Sometimes Life's a Beach: Phu Quoc Island (Day 1)

One of the first places that I visited outside of Saigon was Phu Quoc Island. An island that’s 71 miles from Vietnam and 10 miles from Cambodia, it is rich in history and beauty. The island specializes in black pepper and fish sauce as well as exporting fresh seafood to the mainland. Its early history consists of war. From the mid 19^th century to the US-Vietnam War in the mid 20^th century, Vietnam, Cambodia, and France have fought for claims to the island. During the Vietnam War, the island was used as a prisoner camp. After the country fell to Communist reign, the island was on the forefront of another battle between Vietnam and Cambodia in the mid-70s for ownership before it was reclaimed by the Vietnamese.  

This was a pretty awesome trip that I made with my mom. It started with a 7 AM flight from Tan Son Nhat Airport to Phu Quoc Airport. One step off the plane, the weather is immediately different from Saigon. The air is cleaner, the humidity lower, and there is actually wind. After claiming our baggage, we followed our all-inclusive tour to the hotel for check-in and breakfast. The view from our room was AMAZING!

After freshening up, we ventured to an outdoor market by the water and one of the things they specialize in is seahorse medicine. Seahorses are one of the rare creatures that carry the fertilized eggs instead of the female. Eastern medicine believes that if you soak pregnant male seahorses in liquor with other herbs you can drink the liquid to cure arthritis, Alzheimer’s, cancer, etc.

 Once we were done with that, we were off to a pepper farm. Unripened and unroasted black peppercorns are green and grow on a vine. It has the texture of a Granny Smith Apple but tastes like black pepper and not particularly good. The rich red soil of Phu Quoc Island has made it one of the exporters of black pepper for Vietnam. 

 Our day ends with a family style dinner where we get to know our tour group that consists of ten other people besides me and my mom. The rest of the group was native Vietnamese and a majority of them were from Northern Vietnam. Our meal consisted of a lot of the local specialties and it included some sort of seafood. The tour guide said the island has a saying that roughly translates to, “The rich eat vegetables and the poor eat fish.” Fish and seafood is so prevalent on the island but vegetables are harder to come by because the island’s soil doesn’t grow vegetables well so everything is imported to the island. At the end of the meal, we retired to our hotel for the evening.

The Art of Haggling

Haggling takes place in public markets in much of the world. From the street markets in Mexico to the markets of Vietnam, you will find a vendor and his or her current customer haggling. This exchange of words is like a courting couple where the vendor is boy to the customer’s girl who has piqued his interest. 

The vendor gives his starting bid. The customer balks at the high price and suggests that she found it for 75% cheaper at another stall. He tells her she will never find a better quality then his product and lowers his price. She still isn’t happy with the price and suggests a slightly higher price than her previous offer. This goes back and forth until the customer and vendor is satisfied. Or the customer walks away as a bluff. Much like a girlfriend who flirts with another man to make him jealous. It’s all a dance that I unfortunately have not and maybe will not ever master.

Thank goodness my mom accompanied me on my shopping trips otherwise I would be paying asking price for everything I purchased. Knock-off purses, scarves, and jewelry my mom haggled her way into spending exponentially less. $10 for 3 shirts or $2.50 for a pair of pearl earrings all you need is to hold your ground and be really good at bluffing. 

A Stranger in the Land of Vietnam

My first outing onto the streets of Vietnam was very exhilarating and downright terrifying. Mom and I made a trip to the jewelers down the street from my grandma's house to exchange U.S. dollars into Vietnamese dong. (If you were curious, the current exchange rate is $1 USD = $20,960 VND). As my mom and I were walking down the street, I kept getting stares from passersby. Apparently, I do not look like your typical Vietnamese girl. Every single person turned their heads to look at me. I do not have the build of a Vietnamese girl nor do I have the face of one. However, I didn't notice this because I was distracted by the fact that a motorbike was about to run me down or that people use their car horns like it's a turn signal. Just an example of how the streets of Vietnam look:

