Huge update 3: Dalat, Vietnam

A few days later I moved my way to Dalat, Vietnam. This area really was a great place to be. I reminded me a lot of Taiwan. It is set up in the 'Central Highlands' of Vietnam and was a lush green area on the side of a mountain. This took me away from the craziness of Ho Chi Minh City for sure. This is a slower paced area and more locals are around with less foreigners.

While on the bus heading there I was seated next to a Vietnamese girl who is my age and we got to talking. Turns out she lives in Dalat and studies in Ho Chi Minh City. So we decided that we would meet up one day and she would show me around the area a bit.

Dalat night market in the background
foreground is racing RC cars

When I arrived I stayed in the worst hotel I have ever seen. A motorbike picked me up at the bus station and drove me to some really horrible place. I don't remember the name but I know I didn't really sleep at all because everything looked like it was out of the 1970's and very dirty with bedbugs. So I kind of slept but didn't at all. The next morning I went out on a mission to find a new place. Found a beautiful one and settled down there for the next few days.

On the day that I found the good hotel I went for a walk around the day market to see what was being sold and bought. Went through shops to see what locals eat and drink. Nothing too out of the ordinary but still had a lot of fun doing it. That night I went out to the night market they hold on the main street. This city is really beautiful because it is lit up at night and has a really nice river in the middle of the town. The town is quiet in the daytime but so busy and hectic at night.

The next day I rented a motorbike, something I have never done before in my life so I thought I would give it a try just in case I wanted to buy one when I got back to Taiwan. I was nervous but got the hang of it very fast. It was difficult at first because it was rainy and I didn't know what to expect on one. But I went for a ride through the hills of Dalat to see what else I could find outside of the town center. There is not much outside but some beautiful mountain scenery. I made my way on the bike to see a waterfall. The waterfall was not much to look at but still was a cool place to see indigenous Vietnamese.

Dalat Watefall

The next day I just walked around a bit until the night when I met up with the friend I met on the bus. She showed me around the night market and told me about all the local foods of Dalat. We tried many different foods. She paid for a lot of it which I felt really bad about, I tried to offer to pay but she refused. One thing about many Asian cultures is that when they refuse you just accept it so you don't make them upset. I have found that, it isn't really getting upset but disappointed, Asians like to treat people but don't always like to be treated (same goes for South East Asia). But we ate egg pancakes that were just very thin egg with spices on it. She bought me some lychee for the bus and some more traditional Vietnamese foods.

The next day I had to leave Dalat to head back to Ho Chi Minh City to head into Cambodia, I found as I was going that I could have taken a bus from there but I was at the wrong place, so 8 hours sort of wasted. It wasn't fully wasted because the same girl who showed me around was on my bus again so we were able to eat together before we had to part ways.

Stay tuned for Huge update 4: Phnom Phen, Cambodia

Huge update 2: Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

I was planning a trip for a while and decided that I would kind of vagabond the trip. I was not going to make any plans ahead of time other than the flights. So I departed Taiwan on July 1st and knew I was going to be gone until August 7th.

I had really a strange feeling about leaving Taiwan, it hurt to leave but I knew I wanted to see more countries. This really told me how much love I have for this country that I was leaving. Taiwan has become my home. I decided that I would travel alone and meet people as I go. Disclaimer: South-East Asia is not a place to travel to alone because most people travel in groups and there are few hostels, so it is hard to meet people.

But my first destination was to Vietnam, a country that I really wanted to visit and was very interested in seeing what it had to offer. My flight left Taiwan and was headed for Malaysia first, when we landed I wanted to see the Petronas Towers since I had about a 10 hour layover. So I got off the plane and went to the train station that was going to take me there. I ate a little then had to take a subway out. The problem was I didn't have enough money so I went to the ATM and my card was denied, called the bank so they could add Malaysia to my bank card so I could get money out and by the time they did... all the ATM's were closed for the night (I think for security reasons). So I had to 'sleep' in a train station with homeless around me. Needless to say, I didn't sleep.

When the station opened back up I got back to the airport and waited to head to Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon.

First meal in Vietnam:
pho bo, with my favorite Saigon Beer.

I could talk for hours and days on all of this, but I won't I will be brief and to the point (but it still might be a little long). I land in Ho Chi Minh City and it seemed like I was landing on a dirt runway. It didn't feel the safest but I landed fine and got out and grabbed a cab to the hostel I wanted to go to. The hostel was great, I loved it and stayed many nights. It was the NGOC Thao Guest House. The people were so nice and helpful. I highly recommend them.

Ho Chi Minh was a very crazy city, with way more motor bikes than Taiwan. The funniest thing, and possibly the most dangerous was that they have to wear helmets there. But they get around that by using 'Nike' hats with a little padding inside and a chin strap. I have to say, they did look pretty cool and I wanted to buy one but they were not going to save you from a crash. I traveled around a little to see a bit of the area I was in, which was District 1; otherwise known as the party district. I didn't plan that but didn't really mind either.

