Vietnam
Well I'm in Vietnam now.
I realise its been a long time since my last blog entry.
Ive been busy jumping countries like a trampoline.
Not a good idea, its hard to mee people when you're in a hurry.
Quick review then.
Cambodia was not bad at all. Too bad my only image of Cambodia is Angkor and Phnom Penh.
Both are barely a reflection of the real Cambodia, from what I heard. Very touristy, with begging kids selling postcards and hassling moto-taxi drivers. You spend your day saying No Thank You. And still that barely matches Vietnam. But thats for later. Angko was pretty impressive. For the anecdote, while Angkor was populated by a million of citizens around the year 1300, London counted 50.000. That kind of puts things in perspective, doesnt it. The way we learned history, not much was going on outside of europe. We discarded Asia's empires, from Siam to the Khmers and the Chinese dynasties in less than a chapter, before going back to the oh so relevant feudal system of the Merovingians. Anyway, I'll readily admit it: Tal is a racist. Yes I am. I don't like japanese tourists. I dont think of myself as superior though, just... let's say... more respectful to the man made wonders of Angkor and its 50 square kilometers of titanical architectures. But no, apparently Japanese people think the best approach is to photograph the fuck out of every stone. And I could show some understanding to that, if it wasnt for the way they tour around the archeological site in huge aircon busses. Most travellers rent a bike, or maybe a tuk-tuk driver for the day. But our Asian friends, they move around like fish schools. Arrive at one temple and they take over the place like ants on a chocolate cake. They'll shout at eachother from one temple tower to the other. Pose in front of temples like ad-people selling you a new house or a trip to the bahamas. Both palms held to their right, saying "You wanna buy? Call now for your vintage limited edition piece of Angkor !" Anyway, one morning I woke up for the sunrise and went to this temple, Ta Phrom which isnt a good place for a view of the sun rising, but that means you have it for yourself. And since its the only temple where they let the trees grow through the stones, their roots finding their way in every crease of the temple's wall, its pretty surreal and as peaceful as it gets. So that was Angkor.
Then to Pnomh Phen where I met a bunch of very cool people. Funny how it is with the people I clicked most that I spend the least time. This one guy Andrew I met only for one night though I knew this was my kind of fellow traveller. Too bad but emails and maybe a soon visit to England and who knows. With Hannah, John, Izzie, Stacy and Mac, we went volunteering in a village 70 km outside of the capital. Just for two days. We went there full of positiveness and motivation, but we left pretty grim. The guy running the organization was barely organized. We thaught english to kids, but there was no continuity, no program, no idea which kid had had which lesson or how much they could speak. It was a start-from-scratch every lesson again. Pretty frustrating. And when we found out that the 6 dollars we paid for accomodation, all went to the cook, that's when we gave up. If you'd travel in Asia you knew there was no way three meals could cost 6 dollars. Not the meals we got, not in Asia. We even sat down with the owner and estimated the price of eggs, vegetables, rice, meat and spices, and the numbers didnt add up. Wheter the cook was ripping off the owner, or the owner rippins us all off, or whatever... But knowing that not a single penny went to the children, or schoolbooks, or pens or dictionaries or whatever, its still painful. I dunno...
Then I jumped to Vietnam. Its pretty cheap here but every local hassles you to take their tuk-tuk, to buy their chewing gum, their postcards, their home made breads. And the worse is, they sell books. New books. They simply photocopy bestsellers and sell them. I mean photocopy the way we do at home. Take the book, scan the page, print. What you get is a cheap tissue of pages too white, too clean to be anything but fake. Clinically fake. Books like Catch 22 or the Alchemist, surgically fake. Painful even to look at.
Right now Im in Na Thrang, a beach-diving spot on the east coast of Vietnam. It seems I grossly underestimated the distances of vietnam. Im looking at several 12 hours bus trips through the country. That aint' a fun perspective. I got to the point where I look at the map, count the kilometers, remember how long my last bus trip took, and I go 'Oh fuck'. General fatigue and not very meaningful encounters makes me wanna move less and less and just relax somewhere. Except Im on a tight schedule. Gotta be there by that date. Catch a flight back to Singapore. Then back to Belgium. Then be present at my summerjob on the 1st. Too much action and not enough time to know where Im headed and how I feel about it. Need to sit and think.
Time's up, before they charge me the whole hour of internet access.
Tired of arguing about worthless amounts of money that do mean alot for a traveller on a shoestring budget. But make the Vietnamese people who still have a bad taste left by the Americans in their mouth, understand that. Oh well. Can't complain, I'm travelling my ass off.
