au lieu de 2$.
J'aime pas trop mme promener pendant l'heure de pointe (imaginez 5 scooters par auto normalement, c'est tassé, c'est tout croche, ça klaxonne) mais c'est là qu'on voit ma scène préférée: les grands-papas qui ramènent les petits de l'école. Imaginez, sur une petite moto, un Vietnamien agé, la cigarette aux lèvres. Il porte son habit du dimanche. Il s'est surement battu contre les Américains. Assis devant lui sur le banc, les petites mains sur le guidon, le visage insouciant, un enfant de 5 ans te regarde, les yeux tout grands. Woa! Un blanc!
Le soir, les cafés sont remplis d'étudiants au lieu d'hommes retraités. En passant devant les bars on peut les entendre crier MOT HAI BA YO! (1-2-3-GO!), leur version de "Santé", alors qu'ils se donnent en compétition, qui peut boire le plus de bières. C'est pas rare voir 2 gars transporter leur ami complètement torché.
Je vais m'ennuyer de cette ville, où il fait bon vivre et personne ne t'achale pour acheter leur cossins fait en papier.
Saturday, 15 November 2014
Pluie
Cher Jocelyn,
j'allais te demander si tout va bien mais je ne t'ai jamais entendu te plaindre.
Je vais ecrire en anglais car j'ai pas les accents sur le clavier de l'hotel.
Turns out I didn´t check the weather correctly when planning my trip. I've been getting rain for the past week. If I were to push south I would get nice weather, however, but my visa ends in 3 days.
Lucy can't seem to get better. Every time I bring her to the motorbike doctor, they fix a problem but a new one appears. Last time, my motor would simply shut down, even while riding in 4th gear. The mechanic cleaned the engine and over-charged me. Now, the button for the starter is almost disconnected. My front wheel is bented. The welding on my bag rack just gave up, I have to tie my backpack sideways and it's harder to ride cities that way since everyone drives inches from you.
I decided to leave her at the hotel for a month, for a small fee they will keep an eye on her. I will take a bus to Laos and enjoy a little bit of peace of mind and pick her up on the way back.
Leaving Hanoi with her was amazing, however. We drove to a little beach town during tourism low season and had a good swim, coconuts, and a night drive just watching bored teenagers ride around and shoot the shit.
From there, quiet and short rides through small villages. Every time we'd stop for Pho, the whole village would come by and sit, staring at us and smiling. The kids are the ones who know English and they would practice their textbook sentences with us.
After a few days I decided to go to Pu Mat national park that I had spotted in my road atlas. A quick search online told me that the only thing to do was hike and see waterfalls and that sounded pretty good. Riding the main road towards it, I went passed the small backstreet that takes you inside the park. Stopping for directions in a tiny restaurant (2 tables, a cooler), a small Viet man lets me know through hand gestures that he needs to be going there. Before I can understand, he's sitting on my bike with a huge smile.
Needless to say, it was pretty cramped for the both of us AND my backpack and daybag, but we managed. After another 30 minutes of riding a tiny paved road through even smaller villages I reached a dammed river where 3 restaurants were waiting for customers, built on floating rafts. I asked to go see the waterfall but it was too expensive - you need to rent the whole boat so it gets cheaper with a group - so I just sat with a beer, pondering what to do. Shortly after, a group of young Vietnamese showed up to do the boat tour so I got in with them and enjoyed beautiful scenery of jungle canopy and local people riding on bamboo rafts.
After a quick swim in the river we went back to the restaurant where a young and pretty Vietnamese girl was waiting for me. She owned one of the restaurants and could speak English very well so we started chatting. Within a minute she offered to come with me on my trip before we went back together to Canada. I explained Canadian winter and the fact that people are not nice like the Vietnamese there and she changed her mind. Seeing that it was getting dark, I asked for a place to sleep but there were no hostels of any kind in the area.
I then asked if I could sleep in the restaurant, I would give them some money. The whole family got excited - apparently I was the first ever foreigner to ask such a thing here - and they opened more beers. I spent the night joking with them. They cooked the best fish I have ever eaten, I learned how to suck snails out of their shells and drank rice wine with the men. We then went for coffee and billard and came back to the restaurant where I was shown my bed. A matress and several bedsheets were laid out on the floor but I would be sharing it with the drunk of the family who tried to spoon me all night. I didn't sleep much.
