I really should be writing this on Thursday and not Tuesday because my flight is on Thursday, 6.10pm and it seems more appropriate to write last minute goodbye posts at the last minute. And not two days before, which seems to smack of kiasuism and anxiousness.
But the lure of mambo is too strong. I am afraid that I will be too pissed on Thursday to type and think properly, and hence I am writing my pre-departure thoughts now.
I had a talk yesterday with a friend who personally drove down from his house to mine just to pass me a stack of namecards of recommended hotels and tour operators in Vietnam and chat with me about his experience in Vietnam.
And this was how my first impression of Vietnam was formed. Through the eyes, ears and words of my friend SR, who was clearly exasperated and annoyed by much of what he experienced there.
“It’s the land of scams. Watch out.” He described to me countless nuggets of unpleasant experiences. It says air-conditioned bus on the ticket but the bus turns out to be open air, and worse still, filled with chain-smoking garrulous Vietnamese and boxes and boxes of goods which include live seafood. Hidden costs cleverly embedded into innocuous offers for extra servings of food and alternative transport. Water-sellers who refuse to give back change unless pestered into doing so. Taxi-drivers with rigged meters and skins as thick as pigs as they drive to destinations via the longest possible routes.
Which explains my slight sense of trepidation, and me harbouring the niggling thought that Vietnam will not measure up to Cambodia in terms of my experience of the people. SR said that the Cambodians and Laotians are genuine people while the Vietnamese are just out to trick you. An over-generalisation perhaps, but I shall tread lightly in Vietnam with this in mind.
Lonely Planet takes a different view. Its description of the place and people seems way more positive. I shall make up my own mind from my experiences there and come to my own conclusions.
I probably sound too sedate and neutral now about my upcoming trip, but I assure you that this is only temporary because I am feeling fatigued from all the travelling and meeting ups I had so far and some events that happened in the past few weeks that shed some amount of light on particular relationships I have and hope to cultivate. A few extra hours of sleep will do the trick and put me in a great mood again.
I shall post on Thursday, just before the flight. Till then, I need to zzzzzzz.
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Oh, here is the tentative schedule for our 16 days in Vietnam. Nothing is cast in stone yet so we will improvise on the spot.
240708 to 080808
Hanoi (2 days) —> Sapa (2 days) —> Halong Bay (2 days) —> Hue (2 days) —> Hoi An (2 days) —> Nha Trang (2 days) —> Ho Chih Minh City (2 days)
Which leaves 2 empty days for us to play around with and as buffer time for cockups.
Backpacking reminds me of jazz music; we improvise on the spot from general themes. In the case of jazz, players work around musical keys. For backpacking the only thing we define is the larger sketch of places we want to go, and we haphazardly allocate days to each place. Depending on circumstances, we increase or decrease the amount of time we spend at the locations on the spot.
I guess that’s what makes backpacking so fun: the unparalleled sense of freedom. the serendipidity that takes over and the heady feeling of venturing into the big unknown.
