GoPro Adventures and the last two days in Ho Chi Minh City

Ok, let's start from the beginning.

A few days ago, a Canadian guy named Ryan messaged me on Facebook to let me know he had a motorbike he was selling. He must have known I was in the market to buy. I went and took a look at it, seemed decent for the price he was asking for, and we made an arrangement to make the transaction on Saturday.

Fast forward to... later that day. Ryan messages me again to tell me that he and some friends were going out for food at 8 as a going-away of sorts for him since he was moving to Singapore on Sunday. I say, "Ok." He says, "Cool." I'm paraphrasing here but that's pretty much how it went.

So we meet up with some of his other friends at an American BBQ place about two hops and a half jump away from where I was staying. One is Nathan, an Illinoisian who's lived in VN for 5 years, and his wife Minh. Another was Brian, who's from DC and is a local MC/DJ at a few clubs around town. And also Chris, who has lived in VN for several years and is a teacher/recruiter.

After dinner we all head to the north side of D1 to a bar called Acoustic where Brian is performing for the second time that day. It's a cozy little place where the Budweiser flows like $6 Budwe... woah wait a second holy shit you want $6 for a BUDWEISER? But the music was pretty good, there was a Philipino guy that did a hell of a reggae accent, all good. Once Brian was done we left there for his next gig which was a place called Cargo.

Cargo is a rave/dubstep club that's semi indoor-outdoor, it's basically a gigantic tent. The beer was thankfully much cheaper there at 50k for a Tiger, but the cover to get in was 200k! Now back home a $9-10 cover is not unusual but for a place like Vietnam that's pretty steep. Luckily Brian pulled some strings for us since he was performing and got us in for free.

The show was good, definitely a counter-culture/skater/stoner vibe inside, which I got a kick out of since most of Vietnam is so conservative. Brian rapped over some dubstep/house, and there was a violinist that also accompanied them that gave it a really cool sound. I had a really good time (especially once I'd had a few beers and hit the dance floor), but it's one of those places I'd go once in a while, the super loud club vibe hasn't been my thing since about 22.

Since then I've been touring around D1/D2/Binh Thanh on my new motorbike and getting lost. Actually mostly getting lost. But I'm pretty proud of myself for not having ran over anyone yet, or broken a major traffic rule (not that there are any here). What's supposed to be a 15 minute drive in the city takes me 25-30 because I have to pull over every so often to re-check google maps, or take a u-turn when I go the wrong way.

I've met several new friends in the last few days. It's nice actually having someone to talk to rather than being alone in a sea of strangers. I'm still doing 95% of things by myself, but as I meet more people and get better about inviting new friends out to eat that should change. Tonight I went out and had some Japanese food then took my camera out to Saigon Times Square and Bui Vien for some photography. The photos from that will be up on a separate blog post.

Later ya'll.

A few photos from a walk around my block last night

The Unease of Inaction

I sit and watch the motorbikes whizzing past like a swarm of insects. Were it not for the noise of their motors and the honking of horns, the analogy of a school of fish might be more apropos. As it is, the buzzing of the mid-day travelers reminds of a mass of mosquitos, all going different places, with different agendas.

The quiet cafe where I sit and reflect is a nice respite from the unrelenting heat and humidity. But it is unsatisfying. Perhaps because everyone else seems to be in a constant state of motion, my relative inactivity seems slothful. Many people here do the same; sit in a shady spot and watch the time and the people pass them by. But I am not from here, I feel like I have not earned the right to sit and watch. My purpose here is not to remain idle, to be a passive observer of the world around me. I came to Vietnam to explore, both the country and myself.

This city is a paradoxical place. On the one hand, many people have a relaxed attitude towards life; they are content to sit and wait for the day to come to them. Yet most people on the road have no patience for things like red lights, pedestrians, or even cars crossing their path. Their purpose is singular; to get to their destination as soon as possible, other drivers and traffic signals are a mere inconvenience.

