Vietnam, From Top to Bottom in January 2014
Jan 27th, 2014, 04:11 AM
#101
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 637
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Funnel web!!!!Righteo that was it! I love snakes, I do. Most of the ones we grew up with were totally safe rodent eaters. We'd throw them into the bed and scare the poo out of my mother who liked to throw the covers back to wake us. No rattlers, just big fat milk or black snakes. In fact just today in the Delta there was a guy holding out a python for us to wrap around our necks and I was there in a flash, second in line, to put that heavy gorgeous thing around my scrawny neck like a big necklace. They are so amazing. I'd love to hear your snake stories. What's great about Oz is that you don't have to live in the OB to have these stories. They come slithering right up to you, right in your back yard.
BTW, Jungle Tours, the folks who put on today's tour for the Delta, is as touristy as it gets. A kind of cheesy talk to us by microphone and repeat my name three times and then sing kind of thing. I retreated to my Kindle for the very long bus drives but the occasional river bits were fun. We were promised an opportunity to row a boat but that didn't appear. We did get marched through many opportunities to spend money on souvenirs, and the only ones I bought were coconut candy for my Vietnamese friends back home. I don't know that they like it but I hope they appreciate a little something from home. Watching it being made was kinda cool.
Perhaps what I had hoped for was a little more indepth look at river life rather than being dragged from one shop to the next and walked by souvenir stand after souvenir stand. There was little education about the life, the people, the world of the Mekong Delta which was what I rather thought this tour was about. We drank honey tea and got the pitch for buy five get one free. I'd honestly have preferred to learn about the honey production, seen it, then tasted the tea, and heard about the medicinal properties. I still wouldn't have bought something likely to break and put sticky goo all over my backpack contents but still. It's nice to learn. My guess is that there are other, better tours available than the one I got which really is the tourist trip. That's okay. There are some interesting people along, French and Italian and German and Dutch and that's always fun.
Can Tho is dark, and the hotel is down a dark alley, so it's off to a fruit market and back immediately. I saw some mangoes had my name on 'em.
BTW, Jungle Tours, the folks who put on today's tour for the Delta, is as touristy as it gets. A kind of cheesy talk to us by microphone and repeat my name three times and then sing kind of thing. I retreated to my Kindle for the very long bus drives but the occasional river bits were fun. We were promised an opportunity to row a boat but that didn't appear. We did get marched through many opportunities to spend money on souvenirs, and the only ones I bought were coconut candy for my Vietnamese friends back home. I don't know that they like it but I hope they appreciate a little something from home. Watching it being made was kinda cool.
Perhaps what I had hoped for was a little more indepth look at river life rather than being dragged from one shop to the next and walked by souvenir stand after souvenir stand. There was little education about the life, the people, the world of the Mekong Delta which was what I rather thought this tour was about. We drank honey tea and got the pitch for buy five get one free. I'd honestly have preferred to learn about the honey production, seen it, then tasted the tea, and heard about the medicinal properties. I still wouldn't have bought something likely to break and put sticky goo all over my backpack contents but still. It's nice to learn. My guess is that there are other, better tours available than the one I got which really is the tourist trip. That's okay. There are some interesting people along, French and Italian and German and Dutch and that's always fun.
Can Tho is dark, and the hotel is down a dark alley, so it's off to a fruit market and back immediately. I saw some mangoes had my name on 'em.
Jan 27th, 2014, 09:23 AM
#102
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 31
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Just catching up with more of your report, and hugely enjoying it. The episode of being left behind brings back memories of a tour out to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and the Olgas in the center of Australia. We hit the Olgas first and were given a time limit for hiking the site, and warned that if we were not back in time, the bus would leave. The guide explained that some had focused their trip around sunset at Uluru, and that we would make that deadline no matter what. When we reassembled, there were two people missing. We did indeed leave them - in the middle of the desert - miles from anywhere. I am assuming that the tour company notified the park authority, or radioed someone else to pick them up later, but I'll never know for sure. I and my three children were missed the tour bus leaving from the Alice Springs Post Office, also in the middle of nowhere, because we lost track of the time. We were fortunate that the lone remaining staff member could give us a lift back to town. I know these examples are different from yours, but I think one needs to be fully aware of consequences to not meeting deadlines. In your case, I should think your guide would have had a plan B. If you are still in the Delta, and have options, we spent time (not written about yet) at Jardin du Mekong. We were the only non-Vietnamese at the time. The nearby villages have real markets, not like the one in District 1 in Saigon. And if you have more time in Saigon, there are true markets, much cheaper but further out from the center. And finally try to see the AO show at the Opera House in HCMC. Super super super!
