Get ready for another long one. :)
Since I last wrote, I have escaped from India. So, what did I think of India? Well, I enjoyed the trip to India, but I couldn't tell you why. The whole country looks like it was built on a landfill, people treat it like a trashcan, it's hot, dirty, most of the buildings look like they are ready to fall down, it's an ordeal to find the simplest things, it is completely disorganized, and everyone in the street is out to screw you. (This description does not apply to Gangtok and Darjeeling. They were heavenly and I would recommend them to anyone.)
On the plus side, it is cheap, the food is great, and the people you don't meet in the street or in any official capacity are just fine. And it is certainly a memorable experience. And after India, everywhere else on this trip will seem like luxury. :)
Saturday, May 17
I took a shared jeep from Darjeeling to Bagdogra (which has the nearest airport.) I got stuck in the back again, but this time I had it to myself for most of the trip, so this was a good thing. It was an older jeep with no back window, so I had a clear view of the scenery--rivers, mountains, tea fields...
It was a bit of an ordeal getting an autorickshaw from the jeep stop to the airport, but nothing big.
The flight from Bagdogra to Kolkotta (Calcutta) did not give me any views of the Himilayas.
At the Kolkotta airport, I shared a taxi with a family to the YWCA where we all decided to stay.
I was kind of weary and didn't feel like exploring too much, so I just walked around and found an internet cafe. If I had left India that day, the trip would have been the perfect length.
I went to a bar that night with an online friend who was from Australia, but spending 3 months in Kolkatta, which is where his parents were from. We had coffee after the bar closed and he walked with me back to the YWCA. They had locked the door and there was no one responding to our banging. After trying to phone, banging some more, and finally yelling in a window, we woke up the night watchman and I got in. The whole process took an hour.
Sunday, May 18
I got 3 hours of sleep and woke up. I walked around Kolkata, which was much nicer than I expected. (Granted, I was in the nicer part of town and had very low expectations.) The nice, big park, had a herd of goats crossing it. People were playing cricket and soccer. I walked to the Victoria Monument--a cool, big white building which was actually clean and in good repair. There, I ran into yet another "friendly" guy, who after a few minutes conversation, determined that we were such good friends that I should give him some money. That was the last straw. I was officially fed up with India. My last day there, and it broke me. I was in a really foul mood for the next few hours. Then I stopped at a book stall, haggled for a couple of tour books for Thailand and Vietnam, which strangely, made me feel better. I was in a good mood and didn't hate India anymore.
I went online and got a recommendation for a hotel in Bangkok, which I would be landing in the next day.
Monday, May 19
I got up, checked out, and took a taxi to the airport. The taxi was overpriced, but I didn't care--I was getting out of India. ;)
The flight from Kolkotta to Bangkok stopped in Rangoon, Myanmar (a.k.a., Burma). Unfortunately, we couldn't deplane, so all I saw was the airport exterior. A bunch of monks got on the plane and sat around me. (Yes, you can sit in the lotus position on a plane seat.)
Thailand looked decidedly wetter from the plane than the last time I was there 5 weeks earlier. At the airport, I rescheduled my flight to Vietnam so I could spend a week in Bangkok first.
After India, going back to Bangkok was like going home--even though I had only ever spent a weekend there. I was in heaven. No one harranging me, relatively clean, a great hotel room, everything I could ask for and then some.
I met Siam (my friend from the previous visit) for dinner.
Tuesday, May 20 to Sunday, May 25
I spent the week meeting new people (from the internet), eating, going to a few small parties, going out for drinks and coffee, dancing, and otherwise chilling out and having a good time in Bangkok.
The only sightseeing I did was the Grand Palace. It is very impressive. Temples and other buildings done in a very ornate, elaborate, colorful style. All were stunning and in very good shape. It could have easily been gaudy (like French Roccoco) but it wasn't--it was just impressive. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera.
Monday, May 26
I flew to Saigon, Vietnam and was met at the airport by my friend Thien. He suggested a hotel downtown which was very nice, and USD$13.50 a day. (Half price SARS sale.) I took it.
I like Saigon. My first thought of it was that it was very quiet. There are very few cars on the road, but lots of scooters--almost all of them quiet, unlike the screaming monstrosities in Rome and other European cities. The downtown area is very modern, but not in an ugly way. None of the giant concrete behemoths of Bangkok. It is clean, attractive, and very pleasant. Many green parks.
Thien took me for a ride around town on his scooter. Rather than have a coronary, I just trusted that he knew what he was doing. He claims that he has never been in an accident. The traffic is mayhem, particularly at roundabouts. The one saving grace is that it almost never excedes 25 miles per hour-- usually slower. It was cool to drive down the street and see the sea of scooters. Very Asian. I've ridden with him many times since and I still enjoy going around town on the scooter.
We went to dinner and I let Thien order--which I've done ever since. No regrets yet--I've always gotten great food, and it has usually been something I would never have thought to order.
We went to a nightclub in the evening. Although Saigon has a healthy night life, it is a very early one. The club closed at 11:00pm. The nightclub was one of the best I've seen in a long time. Good layout, sound system, and lights. As I was dancing, I felt there was something odd about the place that I couldn't quite put my finger on--it looked different for some reason. Then I figure out what was different--I could see over the heads of everyone else there and could therefore see from one end of the building to the other. :)
There was a small fight while we were there, but no big deal. That club has the smallest bouncers I have ever seen. :)
Tuesday, May 27 to Saturday, May 30
Hung around Saigon with Thien and some of his friends. The cafe culture is alive and well, and the night life is vibrant. There is a bar next to the hotel is owned by someone that Thien knows (although he seems to know everyone) so we go there a lot and play pool.
I'm really enjoying the food--even stuff I don't tend to like. We ate shellfish at a place in a muddy alley in the drizzling rain at a table about the shape and height of a coffee table, but it was great. Excellent grilled jumbo shrimp. I even ate the clams, and snail-like things which I don't usually eat. Anything tastes good if you put the right sauce on it. :) And I did eat actual snails for the first time at one meal. Lots of interesting food, and dirt cheap. (Even the stuff not served in an alley. :) )
I did get a little sick the other night, but nothing big. I have a cold now. Sigh. And no, it's not SARS. :)
We went to a very popular dance club last night called Apocalypse Now. Nothing particularly special though--crowded, smokey--the usual.
I feel I should say a bit about Thien, since his story is very telling about Vietnam. Thien is 31. When he was 3, his family fled the country in a hurry. He and a brother and sister were with his grandmother at the time and were left behind. He spent the next 13 years with no word of his parents or his other siblings. When they finally found him back, they had settled near San Francisco. Thien grew up with his grandmother until he was old enough to go to a government run boarding school, where he lived until he went to college and got degrees in economics and art. In spite of it all, he seems to have had a reasonably happy childhood. He's definitely got a positive outlook.
I have friends in the Bay Area who were born in Vietnam and have their own dramatic stories. Fleeing on a boat to a refugee camp at 4 years old and resettling in Oklahoma. Or staying in postwar Saigon when people went hungry, hoarding food and having to protect what possessions they had.
Although Saigon has healed remarkably and is a healthy, vibrant city, everywhere you look there are reminders of The American War (as it is called here). War machines sitting outside of public buildings. Museums devoted to the war. Tours of Viet Cong tunnels outside of Saigon.
Tomorrow, Thien and I plan to head for Dalat and then north towards Hanoi. Since Thien is on a break from work (the classical theater he does face-painting for is out of town) he is going to join me on my travels. And he's been an excellent guide so far!
'Til next time.
Sid
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