The next morning we jumped off the dam and I made everyone sad when I announced that I had to keep going. It was one of the best days of this trip.
I made it to Phong Nha the next day and had a beer at Easy Tiger Hostel. That's where I saw the most westerners I had seen in a week, all grouped together. I stayed 3 nights in this little town, visiting amazing caves, playing board games, trying grilled pork belly. I met a german guy who was looking for a partner to ride the western branch of the Ho Chi Minh trail - a 200km segment up in the mountains with no gas station and only one village - and I jumped on the offer. It was easily the best drive I have ever taken of my life. Not a soul for hours, delicious curves, ridiculously amazing views. We stopped A LOT to take pictures, and every time we just stared at each other with giant smiles, WHAT the actual FUCK coming out of our mouths a lot.
During a pee and smoke break, we watch a big monkey, black with a white mane and red legs, jump up and down a tree and skillfully swoop around. It was beautiful to watch.
The trail took us about 7 hours to complete and it was pure bliss. Beautiful, not a pothole, not a truck.
The next day we visited, in the same day, an ancient american base and and ancient Viet Cong tunnel system. Impressive stuff.
In Hue we visited the Forbidden Purple City, not as grand as the one in Beijing but more charming. We also visited the tombs and mausoleums of ancient egocentric Nguyen emperors and then I got absolutely hammered in a small bar.
Last week all I did was hang around in Da Nang, the 3rd biggest city in Vietnam. Beautiful, lots of trees, tonnes of tailors, and a beach. I found a good ex-pat bar. I had an interview to get into an Intesol college the next morning so I took it easy in my room, watching HBO and eating Springles all night. The next morning I went for a drive around town and got proper dress pants and a button shirt and cleaned my trekking shoes with a toothbrush to look presentable. The interview went really well.
I spent a few days in Hoi An in this barbaric hostel, hoping to make friends and meet some girls but it turns out that I hated almost everyone I ran into. I got obliterated in another small bar, speaking with the Vietnamese girl working there.
I made it back up to Da Nang after 2 miserable nights and went back to the Ex-Pat bar where I met my first Quebecer, Yves de l'Outaouais. He's been working in Da Nang for a few months and he took me to another, slightly classier bar where the waitresses had a pretty good sense of humour. I closed the bar with them and they then invited me for some street food.
When it was time to leave, 3 young Vietnamese guys invited me over for a beer and I joined them, curious about where this was going. It was 1am. After a whole crate of beer they took me to a Karaoke place. Turns out I can read Vietnamese pretty well and can even sing it, judging by their screams of hapiness. Around 5am, they all took their shirts off and started grinding me - even after showing me pictures of their girlfriends - and after a few minutes of respectfully pushing them back I had to leave, drunk and angry. They had puzzled looks on their faces.
Came back up to Hue to cross over to Laos. The rain just relaxed a little bit. I'm gonna go for a walk, wearing a swimming suit and a poncho.
I miss my friends and family.
Have a good day everyone.
j'allais te demander si tout va bien mais je ne t'ai jamais entendu te plaindre.
Je vais ecrire en anglais car j'ai pas les accents sur le clavier de l'hotel.
Turns out I didn´t check the weather correctly when planning my trip. I've been getting rain for the past week. If I were to push south I would get nice weather, however, but my visa ends in 3 days.
Lucy can't seem to get better. Every time I bring her to the motorbike doctor, they fix a problem but a new one appears. Last time, my motor would simply shut down, even while riding in 4th gear. The mechanic cleaned the engine and over-charged me. Now, the button for the starter is almost disconnected. My front wheel is bented. The welding on my bag rack just gave up, I have to tie my backpack sideways and it's harder to ride cities that way since everyone drives inches from you.
I decided to leave her at the hotel for a month, for a small fee they will keep an eye on her. I will take a bus to Laos and enjoy a little bit of peace of mind and pick her up on the way back.
Leaving Hanoi with her was amazing, however. We drove to a little beach town during tourism low season and had a good swim, coconuts, and a night drive just watching bored teenagers ride around and shoot the shit.
From there, quiet and short rides through small villages. Every time we'd stop for Pho, the whole village would come by and sit, staring at us and smiling. The kids are the ones who know English and they would practice their textbook sentences with us.
