Hoi An, Nha Trang, and Saigon

After my time in Hanoi and Halong Bay, I worked my way down to the center of Vietnam and went to Hoi An, Nha Trang, and now I'm in Saigon. The train ride to Hoi An was beautiful because you get to see the coastline of Vietnam. Prior to arriving in Vietnam, I knew that Vietnam was in Asia and that was about it. I had no idea Vietnam was situated on the coast and their coastline is longer than the coast line of California. It was definitely a beautiful sight!

Hoi An is a very quaint town known for having the best tailors in Vietnam. There are close to 500 tailors in Hoi An. Hoi An is the size of Lincoln Park in Chicago so that is a lot of Tailors in one area! Since these tailors mostly cater to tourists, their turnaround time is very quick....24 hours or less. I ended up getting 6 dresses made and they were all done in 8 hours. Amazing! The customer service in Asia is top notch too. The business owners and anyone in the service related industry will go above and beyond for your business. I told the tailor that my flight was leaving at 9 am the next day for Nha Trang so I wasn't sure if that would leave her enough time to make the dresses because I was in her store at 6:30 pm (15 hrs before flight). She told me she would be finished by 11:30 pm and she will bring the dresses to my hotel. Sure enough, 5 hours later she showed up with my dresses and had me try them on. She needed to go back to her shop for final adjusments and left them with the hotel receptionist when she was done. Aside from enjoying the tailors in the area, I really loved the nice small town feel of Hoi An. My time there was very relaxing and a great place to wander around and check out cafes and restaurants.

After 3 days in Hoi An, I made my way further south to Nha Trang. The guide books mentioned that Nha Trang has the best beach town in Vietnam and they were certainly right! It was so great to just lay out at the beach and catch up on books and write in my journal. I experienced a major FIRST when I was in Nha Trang. For the first time in my life, I actually just layed out at the beach ALL DAY LONG for four days. Usually when I'm at a beach or by the pool, I get restless after an hour so I go for walks or go shopping. NOT THIS TIME. During my 4 days in Nha Trang I loved just laying around and enjoyed the down time. WELL, I should be more specific about the down time....the down time consisted of massages, manicures, pedicures, fresh fruit, and reading and writing in my journal. Back to the customer service...it's seriously top notch. I just had to lay there and they would come around and do everything for me. The prices are even more unbelievable. In both Thailand and Vietnam, things are extremely cheap. DIRT CHEAP. Massages are about $10 - $15 for an entire hour. Mani/Pedi is about $12 TOTAL FOR BOTH. I gave my masseuse a $15 tip because she was really good and she insisted on giving me a mani/pedi for free. I told her I didn't need one because I already had a mani/pedi the day before but she wanted to change the color for me because of the tip that I gave her. Once again, this is a perfect example of how generous and kind the Vietnamese and Thai people are. They really don't have much but they are still very giving. I'll never forget what a Thai woman said to me after I went in for a wax (which was $35/for basically everything from head to toe including a 20% tip). I told her how expensive waxing was back in the U.S. and she asked, "WHY SO EXPENSIVE? WAXING YOU HAVE TO DO. NO CHOICE." I love it. Why should necessities cost so much???

I spent my time in Nha Trang with Corrine and Stephane. Corrine and I met at a restaurant by the beach. She was sitting at the table next to me and we just started talking and realized we had a lot in common. Corrine is from Switzerland and she is taking 6 weeks off to travel in Vietnam and Thailand. She is planning to meet up with me, Christy, and Steve in Thailand. She is going to Koh Tao to get her diving license before she meets up with us. I told her to go to Jesper of course. Stephane and I met each other in Bangkok and he and I both went to Koh Tao together to get our diving license. After Koh Tao we went our separate ways...He went to Laos and I came to Vietnam. We finally met up in Nha Trang so it was great to see him again. He may also be meeting up with me, Christy, and Steve for the Full Moon party in Thailand.

