February 15, 2006
Hello All
Well last I wrote I was on my way to "Nha Trang" on a 11 hour bus ride. It went rather fast since I met a couple people on the bus. One was "Kersten" who is from Edmonton, Canada and the other was Jim from Australia. Kersten grew up in Malaysia but is totally Canadian and has been traveling for 3 years. She has been spending on average $50,000 per year and is almost broke. She started traveling by herself and has met up with people along the way and doesn't like traveling by herself so she is interested in traveling with me when I do China, Nepal, and India in May. We decided to check into the same hotel where we hooked up with Jim's Australian friend "Leon". From there we went out for drinks at a "2 for 1" happy hour special bar. We had cocktails for 75 cents each and then a big bucket of hard stuff for $3us (very cheap!!). As we drank we signed up to teach english in the morning. None of us was really interested but Kersten signed our names to the list.
The next morning we all woke up with hang overs and went across the street to teach english and had no idea what we were in for. There was no teacher there and the first class could not speak a word of english and was a huge waste of time as Kersten talked english to the kids and only a few understood. The next class was easier because they spoke english but the text books were a joke and wasn't written by anyone who spoke good english. These kids were basically poor and not part of a regular school system and needed english to sell their goods to the tourists. The girl I taught I thought was only 12 years old but she told me she was 17. You can never guess ages over here. Some look younger than their years and others look older. One of my siklow drivers I thought was 50 until he smiled and told me he was only 40 years old. This was the first time I was near the ocean so we went to the beach for a swim and relaxed under a big umbrella with lawn chairs and swam in the ocean and we all got burnt by the sun. We had massages on the beach and dinner since the locals cater to the tourists there.
Later on we went out to a hot spring spa and had a mud bath, then to the hot springs, pool, then later on we had a 40 minute massage and then went to the steam room. All for $6us. For dinner we went out to a seafood restaurant and had huge tiger prawns and crab.
The next day we went on a boat tour to some of the islands. The crew was funny and very personable and the whole tour was $6us with food included. We swam and snorkeled near a barrier reef and checked out a couple islands. The Vietnamese guide was very funny and constantly playing jokes on all the tourists. We met two other people there. One was from the US and the other from Switzerland who is probably going to be on my bus tonight to "Hoi Ann".
Met another guy "Tim" from Ottawa who is on my bus tonight as well. The Aussies and Kersten decided to fly to "Danang" and then take a quick bus to Hoi Ann because the Aussies have limited time in Vietnam for their flight home. Jim is an extroverted Aussie who is constantly joking and talking with people and he speaks so fast that most of the time I have no idea what he just said. Leon is easier to understand. We all got even more burnt by the sun during our boat trip and being by the water and went to sleep as soon as we got back.
We went for breakfast this morning and made plans to meet up in "Hoi Ann" and then the Aussies and Kersten caught their flight. I decided to go out to the Cham towers which is 700 years old and made of bricks and then off to a pagoda and a giant sitting buddha. My motorcycle driver had originally wanted $10US for the trip (because I am a white tourist with money) and I said "no way" and that I would only pay $3US which I thought was more than generous knowing what the locals would pay him and as always once the ride is over and you give them the money they originally agreed on he makes it seem that we agreed to $10US and not $3US. Well I was becoming a little pissed off since they do this to every tourist and I have even witnesses arguments with tourist and drivers over the price and they are hoping you will "give in" and give them 3 times more than you originally agreed.
I ran into Tim from Ottawa at the beach so we will probably go for dinner before catching our 11 hour bus ride to Hoi Ann which is from 7pm to 6am.
Talk to you all in Hoi Ann.
Kevin
Hello All
Well last I wrote I was on my way to "Nha Trang" on a 11 hour bus ride. It went rather fast since I met a couple people on the bus. One was "Kersten" who is from Edmonton, Canada and the other was Jim from Australia. Kersten grew up in Malaysia but is totally Canadian and has been traveling for 3 years. She has been spending on average $50,000 per year and is almost broke. She started traveling by herself and has met up with people along the way and doesn't like traveling by herself so she is interested in traveling with me when I do China, Nepal, and India in May. We decided to check into the same hotel where we hooked up with Jim's Australian friend "Leon". From there we went out for drinks at a "2 for 1" happy hour special bar. We had cocktails for 75 cents each and then a big bucket of hard stuff for $3us (very cheap!!). As we drank we signed up to teach english in the morning. None of us was really interested but Kersten signed our names to the list.
The next morning we all woke up with hang overs and went across the street to teach english and had no idea what we were in for. There was no teacher there and the first class could not speak a word of english and was a huge waste of time as Kersten talked english to the kids and only a few understood. The next class was easier because they spoke english but the text books were a joke and wasn't written by anyone who spoke good english. These kids were basically poor and not part of a regular school system and needed english to sell their goods to the tourists. The girl I taught I thought was only 12 years old but she told me she was 17. You can never guess ages over here. Some look younger than their years and others look older. One of my siklow drivers I thought was 50 until he smiled and told me he was only 40 years old. This was the first time I was near the ocean so we went to the beach for a swim and relaxed under a big umbrella with lawn chairs and swam in the ocean and we all got burnt by the sun. We had massages on the beach and dinner since the locals cater to the tourists there.
Later on we went out to a hot spring spa and had a mud bath, then to the hot springs, pool, then later on we had a 40 minute massage and then went to the steam room. All for $6us. For dinner we went out to a seafood restaurant and had huge tiger prawns and crab.
The next day we went on a boat tour to some of the islands. The crew was funny and very personable and the whole tour was $6us with food included. We swam and snorkeled near a barrier reef and checked out a couple islands. The Vietnamese guide was very funny and constantly playing jokes on all the tourists. We met two other people there. One was from the US and the other from Switzerland who is probably going to be on my bus tonight to "Hoi Ann".
Met another guy "Tim" from Ottawa who is on my bus tonight as well. The Aussies and Kersten decided to fly to "Danang" and then take a quick bus to Hoi Ann because the Aussies have limited time in Vietnam for their flight home. Jim is an extroverted Aussie who is constantly joking and talking with people and he speaks so fast that most of the time I have no idea what he just said. Leon is easier to understand. We all got even more burnt by the sun during our boat trip and being by the water and went to sleep as soon as we got back.
We went for breakfast this morning and made plans to meet up in "Hoi Ann" and then the Aussies and Kersten caught their flight. I decided to go out to the Cham towers which is 700 years old and made of bricks and then off to a pagoda and a giant sitting buddha. My motorcycle driver had originally wanted $10US for the trip (because I am a white tourist with money) and I said "no way" and that I would only pay $3US which I thought was more than generous knowing what the locals would pay him and as always once the ride is over and you give them the money they originally agreed on he makes it seem that we agreed to $10US and not $3US. Well I was becoming a little pissed off since they do this to every tourist and I have even witnesses arguments with tourist and drivers over the price and they are hoping you will "give in" and give them 3 times more than you originally agreed.
I ran into Tim from Ottawa at the beach so we will probably go for dinner before catching our 11 hour bus ride to Hoi Ann which is from 7pm to 6am.
Talk to you all in Hoi Ann.
Kevin
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