Day 6: Market & Train to Hanoi

The theme of the day was me blushing... seriously I need to get this handicap under control. So what huge blush worthy experiences happened Saturday above and beyond the photography, touching and staring experiences that happened earlier in the week? Come gather 'round children while I tell you a tale of epically embarrassing proportions. On Saturday morning I went to a traditional market (think labyrinth, eclectic and kaleidoscope) with some great women from the NEU group. As per usual I felt many eyes on me (perhaps more so because we weren't in a foreigner tourist area) but until we stopped at a seafood table there was nothing out of the ordinary. A couple of women near by began speaking to my companions in Vietnamese, so I tuned out and was looking at some dried meats (intense smell), until I realized they were talking about me. It started innocently with one woman asking how old I was, then slowly other women materialized saying đẹp (beautiful) and asking question like where I'm from, what I'm doing so far from home etc. But my personal favourite question was when one woman asked me if I had ever considered marrying a Vietnamese man! By the end of it there was a group of at least 15 women surrounding me trying to take me home to meet their sons. I can't imagine a human face being a deeper shade of red than mine was then. I can't wait to be anonymous again.

But my blushing for the day was not yet over, although thankfully its reoccurrence was pink and not red. On the train ride back to Hanoi my cabin was the party room apparently because it was constantly filled with people. For one reason or another the conversation got to me... and stayed there. Once the general questions died down and people went back to playing cards one person continued the interrogation by asking questions about my non-existent boyfriend in Canada, how many kids I want, if I like asian children... subtle eh? I was flattered because the person asking was attractive. However I later had to revisit the boyfriend question because one of the young boys (about 6 years old) decided we're dating. So I'm spoken for now everyone, sorry. I'm sure there are lots of broken hearts ;) haha.

Day 5: Son Tra & Da Nang

The Vietnamese may not enjoy being at the beach in the middle of the day but they certainly seem to enjoy visiting it in the morning. I woke up early Thursday so I could see the sunrise over the ocean and get a little reading in before check out. I got to the beach around 5:15am, I was solo for a while but it wasn't long before a handful of other people showed up too. It was bizarre to see more people at the beach at 6am than at 1pm, but cute to see the older couples walking along the beach hand in hand, ahhh ;)



After check out, we visited a Buddhist Pagoda (temple) on the way back to Da Nang. I always associate Buddhism with conservatism, but these pagodas are anything but conservative. The largest statue at this pagoda is 65m (30 stories) high, that doesn't quite fit with my conservative buddhist image, how about you? The pagoda was at the top of a hill/mountain (because they can't have these things easily accessible, you have to pull a Rocky to be enlightened) with several other significant Buddhist deity (?) in statue form and a few buildings which were presumably for worship.

In the evening we went to THE most beautiful restaurant I have EVER seen in my ENTIRE life (I can not put enough emphasis on that). This restaurant was magnificent! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera (and even if I had, I couldn't do it justice, its impossible to fully capture atmosphere in a photograph), but I'll attempt to describe it. The restaurant was placed in an open air garden surrounded by tall walls to block out the city. Although the majority of the restaurant has no roof, around the edges were asian inspired buildings with no walls (presumably a place to sit when it rains but still enjoy the garden). Near the entrance was the most realistic faux waterfall I've ever seen, it was at least 15 feet tall and feed into a coy pond with lotus flowers. The pond had a traditional asian bridge spanning it which lead into the restaurant. Scattered throughout the restuarant were medium sized trees that had the character of bonsai trees and were intricately covered with twinkle lights and lanterns.... absolutely breath taking. Some day I'll have a yard like that and you'll never see again haha. This restaurant also had another thing going for it, it is the place I tasted crocodile for the first time. No word of lie, it tasted like chicken.

After dinner a bunch of us rented some bikes and did some impromptu karaoke ( with a christmas theme) whilst cycling by the river. When our bike rentals ran out we got ourselves some drinks and played cards by the river. A great end, to a great day.

Day 4: Lang Co Beach Resort

On Wednesday the NEU group left Da Nang and went to a resort near Hue (the ancient Vietnamese capital). We had a day of unscheduled relaxing at the resort which I spent at the beach. Its just like my Dad told me, being landlocked and away from home has a way of making blue nosers itch for the ocean. And being a true blue noser when I get the chance to be near the ocean I jump on it. However since I went immediately after lunch and everyone else seemed to have been respecting a “siesta” of sorts (to avoid the mid-day heat and risk of tanning), I enjoyed the ENTIRE beach to myself. So my beach bum afternoon was also a solitary beach bum afternoon filled with swimming, walking, reading and shell hunting.