Jan 27th, 2014, 02:56 PM
#103
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 637
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The one and only great sadness that I have is having spent four years in the great Oz and never seeing Ayers Rock. Your story reminds me of this failing. It does however underscore that sometimes there are deadlines and the guide has to meet them, and in our case we did, but our van was already gone by then. I think the fear of abandonment lurks deep inside us all, and especially when we're in a foreign land where we don't speak the language and it's terribly unfamilar, there are no facilities, no way to make a call, that kind of thing. When I spoke at length to our guide's manager, he had a good chuckle when he said that he himself had gone out with the guy and could hardly keep up. So his propensity to go way too fast was not just with our group. It was his habit, and it was indeed unnecessary, particularly if you know someone is fighting to keep up after a fall. It didn't help in our case that the other couple was hiding condescension behind what they called kindness which was, despite Courtney's strongly worded arguments, evident to me. That's what ended up making it unnecessarily unpleasant.
I appreciate the suggestions. We go back tonight and I have one more day, unscripted, and we'll see what I can do with it. Believe me this has been a magnificent trip all around. I can't be more grateful for all the introspection, insight, gorgeous scenery, beautiful people, general stumblings and everything else that happened. As in all travels the suggestions that have appeared on this thread have been so very useful. All of them.
I appreciate the suggestions. We go back tonight and I have one more day, unscripted, and we'll see what I can do with it. Believe me this has been a magnificent trip all around. I can't be more grateful for all the introspection, insight, gorgeous scenery, beautiful people, general stumblings and everything else that happened. As in all travels the suggestions that have appeared on this thread have been so very useful. All of them.
Jan 28th, 2014, 05:42 PM
#104
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 637
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yesterday was our second day on the Jungle Tours trip, and it was far more educational, and in that regard, a lot more fun. We gathered the troops in the foyer of our simple hotel in Can Tho and walked to the boat dock, and our guide directed us to load ourselves into two motored boats. As we chugged towards the floating market, our first stop of the morning, he explained the reasoning behind the red backed white eyes that nearly every boat has on the bow: the tradition is that the boat owner wants to scare off the water spirits when the winds and waves come, so thence, big bad eyeballs. Suddenly you can't NOT see them on nearly all the boats.
I'm sure everyone on board had heard about the humidity of Mekong Delta- and the heat- which we simply didn't get. The winds were cool and pleasant and there was little, if any, real humidity to dampen the day. After about 45 minutes' chugging along our guide announced that we were approaching the Can Tho floating market, which we'd seen signs of already. Alongside our boat were small and large vessels carrying the current season's biggest crop, melons, along with onions and turnips and pineapples and every other conceivable vegetable and fruit from this very lush area. And from as far away as you could imagine. The six country long Mekong (Tibet to Vietnam, I'd had no clue) supports and feeds an incredible number of people and right here commerce culminates in this wonderful free for all. Just before Tet, there is a great proliferation of yellow carnations for longevity, and some of the boats are jammed full of them, and they appear absolutely everywhere- all over the country-but even more so here as the growers row them to market.
Here we see melons being tossed one by one up or down, pineapples being peeled, a boat selling bananas and cut pineapple sidles up to us, a boy about 7 shouting out his wares. And we buy them, too. The Mekong is in explosive activity, a delight for the eye, not at all what I had imagined in my mind's eye (which is precisely why I don't put much investment in what I think I'm going to see anymore). We chew on popsicles made of pineapple and finger bananas, and watch commerce, going on since 4 am, as people do their best to be done and on their way home for Tet as quickly as possible. The boat's designations like DT indicate what province they are from, like a Cambodian city, and just how far they need to travel to be home in time. Hence, the sense of urgency.
