JAZZY'S TRAVELS

www.flickr.com

I'm starting to feel the need to start every entry with the following:

"Sorry I didn't write sooner, because now I've got a lot to say, so hold onto your hats..."

It's kind of a lame way to start any entry, so I won't say that. That's why I said I "feel" I need to say it.

Right now we (Julia, Antonia and I) are in Hoi An. I'm not exactly sure how to explain Hoi An, but the words "quaint" and "charming" definitely come to mind. I'm starting to sound like a Lonely Planet using those words so much, not to mention a writer that really needs a thesaurus. Anyways, it looks a lot like Yangshou, China. There's just less to do, and here their speciality is tailor-made clothes. I know, sounds like trouble. But I've actually been pretty good. I got 2 tanktops and a skirt, and I think all the tailors in Hoi An have code named me "The Picky American B***h" aka: The PAB. Hey, I figure that if you're making it for me, it better well fit me perfectly! So what if I come back 6 times to get my tanktop to fit just right?! :P

It was hard to only get the 3 things I got (okay, okay, I got a hat & some sandals, but that's it!) I mean they make the most amazing winter coats for $30! I was tempted, I will admit, but I realized that after all the stuff I bought in Hanoi (by the way it cost me $57 for 11 kilos by ship) spending another $100+ would bust my budget more than if I wait and pay $400 when I have a job back at home. So, I just got the 2 tanktops and a skirt to add to my continuously growing travel wardrobe.

Wait..."tanktops you say?! Travelers should know better than to run around in tanktops!"

If you are thinking these thoughts at this moment, I will say that I completely agree. Yet the longer I travel, the more I see people in tanktops and the hotter it gets. Not to mention there are so many travelers, the Vietnamese don't seem to care. So I find myself with the dilemma of choosing between being a sweaty conscious culture respecting traveler or being a relatively cool tourist.


Tourists... here, there are a lot of them. We (I must include myself in this category whether I want to or not) are everywhere. The cafe I'm sitting in right now is full of westerners, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. We tried to get away the other night and went to a little Beer Hoi (little places on the side of the road with tiny plastic chairs & beer). Unfortunately, we still got riped off. What we should have paid 40,000vnd for we paid 100,000.


quick aside: 1) 15,900vnd = $1usd
2) We did have a great meal at a little beer hoi last night and we didn't get riped off at all.
10,000vnd for a footlong sandwich...they love their baguettes.

Which brings me to my next point (because I always have one): Ripoffs
They're everywhere, just like tourists. Coincidence...I think not. I don't mean ripoffs in the sense of scams, but rather people just trying to over charge you for EVERYTHING. In Ninh Binh I paid 8,000/kilo for fruit, and I didn't even haggle. Here, in Hoi An, they start at 15,000, and you can't get anything under 10. Although it is only about 50 cents/kilo more, it's really important to me that I haggle them down. The reason being that I don't want them to continue seeing us as merely $$$. I want them to know I know they're charging me way too much. The crappy part is that there are tons of us (tourists) who will pay what they ask for, and that screws over everyone else. Yes, it's only 50 cents, but it's my 50 cents, and I'm not just going to give it to you because you think I have tons of money and should.

2nd quick aside: If your reply to my arguement is "but you do have way more money than them in the long
run". I will discuss this topic with you further over a cup of coffee...if you are so inclined.

Inspite of the ripoffs, I still think the people here are amazing...I could not say that much for China. The people here haggle with a smile, and that makes it much more pleasant. Anything with a smile is more enjoyable. The food is amazing (did I say that already?). I can finally understand Anthony Bourdain's love of Vietnamese food. It's so healthy and fresh. I mean the herbs in the markets are amazing. I think I've had 10 green papaya salads since I got here :)

BUT, I continue to feel the size of a house.

Now, for all of you who know me really well, you know that I've always had issues with weight, and you also know that I've gotten a lot better over the past few years. But being here in 'Nam, it can be a bit difficult. I don't get to workout regularly, and EVERYBODY is freakin' tiny. It's in the genes and it's crazy. I bring this up because yesterday I had an experience I found quite hurtful, even though I should have been able to brush it off easily as cultural ignorance.

Antonia and I had gone to the market to buy a bunch of fruit and crackers for our bus ride today. We stopped at a shop to ask a question and the lady looked at my bag and asked why I had so much food. 1st of all, it wasn't that much and 2nd it was for all 3 of us. Then she proceeds to tell me "that's why you're fat, you eat too much." For someone who comes from a culture where this is extremely impolite, it was a shocker. And for a person who's struggled with weight issues and at the moment is only 124lbs, it was a blow. I know, I should have been able to brush it off, but it took me a while and made me really angry. I'm sorry if it's okay in your culture to tell someone they're fat, but in my opinion it's rude and always will be. I also found her cultural ignorance (her inability to see that most westerners are simply built differently) astounding given the fact that she lives in an extremely touristy town and works in a travel agency!!

Okay, enough venting...oh wait no, one more thing. The other day this English guy said "Canadians, Americans, same thing." My thoughts: Okay then, Germans, English, same thing. So ha!

3rd quick aside: 1)Not really but kind of. It's funny because the more I travel, the more easily I can tell the difference between people from the U.S. and Canada. Or the English from different parts of England. My hope is that eventually I'll be able to tell what part of England a person is from through their accent, they can do it. 2) How cool is it that I found this flag! The internet "is my favorite"!

So, you're probably wondering what the heck I've been up to the past week. Well, after Hanoi, Julia and I went to Ninh Binh where we decided to rent motor bikes and ride around the country for the day. I burned the crap out of my leg, and the worst thing about it is that I KNOW to be careful, but hey, we all know to be careful. Luckily it's healing and it hasn't hurt at all.

After riding around for 4 hours, we went on a riverboat ride with a mooch of a rower (quite a nice lady though. We bought her that soda) and saw the "impotent forest".

The next day we went to this national park (Cuc Phong) which was beautiful and saw some monkeys (what is it about monkeys over here?), but basically we spent most of the day riding around with our motorbike guides. My butt was killing me. That night we caught a bus to Hue. 10 hours of trying to sleep in an isle seat that doesn't lean back with a Vietnamese man that seemed serious about something. Yeah... I'm not looking forward to the 12 hour ride we've got tonight to Nha Trang.

Anyway, we only stayed in Hue one night. Nothing too exciting except for a really bossy tour guide and we ran into Colin at our hotel which was funny because we'd been emailing back and forth trying to meet up. The life of a traveler can be a bit odd. Here you are, traveling around the world, but you keep bumping into the same people again and again.

Hue's also where we met up with Antonia. We originally met her in Hanoi, and agreed that we would all travel down the coast together. Now I like to thing of us as a dangerous trio... you can see what I mean. (Sheila where are you??!!! :P)

So after Hue we found ourselves in Hoi An, pretty much spent the past few days relaxing & buying clothes, and tonight we leave for Nha Trang. Crazy party town Nha Trang...