After a few days I decided to go to Pu Mat national park that I had spotted in my road atlas. A quick search online told me that the only thing to do was hike and see waterfalls and that sounded pretty good. Riding the main road towards it, I went passed the small backstreet that takes you inside the park. Stopping for directions in a tiny restaurant (2 tables, a cooler), a small Viet man lets me know through hand gestures that he needs to be going there. Before I can understand, he's sitting on my bike with a huge smile.
Needless to say, it was pretty cramped for the both of us AND my backpack and daybag, but we managed. After another 30 minutes of riding a tiny paved road through even smaller villages I reached a dammed river where 3 restaurants were waiting for customers, built on floating rafts. I asked to go see the waterfall but it was too expensive - you need to rent the whole boat so it gets cheaper with a group - so I just sat with a beer, pondering what to do. Shortly after, a group of young Vietnamese showed up to do the boat tour so I got in with them and enjoyed beautiful scenery of jungle canopy and local people riding on bamboo rafts.
After a quick swim in the river we went back to the restaurant where a young and pretty Vietnamese girl was waiting for me. She owned one of the restaurants and could speak English very well so we started chatting. Within a minute she offered to come with me on my trip before we went back together to Canada. I explained Canadian winter and the fact that people are not nice like the Vietnamese there and she changed her mind. Seeing that it was getting dark, I asked for a place to sleep but there were no hostels of any kind in the area.
I then asked if I could sleep in the restaurant, I would give them some money. The whole family got excited - apparently I was the first ever foreigner to ask such a thing here - and they opened more beers. I spent the night joking with them. They cooked the best fish I have ever eaten, I learned how to suck snails out of their shells and drank rice wine with the men. We then went for coffee and billard and came back to the restaurant where I was shown my bed. A matress and several bedsheets were laid out on the floor but I would be sharing it with the drunk of the family who tried to spoon me all night. I didn't sleep much.
The next morning we jumped off the dam and I made everyone sad when I announced that I had to keep going. It was one of the best days of this trip.
I made it to Phong Nha the next day and had a beer at Easy Tiger Hostel. That's where I saw the most westerners I had seen in a week, all grouped together. I stayed 3 nights in this little town, visiting amazing caves, playing board games, trying grilled pork belly. I met a german guy who was looking for a partner to ride the western branch of the Ho Chi Minh trail - a 200km segment up in the mountains with no gas station and only one village - and I jumped on the offer. It was easily the best drive I have ever taken of my life. Not a soul for hours, delicious curves, ridiculously amazing views. We stopped A LOT to take pictures, and every time we just stared at each other with giant smiles, WHAT the actual FUCK coming out of our mouths a lot.
During a pee and smoke break, we watch a big monkey, black with a white mane and red legs, jump up and down a tree and skillfully swoop around. It was beautiful to watch.
The trail took us about 7 hours to complete and it was pure bliss. Beautiful, not a pothole, not a truck.
The next day we visited, in the same day, an ancient american base and and ancient Viet Cong tunnel system. Impressive stuff.
In Hue we visited the Forbidden Purple City, not as grand as the one in Beijing but more charming. We also visited the tombs and mausoleums of ancient egocentric Nguyen emperors and then I got absolutely hammered in a small bar.
Last week all I did was hang around in Da Nang, the 3rd biggest city in Vietnam. Beautiful, lots of trees, tonnes of tailors, and a beach. I found a good ex-pat bar. I had an interview to get into an Intesol college the next morning so I took it easy in my room, watching HBO and eating Springles all night. The next morning I went for a drive around town and got proper dress pants and a button shirt and cleaned my trekking shoes with a toothbrush to look presentable. The interview went really well.
I spent a few days in Hoi An in this barbaric hostel, hoping to make friends and meet some girls but it turns out that I hated almost everyone I ran into. I got obliterated in another small bar, speaking with the Vietnamese girl working there.
I made it back up to Da Nang after 2 miserable nights and went back to the Ex-Pat bar where I met my first Quebecer, Yves de l'Outaouais. He's been working in Da Nang for a few months and he took me to another, slightly classier bar where the waitresses had a pretty good sense of humour. I closed the bar with them and they then invited me for some street food.
