Recovery

After a good night’s sleep I woke up feeling quite a bit better. I finally emerged from my room around 10 a.m. and made my way to the riverfront, where there are many hotels and restaurants. I wandered for a bit, taking some photos, and ended up at Cappuccino, a little restaurant that caters to tourists. Sometimes I like the local restaurants, but not feeling 100% I really appreciate more familiar foods. I think I’ll be returning there for dinner… pasta! The last time I had pasta was at the ashram in India, made by my Italian friends there.

Feeling under the weather was definitely affecting my outlook on Vietnam. I even explored the option of flying home sooner, but the ticket prices are now out of control. Apparently I got the last good deal. Anyway, I have about 2 ½ weeks to go and I think that’ll be just about right. There’s a lot of ground to cover; Vietnam's a pretty big country if you travel south to north. I think I have my itinerary more or less mapped out. From here I’ll go to Dalat, Hoi An, Hue, Sapa, and Hanoi. This is subject to change if I get any hot tips from fellow travelers along the way. I’m hoping to only pass through Ho Chi Minh City. It sounds like a crazy place and I don’t think I’ll be missing anything particularly charming by skipping it.

Vietnam’s a really interesting place. In some ways it’s the quintessential Asia, at least what I think of when I think of Asia. There’s no shortage of people walking around in those cone-shaped hats, which seem really well designed in terms of sun protection, and the place just feels authentic. There’s a seamless blend of ancient and modern, people going about their daily business as usual while signs of modernity appear as well. Today I was struck by the rap lyrics I heard coming out of one of the cafés downtown (and I quote, "Shake that ass, girl") while folks were buying their flowers and bonsai trees at the market.

As I've mentioned before, the parallels between Vietnam and India are many, so it seems appropriate that I'm ending my trip here. Both places are culturally fascinating, but in general they don't try too hard to impress the tourists. If they could speak, these countries might say, "Yeah, I'm awesome, and if you can get past the rough exterior you might find that you love me." Thailand on the other hand has the whole tourism thing down, Laos isn't far behind, and Cambodia clearly relies on it for its livelihood, almost bending over backwards to please. I think maybe that's why tourists who've been to these other places are a little turned off by Vietnam; there just isn't quite the same level of customer service. On a couple of occasions, in fact, I'm pretty sure that some of the locals have laughed at me when I've tried to ask for help. That probably sounds paranoid, but if you were there I think you would have agreed. It's a good thing I was a teacher for so many years as it gave me a pretty thick skin.


Even though I won't be going to Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon, there's really no escaping the man. Here's a statue of him downtown in Can Tho.