Category: travel

Vietnam was an interesting experience. Candice and I were not there for long enough to see much outside the city center—still called Saigon—which encompasses the old French city. We stayed at a French colonial era restored hotel a few blocks from the Hotel de Ville, and just beside the old Opera house.

Ho Chi Minh itself is a view into the birth of a noisy Southeast Asian city, like Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur must have been 20 years ago. Ho Chi Minh has started in the mid 1990’s two decades behind it’s neighbors because of Vietnams self imposed isolation after the American Vietnam War. Today the city streets are overrun with motor bikes, countless motor bikes that outnumber the cars in an inverse proportion to the way cars outnumber bikes in the US.

Everything in Vietnam is ‘one dollar US’ or ‘ten dollar US’ and if it’s more you can bargain them down. Get in a taxi to go down the street—one dollar, across town: one dollar (Well sometimes five.) And the greatest thing is that if you try to pay in Dong, it’ll cost you 50% more than in dollars not the other way around.

I got offered the most famous ten dollar commodity in Vietnam one night. I was sitting on a sidewalk waiting for a good chance to photograph something. Candice was sitting in the coffee shop behind me (they have amazing coffee in Vietnam—just beware the ‘weasel coffee’. While I was sitting there a girl came up and sat next to me and stated talking to me. Very quickly she asked where I was staying and if I needed company. Unfortunately Candice paid the bill and came out before the young lady could offer ‘ten dollar, love you long time.’

We didn’t get out of the city very far. One trip to Chu Chi tunnels (it’s not worth it) and a trip to the Mangrove swamps, which are all young growth trees. They were all planted in the late 70’s after Agent Orange defoliated and killed all the old growth mangroves, some of which were more than a meter in diameter. The one place I really wanted to go, the Mekong Delta area, we didn’t make. The problem was I didn’t want to take a pre-packaged tour, both the other trips were with a local tour company and I thought they were a bit lame. I guess I am too used to setting my own schedule and doing what I want. I don’t like itineraries and schedules. So I looked online and found a travel report by some people that said to use a hydrofoil boat service that left Ho Chi Minh at 7 AM. That way you would make it to Mytho before the tour groups and see more ‘authentic’ life in the delta.

So on our last full day we dragged ourselves out of bed at o’dark hundred hours and make our way down to the pier. There were three hydrofoils at the pier but no ticket counters no captain, no crew, no nothing. After wondering around for an hour and trying to understand the broken English of the crew who apparently sleep on the boat (they opened the doors and were brushing their teeth while we were trying to figure out what was going on) we met the captain of one of the boats. He told us that while they used to run the service I had read about they were recently bought out by the same tour company that we had used to see the mangroves and Chu Chi. Apparently these guys don’t like competition and had shut the service down, turning the boat trip into part of yet another pre-packaged tour.

So I didn’t get to see the Mekong Delta but I did get to try Bia Hoi!. Bia Hoi is the local ‘fresh beer.’ You have to go a bit off the beaten tourist path to find it but it’s worth it. Served, at least in the place I found, in one liter plastic jugs, Bia Hoi is a social event. Candice and I went to Sai Gon Bia Hoi several times and it was always crowded. I was the only westerner we ever saw in the place and there was much staring but it was great. The girls who work—and live—there were fascinated with us. They only spoke a little English but they hovered around our tables quite a bit to speak with us, look at the camera and laugh when we tried to say something. Of the things we did and saw in Ho Chi Minh Bia Hoi was the most memorable.

Good Friday was a holiday here in S’pore—why? I don’t know no one here really celebrates Easter but hey it was a three day weekend: who am I to question. Since it was a long weekend Candice and I went to Malaysia [wikipedia.org]. Or, more precisely we went to Genting [wikipedia.org] and Kuala Lumpur [wikipedia.org].

First stop: Genting… After a long (eight hours! Someone lied then they said it only took four!) and very uncomfortable ride on a bus that bounced so much on it’s shocks that it could have stared in a Dr. Dre video, we got to Genting. Now, Genting is nothing more than a miniature Lost Wages in the highlands near Kuala Lumpur. There are some really great views of the mountains but other than that if you’re not placing bets or riding on cheesy miniature thrill rides then you’re eating or sleeping. But we only spent a day there so it was all good.

Kuala Lumpur was kind of a disappointment though. The only thing to really do is shop or drink. There is a severe lack of cultural things to see. You can go to Chinatown and by RM10 Rolexes but then, you can do that in most major cities in Southeast Asia. But what do KL have that no one else has? The Petronas Twin Towers [wikipedia.org] of course. The world’s tallest building—or it was… Maybe, see here [wikipedia.org] and here [straightdope.com]. The towers are a bit of a let down actually because there is no real bulk to them. I mean the World Trade Center had and the Sears Tower has bulk taking up city blocks and being basically beefy all the way up. The Petronas Towers are kind or skimpy by comparison. But they do make for cool pictures.

That was about it for the photo ops in KL, but on Sunday we headed a bit north of the city to Batu Caves [wikipedia.org]. There was no body mutilating Thaipusam [wikipedia.org] religious festival (think masochistic circus side show involving hooks,) but there were monkeys! I took lots of pictures of the monkeys even though I just took pictures of the monkeys in Singapore, which Candice did not understand. The conversation went something like this:

Candice: “Why are you taking so many pictures of the monkeys?”
Beggs: “Cause monkeys are cool!”
Candice: “Why are monkeys cool?
Beggs: “Umm… I don’t understand the question?”

