Finally, FINALLY I am able to write a blog post again! My charger broke in Hanoi the day before I left on my trip, and my shitty knock-off charger that worked for my iPhone somehow did not work for my ipad as well. It's taken several knock-off chargers (including one that sparked rather loudly and then melted in a mess of black charred white plastic), but I am finally able to use my ipad again and write a post. I'm maybe a little bit more excited than I should be!
So, where to start? I feel like so much has happened in week and a bit that I've been travelling on motorbike. This is the first time that I've truly felt like I've seen the real country that I've visited, and really gotten off the beaten path. The majority of towns that I've stayed in during the last week and a half almost never get tourists and for them, seeing a Western face is a really a shock. I can't count the number of times that people have waved at us, or turned to stare, or that we've gathered a crowd just by stopping somewhere to get a drink. People are a lot more friendly in towns that are completely untouched by tourism -they haven't grown accustomed to using tourists as their source of income, and when people invite you to have drinks with them or share their food, they are motivated by nothing more than an interest in the unusual and genuinely just wanting to talk to you. There are no hidden scams to surface hours later. There have been many times when we've been invited to drink with the locals (for free), had food shared with us, or had random people at the "restaurant" where we were eating want to cheers our glasses or shake our hands. It's amazing to see how much communication is still possible when neither side speaks any of the other's language.
Travel here has been really interesting. Things that you typically hear about, but maybe don't see in the main tourists hubs are on main display here. Countless cows and waterbuffalo are led around by their owners literally all day. It's a big deal for a family to have a cow here, and they make sure to take very good care of them. We've driven by endless kilometers of empty sand beaches, and watched as fields of florescent green rice paddy's whistle by. Huge karst mountains rise and fade into a bluish haze, and the roads are smooth and sun, HOT. Almost every Vietnamese woman who we have met has expressed concern for my bare arms and legs, where the dominant beauty standard is for pale skin and where the majority wear jackets and face masks to avoid the sun. It's funny how cultural differences surrounding beauty are so strong. Even though I like having a tan and don't want to be white, the constant disaproving comments can have an impact as they occur multiple times a day for days on end. They almost make me want to cover up just to avoid them!
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| Enjoying tit cho -before I knew it was dog. |
We've also seen some parts of the culinary scene here that many westerners would find shocking. Many times we've passed through some small village somewhere and seen dog, or "Thit Cho", in various stages of butchering. I've got some pretty gruesome photos that I think I'll refrain from posting, but it really makes you realize how cultural views of animals here can vary so much from country to country, and it's something that you just kind of have to accept. In Thailand and Laos, dogs typically weren't pets but they weren't eaten. Here, the dogs cringe, growl or run away if you go to pet them, and it's clear that they are a normal part of the diet in some towns and something that's been going on for eons. I'm still travelling with a friend, Brandon, and the commonality of eating dogs really came close to home on a particuarly long driving day. We had been on the road for maybe 5 or 6 hours without any real break, so when we smelled roasting meats on a grill in a local market far off the main highway, we decided to pull over and take a look. Most heads in the market turned to look at the unusual sight of two very dusty and dirty foreigners get off their bikes and wander over to get food, and with some help from a calculator to write down the price, we were able to buy what looked like grilled pork ribs. Looking back, I suppose we should have taken a closer look at what we were eating, but the meat was chopped up for us and in our famished haze we gobbled down our food and tossed the scraps to the stray dog hanging around (!!). It was only when our dinner was half eaten did we realize that the texture was a bit off -too much fat, but too tough in between the ribs. We walked back and investigated, and discovered that our meal very closely matched the rib cage with paw still attached that was being sold a few stalls over. Ugh. Normally I'm fine with adventurous eating, and really, I probably would have even been fine with this, except for the fact that many Vietnamese believe that dog tastes better when the dog is afraid when it dies. As a result, dogs are usually killed in front of the other dogs, and are often beaten first. Not exactly something I want to support! I'm taking solice in the fact that I didn't know - I'll just have to be more careful next time.
Anyways, I suppose that's enough of a summary for now. More to come soon, now that the iPad is in commission again! :-)
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