Mr. Bean, sad story this man has he wishes everyone
just forget about the war. He has been writing a diary
since he was in the war and will publish it once he dies.

A couple days after arriving I went on my first trip, Cu Chi Tunnels tour. The Cu Chi Tunnels were tunnels that the North Vietnamese (now just Vietnamese obviously) made during the war against the French for independence and then continued during the 'American War' or the 'Vietnam War' as I know it by. We had a guide for the tunnels, Mr. Bean. This man has an extremely sad story, one that is a real tearjerker. He was a soldier for the United States during the war and then finished his tour of duty in New York. Upon leaving he burned his passport and said he would never come back to the US because he told us, 'I am not an American, I am Vietnamese'. The love he had for his country was great, as do all Vietnamese. Very few, if any, hold a lot against US tourists or the US in general. As Mr. Bean told us, they want to move on and so should the US. He said both sides were wrong and should not have gone to war. From most that I talked to, they didn't care what the government became, as long as they were still Vietnamese at the end of it. The tunnels were really cool but sad, we saw tanks that were blown up by Vietnamese, weapons the Vietcong used and heard stories of how the sides tried to outsmart each other.

One story stands out to me the most. The VC taught their dogs to smell Americans, because Americans smoked Marlboro Cigarettes. So the VC taught the dogs to sniff out Americans by that smell. Eventually the Americans caught on so they would drop their cigarette butts in the tunnels and the dogs would turn on the VC thinking them to be Americans. Another story was that the VC didn't have shoes or lots of weapons. So they would cut up tired and make shoes out of them. During the night they would sneak into the American base they dug under and steal their weapons and ammo. The only problem is that tire tracks have treads on them to show which direction people are coming. So the VC would wear them in one way and walk out with them on the other way, so it would seem that the VC never left the base. To me, this was all a mental game, who is smarter.

VC sniper pit, a tight squeeze

While on the tour I was able to go into a sniper pit that the VC made. The pit was so tight and small, pretty much everything in the country was small and showed just how to outsmart the Americans during the war. Make things small and Americans can't come in. We also saw many, many booby traps. Some of the most disgusting things to see but I have to admit, they were highly inventive. The highlight of the tour is going into the tunnels. Tourists are not allowed in the real tunnel because it is too small. There was one part of the tunnel that was carved about 3 cm bigger to accommodate Westerners. Having that said, they were still very, very small. Americans during the war would have to crawl on hand and knees to fit through, some on their stomachs. It was a game of hide and seek. While in the tunnels I got extremely, extremely claustrophobic. The tunnel we went through only lasted 100 meters but had levels that you went down, first was 3 meters down, then 6 meters, then back up to 3. At each drop there were emergency exits, I thought of taking them whenever I saw one. Luckily, I made it out at the last exit. At the end of the tour we were brought to a shooting range where it is one of the only few places you can shoot some weapons. I shot the AK-47, first gun I have ever shot, and let me tell you, I am a horrible shot. The very end of the tour is watching a 1960's propaganda movie, which is obviously propaganda but still very cool to see.

View inside the tunnels

AK-47

After that tour I headed to the War Remnants Museum. Which used to be called the 'War Crimes Against US and Puppet Government'. This was just the beginning of all the sad museums I was going to see on the rest of my trip. This museum contains many vehicles that were shot down by the VC and North Vietnamese during the war and some land vehicles too. Inside the museum, which is another propaganda place but really none of it is false, shows all the chemical crimes, physical crimes, and other crimes the US did during the war. Granted the crimes the North Vietnamese did were not shown, but the museum hits close to home too because it shows US soldiers who have had children with deformities due to Agent Orange.

Meeting with Thuy Ngoc in the park across from
my guest house

A couple days later, while traveling around I got lost and was trying to find my way back when a huge downpour happened. I managed to hide under a balcony and after standing there for a bit security came out and tried to help me. He found I knew no Vietnamese and called someone younger out to help me. This girl told me her name was Thuy Ngoc to come inside and she could help me. This was the nicest thing because when I came inside I found it was a college and she and all the students embraced me and loved the chance to speak English. They taught me some games until the rain stopped and then I went on my way but decided I would meet up with the girl before I left Ho Chi Minh city and buy her a drink. One thing to note about Vietnam is that everything is cheap, but to Vietnamese it is still expensive. So to buy someone something really is a grand gesture of friendship that they don't forget.

War Reunification Palace, a chopper like this blew up
two areas of the building and the government
wants people to know about it.

A day or so later I went off to the Reunification Palace which was the site that marked the end of the Vietnam War. When the Americans up and left, the Vietnamese were still fighting and eventually the war ended by the North Vietnamese storming this Palace that, if I understand correctly was the home of the President of South Vietnam. There were a ton of cool rooms to see here and reminded me a lot of the White House tour I went on in December. At the end you get to see another propaganda film, which I always love seeing so I watched it all.

