travel

People, take it from me. Don’t lose your plane tickets. Just don’t. They may be the most pain-in-the-ass things in the history of time to replace. And if they are lost, make sure that the city they’re lost in is the same as the city you’re in. Sounds like a no-brainer, but there it is. And I thought they’d be safer if I left them at home…

[Sigh.]

[author’s note: this entry was corrupted and its original db entry lost. below are listed the comments originally posted on this entry.]

stephen

riley@ring17.com

Well, I will say that most of the airlines have been very cool about things. Except for ATA. Beware of them. But Garuda and Air New Zealand have been really cool. Don’t think Miss Weeza lost them, either, that was my unfortunate doing. So those of you that know me are more than welcome to give me a swift kick in the backside!

2003-02-14 10:52:03

Miss Weeza

louisa@custom-deluxe.com

No worries, Rob. I’ll just put it on my long, long list of reasons to hate Microsoft. Thanks for the chat and the well wishes! Keep in touch!

2003-02-14 00:28:16

Rob

rcwatson@ureach.com

http://thewatsontribe.tripod.com

Doh! Sorry we got cut off on MSN Messenger. I hope you get your plane tickets back and that it all works out for the best. I just read through a few of your latest postings. Very cool stuff you’re seeing.

2003-02-14 00:08:49

Many thanks to Stephen for producing the new header graphic (4 months late, but better late than never, I suppose…). Now, if only I could make everything work properly again. I’m telling you, 3 months without touching stylesheets and I’m a wreck. If anyone can figure out how to make the location (currently in the sidenav) appear beside the header graphic, I’ll buy you a beer when I get to wherever you are. And if anyone notices something wonky about the way the header looks, please let me know – I’ve only got one browser (IE) and one platform (Windows ME) to test on.

In other news, I’m suffering today. Spent last night out with Dave (the man to see in Bangkok if you dig diving) and several friends from Spain and Holland. There was dinner and there was beer, which seems innocuous enough. But then, the guys who lived further afield realized the trains were no longer running (they stop at midnight) so we all might as well have a drink. I lost count after the 4th Pina Colada at the ladyboys’ van. [sigh]

Have I mentioned the ladyboys? All around Khao San Road and the road that circles the temple, there are VW vans that have been transformed into rolling bars. My favourite of these is operated by 3 of the loveliest ladies I’ve seen in some time. You should have seen their Christmas outfits: red satin and white fantasy-fur minidresses, Santa hats, the whole enchilada. Bless them. All I can say is thank God the Thai authorities have cracked down and all the bars are required to close at 2, otherwise I might not ever have made it home…

The other night, I got to thinking about what it was that I had hoped to get out of my travels, and whether I’m succeeding. It occurred to me that the most important things were meeting people, seeing things I’ve never seen before, and generally letting anxiety and tension slip away, stripping away the layers to uncover a truer self. So I began a list – I had thought it would be a top-10 sort of thing – of highlights of the journey so far. Instead, I came up with over 4 pages worth in under 15 minutes. I thought it would be fitting to share an annotated cross-section.

Being in the presence of the Reclining Buddha. As Karen put it, a welcome moment of ineffability.

A walk through shantytown .

Feeling like family at Libra Guest House, Chiang Mai. When you’re far away from home, in another culture and another language, the thing you least expect is to feel truly at home somewhere. It’s touching and fabulous, and I am ever so thankful for the welcome (and the Thai lessons) I got from Dao, Will, Ti, Nong, Gai, Tek and the whole family.

Spending the day poolside as the Khao San circus churns below. Once you’ve been in Bangkok a few times, what you long for the most is a moment of quiet. It’s not that the place is overwhelming so much as the fact that there’s only so many times you can go shopping for another t-shirt or another pair of fisherman’s trousers, and nine times out of ten your room at the guest house is not the comfiest place to hang out. I have found an oasis – the D&D Inn (where I’m staying again now) has a pool and a garden on the roof, where I can while away the hours in peace, reading and sipping fruit shakes, far above the deafening competing CD stalls and milling throngs of newly-arrived farang.