Spending this much time in Asia has been very interesting. When I was in Hong Kong people thought I was chinese. When I was inThailand people thought I was Thai. Now I'm in Vietnam and people think I'm Vietnamese. When I say I'm none of these they ask if I'm Mexican or from Spain. I think I get Mexican a lot because I'm dark right now and most Asians don't prefer to be tan. They love the porcelain pale look. I went to buy moisturizer for my face today and everything is "Whitening Formula" or "Best Whitening Moiosturizer". No sunless tanning moisturizers in this neck of the woods.

Aside from being seen as a Mexican, I have unfortunately been viewed as a prostitute in two different occassions. Once in Thailand and once in Vietnam.

Thailand: I was hanging out with this guy Ely (from Canada, traveling to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) at a bar in Bangkok. He told me he read this book about a prison in Bangkok and I remembered Jason telling me about this book so I told him that I wanted to read it. He said he was finished with it so I could go back to his hotel with him and he would get me the book. I waited for him in the lobby of the hotel when he went to get the book. As I was waiting, I noticed a sign in the lobby that said, "THAI FRIENDS WELCOME. 300 BAHT PLEASE". I read the sign and thought, "Oh how nice. They really want the guests to have a true Thai experience so the hotel is encouraging the natives of Thailand to hang out at the hotel so the guests can really immerse. That's nice the hotel will pay the natives 300 baht to hang out at the hotel." 300 baht is about $9. When Ely came back with the book, the hotel receptionist tells him that he can bring his Thai friend (ME) upstairs for 300 baht. I told the receptionist, "Oh it's okay. I'm korean but thank you." Ely takes me outside and starts cracking up. He says that Thai Friends are prostitutes and the guests that bring one of these friends up to their rooms have to pay 300 baht.

Vietnam: On my first day at Nha Trang Beach, I was talking to this British guy James who was in the lounge chair next to me. We pretty much spent the first half of the day talking together and we had lunch too before he had to leave for the airport. After lunch, I came back to my seat and this guy named Guy comes over and sits in James's chair next to me. Guy is pretty attractive and he is probably in his late 30s. He seems pretty nice and we're having a good time. Guy says he is a recruiter from Denmark so I tell him about me and my job before I came on this trip. Guy asked me to dinner and during dinner he basically comes out and tells me that he is recruiter for entertainers. I still don't get it. I respond with, "WOW, that's great. I'm sure your job must be so fun and interesting. I bet a lot of people envy your job." He tells me more about it and it turns out he is a glorified Pimp and he was trying to get me to work for him and pimp me out. I told him that I wasn't interested obviously and asked him what gave him that idea. He responded with, "You're the only Asian girl hanging out at Nha Trang beach with a bunch of Europeans and Australians. Generally, the Asian girls in this type of setting are prostitutes and I thought you marketed yourself on the Internet when you told me you did Internet advertising." We both got a pretty good laugh out of it and then he had to leave after dinner to go "recruiting".

Both instances were harmless so I can laugh about it now. I arrived in Saigon early this morning and I will be here until Friday. On Friday I will fly back to Thailand and spend the last 4 weeks of my trip there. Keith will be waiting for me when I get to Bangkok on Friday and Christy & Steve will be joining us on Dec. 30. As for my Vietnam bike ride?!?!??! I was originally supposed to get to Vietnam on Dec 2 and my bike ride was suppossed to start on Dec 3. As most of the world knows, the Bangkok Airport was shut down for a week due to protestors so I was unable to leave for Vietnam until Dec 4. I missed the bike ride but I had the option to do a 2 day bike ride in Saigon. I had every intention of doing it but I kept on extending my stay in Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An, and Nha Trang by an extra day at each location because I really liked the cities. Now, it just left me with 3 days in Saigon so the bike ride was not possible. I was really looking forward to it but I'm glad that I was able to be flexible with my stay in the other cities. I definitely plan on doing the bike ride in the future. My 2 weeks in Vietnam have been amazing and I definitely plan to come back here again to do the bike ride and explore other parts of Vietnam. For the rest of my time in Saigon, I'm going to enjoy this busy city and also check out an orphanage. Let's hope no one there thinks I'm a "Thai Friend".