Vietnam Greetings

I'm sitting at the public computer in this nice little hostel in Hue, Vietnam. A light but steady rain is washing the streets but the sun is strong enough to pierce the clouds and illuminate the land. I'm waiting for the weather to improve so I can get on Lucky Lucy, my Honda Win. She will take me to Da Nang in the south where tomorrow I have an interview to be accepted in a college ran by Canadians.

They will train me to become a teacher so that I can work, here in Vietnam. If everything goes well, I'll be putting my bags down for a while and get a more in-depth look at this amazing culture.

I've been in Vietnam for 3 weeks now, all of it has been great.

Right from the start, crossing the land border (a small bridge over a river) from China to Vietnam, I've had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and been walking around, contempt.

First of all, everybody is warm. So warm. The locals are not tired at all of tourists. They stare at my tattoos a lot but if I smile at them, they smile back, 99% of the time. And what beautiful smiles.

No one is shitting in the streets, or spitting in the bus, or shouting at me for no fucking reason. This was a reality the second I stepped on Vietnam soil. Just a small river separates China from Vietnam and yet, the difference is stunning.

The food is delicious, not that spicy, and if you stick to street vendors you can get away with spending $10 a day for your three meals. A beer is usually $1. Not 2% Chinese stuff either. I've had a few hangovers already.

Around the middle of the country, near Hue, the coast with sunny warm beaches is just 50km away from wet and cloudy mountains. Diversity at such a close range.

My first night in Vietnam was spent on a sleeper train, traveling with Claudio the Italian basketball coach. After Nilkanth, he's my second favorite person that I traveled with on this trip. We shared a booth on the train with an Irish guy who froze when he heard The Pogues softly playing on my speaker. We shared some beers and stories.

We arrived in Hanoi at 5am, groggy, sleepy. There I would get my first Vietnam lesson: money is fucking confusing. 20,000 Dongs roughly equals $1. Our cab costs us 150,000 and as we all try to pay the driver at the same time, he starts moving money around, trying to confuse us as to who paid what amount and he is slightly successful. At the end of the transaction I overpaid by 30,000 Dongs and realized as he was driving away. I get very angry, until I realize that I only lost $1,50 in the transaction. Second lesson of Vietnam: count your change. Third lesson: everything's cheap.

We check in our hotel where the receptionist is sleeping in a small folder bed behind the counter. He tells us to put our bags down and go sleep in the common area, we're too early to check in. We gladly comply and sleep until 10am, after which we get to our rooms, drop our bags, have a little shower and workout, and go explore.

We get some cheap food and promptly get lost in the Old Quarters, the backpackers area, where every street has a commerce specialty. We see food street, bar street, metal street, bike repair street, clothes street. We see scooters everywhere, people just sitting around waiting, little dogs, birds in cages chirping away in the front of little stores, street vendors, cooked dog.

It's Friday, and when the sun goes down around 6pm, all the little bars and restaurants put small plastic stools out and the streets get clogged with beer drinkers, both westerners and locals. We quickly find out about Beer Hoi (tap beer), rumored to be brewed in a day but I don't know how this is possible. We sit next to the keg because, well, one mug is 5,000 Dong (25 cents), the beer is cold and the air is warm. After a few hours our duo of travelers has evolved into a full group of 10 people, some backpacking, some on holiday, some ex-pats. As we sit and talk and laugh, the street sounds of scooters, laughter, talking and dog barking lets in something different: the beautiful melody of 2 violins backed up by flute. Meters from us, 3 beautiful girls in black dresses are playing a free show. I am in love with Vietnam.

At midnight, the police shows up and closes everything. The tightly packed crowd quickly disappears but we are approached by club promoters. They take us to what looks like a fancy building, and on the 5th floor a dark club with loud music and a dance floor swallows us whole. We drink and dance until 5am.

We have to take a bus to Ha Long bay at 8am. It was rough.

We got packed in a small gray bus expertly navigating the small crowded streets. In the back, 5 Australian bros are talking loudly and laughing. They carry a huge boombox. Everyone else on the bus is quiet. I secretly hope that they are not on our boat tour, for I feel like taking it easy tonight.

We spent 2 nights in Ha Long Bay. The first night we spent drinking more Beer Hoi on the roof of the boat with other travelers. The bros were on a different tour so we got to relax. We had the crew turn off all the lights of the boat so we could just lay down and look at the stars while trading travel stories and everyone was nice. The next day we spent on Cat Ba island, where I meet a very dysfunctional couple of a 60-year old Vietnam millionaire woman who bathes topless, and a 30-year old scruffy-looking Brit. Weird conversations ensued.