Cocktails with a bizarre and hilarious Polish couple around the temple in Soi Rambuttri, Bangkok, Thailand. They were eating a bag of grilled insects and kept offering them to me and everyone else who came by. We’re still in touch.

Sunset and the stars from a hammock on Chaalok Ban Kao (sunset beach), Koh Tao, Thailand. The hammock is roughly 1 meter from the water at low tide. Enough said.

A bright orange moonrise over the Pacific at the Sailing Club, Nha Trang, Vietnam. Nothing quite like toasting the beauty of nature. I was reminded of a poem by the fabulous e.e. cummings:

II
touching you i say (it being Spring
and night) “let us go a very little beyond
the last road – there’s something to be found”

and smiling you answer “everything
turns into something else, and slips away . . . .
(these leaves are Thingish with moondrool
and i’m ever so very little afraid”)

i say
“along this particular road the moon if you’ll
notice follows us like a big yellow dog. You
don’t believe? look back. (Along the sand
behind us, a big yellow dog that’s . . . . now it’s red
a big red dog that may be owned by who
knows)

only turn a little your. so. And
there’s the moon, there is something faithful and mad”

In Hoi’an: beauty at every turn in narrow streets; the color of the silks and the lanterns over every door in the evening; wine and cheese with Aussies; running into an old Chicago acquaintance at the bar after a year and a half without contact; late night at Mr. Chan’s. I think Hoi’an was probably the most fun I’ve had yet. At one point, we had 5 continents represented around the table at Happy Hour.

Around Ha Kiem lake, Hanoi, Vietnam: coffee and cinnamon ice cream in the afternoon; fireworks over the water on Tet; many-colored lights strung from every tree; sitting on a bench chatting at 4 in the morning. Hanoi may be the first big city in Southeast Asia that I could imagine living in.

Waking in a fairy tale on Ha Long Bay. Not for the first time, I desperately wish I could post some photos. Ha Long Bay is the most mysterious, breathtaking, stunningly gorgeous place I’ve seen, perhaps ever. 1,969 limestone islets rise from crystal clear turquoise water, in all sizes and shapes. Caves and beaches line the waterfront. I woke on the morning of my liveaboard tour in a cabin surrounded with windows on 3 sides. What I saw when I opened my eyes made me feel like a storybook princess in a strange and beautiful land.

The maddest motorbike ride, bar none. In Chiang Mai, over mountain trails, across streams, through rocks and mud, steeply up and steeply down. If I had stopped to think about it I would have spent the entire time thinking I was about to die. But the scenery was just too gorgeous. And that guy was an amazing driver.

Getting email that simply says, “Come home soon. We miss you.” It’s good to feel loved from such a distance. Thanks, Eric.

Seeing more possibility in the world and in my life than I have since I was 16 years old. And that, my friends, wins.

OK, OK. I get it now. See, when you’re travelling in Vietnam, most of the time you don’t get to actually see many average Vietnamese people. The only people you’re guaranteed contact with are those who survive on tourism (hawkers, shopkeepers, and travel agents), who can be pretty tough and pretty rude. But the thing is, the real Vietnamese people are pretty great. Yes, there’s a hardness here that isn’t present in Laos or Thailand. Perhaps it comes from the war with America and its allies, perhaps from the centuries of battling the Chinese, perhaps it’s both – or maybe it’s got to do with the Communist government discouraging Buddhism which would normally be the #1 religion here. I could speculate endlessly, but it would be difficult to prove anything. It’s also a very conservative culture here, which also may have something to do with the government, and besides isn’t necessarily a bad thing – unless you’re an outsider. But there is a sense of humor in these people, and curiosity, and a desire to make contact with others.

