Mon, Feb 2nd – Wed, Feb 4th, 2009
Ming:
Yesterday and today are travel days. Yesterday was not too bad, getting up early, having breakfast and getting on an unexpectedly nice bus for the 3+ hour trip back to Vientiane (so THAT’s why it costs 20,000 kip more than our trip out). This bus actually had working air-con, and was roomier and smoother riding than the last one. I managed to sleep for half of the trip and did the high tech thing for the last half: had a video of lectures I have to study for on one half of the screen while I took notes on the other half. Our little EEE laptops are really coming in handy on this trip for emailing, blogging, sorting and fixing up pictures, and entertaining ourselves with movies and tv shows that we brought from home. Oh yes, studying and working too, if you count prescribing for the puppy.
Travel days tend to be just that, this week. We had all sorts of plans to rent bikes and zip around Ventiane to take pictures of wats (temples) and buy souvenirs at the market, but once we hit the hotel, we just collapsed on our beds with laptops (and wifi for a change!!) and “rested” until dinnertime, and we deliberated at length on the choice of restaurant mentioned in the Planet, only to venture outside and find that the ones we picked did not exist anymore.
I do regret that we never made it to That Dam stupa to take a picture, just because it would be great to be able to say that we had picture of That Dam stupa. We did end up at a very nice little fusion food dinner place, the Full Moon Café, complete with wolf and Native American paintings on velvet hanging on the walls. The food was, as usual, very tasty and cheap. I am going to miss Lao food, even though we gave ourselves a few scares. If another day goes by and we don’t get sick, we can count the salmonella fruit shake episode as safely behind us. The possible HepA and typhoid fever? Don’t know, I’ll have to ask Dad what the incubation period is for those. ; D
This takes us to today. Getting up, packing, taxi, plane flights, went without a hitch. It was as soon as we landed in Vietnam that things started going badly. Have I mentioned before that one of the things that irritate me about being here is the fact that it feels like everyone is trying to take advantage of you?
Con #1 – we pass through immigration and customs and go to get a taxi the same way that we did in Laos. We went to an official looking booth to pay what we thought was the fixed price that all taxis go for. It was a Saigon Tourist booth – remember that people, and avoid them if you come to VN. They told us the price was $10USD which seemed high, compared to what my mom told me it would cost. They assured us that is was a fixed price, and that no one is allowed to charge less. We were tired from the plane ride and paid. The agent then led us out to her own company’s cab, but on the way, I saw another sign for taxis and asked the price: $8USD. We weren’t there half an hour and someone already took advantage of us. We fumed all the way into town.
The taxi took us to Sinh Café where we were to book our sleeper bus to Nha Trang. We had no VN money, but Sinh Café had a convenient money exchange booth… at a substantially worse rate than the bank one. I went to look for a bank.
Con #2 – I asked for directions to the nearest bank. Shop keepers pointed me in the general right direction, but security guards and motorcycle taxi drivers (working together) tried to convince me that it was a long way away and that I needed to take a taxi ride to get to the bank. I kept walking. A passing cyclo driver steered me in the right direction – the bank was 2 steps away from where the taxi drivers were. He was still there when I came out and tried to get me to take a sightseeing ride around the town with him.
Back to the bus booking office: we found out that there was only one sleeper space left, so we had to take a regular overnight bus (10 hours sitting down) to Nha Trang. This was getting SO irritating. Mike went off in search of a Laundromat while I guarded the bags. Then I notice that Sinh Café advertises that they keep your luggage for you while you wait for your bus, so when Mike came back reporting no success, we ask to leave our bags to be told to leave them out where the public was, because the locker was getting too full. We insist, and manage to get our bags at least part way into the locker, past the door that separates the public area from the locker area.
Missing the easygoing simplicity of our last week in Laos, we headed off to find some food and a place to spend the hours until our bus leaves. This being a backpacker area and us not used to the hotter temperatures at this more southern latitude, we settle for a ho hum place where Mike had banh xeo, a kind of crepe (this one was more like an omelet) and I had chicken pho – kind of ho-hum, but the light meal I was looking for.
After lunch, we headed for a nearby air-con (but still kind of warm) café where we paid almost as much for a lemonade as we did for our meal, all so we could sit down with our laptops plugged in for a few hours and wifi to connect to the outside world. Lots of other tourists seem to be here for the same reason.
Just before it was time to go take our bus, we went for a light meal of fried noodles in a shop just next to Sinh Café where our bus would be at 8:30PM. The meal was tasty and unremarkable, and not quite filling, so we ordered some fried rice for the road.
Mike:
Well, here we sit, on the overnight bus to Nha Trang (10 hours). This is an open tour bus with Sinh Cafe, which means it stops at major urban centres (ugh). We would have been on the sleeper bus had it not been for some decadent loser who purchased a whole row of seats on the sleeper bus, for HIMSELF. That really pisses me off...
Well, this bus is not full, so we each have a couple seats to ourselves. I was resigned to 10 hours of nasty, sticky, sweatiness, but luckily I found a convenient bathroom for an impromptu sink shower. Aaaaah, feels good to be semi-clean.
In any case, let's see if the roads are smooth enough for me to get some blogging done... Nope, guess I'll just catch up on some Grey's Anatomy. The rest of the bus ride is a semi-haze for me. Usually I would be fast asleep throughout most of the trip, but instead had many fit-full moments falling in and out of sleep on this uncomfortable ride. I'll let Ming fill in the rest of the details since she lived it much more than me!
