the world for more than it simply is

Second week here in Hà Nội, and I have realized how terrible my Vietnamese reading skills are. I have been placed in the beginner’s class to begin from the start along with some other students. I should reach a sufficient reading level within a month with the classes everyday and the weekly tutor meeting with Hà Linh.

Yesterday was the scheduled field trip to Văn Miếu (Temple of Literature). Brian guided us on a tour of the place, and provided some unique information on the history of the structure built to worship Confucius. The buildings and enclosed pond were magnificent. There was a traditional performance of Vietnamese music in the rear structure, which I briefly listened to. However, the adjacent enclosed park was closed to the public for the day–I will assume that repairs were underway there.

 
After the visit to Văn Miếu, we took some cabs over to Phố Hàng Bạc to purchase tickets for our trip to Ha Long Bay this weekend. Since Monday is a national holiday, I will be returning from there on Monday afternoon. Our plan is to spend three days and two nights there, with one night on a boat. This trip should include some sea kayaking, trekking on Cat Ba Island, and general lounging on the beaches.

 
With our bookings complete, Hac and I walked down the street to locate our grandmother’s old home. 1 Hàng Bạc has now been converted into a clothing store and is most likely unrecognizable from over fifty years prior. I cannot say that I felt much of any emotional reaction to seeing the place, as over fifty years ago I probably did not exist yet. The memories of the place are not my own, and thus it just feels like one scene out of many that I have no personal attachment to. I think I am starting to understand the greater difference between a visitor and a resident of a location. I suppose that after my four months here, I will feel something when I have to go back to the states. After snapping some photos of the place, the two of us wandered around the area until we located some food vendors selling an assortment of delicious fried foods.

 
This upcoming Friday, we will be consuming a snake dinner at Lệ Mật village on the outskirts of the city. I have never before eaten snake, and am really looking to that too in addition to the three day trip.

I think it has reached that point where we have all gotten to know one another more or less. The week of orientation is coming to a close here in Ha Noi; today there will be a scavenger hunt and a dinner to meet the language tutors as language classes begin Monday. This week has been an interesting one as I have gotten to know more about individuals who I will be seeing for the next few months here. I have noticed that it is usually the case that people have more to talk about when discussing commonalities. An example? People who have frequented major cities in the states have longer conversations about these cities, while others not knowledgeable on these locations have less to contribute.

In the morning class yesterday, I made a brief presentation on my sociological findings– that a street side food vendor woman whom I had interviewed believed that in ten years, Viet Nam would be an entirely different environment and she would have to close her unregulated shop as the government ‘encouraged’ the vendors to move into more expensive indoor structures to do business. Others in the class provided similar if not opposite perspectives. While on this subject, I did happen to talk to a xe om driver the same day I interviewed the street side food vendor woman. His response to my inquiry was that in ten years, Viet Nam would be about the same and there would not be a shift to cars, but instead motor bikes will remain in large quantities.

 
After class yesterday, I decided to wander the city on my own as an useful way to know a place is to walk around until one gets lost and then backtrack back to the starting point through recognition of familiar sites. In this way, I realized that the streets are not parallel as they seem to be, and that this single area alone has much to offer in terms of commerce. This trek was followed by a lengthy discussion on safe sex and local attitudes toward interracial dating. Later on, I chose to use the transport capacities of my bicycle to explore some of the nearby areas where I ran into Kara and Nguyet.