One of the other strange things about this city that I still do not understand is how closely you can find wealth living alongside poverty. On a street where homeless women sell vegetables next to the cot they sleep on you'll see a brand new Mercedes or BMW. And to own a vehicle at all is a sign of wealth; there are huge tariffs on vehicles imported here, any vehicle costs 200% what it would cost in any other country. In America the classes are fairly segregated, you won't see any homeless wandering the streets of Beverly Hills, or find a Bentley cruising down a seedy street on the wrong side of the tracks.

I'm having a hard time trusting people. I think there are numerous reasons for this; my 2nd day here I was almost robbed, every block there is a motorbike taximan heckling me to let him take me to my destination, the communication barrier varies person to person but generally is prohibitive. Not to mention that before I came I was warned by several people and online blogs that many/most locals see my white skin and assume I'm a walking ATM and that with the right sales pitch they can get something out of me.

For example, last night I met up with two young Vietnamese, a boy and a girl, both seniors in university. They told me they'd take me to a really good BBQ place, and to hop on the back of the girl's bike. They seemed like very nice people (and they turned out to be), but for a while on the ride through the city to a fairly distant district, I wondered whether I was being led into a trap. And that's not fair to them, the fears stemmed only from my insecurity and the close call that I had shortly after arriving in the city.

They took me to an outdoor BBQ garden about 15 minutes from the area of town where I'm staying. I was glad to get out of the touristy area of town and get a first-hand experience in a very local area. I was several shades lighter than the second most pale person there; for some people that would be scary but I appreciated being let into their lives rather than have the situation altered to accommodate my western predilections.

We cooked beef, pork, goat breast, octopus, and okra over a makeshift table-top grill, sharing beers and stories about our home countries. Like most young Vietnamese these two were eager to get more experience speaking English with a native speaker; more and more the ability to converse in English is a deciding factor in one's success in today's global marketplace.

If you open yourself up to new experiences, allowing them to either be good, bad, or in-between, you'll learn much more than you would if you stuck to what was comfortable and familiar. You'll learn about other people, other perspectives, other cultures, and more importantly, about yourself.

Wherever you're reading this I hope you're doing well both physically and emotionally, and if you're not, I hope that you find the strength to change that.

A tour of my new temporary apartment!

VLOG Day 4: Buying a motorcycle! Or maybe not.

Possible new apartment?

So. I went and looked at a potential new apartment tonight. It was sort of an expensive trip as well, I had to taxi over to the place ($2) as it was about a 40 min walk, then afterwards I was really hungry so I stopped at a Japanese restaurant and had a beer and some pork + noodles ($5), then had to taxi back again ($2). It was so exhausting that I had to stop and get another beer ($0.60) at the small mart in my building. But anyways, here's my thoughts on the apartment.

Pros: Cheap, roommates seem decent, I get a bathroom to myself, decent terrace, in a back alley so it's quiet, fairly upscale neighborhood/good location.

Cons: Tons of "spas" nearby (which means getting heckled by pretty women every time I walk to/from the place)(which is only kind of a con), upscale area means food is much more expensive ($3-4 minimum instead of $1-2) and there's not much street food, person moving out can't move until the weekend, so I'd have to find alternate lodgings until then.

I think I'm gonna take it. The location is pretty good and so is the price. The roommates are all expats, from various countries, though I haven't met two of them. It's a little nerve-wracking, though, as I have a large suitcase that complicates the whole "temporary lodging" thing. If it was just me and my backpack I could bounce from place to place; that gets much harder when you have two additional suitcases.

The apartment I looked at was a fair sight better than the last one I checked out. My friend Lam took me to one in an alley a few blocks away, the neighborhood had a nice patina of dirt to pretty much the whole thing. I really appreciate Lam trying to help me out, but the place was pretty bad. It was with a Vietnamese family, none of whom appeared to speak English, it had virtually no windows as most were bricked up, the terrace was microscopic as most of the floor room was taken up by chicken cages (yea), the room was tiny, and to top it all off it was $90 more per month than the other place, before utilities.

