Just One Expat's Opinion: February 2015

If you were to ask me 10-15 years ago where I would go if I could go anywhere in the world my answer would probably be one of two places, Vietnam or Thailand. Although honestly, ten or fifteen years ago that question would have formed a knot in my throat, and the answer would have been uncomfortable for me to form into words. I was in a time and place in my life where it almost hurt to dream about those things. Reaching goals like international travel to a Southeast Asian country would have felt farther away than retirement. And unfortunately, I had settled myself to become content with that.

When unforeseen circumstances caused my life to change in almost every conceivable way I decided the first thing I wanted to do was reach those goals that felt forever unattainable. I remember the exact moment and how quickly I came to the conclusion. In about 3.5 seconds I went from dreaming about traveling abroad to deciding I wanted to live abroad...in Asia. So I came to Korea. I had several goals in coming here, some more important than others. But one thing I knew for certain was that I was going to see Vietnam and Thailand while I was here, and I wouldn't come home until I did.

So enough of the sappy stuff, here is my experience realizing one of my life goals...

Day 1 - the longest day in existence
The Incheon Airport is two hours away from our town and with an early flight, Jenni, Natalie and I decided we had no other choice but to arrive the night before and sleep in the airport. Surprisingly (sarcasm folks), the airport terminal did not turn out to be all that conducive for sleep. Ten hours and no sleep later, I was never so happy to board a plane.

Unfortunately I couldn't sleep like my Korean compadre over there.

Airport security is definitely a whole different animal in other countries. No one asked me to take off my shoes, and they barely took notice of my liquids carefully displayed and packaged in their specific ounce containers. The strangest part, by far, was being able to see directly into the cockpit that stayed open and in plain sight during boarding. Some would say this is foolish given the times we're living in, some would say America is overly paranoid as a product of devastating prior experiences. For me...I wasn't sure if I was more relaxed or more tense because of the lackadaisical approach to security.

Arriving in Ho Chi Minh, tired and hungry, we were very much looking forward to getting to our hotel. Foreseeing our exhausted state we prearranged a hotel near the airport, prioritizing convenience and low cost, considering we would be returning to the airport around 4:00 am for our flight to Hoi An the next day. The state of our hotel was most certainly in the "you get what you pay for" category, but we were too tired to be fussed finding another location, we dropped our stuff, took our passports and money with us and attempted to find something to eat. The five staff members, plus one foreigner who seemed to have given up on real life and appeared to have been living in this hotel, made an effort to explain to us that mostly everything was closed except for one spot just down the street.

Thanking them, and waving them off (in a bit of exhausted frustration), we took off down the road towards the direction they had pointed when in about five seconds we were joined by a man on a motorbike. He was from our hotel and was taking it upon himself to escort us to the restaurant. The "restaurant" was more like an open garage with a few gas burners, hunks of meat displayed in chafing dishes, some metal tables and an eclectic array of junk in the back including broken down motorbikes and a dirty copy machine from 1992. He ordered for us, asking us if we wanted certain items but unable to recognize anything we just nodded along. When we were finally served the strange bowls of grub we quickly realized he was going to wait there for us, at the end of our table, watching us eat and instructing Natalie on how to use her utensils. We began to eat faster.

A few of the men offered us a ride back to the hotel on the back of their motorbikes but the only thought that popped into my head was "...and they were never heard from again" so we opted to walk. Our friendly hotel tour guide followed us back on his motorbike while we walked passed so many men peeing in the street that we took it as a hint to avoid any upcoming puddles we might be walking by. Having eaten and with a clearer head, we realized he was following us out of protection and that the area we were in was less than safe.

If we hadn't missed an entire night's sleep I'm certain we would not have been able to sleep that night in our less than desirable hotel room but alas we were able to get in a few hours of shut eye before heading back to the airport for our next flight. (Note to self: put more time in between flights or you will learn to loath airports)

Day 2 - beautiful Hoi An

Enjoying our beautiful homestay.

