ahoy, ann!
well, actually it's Hoi An. That's the town we're in in Vietnam. Our very first Vietnamese town. i'm so proud. it was yet another long grueling bus ride, but 18 1/2 hours later, here we are.
this particular bus ride was lacking in the bug-on-a-stick department as well as the rice department, but it was all stocked on the uncomfortable seat department and the why-can't-we-just-go-already-what-in-buddha's-name-can-we-be-waiting-for department was overflowing. just to give you an idea of the high quality of the accomodation on said overnight bus: we got on. we actually left right on time. 10pm. headed to Da Nang, Vietnam by way of Lao Bao and the border (name of town not at all important except that it's really fun to say). there were only, say 20 seats or so on the whole bus. wow! you say. that must mean it was really spacious and you had room to spread out! no, i say. that means that the 20 seats were narrow things that required consecutive thighs to push against eachother and body heat became the enemy in the not-even-close-to-air-conditioned bus. that means that the entire back half had no seats at all, but contained some empty cardboard boxes, a huge tire (in case of a flat, i can only assume), and some various other large objects. we didn't even get to watch karaoke. there wasn't even a PLACE to watch karaoke. doubtless the least comfortable bus we've been on in Laos. good thing it was such a short ride... anyway, they turned the lights off so we could sleep. in theory. the Lao fellow across the aisle went to tilt his seat back a bit and with a metallic BANG! it went back all the way into the lap of the the tall Malaysian Chinese chap behind him. well, more specifically it whacked his knees before landing in his lap. so, the fixit guy came with his wrench and flashlight and proceeded to remove the entire back seat,thereby fixing the problem. however, you may have guessed that we now have a musical chairs situation. one person seatless. he pondered sitting there with no seatback. i could tell cuz he sat on the seat and looked around, as if searching for a magical floating pillow. but then the guy NEXT to Malaysian chinese chap went to the back. he valiantly took a hit for the welfare of the Lao fellow. i think he was most comfortable of all, actually, with room to spread out, and now a disembodied seat back to cushion the pointy bits of him. AND the Malaysian chinese chap now had a leg rest. no fair. i willed the guy in front of me to break HIS chair, but he didn't do it. he just continued smoking his cigarette...
yeah. there was 3 hours spent at the Laos border, waiting for the window to open so they could stamp us out. then we walked across the invisible dot-dash-dot line to the Vietnam office where people practically climbed over eachother for a glimpse in the window where they'd given their passports. there was pushing and shoving and a couple of scratchings, but my own glimpse proved this: nothing was happening there. strangely, these people were struggling so just to get a look at the space the official had formerly occupied. strange. anyway, the malaysian chaps were smart and took our four foreign passports off to the side, where they got processed in a much more speedy fashion.
umm... that's most of it. not so comfortable, but now that it's over, not soooo bad. the last hour and a half was on a different bus - this one headed here to Hoi An. At first we "chatted" with the two guys responsible for baggage (putting bags and boxes and bicycles and whatever else either under or on top of or in the bus), then a couple of older women boarded with their conical hats and red betelnut-stained teeth. one of them was trying to teach nabia some vietnamese, i think, and since she was just about yelling at her, nabia dutifully repeated what the woman said, as best she could with her foreign ears and tongue. we have no idea what she said though. anyway,eventually some men got on and were having a good laugh at our clueless expenses, some goodnatured, and invariably some not. a bit later, we were handed some ice cream on a stick, served up out of a big metal box one guy had just boarded with. the way it was given to us, it seemed like a "welcome to vietnam" gift - "this is how we do it here." it was peanut ice cream - real pieces of peanut in there. i slurped it up as it melted all over the place,and it was quite tasty. after we finished though, and refused the second helping they started to hand over, one guy communicated through gesture that we now had to pay the man. we hadn't changed any money at all yet, and so we were dongless. yes, that's right. the money here is called dong. are you finished laughing now? ok. so anyway, i showed them my wallet, which contained a ticket stub and my last 2000 kip from Laos. i gave them the kip and they shook their heads at us and spoke in some raised voices as they handed the bill around and looked at it curiously. anyway. nobody got hurt, and we got free ice cream. the one guy who'd hasseled us the most got off after a bit and one of the nice baggage guys pointed at the empty door, shook his head and made a thumbs down. then at himself with a nod and a thumbs up. he was indeed the nice one. eventually we arrived at our destination and the nice baggage guy pointed us in the right direction.
This morning we spent half at the pool and half in our rooms watching television due to the fact that every stitch of clothing we have was being laundered and our bathing suits (which probably could've used a good rinse too but they were the closest we had to clean) were the best we could manage. luckily there's a swimming pool, right?
so we're staying in a bit of a luxury place for us for these few days ($15/night with a/c, tv, pool, and breakfast buffet), and we can use the comfort. i'm exhausted and have lovely flattering bags under my eyes, but i believe i'll recuperate soon under these conditions.
on a more serious note, i turned on the tv for another spell of resting this morning, looking for something silly on HBO, and i found a movie about september 11 with sigourney weaver and anthony lapaglia. we watched the second half of it - she was a writer helping a firechief write the eulogies of the men he lost? anybody know anything about it? was really interesting... and sad. it led to a short but impassioned teary discussion of that horrible event and the gall of this administration for turning it into the impetus for war.
anyway, i just thought i'd ask if anyone knew the name of it or when it came out or anything...
ok. i'm off in search of good spring rolls. they are yet to be had in vietnam. only slightly crappy ones so far.