I'm starting to realize just how much I overpacked; I usually wear shirts 2+ days and shorts 3+ days, and that's just so far. Even if I stunk, I'm not sure anyone could smell me unless we were in a fancy enclosed restaurant. Clothing is so cheap, laundry services are everywhere, I could have brought 1/3 of the stuff I brought. But as they say, you live and you learn.I hope that wherever you're reading this from, that you are happy and healthy.

An American, A Vietnamese, a Brit, and a Scot walk into a bar...

and at some point they all end up at the same table talking about french philosophy, world trade partnerships, language exchanges, and the best vietnamese beer.

This, of course, is not a joke but how my Friday night went. All people, young and old, come out and eat and drink socially almost every night. This leads to crowded streets, crowded bars, and endless opportunities to meet interesting people.

I was sitting in the apartment and getting to know Phillipe, an older British man who was renting out another room there, when Lam showed up. Lam is Vietnamese, and has been an instructor of English here in Ho Chi Minh City for years. He is a close friend of Lotus, who is the person that rents out the unit. Lam told us that if we were hungry he could take us out to eat and for beers, we told him we were indeed hungry and that that sounded great.

So we set off for Bui Vien/Pham Ngu Lao streets, which is the main backpacker/tourist area. Now I'm not sure I want to be hanging around the super touristy areas much while I'm here, but at least for the time being it'd be kind of nice to see semi-familiar faces. On our way there we passed a pho stall that looked too good to pass up, so the woman set up a table for us and we sat on the little plastic stools that are so ubiquitous here.

The pho was very good. I'm no food critic so I couldn't say how it compared to the pho available back home, but I can say the ambience was much more interesting. Seated on the sidewalk, with motorbikes whizzing past just a few feet away, we sat and ate the delicious beef soup and talked about Vietnam with our guide Lam. Once we'd had our fill we paid 35,000 (~$1.50) each and set back off towards the bar scene.

Bui Vien is the main street for expats, backpackers, and tourists, and probably the best neighborhood for cheap beer and great people watching. I would estimate that 40-50% of the people we passed there were non-vietnamese. Lam took us to what he promised was the best place for cheap beer, a nearly empty restaurant called Grill & Chill. I can't say for sure that the beer here was cheaper than anywhere else, but at 12,000-25,000 ($0.50-$1.10) per beer, I'm not complaining.

The only other patron was an older white man who ended up joining our table after hearing us talk about Britain. It turns out he's from Scotland, which was plainly obvious from the moment he spoke! I think it's interesting that he said he hasn't been there for 50 years, but still had a very thick accent. So there we were, 4 men of 4 different nationalities, drinking beer, talking about many different things, telling jokes, laughing, and watching passersby.

On the walk home I decided to take a video of the scene, it was just too interesting not too. Weekend warriors, long term expatriates, and locals all combined to socialize, drink, and enjoy the moment. Sitting and thinking of it now, I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to do this, to travel to the other side of the world and meet so many people of so many backgrounds. Not everyone is as fortunate as I am. Anyways, here is the video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

VLOG Day 1: Sometimes walking around the neighborhood can be dangerous...

So yesterday I thought I'd go have a walk around the block. Good idea, right? Got my GoPro set up, coated myself in several layers of SPF50, and hit the street. First order of business was to get a coffee. The property manager had told me that there was a supermarket on the 3rd floor, so that was the first stop. Now either supermarket means something different in Vietnam or Tuan is a liar, but either way the little store had almost everything I might need.

I took a left down the main road and, selfie stick in hand, proceeded to entertain every local that I passed by. I don't know if they didn't know what it was I was holding or whether they just thought I looked silly holding a stick in front of me talking to myself, but I kind of got a kick out of their reactions.

One of the first things that struck me was how closely you'll find abject poverty right next to wealth. For example there was a nice Audi in front of my building. One block away there are people sleeping on the concrete, sifting through trash, or just whittling away the day under a tree. One building will be nice and clean and the next will have a strong odor of garbage and look pretty decrepit.

After a time I decided to take a chance and cut down one of the side streets. This is definitely NOT the tourist area as I didn't see one other non-Vietnamese person on these streets. Again though, most of them thought me and my stick were pretty interesting. I passed by numerous small stands, food stalls, and shops, though I wasn't confident enough in myself or in their ability to accurately give me correct change (ahem) to stop and have a bite, at least not yet.

