I give you discow!!! Vietnam Part I

"I give you discow!"

"Huh? I don't want a cow" I thought to myself.

I could never tell if I ever got a good bargain. I would haggle and nickel-and-dime the shopkeepers in Vietnam for even just a few cents when you convert it to US dollars. I would think I was getting a great price when they seem flabbergasted that I would even suggest a lower price than they had originally offered or came at after giving me a “discow”. I stared at their faces get frustrated and agree to a price. Then, as soon as I hand them my money, they would have the biggest smile, speak in Vietnamese to the shopkeeper next to them, and give a slight nod to me as if saying “look at this fool who just paid way too much”. Defeated is how I always felt after shopping in Vietnam. Luckily, I didn’t shop without reinforcements during the first week.

I went to Saigon from Cambodia a week early to hang out with family. My cousin Jay happened to be in Saigon with his fiancée visiting her family and I wanted to hangout. We also happen to have other relatives in Saigon (Hi Tita Julie and Tito Dane!) so I figured it would be a good time to head there a week before and hangout before Joe Sun joins in on all the fun.

It was perhaps one of the better decisions I have made on this trip. Not that I’ve been making too many mistakes, but it was a really good time. As soon as I arrived, we went out for dinner near the Ben Thanh market. The following day I found myself playing tennis with my uncle against a Korean who danced the Gangnam Style on court and then getting a local tour of the city afterwards on the back of his motorbike.

Riding on a motorcycle through Saigon is perhaps one of the most fun and terrifying things I have done on this trip. It only comes second to that time I slid down a steep incline into a swim hole in a cave in the Philippines. Weaving in and out of traffic, and traffic brushing up against you while riding down is all part of the deal. The only thing we could have added would be to ride on the sidewalk like the other crazy people in Saigon. Not even the sidewalk, when it was there, was safe against getting hit. It was fun exploring Saigon with family and of course there were loads of catching up. I finally felt like I could relate to my cousin when he had his own journey abroad a few years ago. It’s one of those things that most people won’t understand until they do it themselves … whatever their journey may be.

Buses, rickshaws and motorcycles share the road in Saigon.

An F-16 fighter jet at the War Remnants museum in Saigon

After five days in Saigon, I decided to head off to Mui Ne, a beach town not far from Saigon set with a fishing village and surrounded by sand dunes. And I have a soft spot for sand dunes so off I went! I thought I paid for a seater bus but when I turned up at the bus stop, it was a sleeper bus. I was curious to ride one of them things so I didn’t mind … until I got on that is! That shit is tiny and could barely fit a non-asian person. Yes, I am Asian, I know but I couldn’t even put my feet straight up, much less extend my legs. Lucky for me, this was a one-time experience and I was planning to catch seated buses or sleeper trains from here on out. Five hours crouched on the bus, sitting in front of the love child of Gandalf the Grey and Santa Claus and next to a vomiting local and I found myself in Mui Ne.

Mui Ne beach was overly developed for my taste and distinctly … Russian. I know Vietnam and Russia shared a passion for communism but I didn’t get the memo that Russians had taken over Vietnamese beach towns. You know they cater to tourists when even the store signs are in a foreign language. I even danced to some Russian tunes at DJ station, the only bumping club in town at the time as it was low season.

I wasn’t too upset that it wasn’t the full moon party I went to in Thailand years ago. I got a great deal on a private room for $10 a night with AC and hot water and it was pretty easy to get to the beach. I also had a lot of things to take care of and plan so I took it as a break. I did go one day to the sand dunes with an Australian guy I had met in town. We hired motorbikes and just rode around, eventually finding the famed dunes. A little bargain fail with some local kids and we overpaid to rent some plastic boards to go sand sledding on the red dunes. We didn’t stay there too long and ventured out to ride and search for the white dunes.

Sledding in the red sand dunes

Like other Asians, the Vietnamese also have a warped sense of distance. Apparently a 10 minute walk is ‘too far’ yet a sand dune that’s 23km away magically translates to only 5km away in their head. In either case, they would use a motorbike, of course. On the ride out, with no map, we took some detours and found a little beach oasis before following a 4x4 jeep to the white dunes. They were impressive and looked seductively good but the sky looked like it was about to drop so we headed back to town with so much just a glance of the white dunes.

Pit stop at Mui Ne fishing village after the dunes.

I headed back to Saigon where Part II will pick up; A week with JoeSun.