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A Clash of Cultures, part 1

Transportation

When you think about transportation, you likely think of your car. Outside of places like Manhattan, nearly everyone in America over the age of 18 has their own car or has access to one. And if you're of legal age and you don't have a drivers license, there is probably a good reason for it. The automobile is ubiquitous in America the way bicycles are for Parisian hipsters. Of course, it's not that way in many other countries, which is obviously why I'm writing this piece. 

In Vietnam, the motorbike is king. There are various reasons for this: a rapidly expanding population in a city where the infrastructure can't keep up with the growth, the low cost of owning and operating a motorbike, the extremely high import tax on vehicles, and the lack of parking spaces are just a few of them. 

In 1995 the population of Ho Chi Minh city was roughly 4,640,000 people. As of 2015 the population was roughly 8,244,000. That's about 43% growth in just 20 years. In that same span of time, while there has of course been a tremendous amount of work done on the roads, I would guess that, based on the state of some of the streets, that the amount of work done has not been enough to keep up with the demand. Traffic here can be very frustrating, even more so because the average driver here is uhh, how should I say... very bad. 

Let's say you're as dumb as I was and you buy a brand new Honda Civic off the lot, and you pay $20,000. How much money does it cost to keep that car running, per year? Let's estimate $40/month for gas so $480/yr. If you're a decent driver maybe you pay $70/mo for insurance, so $840 per year. Oil changes, basic maintenance, car washes, and air fresheners, let's say that adds up to about $200 per year. After the first year that car has cost you $21,520, and is now worth maybe... maybe $16,000. 

When I got to Vietnam I found a listing for a Yamaha motorbike on craigslist, I met the guy, test drove it, then handed him $220 in cash. That's it. No registration fees, licensing, nada. I've had that bike for about 5 months now and it costs me about $8 per month for gas plus about $60 in repairs so far (turns out a $220 motorbike might have a few issues). The best part is, if I decide in a year or so that I don't want it anymore, I could easily sell it for $175-200. 

Can you imagine paying $30,000 for a basic Kia or Hyundai car? Probably not, but here those with the cash willingly pay it. Even though the import taxes on vehicles here is outrageous (I've heard anywhere from 50 to 100% of the retail price) the status of being a car owner is too tempting for many middle class Vietnamese. Even though the roads aren't built for high numbers of cars, even though the costs associated with buying and maintaining a car are much higher, and even though you're likely to get a scratch or dent on your first day driving from some junkie "xe om", the vehicle ownership rate here is skyrocketing. Why? Well, there's a lot more money coming into and being made in the city, and being seen driving a car automatically puts you in the cool kid category. 

Xe Om driver hard at work

Have you ever seen Vietnamese architecture? The standard house/apartment building model is approximately 10 inches wide and 30 feet deep. The reason I've heard for why this is is that a long time ago, and maybe today as well, your property tax is based on how much street space your building takes up. Skinnier buildings mean skinnier taxes. However, one of the side effects of this is that even if you wanted to you couldn't have an attached garage. So you'd have to park your car outside your building or in a parking lot nearby if there is one. Or, if you only have motorbikes in your household, you can park them all in less space than the car took up, or even park them in your living room as is the standard in most places here. 

Well now I've taken entirely too much time writing only about motorbikes and cars and not about other modes of transportation. I'll quickly go over the busses, trains, and what flying here is like. 

As far as I know the busses are only there to herd motorbike drivers and occasionally run one over. I'm being sarcastic of course, but honestly all I really know about the city busses are that the drivers care more about being on time than they do about not hitting anyone. I've taken charter busses through the country and into/from Cambodia but I try not to relive those experiences. 

The trains are ok. They're cheap and usually get to their destination, besides that there's not much to expect. I've taken two trains here, both were fairly rickety but sort of an amusingly antiquated experience. There aren't many train routes available here, as far as I know it's just basically North -> South and vice versa.

I have a love/hate relationship with the airline industry in Vietnam. I love how cheap the flights are and how many cities I can fly to or near to, I hate the standard of service on these flights. I can fly almost anywhere in Vietnam for around $40, roughly the same or slightly more to nearby countries like Thailand or China. However, every single flight, and I mean EVERY.single.flight is going to be delayed at least 40 minutes, and likely more. Why? Not a clue. The staff are usually friendly enough, and occasionally one will speak enough English for me to get my point across, but more often than not the person sitting next to me will be a 65-year-old woman who falls asleep over my armrest and has a coughing problem. Also, the security is extremely lax in most airports I've been to. The TSA's collective butthole would be clenched tight enough to create diamonds if they saw how casually the security crew just waved people through with hardly a passing glance.

