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Thursday, July 7, 2016
Saturday, July 2, 2016
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.
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| 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.
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| 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'.
Friday, July 1, 2016
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.
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.
- 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Gastronomical Changes, pt 1
It goes without saying that when you move to the other side of the world, things change. Your outlook on the world changes, your ability to adapt to strange new situations changes, and your place in the societal hierarchy changes. One of the things that no one tells you, however, is that your diet will change. It may seem obvious but I had expected that in a modernized, large metropolitan city like Ho Chi Minh I would be able to find just about any type of food I could want. And for the most part, that's true. But due to scarcity or price there are some food items that just tend to fall out of most western people's diets when they move to Vietnam. Here are a few of them.
So there you have it; 3 staples of the American diet which fall to the wayside once you decided to move to Vietnam. There are more ways in which your diet changes in an Asian country; some things that are less integral to your diet and some that are more. Ho Chi Minh is a city of 9 million people, thus any type of food is available here: Mexican, Indian, American, Italian, you name it you can find it. But in your day to day life it's unrealistic to think that you can make this move without having to adjust your eating habits. In part 2 I will cover a few foods that I didn't eat much of back in America but I have found myself eating relatively regularly here.
- Dairy. Besides those who are lactose intolerant, most western people get a lot of dairy in their diets. Be it milk, ice cream, chocolate, cheese, etc, these foods are just not as accessible as they are in America. There are some dairy items that are fairly popular here, such as yogurt, condensed milk, and to a certain degree ice cream. However, you start to notice that most of the dairy from your home diet seems to disappear. Regular milk like the kind that you'd put on cereal is expensive and unavailable in any decent quantity. Good chocolate is expensive. Cheese is especially hard to find and when you do, you'll likely balk at the price. Back home I had access to a smorgasbord of fine cheeses: brie, emmental, feta, mozzarella, camembert. If I want a chunk of brie cheese here I practically have to sign over the rights to my first-born child.
- Bread. Besides the ubiquitous french baguette, good bread here is much harder to find than in America. I'm used to only eating high-quality multi-grain wheat bread; in Vietnam the "wheat" bread is likely just white bread with food coloring. Not to mention that once you do buy some, if you don't keep it in the refrigerator the heat and humidity will birth mold on your bread before you've had time to make a sandwich. It makes sense; rice is the staple here and for good reason, it's one of the most fertile rice-growing areas on earth. Sadly that comes at the expense of good grain options.
- Beer. Now, here beer is a more commonly available beverage than water or tea, but the lack of high-quality suds here is disappointing. It ties in with the bread, as both are grain based and as of yet no one has found a way to make rice beer (I think). There are a few breweries that produce a good product, and some venues import beer from overseas, but generally speaking you're limited to 4-5 different beers, all of which are just lower quality clones of Budweiser or Coors.
So there you have it; 3 staples of the American diet which fall to the wayside once you decided to move to Vietnam. There are more ways in which your diet changes in an Asian country; some things that are less integral to your diet and some that are more. Ho Chi Minh is a city of 9 million people, thus any type of food is available here: Mexican, Indian, American, Italian, you name it you can find it. But in your day to day life it's unrealistic to think that you can make this move without having to adjust your eating habits. In part 2 I will cover a few foods that I didn't eat much of back in America but I have found myself eating relatively regularly here.
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Adventure Time: Let's go to Cambodia!
Cambodia is a country trying to find an identity. It has remnants of French colonialism, an influx of western money and businesses, and at its core is the Khmer people and their language. Unlike Vietnam, which had its language changed drastically by the French, the Khmer language survived the period where they too were ruled by France. In fact, Vietnam is one of the only Asian countries to not have a language system based on symbols. But this post isn't about Vietnam.
I got to Phnom Penh, Cambodia about 6pm yesterday, after a confusing and at times nerve-wracking experience at the border figuring out the visa process. I'll post more on that later. Since arriving here I can't help but compare everything to Vietnam, both positive and negative. I'm very much enjoying my time here, as English is much more commonly spoken, USD is their secondary currency, and it has the same sort of patina on every surface and space, buildings seemingly dancing on the precipice of decay.
I'd heard that the Cambodian people are incredibly friendly and so far I have to say that's true. Even though the tuk-tuk drivers will hound you for a ride as they do in Vietnam, I haven't really had the feeling yet that someone is trying to scam me. Even today at the Central Market where you can become a proud "Rolex" owner, the vendors were willing to bargain even if they are looking to make a buck off of us. I can't quite explain the difference but the people here are quick to smile and say hello.