It’s Tet, the enormous Lunar New Year celebration that takes over the country for 3 days every year. What this means is that people who are normally working while I’m out walking around, or home with their families when I’m out in the evenings, are out on the streets, walking and eating and celebrating. On New Year’s Eve, the 31st, I was out with an Austrian couple at about 3:30 in the morning, and we stopped at a street vendor to get another beer and something to eat. The Vietnamese guys at the next table insisted on sharing their rice wine. Yesterday, I took a walk around the lake and it was like being in a whole different city than the day before. Where I’d become accustomed to seeing suspicion, I saw curiosity. Where I expected hostility, I got smiles. And for once in all my time here, for an entire day, people said, “Hello!” and didn’t try to sell me something. It was lovely.

I met a woman named Ti in Nha Trang who told me that she felt bad for Westerners in Vietnam sometimes, because so many people just see us as walking dollar signs. To be fair, it is partly our fault – during the war, America spent a lot of time spreading propaganda about how great life is the US and how everybody’s rich and can do as they please, etc. I guess they did a good job, because some people still believe it. Not everyone, though. So I guess it’s up to us, really, to show them that we’re more than money, that we’ve got something to give. Making contact was supposed to be what it’s all about anyway, right?

Well, I suppose it was bound to happen eventually. I really do understand now why some people are so very frustrated with Vietnam. It’s all well and good for people to try and sell me things, it’s even OK for them to try repeatedly, but some things are not OK. For instance:

1. 10 year old children selling postcards, no matter how much they may want you to buy just one more pack, under no circumstances at all, should ever tell me, “Fuck you and your grandmother!!” when I do not buy.

2. Travel agents take a commission on what they sell. This is an accepted fact. They’ve saved you the hassle of going to the train station and figuring things out on your own, it’s only fair. However, a $9 commission on a $21 ticket is a bit excessive, no matter how much they try to explain it away.

3. Tour operators whose tickets have the words “10% refund fee” printed at the bottom in 2 languages should give refunds when they are requested. They should not offer the customer 10% of the ticket price in lieu of the refund, and they certainly should not tell the customer, “NO REFUND! YOU GO NOW” when the customer attempts to point out their own published policy.

It can be a bit trying.

However, on the plus side, I will be going to Hanoi tonight on a train and not a bus. Granted, I’ve lost a bundle on the deal, but I’ll be able to sleep and walk around instead of being packed in like a sardine amongst the luggage and fellow travellers. And on top of that, I had a lovely motorbike tour of Hue and the surrounding areas today. It included a trip to the monastery where Thich Nat Hahn, one of the coolest buddhists ever, lived and taught until he left Vietnam for political reasons. If you get the time, you should read his books. Also on the list were several other pagodas from the last 400 years or so, and a gorgeous complex built for an emperor in the 1800s that they call a ‘tomb’, but which really is more of a city.

On that note, sorry to be brief, but I don’t want my train to leave without me….

Well, well. Behind on my posting again, as you can see. I’m currently in Hoi’an, have been for several days. For the first two, I managed to somehow aviod succumbing to the shopping demon that lurks in each and every lovely little street in this city, contenting myself with wandering aimlessly enjoying the sights. It really is remarkably charming here – the influence of the ancient Chinese is everywhere, in pagodas and bridges and meeting houses and even private homes, but the fin de siecle French colonial style has made a strong mark as well. Between the architecture, the lovely colored lanterns, the smiling faces, and the food (really, the food is outstanding), I barely even noticed the brightly colored silks in virtually every shop. I won’t even pretend I missed the shoes, though.

Yesterday, my will collapsed. I wandered into a shop owned by a local woman I’d met, thinking I’d just have a look, maybe get a pair of trousers or something. Let’s just say I’m going to be sending home a big fat package tomorrow morning. Yes, including shoes. How could I resist? They make everything to measure! They even draw around and measure the arches of each individual foot! Last night, I dreamt of designs.

