Parting Thoughts on Vietnam

We spent a seven weeks in Vietnam, travelling from the most southerly tip in the Mekong Delta to the mountainous border with China in the North. It’s easy to see how the country was once divided in two as the north and the south are very different. As we travelled north, each town was a different experience; the food is very regional and the local dishes are the fantastic, the food that is common to all of Vietnam isn’t as good. The language in the north is different to that in the south too, which adds yet another layer of difficulty to a language that already has six different tones and variations according to age, sex and social standing.

Like China, Vietnam has a restriction on the number of children you can have. In order to control population growth the government has imposed a two child policy. For government workers this is very significant; having more than two children could lead to you losing your job. Another similarity with China is that social networks are illegal in Vietnam; however, technology is developing faster than Communism, like in China, facebook is available almost everywhere.

The Vietnamese want to have white skin even more so than the Koreans. I found it so hard to find moisturiser without bleach that I ended up buying Jonson’s baby cream. Clothes are designed to shield every inch of skin from the sun: jackets with built-in face masks, sleeves that taper off into a point to cover the fingers, skin coloured socks, even floor length aprons worn to cover legs when on motorbikes. Given the tropical climate of the country it’s amazing how much clothing people endure to hide away from the sun.

The people in Vietnam worship their ancestors. Every house has a shrine where the ancestors’ spirits go to rest. The Vietnamese take this very seriously. The shrines can be anything from a simple wooden box, a bit like a bird box, to an elaborate gold plated monument that takes up an entire floor of the building. Whatever the design, the shrines always have incense burning and an offering of some food, drink and money. For most Vietnamese the ancestors play a part in everyday life; prayers are said asking for good luck and the ancestors are consulted for all important decisions. Families don’t tend to move house in Vietnam as this would mean leaving behind the ancestors and this would bring eternal bad luck. For this reason there are still many relatively poor families living in Hanoi’s most prime real estate. Our couchsurfing hosts told us that the lady who they rent their house from still comes once a month to pray to her ancestors’ at the family shrine on their roof.

Houses in Vietnam tend to be very narrow and high, some as small as 2m wide. When the Communist North Vietnamese Army won the war and reunited the north and south, homes were divided to give each family a piece of property. Today, the wider the house the higher its value as the front facing the street can be used as a shop.

The Vietnamese people were, in general, really happy to see us. We always felt welcome and hellos followed us down the street in even the quietest little towns. However, compared to Cambodians, the Vietnamese seemed more business minded were more inclined to try and rip us for a couple of dollars at any given opportunity.

Vietnam is very cheap, we were easily able to stay under our $50 daily budget. For example, for $1 (£0.60) you can get:

• Two bottled beers or;
• Four fresh bia hoi*
• Three litres of water
• A short ride on a moto-taxi
• Noodle soup
• Entrance to a museum
• A filter coffee with milk
• A hired bicycle for the day
• A pair of sunglasses
• A cut-throat shave at the side of the road
• A hair cut (men)
• A pair of earrings

*Bia hoi is a local brew that has a 24 hour shelf life. It isn’t very strong but it's dirt cheap. Local people enjoy homemade bia hoi at street stalls and bars in the north of Vietnam.

The majority of budget hotels cost $8-10 (£4.80-£6) for a double room. That’s slightly more than what you might pay in India or Cambodia but for $10 in Vietnam you get a much nicer room with a fridge, cable TV, air conditioning, wardrobe, toiletries, and bottled water. 

$8 room in Da Lat.

ATM machines in Vietman 

Cambodia: Random Facts, Thoughts and Observations

People

Cambodian people are by far and wide some of the loveliest people I have ever met, anywhere in the world. From tiny children to elderly couples, everyone wants to greet us and welcome us to Cambodia. Teenagers wave and shout hello as the drive past on their scooters, little children pause their games to grin at us and say hello. From our first impression at Koh Kong and Sihanoukville where we felt everybody was out to con or rob us, our opinion of the Khmer people has changed entirely. They are such a warm, friendly lot. It’s amazing when you think about all they’ve been through. The Cambodians we've met have been very open with us about their experiences during the Khmer Rouge period; they've shared their stories with us of the relatives they lost, or how they managed to escape. We've been astounded by how gentle and loving the people are, when they could so easily be bitter with resentment and grief.

Food 

Khmer food isn’t as good as Thai food, but it’s nice: rice, noodles, soups and curries. Some of the more exotic delicacies we’ve come across include: fried snake, embryo egg (boiled with a partially developed chicken inside), fried frog and ice cream baguettes. The less touristy places always provide you with a pot a jasmine tea and a glass of ice – for free.

Money 

There’s a two tiered pricing system in Cambodia which means tourists pay a premium. Restaurants often have two menus, one in Khmer and one in English, the English prices twice as high as the Khmer prices. The same goes for bus tickets, hotel rates and the rest. There are no coins in Cambodia. Dollars are used down to the one dollar bill, any smaller change is given in riel.

Post

There is no real postal service in Cambodia, mail is delivered by the intercity buses in a complicated web of drop-offs and pick-ups. People wait with their parcels along the main roads where the buses pass, they flag down a bus going to their desired destination and for a small fee the bus driver will drop off their package along the roadside further down the way, where the recipient is waiting. If the recipient is unaware, the package will be dropped off at the local post office, or with a helpful villager who hopefully won’t steal the goods! We discovered this after leaving our homestay in Lvea village, when we realised it would be near impossible to keep in touch with our kind host, Wanah. The post is also the reason that any journey in Cambodia takes a hell of a lot longer than it should. For example, these deliveries are the reason why it took us over five hours to cover the 170km from Phnom Penh to Kampot.

Clothes

Cambodian women are crazy about pyjamas. Brightly coloured, matching two pieces pyjama sets are the norm on the street throughout Cambodia (although less so in Phnom Penh.) It’s as if somebody imported pyjamas for the first time but never passed on the message that elsewhere they’re worn for bed. Waitresses, chefs, shopkeepers and school children go about their business in their pyjamas. I even saw one lady wearing a dressing gown as a coat. Strangely, the men don’t seem to share this love of pyjamas, maybe they know the truth about them being made for bedtime and are having a secret laugh at the women?!

The Patriarchy 

Which brings me on to…sexism! Despite Cambodians being so friendly and polite, I have become invisible again here. It’s not as bad as India, and I’m sure solo female travellers wouldn’t notice it, but walking down the street with Ric I am invisible to vendors, hawkers and tuk-tuk drivers. I should consider myself lucky to not get “tuk-tuk sir?” shouted at me every two minutes, but every now and then I’d like to be offered.