I haven't yet gone to see the Killing Fields or the torture prisons, and I'm not sure I will. I don't want to pretend that those atrocities aren't real, or don't still affect aspects of Cambodian people and culture to this day, but I also have a hard time with such depressing experiences. I'd be broke right now if I followed my impulse to hand money over to a crippled or disabled street beggar every time I passed one on the street.
Our (I'm here with my friend Ryan) first hostel was a clean but basic place called Rachana Hostel. It was centrally located and only $12 for a double room. But that was an online only deal so we'd have to pay $25 to stay each additional night so instead we headed out to a place called Good Morning Guesthouse, where I sit and type this now. It's definitely a hippie backpacker place but the price was fair and it was near our first hostel. Had I known the room would look like something I'd imagine a Cambodian prison would look like maybe I'd have gone elsewhere... but for now I'm here and making the best of it as always. The staff is friendly and they have a cafe/lobby area with comfortable chairs. Tomorrow we will find somewhere else to stay, there is no shortage of hostels and guesthouses in the area.
I'll be here for at least 5 days; after my time here in Phnom Penh I'll either bus to Sihoukanville with Ryan or head back to Saigon. I'd like to go to Siem Reap where you can see the ancient temple of Angkor Wat, but that's a 5-hour bus ride the opposite direction. At some point I'll hit the street with my camera and try to capture some of the interesting architecture, the pagodas, and the people. Supposedly there is an elephant sanctuary somewhere nearby, if so you can bet on me visiting. Hopefully wherever you are reading this you're in good health and good spirits, thanks for reading my blog and please stay tuned for more updates!
I got to Phnom Penh, Cambodia about 6pm yesterday, after a confusing and at times nerve-wracking experience at the border figuring out the visa process. I'll post more on that later. Since arriving here I can't help but compare everything to Vietnam, both positive and negative. I'm very much enjoying my time here, as English is much more commonly spoken, USD is their secondary currency, and it has the same sort of patina on every surface and space, buildings seemingly dancing on the precipice of decay.
I'd heard that the Cambodian people are incredibly friendly and so far I have to say that's true. Even though the tuk-tuk drivers will hound you for a ride as they do in Vietnam, I haven't really had the feeling yet that someone is trying to scam me. Even today at the Central Market where you can become a proud "Rolex" owner, the vendors were willing to bargain even if they are looking to make a buck off of us. I can't quite explain the difference but the people here are quick to smile and say hello.
I haven't yet gone to see the Killing Fields or the torture prisons, and I'm not sure I will. I don't want to pretend that those atrocities aren't real, or don't still affect aspects of Cambodian people and culture to this day, but I also have a hard time with such depressing experiences. I'd be broke right now if I followed my impulse to hand money over to a crippled or disabled street beggar every time I passed one on the street.
Our (I'm here with my friend Ryan) first hostel was a clean but basic place called Rachana Hostel. It was centrally located and only $12 for a double room. But that was an online only deal so we'd have to pay $25 to stay each additional night so instead we headed out to a place called Good Morning Guesthouse, where I sit and type this now. It's definitely a hippie backpacker place but the price was fair and it was near our first hostel. Had I known the room would look like something I'd imagine a Cambodian prison would look like maybe I'd have gone elsewhere... but for now I'm here and making the best of it as always. The staff is friendly and they have a cafe/lobby area with comfortable chairs. Tomorrow we will find somewhere else to stay, there is no shortage of hostels and guesthouses in the area.
I'll be here for at least 5 days; after my time here in Phnom Penh I'll either bus to Sihoukanville with Ryan or head back to Saigon. I'd like to go to Siem Reap where you can see the ancient temple of Angkor Wat, but that's a 5-hour bus ride the opposite direction. At some point I'll hit the street with my camera and try to capture some of the interesting architecture, the pagodas, and the people. Supposedly there is an elephant sanctuary somewhere nearby, if so you can bet on me visiting. Hopefully wherever you are reading this you're in good health and good spirits, thanks for reading my blog and please stay tuned for more updates!
Thursday, June 2, 2016
An update on my life recently
Okay. So I've been really bad at updating this blog (which I knew would happen but didn't want to admit). So now instead of giving each of these experiences their own posts and fleshing out the stories, I'll have to give you a bird's eye view of the last month of my life.