Today, to get away from temptation at least for a while, I went out to the ruins of My San, formerly the most holy ground of the Champa Empire. The temples there date from the 4th to the 11th century, and although they are all now in varying states of decay, it’s still quite a sight to behold. Not for the first time, I wish I were able to post photos.

At one point, I was walking around one temple group examining these big craters in the ground, overgrown with grass. I was wondering why this temple group had (what seemed to be) man-made lakes when none of the others did. It turns out those were bomb craters. The Vietnamese people had forgotten about the Champa temples until the French came and started chopping down trees in the jungle, exposing the complex. By that time, it was already falling into ruin and decay – the jungle is not kind to stone, and nobody had been keeping it up for a long time. Then, during the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong used the buildings as a hiding place from American troops, who proceeded to bomb the living hell out of them. The worst part: the particular group that took the biggest hit was the oldest, which hadn’t been modified since the 7th century. It reminded me of the days in the States when soldiers stored munitions in churches, assuming that nobody would dare to attack a holy place. By the end of the Civil War, hundreds of churches across the South were destroyed. There is, of course, an enormous difference between a 100 year old church and a 1600 year old temple complex, but it just goes to show that when war is declared, nothing is sacred anymore.

On a more positive note, have I mentioned about Tet? It’s the big giant festival of the lunar (Chinese) New Year, and the biggest party in all of Vietnam. It’s the 1st of February. I’ll definitely still be in the country, but not sure where yet – either Hue (ancient Imperial city) or Hanoi, depending on how things go. I’ll keep you all posted, for sure – how can I resist two New Year’s Eve parties in two months?!?

[yawn][stretch]

Well, it’s good to back in the land of the fully awake… I’ve spent the last few days partying hard in Nha Trang, in the company of many many very fun individuals, including one fabulous storyteller known in some circles, apparently, as Pisshead Si – I’d say we all agree that it’s an appropriate moniker. Along with Paul, Liam, Sam and several others whose names I either can’t remember or never knew, it’s a recipe for a serious bender.

The party began two days ago when I went on Mama Hanh’s four-island boat trip. Once we were all on the boat, around 9 a.m., our guide (whose name was Vietnamese for Strong Man) said a few words by way of introduction and welcome, followed by the reading of the rules:

– If you don’t have fun, you don’t go back.
– If you’re not drunk, you don’t go back.
– If you’re not full (of food, and too much of it), you don’t go back.

In any of these cases, we were told, we would be left with a life preserver out in the South China Sea and picked up by him the following day. This concluded the reading of the rules.

I wish I could remember the names of the islands we visited and do it in the proper order, but I don’t. I do, however, remember what happened, which is more important. First stop was snorkeling among some really beautiful and colorful coral and sponge formations. Some of my fellow boaters got sick of wrestling with their masks (which were crappy) and instead floated in life preservers, drinking BGI beer out of cans. Thus, it was about 10 a.m. when the drinking officially began.

Second stop, lunch. We all gorged ourselves while Strong Man reminded us that if we didn’t eat enough we would be left out to sea. After lunch, singing. Strong Man showed off his linguistic prowess (he can apparently sing in 26 languages) by doing a number for every nationality/language on the boat, which made about 10. Then, to make us feel better about our apparent ignorance, he taught us to sing Clementine in Vietnamese. Yes, Clementine. No, I don’t know why.

After singing, more drinking: it was time for the Floating Wine Bar. Strong Man sat in the middle of a strange, UFO looking contraption with a case of mulberry wine, and we all floated around him in life preservers until there was none left.

Two stops, more swimming, drinking and hilarity later, we returned to port around 4 in the afternoon and agreed to meet up at the Sailing Club for Happy Hour. What made us think this would be a good idea is beyond me. Happy hour runs from 6:30 to 10:30 every evening, and means 2-for-1 beers and free shots of vodka/pineapple/orange. Combine that with free pool all night and a gorgeous beachfront location – perfect for watching the moonrise – and you’ve got serious trouble. The plan, of course, is to get you to stay past happy hour. It works. We were there, I think, until about 3 in the morning.

