So far we’ve been to Bangkok, Thailand (major city), Siem Reap, Cambodia (tourist mecca) and Hoi An, Danang and Hanoi, Vietnam (tourist mecca, small city, major city). I certainly can’t say I’ve seen it all and know everything, but I have a few observations to share anyway.
Driving in South East Asia is bananas
– In Bangkok, there is a mix of all manner of vehicles including tuk tuks which really have no business being a mode of transport in a major city, but there they are, readily available for you to take and wish you hadn’t as you suck in fumes from all the other bigger vehicles that could roll right over your tuk tuk at any time.
– In Siem Reap, I am pretty sure there are no laws, but everyone manages to get around somehow. Tuk tuks abound there as well, but they fit right in with the otherwise mostly motorbike traffic.
– In Vietnam, well, Vietnam is a special case. Everyone seems to drive by echo location, constantly beeping their horn to let whoever is nearby know they are there. I thought this might be limited to the smaller towns, but we’re in Hanoi and it’s the same thing here. It is not pleasant. The worst of it was when we paid to walk around the “old town” area of Hoi An which had signs everywhere saying pedestrian traffic only. At first, it was quite pleasant with no scooters buzzing by and beeping every three seconds, but, an unadvertised rule allows motor traffic through from 11 am to 3 pm every day. Sigh.
Eating in foreign countries is hard work
– We’ve had breakfast included in most of our hotels so far so that has been the least challenging meal of the day.
– We managed lunch okay in Bangkok and Siem Reap, but in Danang we ran into big challenges. We went to the beach and rented lounge chairs for $2 each and settled in to relax all day. When we started to get hungry, I agreed to venture out to find food and bring it back. Unfortunately, it seemed like almost no options existed for lunch. The closest, seemingly obvious option was to go to one of the million of what seem like the exact same seafood restaurant in a row so I tried that and failed miserably. I ended up ordering two (small) sausages and two beers (reward for my foraging failure) from a beach stand which I could have done at the very start.
– We’ve had some proud moments just by being able to get dinner. Jon and I managed to get dinner at one of the million seafood restaurants in Danang. Then again, they gave us quail eggs and crackers at the start which we assumed were free as we didn’t order them, but then had to pay for, making us feel a bit rube-ish. Of course, our whole dinner, including shrimp for both of us and 4 beers, was all less than $10 so I should probably get over it. We also had our first bún chả experience last night which I can’t believe isn’t a thing in America or Australia (or maybe it is?? it should be).
People are mostly good
– I continue to debate this in my head, but I think people are mostly good. I read so much about scams and thieves and so on before this trip that I made myself a bit nervous. Asia is the furthest physical place I’ve traveled out of my comfort zone so I didn’t really need to make myself any more anxious before getting there. Anyway, I am happy to report that while we’ve had people tell us the Grand Palace was closed in Thailand and try to get us to take dodgy taxis to the point where I thought Jon’s name was Tuk Tuk, none of them has actually been mean or (too) pushy and all of them took no for an answer. Of course, there was an American guy at our hotel in Danang who bought a girl a drink and told her she couldn’t say no and who I wanted to punch in the face, but that’s a random tangent and thus the debate in my head rages on.
