Today (Sunday 2/18) is our tenth full day back in the States. As we occasionally do, we went to IHOP for breakfast, and did something you can't do in Southeast Asia -- paid for the meal with wrinkled and damaged dollar bills, including a fiver that was taped together.
It was a running joke amongst the group because you can only exchange crisp, new money for Thai, Laos, and Vietnamese money. In Cambodia, they want US money rather than Cambodian money. Oh, and the five Canadians on the trip? They had to bring U.S. currency, not Canadian dollars. And not just any U.S. currency, but clean, unwrinkled money without any tears.
Once I was paying Bun back in dollars for money he had fronted us (he would pay for something, and then collect from the group) and he rejected a perfectly clean dollar bill because there was the tiniest of red dots on it. The dot was so small I hadn't even noticed it. Whoa.
Then, one time in Saigon, Bun was giving me change for something, and it was a beat up Vietnamese Dong note. I jokingly said, "hey, this is crumpled, I can't accept this!" We all laughed and laughed, and then I kept the wrinkled money.
I came home with two 1,000 Cambodian Riel notes and a 2,000 Lao Kip note, because it has a picture of a temple we went on it. The 2,000 Cambodian Riel is worth forty-nine cents, while the 2,000 Kip is worth 9.6 cents (CENTS, not dollars!). I was keeping it Riel; in Cambodia I paid for everything with dollars. Anyhow, if you are going to Southeast Asia soon and need to bring nearly 59 cents, I'm happy to send you these wrinkled local bills.
Southeast Asia is famous for its reckless driving. Regular occurring craziness includes running red lights, turning right on red without looking, driving on the wrong side of the road, and scooters going onto sidewalks to avoid having to wait behind other traffic at red lights to make a right turn
You see a lot of craziness on the road, but what you don't see are a lot of accidents. Even though I was almost hit by an SUV in Phnom Penh whilst in a cyclo, we only saw one actual accident. And it wasn't even in a city. Wild stuff.
The psychotic driving means two things for pedestrians. First, sidewalks aren’t for the faint of heart and second, crossing the street is risky EVERY time. Every time. Not just every so often.
You never know if you are going to run over or clipped by a motorcycle while you are walking on the sidewalk, which is safe ground in many countries. Plus, in cities like Hanoi, there are so many motorcycles/motor scooters parked on the sidewalk, you have to keep stepping into the street, so if you don't get hit on the sidewalk, you might get hit on the street, just like I did in Hanoi (the guy was going so slow that there was no injury or pain involved. My getting hit wasn't quite as heroic as John McCain getting shot down over Hanoi and spending six years in the "Hanoi Hilton" as a POW.
Speaking of the Hanoi Hilton, you can't do everything on a trip, and I am still bummed we didn't get to tour the Hanoi Hilton.
And, speaking of the Vietnam War, I know we lost, but did we? The government is CINO -- Communist In Name Only. The economic system is capitalist, people can't own property but they can control it (Land Use Right), and the only thing that hasn't changed since 1975 is that it is still a one-party state.
(By the way, when morons on Twitter complain about the uniparty in Washington, they obviously have no idea what they are talking about. If they think there is a uniparty, they should move to Vietnam and see what one actually is. Rant over).
We saw lots of U.S. brands in Vietnam, as well as tons of small, privately owned businesses there as well. Remember, capitalism works!
The food on the trip was really good -- far better than I expected/feared. I've had the occasional Asian food, but this was going to be approximately 16 days of, well, Asian food. Carol doesn't like spicey food, so over the years I've lost whatever modest taste I had for it. We have vowed to go for more Asian food in the future. Good news is, here in NOVA (Northern Virginia) and DC there's plenty of Asian restaurants.
The people of the four countries were great -- friendly, waving often, and very nice. I know what you are thinking -- "Glen, you are there spending money." My retort would be that even people we were spending money with were nice. Oh, some of the people trying to get you to buy something from their market stall were rude, but their only concern is selling, so if they ain't making a sell, it's time for them to move to their next potential customer.
G Adventures calls the leader of the group the trip CEO. Our man in SE Asia, Bun, was the best group leader we've ever had, and Carol and I have generally liked previous group leaders. Bun is responsive, organized, caring, and has a great sense of humor.
(Editor: You say that about anyone. . .you say someone has a great sense of humor if they laugh at your jokes! Writer: Obviously they do have one if they laugh at my jokes!)
Everyone in the group really liked Bun, and hopefully he has a long and happy career, because he's really good at it.
We've been on some trips with really good people, but this group was the best yet. Everyone liked each other and got along great, which made the trip that much better.
I did learn on this tour that I’ve turned into a visual learner from a visual/audio learner. I had a hard time listening to the local guides, even the ones who spoke clearly. They seemed to drone on for a long time. And, of course, those who were hard to understand seemed to drone on even longer. So after a bit, I'd find myself wandering off, snapping photos and content to read the Wikipedia entry to take in what I couldn't follow from the guides.
Don't get me wrong. Once I figured out how to deal with the local guides, it was all good. Overall I really enjoyed the trip (except Bangkok), but I don't want to imply everything is hunky-dory.
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