Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Getting into Vietnam

It's been now 2.5 weeks down the road and because I cannot upload pictures I would like to quickly share my feelings so far.
I realised that my first post was rather negative and I reckon it was simply the culture shock (especially because Hanoi offers rather the negative side of Vietnam (messy, dirty, people harassing you to sell something and not as nice as Vietnamese in the South)) but this is now over.

Over the past 10 days I realised that I need to be in phase with Vietnam and it starts with adapting myself with the time here: Vietnam wakes up at 5.30 (before the sun gets too strong) and school children are all out at 6.30 etc.. Just by doing this I have been able to see more of the life here like sun rises, kids biking to school or Vietnamese exercising in the morning.

I also have been able to meet more locals which is always a good sign. Bus rides are very helpful for that. I had three funny ones: 1) a 16h night seeting bus being the only non-Vietnamese 2) one to come to Dalat through a new road that is actually not finished yet and 3) a "sleeping" night bus ride in which my legs did not fit and during which I realised that the roads in belgium are actually in a pretty good state.

Overall I think Vietnam is a good first destination because is it still pretty easy (with regards to accomodation and food especially) while I heard from fellow travellers that Laos and Cambodia will be more challenging. I should be in Cambodia (crossing the border on the Mekong river) probably in about a week.
It is hard to tell if I really like Vietnam because I simply had to adapt to many new things that probably I did not enjoy the country as much as I should and I cannot compare it to any similar country (yet). Landscapes are nice (beautiful beaches and I am about to visit the hills) but the fact that the country is so disorganised and therefore you cannot do much by yourself bothers me. I love just getting lost in the streets but here you always get a motorbike approaching you.
The real Vietnam should have been visited 10 years ago and if you plan to visit it do it quickly otherwise you will just see concrete everywhere (the pace at which they build is sadly very fast).

I hope to be able to post pics of Hué (nice), Hoi An (very disappointing because far too touristic and especially to much set up as the Westerners want it to look like) and Jungle Beach where I have spent 5 wonderful relaxing days.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No no no Benj, tu n'encourages pas les gens à aller au Vietnam alors que franchement ce pays peut-être oufissime!!!

:-)