Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

Topher coined a term for Vietnam that has aptly described what we experience on a daily basis, "The Vietnamese Truth." To summarize, throw capitalism, greed, a large smile, and outright lies into a blender, hit the puree switch, and you have the Vietnamese truth. I'm not sure what is more prevalent, the Viet-truth, or the cute old ladies selling pineapple on the beach...

We arrived in the beach city of Hoi An, in central Vietnam half a week or ago. Stepping off our bus we were surrounded by a mob of 'marketers' trying to sell their hotels to us. We actually kind of like this, because it gives us a chance to play them off one another for a better price. We settled on one hotel, which promised three beds, free internet, and a pool- all for nine dollars for the three of us.

We arrived at this beautiful hotel, saw a beautiful room, which they forgot to mention was NOT the nine dollar room, and we checked in. Arriving in our sterile basement room equipped with two beds, they told us they would bring in a mattress for the floor... not quite a bed, but no worries. Then they informed us there was no free internet, or internet all together... and that the pool they described was actually at the hotel half a block down. I realize that the concept of truth is fairly fluid around the world, but needless to say, I don't think anyone enjoys being half-lied to, just for a sale. Vietnamese truth example number one.

Long story short, we went to a different hotel the next night, drilled them on what they actually included, and decided to rent motorbikes from the front desk guy's sister. We rent the bikes the evening before, and in the morning hop on our bikes with expectations of driving to China Beach, about 30 km north of us. As we get on the bikes, the motorbike cartel as we later called them surrounded us and began trying to take our keys. We had no clue what was going on, but of course we were not going to let them take the bikes from us. Welllll, the police came and slowly we understood that the lady who rented them to us through our hotel was not actually allowed to rent the bikes out as she was not licensed. We argued for a bit, and finally got assurances that we would have new motorbikes within the hour around the corner, as well as free motorbikes two days later.

We had a great day at the beach, enjoyed the sun and surf, and the bikes weren't half bad getting up to about 60 miles an hour (don't read the last part Mom, we had helmets... trust me... Vietnamese truth...). We returned to our hotel in the evening where we were given Vietnamese ice cream as reconciliation by the motorbike lady. However, the free motorbike promise never materialized as the bikes were conveniently impounded by the cops until they found out our checkout date, after which they were released.

Trust me, there are MANY more examples of the Vietnamese truth, but for the sake of brevity I'll just say that we are learning to question every deal, interrogate every salesperson, and to get any claims in writing.

True to travel, however, just when we get to a point where we are sick of a place or the dishonesty, we will find a little slice of heaven. An unexplored beach with big waves, a desert highway, a restaurant bungalow nestled up next to a river...

One prayer request: I have all my graduate school applications (and scholarship apps) in and I am waiting to hear where I will be accepted to start school in September 2007. Pray that I'll be in the right place, in the right program, with the right people.

Love to you all

ps. I also keep having technical difficulties, both accesing my blog and getting pictures up. I'll work on it. Meanwhile, you'll actually have to get some work done.