Story Time

Saturday, April 25, 2009

I have some stories that go back to Cambodia. Hopefully they are not repeats.

"You said maybe later."
We took a bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap to go see Angkor Wat and the other temples. The drive was a long 6 or 7 hours and I think that we stopped maybe 2hours into the trip at a bus stop swarming with tourists on other buses bound for Siem Reap and then locals trying to sell anything and everything. Pat and I got off the bus to use the bathroom and as soon as we set foot on the ground we were nearly attacked by small children selling cut pineapples, magoes and bananas. They tried to bargain with us, but bargaining was not necessary because we were not hungry and did not want any fruit. Trying not to be negative or mean while attempting to get the kids to move on Pat said that he would maybe buy something later. As soon as we left the toilets the kids found us again instantly. One girl with a strange British accent says, "But you said maybe later." They tried hard to make their sell, but we were not interested. We talked with them and they claimed it cost $2 a day to go to school and the same girl with the British accent repeats, "But you said maybe later" and continues with "Now I going to cry." She did not end up crying, it was just part of her hard selling act. Now when Pat tries to send off sellers with "Maybe later" we think of the little girl with the British accent.


"But Sir you are not Vietnamese"
After our first night in DaNang, we were set on switching hotels because of the location across the river and the extremely hard and small bed. We took a taxi across the bridge and went into a couple of hotels to see rooms and ask about prices. We went into one hotel and looked at a room and then we were talking about the cost at the reception desk. The woman informed us of the price and pointed at a price list on the counter for the different types of rooms. The price list had two columns, one in Vietnamese Dong and one is US dollars. She told us the price is dollars, but we did not have any USD left so we asked if we could pay in Dong noticing that the Dong prices and USD prices were not equal. Pat asked if we could pay the price listed in Dong and the woman responded, "But Sir you are not Vietnamese." Really? We learned that in Vietnam there are prices for Vietnamese and prices for tourists that are not equal.


Standing in Line in Vietnam and Planes
As Pat mentioned in an earlier post, flights are very cheap in Vietnam, so we have opted to fly from HCMC to DaNang and then Hue to Hanoi (the two longest legs of our trip). When we landed in DaNang as the plane was pulling up to its parking place, not when it stopped, everyone shot out of the seats grabbing their bags and mostly all stood in the isle. It was unbelievable! I usually enjoy taking my time because I know that by rushing to get into the isle does not mean that I will get off the plane first or even get my luggage first at baggage claim. I would save very little time by rushing to stand in the isle and pushing to get off the plane. But sure enough nearly everyone was standing in the isle and pushing to get off the plane. In the States and elsewhere the passengers leave the plane based on where they are sitting. The first row goes then the second and people generally let people who are sitting in front of them get off in front. This was not the case. People did not let you out of your row. Once in the airport if you decide to use the toilet you will run into the same situation in the bathroom. Southeast Asian bathroom lines are individual for each stall there is not just one line where the first person goes to the open stall. So if you happen to choose the wrong stall, you are out of luck. And if you try to form just one line, the local women will push ahead and try to form individual stall lines.


Yesterday we flew from Hue to Hanoi. Hue was a small airport claiming to be international, but I only saw two gates and not much more, so I am not sure where they actually fly other than Hanoi and HCMC that makes it international. Our flight starting boarding at 12:30, so we walked down the stairs to the gate where we loaded (like sardines) an airport bus that drove us probably at most 50 feet. I am not kidding! We could have easily walked and thus saved gas for the two airport buses! The plane was just outside the door of the gate. There was no reason that the airport should have had an airport bus much less two or three and why in the world could we not walk to the plane???


Turning Heads
Soccer/Football is huge in Southeast Asia and they love to follow the European leagues. For Christmas Pat was given a Barcelona jersey with MESSI on the back and a Liverpool TORRES jersey both of which he wears on a regular basis. Every time he wears the jerseys he gets thumbs up with people saying "Barcelona!" "Liverpool!" and then getting excited when they see that it is MESSI or TORRES. Pat can not go anywhere wearing the jerseys without getting some sort of commentary. While we were in Hue, Pat wore his MESSI jersey to dinner one night. We walked across the bridge and as he walked he was turning heads of all the guys sitting on the side of the bridge with friends or their girlfriends. It was as if he were some beautiful, blonde girl with a short skirt. All the guys were staring him down and turning their heads to follow him with their eyes. As we passed they would say something about Barcelona or Messi and continue to stare.


Hue, Vietnam
After several days in Hoi An having clothes made, we took a three hour bus to Hue where we spent three nights. We had reserved the "Penthouse" room at a hotel a couple days before we arrived. The room was great! We had the 6th floor of the hotel to ourselves with a wrap around balcony that overlooked the city where we had our breakfast brought to us the first morning. We had the usual air-con, hot water along with a computer and internet in our room. It was a pretty sweet set-up for only $30 a night. Our first day we visited the Citadel where the Emperor lived in the 1800s. The next day we did a motorbike tour that took us to some sites outside the city including a Japanese covered bridge, an emporer's tomb, some French bunkers with a great view of the river and a Pagoda where we were able to watch a group of monks sing. The tour was really good, the motorbike being the best part. We drove through huge rice paddies and through pine forest. The scenery was beautiful and we have found that motorbikes are a really good way to see a city.


Hanoi, Vietnam
So now we are in Hanoi in the Northern part of Vietnam. (We have a little over a week left before we head to Bangkok for a few days and then fly to California.) We had a hotel booked for last night and the room was good except that the water was not working and the computer was also not working. We switched rooms but the room was not very good, so we ended up switching to a nicer and less expensive hotel down the road. We found a cool restaurant a couple doors down from our new hotel where there is a grill on each table and you cook your own food. We had beef steak and vegetables with a delicious dipping sauce. The food was really good and it was fun to cook it in front of us!

For the next couple of days we will do the touristy things around Hanoi. On Monday we head to Halong Bay for a three-day, two-night tour of the bay, which looks beautiful and like a lot of fun.