Part 1: Volunteering
Three Fridays ago my friend Minh invited me to go to a charity event about 20km outside of the city. I'd been looking into various volunteering opportunities recently so I figured I should jump at the chance. We were to be handing out food to the poor at a pagoda. We would use the city bus which I hadn't taken before but I'd almost been taken out BY one of the busses (they drive like maniacs). A while later we arrived at a Buddhist pagoda where they shelter disabled orphans, some of which have grown up in the temple and are now adults living and working there. Very few people spoke enough English to make conversation possible so at first it was a lot of smiles, head nods, and hand gestures.
They fed us breakfast which was a vegetarian pho, then we got to work tilling some land behind the buildings to make a vegetable garden. I had tilled before, with a motorized tiller in my mother's garden. These were not motorized tillers. They were sticks with tools fashioned onto the ends. And if I hadn't mentioned it before, Vietnam is kind of... sweltering hot. And we were outside, sans A/C, for the entirety of the day. Yeah, you get the picture.
Around noon we had lunch, which was a really big meal of rice, noodles, morning glory, a vegetable curry, various small dishes. This meal we ate with the monks of the temple, one of which was a well-traveled young man who spoke English very well. It was a special day; it was Buddha's birthday as well as the first official day of that young monk studying there under the... head monk (Master Monk?). He told me about his thoughts on his time in America and several other countries, how he got to be here, and told me a little bit about his religion, without being pushy.
By 1pm we had a few tables set end to end and covered with food and other gifts such as simple toys for children. Each person who had gotten a coupon got 5kg of rice, 20 packs of instant noodles, soy sauce, sugar, salt, and wet wipes. The turnout wasn't as high as was expected, there were still about a dozen people unaccounted for. Numerous theories as to why it wasn't as busy as usual were bandied about. About 4pm Minh and I went back out to the road and waited for the city bus to take us back into the hustle and bustle of downtown Saigon.
Part II: Relocation Efforts
My lease at the apartment I'd been staying in the last 3 months expired on the 24th of May, and my friend Ryan and I had been looking at moving in together. It was a stressful search, as the real estate agents here (which almost every landlord utilizes) are the epitome of greediness and ineptitude. You'll ask to see a specific listing then they'll either tell you that it's no longer available, despite being advertised on their window, or they'll agree then show you a different, more expensive apartment.
But eventually we found a 3 bedroom apartment for a good price in a good location and most importantly, with good landlords. They're an older Vietnamese couple who don't speak much English but are very friendly and agreeable. It's on the 13th floor so it has a great view and gets a good amount of wind.
Of course, nothing is ever as easy as it seems. Turns out there was a LOT of cleaning to do, as the standard of "clean" can be very different between westerners and Vietnamese. There was 5 years worth of gunk and grime and dirt and soot packed into the nooks and the crannies. We've only just begun to clean really. And our keys only work on the door locks sometimes. But as with everything we have to roll with the punches and adapt.
Part III: Future Trips
In the last few weeks I've planned two future trips, and possibly a third. In about a week I'll be taking a bus into Phnom Penn, Cambodia, where I'll be tagging along with Ryan for a few days on a poker tour. I'm not much of a poker player but I thought it'd be cool to see a little bit of Cambodia. I might then take a bus to Sihanoukville which is a beach resort town. It worked out perfectly with the timing of my visa so I figured if I have to leave the country to get a new visa anyway I might as well make a trip of it.
Then in September I'll be going to Europe! The plan was originally just to see Austria (where my friends Evan & Gretchen are getting married) and Germany, but my sister thought it'd be cool to see Scotland while we're in the neighborhood, and well you can't just see Scotland and not go to London, so we're going there too, oh and then after Germany we will see Switzerland for a few days! So the trip looks like this:
Sept 8-16th in the UK
Sept 16-21st in Austria
Sept 21-23rd in Germany
Sept 23-25th in Switzerland!
It's not enough time to really see that much of Germany and Switzerland, but you know, money. It will still be a great trip, and we will even go to Munich during Oktoberfest!
Part 1: Volunteering
Three Fridays ago my friend Minh invited me to go to a charity event about 20km outside of the city. I'd been looking into various volunteering opportunities recently so I figured I should jump at the chance. We were to be handing out food to the poor at a pagoda. We would use the city bus which I hadn't taken before but I'd almost been taken out BY one of the busses (they drive like maniacs). A while later we arrived at a Buddhist pagoda where they shelter disabled orphans, some of which have grown up in the temple and are now adults living and working there. Very few people spoke enough English to make conversation possible so at first it was a lot of smiles, head nods, and hand gestures.
