Welcome to Vietnam

We had landed at HoChiMinh International Airport. As we coasted off the runway high voices demanded, "Ma'am please stay in your seat," "Sir, you cannot get up, sir," "Sit down, you must sit down," "The seatbelt sign is on!" The beautiful Chinese EVA flight attendants were fighting a losing battle with a full flight of passengers, most of whom did not speak English or Chinese. Before the plane had even stopped the aisle was full and people were climbing onto the arm-rests to get their bags from the overhead bins that were designed by a taller culture.

Dad and I had just flown 14 hours to Taipei and another 3 hours to Saigon. We cleared customs quickly, with a new stamp on my red Vietnamese visa, which bares the oddly familiar sickle and hammer, my last international flight was to Cuba. Welcome to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Our drive to Mui Ne was uneventful, though it did make me rethink my travel itinerary. It took 5 hours to cover less than 200km. The speed limit seems to be slow and trucks and motorbikes block the single lane highway. The drivers pass dangerously to get ahead of each other and yet with a clear road ahead speeds rarely exceed 70km/hour. Even so, you would think the drive should take less than 4 hours, I'm still not even sure why it didn't. I've asked a couple people and the general response is, "yeah, Vietnam's roads are... (shakes head)." I guess it's an accepted mystery? The roads are paved and not incredibly curvaceous, so my best guess is that the copious numbers of motorcycles and mopeds slow the progress of every other vehicle on the road. They drive slowly, cluttering the road and often refusing to move to the side, resulting in aggressive passing in the face of oncoming trucks. Anyway, now with my new understanding of the slow going on the roads I have to drastically recalculate my time to reach Hanoi in the north.

I cannot yet comment on Vietnam as a country, since I have barely experienced it. Mui Ne is 100% a tourist destination. In fact, the "Mui Ne" where we are is a stretch of about 8km of road lined with massage salons, restaurants, lounges, and souvenir shops on one side and beach front resorts/hotels on the other. The real Mui Ne is a fishing village I'm excited to visit about 20km down the road at then end of the bay. I'd like to go explore the fish market and see the morning catch come in some day soon with Dad.

So far the best food experience has been going to a local road side "restaurant" a bit out of "town." This consists of a tarp covered "kitchen" of several coal fires and many kindergarten sized plastic tables and chairs on gravel. Apparently it's the norm for most local restaurant seating to be small (about a foot high) stools, so dad was impressed with the tiny chairs. You get to pick out your own combination of clams, razor clams (look like tubes), scallops, prawns, colorful crabs, and beautiful snails whose shells could easily be souvenirs. I, of course, could not help wonder how this bounty of beautiful invertebrates were faring offshore. With tourists consuming massive amounts compared to the original local demand (by numbers and meal size, Vietnamese servings are small), I am curious if fisherman are finding it progressively harder to fill the demand and how the populations are affected. Regardless, it was delicious. They seared the shellfish over an open flame and topped them with a yummy mixture of butter onions, chives, lime, and crispy pork fat. I've also had my first bowl of Pho Ga at the hotel and it was very tasty and may compromise my ability to fully enjoy Pho as much when I return to Seattle.

Lastly, interacting with local people is difficult. Everyone is extremely friendly and smiles are exchanged freely but the language barrier is huge. In latin countries I can communicate and in India there is enough English around. Here I am a bit lost how to communicate. I plan to start learning some useful words, but with 6 different tones it is an extremely challenging language to learn and be understood in for a foreigner. I have to remind myself to not be afraid to use sign language and act it out. I've been too spoiled by traveling in countries where I can communicate, this is a new challenge for me, and I'm sure Laos and Cambodia will not be much different. Right now I'm working on trying to understand how to read Vietnamese so at the very least I can say the name correctly of the place I want to go. Phan Thiet is pronounced Pan Tit, Nha Truang is pronounced Nya Traang, Sua Dou is pronounced Suw Da. And apparently the pronounciation changes completely in the northern half of Vietnam...

I'm excited to get out of Mui Ne and begin my adventure of traveling on my own, but I'm definitely appreciative of this time to relax and get acquanted. I only wish what I am learning here could be applicable in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, but I'll find a way to manage.