And then... I met my two new best friends. According to them, anyway. I was halfway down the next block when an older guy hailed me from his seat at a sidewalk bar/food stall, trying very hard to get my attention. I did my best to wave and keep walking but he walked across the street and, in his broken english, offered me "happy hour bia!" Now I know two things; bia is vietnamese for beer, and I was awfully thirsty in the heat, so I said why the hell not.

I shouldn't have. The guys were very nice, bought me two beers and let me eat some of their food (more on that in a minute), but one of them was fairly pushy and well... as far as I can tell he wanted me to go get a "happy ending" with him. I wasn't recording during most of the interaction because it's too difficult to record with the GoPro and drink beer at the same time, but believe you me that I was incredibly uncomfortable.

I managed to convince him I wasn't interested in going and finding "boom boom" with him, but then he switched targets and decided he should give me a ride to Ben Thanh market once it got dark. And honestly, I might have gone with him as I'd like to see the market, but it was 3 hours until dark and the communication barrier meant that the conversations got stale fairly quickly. After much debate he finally conceded, but only once I promised "tomorrow" and gave him a phone # to call me at. Not answering that call.

Back to the food. One of the things I had heard of before coming was fermented duck eggs. Basically a duck egg is fermented underground for many years, then brought out and eaten. Well, my new friends had one and offered me a taste, and while I had previously told myself that I would never try such a thing, I figured it would be rude to say no. And it was actually pretty good! They also had some tiny onions that were tasty and went well with the beer.

After I left my two new friends and thanked them for the beer, I went back in the direction of my apartment, then explored the blocks to the other side of it. Along the way I might have accidentally wandered into a temple courtyard because it was a dead end and I got some looks from these guys who looked like monks.

My AirBnb rental in Ho Chi Minh City

If you haven't heard of AirBnb, you might be living under a rock. If you haven't used AirBnb while traveling, you've done yourself a disservice. It's the Uber for the real estate world. It allows you to reserve a room in a shared apartment or a hotel/hostel room without having to actually interact with another person, which we all know is desirable these days.

I used AirBnb to make a reservation for this place for 3 days, which cost me a grand total of $56 USD. During the 3 days I plan on looking for a more long term apartment, which should set me back somewhere between $200-300 per month. So far the place is nice, it has a shared kitchen, a totally decent bathroom (coat rack included!) and my own tiny little bedroom.

My favorite part so far is probably the view! I'm on the 20th floor so from up here the vantage is pretty stunning. My least favorite part is probably the local wildlife, and by that I mean the tiny little ants that can be found pretty much everywhere. They don't eat much, and so far I think I've only been bitten a few dozen times, so altogether it's not so bad. I think it's something that I'm just going to have to get used to while living in Vietnam.

VLOG: Day 1: Getting from the airport to my apt in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Getting into the city was a lot easier than I had anticipated. I'd heard stories of grumpy immigration officials who could turn you to stone with one glare, of incredibly long lines, relentless vendors heckling you as you walk past. 

In reality, I handed my documents over and was given my passport stamp within 15 minutes, then stood in line for about 5 minutes before I was sent through. After that I went to what I assume is the only legitimate exchange counter/phone plan retailer as they were the only ones behind customs. There I exchanged $100 USD for NO FEE (amazing) and bought myself an international sim card as well as a 3G plan (unlimited data) for 290,000 dong, which is roughly $14. 

Then I went downstairs, passed through customs like a breeze, and within 45 seconds I located my contact Son who, along with a friend, helped me get a taxi and took me to my temporary lodgings. I'll do another post with a video about the place I'm staying at. 

Flight 1: In the books

My first trans-pacific flight, and definitely the longest flight of my life! The plane was supposed to have wifi and power outlets, sadly it did not. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, as if I'd had those things I'd probably have sat on my phone the whole time and not introduced myself to Ali (as referenced in my previous post).

