Cruising along
Not much to report - I've been taking it easy these last few days, having a holiday from being on the road. It's been nice: I've eaten banana crepes for breakfast, had coffee on the waterfront, read, watched overwrought French period dramas on TV5Monde, navigated the markets a bit.
I did manage to make it out to My Son yesterday, where they have some fabulous ruins. The place is very atmospheric and absolutely crawling with tourists. The bus I was on in particular was full of francophones and a very annoying American family. Sometimes cliches exist for a reason - and fat and obnoxious Americans abroad apparently attempt to fulfil expectations, rather than subvert them. In this case, it was the three chubby pubescant kiddies making themselves conspicuous, designating things as either "cool" or "gay", loudly making sure they were the first at everything, and rolling their eyes at centuries of history.
They seem to be the exception rather than the rule, though - despite the number of white faces in Hoi An, there's no real brash tourist vibe. People here seem to relax, don't insist on sticking to their own nationalities so stridently, and mingle with the locals rather than seeing them as an imposition - which, incredibly, some people seemed to in Ho Chi Minh. I guess travel for some people brings out rather ugly behaviour.
What else? Managed to get my hair washed again, only this time it was a rather more rustic experience - lying on a bench against the wall with my knees up to my chin and my head in a bucket of frigid water. I guess for most people this wouldn't be particularly uncomfortable - I just forget how bloody tall I am in relation to most Vietnamese women. I keep forgetting to duck and walking into awnings and signs and umbrellas - most of which injure my dignity more than anything.
Still, there was shampoo involved, there was a complimentary, weird, and kind of painful face massage, it was half the price of Ho Chi Minh and shamefully, it was the first time my hair was washed since then. I've been letting my grooming standards slide just the teensiest, teensiest bit.
Tomorrow I think I'm going to look into taking a day trip to Hue - it's only five hours away by bus and the Imperial Palace seems pretty cool. Of course, I might just spend the time lounging by the river, enjoying that fish-market tang. Palace or patisserie? Patisserie or palace? Yeah - life is hard.
I did manage to make it out to My Son yesterday, where they have some fabulous ruins. The place is very atmospheric and absolutely crawling with tourists. The bus I was on in particular was full of francophones and a very annoying American family. Sometimes cliches exist for a reason - and fat and obnoxious Americans abroad apparently attempt to fulfil expectations, rather than subvert them. In this case, it was the three chubby pubescant kiddies making themselves conspicuous, designating things as either "cool" or "gay", loudly making sure they were the first at everything, and rolling their eyes at centuries of history.
They seem to be the exception rather than the rule, though - despite the number of white faces in Hoi An, there's no real brash tourist vibe. People here seem to relax, don't insist on sticking to their own nationalities so stridently, and mingle with the locals rather than seeing them as an imposition - which, incredibly, some people seemed to in Ho Chi Minh. I guess travel for some people brings out rather ugly behaviour.
What else? Managed to get my hair washed again, only this time it was a rather more rustic experience - lying on a bench against the wall with my knees up to my chin and my head in a bucket of frigid water. I guess for most people this wouldn't be particularly uncomfortable - I just forget how bloody tall I am in relation to most Vietnamese women. I keep forgetting to duck and walking into awnings and signs and umbrellas - most of which injure my dignity more than anything.
Still, there was shampoo involved, there was a complimentary, weird, and kind of painful face massage, it was half the price of Ho Chi Minh and shamefully, it was the first time my hair was washed since then. I've been letting my grooming standards slide just the teensiest, teensiest bit.
Tomorrow I think I'm going to look into taking a day trip to Hue - it's only five hours away by bus and the Imperial Palace seems pretty cool. Of course, I might just spend the time lounging by the river, enjoying that fish-market tang. Palace or patisserie? Patisserie or palace? Yeah - life is hard.
posted by Jess at 4:18 AM
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