When it was time to leave, 3 young Vietnamese guys invited me over for a beer and I joined them, curious about where this was going. It was 1am. After a whole crate of beer they took me to a Karaoke place. Turns out I can read Vietnamese pretty well and can even sing it, judging by their screams of hapiness. Around 5am, they all took their shirts off and started grinding me - even after showing me pictures of their girlfriends - and after a few minutes of respectfully pushing them back I had to leave, drunk and angry. They had puzzled looks on their faces.
Came back up to Hue to cross over to Laos. The rain just relaxed a little bit. I'm gonna go for a walk, wearing a swimming suit and a poncho.
I miss my friends and family.
Have a good day everyone.
Monday, 10 November 2014
Travel tips and stuff
Today, so far, is pretty good. I woke up at 8am, got on my battered bike and drove around beautiful Da Nang looking for clothing stores. By 10am, $25 later, I was sitting under an orange tarp on a street corner, gulping down a $1 Pho, wearing a new dress shirt and black dress pants.
The reason for this attire, you ask? At 11:30 I was walking in the office of iCan, an INTESOL training school set up here by Canadians. Starting January 5th I will be learning how to teach English as a second language.
Just like my brother, now that I think about it.
The blog being at an all-time low in readers, it's hard to stay focused and dedicated, but today's a(nother) "chill-out" day, so being back to basics, it has returned to being my personal journal of sorts.
First of all, a little inventory update.
I lost, and bought, and forgot at hostels, about 5 towels now. 2 weeks ago however I found an awesome travel towel.
I have NOT used my solar charger. It's been demoted to my bag of rubbish, with the playing cards and beer opener for Ken.
Yesterday I forgot my sweet swimsuit in Hue. I suspect it was stolen, I had left it to dry in the dorm, I would have seen it when leaving.
I went through 4 of them in the last trip so I'm not at all surprised.
Apart from that, gadget wise all that was added was a fake Beatspill speaker, cheap razor that can't hold a charge and a usb key that won't work. All bought in China.
Also got a few extra shirts from Ben in Leeds, and shower flip flops I wear everywhere.
Now, for some travel tips...
Before you leave, think about your entertainment. Times have a-changed, every hostel had Wi-Fi and that means everyone's staring at their luminous screen.
In a tiny place in China, a lady teases: "You came all the way to Asia to play games on your tablet?" (I'm addicted to Jetpack Joyride). I simply extended my arm and moved it in a 180 degree arc, pointing at everyone. They were all on their tablets or phones, including her.
My best move so far was to bring a board game. I chose Carcassonne. It's easy to learn but hard to master and when you leave the small point counting board at home it fits in a small Tupperware. I've played about 20 games already.
Do not underestimate the awesomeness of a camera. You see so many things in so many days, the pictures help remember. Also, if you have a good one, you get better pictures, therefore people will more easily listen to your adventures you so desperately want to talk to them about when you're back home.
Don't be so fucking cheap, dammit. I saw a man spend 300,000 Dongs on a meal and then give shit to a lady for trying to sell him a chocolate bar 5,000 more (25 cents) than the last city. It's embarrassing.
More driving tips:
I realized that my last tips were more about country side driving, after watching a fellow traveler cause so many near-misses and not even being aware of them.
All around tips: don't be cheap. Okay, you bought the bike $200 and you will sell it in a month at a loss so you want to limit your spending. But how much is your life worth? Go and fix that front break, don't wait until you almost hit a cow and shit your pants.
Be gentle with her. Give her a name. "Treat her line a woman", was what Tanja told me. I'm not very nice to girls though, but when learning the clutch I got what she was saying... listen to her. Treat her well. Spoil her. Give her an oil change every few days. It's your life on the line.
Splurge, dammit. I just got a new helmet for 350,000 Dongs with visor and ears protection and I regret not doing it earlier.
City driving guide.
Eyes looking ahead. Big time. Don't worry about your sides or what's behind you. The Vietnamese are excellent at anticipating, as long as you drive responsibly and somewhat like them.
The right part of your line, again, is the buffer zone for window shoppers, texters, kids on bikes, people driving the wrong way. The part on the left is for people who drive fast and they can be ridiculously close to each other. I avoid it.
Don't do smooth large loops to dodge people and things. Try to drive as straight as possible. Again, there's people really close to you and they don't expect you to do that.