 
Last night was an eventful one, possibly the most thus far. The night started with three of us meeting with Julie and her friend Tyler and later some of the EAP students for dinner at Quán Ăn Ngon, a place that served street stall foods at low prices in a decorative setting. After dinner, the three of us from CIEE stopped by a bar called Relax where the beers were overpriced and the bar girls having to sit and entertain the old foreign men. It is a sad situation to see this occur, but this is not the only region where I have seen this occur during my travels here.
Continuing on with the night, we met up with the EAP students and the rest of CIEE for a night on the town beginning at the Toilet Club. We would later move locations to The Balcony Bar, where the music was not as loud and longer conversations could be heard. I had a lengthy talk with Kim My from EAP, who was ostracised by the majority of her fellow students for her views and actions. Though one may not agree with another’s views, I believe that it is possible to develop more than a superficial friendship with that person. Also at this bar, I had a talk with Julie about her outlook on the future of Viet Nam and what her plans were to contribute to this society. Afterwards, the remaining three of us from CIEE left together as the others had left earlier on. In the taxi, Nguyet, Hac, and I had a discussion on how to include the other CIEE students and not have certain groups formed simply on the basis of comfort. Near the close of the night, we joined a going away gathering for a Laos student by the name of Air Noi. Through talking with him, I learned about his plans to use his planning and investment major to help the poor residents in his homeland of six million citizens. Other people I met were Caroline from the states who had been studying and teaching in Viet Nam for some time, some individuals from either Laos or Cambodia studying in Ha Noi by the names of Sambo, John, another Air Noi, and some others I cannot recall the names of at this time.

CIEE has officially begun–it is the nearing the end of the second day of orientation. This year’s group of students come from diverse regions of the states and seem like an interesting bunch. During yesterday’s ‘arrival’ day, I met Jacob, Katie, Danielle, Michael, and Nguyet. After the introductions, Hac and I went to meet his friend Julie for lunch near Ho Hoan Kiem. However, we arrived too early and decided to have ourselves a streetside snack of bun with fried egg rolls and tofu. Shortly thereafter, we dined at a fancy restaurant (by local standards) which I do not recall the name of–a meal of beef cubes with potatoes, sweet and sour fish, and rau muong. Afterwards, we walked over to the lake where I had some kem khoai mon or something like it. I was sweating buckets the whole time while outside as being out of the country for two weeks has decreased my immunity to the heat.

The orientation group dinner took place at a restaurant in the Old Quarter where my meal was bland. A tour guide/coffee grower and his friend joined us during the meal. After dinner, the seven of us and later Eric hit up some a nearby bar. Our drinking session provided us to an extent the opportunity to get past the awkwardness of meeting new people. Later on, we would wander around searching for a karaoke bar only to find a club called New Century that would not allow us in as shorts were not part of the dress code.

This morning before more orientation I met the final program participant, Kara from Ohio who had arrived late the previous night while we were out drinking and causing mayhem around the Old Quarter. The first class which I attended here in Ha Noi today was a literature class taught by Brian. Though it is three and a half hours long, it only meets once a week. I did get the chance to meet some of the EAP participants interested in the class though.

Though I would rather still be traveling throughout Asia without a schedule, I am looking forward to this semester.

Back in Ha Noi; everything is cheap again, I can spit freely on the ground, and there is more litter on the streets (all unlike Singapore). Waking up this morning, I incorrectly read the time to be three minutes until eleven and thought we had to check out of our hostel. However it was actually only ten, as my drunken haze of the previous night caused me a bit of time confusion when viewing my non-digital fake Swiss watch I bought the previous day.

After the early checkout, I made myself some hard-boiled eggs for breakfast and watched a movie in the lounge area until it was time to depart for the flight out. On the ride to the airport, our taxi driver, Dan, discussed the downsides of the Singapore market economy. Included in this talk were the high cost of living, the expensive annual road tax, and other financial situations of the city. According to Dan, the ordinary citizens of the city go to Orchard Road on the weekends to sit around. They do not actually buy things like the tourists as everything is expensive there. Likewise, a large proportion of Singaporians buy homes in nearby Malaysia and commute to work everyday in Singapore. It was an interesting perspective to hear as I assumed the majority of Singaporians were wealthy shopaholics. At the end of the drive, I was once again outside Singapore’s six month old Budget Terminal–an inkling that one is too cheap to fly in the standard airport.

The previous day I had dim-sum in Chinatown for lunch. It took awhile to find the restaurant, but it was well beyond our expectations. For the low price of $22SGD, we ate like kings (if kings might not find commoner food disagreeable for their palates). After the delicious meal, we waited for the CityBuzz bus to take us around since we had mistakenly bought a daypass confusing it to be used for the subway. Our mistake proved beneficial as we were able to see many locations above ground which we would not had even known about travelling under.