The eating culture hear is very different than in Canada, and since I was eating with Vietnamese all week the differences became much more apparent to me. When you eat out here you don't order your on dish, everyone orders communal dishes that are placed in the middle of the table that are eaten from like a buffet or like a family dinner. How the food is served up is very different as well, there aren't serving spoons you just grab what ever you want with your chop sticks, people double dip without blinking and they have a habit of unexpectedly putting food in your bowl (with the chopsticks they've been eating with). Now I realize this all sounds a little unsanitary, and I'd be lying if I said none of these phased me the first time, but I very quickly adapted and was doing the same thing like it was second nature before long. Its like no matter who you're eating with its a family dinner because of the familiarity they take with the food, everyone is sharing and taking care of each other, it very nice tradition.

There was a fairly intense storm that lasted for a few hours Wed evening, but afterwards a group of us went for a walk on the beach. Since it was late at night we could see the lights of fishing boats out on the water. One of the profs explained to me that squid are fished during the night because they can be attracted by the lights. I'm not a big fan of squid so I'd just as soon they hadn't figured that out. And of course the resort had a place for karaoke and dancing so after the walk on the beach the majority of the people went there.

Day 3: Marble Mountain & Hoi An

Beginning Tuesday we exchanged business for pleasure, all business had been handled Monday at the conference and we were left to enjoy travelling, socializing and relaxing for the remainder of the week. In the morning we visited Marble Mountain, a collection of five mountains named after the five elements (metal, water, wood, fire and earth). There are several buddhist sanctuaries amongst the mountains and so I should have been less surprised when I saw my very first buddhist monk in the village at the foot of the mountain. My travelling companions laughed at my excitement; much the same way my Welsh friend laughed at my interest in the number of sheep. While I was enthralled by the buildings, the Vietnamese seemed to be intrigued by me. One family even stopped me so that each member of the family could have a picture taken with me and then have a family picture with me; my blush will live on eternally in their family photo album.



In the afternoon we went to Hoi An, a UNESCO world heritage site. Hoi An is a well-preserved trading port which was a major trading hub from 15th to 19th century. The architecture is a blend of local and foreign influence, but its biggest draw for tourists is the shopping, more specifically the tailor shops. Anyone that has ever gone shopping for a suit knows how difficult a task it can be to get one that fits just right. I had heard many good things about the tailors in Hoi An and decided to test out their ability with a having a suit made. I was measured (in more ways than I thought possible) and in less than 12 hours later I had a perfectly fitted suit delivered to the hotel. Great experience, I'll have to get a few more things made before I come home.

I tried two new drink Tuesday, a sugarcane drink, and chè (a traditional Vietnamese drink). Both were very good, but the second was most definitely my favourite, I'm going to try and smuggle the ingredients back into Canada so that I can make some when I come home.

After a few days of travelling with me the people from NEU started to notice the looks I got where ever I went. I'm quite used to it now, but it was a new experience for them which they experienced vicariously through me. Two different fellow travellers at two separate occasions mentioned as much to me, both times during the conversation a random person would come up and touch me. It wasn't a sexual touch either time it was just a hilariously well timed touch on the arm haha. I think the Vietnamese people who are unfamiliar with westerners are curious if my skin feels different since it looks different, a logical question, I'm happy to give the answer... as long as the touching remains on my arms.

Day 2: Conference & Dinner Cruise

On Monday morning I made my way down to the hotel conference room where faculty and staff from a variety of Vietnamese universities were gathering with the sound of Abba hits playing in the background. My presentation was about 15 minutes long and no sweat at all. I should have been pretty intimidated I suppose considering the company, but when less than 50% the people understand what you're saying and even less care what you're saying, its pretty easy to relax. And at the end of the day, if someone doesn't like the presentation I just blamed it on the translator ;) Since the rest of the conference was in Vietnamese and I felt bad making someone translate for me, I entertained myself on my laptop by surfing the internet, downloading audio books and normalizing some financial statements... good times.

That evening, the NEU group had dinner while sailing down the Hàn river (the main river in Da Nang). Some of the younger professors drank a little too much and as a result became a little overzealous in their attempts to make me feel welcomed. I tried to take it in stride but I'm sure my face was a deeper red than the Vietnamese flag... this wouldn't be the first or last time the group would experience my blush. I wish there was a surgery to prevent blushing, its such a handicap.

Day 1: Hanoi to Da Nang

I spent a week in central Vietnam with the National Economics University (NEU) profs and their family/friends. This exploration and immersion into Vietnamese culture is more than I can condense into one posting, so I'm going to break it up into a day-by-day posting... a bit like a journal. So if you're not interested in reading the journal of Amanda Smith (censored version), then I pre-emptively warn you to not waste your time with the next few postings.

Dear Mom and Kristine (I assume you two are the only ones still reading).



