Vietnam, quickly

Overall, it wasn't my favorite place in the world, particularly once I said goodnight Saigon (which yes, I actually did say). 3 reasons:

1) It's really tough to see a lot of the really cool stuff without a tour. To get to the DMZ and a lot of the American War sites--yea, they call it the American War--you need a tour guide, or a whole ton of time and money. There isn't much in the way of accomodations near the sites, and they aren't much to see unless you know what happened at each pile of rubble and old armaments. I actually skipped this tour, mainly because I did not feel like being on a tour for an entire day. But there are similar problems in other places--Halong Bay requires either a tour or a private boat (and you guessed it, I left my private boat back in the States).

2) Everyone--everyone--tries to scam the foreigners. Which I'm fine with, if kept to a reasonable scope and scale. Here's where I draw my line: I wanted to buy a travel-sized can of shaving cream, maybe having 5-6 shaves in it. I had previously been relying on soap and cold water, or the $1 shaves you can get in a salon. The woman wanted to charge me $4 for this can, whose value was maybe 50 cents. It's an effing travel-sized can of shaving cream. Honestly people.

3) I only had 15 days to run through the country. Both because of visa concerns and the amount of stuff left to do in Thailand.

4) The "sleeper" buses. Wow. The beds are almost as wide as my body is, and maybe 4 and a half feet long.

A few highlights, anyway....

--Best decision: renting out a motorbike for the day to cruise the coastline near Nha Trang. Nha Trang is a westerner-infested beach town, and with good reason. The water is a gorgeous shade of light teal, and there's some great snorkeling in the South China Sea (which I, despite my sea urchin-phobia, took part in for a day). But that stuff gets tiresome pretty quickly, and I wanted to actually, ya know, see Vietnam while I was in Vietnam. I rode for about an hour and a half up and around the mountains and cliffs, through the fishing villages, and eventually to this little hiking and bouldering area that had a few nice waterfalls. I probably looked like a tomato--both from the heat of the day, and my sunburn from being on the snorkel boat the day before--and these two older Vietnamese women sort of forced me to sit with them in the shade for a little bit. They fed me (looong after I'd started refusing) some rice crackers that they made. One of them showed me a wicked bullet wound in her wrist from the war, and I just sat there for maybe 20-30 minutes letting her feed me and practice her English. Great day.

--Hoi An is a cool town, and I recommend a visit. Yea, so half the town is a series of tailor shops. So what? Get a suit made ($45, seriously) and enjoy yourself. But then get past that. Lots of cobblestone sidestreets to wander where the locals are friendly and the westerners are minimal. Exhibit A: In stead of taking a million pictures of the little covered bridge, I played hackey for a while on a side street nearby. And then one of the guys pointed me to a neat little pagoda that I never would've seen on my own. Also, there was a sort of Vietnamese version of a school play going on, maybe a kilometer from my guesthouse...kids maybe ages 3-10 dressed up Vietnamese traditional dance costumes, going through different dances for their parents and the community. No white people there, but I was totally welcomed in.

--Halong Bay. I complained about having to take tours, and I stand by that. Halong Bay, however, is the exception. The tours are awesome, and the Bay itself has earned its reputation for just breathtaking beauty. Plus, I took most of my meals (and my kayak in the bay) with these 2 really cute French gals...granted, they were 7 and 10 years old, and they were with their parents, and I was sort of a de facto free babysitter, but it was still pretty awesome haha.

--Hanoi's Old Quarter. Went to a water puppet show, walked around the lake for a little while, let a few Vietnamese college students practice their English with me. Also, hung out with an Aussie named Matt and had a few bia hoi's, Vietnamese draft beer that goes for maybe 30 cents a glass, and tastes like it should cost less. The set-up is awesome though. It's not a bar. They have these roadside places, usually on a corner, where you sit outside, watch the motorbikes and pedicabs stream by, take in the sunset, and have terrible but nearly-free beer.

Taken together, Vietnam is an alright place to go to, and it has its sites to see--but good luck shedding the tourist feel.