They fed us breakfast which was a vegetarian pho, then we got to work tilling some land behind the buildings to make a vegetable garden. I had tilled before, with a motorized tiller in my mother's garden. These were not motorized tillers. They were sticks with tools fashioned onto the ends. And if I hadn't mentioned it before, Vietnam is kind of... sweltering hot. And we were outside, sans A/C, for the entirety of the day. Yeah, you get the picture.
Around noon we had lunch, which was a really big meal of rice, noodles, morning glory, a vegetable curry, various small dishes. This meal we ate with the monks of the temple, one of which was a well-traveled young man who spoke English very well. It was a special day; it was Buddha's birthday as well as the first official day of that young monk studying there under the... head monk (Master Monk?). He told me about his thoughts on his time in America and several other countries, how he got to be here, and told me a little bit about his religion, without being pushy.
By 1pm we had a few tables set end to end and covered with food and other gifts such as simple toys for children. Each person who had gotten a coupon got 5kg of rice, 20 packs of instant noodles, soy sauce, sugar, salt, and wet wipes. The turnout wasn't as high as was expected, there were still about a dozen people unaccounted for. Numerous theories as to why it wasn't as busy as usual were bandied about. About 4pm Minh and I went back out to the road and waited for the city bus to take us back into the hustle and bustle of downtown Saigon.
Part II: Relocation Efforts
My lease at the apartment I'd been staying in the last 3 months expired on the 24th of May, and my friend Ryan and I had been looking at moving in together. It was a stressful search, as the real estate agents here (which almost every landlord utilizes) are the epitome of greediness and ineptitude. You'll ask to see a specific listing then they'll either tell you that it's no longer available, despite being advertised on their window, or they'll agree then show you a different, more expensive apartment.
But eventually we found a 3 bedroom apartment for a good price in a good location and most importantly, with good landlords. They're an older Vietnamese couple who don't speak much English but are very friendly and agreeable. It's on the 13th floor so it has a great view and gets a good amount of wind.
Of course, nothing is ever as easy as it seems. Turns out there was a LOT of cleaning to do, as the standard of "clean" can be very different between westerners and Vietnamese. There was 5 years worth of gunk and grime and dirt and soot packed into the nooks and the crannies. We've only just begun to clean really. And our keys only work on the door locks sometimes. But as with everything we have to roll with the punches and adapt.
Part III: Future Trips
In the last few weeks I've planned two future trips, and possibly a third. In about a week I'll be taking a bus into Phnom Penn, Cambodia, where I'll be tagging along with Ryan for a few days on a poker tour. I'm not much of a poker player but I thought it'd be cool to see a little bit of Cambodia. I might then take a bus to Sihanoukville which is a beach resort town. It worked out perfectly with the timing of my visa so I figured if I have to leave the country to get a new visa anyway I might as well make a trip of it.
Then in September I'll be going to Europe! The plan was originally just to see Austria (where my friends Evan & Gretchen are getting married) and Germany, but my sister thought it'd be cool to see Scotland while we're in the neighborhood, and well you can't just see Scotland and not go to London, so we're going there too, oh and then after Germany we will see Switzerland for a few days! So the trip looks like this:
Sept 8-16th in the UK
Sept 16-21st in Austria
Sept 21-23rd in Germany
Sept 23-25th in Switzerland!
It's not enough time to really see that much of Germany and Switzerland, but you know, money. It will still be a great trip, and we will even go to Munich during Oktoberfest!
Friday, May 13, 2016
We could have died!
It was supposed to be a fun day trip to a local forest park. And it started out that way, though things would turn for the worst a short way into this ride into rural Vietnam.
This happened a few weeks ago, April 23rd to be exact, but I've been lazy and haven't updated this blog since my trip through Vietnam so I guess late is better than never. And besides, now that I am nearing the end of my healing process maybe I have a better perspective on what happened.
We (myself and my girlfriend Trinh) were driving to a nature reserve called the Tan Lap forest, roughly 2 hours northwest of Saigon. We were traveling in a large group that had been organized through a facebook group for expats. There were probably 25-30 people in our convoy. They were all very nice and friendly people, as you might expect. We met in a park at 6am to start our journey outward from the city, but for two people in the group, fate had decided that they wouldn't make it all the way there. (That's us).