After a full Sat of postponing the necessary packing for the week long trip to central Vietnam, I finally made my way to the train station. Like many of my trips, this one started with a healthy helping of confusion and a pinch of panic. I was supposed to meet a group of people from NEU and I didn't find them until moments before we were to load onto the night train to Danang. Close call.

I shared a room with 5 other people from the NEU group. There were 6 bunks in the room (3 to a wall) which were as hard as a rock but the pillows and blankets were the perfect thickness... which you don't realize exists until you've had one of insufficient or abundant thickness. None of the people I had been roomed with spoke enough English for me to indulge in pleasantries so I silently read, looked out the window or humoured one of the women in their insistent maternal gestures... its like every woman in Vietnam instantly becomes my mother when they meet me, which is charming, but might be found intrusive in western culture.

The next morning involved an... interested experience, sufficeth to say that using a “squatter” (as Kristine lovingly calls them) on a moving train, is a unique sunday morning activity for me. The rest of the morning was filled with the stinging feeling of guilt and humility as I observed the day-to-day lives of rural Vietnam out the window. There were houses made of every possible material, but even the most grand houses didn't compare to what I have in Canada. I hoped they are blissfully ignorant; its easier to be happy with what you have if you don't know what you're missing. But not all the scenery was unpleasant, the majority of it was exotic, beautiful and memorable.

The NEU group completely dominated the second floor of a Danang restaurant Sat evening. The group enjoyed two of its favourite things, seeing if the foreigner could keep a straight face while eating the local food and singing karaoke; the former I was a willing participant, the later I viciously avoided. The new food I had this evening was jelly fish (which tastes depressingly like nothing), and quail (which taste just about the same as any other fowl). And while I did not “grace” NEU with my vocal abilities, my disinterest in singing was not shared by just about every other person in the group, from small children right up to the Dean, who belted out a tune or two. It doesn't seem to bother anyone if they're not particularly good at singing or not. The best theory I've heard explaining why Asian cultures seem to enjoy karaoke so much, is that the culture is so socially controlling in every other aspect of life, karaoke is a welcomed break, a chance to let loose... I think I'll let my hair down in other ways.

Tours v Backpacking

I've got another comparison for you, tour v backpacking travel. There are pros and cons to both; something I thought I would never say. After backpacking in the UK last year I was pro-backpacking, and I concluded that I must therefore be anti-tours. I have recently discovered however that these two forms of travel are not mutually exclusive. You can enjoy both. There are of course pros and cons to both, I'll list what they are in my opinion, feel free to disagree or add features I've neglected.



Backpacking:
-Complete freedom/flexibility: the most obvious positive feature is that you can do what you want, when you want... as long as its not taking pictures of certain communist buildings :S ops
-Meet more people: I suppose this could be a pro or con depending on if you're introverted or extroverted and the quality of people you're meeting. My general experience has been pretty good meeting other backpackers, probably because you have similar tastes and instantly have a topic of common interest... travel!
-Go places tours don't go: you can get a more “real” feel for the place you're visiting, tours tend to sugar coat the place you're visitng, which is a pro or con depending on what you're looking to get out of your trip.
-Quality of vacation doesn't relying on the quality of the tour: this is a big one, since the tour company and other travellers on the tour can make or break your vacation, so you're taking a big gamble.
-Way cheaper: generally...
-Working holiday: although backpacking is LOADS of fun, its certainly not a relaxing vacation (at least when I did it) because you're running from place to place trying to soak everything in. I needed a few days to recuperate when I got home haha.



Tours:
-Leave your brain at home: best feature (in my opinion) of going on a tour is that you can relax when it comes to getting from point A to point B, meals, itinerary etc because someone else is doing it all for you, so you can kick back and relax... without that useless muscle upstairs.
-Make good friends: since you're thrown together with the same people for x number of days, you get to know the people you're on the tour with better than if you had run into them in a hostel or on a train.
-Safety: depending on the location, this can be a BIG thing, or not even come into your decision making process.
-Cost: tours can be done pretty inexpensively if you're willing to hunt around, but obviously at the end of the day you're going to pay a premium for leaving your brain at home.
-Loss of freedom: you have to do what's on the itinerary, granted there are many options for tours so you can pick the one that suits you best, and there is lots of free time built in, but the tour guide does need to keep a tab on you so that means no kayaking out of site, even if there is a cool cave just beyond reach :(

Conclusion? Its time for me to say those 3 little words my family have been waiting for me to say, “I was wrong”. Yes you heard (or erm read) it here first, 'I was wrong', scheduled tours can be very enjoyable as well, and I would be all for going on a tour with my family some day instead of backpacking (this is a huge debate in the Smith house when we talk about family vacations) granted that we weigh the pros and cons of each...