The main stop for the day were the shopping malls and plazas of Orchard Road where everything is seemingly overpriced for the well-off tourist. With a lot of calorie burning and food court meals, it pretty much leveled out. In total, I spent around $40USD throughout the day purchasing things which caught my eye, yet I did not actually need. I would have to say that my best purchase were two shirts from Baleno–a clothing store with pictures of Andy Lau and Faye Wong modeling the company’s clothes.

After several hours on Orchard, we took the MRT from Dhoby Ghaut station to City Hall to catch a nighttime glimpse of the War Memorial Monument, Raffles City, Suntec City, its koi pond, and the Fountain of Wealth. The monument was splendid, the malls closing, and the fountain lights exstinguished ten minutes before our arrival. One would think an unlit fountain a lost, but I turned it into a win situation by snapping a parnoramic picture of it.

So yeah, tomorrow is the arrival day for the rest of the CIEE participants.

 
Went to Johor Bahru today; it is a border city about thirty minutes from here which also happens to be one of Malaysia’s major cities. The bus from Singapore to Jahore was cheap at $2.40SGD. The culture of Johor is mostly commercial, so shopping and eating. The currency in Malaysia is called the ringgit, and every one USD exchanged into 3.55 of theirs. Suffice to say, things were pretty much inexpensive in Johor with my most expensive purchase being around well under ten USD.

 
Concerning the locals of the area, there were surprisingly not many in sight as it was midday and either everyone was at work or at the mosques and government buildings. With the sparsely populated scene, Hac and I wandered throughout the city with the sun high in the sky. Our stops included the city’s main government offices, a few shopping malls, a mosque or two, a Hindu temple, and some water fountains shaped like tall shot glasses. Breakfast, or was it lunch, was a restaurant nearby the bus station that had a large duck. I had keow tuey, a rice kind of noodle dish with pork and duck. Lunch was hokkien noodles with seafood. Dinner was a tom yum in a claypot at the mall food court.

 
I’d write more, but Lannie is waiting to use the computer.

The streets are astonishingly cleaner here in Singapore–arrived here by plane last night from Bangkok via the Budget Terminal which is probably remarkably different than the non-budget one (the carts state there: ‘enjoy the difference’). After the arrival, we took a van to what we thought was our hostel, but was in fact another one. However, that didn’t matter as both of them are owned by the same people and are only located a block away. After getting everything in order, it was off to sleep since our taxi ride back arrived at 11:50pm.

 
This morning I awoke to find that my wristwatch had finally run out of batteries. Amid the sense of not really knowing what time it was, it was actually more enjoyable as I was not stressed to constantly look at my watch. It is one of my habits to check the time–isn’t it everyone’s? However without a working time device, the day actually seemed longer than usual. The morning started with a self-made breakfast downstairs in the hostel’s kitchen. What resulted from too much soy sauce combined with other ingredients was brown eggs and slightly burnt toast.

After my unsavory meal, we walked outside into the heart of Singapore’s Little India. With the scent of curry and other spices in the air, I felt I was both in Singapore and not in Singapore at the same time. After going through a few shopping districts and purchasing some snacks, we found lunch at a packed restaurant called The Banana Leaf Apollo. Lunch (pankor vegetables, curry, and a wheat type flatbread) was served Indian-style right on top of the banana leaf. It was pretty good actually and filling, although it was probably my most expensive meal in Asia thus far at around $30SGD (~10USD per person).

 
Afterwards, we walked around little India for awhile longer before taking the MRT to Chinatown. For a second-world country, the subway system here is ten times better than the ones in the states in that the station was air-conditioned and the tracks blocked off for the jumpers by glass doors. Also there is no trash lining the ground, nor strange smells (Bangkok’s was about the same). In Chinatown, we did the only thing there was really to do–shop.