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Ming:
It was sometime after midnight that the problems started. We had stopped for a bathroom break in Mui Ne. Just before getting back on the bus, I felt like I had to go again, I was feeling generally unwell and green around the gills. On my second trip to the bathroom, I was violently sick and got rid of my very recognizable dinner. This helped the nausea somewhat but I still felt very sick. Back on the bus, I took a (homeopathic) remedy, which calmed things down enough that I could sleep for the next few hours.
The bus drives in VN are not very smooth. The drivers seem to accelerate and then brake, over and over again. I don’t know why they do this. It does not help them get anywhere faster, as traffic studies show that traffic flows at a certain rate and your time of arrival depends on that rather than whether or not you are lane changing the whole way. This ride also seemed increasingly rough and bumpy, with abrupt gear changes causing the whole bus to jump over and over again. Then it jumped one last time and came to a stop. The motor died and would not start again (dead battery). As we were on an uphill grade, the driver tried to start the motor by letting the bus roll then putting it in gear, but going backwards. Then he quickly changed to first gear, which predictably killed it (and his transmission) again. He finally gave up these attempts and backed the bus onto the shoulder. Then came sounds of thumpings in the back of the bus and a call for water (radiator hose broken, radiator empty). It was now 4AM and I was still feeling ill. I had thought that I could hold on until 6:30AM, our projected time of arrival. Now I wasn’t so sure.
The driver got on the phone and tried to get another company bus to turn back and get us, but apparently they had gotten too far ahead to want to turn back. He eventually flagged down another company’s bus to pick us up and take us the rest of the way. This new bus had a totally manic driver who seemed hell bent on overtaking every single vehicle on the road. As the only seats left for us were on the very last row, the effects of the constant acceleration and deceleration were magnified, and I felt sicker than ever. I tried to fumble out a remedy to help with this, but I was too sick to think straight and make a good choice. I hung on as best as I could for the next 3 ½ hours, and had to ask the driver to let me out on the side of the road once, as he would not stop at gas stations for me. After I got back on he seemed more determined than ever to catch and pass anything that might be ahead of him, to the extent that he was using the oncoming lane when there was traffic coming and honking incessantly to force them off the road for him to pass. Once we finally got to Nha Trang I had to face a taxi ride across town as the bus terminal this bus ended up at was not the one that was right next to the hotel where we were to meet our parents, but way across town from it. Another bus ride from hell. I seem to recall that the last one involved a bus in VN also, on our 2001 trip.
Once in the hotel, it took 24 hours and finding the right remedy to put things right again. Funny how this seems to happen to us at least once every time we come here. Mom said that the sleeper bus would have been much easier on us as it has a bathroom built in, but I’m glad that I did not have to do my projectile vomiting inside a moving bus bathroom. In total, we were 11 hours on the road.
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Mike:
Well, we made it to Nha Trang to see the parents. My food poisoning took affect about 30 minutes after we arrived at the hotel (convenient timing eh?) and took me out for the next day. No street vendor ice cream this time. Might have been the fried noodles. Since Ming has covered the travel days well, I'll just throw in my random thoughts so far about Laos and Vietnam.
Random thoughts...
Asian food, so many varieties, so many tastes, so good! Sheesh. It must be in the blood, we've been sampling Lao food as well as some fusion offerings and I just like it all (well, I guess not the papaya salad...). This is definitely one of the joys of traveling, sampling all that great food, new tastes, interesting textures, and these oh so yummy Asian snacks! There is always the danger of getting sick (see the chicken shake in Vang Vieng) but the flavour is divine.
Lao people are very mellow. Yep, it's all true. Lao people are very mellow and nice. Such a pleasant place to travel. The Lao scheduling is somewhat true too. We would often be picked up within 15 minutes (late) of scheduled time, only to wait half an hour before leaving. Schedule wisely. Still, this is a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of busy Vietnam.
Coffee in Lao (like that in Vietnam) is great! It's funny how coffee abroad can be so good (and cheap too!). Also: not a $tarbucks in sight! Coincidence maybe?
The Lonely Planet Effect: This is especially evident in small backpacker towns like Vang Vieng, but it's still a bit disturbing even in the big cities. Anything mentioned in the Planet can become immensely popular and may be victim of its own success. The top pick, Elephant Crossing hotel, has become a bit more posh, and a lot more expensive. The overall rooms and construction remain pretty much the same, but prices have risen quite dramatically. The well ranked Nokeo restaurant, once known for it's classic Lao food and great prices, is pretty much just a more popular clone of nearby restaurants,, with tourist level pricing and decent but unspectacular food. It's even got a new, cheap guesthouse attached. I still find the Planet to be a great guide and resource, but have to admit that it's success can spoil some of the more intimate or special places... Use with care.
When traveling in countries such as Vietnam or Laos, if you're not good with numbers, you'd better bring a calculator. With the current exchange rates (17400 dong to $US 1, or 8500 kip to $US 1) it's easy to become an instant millionaire. All those wads of cash can be hard to keep track of after a while. Most places don't take credit cards, but ATMs are getting common, so it's pretty easy to stay rich.
It should be mandatory to go somewhere hot n sunny during winter. It truly is nice to be outside after all the cold, wet, Vancouver winter. This is a great way to recharge your batteries.
Now let's go hang out at the beach!
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