Final thoughts
Trip Start
May 12, 2012
1
21
22
Trip End
Jun 12, 2012
It was an amazing experience seeing SE Asia and I only have a couple of regrets. I would have liked to have seen Sapa up in the mountains because of the different tribes with their individual culture and I would have liked to spend more time in Thailand because I didn't do it justice. There's never enough time but I do feel that on my Intrepid trip we wasted a few days. I'm going to miss the Asian English and phrases such as Phuc, Hang Dong and Thit Cho whatever they mean!! And the fact that Thai for a banana is the same as penis ( gluuai). At the risk of offending you I'm going to say that I won't miss Vietnamese food much - I ate the squid, eel, catfish and the tofu, prawns and pork and chicken and rice or noodles until they came out of my ears but none of it really impressed me probably because I found it bland. Sure there was sweet chilli sauce and Soya on every table but that really isn't the answer. I like some spice and maybe I found the taste too subtle. The coffee is good but they do like making a 30% solution of condensed milk which makes it very sweet. An interesting variant is the Weasel coffee which apparently is fed to weasels and reprocessed in their gut to give a distinctive flavour? Urban legend.
I really don't understand why I had to become a millionaire when i visited an ATM - The Vietnamese money is more confusing because there are too many zeros. Imagine paying for a drink of Ca Phe ( coffee) with a 500,000 note which is blue like the 20,000 note. The first is $25 and the last is $1.
I had a couple of neat experiences in the last few days .. A little boy about 6 kept me company while I waited in a cafe and I showed him how to play angry birds on my iPad. His face was a real picture and surprisingly he was worse at the game than me :)
Today I was walking around the backpacker district of Hanoi filling in time before my ride to the airport. I went into a souvenir shop and the girl chatted away to me and finally gave me her sweet croissant as a gift for my trip home. It was really good. The people are open and friendly and I enjoyed interacting with them. On the down side I became increasingly aware of the " forced labour camps" aka sweat shops. These are factory buildings with a perimeter wall covered with broken glass or barbed wire and a securely guarded entrance. I hear that the workers are paid very little but for most it's the choice of this or living off the streets. They don't get up to 50% of their earnings as a "bonus" until the end of their contract and are charged for living expenses directly from their wages so they live in this voluntary prison - this happens in Phomn Pehn also.
I won't miss the garbage and the filth, the cellphones and the noise,the begging and the hawkers. It has made me realize why people from these countries want to get a fresh start in Canada.
I really don't understand why I had to become a millionaire when i visited an ATM - The Vietnamese money is more confusing because there are too many zeros. Imagine paying for a drink of Ca Phe ( coffee) with a 500,000 note which is blue like the 20,000 note. The first is $25 and the last is $1.
I had a couple of neat experiences in the last few days .. A little boy about 6 kept me company while I waited in a cafe and I showed him how to play angry birds on my iPad. His face was a real picture and surprisingly he was worse at the game than me :)
Today I was walking around the backpacker district of Hanoi filling in time before my ride to the airport. I went into a souvenir shop and the girl chatted away to me and finally gave me her sweet croissant as a gift for my trip home. It was really good. The people are open and friendly and I enjoyed interacting with them. On the down side I became increasingly aware of the " forced labour camps" aka sweat shops. These are factory buildings with a perimeter wall covered with broken glass or barbed wire and a securely guarded entrance. I hear that the workers are paid very little but for most it's the choice of this or living off the streets. They don't get up to 50% of their earnings as a "bonus" until the end of their contract and are charged for living expenses directly from their wages so they live in this voluntary prison - this happens in Phomn Pehn also.
I won't miss the garbage and the filth, the cellphones and the noise,the begging and the hawkers. It has made me realize why people from these countries want to get a fresh start in Canada.
