The one on plastic money or me bitching about it

Although money in Vietnam indeed are made from plastic (you can’t torn them!) the plastic money I meant are credit and debit cards. Since they are constantly causing me problems I decided to bring 4 cards on this trip. 3 debits and a credit one from 2 different banks. Just to be one the safe side. I thought it was enough… Hmmm it wasn’t…

One of my credit cards was blocked before I even left Poland. Apparently some information were stolen from one of the branches of the bank so they decided to replace all of their customer’s cards. One Friday night I got a message informing me about it. Since my flight to Bangkok was on the following Monday morning there was no way I could get a new card before. My only option was to have my card permanently blocked but if I need to use it I could call the bank go through the whole security procedure so they could unblock it for 5 minutes. Real pain in the ass… I wasn’t bothered so much because I had 3 other cards that were working… At least that was what I thought.

At some point of my trip two other cards were blocked. One it was my mistake – I put the wrong PIN 3 times, second one was my bank’s fault. They thought that withdrawing 200 $ in Cambodia was a suspicious transaction… They didn’t feel the need to inform me about it. I found out in the ATM… Anyway it was few weeks ago and I sorted that out quite easily…

Now… I’m getting to the point. Yesterday… again at the ATM I found out my card wasn’t working. I called my bank and guess… Yes. 2 of my cards were blocked due to leak of customers information and again my only option is to call the bank when I want to make a transaction so they would make it work for 5 minutes… So in total 3 of my cards are blocked which as you can imagine won’t make my life easier over here… For now I’m good but I fear for the last remaining card safety… 🙂

Enough about it. In two hours I have my bus to Laos. I bought some dollars in the black market (the only way to get rid of the local curency). My Ipod is fully charged and I managed to find a real tresure in one of the bookshops – Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s children”‘. I n other words I’m prepared for the journey. Goodbye Vietnam! Hello Laos! 🙂

The continuing one (with my Vietnamese itinerary)

Tomorrow evening I will get on a sleeping bus to Laos. I’m so looking forward… Not in particular to a journey itself which takes about 24 hours but to getting to the place… I will have to arrange my visa on a border – it might be difficult or easy you never know – so please… Everybody fingers crossed for me! 😉

I was asked to write some more on what I’ve been up to.  Few facts:

– After a crazy border crossing from Cambodia I finally arrived in Can Tho were I spent 2 nights. It’s the biggest city in the Mekong Delta and a good spot to explore the floating markets and the countryside. Both very nice.

– Next two nights I spent in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Nothing to write about. The biggest attraction are Cu Chi tunnels – network of underground tunnels used by Viet Cong. I skipped that because I found crawling underground too claustrophobic.

-After a night on the bus I got to Nha Trang (South Central Coast). Nice beach place. I spend just one night there. Best part was boat trip to the island and a floating bar (jumping to the sea in the middle of nowhere, swimming in a floating rings and drinking terrible wine). Might not sound that great but I swear it was so much fun! 🙂

– Another night on the bus and I got to Hoi An. Lovely small city famous for craft shops and tailors. I got snickers shoes made for me, saw Marble Mountains and spend some time on the beach.

– Then… A terrible 16 hours ride on the worst sleeping bus ever and I got to Hanoi. I saw some culture here – water puppet show, concert of traditional music and the most surrealistic museum I’ve ever been to (Ho Chi Minh Museum). After one night I got myself on a cruise to Halong Bay.

– As I wrote in my last post I spent one night on a boat in Halong Bay. Amazing experience!!! I did a little bit of kayaking, visit some caves and in general I had the feeling of being taken back in time. It was so peaceful and beautiful over there.

– I’m waiting for my bus to Laos so I ‘m spending two more nights in Hanoi.

That is pretty much it. I was sightseeing a lot, went on few trips, indulge myself with food, got to know great people with whom I shared very nice moments. Yes… I finally met people traveling in the same direction as me! 🙂

By now I’m quite tired of Vietnam and pretty relived that I’m leaving… The way locals act here is just too much for me. I’m aware that I saw and experienced was not representative of the country. Simple statistics – the population of Vietnam is more than 84 millions people and 80 % of  them lives on the countryside. During my trip here I stayed in the urban areas so all my interaction with the locals involved a specific group… Apparently not my favorite group of people…

For some reason I didn’t have a time to blog… There are so may things happening… So many funny stories I would like to  write about… But the time flies… I must say that I missed sharing some parts of my trip with you.