So yesterday was a wash, lounging around on the beach and playing pool and staring blankly at inanimate objects was about all we could bring ourselves to do. That, and listening to Simon’s excellent tales.

And now, 12 hours of sleep later, I’m feeling pretty good. Off to Hoi An tonight, to (according to popular opinion) fend off millions of touts and perhaps have some clothing made, even though I keep telling myself I’m not going to.

I’ve still got stuff to post about the Delta and other things before I arrived bere, but that will have to wait. There’s just one other thing I want to put out there today:

It’s hard for me to find ways to remember and record the sheer volume of beauty I see in this country. The other day on the bus from Muine, I was watching rocky hills rise from the water’s edge, then fall away to enormous vibrant green rice paddies. The sea was a blue jewel off to the east, and ahead of us the rolling green foothills of the central highlands beckoned. Nha Trang lies just at the foot of these hills, and I’ll be passing through them tonight. It was a difficult choice to take a night bus, since I’ll be missing a lot of the scenery, but my hope is that I’ll be able to get enough sleep to make tomorrow a productive day anyway. If not, I’ll take it as a lesson learned and travel by day (or by train, which is comfortable but much more expensive) from now on. It occurs to me that much of this trip will lie dormant in my memory, waiting for moments to surface. It’s hard to accept that there’s no real way to set this down concretely – the beauty, the dozens of little excellent moments every day – but accept it I must.

And now, I’m shutting up. And all of you who read this and never write, I urge you to drop me a line sometime.

No kidding. Not only is it 30 feet from the beach, not only can I hear the waves as I sleep, not only is there a hammock 10 feet from the door, but there’s a disco ball and colored lighting in my room. Don’t ask me why, but there you have it.

I’m in Muine, which is about halfway between Siagon and Nha Trang for those of you following along at home, relaxing and swimming and reading about diving. I’ll be moving on in a few days, and hope to be in Hanoi before Tet (Chinese New Year), which will cripple the city beginning on February 1.

Before I came up here, I went out to the Mekong Delta for a few days, during which I had no internet access, so to those of you whose email went unanswered, I’m not dead and I’ll write you back soon, promise. Also, I’ve got some thoughts to collect about the Delta, which was a thought-provoking and educational experience. More on that to come. For now, it’s time to sit by the water and drink some vodka, and maybe start a club in my room. I do have both volumes of Lazy Dog…. Woohoo!

All those people who told me the Vietnamese are pushy and rude are on crack. After coping with the tuk-tuk drivers on Khao San Road (and elsewhere in Bangkok), these guys are an absolute dream. Sure, there’s lots of people trying to sell stuff, but everybody will take no for an answer – at least, they did from me. They even smiled and said goodbye – one guy gave me his stool to sit on while I waited for the museum to open. I did give it up and take a ride in a Cyclo – that’s a bicycle-driven rickshaw with the passenger on the front in a wheelbarrow-like contraption – but instead of (as in Bangkok) demanding ridiculous sums of money and then taking me shopping instead of to my destination, this guy cycled me around to about 3 of the places (out of 4) that I wanted to see here and then dropped me off at the 4th, all for under $2. On the way, he played tour guide as well, telling me what we were passing and when things were built. If it hadn’t been for him, I would have missed the grandmama tortoise at the Emperor Jade Pagoda.

Speaking of which, the temples here are very different from those in Thailand and Lao. Emperor Jade Pagoda was built in 1744, and is totally Chinese in style and language. There are roughly 6 chapels and over 12 rooms in total, all housed in a maze-like main building. The Buddha is indeed represented and holds pride of place, but many other Hindu and Buddhist dieties are in residence also, as are what I can only assume are ancient Chinese heroic figures. If I weren’t so woefully undereducated on these mythologies, I could probably go on for a good long time. I would particularly love to know more about the tortoise ponds just outside – all my guide could tell me is they’re special animals. There was one pond that had literally hundreds of little guys in it, and the other just had the big sleepy one. If anyone can enlighten me, please do. As it is, we’ll move on.

