Vietnam: and sometimes the toilet is just a hole in the ground

Day 285:

Now I have been in Vietnam for 8 days. The country is characterized for me by beautiful nature, booming cities, delicious food and often very friendly people (those who choose not to be friendly do so with an iron strength, more on that later).

My adventure in Vietnam started in Ho Chi Minh City, a very modern, pretty cool city. The War Remnants Museum is intense, afterwards I spent the rest of the day pitying the people for their ability to inflict such unimaginable suffering on each other.

After that, I went to Da Lat, a small town in the mountains, very beautiful and exciting.

Then I wanted to go somewhere else than where I landed, but as sometimes happens, the previously promised connection suddenly no longer existed and I had to rearrange. I spent a few moments pitying myself, but then I pulled myself together and took matters into my own hands. Now I have traveled to Hoi An earlier than planned and I'm looking forward to some exciting days here.

I don't want to withhold a little incident of today from you. My day started like this:

I waited a long time for the bus that was supposed to take me to my next destination. Then I got the call: the bus is here and from experience, I know that everything has to go very quickly if I don't want to upset everyone involved. So I put on my backpack, one in front, one in the back, and off I went in a hurry across the busy main road in the morning. As soon as the bus driver sees me, I'm still far away, he starts waving frantically and urging me on as if it's a matter of life and death (which it almost is, since I'm maneuvering through crowds of motorcycles, cars, and buses, all driving around me, stopping or making room is out of the question).

Proud to have survived the inferno, I board the bus with a smile. In return, I get a grim look and more hand waving. While I resign myself to my fate of unfriendliness, the bus driver starts pulling on my backpack from behind, but it's still strapped on. He ignores my remarks about it, and when he finally gets a hold of my backpack after some struggle, he points first at me, then at the back of the bus and says "You! Back!" and lights a cigarette (inside the bus, of course). I guess I'll take a seat in the back of the bus then.

See you soon, take care!

Jule