An hour and a half into the trip, after rickety wooden bridges, countless times stopping to let stragglers catch up, and passing a dead body on the streets (more on that later), one of the riders in our group decided that his bike should be occupying the space that mine was. To preface this, there had been two times already on the trip that this same driver had swerved and nearly hit us from the side; each time I'd been able to move out of the way. No such luck the third time.
Something you should know about Vietnamese drivers, and don't take this as a message of racism, but they aren't very conscientious. When they turn, they turn. They don't look to see what's there. Many run red lights, drive the wrong way on one-way streets, you get the idea. The traffic laws are mere suggestions to a Viet in a hurry. I'm not sure what this young guy's hurry was as we were all going the same place, but he swerved to his left and his back tire hit my front tire, sending my bike and it's inhabitants (unfortunately my girlfriend and I) sprawling to the pavement at somewhere around 45mph.
Luckily, we were relatively OK. I had/have some pretty decent road rash on my knee, both elbows, and my foot. A hole was worn through my sturdy hiking boots, my pants were stripped to rags, and my shirt was torn up; the worst part was that they were my favorite boots, my favorite pants, and my favorite shirt. Well, no, that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that the trip was ruined for my girlfriend who had been looking forward to it.
Luckily for the guy who hit us, my girlfriend was mostly unharmed. She had/has some small rashes on her hand and wrist that needed caring for, but other than that her backpack pretty much saved her from damage. I'm not a violent guy at all, but had she been hurt I might have thrown him off the bridge we were on. The rest of the group was fantastic and helped us out a ton. Someone had a first aid kit and they applied some anti-bacterial liquid and gave us a quick bandage-up before looking up the nearest clinic and offering to drive us there. My girlfriend was able to drive though, so we just drove ourselves 10km to the clinic.
At the clinic we each got a more thorough cleaning and bandaging, and the nurse sent us on our way with some antobiotics and some VERY spare materials. The bike was damaged, it ran, but had some issues and we were both banged up, so we opted for a taxi ride back home rather than trying to drive the 1.5 hours ourselves. It was an expensive taxi ride.
A few days later my girlfriend and her friend went back out into the country to retrieve my bike from the police station where she'd left it, then brought it back to the city. That's a kindness I'll need to repay a few times over. I'd have gone, but after the shock wore off it became apparent just how bad I was hurting. My knee didn't want to bend or support weight, my ankle would but complained about it, and I couldn't really wear shoes because of where the rash on my foot is. So for about a week it was a lot of delivery for dinner.
We're coming up on 3 weeks since the crash and I'm mostly back to normal. Still can't wear shoes, my ankle has been swelling up (kinda afraid there might be a fracture there), and my scabs aren't gone yet, but I'm back riding my bike around (she's a damn tough bike) and more or less back to life as normal.
Supposedly the kid who hit us "felt really bad about it the rest of the trip", which is sort of strange because he never once said he was sorry, he never offered to help us get to the clinic or help with our wounds, or anything. He acknowledged that he had done it, but hadn't accepted the responsibility. Which, sadly, was very typical for a Vietnamese driver. Remember that dead body I'd mentioned? She was a young Viet girl heading back to the city to study. A driver of a bus that shuttels factory workers hit her while she was driving and drove off, leaving her to die. The police were looking for him but last I had heard hadn't found the bastard.
It hasn't scared me away from riding my motorbike. I definitely drive a little more cautiously now, which isn't a bad thing. As I drive I sometimes have mini-flashbacks to the image of being suddenly thrown sideways and slamming into the road, which definitely helps to curb my speed and make me keep my distance. From what I've heard everyone here eventually is involved in an accident, and statistically most motorcycle riders experience one in their lifetime. I wasn't expecting to have mine so soon, but hey what can you do? The locals seem to get a kick out of my scabs and bandages, they know what happened because they've been through the same.
All in all I still consider myself lucky; I didn't break any bones that I know of, my motorbike still runs, and my girlfriend was ok. It's a hard lesson that I'm not glad I learned it but I did anyway. A life devoid of speedbumps is too smooth a ride for me. I'm just bummed that I had to be a speedbump!
This happened a few weeks ago, April 23rd to be exact, but I've been lazy and haven't updated this blog since my trip through Vietnam so I guess late is better than never. And besides, now that I am nearing the end of my healing process maybe I have a better perspective on what happened.