Having spent about an hour right in the midst of all this hectic activity, and stopping for fresh pineapple and a climb atop the boat to get bird's eye photographs of the river with all its residents and the hyperactivity, we headed on to the noodle factory.
Each stop along the river to see various factories seemed like a step back in time, the simplest of all processes to make a product, the use of every part of a plant to ensure recylcing and no waste. This was most assuredly the case with the rice noodles. We wound our way through a series of houses and alleys and bridge overpasses and stopped at a small outfit where there was much focused work afoot.
Under the roof, a woman was pouring rice flour onto two steaming platters, each then was covered for 30 sections with a metal cone. After thirty seconds the cone was lifted and a man would carefully roll the delicate, slightly yellow cooked rice film off and then, just as carefully, roll it flat into a series of four round "plates" onto bamboo. These would be stacked and later set out to dry in the sun. What heated the rice mixture were rice husks, the burned rice husks were used as fertilizer.
After the rice plates, as it were, were dry enough they were lightly treated with oil and pushed through a cutter, which produced thinly sliced noodles. Previously this was done with a big knife, so the machine that now does this is a huge advance.
We were offered deep fried noodles but some soul had slathered it with chilis and that was the end of it for me, so I dove into my backpack for a banana. God what a wimp.
What I so loved about this particular look into industry was the smooth, lyrical movement of the flow of work. Three people: someone tending the fire and the husks, the woman cooking the rice mixture, the man lifting and placing the cooked dough. The simple efficiency of these movements and the pleasant conversation among them, being tolerant of our presence and patient with our curiosity and questions. I used to pack thousands of eggs for my dad's chicken farm back in the sixties, and it took some time before I could find the right set up and economy of movement to make the work flow economic. I was about 10 at the time and I remember the pleasure it gave me to work out a system that shaved half an hour or more off the entire process. There was a flow and synthesis to this work that reminded me a little of that, but this was watching three people whose movements depended entirely on each others' timing. Like ballet. It was quite a pleasure to watch.
Our guide explained that the VN government hankered a bit after the riverfront property along the Mekong, but the challenge it faced was the number of people who lived there, worked there, and conducted commerce along it. No matter that they are poor. The question is where are you going to put river people if you move them? They all own boats in the same way that every Saigonian owns a motorcycle, or everyone in Sa Pa has a bike or good sandals. Each one of those residents would have to be compensated for what would be a very real loss not only of house and home but also of his/her livelihood. What's a riverman to do without the river? You can put up a pricey hotel but if you displace several hundred or thousand people to do so, you might ultimately be paying out a great deal more over time- and anger a great deal more. So they haven't done a thing, is my understanding, and life goes on. Guide didn't go into great detail on this.
We did see that they like to party, however. As we we were carried along towards the rice factory, we could hear stupendous noise emanating from one of the promontories on the river. As we drew closer we could make out that there was some sort of party going on. Along our side of the boat we took to waving, they waved back, and pretty soon the guys in the party started dancing. So did we. They were definitely having a good time. Karaoke, I think. Whatever they were drinking, I think my boat wanted some. We all took photos of each other and we waved until we could no longer see or hear them.
There was a "beach" of sorts along this particular tributary. Strewn with garbage, as much of the river was that I could see. It floated in the river too, the ubiquitous plastic bags, the styofoam containers, fruit. The shore was awash with trash. The houses and buildings looked to be mostly tin, many rusted, and you could easily tell which were shops and which were homes. One woman stood in a washbin and worked the day's clothing with her feet, soap up to her calves.
We arrived at a rice production facility and had the chance to see the heavy (50kg +) bags laid out, and see the different productions from that facility. The guide regaled us with rice history, including the famines, human life lost, cost of the Viet Nam/American war, to the current stats of Viet Nam's being the world's largest rice producer (I think coffee too, or at least those are the claims).