It doesn't look that scary in still photography but believe me when I say I was afraid for my life. There is a strange organized chaos that Vietnamese drivers have. They don't believe in lanes or turn signals. Turn signals are only if you are turning left or right. If you're switching lanes, you honk your horn as you're doing it. One way streets? You can still drive down it if you make your way carefully across to the correct direction. Stop lights have timers on them to tell you how many seconds are left on the red or green light. If there are about 3 or 4 seconds left of the red light, one is allowed to start driving through the intersection. In all of this chaos and bending of the rules, I have yet to witness a car crash. Motorbikes will slow down or speed up to avoid a crash and somehow in the madness it all works. Here's an idea of the organized chaos:

The best way to travel around Saigon is on a motorbike. It's easier to maneuver through traffic and doesn't cost or as time consuming as a taxi and I will be spending a lot of my trip on the back of motorbikes.

What a Strange Land I've Landed In...

Fourteen hours on a plane to Incheon, mad dash through the airport and another five hour flight to Vietnam, I finally land at Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Even though it was about 11 PM local time, the heat and humidity of Vietnam was enough to make me sweat through my shirt as we waited with about 100 other people for our luggage to arrive.

Going through customs was an oddity as they gave my mom a hard time about her Visa and then later on about the massive amounts of "drugs" she was carrying in her suitcase. She explained that the customs man was looking for his monetary bribe that should have been in her passport and as for the suitcase and the massive amounts of drugs they uncovered? Costco sized bottles of calcium supplements my mom brought for my grandparents. If not for a family friend who turned out to be friends with the customs agent, my parents would have to pay them $10. Not the best impression so far Vietnam!

Making our way to the taxi stand there are throngs of people waiting for their loved ones on the other side of a gate, some holding signs, others holding babies, while others just smoking a cigarette. This is where I met my half sister and my niece for the first time. I also met a couple of other people and re-met some family members that had visited Seattle years ago. All made the comment that I'm not fat (how my mom would describe me to my relatives), I just look strong and American-made (doesn't translate well into English what they actually said). At this point, I'm just a bit overwhelmed and just glued a smile to my face. We finally gather all our family and head off to grandma's house.

A daylight photo of my grandma's house. The homes in Vietnam are built up and not out. There are 2 floors above the ground floor. Once you walk into the front doors there is one room where there is a dining room table and a refrigerator, walk through the doors and it's a living room/bedroom where grandma sleeps, and through the final door is a bathroom and the kitchen. Upstairs are two bedrooms and a couple bathrooms and the very top floor has a bedroom and a bathroom. A side note about Vietnamese interior design, the bathrooms are one room with a sink, toilet, and shower. Literally nothing separates these three items. When you take a shower, your toilet will get wet and your toilet paper too if you are not careful. The first couple of showers took some getting used to but I think I've got the hang of it now :)

Shot! Shot! Shot!... Vaccinations?!

I'm a slacker when it comes to doing certain things. In this case, it was getting vaccinations. Who knew one needed to do this weeks prior to build up antibodies? Certainly not this girl. In any case, I went to the doctor today and got a bunch of shots and vaccinations: Hepatitis A, Typhoid, and the flu shot because it's just that time of year.

Travel vaccines are not covered by insurance. So not only will I be personally paying for vaccines I also get to pay for my visit to the doctor. Hooray! (There needs to be a sarcasm font. Someone work on that.) One shot in each arm and now both are a little sore. All to prevent my dying or at least get very, very, very sick in Vietnam. Hopefully.

14 Days and Counting

Fourteen days until I get on a plane for the one place in the world I thought I would never go: Vietnam. Birth place of my parents and their parents and their parents before that, Vietnam was a country I was terrified of as a child. As I became an adult, Vietnam became a mystery to me and it intrigued me about the local culture, ideology, and food. It finally intrigued me enough for me to go.

On November 28, 2011, I will be boarding a plane from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Saigon, Vietnam. The flight will be about 22 hours with a ten hour layover in Seoul, South Korea. I will be documenting my trip on this blog and I hope you guys will enjoy my journey to the motherland. :)