Intersections are awesome, because they are so chaotic. There's no stop signs. Some people go on the red light. Cars and trucks don't slow down. Just slow down (sometimes to a crawl) and assess the situation. People will avoid you.
Honking doesn't mean "fuck you" like home. It means "I'm here, watch out". Don't be afraid to use it.
If you see someone coming up on a side street to merge, give them some space. They will not look or stop. It's your job to give them the room they need. Serve slowly and lightly to your left and everything will be fine
The reason for this attire, you ask? At 11:30 I was walking in the office of iCan, an INTESOL training school set up here by Canadians. Starting January 5th I will be learning how to teach English as a second language.
Just like my brother, now that I think about it.
The blog being at an all-time low in readers, it's hard to stay focused and dedicated, but today's a(nother) "chill-out" day, so being back to basics, it has returned to being my personal journal of sorts.
First of all, a little inventory update.
I lost, and bought, and forgot at hostels, about 5 towels now. 2 weeks ago however I found an awesome travel towel.
I have NOT used my solar charger. It's been demoted to my bag of rubbish, with the playing cards and beer opener for Ken.
Yesterday I forgot my sweet swimsuit in Hue. I suspect it was stolen, I had left it to dry in the dorm, I would have seen it when leaving.
I went through 4 of them in the last trip so I'm not at all surprised.
Apart from that, gadget wise all that was added was a fake Beatspill speaker, cheap razor that can't hold a charge and a usb key that won't work. All bought in China.
Also got a few extra shirts from Ben in Leeds, and shower flip flops I wear everywhere.
Now, for some travel tips...
Before you leave, think about your entertainment. Times have a-changed, every hostel had Wi-Fi and that means everyone's staring at their luminous screen.
In a tiny place in China, a lady teases: "You came all the way to Asia to play games on your tablet?" (I'm addicted to Jetpack Joyride). I simply extended my arm and moved it in a 180 degree arc, pointing at everyone. They were all on their tablets or phones, including her.
My best move so far was to bring a board game. I chose Carcassonne. It's easy to learn but hard to master and when you leave the small point counting board at home it fits in a small Tupperware. I've played about 20 games already.
Do not underestimate the awesomeness of a camera. You see so many things in so many days, the pictures help remember. Also, if you have a good one, you get better pictures, therefore people will more easily listen to your adventures you so desperately want to talk to them about when you're back home.
Don't be so fucking cheap, dammit. I saw a man spend 300,000 Dongs on a meal and then give shit to a lady for trying to sell him a chocolate bar 5,000 more (25 cents) than the last city. It's embarrassing.
More driving tips:
I realized that my last tips were more about country side driving, after watching a fellow traveler cause so many near-misses and not even being aware of them.
All around tips: don't be cheap. Okay, you bought the bike $200 and you will sell it in a month at a loss so you want to limit your spending. But how much is your life worth? Go and fix that front break, don't wait until you almost hit a cow and shit your pants.
Be gentle with her. Give her a name. "Treat her line a woman", was what Tanja told me. I'm not very nice to girls though, but when learning the clutch I got what she was saying... listen to her. Treat her well. Spoil her. Give her an oil change every few days. It's your life on the line.
Splurge, dammit. I just got a new helmet for 350,000 Dongs with visor and ears protection and I regret not doing it earlier.
City driving guide.
Eyes looking ahead. Big time. Don't worry about your sides or what's behind you. The Vietnamese are excellent at anticipating, as long as you drive responsibly and somewhat like them.
The right part of your line, again, is the buffer zone for window shoppers, texters, kids on bikes, people driving the wrong way. The part on the left is for people who drive fast and they can be ridiculously close to each other. I avoid it.
Don't do smooth large loops to dodge people and things. Try to drive as straight as possible. Again, there's people really close to you and they don't expect you to do that.
Intersections are awesome, because they are so chaotic. There's no stop signs. Some people go on the red light. Cars and trucks don't slow down. Just slow down (sometimes to a crawl) and assess the situation. People will avoid you.
Honking doesn't mean "fuck you" like home. It means "I'm here, watch out". Don't be afraid to use it.
If you see someone coming up on a side street to merge, give them some space. They will not look or stop. It's your job to give them the room they need. Serve slowly and lightly to your left and everything will be fine
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