I'm sure everyone on board had heard about the humidity of Mekong Delta- and the heat- which we simply didn't get. The winds were cool and pleasant and there was little, if any, real humidity to dampen the day. After about 45 minutes' chugging along our guide announced that we were approaching the Can Tho floating market, which we'd seen signs of already. Alongside our boat were small and large vessels carrying the current season's biggest crop, melons, along with onions and turnips and pineapples and every other conceivable vegetable and fruit from this very lush area. And from as far away as you could imagine. The six country long Mekong (Tibet to Vietnam, I'd had no clue) supports and feeds an incredible number of people and right here commerce culminates in this wonderful free for all. Just before Tet, there is a great proliferation of yellow carnations for longevity, and some of the boats are jammed full of them, and they appear absolutely everywhere- all over the country-but even more so here as the growers row them to market.
Here we see melons being tossed one by one up or down, pineapples being peeled, a boat selling bananas and cut pineapple sidles up to us, a boy about 7 shouting out his wares. And we buy them, too. The Mekong is in explosive activity, a delight for the eye, not at all what I had imagined in my mind's eye (which is precisely why I don't put much investment in what I think I'm going to see anymore). We chew on popsicles made of pineapple and finger bananas, and watch commerce, going on since 4 am, as people do their best to be done and on their way home for Tet as quickly as possible. The boat's designations like DT indicate what province they are from, like a Cambodian city, and just how far they need to travel to be home in time. Hence, the sense of urgency.
Having spent about an hour right in the midst of all this hectic activity, and stopping for fresh pineapple and a climb atop the boat to get bird's eye photographs of the river with all its residents and the hyperactivity, we headed on to the noodle factory.
Each stop along the river to see various factories seemed like a step back in time, the simplest of all processes to make a product, the use of every part of a plant to ensure recylcing and no waste. This was most assuredly the case with the rice noodles. We wound our way through a series of houses and alleys and bridge overpasses and stopped at a small outfit where there was much focused work afoot.
Under the roof, a woman was pouring rice flour onto two steaming platters, each then was covered for 30 sections with a metal cone. After thirty seconds the cone was lifted and a man would carefully roll the delicate, slightly yellow cooked rice film off and then, just as carefully, roll it flat into a series of four round "plates" onto bamboo. These would be stacked and later set out to dry in the sun. What heated the rice mixture were rice husks, the burned rice husks were used as fertilizer.
After the rice plates, as it were, were dry enough they were lightly treated with oil and pushed through a cutter, which produced thinly sliced noodles. Previously this was done with a big knife, so the machine that now does this is a huge advance.
We were offered deep fried noodles but some soul had slathered it with chilis and that was the end of it for me, so I dove into my backpack for a banana. God what a wimp.
What I so loved about this particular look into industry was the smooth, lyrical movement of the flow of work. Three people: someone tending the fire and the husks, the woman cooking the rice mixture, the man lifting and placing the cooked dough. The simple efficiency of these movements and the pleasant conversation among them, being tolerant of our presence and patient with our curiosity and questions. I used to pack thousands of eggs for my dad's chicken farm back in the sixties, and it took some time before I could find the right set up and economy of movement to make the work flow economic. I was about 10 at the time and I remember the pleasure it gave me to work out a system that shaved half an hour or more off the entire process. There was a flow and synthesis to this work that reminded me a little of that, but this was watching three people whose movements depended entirely on each others' timing. Like ballet. It was quite a pleasure to watch.
Our guide explained that the VN government hankered a bit after the riverfront property along the Mekong, but the challenge it faced was the number of people who lived there, worked there, and conducted commerce along it. No matter that they are poor. The question is where are you going to put river people if you move them? They all own boats in the same way that every Saigonian owns a motorcycle, or everyone in Sa Pa has a bike or good sandals. Each one of those residents would have to be compensated for what would be a very real loss not only of house and home but also of his/her livelihood. What's a riverman to do without the river? You can put up a pricey hotel but if you displace several hundred or thousand people to do so, you might ultimately be paying out a great deal more over time- and anger a great deal more. So they haven't done a thing, is my understanding, and life goes on. Guide didn't go into great detail on this.