Shortly after take off the crew came by and offered us a choice of two meals; beef and rice, or pork and rice. I opted for beef. It came with an interesting and unidentifiable salad, fruit, a truffle, and a choice of beverage of which I chose water. I would have gotten a cocktail but the attendant and I were already getting a little lost in translation and I didn't want to drag the interaction out more than I had to.

Then came an attempt at sleep. Even with one of those goofy neck pillows I couldn't really sleep well. Add to that that I had no idea of how much time had elapsed and I can't say for certain how much sleep I got, but it wasn't a lot. 

After waking up I spent some time chatting with my seat neighbor, I covered that in my previous post. After a time we were offered a second meal, which I assume was around what should have been breakfast time as we were offered only coffee and tea with this meal. The choices were japanese congee, which is basically rice pudding, and something that was unintelligible even after asking him to repeat it 3 times. I went with the congee.  It came with a bread roll, fruit, yogurt, and coffee, all of which was pretty tasty. The congee tasted good, and I would recommend it to anyone as long as you're ok with the consistency being somewhat like snot. 

For the times in between eating, sleeping, and talking, I watched the screen on the back of the headrest in front of me. The only mode I watched was the map of where we were at that also rotated through various stats such as our airspeed and elevation,  but that was mostly because my unit was broken and it was the only mode that it would display. The kids in front of me were watching Despicable Me, which I totally would have preferred, but watching our position on the globe change ever so slowly wasn't so bad. 

Now I'm sitting at the gate in Taipei, waiting for my plane to board. Asian airlines are pure gold for people watching. It's an overcast morning here in Taiwan, I'm not sure what it's like in Saigon right now, but I'm excited to get there and see it for myself. 

Meet Ali

This is Ali.

Ali is from Iran but is Canadian, he is traveling to Vietnam to meet his wife who is there visiting family, he spits a bit when he talks, and he's a pretty big fan of Bernie Sanders. 

When I first sat down there was no one next to me, and I was happy about that, because a little extra room never hurts. When Ali sat down I was a little perturbed that someone had intruded on my personal (extra) space, but as with all of life's other minor inconveniences, I dealt with it. 

We didn't talk for the first 3-4 hours of the flight, we were both too busy eating the (surprisingly decent) meal that China Airlines provided us and trying to catch some shuteye. Once I realized that the next 7 hours would be incredibly boring if I didn't talk to anyone I decided to ask whether or not Taiwan was his destination or a layover. 

We ended up talking about all sorts of things. He told me a great deal about Ho Chi Minh City, where to stay, how to haggle with shop owners. We talked about Iran and his life back there. We talked about government and conspiracy theories and what the role of the government should be. I told him I'm planning on going to Austria later this year; he has a brother that lives there, a sister in Germany, two brothers in France and two in England (I'm assuming that's all of them, but who knows?). After explaining how this was my first time traveling abroad he gave me some tips for dealing with stomach flu from eating street food in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and where to get a cell phone set up. 

I'm glad that I got to know Ali. We are both going the same place; maybe we will meet up again, maybe not. But it just goes to show you how beneficial it can be to open yourself up to a stranger and let them open themselves up to you. You both may learn something. 

One week...

This is crazy. This is stupid. This is unrealistic. This is irresponsible.

This is...

it's...

excitingnervewrackingawesomeboldadventurousCHANGE.

And it's happening. In one week. 6 days, 9 hours, 1 minute, annnnnd... 17 seconds until my plane takes off from Vancouver, BC to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

So what? I'll only be in a foreign country, on the other side of the Earth, where I don't speak the language or know anyone, without a long term place to stay or a source of income, with a climate I'm not well suited for, and well, you get the idea.

I waver. Sometimes I go so far as to doubt. Doubt that I can really do this, that I'll enjoy it. Fear that I'll return after a short time a defeated man, to find myself back where I started, except jobless and homeless.

I find my balance by thinking on my reasons for doing this in the first place; the desire to not end up with regrets, to think of Money as only the second most important currency I possess, the first being Time. I think about the other people who have come before me and done the same thing, or even bolder more adventurous things. If they can do it, so can I.

I can do this. I can do this.

I will do this.

One week.

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