{"id":73,"date":"2016-01-13T18:54:34","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T02:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/?p=73"},"modified":"2016-03-27T12:58:22","modified_gmt":"2016-03-27T19:58:22","slug":"greetings-from-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/?p=73","title":{"rendered":"Greetings from Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 8, 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

Xin ciao!<\/p>\n

I’ve arrived safely in Vietnam, with all my luggage!\u00a0 My flight left San Francisco at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning and went to Taipei, and then from Taipei I flew into HCMC with an arrival of 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.\u00a0 I’d\u00a0arranged to be picked up at the airport, so\u00a0after clearing customs and getting my visa approved, I walked out into the din and humidity of the city.\u00a0 There were plenty of people about, and plenty of taxi drivers ready to overcharge me, but no one with an i-to-i Volunteering sign.\u00a0 I had been told the taxi ride to the guesthouse should cost between $7-$10 dollars American, in case no one was there to collect me, so that helped.\u00a0 The first guy wanted $35 and complained that a parking ticket was $7 and no one would take me for that little.\u00a0 I told him ok, I’ll wait to be picked up.<\/p>\n

Another guy approached me and I\u00a0talked him down to $15 American, and he made a call on his cell phone.\u00a0 He held onto my arm until a car came racing up and he told me to get in the back with my backpack while\u00a0he\u00a0slid into the front next to the driver.\u00a0 They talked, he showed the driver the address, and then said, “Ok madame, you pay now.”\u00a0 So I handed him the $15 and as the driver started to pull away, the first guy opened his door and jumped out, with the $15.\u00a0 I didn’t think that seemed quite right, but what could I do?\u00a0 The taxi driver didn’t stop, so I assumed he was ok with how things were unfolding.<\/p>\n

HCMC street traffic is a complete madhouse.\u00a0\u00a0I’d been warned by all the travel books, but still, being immersed in it for the first time (after 20 hours of travel) was incredible.\u00a0Swarms of motorbikes overtake all the vehicles like water rushing around rocks in a riverbed, except that the water flows in all directions at once and is constantly honking.\u00a0 People all seem quite ok with it though- we’ve hardly seen any accidents, and no one gets angry, they just slow down and then move forward\/sideways\/through\/behind\/in front when they can nudge through without hitting anyone, at least not too hard.\u00a0 It’s chaos, but it works.<\/p>\n

The streets were crammed with people and bikes, and the narrow roads are lined with tiny hovels of shops that I think double as dwellings for the shopkeepers.\u00a0 People were sprawled out on the cement or across chairs, reading newspapers or languidly fanning themselves in the afternoon heat.\u00a0 The shops were so small and cramped and oddly shaped that it looked like the buildings had been constructed for some other purpose, and then as an afterthought, people moved in and took up residence in the nooks and crannies of the city.\u00a0 Our path was winding, down narrow alleys and through crazy roundabouts, with shop after shop after shop passing by my window, all distinct and yet\u00a0without making any impression on me- I had no idea where I was.\u00a0 I was quite intimidated, and for all the shopkeepers waiting and watching the traffic go by, I didn’t see any customers anywhere.\u00a0 I still am not sure who buys all that stuff.\u00a0 The whole scene had kind of a lawless feel\u00a0about it, but I’m sure that had to do with me being unsure if I was about to be driven to the edge of town and relieved of my belongings.<\/p>\n

After what was probably 25 minutes in the taxi, we abruptly pulled to the side of the road and the taxi driver nodded to me.\u00a0 I half expected him to ask for another $15, but he didn’t- he opened my door, and seeing my uncertainty, pointed at the address on the paper I’d handed him and then to the same address on the metal gate across from us.\u00a0 He nodded at me again and gestured to the building, so I thanked him and shouldered my bag.\u00a0 No sign.\u00a0 No logo.\u00a0 Just a big metal gate and an address.\u00a0 As I walked up to it, not sure if I was supposed to ring a bell or bang a tin cup against the bars or what, a young kid came and opened the door and immediately pressed his hand into mine and said “nice-to-meet-you, nice-to-meet-you!”\u00a0 He led me upstairs in the empty house\u00a0and pointed at one of the cots, so I set down my bags.\u00a0 He said again, “Nice to meet you!” and left.\u00a0 After standing there for a few seconds, I decided Ho Chi Minh City was a\u00a0bit much for me to handle on my own, and that I would stay on that foam mattress and eat granola bars until someone else showed up.\u00a0 What in the world had I gotten myself into?<\/p>\n

So… enough of the melodramatics.\u00a0 A few hours after I arrived, an English woman named Linda also arrived, and we ventured next door together for a dinner\u00a0and a much-needed beer.\u00a0 The rest of the volunteers arrived the following afternoon, which gave us time to explore a bit more, accidentally walk off the map we carried, and then find our way back into the proper district and a delightful French bakery.\u00a0 Before coming out of the city to the Mekong Delta where my project is, we also visited the oldest pagoda in Vietnam, which was built in the 1700’s and has only been restored twice.<\/p>\n

The inside was beautiful but I didn’t feel right taking photos in there, so you’ll have to take my word on that.<\/p>\n

\"So <\/a>
So many beautiful pagodas <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"11\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Market <\/a>
Market in HCMC <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This doesn’t seem right… <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"12\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Burning <\/a>
Burning incense <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"4\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This is where I was sitting as I typed these emails from My Tho. It even shares a name with one of my closest high school friends! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the flight from Taipei I sat next to a small man with a few sparse but very long chin hairs.\u00a0He took off his tennis shoes and folded his legs beneath him (on a PLANE seat!) the whole trip.\u00a0 In this compact parcel of a human was\u00a0such a warmth and sweetness though-\u00a0he was definitely an\u00a0Uncarved Block, for those who have\u00a0read The Tao of Pooh.\u00a0 He watched a cheesy kung-fu movie on his monitor, in which the bad guys were all Americans and loud, aggressive, and disrespectful.\u00a0 Of course, by the end we’d all learned an important lesson about compassion and\u00a0respecting the dignity of others even if they are different from us.\u00a0 When the movie ended, the man turned to me and asked if I was staying in HCMC, and I said that I was.\u00a0 We talked about my project, and he shook his head and said, “That’s very beautiful!” and told me about going to visit\u00a0his mother in Nha Trang.\u00a0 He asked if I had friends here, and I said, “Well, not yet!”\u00a0 He chuckled and welcomed me to Vietnam, and when he stood up to get his bag from the overhead bin, I saw that under his hoodie he wore the brown robes of a monk.\u00a0 I guess even monks like the kitchy kung-fu movies.<\/p>\n

My Vietnamese is coming along very slowly.\u00a0 At dinner with other volunteers\u00a0two nights ago, we were finally told that we were using the wrong intonation for one of our words, so instead of saying “yes” we were actually saying “gun” (or maybe “shoot” based on\u00a0the waiter’s\u00a0pantomime).\u00a0 Fortunately we hadn’t had occasion to give enthusiastically affirmative answers in any banks or airports.<\/p>\n

Know that everything is fine and I’m enjoying my time here after an uncertain first few hours.\u00a0 We’ve just started on the house we’re building, and met the family (the man has\u00a0a heart condition and can’t work, and his wife sells fish in one of the open air markets, and they have two kids in primary school), and I’m working on my\u00a0initial blisters.\u00a0 Everything is as it should be.<\/p>\n

\n

Back to Vietnam 2010<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 8, 2010 Xin ciao! I’ve arrived safely in Vietnam, with all my luggage!\u00a0 My flight left San Francisco at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel-stuff","category-vietnam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p77kqG-1b","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1049,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/1049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}