We did see that they like to party, however. As we we were carried along towards the rice factory, we could hear stupendous noise emanating from one of the promontories on the river. As we drew closer we could make out that there was some sort of party going on. Along our side of the boat we took to waving, they waved back, and pretty soon the guys in the party started dancing. So did we. They were definitely having a good time. Karaoke, I think. Whatever they were drinking, I think my boat wanted some. We all took photos of each other and we waved until we could no longer see or hear them.
There was a "beach" of sorts along this particular tributary. Strewn with garbage, as much of the river was that I could see. It floated in the river too, the ubiquitous plastic bags, the styofoam containers, fruit. The shore was awash with trash. The houses and buildings looked to be mostly tin, many rusted, and you could easily tell which were shops and which were homes. One woman stood in a washbin and worked the day's clothing with her feet, soap up to her calves.
We arrived at a rice production facility and had the chance to see the heavy (50kg +) bags laid out, and see the different productions from that facility. The guide regaled us with rice history, including the famines, human life lost, cost of the Viet Nam/American war, to the current stats of Viet Nam's being the world's largest rice producer (I think coffee too, or at least those are the claims).
Jan 28th, 2014, 06:04 PM
#105
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,476
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hi JH
Good to hear that you enjoyed the second day on the delta. Did you see the tiny little skinned rats for sale in the market ? Yummy, I think not !
I saw a brick factory which was interesting. I was also impressed with the sympatico cooperation between workers and that there appeared to be little waste of any part of the plant, like using the rice husks for fuel.
Enjoy your last day in VN.
Good to hear that you enjoyed the second day on the delta. Did you see the tiny little skinned rats for sale in the market ? Yummy, I think not !
I saw a brick factory which was interesting. I was also impressed with the sympatico cooperation between workers and that there appeared to be little waste of any part of the plant, like using the rice husks for fuel.
Enjoy your last day in VN.
Jan 28th, 2014, 06:35 PM
#106
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 637
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Jungle Travel was our tour operator, and I just wrote them up on TA. This was one of those really good lessons in going "cheep." I probably will steer clear of cheap again. What I will say and have said before in other long country threads is that there are fool guides, and that they are often given microphones, and when you are unlucky enough to get stuck on a bus or a boat with one you just sometimes want to shoot yourself and get it over with. Guy wants to sing karaoke, get you to practice words, get cutesy, it is the worst of low brow tourist horse manure. And there you are stuck with it.
So what you have to do, as I did, was concentrate on things like stepping aside to get wound up with a python, intently studying the scenery, or focusing hard on your Kindle when he won't. SHUT.UP. When he does divulge something interesting, which is rare, it's valuable. That's what I came for. But this turned out to be a cattle car tourist tour and that's precisely what you get for about fifty bucks, and that one is on me.
We did at least have some free time for lunch (on us of course) in Can Tho, and that allowed me to do some shopping on the pier which was adjacent to the restaurant. There were some cool things in there. There's a fireman who rents my house down in Durango, southwestern Colorado, and I always buy him an XXL T-shirt in country, and those are always available. It was time to find one. So here they were, and a better selection of embroidered dragons. I asked for a particular size, one girl didn't have them, shifted to another shop, the guy had them but wanted 100,000 dong. Then I realized, XXL Vietnamese sizing wasn't going to work on my buddy Paul. I go back to the girl for the XXXL and she sells it to me, no negotiation for 40,000 vnd. Whatta deal.
Encouraged, I wandered further. A few people on here had advised art, and one booth that I backed into featured something that I really liked. These pictures are sewn, scenes from Vietnamese life. Some are cartoonish, but others are really evocative and well done. The ones I liked best speak to rice production and the sewing takes up the whole frame. Not cheap, but I really like them. By the time the woman and I are done we have covered all her goods with these pictures and I suspect she thinks I'm going to buy her out. Nope, just two, but still, it's a 700,000 sale for her and she is very happy, as I am. This reverberates down the booths and no sooner do I wrap up with her than the neighbor has me in a death grip and is showing me pillow covers. Got some. T-shirts? Got one. Oh but...
