Slummin' It

I love traveling down here in Cambodia and Viet Nam! Seeing how the people live here has really enriched my life!!The infinity pools are fabulous and the umbrella drinks strong and cheap!!! With all this opulence and wealth I kind of wish I was born Viet Namese. I've even looked into emigrating as the thatch roofed palapa I'm now gazing at (on the sparkling white sands of Phu Quoc Island off of the southern tip of Viet Nam) is surrounded by lovely fair-skinned Eurobabes. The thing holding me back from getting my green card is that it seems a bit more modest here than S. Thailand as none of the babes are topless. Thankfully all the Viet Namese seem to have been removed from the entire area except the kitchen, and boy can they cook! I almost forget that I'm not in Hawaii anymore as I look out amongst the pale sunburned flesh eating a baguette and an omelette. And the coffee here is top notch as Viet Nam is one of the worlds biggest coffee exporters ...which just puts the icing on my whole "meet the local people" cake. Day two "in country" and just got an email from Sheryl that noted I aways say that whatever country I'm now in has "even nicer people than the last place I visited!" But I'm going on record here that the people of Viet Nam are a lot less friendly tham in Malaysia, Tahiland, or Cambodia. I could blame it on the American war (what we call the Viet Nam war) but after my last blog on the history of the U.S. in Cambodia that doesn't work for me. It's funny though how the few people we meet color our view of an entire population. Through sheer laziness we will judge the behavior of millions of (in this case) Viet Namese on a few rare encounters...which are usually initiated by someone who wants our money. Knowing this and totally disregtarding it I can say with 90% confidence that the viet Namese people are not as friendly as others in S.E. Asia. Except for our new aquaintance Phan who might be more friendly so I could be wrong about the Viet Namese (a 10% chance). We met her in Phnom Penh and she invited us to meet up with her in a week or so in Hanoi. I've tried not to write about the hotel we met in, as it was a new low in cheezy travel. But with the trauma fading into the distant past I can face it now. The Riverside...an 8 story block tower just across from the Thon Le Sap river. Back in 1962, in a small city in, say Ohio this might have been a nice place. No, it wouldn't have but it would have been cheap. At $35 in Cambodia, it should have bought us a night of luxury. Instead it bought us hallways filled with cratered matresses smelling of cigarettes and rooms reminiscent of e.coli! Now, I'm not really sure if e.coli has an odor in and of itself but it thrives in the large intestines of all of us so you get the idea of the bouquet of the rooms. Besides the gaseous-ness of it all the hotel had the charms (casino included) of an all night shriners convention after last call. But that isn't what I wanted to write about, at all!
Phan met us here over a breakfast that I could tangent on for a page or so but lets just say "CHEEZY" without the cheese. She was instantly warm and welcoming and open with her opinions of Viet Namese politics as well as American politics. She has a PhD in water resource management and her daughter is on a full ride scholarship at Harvard. Just an ordinary Viet Namese family she assured us...so emigration to this land of wealth and warm sandy beaches sounds better all the time. Oh, except for the crushing poverty, pollution and overcrowding that the American pig-dog capitalist propagandists like to call the "real" Viet Nam. They talk of filthy packed markets with piles of rotting vegetable shavings in the middle of the alleyways slowing foot traffic to a crawl. They talk of the throngs of moped drivers being way more aggressive and seemingly needy than in other countries. They talk of people being more dour and less full of joy than anywhere else in S.E.Asia. And, oh sure, we've seen some of that too...between our hydrofoil high speed boat ride and beach resort we are now enjoying. And I almost got sad about it too until I remembered that you can either focus on the good or you can focus on the bad. And isn't that what our left wing media excels at? It's always so negative! So I'm jsut going to stay positive here and use my own experience as a guide. And that experience tells me that about 80% of my time here (and Cambodia too!!) has been spent surrounded by crisp uniforms, smiling people who respect me so much they call me sir, pools to die for and great food...the baguettes almost make me think I'm in Paris (except the beaches remind me of Mexico)!!! I don't mean to be all polyanna about this place, at all. We have had some difficulties for sure. Like the time 2 days ago upon our arrival when we went into a stinking bustling market and were greeted with grimaces instead of smiles. That was kind of hard. And after Elliott had to wrestle his new Ipod out of the gripping hands of some really poor kid it made me anxious to pull out my new Samsung camera as well. That uncomfortable moment for me was kind of hard too. Also, the bargaining here is a lot harder so Elliott's new watch cost us $4.00 instead of the $3.00 we should have paid...and over time that bargaining stress becomes hard. So whoever said adventure travel is dead obviously hasn't been to Viet Nam. And if you need another example, the beaches down south here are so deserted it makes you feel like an adventurer! So yeah, I'd say that Viet Nam still has it's share of hard travel AND adventure travel!!! But tired of slumming it in our $18 resort room we'll fly to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow and stay at a refurbished 1920's hotel that promises 4 stars and a swimming pool...I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!!