Umpf
Tal
I realise its been a long time since my last blog entry.
Ive been busy jumping countries like a trampoline.
Not a good idea, its hard to mee people when you're in a hurry.
Quick review then.
Cambodia was not bad at all. Too bad my only image of Cambodia is Angkor and Phnom Penh.
Both are barely a reflection of the real Cambodia, from what I heard. Very touristy, with begging kids selling postcards and hassling moto-taxi drivers. You spend your day saying No Thank You. And still that barely matches Vietnam. But thats for later. Angko was pretty impressive. For the anecdote, while Angkor was populated by a million of citizens around the year 1300, London counted 50.000. That kind of puts things in perspective, doesnt it. The way we learned history, not much was going on outside of europe. We discarded Asia's empires, from Siam to the Khmers and the Chinese dynasties in less than a chapter, before going back to the oh so relevant feudal system of the Merovingians. Anyway, I'll readily admit it: Tal is a racist. Yes I am. I don't like japanese tourists. I dont think of myself as superior though, just... let's say... more respectful to the man made wonders of Angkor and its 50 square kilometers of titanical architectures. But no, apparently Japanese people think the best approach is to photograph the fuck out of every stone. And I could show some understanding to that, if it wasnt for the way they tour around the archeological site in huge aircon busses. Most travellers rent a bike, or maybe a tuk-tuk driver for the day. But our Asian friends, they move around like fish schools. Arrive at one temple and they take over the place like ants on a chocolate cake. They'll shout at eachother from one temple tower to the other. Pose in front of temples like ad-people selling you a new house or a trip to the bahamas. Both palms held to their right, saying "You wanna buy? Call now for your vintage limited edition piece of Angkor !" Anyway, one morning I woke up for the sunrise and went to this temple, Ta Phrom which isnt a good place for a view of the sun rising, but that means you have it for yourself. And since its the only temple where they let the trees grow through the stones, their roots finding their way in every crease of the temple's wall, its pretty surreal and as peaceful as it gets. So that was Angkor.
Then to Pnomh Phen where I met a bunch of very cool people. Funny how it is with the people I clicked most that I spend the least time. This one guy Andrew I met only for one night though I knew this was my kind of fellow traveller. Too bad but emails and maybe a soon visit to England and who knows. With Hannah, John, Izzie, Stacy and Mac, we went volunteering in a village 70 km outside of the capital. Just for two days. We went there full of positiveness and motivation, but we left pretty grim. The guy running the organization was barely organized. We thaught english to kids, but there was no continuity, no program, no idea which kid had had which lesson or how much they could speak. It was a start-from-scratch every lesson again. Pretty frustrating. And when we found out that the 6 dollars we paid for accomodation, all went to the cook, that's when we gave up. If you'd travel in Asia you knew there was no way three meals could cost 6 dollars. Not the meals we got, not in Asia. We even sat down with the owner and estimated the price of eggs, vegetables, rice, meat and spices, and the numbers didnt add up. Wheter the cook was ripping off the owner, or the owner rippins us all off, or whatever... But knowing that not a single penny went to the children, or schoolbooks, or pens or dictionaries or whatever, its still painful. I dunno...
Then I jumped to Vietnam. Its pretty cheap here but every local hassles you to take their tuk-tuk, to buy their chewing gum, their postcards, their home made breads. And the worse is, they sell books. New books. They simply photocopy bestsellers and sell them. I mean photocopy the way we do at home. Take the book, scan the page, print. What you get is a cheap tissue of pages too white, too clean to be anything but fake. Clinically fake. Books like Catch 22 or the Alchemist, surgically fake. Painful even to look at.
Right now Im in Na Thrang, a beach-diving spot on the east coast of Vietnam. It seems I grossly underestimated the distances of vietnam. Im looking at several 12 hours bus trips through the country. That aint' a fun perspective. I got to the point where I look at the map, count the kilometers, remember how long my last bus trip took, and I go 'Oh fuck'. General fatigue and not very meaningful encounters makes me wanna move less and less and just relax somewhere. Except Im on a tight schedule. Gotta be there by that date. Catch a flight back to Singapore. Then back to Belgium. Then be present at my summerjob on the 1st. Too much action and not enough time to know where Im headed and how I feel about it. Need to sit and think.
Time's up, before they charge me the whole hour of internet access.
Tired of arguing about worthless amounts of money that do mean alot for a traveller on a shoestring budget. But make the Vietnamese people who still have a bad taste left by the Americans in their mouth, understand that. Oh well. Can't complain, I'm travelling my ass off.
Umpf
Tal
posted by Tal Benisty at 6:10 AM
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