I just can't recommend Jungle Travel. Other reviews on the site are much more damaging than mine. I rarely give one star because there's usually something out of what you do that you can appreciate, and there really were some good things. I'd had plenty of chances to book a more expensive, more exclusive Mekong Delta tour and I should have. Just a really good piece of learning for me. This outfit just caters to a different type of tourist.
Yesterday afternoon was one very long string of changing buses and long drives, and getting a taxi back to this charming hotel. My room was left alone as requested. Right now it's 10:30 on my very very very last day and I have some shopping to do. Coffee for my coffee lover Paul and a few others, a lacquer item or two, and food for the long trip.
Through my tall windows I can see bright sunshine, hear the beeps of motorcycles. I have twelve more hours here. And until about nine o'clock when my final taxi leave this da'ap lam country, I'm going to enjoy every single second of it. Sleep well all.
So what you have to do, as I did, was concentrate on things like stepping aside to get wound up with a python, intently studying the scenery, or focusing hard on your Kindle when he won't. SHUT.UP. When he does divulge something interesting, which is rare, it's valuable. That's what I came for. But this turned out to be a cattle car tourist tour and that's precisely what you get for about fifty bucks, and that one is on me.
We did at least have some free time for lunch (on us of course) in Can Tho, and that allowed me to do some shopping on the pier which was adjacent to the restaurant. There were some cool things in there. There's a fireman who rents my house down in Durango, southwestern Colorado, and I always buy him an XXL T-shirt in country, and those are always available. It was time to find one. So here they were, and a better selection of embroidered dragons. I asked for a particular size, one girl didn't have them, shifted to another shop, the guy had them but wanted 100,000 dong. Then I realized, XXL Vietnamese sizing wasn't going to work on my buddy Paul. I go back to the girl for the XXXL and she sells it to me, no negotiation for 40,000 vnd. Whatta deal.
Encouraged, I wandered further. A few people on here had advised art, and one booth that I backed into featured something that I really liked. These pictures are sewn, scenes from Vietnamese life. Some are cartoonish, but others are really evocative and well done. The ones I liked best speak to rice production and the sewing takes up the whole frame. Not cheap, but I really like them. By the time the woman and I are done we have covered all her goods with these pictures and I suspect she thinks I'm going to buy her out. Nope, just two, but still, it's a 700,000 sale for her and she is very happy, as I am. This reverberates down the booths and no sooner do I wrap up with her than the neighbor has me in a death grip and is showing me pillow covers. Got some. T-shirts? Got one. Oh but...
I just can't recommend Jungle Travel. Other reviews on the site are much more damaging than mine. I rarely give one star because there's usually something out of what you do that you can appreciate, and there really were some good things. I'd had plenty of chances to book a more expensive, more exclusive Mekong Delta tour and I should have. Just a really good piece of learning for me. This outfit just caters to a different type of tourist.
Yesterday afternoon was one very long string of changing buses and long drives, and getting a taxi back to this charming hotel. My room was left alone as requested. Right now it's 10:30 on my very very very last day and I have some shopping to do. Coffee for my coffee lover Paul and a few others, a lacquer item or two, and food for the long trip.
Through my tall windows I can see bright sunshine, hear the beeps of motorcycles. I have twelve more hours here. And until about nine o'clock when my final taxi leave this da'ap lam country, I'm going to enjoy every single second of it. Sleep well all.
Jan 28th, 2014, 07:42 PM
#107
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 637
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Da'ap lam: beautiful. Sorry.
