Vietnam

 Status:

Days on the Road: 266   (22.12.2011)
Travelled Km: 46.582 Km
Location: Nha Trang, Vietnam

Here I am again. While in Seoul I booked  a flight to Manila in the Philippines. When I arrived at the Airport in the morning, the Boarding crew refused to take me on the Plane as I had only a one way ticket. I had only little time left but was not able to come up with a suitable solution. I had to stay longer in Korea and try to figure something else. My money for the Flight was gone, and in addition my Bank refuses access to my account so I cant check anymore on my financial status, although I think I don’t want to know :) My new destination would than be Vietnam. But again there was a return flight mandatory and I saw

another 300$ go down the drain. But as winter made himself comfortable in Korea, and the temperature dropped below -4°C along with some snow, I had no choice but to accept the loose and move on. From there on everything went easy and I arrived in Hanoi City in the night and was lucky to still get a host. Vietnam reminds me a lot of Poland, there are so many nice old building but due to the lack of money left in bad shape. Even when you travel the country side you rarely find an ugly building. Hanoi was very crowded and the main source of transportation is the "Motorbike", and it seems like that every citizen has at least one! The traffic laws have been replaced long time ago by just honking the horn. Which sounds fun at the first few hrs. gets pretty annoying after two days. Overall I walked so much around in Hanoi that after 3 days I almost could not walk anymore. its a beautiful City with lots of parks and lakes. But the downside is that in Vietnam there is not a real waste management, and it does not matter what it is, it just gets thrown on the ground where you stand. It shocked me most when I took the Train and we where riding throughout the nature and rice fields and everybody would just throw his plastic waste out of the window, creating a waste site along the train tracks. So as said I left Hanoi by Train and for 300 Km we needed 12 hrs. I chose Dong Hai as it was the next City, close to the ocean with a nice beach. I arrived late at night and made my way to the beach and set up for the night. While I left Hanoi in pure Sunshine, the next morning was just cloudy all day. I took a walk in the City but there was not much to see. The following day it started to rain, at least half the day. I thought it could only get better but the next day along with even more rain came strong winds. While I camped out there I got many visitors, mostly older man who where fishing at the ocean or the worker from the nearby construction site. I was THE sensation as they most likely have never seen a western guy camping. They all pointed to the nearby "Sun Spa Resort" Hotel, asking why I am not there. So the third day, when the weather got really bad and my tent was on the brink of collapsing two of the guys from the construction site showed up again and invited me over to their shed. As there was no hope on the horizon I gathered my stuff and followed them. There where 6 of them living in this 12 m² room which also was functioning as a garage for three of their Motorbikes. They all could not speak English and we communicated by sign language and drawings on paper. And again it was proven to me that those who have almost nothing, like to share everything with you. We spend almost all day in the Shed as it was raining. In the early night I went out with one of them to the town to drink a coffee. When I came back I saw that my Backpack was opened, and the youngest started to talk about Camera and Laptop. He clearly went through my stuff, which kind of made me feel uncomfortable. Now with my permission he wanted to check out everything. I let him play with my Camera and while in the beginning I was not really sure where this will lead to I later realised that this guy has never touched a device like this in his life. All 7 of us sleep together in the Shed. The next morning after breakfast I gather my stuff and leave to take a train southbound. As like my first ride with the train, there is again almost not a single boring moment. There are people constantly inviting you to chat, and as for Vietnam its safe to say, that you can connect the best with the locals in the train. On my first ride I met a guy from Hue and he did Invite me to stay over at his place. But once I was on my way and called him from the Train, he changed his mind, which I am not surprised as home hospitality is not very usual in Asia! To my luck I meet two other guys on the rain who will help me to find a cheap Hotel. I hate Hotels, and tried to avoid them as much as possible, but my shoes, my tent and a good portion of my cloth are wet. As its still massively raining I have not a big choice. On my last day I meet up with them two again and they take me around the nice places in Hue, which is a beautiful place. I leave Hue after two days to Nha Trang 600 Km down the coast in the last hope to see some sun. After a 16 hr Journey with the slow TN1 Train I am still faced with a lot of rain. But at least I have a place at a couchsurfer. He is a dive Instructor and now we are waiting for good weather so we can go out for a nice dive.