Could I live here?

This is my 6th time in Thailand.

It's a bit ridiculous when you think about it. I live close to so many amazing countries, yet every chance I had I went to Thailand.

Today I took a walk through a local supermarket. I almost started to cry when I saw all the amazing products they had.

I felt the same when I went into a supermarket in Doha last year, but things are much cheaper here, and I don't feel in danger or oppressed.

I wonder if I would be able to live here.

Next year I think I want to come back to Thailand and do another month long volunteering experience at a farm somewhere. I've already found quite a few, and this time they are actually free, unlike the last place.

It's just so amazing here. They have everything I want.

But... I don't know how it would be to live here for a whole year. Maybe I should give it a try and see if I like it.

Hm...

THAILAND!!!!!!!!

YAAAAAY!!!!

I'M HERE!!!!!!!

Thailand! Thailand! THAILAND!!!!

So hot, so nice, so delicious, so cheap, so much variety.

I bought some pants, I need to go get a tank top, I bought a bracelet, I got a very cheap hotel room without any hassle, I ate some cheap and actually delicious street food, I got some fresh papaya and some fresh mango...

LOVE IT!!!

LOVE IT!!!

Now I want to stay longer

So, after Hanoi, and after meeting up with one of my neighbours, everything got better.

I didn't feel so angry about beeing cheated everywhere, I wasn't so depressed and was able to see the nice and wonderful things about this place.

Today I had a great time in Hanoi with the family of a Vietnamese friend from Korea, I had a nice long chat with one of the hostel staff about Korean music and Korean TV dramas and Korean culture in general. I also met a really cool French girl from a tiny island off of Madagascar on my morning free walking tour. I'll be going to visit her on her little island in the next few years.

I also bought a great silk sleeping bag because I gave the other one that I had to Manon, the French girl from The Island.

I am at the end of my stay in Vietnam and it's finally starting to get better.

I wish I could stay longer to do the trip up to Sapa and to Halong Bay. Those are supposed to be fantastic.

The hostel where I'm staying at actually feels like a proper hostel, run by young people who have travelled, for people who are travelling, a hostel who is honest about their room rates and availability, and is honest about their available tours.

There's even a free breakfast, so you know they're not out to screw and scam you.

It's comfortable and the people here are also proper travellers, not just young people looking to get drunk in a cheap and exotic place.

I think I might come back to Vietnam now, but only up here to Hanoi and do the things I didn't get a chance to do.

Also, I learned how to do things a lot cheaper here, but that means not sticking to my strickt diet, and just eating local street food that is delicious, but is all carbs.

I have learned a lot on this trip, and I kind of want to do it again and kick this countrys ass all over the place, and show it I know how to handle myself.

I failed once, but I have learned and the next time around I'm not going to fail again!

Vietnam - # 3 - Hanoi Jan 2012

Alright, so I finally arrived in Hanoi, after a long bus ride from Hoi An. I was glad to be north, away from my negative feelings and experiences. As soon as I got to the hostel though, everything changed for the better. The people were friendlier, the vibe was more chill, everything just felt more honest and genuine. I got a bed in a dorm, and was happy with it.

Next day I went on a free walking tour of the area. It was pretty confusing because the roads were not straight. It all felt like a maze, but I figured it out a little towards the end. 

I met up with one of my neighbours, who was actually staying in the same hostel but in another building just across the street. I met a very cool French girl on the morning walking tour, and one of my Vietnamese friends from Korea got her sister to meet me and take me to her home and show me around a little. I was very lucky and felt much better about my Vietnam experience.

Here are some pictures and their stories.

This was the cocoa fruit opened. The inside, as you can see, is full of these white blobs. As it turns out, you can eat only the mushy white jelly and inside is the seed that when dried and ground up will give you the 100% cocoa powder.

Here's what the seeds look like. They tasted very VERY bitter. They were purple and looked like brain. Strangest thing ever!

This was the little alley where many hostels were located. Mine was GREAT!!

This was the inside stairwell, leading up to the patio bar. Communist star and the other symbol were everywhere.

Morning bread delivery. WHOA!! I didn't try some, but I bet it was delicious. The Vietnamese have the French influence and do bread really nicely.

So, the walking tour took us around the little lake and the little island in the middle of the lake.

Very communist.

This looked better in real life than in this picture. Just try to imagine it.

This is the entrance to the little island. 

It's special because they say that one of the last giant turtles lives in this lake. 

And to prove it to you, they've got a stuffed one on display. 

There were a lot of these trees with vines or roots hanging down. 