I really forgot. Tet holiday. Wandered out on the street and while the traffic is still going strong, and the street vendors are out, the stores are largely shut down. Well then. Where's a girl with a buncha dong burning a hole in her pocket to go? I did score a face mask- and there's a reason for this. I was reasearching the Everest Base Camp hike and one of the very smart points that a guy from Outdoor magazine made was that there is a great deal of particulate matter that the wind throws in your face during the hike in springtime resulting in what they call the "Khombu Cough" which I probably misspelled. I bought one of the local motorcyclist's facemasks as a precaution against this, although part of me thinks that it will block the already thin thin air that you're struggling to breathe. But you can always take it off. Doesn't hurt to spend a dollar on it and take it along. Wouldn't it be cool if it turns out to be perfect?
I really forgot. Tet holiday. Wandered out on the street and while the traffic is still going strong, and the street vendors are out, the stores are largely shut down. Well then. Where's a girl with a buncha dong burning a hole in her pocket to go? I did score a face mask- and there's a reason for this. I was reasearching the Everest Base Camp hike and one of the very smart points that a guy from Outdoor magazine made was that there is a great deal of particulate matter that the wind throws in your face during the hike in springtime resulting in what they call the "Khombu Cough" which I probably misspelled. I bought one of the local motorcyclist's facemasks as a precaution against this, although part of me thinks that it will block the already thin thin air that you're struggling to breathe. But you can always take it off. Doesn't hurt to spend a dollar on it and take it along. Wouldn't it be cool if it turns out to be perfect?
Jan 30th, 2014, 11:33 AM
#108
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 31
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
You are perhaps on your way home, but like your write-up on buying a face mask. I travelled with a light weight scarf which was used alternately as a face guard or wipe-down tool. Ycch I agree, but it worked for me. Funniest face mask story we had was seeing a woman and her dog on a motorbike - each with a mask! Asked our friend about that and said it was probably more to protect the dog's nose against sunburn. Not so funny that they worry about sunburn or pollution, but not about the safety threat by carrying their pets or more often their children on motorbikes.
Jan 31st, 2014, 04:55 AM
#110
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 637
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Marija,
I am all ears. My research has all indicated that a face mask is a necessary part of the equipment. What I figure is that you can always bring one to have if you need it for the conditions, and if you struggle breathing through it, remove it. If you have experience, please tell. Dust was not a problem on Kili, we don't get that typically in the Rockies. It's a different condition. And after that rather ridiculous dustup about inadequate shoes with Oxalis I'm not going to let that kind of thing sideswipe me again.
The facemasks in Vietnam are of course cotton, and I tested them out for that very reason to see if they are challenging to breathe through. Some are, and I found one that is loose. Since I used a balaclava on Kilimanjaro on ascent night I've got some experience with hit and while they're not fun, they can be helpful. The one I got covers the lower face to keep out the dust as described by the Outside Magazine writer. He also used a buff, which he said was very hot and caused a lot of fogging. So I ordered a pack of the more standard dust masks. They are so very light they aren't going to be much in the pack. Classic case of better to have and not use than the other way around. The Julbos I've got are designed to limit the amount of fogging but some of it is just inevitable. What may be is that by the time I go- mid to late May- the dusty conditions may well be cleared up and by that time it's more a matter of cloud cover obscuring the gorgeous peaks. I will say this about gear, though, I just scored a terrific pair of Keens on ebay, and everything they say about them about not needing a break in period is ridiculously- true. Got 'em on right now. May not ever take them off again. I'm going to move this discussion over to that forum area, and close this off, as I am (ya!) home, it's snowing, I've been up since 1 am- god dontcha love jet lag, and the season's taped wild card games are playing in my living room as I take care of a month's worth of business. Again thank you to all for your excellent company and comments on this forum. You've been wonderful and that really does mean everyone.