 

 

The one that would be continued later on…

I know I know… It’s been a while… Sorry… Since I decided to spend just 2 weeks in Vietnam I’ve been keeping myself quite busy. I will write some more on what I’ve done here later one. Now I’m hungry and I’m meeting some friends for a dinner soon. So… Just a quick update. Last 2 days (one night) I spend on a boat on Halong Bay. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Amazing place – a bay with thousands of limestones and islands. Definitely a highlight on my trip to Vietnam…. Some photos… To be continued soon… 🙂

The one when I get it

Today my plan was to see Marble Mountains and to relax later on. It was a really nice day. I arranged a driver to get me to the places I wanted to see. I wanted to rent a motorbike myself but it cost the same so I went for the easy option. When I was lying on the beach later that day reading a book surrounded by other Westerners doing exactly the same it hit. I finally understood what I’ve been missing in Vietnam. I’m don’t feel like a traveler. I am a tourist here. What makes a difference for me is that tourists are on holidays. They are taking a break from their “normal life” and their main goal is to enjoy themselves. Traveling is a part of “normal life” for travelers. To enjoy themselves (which they most certainly do) is not the most important thing. The goal is to get to know. That’s what I miss. I don’t feel like I’m getting to know Vietnam. Locals are making things easy for foreigners (of course it costs). They make us enjoy ourselves. They don’t let us get to know them.

 

 

 

The one on my mixed feelings

I have pretty mixed feelings about Vietnam. Country itself is really beautiful. No doubt about it. Landscapes, cities… Absolutely stunning. I had great time in Can Tho, Nha Trang and now in Hoi An. Not so much in Saigon though… I think it’s because of the people here… Don’t get me wrong. I met quite a few pretty friendly locals but I also met quite a few pretty terrible ones. I feel a bit like in the land of scammers. Today for example things got pretty rough. My friend payed with 100 000 dong bill and wasn’t given a change. The woman working in the internet/restaurant/travel agency place insisted that he gave her 10 000 dong bill. I won’t get into details but there was a discussion. We did stayed calm  but the owner of the place kind of lost it.  I don’t think he was controlling himself at some point so when we noticed what was going on we left. Of course the whole thing wasn’t about money (Martin lost about 4 $) but the thing is that that guy was really dangerous… Those kind of things doesn’t make you a huge fan of the country… Anyway I’m patient. At least I’m trying to be patient. Still few things I want to see here so I want to give Vietnam a chance.

The longer I travel (it’s a month now) the more obvious it becomes that I won’t be able to see even the half of the things I would like to. It’s my first and certainly not the last time in Southeast Asia. I decided that this trip would be an exploratory one. 2 and a half of months is really so little when you want to see 4 countries…  since I really want to see them it is quite intense. However I always find time to relax and just chill out. I think on my next trip I will  stay in one at least for a month. Some photos from Hoi An:

The one on Saigon

Saigon is big, flashy, expensive and full of tourists and expats. I even saw neon covered Catholic church. It looked like from Red Light District. My bus from Can Tho dropped me in the bus station 17 km from the center. Motorbike ride to downtown was a mission. Traffic in Cambodia could be describe as organized chaos. The rule is make space for everything bigger than you (pretty much everything) and you should be fine. As for Vietnam I’m sure that there’s a method in the madness which I hope to discover soon.

To be honest I didn’t like Saigon. I stayed there for 2 nights and it was 2 nights to much. I got to know some weird people, was taught how to cheat playing blackjack by a casino worker and my camera with full memory card (!!!) was stolen. Almost all pictures from Cambodia are lost… The same with photos of Vietnamese country side and floating markets in Can Tho…  😦

Well happens…  Yesterday I bought a new camera which instantly made me happy again. I’m in Nha Trang right now. It’s a lovely place and I met great people. Very relaxed now… 🙂 I will be traveling for some time with Markus and Martin. Now I have to go… I will try to grab a dinner before catching a bus to Hoi An… Will write some more on Vietnam soon…

The sad one on Cambodia written in Vietnam…

I saw the floating markets on the Mekong River and a bit of Vietnamese country side. I saw rats, snakes being served in the restaurants… I got flowers and a lot of little things made from bamboo leaves from my boat driver (ring, braclet, fan, and shrimp)… I got some exotic fruit from a little boy and met an old men who has been coming to the same spot in the park for 10 years now to talk to foreiners… Unfortunately he spoke only French so I was introduced to his English speaking niece. In other words I’m ready to hit the big city.