love,
amy
email me
this particular bus ride was lacking in the bug-on-a-stick department as well as the rice department, but it was all stocked on the uncomfortable seat department and the why-can't-we-just-go-already-what-in-buddha's-name-can-we-be-waiting-for department was overflowing. just to give you an idea of the high quality of the accomodation on said overnight bus: we got on. we actually left right on time. 10pm. headed to Da Nang, Vietnam by way of Lao Bao and the border (name of town not at all important except that it's really fun to say). there were only, say 20 seats or so on the whole bus. wow! you say. that must mean it was really spacious and you had room to spread out! no, i say. that means that the 20 seats were narrow things that required consecutive thighs to push against eachother and body heat became the enemy in the not-even-close-to-air-conditioned bus. that means that the entire back half had no seats at all, but contained some empty cardboard boxes, a huge tire (in case of a flat, i can only assume), and some various other large objects. we didn't even get to watch karaoke. there wasn't even a PLACE to watch karaoke. doubtless the least comfortable bus we've been on in Laos. good thing it was such a short ride... anyway, they turned the lights off so we could sleep. in theory. the Lao fellow across the aisle went to tilt his seat back a bit and with a metallic BANG! it went back all the way into the lap of the the tall Malaysian Chinese chap behind him. well, more specifically it whacked his knees before landing in his lap. so, the fixit guy came with his wrench and flashlight and proceeded to remove the entire back seat,thereby fixing the problem. however, you may have guessed that we now have a musical chairs situation. one person seatless. he pondered sitting there with no seatback. i could tell cuz he sat on the seat and looked around, as if searching for a magical floating pillow. but then the guy NEXT to Malaysian chinese chap went to the back. he valiantly took a hit for the welfare of the Lao fellow. i think he was most comfortable of all, actually, with room to spread out, and now a disembodied seat back to cushion the pointy bits of him. AND the Malaysian chinese chap now had a leg rest. no fair. i willed the guy in front of me to break HIS chair, but he didn't do it. he just continued smoking his cigarette...
yeah. there was 3 hours spent at the Laos border, waiting for the window to open so they could stamp us out. then we walked across the invisible dot-dash-dot line to the Vietnam office where people practically climbed over eachother for a glimpse in the window where they'd given their passports. there was pushing and shoving and a couple of scratchings, but my own glimpse proved this: nothing was happening there. strangely, these people were struggling so just to get a look at the space the official had formerly occupied. strange. anyway, the malaysian chaps were smart and took our four foreign passports off to the side, where they got processed in a much more speedy fashion.
umm... that's most of it. not so comfortable, but now that it's over, not soooo bad. the last hour and a half was on a different bus - this one headed here to Hoi An. At first we "chatted" with the two guys responsible for baggage (putting bags and boxes and bicycles and whatever else either under or on top of or in the bus), then a couple of older women boarded with their conical hats and red betelnut-stained teeth. one of them was trying to teach nabia some vietnamese, i think, and since she was just about yelling at her, nabia dutifully repeated what the woman said, as best she could with her foreign ears and tongue. we have no idea what she said though. anyway,eventually some men got on and were having a good laugh at our clueless expenses, some goodnatured, and invariably some not. a bit later, we were handed some ice cream on a stick, served up out of a big metal box one guy had just boarded with. the way it was given to us, it seemed like a "welcome to vietnam" gift - "this is how we do it here." it was peanut ice cream - real pieces of peanut in there. i slurped it up as it melted all over the place,and it was quite tasty. after we finished though, and refused the second helping they started to hand over, one guy communicated through gesture that we now had to pay the man. we hadn't changed any money at all yet, and so we were dongless. yes, that's right. the money here is called dong. are you finished laughing now? ok. so anyway, i showed them my wallet, which contained a ticket stub and my last 2000 kip from Laos. i gave them the kip and they shook their heads at us and spoke in some raised voices as they handed the bill around and looked at it curiously. anyway. nobody got hurt, and we got free ice cream. the one guy who'd hasseled us the most got off after a bit and one of the nice baggage guys pointed at the empty door, shook his head and made a thumbs down. then at himself with a nod and a thumbs up. he was indeed the nice one. eventually we arrived at our destination and the nice baggage guy pointed us in the right direction.
This morning we spent half at the pool and half in our rooms watching television due to the fact that every stitch of clothing we have was being laundered and our bathing suits (which probably could've used a good rinse too but they were the closest we had to clean) were the best we could manage. luckily there's a swimming pool, right?
so we're staying in a bit of a luxury place for us for these few days ($15/night with a/c, tv, pool, and breakfast buffet), and we can use the comfort. i'm exhausted and have lovely flattering bags under my eyes, but i believe i'll recuperate soon under these conditions.
on a more serious note, i turned on the tv for another spell of resting this morning, looking for something silly on HBO, and i found a movie about september 11 with sigourney weaver and anthony lapaglia. we watched the second half of it - she was a writer helping a firechief write the eulogies of the men he lost? anybody know anything about it? was really interesting... and sad. it led to a short but impassioned teary discussion of that horrible event and the gall of this administration for turning it into the impetus for war.
anyway, i just thought i'd ask if anyone knew the name of it or when it came out or anything...
ok. i'm off in search of good spring rolls. they are yet to be had in vietnam. only slightly crappy ones so far.
love,
amy
email me
posted by theonetheycallamy at 6/19/2005 05:09:00 AM
2 comments