Oh I forgot- attitudegirl, loved your story about the doggiewithfacemask. The issue I have, and there's no answer for it, is that there is no restraining device for anyone or anything carried as a passenger. So infant or puppy makes no difference, if the motorcycle comes to a nasty halt, they become projectiles. I saw that happen in a very sad way in the middle of an intersection when a drunk father, carrying his two very young boys on his motorcyle, ran out in front of a big tourbus in the middle of the road and got walloped. The boys were flown hard across the road, the motorbike was crushed, and the tour bus continued on its merry way. What troubled me the most was that the man clearly was more angry about the damage to his bike than the potential damage to his two offspring, who seemed to have made it through that grisly accident without too much road burn. This was not in a major city but in one of the isolated towns way in the far northwest, somewhere perhaps about 200 or more km SW of Sa pa. Lonely Planet makes a point about helmets, too, saying that if you are going to do VN with a motorbike, bring your own noggin gear. What they have there are eggshells and offer no protection at all. So you really do kinda take your life in your hands if you use one to get around. I didn't. I know it's an essential part of life and people there really truly are very adept with them- from very young- but mixing alcohol with any kind of transport doesn't work very well.
I am all ears. My research has all indicated that a face mask is a necessary part of the equipment. What I figure is that you can always bring one to have if you need it for the conditions, and if you struggle breathing through it, remove it. If you have experience, please tell. Dust was not a problem on Kili, we don't get that typically in the Rockies. It's a different condition. And after that rather ridiculous dustup about inadequate shoes with Oxalis I'm not going to let that kind of thing sideswipe me again.
The facemasks in Vietnam are of course cotton, and I tested them out for that very reason to see if they are challenging to breathe through. Some are, and I found one that is loose. Since I used a balaclava on Kilimanjaro on ascent night I've got some experience with hit and while they're not fun, they can be helpful. The one I got covers the lower face to keep out the dust as described by the Outside Magazine writer. He also used a buff, which he said was very hot and caused a lot of fogging. So I ordered a pack of the more standard dust masks. They are so very light they aren't going to be much in the pack. Classic case of better to have and not use than the other way around. The Julbos I've got are designed to limit the amount of fogging but some of it is just inevitable. What may be is that by the time I go- mid to late May- the dusty conditions may well be cleared up and by that time it's more a matter of cloud cover obscuring the gorgeous peaks. I will say this about gear, though, I just scored a terrific pair of Keens on ebay, and everything they say about them about not needing a break in period is ridiculously- true. Got 'em on right now. May not ever take them off again. I'm going to move this discussion over to that forum area, and close this off, as I am (ya!) home, it's snowing, I've been up since 1 am- god dontcha love jet lag, and the season's taped wild card games are playing in my living room as I take care of a month's worth of business. Again thank you to all for your excellent company and comments on this forum. You've been wonderful and that really does mean everyone.
Oh I forgot- attitudegirl, loved your story about the doggiewithfacemask. The issue I have, and there's no answer for it, is that there is no restraining device for anyone or anything carried as a passenger. So infant or puppy makes no difference, if the motorcycle comes to a nasty halt, they become projectiles. I saw that happen in a very sad way in the middle of an intersection when a drunk father, carrying his two very young boys on his motorcyle, ran out in front of a big tourbus in the middle of the road and got walloped. The boys were flown hard across the road, the motorbike was crushed, and the tour bus continued on its merry way. What troubled me the most was that the man clearly was more angry about the damage to his bike than the potential damage to his two offspring, who seemed to have made it through that grisly accident without too much road burn. This was not in a major city but in one of the isolated towns way in the far northwest, somewhere perhaps about 200 or more km SW of Sa pa. Lonely Planet makes a point about helmets, too, saying that if you are going to do VN with a motorbike, bring your own noggin gear. What they have there are eggshells and offer no protection at all. So you really do kinda take your life in your hands if you use one to get around. I didn't. I know it's an essential part of life and people there really truly are very adept with them- from very young- but mixing alcohol with any kind of transport doesn't work very well.
Mar 14th, 2014, 08:18 AM
#111
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hello, I had same experience in Ho Chi Minh city like you. We wondered where to buy tickets and decided to book here getyourguide.com/ho-chi-minh-city-l272/a-o-show-ho-chi-minh-city-t39856/
It turns out to be quite easy for us to get the eticket and come to experience the show
It turns out to be quite easy for us to get the eticket and come to experience the show