After a few hours, we were stopped by a man by the name of Sam who was advertising Pharmanex’s anti-oxidant testing machine that was worth $70 million. After agreeing to take the anti-oxidant test on a gamble that I would only pay the $5SGD test fee if my anti-oxidant levels were low, otherwise he would pay me $5SGD if they weren’t. Unfortunately, it seems that my anti-oxidant levels were very poor. Afterwards, Sam introduced us to some of Pharmanex’s products which would raise anti-oxidant levels over time. However being the poor student, I did not succumb to these marketing strategies of his. At this point, Sam called upon his business partner Joe into the room at which point they discussed the products some more. Upon realizing that we would not be purchasing the products of Pharmanex, the conversation toned down to one of aspirations. In fact, I learned that Joe was the Executive of an international trading organization which provided Pharmanex products to Singapore. When I told him I had not entirely set my mind to any one occupation, Joe suggested the field of business in that I should come work for his organization or help him spread his operations over to other countries I would be in. By now, it was actually a meeting of sorts which ended with me getting Joe’s business card for future reference.

 
After the encounter with the entrepreneurs, we stopped by a local desert restaurant where I had some almond paste. After that was a brief visit to a Tibetan Museum under renovations and a hello at Mr. Saigon’s shop. We ended up shopping some more before finding ourselves at a local acrobatic street performance. We arrived just at the moment when one of the girls was balancing and spinning cushions on her limbs and left when two of the performers were throwing fruits sky-high and catching them in metal spoons. We would shop for a few more hours before going to the Pearl Centre for a dinner of sesame honey pork ribs with rice. The sour plum juice which I bought to accompany it was overloaded with sugar.

Today was not really a thinking sort of day; it was more of a soak in the environment and buy stuff day. I’m not sure what time it is right now, but does that really matter? I could look at the clock; nah. There was one more thing I wanted to write, but it seems my train of thought has departed for the night.

Silence might drive some people mad, or it might provide the time one needs to think. I am the latter type–I employ moments of silence to contemplate many things. This so-called useless and idle time today was during the bus ride from Ban Phe back to Bangkok. Of the things I came to realize, one that I will note here is it is inconsiderate to censor my own words when there is so much more to say. My original post on this travel blog, which I will undoubtedly re-modify to include the full text, had so much more in the two sentences I removed in order to be what I deemed at the time more considerate towards my greater audience. This is after all the world for more than it simply is. With this said, I will make the attempt to include more than just the events with more insight on the discussions and situations which I experience on this trip.

 
The three days in Ko Samet were superb overall, yet without the individuals I encountered it would have been just any other island. The drama of human life, which I usually try to remove myself from at times, is what separates the great moments from the dull. At the bungalow I was staying at, Naga, my cousin and I met Theresa on the way back to our place to get a snack after some drinks over at Jep’s on our second night there. Theresa, an individual with potential to stand out from the usual others, discussed among other things her experience living the life of solitude at a monastery in North Thailand for two weeks. Later that night, her acquaintance Christine, who was quite a liar who thought herself better than us, asked Theresa to accompany her to the restroom only never to return. At the Silver Sand Bar, I ran into Christine once again, where she admitted she did not in fact have a hearing problem. To her disappointment, I reversed the statement which she made about embarrassing me into one that she should be the embarrassed one for lying in the first place. I imagine that she was dumbfounded as she had nothing to say in response.

The next day at the beaches before my great Thai massage on the beach for 200 baht ($5USD), I was greeted briefly by Theresa once again who seemed to had not fallen into the self-obsessed trap of Christine from Holland. That evening, Theresa actually was at the restaurant we had asked her to meet us at the previous night. I should probably include that seeing Christine again was somewhat awkward, yet she did say hello. That evening after a delicious meal of fried egg with shrimp and tomatoes at the restaurant across from Seven Eleven, I watched The Constant Gardener and played ping pong with Hac as we were taking a break from drinking. During our ping pong match, Corina who I had met two nights prior at the Naga bar along with a group of girls from England, stopped by to say hello. We had a brief discussion on travels along with religion on which I shared the similiar view of hers that it was a far wiser idea to see the world than to be fearful of it.

Well enough for now; I will probably be going to Chinatown tonight for dinner. Before I forget, Khao San road is the place to be if you’re craving the backpacker crowd.

This morning we took a bus from Northern Bus Terminal in Bangkok over to the city of Rayong. From there we caught a speedboat at noon over to Ko Samet–the 3 mi (or was it km?) island. The beaches here seem nice; I’ll be going for a swim in a few. Remember how I said there were Seven Elevens all over Bangkok? Well, I’ve seen two so far here.