Following our experience in Ho Chi Minh City, arriving in Hoi An was like a breath of fresh air. We had prearranged someone to pick us up from the airport and take us to our hotel, and we arrived to sunshine, clear skies and palm trees. Our homestay was absolutely beautiful, the staff was friendly and English-speaking, and the beds were fluffy and comfortable. It was nap time.

After a long nap and a warm shower we headed off to explore Hoi An making our first obligatory stop at a cafe for some famous Vietnamese coffee (that I still very much miss and want back in my life). Hoi An was beautiful with yellow painted buildings, a canal full of traditional boats, colorful markets and beautiful lanterns hanging from palm trees. A tree I didn't even realized I missed until I came here. The scenery was almost polar opposite from SoKo. Korea is a modern country with square, neutral colored buildings built and designed for efficiency and practicality. Hoi An was full of color with architecture reflecting a combination of cultures that once occupied the country, built to allow as much sun to come through as possible. As much as I love Korea, I did feel a little like Dorothy arriving in Oz.

We spent the majority of our first day wandering the town, shopping and eating. I had found two very famous places for us to dine at and I was dying to try them out. We had probably the best Banh Mi in the entire country (and went back for seconds) and later had dinner at a place called Bale Well. A local favorite, almost hidden so far down an alley that a man spends his evening standing by the main road to help direct people towards this infamous restaurant. It was a set menu of pork skewers, an array of vegetables and herbs and spring rolls that you wrap in rice paper and dip into a peanut sauce. The woman showed us how to wrap the first one then let us alone only to return with more food whenever we began to run low. Vietnamese food has always been my favorite cuisine, but I really had no idea how freggin delicious it can be until I came to Hoi An.

The infamous banh mi masters
of Banh Mi Phuong

Seriously my favorite meal in
Hoi An. I want more.

The never-ending food of Bale Well

Day 3 - a much needed beach day

With more time in airports than we would have liked we treated ourselves to some beach time, a day full of nothing but relaxing by the water. We had rented bicycles from our hotel and biked the 20-30 minutes towards An Bang beach, which was an experience in itself. We passed rice fields, crossed beautiful rivers and almost got run over by motorbikes and large trucks, it was grand! Arriving at the beach we were swarmed by Vietnamese women trying to coerce us into sitting in their beach chairs, which were free if we ate a meal at their restaurant. We let a couple battle over prices but soon realizing it was all the same we opted for the "pretty white chairs" under the palm frond huts. There we relaxed, drank, ate a lovely meal and soaked in as much vitamin D as possible.

Another amazing meal

Cocktails in a blackout

That evening we met up with some friends from Korea who were also taking their holiday in Hoi An. We had dinner and were off to find a bar to enjoy a cocktail or two when all of a sudden there was a rather large "boom" sound followed by completely darkness. The five of us huddled together with various thoughts running through our heads while the locals ran about with flashlights shouting things in Vietnamese. In a couple moments, the bar next to us was the first one with lights on so we opted to have our drink there. Our friend, who is Vietnamese, spoke to the server and found out that this happens every so often and that each place was set up with their own generator. One by one the restaurants and bars began to light up again, then go out again, then light up again. We ended our night early and went back to our homestay where they handed us a battery operated lantern and sent us off to our room. We had no air conditioning or wifi that night but by the next morning things were back to normal.

Day 4 - Cam Kim bike tour

Feeding cows on our bike tour.

I had found a free bike tour set up by local college students who used the time as tour guides to practice their English. They took us to Cam Kim Island by ferry where we biked around a traditional Vietnamese neighborhood learning how to make rice noodles, construct a boat and weave grass mats that were used as beds. We also visited a beautiful family temple and a woodworker's shop. In the airport, at the end of our trip, the three of us agreed that this was one of our favorite parts of our experience in Vietnam. The locals were kind, the tour was informative, and we got to step away from the tourist ridden Hoi An for some exposure to real life in Vietnam.

We had plans later that day to rent motorbikes and head about an hour out of town to see some famous ruins, but instead, being that we were all inexperienced in the art of motorbike riding, we opted to avoid the life-threatening drive and instead spend the rest of the day shopping and eating more fantabulous Vietnamese food.

Riding the ferry.

Boat builders workshop.

