Bookends of chaos

I started this trip in a chaotic land, and it appears that I'll be ending it in another chaotic land. I took what should have been a 3-hour "bus" ride from Chau Doc to Ha Tien today. It was easily the craziest travel experience I've had on this trip, and one that I hope is not indicative of what travel in all of Vietnam will be like. First, I took a motorbike from my hotel to the bus station, transporting me, my big pack, my small pack, and the big handbag I'm now toting around full of scarves. This was at 11:15 as the bus supposedly left at 12:00. Turns out it didn't leave 'til 12:30, but I think that's just because I was the only person on it and the guy didn't feel like going. In any case, the designated time rolls around and the "bus" won't start. I say bus in quotations because it was more like a mini-van... a very old mini-van. Well, we tool around the parking lot for 5 minutes or so and a big group of guys tries pushing it to get it going, but to no avail. It was all very amusing and disconcerting at the same time. So then another employee lifts up the platform of one of the steps up into the bus and pulls out a piece of rope. What they were planning to do with this, I have no idea, and more importantly I didn't want to know. I decided to call it and just get off this bus because even if they got the thing going, I don't think it would have made it and frankly, I just wasn't in the mood to die today.

Fortunately there was another bus heading that way an hour later, so I got on that one. I showed the guy my ticket for the previous bus, but still had to pay. I think it was a different bus company, but still I essentially paid $6 for a 10-minute motorcycle ride from the hotel to the bus station. The bus itself only cost around $3. Anyway, I paid it, and then the guy motioned to my bags, which I had put on the seat next to me, telling me I needed to pay for them, too. I had heard that folks here have a reputation for trying to rip off foreigners. Knowing this, I stood my ground and flat-out refused this ridiculous demand. He backed down, but tried a couple more times during the trip to get me to pay, even enlisting the help of a couple other passengers. I decided just to ignore him after that. I could have put the bags on the floor, but the point is, the bus was half empty.

One woman I met the day I left Cambodia told me, "Vietnam is a beautiful country. Just ignore the people." I may well end up doing this, but I refuse to believe that all of them are "out to get you". One lady on the bus showed me the way to the WC at our rest stop, and another man bought a few plums from a vendor who came onboard and then offered me one. This was cool because I had seen these fruits throughout Asia, but never bought one, mostly because I wasn't sure what it was or how to eat it. So that was nice. Take the good with the bad, I guess, as with everything.

There is a bit of a hard stare thing going on here, I'll admit, but my approach is just to smile. As opposed to India, where people will often just keep staring no matter what you do with your face, I find that people here will usually smile back if I smile at them. And I have to say, the kids really make this place. They are completely adorable and always smile and say hello. They kind of sing it, actually, which makes sense because Vietnamese is a tonal language. A nightmarish tonal language, I might add, having six tones altogether. I'll be happy if I can master simply hello and thank you here.

Tomorrow I head out to Phu Quoc island. If it's as beautiful as I've heard, I think I'll be staying there for several days. Away from the madness.


Boats along the coast at Ha Tien as the sun goes down.