Finally home and safe in Brissy!
Our last few days in Vietnam consisted of Lina, Kate, and I being sick and Hilary avoiding us as to not catch our cold. After our trip to Halong Bay, and subsequent monkey attack, I decided to go to a clinic to check up on the bite while Lina headed out on a bus to meet her friend who lives in Hoa Binh, a town 2 hrs. outside of Hanoi. Kate, Hilary, and I took a later bus out to meet up with them. I noticed the asst. driver who sat in the cab (we were in more of a van than a bus) collected everyone's bus fare except for ours, which I thought was weird but was secretly hoping they forgot about us and we wouldn't have to pay. They passed our hotel dropped off half the people on the bus at the bus stop. With hand gestures (they didn't speak English) they told us to remain seated and they would turn around and drop us off at our hotel. They turn around and pass by our hotel so we got their attention to stop but they insisted they would turn back around for our stop soon (this was gestured by them holding up their pointer finger as if to say 'one minute' or 'one more stop'). We dropped off a few more people and headed over a long bridge into another town. It didn't seem right they would go so far out of the way when we had passed by our stop twice. They continued dropping people off and in an effort to not be the only ones left on the bus alone I got up when the last person exited, but the asst. driver quickly shut the door and the bus took off very quickly. At this point we were about 20 min. away from our hotel, this wasn't right and I told Kate and she agreed. We were in a residential area heading towards fields, so before we got to a desolate area I decided to gesture to the driver to pull the bus over, which he shook his head no. I kept asking to pull over and kept being denied, so I feigned being sick and motioned that I was going to throw up, he still would not pull over. If it wasn't obvious before, it was obvious now that they had other plans for us. After making a fit, and the girls joining in as well, the driver stopped the bus and I got up to open the door, which was locked. I kept pulling on the door as a signal for him to open it and the asst. driver who was in the cab with us pushed my hand away from the door so I pushed him away and continued while motioning to him that I had to throw up. The driver tried to drive off again but since we continued fighting with them and I wouldn't back down on getting out, the driver finally unlocked the door and we ran out of the van. Kate paid the asst. driver while Hilary grabbed our bags and we quickly ran into a house nearby. Luckily the daughter spoke some English, invited us in for tea, and her brother was a cab driver so he took us to our hotel. We were pretty shaken up by what had just happened and all I wanted to do was crawl underneath the covers, but Lina's friend, Trang, invited us over to her families house for a traditional Vietnamese dinner, so we pulled it together and went to her house. We dined on the floor with large plates of varieties of food to share, I have no idea what I ate but most of it was delicious. The next day Trang took us to a nearby mountain village where the Mong tribe live. We were invited into her friends home (a one large room bamboo hut set up on stilts) for another traditional lunch and tea, which was all amazing. We spent a couple hours walking around the village and relaxing at her friends house and then headed back to Hanoi City later that day. After that we had a group visit to the doctors where Lina received antibiotics for a firecracker that landed in her ear, Hilary got x-rays showing her foot was actually broken, and I received my 2nd rabbies vaccine. We then left Vietnam before anything else could go wrong.
We ended our trip with a final night in Singapore, where we would've liked to spend more time, it's an incredible place. Extremely modern, clean, and rich. In the cab on the way out of the airport I think I was actually in civilization shock, just a completely different world from Vietnam and Cambodia. We had a lovely dinner at Mozza, a restaurant in a new plaza where coincidentally they had a grand opening media event. Wolfgang Puck and other various celebrity chefs were there as well opening up their new restaurants in the plaza. AND, we were there on a Wednesday night (which apparently is ladies night) so we got free drinks until 1 am at a bar near our hostel and continued our boozy night until 4am and left at 7am for good old Brissy.
I feel like I've just woken up from a crazy dream filled with Asians! I played and hopped around on spectacular ancient ruins, went bike riding in Siem Reap everyday past orange-robed monks and through small hut villages, taught children in a country where children were often bought and sold, lounged around on an exotic electricity-free island, learned Spanish while cruising on a junk in one of the most beautiful places in the world, experienced my first monkey attack, explored caves, spent a day hanging out with the Mong Tribe, cleverly (if i do say so myself) escaped a potential abduction/ robbery plotted by our bus drivers, went strolling through some charming french architecture inspired towns, more bike riding to imperial tombs, monasteries, and palaces, saw what propaganda and conditions of living under a different kind of government was like, and ended in the opposite end of the spectrum by visiting Singapore, a metropolis of opulence.
The past month has been quite an adventure and my strength and resolve have been tested in numerous ways. I could go into a whole long shpiel about what I've learned from this experience, but I'd rather keep it brief, mostly because I'm exhausted.
As far as Vietnam is concerned, half the locals we met were complete sweethearts and the other half were assholes, and we never knew which one it was going to be with the next local we spoke with. I've also never been to a country where the people so blatantly try to rip you off, it's offensive and a complete travel turnoff. Vietnam was by far the most conservative country we have visited and I've verified several things about cultural and societal differences and gender roles that I found really fascinating. First, the woman is always supposed to serve the man dinner before herself. Second, women are expected to be sexually conservative with men, this includes not holding hands til seven months into the relationship. Third, for the past 10 years Vietnam has had a 2 child limit per family. This is why it is illegal to find out the sex of the baby before it is born ( some women will have an abortion if it is not a boy). Did you know that in some Asian cultures (including Vietnamese) they start their lives at age 1 (unlike how we are born at 0)? I didn't know that and found it really interesting. All in all, it is hard to get past the way tourists are treated in Vietnam, but at the very least it is worth the visit for Halong Bay.
Cambodia is the complete opposite of Vietnam. The people are the kindest and warmest people I have ever met. There are so many beautiful and extraordinary aspects to Cambodia and I could've spent a much longer time there. It was eye opening, to say the least, to be in a third world country and it has given me a lot to think about in terms of the human condition, the potential for sustainability, and the need for development. After my experience volunteering it got me to thinking of how to best be an effective agent of positive change. It's overwhelming to think of where to start and when I expressed this to one of the directors at New Hope his answer was, "you start with one person, and then you build off that." Unfortunately it is hard to measure the quantifiable affects of sharing stories, raising awareness, or being a volunteer, or an intern. But these are often the things that inspire new ideas, and are sometimes catalysts themselves. So, I will be brief here and just say I hope you've found my travels interesting and share some of the stories about Cambodia that I've shared with you to other people. You never know who might be inspired by them or what new ideas may evolve in discussing them.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to catch up on my lost sleep, wake up and get my 3rd rabies vaccine, and then I plan on having a cheeseburger, or a salad, or anything without rice that's not a curry, FFS!
Pic 1 - Mong Tribe baby in a hanging makeshift bassinet
Pic 2 - Mong Tribe Village
Pic 3 - The village message board
Pic 4 - A picture I'm not supposed to have of a casino in Singapore (a stark contrast to the other 3 pictures)
Much Love,
Jillian aka Jilly, Jillypet, Jillybean, J-Bones, J-Dilla, and sometimes Crab Cakes
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