One of our adorable tour guides instructing us
on boat building.

That moment you almost fall off
your bike attempting to take a photo.

Family temple visit.

How to make rice noodles 101: first you need
one smiling adorable man.

Plus one hard working, equally adorable woman.

Learning to make grass mats. Traditional
Vietnamese beds.

Another amazing Vietnamese coffee

Seriously guys, the food here is phenomenal.

Natalie and I even managed to squeeze in a massage on Day 4.
It's a hard life.

Day 5 - savoring our final moments in Hoi An

Free breakfast at our homestay
every morning. Coming from
Korea with a lack of decent bread
I relished in the abundance of
baguettes in this country.

On our last day in Hoi An, we took our bikes out to another beach that we were told was closed because of a bad storm. Mostly we just wanted to ride our bikes again but it was interesting seeing the remains of the beach with the water fighting against the large metal fence and the men working with gigantic sandbags to keep the tide from coming in any further.

And of course, since we were just about addicted to shopping at this

Getting fitted for our dresses.

point, and I was thoroughly enjoying my new found haggling skills, we decided to shop a bit more and Natalie and I even got to have dresses custom made for us. Hoi An is known for their tailors and every website I saw recommended getting something tailor made. I hadn't planned on doing so, but if anyone knows how much I like dresses, I just could not resist the idea of designing my own. I picked out a style and a fabric and my Hoi An silk dress was made overnight. We had our last meal with our friend Kate again then headed off back to the airport to return to HCMC.

Beach repair

Oh hey.

Day 6 - Ho Chi Minh City, round two

HCMC

We had a half day to explore HCMC and see a better side of it than we had experienced our first night. Ho Chi Minh is a bustling city with so many motorbikes it is near impossible to cross the street. The trick that we eventually learned is you just have to hold your breath and start walking, that the motorbikes will avoid you and not the other way around. It was a tad terrifying so it was always appreciated when the locals would help us across.

Ben Thanh Market

Our first stop was the Ben Thanh Market. We had spent our entire trip saying "no thank you" to some very pushy vendors throughout Hoi An, but this was the epitome of harassment to buy buy buy. Woman were grabbing me by the arm to come look at their shoes, some were holding clothes up to us and telling us they had more colors available, all while we steadily walked ahead rattling off "no thank you, no thank you, no thank you", on repeat. We made a few purchases but didn't last long before we had enough and needed to escape.

Outside of the War Museum

While in the city, Natalie and Jenni really wanted to go to the war museum. I, however, was dreading it. I know I am a gigantic baby when it comes to those things and I feared it would be too much for me to handle. My predictions were correct. By the time we hit the Agent Orange exhibit my eyes were filled with tears and my stomach was in knots. I was just about to tell Jenni I had to leave when we all decided we had seen as much as we could handle. Seeing the images of the everlasting damage America caused to the Vietnamese people was overwhelming and forever unsettling. I don't think I uttered a word for the next half an hour while we attempted to move on with our day.

Pho-tastic!
(I'm hilarious)

Our last task was to find a pagoda I had read about on several websites. Coming from the museum we didn't have directions to it's location so we relied on about three different locals to help us find our way. All three of them gave us the wrong directions and we found ourselves wandering for quite some time. Even when we gave up and grabbed a cab, the driver had to stop several times for directions himself. After all of that, we realized if the locals didn't know where it was, it probably wasn't worth seeing anyway and even though we were finally at the gate of this mysterious pagoda, we opted to go find some Pho instead. It was a long day and all we really wanted to do was sit down and eat the one thing we all knew we couldn't leave Vietnam without having. It was delicious.

...

Even with some lessons learned, admittedly, I fell in love with Vietnam. The culture, the color, the people, the food, and the general atmosphere from both sleepy Hoi An and crazy Ho Chi Minh won me over and I know I will come back one day. Jenni and Natalie were excellent travel buddies and I can safely say we each brought something to the table that made our experience even better. I loved every minute I was in this country.

With one dream destination crossed off my list, I am off to Thailand tomorrow and I cannot wait to see what's in store for me there.

Here are a few more photos for you...