 
Khok-di! (Cheers!)

Have you ever seen a monk on the BTS skytrain system? Chances are he is not the monk that you perceive him to be, but rather he is a local dressed as one in order to dupe foreigners into giving him cash. Yesterday, after a breakfast on wooden skewers consisting of fried fish, wonton wrapped quail eggs, and some other meat item, we met up with Hac’s friend Matt who was staying in the area at his grandmother’s. He explained to us that these travelling ‘monks’ frequently seen on public transport and in the malls were depised by the locals. If they were monks, what reason would they have going out to buy movies, games, and porn? Adding to the humor, sometimes these people would ‘bless’ foreigners for a bit of cash.

The other day we had explored the shops of Siam Square and adjacent MBK. Great area for spending cash really–the teenage after-school crowd in their uniforms are commonplace here. In the middle of Siam Square that day was a promotion for a coffee drink with girls dressed in gold outfits and dudes in gold full body suits handing out flyers and talking into microphones. Hilariously, I was approached by one of the marketing girls who put the microphone to me expecting a response, to which I said ‘No Thai’. We spent the day in this area purchasing t-shirts and whatnot. Likewise, I had a fried wanton dish at Nooddi for breakfast and a green chicken curry dish for lunch two hours later at another place.

Back to yesterday, Matt took us around town via BTS. We hit several shopping plazas including one called Pantip Plaza. After purchasing several cheap things that may or may not be useless, we headed over to the Saphan Taksin BTS stop to go on a city tour boat ride. The boat ride included a stop at a floating market, views of the city, and a stop at Thonburi snake farm. At the snake farm presentation, I had a boa put on my shoulders. Later on, we ate dinner near Asok at a place selling Thai-style steak with sticky rice. Good as hell, but too much sauce burns your tongue. That was soon amended with some bottled soymilk from Seven Eleven. After a brief stop over at Matt’s place, we headed to the bar nearby where the beers were pricey and Westerners were common. The band played some Thai rock music along with an Eric Clapton song. The girls who worked there were a plenty, yet not much of a sight. What made me laugh though was seeing an old balding white man making out with a lady boy.

Afterwards, the night continued with a stop at McDonalds–I know I said I wouldn’t eat that here, but soberness was not with us. The menu special of the area was the Samurai burger; basically it is a piece of pork lathered with teriyaki sauce and lettuce.

This morning the CIEE director, Brian, actually called to discuss visa matters. The information he relayed could have been easily e-mailed, but oh well.

 
Arrived here in Bangkok yesterday afternoon after a two hour flight or so. Getting out of the airport in Ha Noi was remarkably slow as we had to withdraw additional funds to pay a $14USD airport tax. I have heard that this tax does not really go towards anything useful; it most likely goes into the pockets of the government. An additional airport expense was for the baggage I was sending aboard the aircraft–the weight limit is 15kg, and 7kg for carry-on. Thus, I had to shell out $40USD for a bunch of items I brought here from the states that are not really necessary.

After getting through immigration in the Bangkok airport, we went in search of bus number 29 to avail. Therefore, we waited in line to take a taxi to Asha Guesthouse. An interesting thing I immediately noticed was that they drive on the opposite side of the road here; the steering wheel is on the left side instead. The place I am currently staying at is full of foreigners and seems to be situated in the middle of a neighborhood, but is a ten minute walk away from the city’s train system. Next, Hac and I scoured the local area for some good eats. Around this area, there are probably over five 7-11’s. We were informed beforehand by the desk clerk not to eat at KFC or McDonalds as there have been several cases of food poisoning at those locations. The question that popped into my mind was: why would you eat that while in another country? Foods that I ate included grilled meats on sticks, some sort of meatballs, a fried Thai pancake with mussels and bean sprouts, and some Thai che.

 
However, the process of buying goods here was a bit difficult as I have yet to master a few of the many useful Thai phrases. I do know how to say ‘hello’ (sa-wa-dee), which hasn’t really come in handy when making purchases. Last night I wrote down a list of Thai phrases from the guidebook I have. Hopefully within a few days I will have a basic understanding of the phrases associated with buying things. Today, I will be seeing the sites around the city of Bangkok. Well, more later.