Yesterday night I came to Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon). In general when I crossed the border to Vietnam, or a least when I got to my first stop I got an impression that I came back to civilisation. This post won’t be about Vietnam though but about Cambodia. I want to share some things with you before I forget them.

When I crossed the border from Thailand you could see straight away that Cambodia is so much poorer. When I got to the taxi to Siem Reap the front glass of the car had bullet holes in it. I was also surprised to see that the campaign slogan “Please protect our national treasue” referred to children. I didn’t know then that child prostitution was such a big problem here.

Yet from the first moment I liked Cambodia a lot. The endless green green rice fields, the blue blue sky and lovely lovely people 🙂  It’s very flat so “endless” is not an exaggeration. It’s cusine (bitter sweet) is a good metaphor of the whole country – full of contradictions. You could probably see from my posts the bright side of Cambodia or to be exact traveling in Cambodia. There is a dark side as well. Apart from it’s beauty it is an underdeveloped and difficult country to live in. From what I saw and was told the following things surprised me the most:

– I would call it the “no money no honey” rule

Cambodians are very conservative and modest. In general there is no premarrige sex. To makes things more difficult to get maried men has to pay the family of his future wife around 4 000 $ (2000 $ if her family is poor or work for a year for them so they could see what he is worth). Since the average pay is maybe 100 $ it takes them a long time to get the money and in general there is a big age diference between the couples. I was told that there are almost no divorces. Why? “Who could afford to pay for another wife?!”

It’s really sad but “no money no honey” rule apply to almost everything. The country is very corrupted and the is no social care. My driver’s father died because they couldn’t afford paying the doctors and nurses to take care of him. On one occasion I was asked “Does your parents still live?”. Here this question makes sense.

– sex workers

Because of the poverty there are so many sex workers… More than once I was in a bar where I was the only not prostitute female. Cambodia has the highest rate of HIV in South East Asia.

– street children

There are so many orphans here. Mostly because their parents died of AIDS or other diseases. They work (for their “pimp”) begging or selling books or stuff. Some parents take their children out of school so they could “work”. It’s really difficult not to buy things from them. You sholdn’t because you are not helping by doing that (!!!).

– Khmer Rouge

I knew about the genocide of Pol Pot before coming here. Now I saw it’s full scale. Still it is beyond me how in 4 years you can destroy the country. He basiclly turned Cambodia in one big work camp and brutaly murdered 2 million people. Bones of the victims are scatterd in Killing Fields all over the place. I saw it myself. It happend 30 years ago and untill now nobady was held responsable.

Now I’m a little sad and in need of a breakfast. I want to spend one more day here so I will better get going. Tomorrow I’m heading to the beach. I hope I didn’t depress you. Kiss!

The short one on getting to Vietnam

In my last post I wrote that the next day I would try to get to Vietnam… Well I had to take a minibus, shared taxi, motorbike, bus, another bus  and 12 hours later I was where I wanted to be… Meanwhile I had to travel with horrible people from Wales (worst travelers ever!), got scammed, passed through thousands of villages in Vietnam (stoping in most of them), was on the bus with throwing up lady… Yes. Some roads are not in lonely planety for a reason… 🙂 My advice for people travelling from Sianukville to Vietnam – it’s better & cheaper to go back to Phnom Pehn and get to Vietnam from there!

Anyway I’m in Can Tho now. It’s name means “river of poems” and it’s the biggest city in the Mekong River Delta. My room has hot water here (!!!). The reason I wanted to come was to see the floating markets. I hired a boat and tomorrow a 5.30 I will start my trip. In the afternoon I’m goimg to Ho Chi Minh City (Sajgon). At leat that’s the plan for now… Will write soon…