We (myself and my girlfriend Trinh) were driving to a nature reserve called the Tan Lap forest, roughly 2 hours northwest of Saigon. We were traveling in a large group that had been organized through a facebook group for expats. There were probably 25-30 people in our convoy. They were all very nice and friendly people, as you might expect. We met in a park at 6am to start our journey outward from the city, but for two people in the group, fate had decided that they wouldn't make it all the way there. (That's us).
An hour and a half into the trip, after rickety wooden bridges, countless times stopping to let stragglers catch up, and passing a dead body on the streets (more on that later), one of the riders in our group decided that his bike should be occupying the space that mine was. To preface this, there had been two times already on the trip that this same driver had swerved and nearly hit us from the side; each time I'd been able to move out of the way. No such luck the third time.
Something you should know about Vietnamese drivers, and don't take this as a message of racism, but they aren't very conscientious. When they turn, they turn. They don't look to see what's there. Many run red lights, drive the wrong way on one-way streets, you get the idea. The traffic laws are mere suggestions to a Viet in a hurry. I'm not sure what this young guy's hurry was as we were all going the same place, but he swerved to his left and his back tire hit my front tire, sending my bike and it's inhabitants (unfortunately my girlfriend and I) sprawling to the pavement at somewhere around 45mph.
Luckily, we were relatively OK. I had/have some pretty decent road rash on my knee, both elbows, and my foot. A hole was worn through my sturdy hiking boots, my pants were stripped to rags, and my shirt was torn up; the worst part was that they were my favorite boots, my favorite pants, and my favorite shirt. Well, no, that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that the trip was ruined for my girlfriend who had been looking forward to it.
Luckily for the guy who hit us, my girlfriend was mostly unharmed. She had/has some small rashes on her hand and wrist that needed caring for, but other than that her backpack pretty much saved her from damage. I'm not a violent guy at all, but had she been hurt I might have thrown him off the bridge we were on. The rest of the group was fantastic and helped us out a ton. Someone had a first aid kit and they applied some anti-bacterial liquid and gave us a quick bandage-up before looking up the nearest clinic and offering to drive us there. My girlfriend was able to drive though, so we just drove ourselves 10km to the clinic.
At the clinic we each got a more thorough cleaning and bandaging, and the nurse sent us on our way with some antobiotics and some VERY spare materials. The bike was damaged, it ran, but had some issues and we were both banged up, so we opted for a taxi ride back home rather than trying to drive the 1.5 hours ourselves. It was an expensive taxi ride.
A few days later my girlfriend and her friend went back out into the country to retrieve my bike from the police station where she'd left it, then brought it back to the city. That's a kindness I'll need to repay a few times over. I'd have gone, but after the shock wore off it became apparent just how bad I was hurting. My knee didn't want to bend or support weight, my ankle would but complained about it, and I couldn't really wear shoes because of where the rash on my foot is. So for about a week it was a lot of delivery for dinner.
We're coming up on 3 weeks since the crash and I'm mostly back to normal. Still can't wear shoes, my ankle has been swelling up (kinda afraid there might be a fracture there), and my scabs aren't gone yet, but I'm back riding my bike around (she's a damn tough bike) and more or less back to life as normal.
Supposedly the kid who hit us "felt really bad about it the rest of the trip", which is sort of strange because he never once said he was sorry, he never offered to help us get to the clinic or help with our wounds, or anything. He acknowledged that he had done it, but hadn't accepted the responsibility. Which, sadly, was very typical for a Vietnamese driver. Remember that dead body I'd mentioned? She was a young Viet girl heading back to the city to study. A driver of a bus that shuttels factory workers hit her while she was driving and drove off, leaving her to die. The police were looking for him but last I had heard hadn't found the bastard.
It hasn't scared me away from riding my motorbike. I definitely drive a little more cautiously now, which isn't a bad thing. As I drive I sometimes have mini-flashbacks to the image of being suddenly thrown sideways and slamming into the road, which definitely helps to curb my speed and make me keep my distance. From what I've heard everyone here eventually is involved in an accident, and statistically most motorcycle riders experience one in their lifetime. I wasn't expecting to have mine so soon, but hey what can you do? The locals seem to get a kick out of my scabs and bandages, they know what happened because they've been through the same.
All in all I still consider myself lucky; I didn't break any bones that I know of, my motorbike still runs, and my girlfriend was ok. It's a hard lesson that I'm not glad I learned it but I did anyway. A life devoid of speedbumps is too smooth a ride for me. I'm just bummed that I had to be a speedbump!
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