Well its been three days since the last chapter. A lot has happened. On the first full day of visiting Hoi An, we (tour guide, me and a smattering of other tourists) spent the first part of the day mulling around a coffee shop, then to a remarkable open food market, then we took a little tourist boat to a far off location where our host AKA master chef gave us an entertaining and informative cooking class. Truly, we all enjoyed this lengthy enlightenment, even me, the man who hates cooking! Then we ate what we cooked and it was delicious. Of course one of the instructor’s helpers immediately singled me out as the moron of the group and hovered around me guiding me through the steps. But I was fully engaged and listening intently to the presentation. Indeed, the master chef was might funny, poking fun at everyone during his presentation, prompting bursts of laughter especially from me – probably the crowd thought I was taking dope or something. But now, I am even more in love with Vietnamese food than ever before. A healthier food I cannot imagine.
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| Funny Master Chef who taught the cooking lesson |
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| 83 y/o and still working! |
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| Things are not always what they appear - more later on this topic |
The second day was spent learning about fishing and that was also a wonderful experience, albeit very touristy and controlled. We spent most of the time on the water in a tourist boat and then we somehow found our way onto little bisected spherical bowl floating miracle – four to a bowl - not much larger than your bathroom tub. This took us to various locations while learning about how the Vietnamese fish and the politics involved. It was truly a splendid experience, not too long and everyone in the group was interacting and having fun in these little spherical tubs. The afternoon was spent enjoying a walking tour of old Hoi An, which was very also enjoyable. The town of Hoi An is not that large….under 100,000 population, and so the streets were not too crowded, the tourists not too intrusive in behavior or number, and the sites were preserved very well and historically interesting. When I crossed one of the major landmarks, this very old bridge that was built by the Japanese in about 1590, I realized something very interesting. This was not the first time I had crossed this bridge; I had done so on my first trip to Vietnam about 12 years ago. I just didn’t remember the name of the town, but I remembered the excursion from Danang that took us to a town about 40 minutes away – which now I recognize as Hoi An. Yikes, what more can I say about my memory of the past.
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| just a glimpse of part of the circular tub we used to navigate the river |
This Blog:
Writing without pictures is both challenging and rewarding. Instead of focusing on a pretty picture to lend credence to the narrative, it all has to be imagined. Of course, I plan to edit these chapters (already done) when I get home and access my mac air which hopefully I will remember how to operate.
Traveling Solo:
The greatest trepidation of this trip was in traveling solo. Not for a lack of trying, I just could not find anyone free enough to join me. That begged the question of whether I was being controlled by the situation and my friends availability or I was in control of my destiny. Having taken a Silversea cruise to Japan and Alaska a few years back, I was even more concerned with how this would come down because I was not all that happy with cruising alone. But I would not let circumstances get the best of me. How much more time on earth do I have to enjoy the world? That is just as much of a question as this one: Does my enjoyment of the world depend upon someone else or can it come from within? Well I think the first question only God can answer, the second one has been answered during this trip.
Indeed, I am not the same man on this trip that I would be traveling with a companion, which typically would keep my experiences and outgoing advances limited and insular. Not having any notion of how I would do or whether I could get anyone to even talk to me, I seemed to naturally gravitate to be friendly, ask obvious looking tourists where they are from, comparing notes and sharing travel tips, poking jabs at the local customs, etc, etc…. I have also been much more sociable to the local Vietnamese and they have returned the favor. In short, its been very easy to interact with just about anyone who comes my way and it has been immensely enjoyable.
Have I been lonely? – NO. Have I felt like an outcast? – NO. In fact, I feel rather liberated in this independent travel experience. People want to talk to me precisely because I am traveling alone, seeing me as brave rather than a loser who can’t find a single human on earth to travel with. And in the end, I don’t really have to ask anyone about how they feel about doing anything on the trip. When nature calls in the middle of the night, I turn on the lights and march to the bathroom without worrying about waking anyone up. When I decide to sit at the bar and order Pho and skip a full dinner, I can decide this without any concern over the other person’s feelings.
Yes, I can truly say that I have made the correct decision to travel solo. At least up until now, I feel this is one of the most enjoyable trips that I have taken in the recent past. And it motivates me to begin planning for the next adventure, to another south east asian location, perhaps Laos, Cambodia, or Myanmar. Stay tuned……
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