Ho Chi Minh City Post Office

Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh

Stay tuned for Huge update 3: Dalat, Vietnam

Huge update 1: Dragon Boat

First, I have neglected my blog long enough. I haven't written for a while for a few reasons, all July I was traveling around in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. The other reason for the neglect is that I was just being lazy for a while.

This blog will span about 4-5 blogs. First I want to talk about the end of the semester and the beginning of the summer. Blog number two will be Vietnam, then three Cambodia and four will be Thailand.

The end of the semester wrapped up nicely, I got all great grades. Grading in Taiwan is different than in the US because no one, and I mean no one will get higher than about a 92%. But I got lucky and got all A's and B's (which was expected). Chinese, which I wasn't sure if I was going to even pass was passed with a solid B.

After the semester ended we were getting ready for a big event that takes place every year in Taiwan: The Dragon Boat Festival. This event has a history, that might be botched by me but from what I understand is this: Long ago there was a man who drowned in a river (or lake, something) and the people didn't want the fish to eat his body so they raced out and dropped 粽子(zhongzi) down into the water. 粽子 are a rice dumpling that is wrapped with either a bamboo leaf or seaweed, in Taiwan it is traditionally bamboo leaves. The dumplings then are steamed and have a mix of meat, rice and egg inside. I don't like them too much but I know many people that do, the only problem with them for me is that I don't like egg that much. But after a while these dumplings were no longer thrown into the waters they were just eaten as tradition. But nowadays the tradition has steamed into a race where teams from all over the country and all over the world come out and race in boats up a river, or lake. 

My good friend in the middle 阮柏緯.

There are a few dragon boat teams at my university but the one that I became the most friends with was the 文山 (WenShan) dragon boat team. I had a couple international friends that joined the team so I began to hang out with the team at a bar nearby and other places that they went. I was sort of adopted by the team and they were my first large group of Taiwanese to hang out with, I also kind of became their camera man as well. 

Fast forward a bit to race day. I watched them race two times and needless to say, it was extremely hot outside. I hung around with the team while they waited for their race to start and they were very kind to allow me to sit around with them, they even 'force' fed me. I didn't want to impose on the team because they were the ones racing not me, but even the elder team members told me I should eat with them. This is how Taiwanese are, they are always helpful and kind. To me, this race went very well, but they did not end up winning. It has to be said though that this race was a worldwide race, so people from all over the world participated and I got to see the Mayor of Taipei along with some representatives from other countries. 

That night they all went out to eat at a really nice place and, of course they dragged me along. It might sound like I am making excuses but they really did want me around which was so nice of them to keep inviting me places. 

The next day was race number two for them. This day was even hotter and there was little to no shade anywhere. But the day was beautiful and I got there a few hours early to hang out with the team and take some pictures of them warming up and they again, fed me and watered me. After a few hours they were up to bat and their first race went extremely well, they won but did get disqualified for dropping their baton in the water. Not only did the baton fall in but the person at the head of the boat did too because the bot actually broke. But the first races video is here:

The second race everyone knew was going to be a difficult one because they were racing against the Taipei firefighters. The firefighters had one rule while being at the race, they could not talk. They could not talk even to each other in the tent. They were dead silent from the moment the day began. This was their strategy to mentally be strong and put pressure on other teams. They were successful in looking powerful because everyone was talking about them all day. But the race began and once again the 文山 team were doing amazing and racing their hearts out. But in the end they did end up not winning that race and the firefighters did win. The second race video is here:

To talk for a moment about the sport itself and compare it to other sports I will say this. The fans, the teams, the players are all extremely respectful. These races do give people a lot of money and that is an incentive to do well. But one thing I noticed, and maybe it is because I am not close to many athletes in the US or have met the wrong ones, there is a little tension between the teams like there should be because everyone wants to win but there isn't a lot. If I can compare it to a sport it would be like major league sports in the US, the players all respect each other, sure there are some exceptions but for the most part they do. Everyone wants 'their' team to win and that is where the fans can be obnoxious at times, but here at these races, the fans just cheer on their teams and always congratulate the winning team and never have hurt feelings or be angry, even if the team is from Mainland China and the team advocates to take back control of Taiwan, which one team was. 

Gilberto and Emmaida, couple of my Mexico buddies

After the second game everyone just went to the bar that we have become accustomed to going to and had some drinks and just talked.

About a week later the team invited me to a KTV with the team, which is where I coined the phrase 'but I am not on the team', whenever they would do something nice for me. It was all in joking fun because I knew they wanted me around and I wanted to be around them. Like I said before, I was adopted by them. This KTV was funny because there were no English songs but 'Happy Birthday' and 'Hey Jude'. This didn't stop those who don't speak Chinese well from having fun though. So we still ate, drank and had a blast listening to drunk Taiwanese sing and have fun. It was a great experience and one that I won't forget.  

Overall, if I was planning a travel guide to Taiwan, which I am sure some people might use my blog for, I highly recommend seeing the Dragon Boat festival. No matter where you are in Taiwan, there will be one near.