My Thoughts On Tours N Tour Groups
Trip Start
Dec 01, 1999
1
6
103
Trip End
Aug 31, 2000
Saigon,
Vietnam
Sunday, December 19, 1999
There will never be a better time to experience the emergence of Vietnam.
This trip combines the excitement of Saigon, the peacefulness of Dalat, and the beauty of the coast. The friendliness of the people and the charm of the country will astound you. A visit to Halong Bay and a short trek amongst spectacular scenery of an all -encompassing journey throughout this exciting destination.
The above is what my Tour promised and the above is what it delivered.
The one positive thing about doing a tour is the fact that it doesn't allow you to sit and drink beer with those you meet along the way. It keeps you moving at a steady pace and you will always get what you paid for; that is to see all the major sites and attractions with relative ease and comfort. You never have to experience the language barrier or find clean and safe lodgings. It is all done for you. Everything is booked prior to your arrival, your guide can speak English and one of the biggest positive points is you never have to carry your own bags!
The real negative side to things is you are totally within the 'travel bubble'.
This is the little world foreign travelers are kept in all countries they visit for a short time. It's not their fault, they usually don't know its happening and if they do they don't care as they are where they want to be. I guess what I'm trying to say is in each country there is a backpacker highway. I followed it six years ago and still do a lot of the time as it makes for a less frustrating time whilst traveling.
Plus you also get to meet other travelers.
What it doesn't allow is for you to experience what it is really like in a country where you can't speak or understand anyone or anything. It doesn't allow you to eat and drink with the real peoples of the country, those in the little towns and villages. It doesn't allow you to eat things like pig's eyes, dog meat, cat meat or to have your own place, closer friends and a place you call home. You are always moving on and this is how this travelogue differs to my 'Life in China' travelogue.
It's all about Moving On.
For the next nearing a year I was moving from place to place and loving it.
I was meeting so many people and experiencing so many things I had never experienced. Don't get me wrong, the travel bubble is real travel but it's done at such a fast pace most things are left unattended. It's a beautiful time and if I had the money I would spend a life time doing it, sadly BUT luckily for me, I don't have the money so six years after, as I write this I have taken myself out of the 'bubble' to sit amongst a community whom have never experience banana pancake eating globe trotters whom live from a pack on their back.
Backpackers to me are the luckiest people alive.
For a short time they have a lot of money and there isn't a single thought about a mortgage on their minds. Their money is for one thing and one thing only, themselves! It's for their good time and their own life experience on the road. Sounds selfish don't it. If you think it is, you are wrong. To me, this is what life is really about! But hey, maybe I'm just a selfish kinda guy.
I can live with that!
On this day I met my tour group. At first meeting they all seemed a great bunch. Most of them remained that way through out our time together but there are always those whose real colours shine through no matter how hard they try to hide them. When you book yourself into a tour you are not only choosing a relatively safe and comfortable journey but choosing to spend your 'time' with the same people each day. Now with a small amount of travel experience behind me I happily choose to find my own way with whom I met along the way for as long as they wish to stay. Hey, that rhymes. I'm a poet and I didn't know it! Sorry! When it's time to go I can happily say good bye as with some of them I couldn't spend another day with.
Others it's a sad but happy departure.
Our hotel was right in the middle of everything in the Dong Khoi Area. We found the Pham Ngu Lao Area later. I could be wrong with these areas, but I'm sure the Ngu Lao Area is the 'Koh San Road of Ho Chi Minh City. We spent the day amongst the fabric shops and sat to eat Vietnamese spring rolls and drink beer. The favorite café of the day and that area was one called Café 13. It actually had cold beer.
It didn't serve you warm beer on ice!
One of my favorite memories of my first day in Vietnam is that of crossing the damn road. I remember when we first took to the streets for a walk it was fine. Then we found the highway and stopped. How in the world do you get to the other side? I couldn't' believe what I was seeing. There were literally thousands of motor bikes, push bikes and scooters.
What do you do and how do you do it?
Pretty simple really, most hard things in life usually are pretty simple.
It's taken me too many years to figure that one out!
To cross the road all you do is slowly step onto the road and slowly walk forward. You never stop or hesitate. 99% of the bikes (motored or not) have their side mirrors either inwards or removed. They are not interested in what is behind them, only what is in front and beside them in eyesight. When you step onto the road and walk forward they move around you. Think of all those documentaries you have watched where you see a school of fish. It's amazing to watch them all move in the same direction or half of them go to one side of a rock and the other half go to the other side. Now picture each fish as a motor bike or scooter or push bike and the rock as a person.
There you have it.
That is how you cross a highway in Vietnam!
Beers N Cheers Toya...shane