I ended up getting pretty sick from swimming in the dirty bay where our bungalow was. I was afraid of Dengue but I just got mild fever and a cough that stuck with me for 2 weeks, until I resolved to spitting out the yellow shit that was coming up. I stayed a total of 8 days in Hanoi, relaxing, trying out the food, walking around, looking at INTESOL schools and streaming hockey very early in the morning, from the hotel lobby computers. I absolutely loved Hanoi and wouldn't mind working there for a while.

Buying my motorbike, that I paid $230 for - helmet, rack and bungee cords included - I ran into a German couple I met on mount Hua Shan in China, a month earlier. They're also buying a bike (that I later learned we should have paid $50 for) and we decide to travel south together, for safety's sake.

We left the next day on the first step to an amazing journey.

Cheers guys

Manila

It gets dark at around 6 here, so when I land at the Manila airport it feels like it's later than it really is.

I exit the airport and get in line for a cab. A metered one, my friend had specified: the airport taxis charge you in advance. They paid 300+ pesos while I paid 150, and I still got screwed.

The ride to the Manila International Youth Hostel gave me a first, real feel of the city. Dark streets, shady people, crazy traffic. The taxi driver was laughing the whole time, stopping at luxurious hotels and telling me I should stay there. He was getting on my nerves...

I get to the hostel, surrounded by cement walls. The small white building looks like an old bunker. My friends are waiting for me in the "lobby", a small room with a reception desk, a table and some computers. It's hot, clamy, sticky. 7pm, and I'm hungry.

I decide to go grab a bite and Anthony offers to come with me. It's only a 5 minute walk but it should be enough to creep me out he says.

Picture china town. Not the Montreal one - the New York one. Now, triple the amount of people, all asian. But not the nice, respectful asian image you have in mind. Remove the taxi cabs and add bicycle and motor bikes, buses, and japanese vehicules. Imagine most of the people staring at you, and especially at your black friend. Half of them look like drug addicts, and a quarter more look like con artists.

We walk amongst them and ignore the shouts directed at us. They mostly want to sell us stuff. We get to a restaurant and are promptly swarmed by beggar kids, dirty little orphans that look 5 years old. "Mister! Where's my money! Pesos! Hey you, money!"

I eat in the restaurant rapidly, fried rice in a bowl, with a spoon and fork. The whole time I've been in the Philippines I rarely got a knife for some reason. The kids are banging on the glass doors.

We get out and we get swarmed again. Anthony succeeds in dodging them however, and I am left alone with them. They must be about 20 of them, completely surrounding me. I can't walk anymore, all I can do is hold my stuff in my pockets. They are pulling at my clothes and pushing each other.

At one point a kid in front of me grabs my wrist as if to pull it out of my pocket, where my wallet is. With my right hand that was holding my change I push the kid. Not hard, just a shove on the side of the head. He falls into the other kids and I finally see an opening.

I almost ran. I jumped over a big puddle of water and walked rapidly to where Anthony was waiting and we bolted out of there. Some kids were starting to follow us but we both screamed NO and kept walking.

We stop at a 7/11. They are everywhere in Manila, clean and somewhat cheap. We buy beers and go back to the hostel, where I feed a skinny black and white cat some scraps of meat from a panburger I bought on the way. He rubs against me affectionately and lets out the loudest meow I have ever heard.

Back at our place of residency I finally bring my bag to the dorms. 2 rows of cheap-looking bunk beds spread out before me, housing about 20 beds total. The linens give us the bugbed creeps.

We have our beers downstairs and decide to try to get some sleep.

Apart from the bedbug paranoia and the metal bars pressing against my back, the noise from the streets reach us: loud motors, honks, yells. Some guy keeps going to the women dorm windows and screams HELLOOOOOOOO every 2 minutes.

My headphones offer a sweet relief, and I start to slumber... Until an idiot walks in the dorm loudly, opens all the lights waking up everyone, and starts to prepare his bed. My bandana which was mostly used for my sweaty forehead was now tied around my eyes, and I fell asleep once again.

At 5 am we are woken up by 3 old filipino men talking loudly in the dorm room. They are sitting at a table AND ARGUING in the dorms. We hear stirs, groans. I almost tell them to go in the lobby to talk, but this is not my country.

Around 10am we managed to get to our bus terminal that was to take us to the Clark airport. While waiting I find a snack place, the workers there giggle as I approach. The least shy asks me where I'm from and upon my answer decides that she's moving to Canada. Another one asks me if I'm married and calls me a liar when I answer. Finally, the oldest one, around 30, stares me down. I start to feel uncomfortable. The first one says "she wants your number" and that gets her a slap behind the head and a laugh.

The food was not very good but the girls gave me a good laugh and looked sad when I told them I was already leaving Manila.

The bus ride was cheap and had available wi-fi, which kept us busy.

I slept for the whole plane ride and awoke in Thailand.