Then we were walking along a very busy road, trying to avoid bicycles, motorcycles, scooters and other pedestrians moving in every direction.

This is a sugar cane juicer. 

Yum, mobile strawberries.

This was really cool. A very squishy and tasty bread, filled with meat and a strangely cooked egg yolk. 

On the corner of my little alley, was this food vendor that sold sandwiches and this soup. I had some soup with Manon, the French girl I met on during the walking tour of the area.

Very interesting mix of textures. The broth was very thick, creamy and bland. Then was the fried chewy dough, and then sprinkled on top was dried/fried shredded chicken. WOW!! Great combination.

Walking around the area, the schools let out and then TONS of parents on scooters and motorcycles came to pick them up. It was an insane traffic jam.

So here is my friends family. Hers sister, mother, father and nephews. They were SO nice and welcoming.

Then, at the end of the evening, they drove us back to our hotel on their scooter. 

Next day I met up with the sister and her husband and went to an old traditional school. It's not used anymore. I'm not sure if this was for monks, or just for teaching regular people. In any case, it was beautiful.

There were lots of these headstone looking things on the back of the giant turtle statues. 

This is the interior of a temple. Very Chinese.

There were lots of bonsai trees everywhere. So beautiful. It's a sign of prosperity.

Incents burner.

Before the exams, students go to these artists to have good luck signs written for them. 

This was the end of it. Then I went to the airport in the morning and went to Bangkok where I waited for my sis and her boyfriend to come. I had a lot of mango and papaya those 2 days.

Finally!!

Finally something nice.

After being quoted 40$ just to copy a pair of 8$ Wallmart shorts, I found a place with a lady with a smile and nit greedy soul.

For 20$, she'll add elastic, two side zipper pockets, make it out of better material and fix my old ripped pair. Now, how is she still making a profit??? Because things are actually really cheap here, but they try to rip off tourists so much that it's disgusting.

So, I finally feel happy and content, to have actually made some genuine contact with a local, who was trying to do some honest work.

Yay for a saved day.

What is going on?

Why am I so unhappy?

I think I'm actually depressed. I'm starting to think it might not all be this trip.

Well, it's not meeting any of my expectations, and I still have to be around here for almost a week. I don't even want to go shopping or walk around. I'm not even that hungry and today is supposed to be my splurge eating day, where I eat everything I've wanted to eat all week but couldn't.

So yea, something is not good.

Tomorrow i have to check out of my moldy and stinky hotel room, maybe I'll head north.

I don't know. I kind of just want to stay somewhere nice and relax, read my book, sleep, eat and watch TV.

I want Thailand

Everything is not worth the money here.

Maybe I've moved up on the travellers expectation ladder, but I feel riped off everywhere I go in this country.

From service to product, the cost is high, and quality is not even mediocre.

When I pay 60$ for a day trip, I expect a lot. When a meal costs 1$, a pack of cigarettes also costs 1$, and a large 1.5L bottle of water costs 3$, 60$ is a shit load of money in this country.

I wish I could go to Thailand earlier, but I just tried to change my flight from Hanoi to Bangkok, and it can't be changed.

So, I'm stuck in this shameless, dirty and uncivilised place.

I went to check how much a pair of simple pants would cost to be made. The woman had the nerve to quote me 40$. SERIOUSLY!!!!!?????

It costs 50$ to make a suite with pants and jacket and shirt. How the hell did she think I'd say yes to that shit deal??

Anyways. I haven't been able to trust any of the local people. Wherever I've gone, regardles of my behaviour, if I was friendly or bossy or rude, they still tried to rip me off at every possible step. Make me feel guilty and buy something, push me into buying something I don't want, being in my face all the time.

I experienced similar hassles in Thailand and Cambodia, but there it was done in a much more benevolent way. Here, I feel like are out to rob me.

I'm trying to be positive, but it's really difficult when there's not much to be positive about.

I just regret coming here, and wasting my money and vacation time. I don't know what other people have done to enjoy this place so much more.

BAH!

Vietnam - # 2 - Nha Trang + Jan 2012

This part of the trip could have been a lot more enjoyable than it was. A lot had to do with my state of mind, and the fact that I couldn't get out of the negative rut I had so easily fallen into. I guess I was expecting the beauty and friendliness and warmth and greatness of Thailand, but with a Vietnamese twist. Obviously that was not the case, and I was met with many challenges that I didn't know how to deal with. My previous travelling experiences were very different. I usually stayed in one place and took part in some sort of course or activity throughout my stay there. That is how I spend my time, socialized and relaxed. 

