4 weeks of traveling in Vietnam are over and if you'd ask me to wrap it up in one sentence then I would say "The opposite of Cambodia".
Meaning Vietnam has a beautiful countryside and landsacpes, some great food just like in Cambodia but unfortunately the majority of Vietnamese we have met in our day-to-day life left us with a unfortunate bad impression of being rude, dis-honest and having the talent to be persistantly annoying. The times we have been not left alone by people trying to sell us just anything (for example sunglasses while I was wearing my pair of sunglasses), deliberately given back the wrong change, having been quoted prices easily 300% over what regular tourist prices are, ignored us when we had a question, etc. is uncounted for and unfortunately that is the major impression we left Vietnam with.
Nevertheless we met some great people, ate some great food and had a good time throughout the travels. The highlights were the 2 weeks driving on our Motos through central Vietnam, some great creative sea-food omlets in Nha Trang, the Ha Long Bay sorroundings (not particularly the Party-Boat-Trip we had booked) and the people we meet in Saigon.
By now I arrived in Singapore, where I am staying with my friend Matt and his family and all focus is on the Marathon preparation. 9 days to go before the event starts. Due to the fact that I haven't been able to keep up a regular running regime throughout the travels and the humidity here in Singapore this marathon is going to be a real challenge.
Wish me luck
Joe
I'm very sorry that a majority of our people had left you some bad impressions. I believe that's because you were staying at tourist areas where people are very lame and services are not good. But if you could stay longer, and I could have had a chance to introduce you the other sides of Vietnam, I think it would change the way you feel! Take care :)
ReplyDelete