There is indeed, for those of you who may have heard, a miniature replica of Notre Dame Cathedral here – it’s about 1/10 of the size, brick, and totally surreal against its surroundings. I was unfortunately not able to enter, so I can’t comment on the stained glass, but the flying buttresses were sadly missing. It was not the highlight of the day.

The highlight was the War Remnants Museum, an oddly if diplomatically named monument to what we call the Vietnam War. It was this that really struck me. We’ve all heard the numbers and the rationale (or lack thereof) associated with the conflict, but gathered together with images and narratives from photographers of all nationalities who died or went missing, an exhibition dedicated to the worldwide protest of the war, and frank accounts of the victims and later repercussions, all made for an absolutely staggering experience. The last time I felt something like this was at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin, after which all I could do was wander the city for a few hours, fighting back tears. This was not much different.

What I found most impressive is the complete lack of bitterness with which the war was presented. While it’s true that most of the atrocities shown were those committed by the Americans with the help of their allies, the prison conditions of the Saigon government were also meticulously documented. And although there were no accounts of the tortures visited on nonvietnamese by the Viet Cong, the American anti-war demonstrators were given pride of place in that exhibit. And when you look at the sheer numbers of Vietnamese – particularly civilians – who died, it’s pretty incredible that the tone of the entire place is focused not on persecution but on remembering what happened last time so we don’t do it again.

I couldn’t help but think, as I looked at the photos of Hanoi and other cities in the North, schools and hospitals and residential neighborhoods razed to the ground, of the impact of the Allied bombs on Berlin and other German cities in World War 2, of the impact of American bombs in Afghanistan and perhaps soon in Iraq. It astonishes me that we still think this kind of action can have a sustainable, positive outcome. Punishing the civilians of a country over whose government they have no control is no way to change the behavior of that government. Killing civilians is not the way to influence foreign or domestic policy. That should be abundantly clear by now, especially with the recent killing of civilians on American soil. And yet we persist, again going counter to the wishes and beliefs of most of the rest of the world, including many of our NATO allies, threatening to wage war alone if need be – this time on Iraq, but again, who will suffer more – Hussein or his people? And once war begins, it is not easily ended. Nor is it easy for allies to stand by and watch the bloody outcome without becoming involved.

I don’t know what can be done to stop this from happening. It seems protests like those in the late 60s are outdated in the US, and I don’t know if there are enough dissenters to really raise a crowd of 50,000 in DC again anyway. Looking at it all from this side of the world, I just hope it doesn’t happen. The world is more connected now than ever, and I don’t just mean by the Internet – any action will have a much wider effect than those of 40 years ago. I don’t have an answer, just a deep feeling of sorrow and foreboding. I pray it doesn’t happen.

I don’t feel I can end on that depressing note, so I will share with you all a bit of joy in my little traveller’s world: last night I arrived in Saigon and took a room at a recommended guest house. It costs more than I’d like to spend, but that’s generally the case in big cities. The good news is, I’ve got a soft cushy bed, air conditioning, a window that faces a *quiet* alley, hot water in a private bath, and – best of all – a bathtub! I hadn’t seen one of those since I left home, and you can rest assured that I’m going to spend some quality time soaking in it just as soon as I finish my delicious (and free!) dinner.

Over and out.

A bit of truth for those of you who are considering T-Mobile as your wireless carrier: before I left the States, I called to confirm that I could still send and receive SMS without incurringany extra charges while I’m travelling. They assured me that the first 500 messages would still be totally free. Now they are charging me $1.50 each, both incoming and outgoing. As if we didn’t already know, DO NOT TRUST anything these people tell you. I am fighting the charges, and will keep you all posted.

More on the travel – and the new Lord of the Rings movie – when I simmer down. Over and out.