Travelling through Vietnam actually required travel. Going from one place to another, from one hotel/hostel to another, finding good places to eat at, finding good trips and adventures to take part in, meeting new people and getting along or not. 

I realize now that I didn't spend a lot of time preparing myself, and thinking about how to approach all the different experiences, good and bad. 

It's so much easier the other way. So much more relaxing. Why go through all this hassle? But there's a value in this struggle. You learn and you grow and you find out things about yourself and your surrounding that you weren't aware of before. How else can you grow and learn if everything is easy, and no real effort has to be put into something? 

It's not that I didn't do anything before, but before it was easy, and very natural. This was difficult and totally not the kind of activity I'm used to. 

I'm glad I challenged myself and stepped out of my comfort zone. I need to do that more often!

Anyways, here are the beautiful pictures I have taken along the way.

This was the bus from Ho Chi Min (Saigon). It was actually really comfortable.

And here started my Easy Rider 5 day tour up to Hoi An. I bought this trip from my hotel, and unfortunately was ripped off quite a lot. It turned out that my guide and driver wasn't actually a guide at all, but just a driver. He didn't really know much, or tell me much about anything. But, anyways, it was still beautiful and a very different way of getting across the country. I'll be more careful next time.

These were traditional mountain people meeting halls. A foreigner came here and wanted to make a resort with huts only of this style, but the government somehow stopped him. So now all these are abandoned and half finished.

A little rest stop along the way. All the villages had a similar gate. The name, the communist star, and some flags.

Sugar cane is a very common crop in Vietnam, especially in the southern regions.

And this was a baby watermelon :)

Sugarcane.

Oh tasty, and sweet and juicy :)

There wasn't a lot of traffic.

This was another Easy Rider.

Since Vietnam is a communist country, there are propaganda posters pretty much everywhere. In every little village there's a government building, and outside that building there are lots of posters. Even around the schools there are posters. They were very interesting, so I too lots of pics. Here they are.

And this is one of the many many wedding tents we passed by. Loud music, many people, lots of food and lots of motorcycles were there.

We stopped by a shop that made these beautiful pieces of furniture out of tree stumps dug up from different farmers fields. Really something beautiful.

There were lots of these typical statues. The soldier with the grains.

Coffee drying out in the front of someones house.

Cocoa tree and cocoa fruit. I took one and later opened it up. Very strange.

I love my hair.

Rice paddies prepped for replanting.

This was the first nights accommodation in a mountain village traditional house.

This is what one looks like from the back.

This was the front, and the motorcycle in the front with my bags all wrapped up and water proof.

Cute piglets piled up and sleeping.

This is how big the cocoa fruit is.

Piglets suckling.

Cute puppy that I couldn't help play with :).

And now for an interesting elephant ride through a pretty deep river.

Going in.

Like I said, we went pretty deep in.

Bonsai were everywhere. They are really expensive, really old, and a sign of prosperity and social standing for the family.

Then we went to visit some snakes.

It was trying to wrap itself around me.

Mom and daughter.

This is what the coffee fruit looks like.

Inside there were two coffee beans.

They are fresh now, so they need to be dried and other things before it's ready to make coffee out of it.

It didn't taste like coffee.

And this is how pepper grows. It grows in a vine that climbs up a tree.

Like this.

Coffee flower. The next generation of coffee plants.

Coffee plantation.

Dinosaur following me.

I'm poking it's nose. It's very funny.

It had a big mouth. I wonder if it could have swallowed me whole.

Very cool root swing under a big rock covered with roots.

These students were at the waterfalls eating oranges. I sat with them for a while and tried to communicate. Very friendly.

This rock is really strange. I was told it keeps growing. Strange!

Love this van. One day, I'll have one like it and live in it and travel across some country :).

My breakfast. Can of beans, omelet, soy sauce, and an insanely thick and strong coffee.

Then we visited a rubber farm. Lots of rubber trees everywhere, tapped and being harvested. Very cool to see.

The lion got my hand!!

These were everywhere. So beautiful. They spread and grew really large. There were red, pink, and white too.

Exotic meat BBQ. We had Venison and Porcupine.

At one of the hotels, they had a cute dog with super super cute puppies. They were very very young.

Going through the mountains now. Most of the people here weren't ethnically Vietnamese, but were some sort of tribal people, who looked different and spoke a different language.

Up there, where the mist is, that's where we're gonna drive over.

Here we're at the top. Really beautiful and prehistoric plants were everywhere.

It was huge. A jungle everywhere.

Pineapple plantation.

The end of the motorcycle trip. Almost done :)