Anyway, it was a relaxing weekend. The pictures are a bit disappointing—mostly due to the lack of a tripod. Most of the night shots of the Petronas Towers are blurry since I was holding the camera. Same holds for most of the monkey shots as it was dark in the cave and the flash would have scared them all away. C’est la vie… that’ll teach me to travel without a tripod!

After several days of bad smells and wat‘s overrun with tourists in Bangkok a side trip was most defiantly in order! A quick read through the Lonely Planet‘s [lonelyplanet.com], Southeast Asia on a Shoe String and it was off to Ayutthaya the next morning.

About two hours north of Bangkok, by train, Ayuthaya [wikipedia.org] was once the capital of Siam [wikipedia.org]. The train ride north was refreshing, sitting in the air-conditioned second class car watching the scenery change from slums to rice fields.

Ayutthaya was hot! I mean 38 degrees Celsius (that’s 100.4 Fahrenheit) with no shade and the sun beating down on you like nobody’s business. It was HOT. Deciding to *walk* across the island from the train station to the temples was, in retrospect, not the best idea. It was so hot that after seeing a couple of wat’s it was time to go. No elephant rides thank you, just a tuk-tuk to the train station.

Because it was so hot all the pictures are from a couple of wat’s and are no where near an exhaustive sampling of what wat’s are at Ayutthaya. Since I’ve been back I have seen some pictures of some other wat’s at Ayutthaya that I wish I had seen. Oh well.

After the tuk-tuk ride to the train station there was a 40 minute wait for the next train. At least there was a place to sit and some shade at the station. Unfortunately the ticket guy gave me third class tickets—though I think everyone had third class tickets. And third class is everything you imagine it to be in rural Asia. Hot and sweaty masses pack like cattle into non air-conditioned antique train cars for a long, slow, trip back to Bangkok. And then some dude walking back and forth down the middle of the car with a cooler trying to sell drinks. Oh it was painful.

The first noble truth in Buddhism is dukkha [wikipedia.org], which means suffering—mental and physical. Bangkok is filled with dukkha. Bangkok is the dirtiest city I have ever been to. The streets are filled with smells of decaying trash and unwashed bodies, broken intermittently by the smell of cooking food sold by street vendors. The street vendors cook the food and then set it out on their stalls for the fly’s to eat. Even if I was not a vegetarian I would not eat the grilled meat covered with whatever comes off the fly’s feet.

Bangkok was caught in the middle of uncontrolled expansion in 1997 when the Asian financial crisis stuck. Bangkok was the epicenter of the crisis and the wounds still show. Half finished skyscrapers stand like skeletons amid the, mostly older, buildings. Rusting out cranes dot the skyline, I hear one fell down recently and killed some people. It wouldn’t surprise me if it killed a lot of people. All the land around these half-finished monuments to economic growth is covered with shanties. Hundreds of thousands of them, made from corrugated steal and plastic tarps. I think most of the population of Bangkok actually lives in shanties. Traveling by train from the central station is like a journey into the ads for Christian Children’s Fund [christianchildrensfund.org]. All along the tracks people live and work amid the shanties. Children really do play in trash heaps—in the shade of a dumpster.

Here amid the row after row of shanties the smells are overpowering. The canals that once won Bangkok the nickname ‘Venice of the East’ are little more then black water pools of trash festering with who knows what undiscovered disease. Many of the houses are built on stilts to span small canals and the rivers of trash that line their banks. In many places chicken peck at the trash for food, dogs rummage amid the plastic bags and cats sleep in the shadows.

But Bangkok has not lost all charm. Get lost a little bit near China town in all the no name wat‘s and the markets and you can still see the faces of people who gave Bangkok it’s other nickname; the city of smiles. The bigger wat‘s are filled with bus loads of tourists but along the smaller back roads you still see many saffron robed monks out begging for their daily bread.

Filled with tuk-tuk‘s and taxis Bangkok is a noisy, crowded, polluted city hiding it’s charm amid poverty, prostitution and profiteering. But hidden away amid the cheep fakes for sale on every street corner and the flashy tourist dives filled with prostitutes there is still some charm left.

Gulf Shores, Alabama used to be a sleepy sea side town only frequented by people from other parts of Alabama and sometimes from Mississippi or Florida. A quiet alternative to the major resort towns of Florida. My grandfather owns a beach house there and when I was young my family would spend a couple of weeks there every other year. Eating fresh Gulf Shrimp and swimming all week. Over the course of my lifetime the town has become more and more commercial like every town on the gulf coast it has been invaded by the land developers. Most of it’s charm was long ago bulldozed down to make room for high-rise hotels and timeshare resorts. There’s a Super Wal-Mart and all the chain fast food you can eat.

I hadn’t been to Gulf Shores for about six years, which means I had not seen my Grandparents for six years, and before I headed over to Singapore I wanted to see my grandfather again. So the last week in August, the last week before I headed to Singapore I drove down to Gulf Shores. A 22 hour car ride on a Wednesday night. I stayed with my parents for two days and went to Axis Alabama where my grandparents house it to visit them for a day. Then I drove 22 hours back to Washington DC and two days later headed to Singapore for the first time.

Two weeks after I left Hurricane Ivan came ashore at Gulf Shores destroying most everything. I understand that the beach house is still there but that it took extensive damage. I’m not sure if my grandfather will fix it or if it will get sold. He doesn’t use it much anymore. So these places in these pictures have been washed away now. The beaches will recover and he hotels will be rebuilt but for the next few years at least the beaches won’t look like they do in these pictures.