So that's pretty much it when it comes to transportation in Ho Chi Minh city. There is a metro system that's currently under construction, but the estimated completion date of the first line was just pushed back from 2017/18 to 2020/21 so I have no real idea what it will be like if/when it ever opens. The Vietnamese government is paying Japanese firms multiple billions of dollars (that other countries have donated to the project) to construct them so hopefully they'll be made to a certain standard.

A 3D rendering of what the metro will (MIGHT) look like

Sorry for such a long post, if you made it here without skimming then you're awesome, if you skimmed you're still awesome but... you should take the time to actually read it. Just sayin'. 

Gastronomical Changes, pt 2

In part 1 of this two-part blog post I talked a little bit about some of the foods that fall away from the diet of a western person who moves to South East Asia. Now I'll cover some of the foods that you may not have eaten much at home (or at all) but now eat frequently. 

• Okra & Morning Glory. I'm sure everyone has heard of okra before, it's grown and eaten in some parts of the United States, such as the Gulf Coast. I had heard of it before moving here, but to my knowledge hadn't ever eaten it. My first week here I was at an outdoor BBQ place with a few new friends and there was a strange green vegetable I'd never seen before. It's a fibrous chute similar to celery but inside it was sectional like a grapefruit or an orange. I haven't had it outside of a soup or BBQ'd but okra is one of my favorite new vegetables that I've had since moving here. Morning Glory aka water spinach is another tasty vegetable that was new to me. Essentially it's a long stemmed spinach with smaller leaves, but boy is it tasty and healthy as well. 

• Soups. Ok, everyone knows what pho is. But have you had bun bo hue? Or banh rieu? What about hu tieu? At any restaurant in Vietnam you have various options for your soup slurping pleasure, and if none of these soups are your thing there are plenty more to try. Most places also provide you with a cup of cabbage soup with your meal if you're eating a non-soup dish. Of course soup isn't a new thing to me or anyone else, but the extent to which you end up incorporating soup into your day to day diet is definitely different. 

• Seafood. Now hold on just one minute. I'm from the Pacific Northwest, we INVENTED seafood! I know, but Vietnam really takes the title when it comes to how much seafood is a part of the national diet. Back in the US there are a lot of people who don't like seafood (we call them "mentally insane") and thus never eat the great crab and fish that is available. Here it's inescapable, especially for someone who can't read Vietnamese. The diversity of the seafood that's eaten here blows away the US; they eat octopus, fish, crab, snails, clams, eel, jellyfish, and the king of seafood in Vietnam... shrimp. I swear the amount of shrimp that's eaten here would make Forrest and Bubba proud. 

• Durian, Jackfruit, and Dragonfruit. Durian is one of the most controversial fruits in the world, or at least as controversial as a fruit can be. It's incredibly odorous, to the extent that it has been banned from being eaten on the subway in Singapore. I've eaten durian ice cream and it was a strange but not totally unpleasant taste. Jackfruit is a delicious and nutrient-rich fruit that is a total pain in the ass to collect. They come in these little pods within the larger fruit that you need to tear out of the membrane, pulling them out is like shucking corn, if corn was the size of a clove of garlic and slippery. 

Jackfruit

• Dragonfruit is, I would say, the best fruit that's ever graced our green Earth. There are two variations, one that's bright purple/pink and one that is white with black seeds. Both are delicious, and the skin is cool looking to boot. It's the consistency of watermelon but with a fairly mild taste.

Dragonfruit

So there you have a few examples of foods that you'll eat more if you come to Vietnam. There are other examples of course, such as the amount of vegetarian dishes that are available (it is a Buddhist nation after all). I eat way more rice than I ever had before, more noodles and less bread, more fish and much more pork. They say that the Asian diets are healthier than most western diets; I think to a large extent that is true. There are more vegetables here and less refined sugars and processed foods. 

Make sure to keep an eye out for my next blog post which will discuss... something else.