Northern/Central Vietnam and the Road Ahead

It's currently 10:04pm and I am writing this post on a sleeper bus winding its way down the coast of Vietnam from Hoi An to Nah Trang.  Vietnam thus far has been a bit of a disappointment, with the terrible weather interfering with my visits to Halong Bay and Hue, both of which I had heard wonderful things about in advance.  An overnight cruise in Halong Bay, with its thousand karsts rising languidly from the water, left me aching for both the landscape I could see and that which might have been visible had the cold, overcast skies cleared to permit some sunlight sooner than 20 minutes before our return to port.  Hue, a city in central Vietnam, was even worse, with 3 days of constant rain constraining me and my companions to our hotel and the restaurants and bars within a 2-block radius for the entirety of our stay.

I guess it hasn't all been bad though.  Starting off in Hanoi was a double-shot of adrenaline, especially having arrived via a brutal 24-hour bus trip from Vientienne.  The two cities could not be more different.  Vientienne, is the slowest capital city you can imagine, where tuk-tuk drivers regularly nap in their vehicles and shop owners and street merchants are only half-heartedly persistent in their bids for your attention.  Hanoi, on the other hand, reminds me of New York in general and Chinatown in particular, except for massive amounts of motorbikes and a complete disregard for traffic laws of any kind.  Crossing the streets there was nerve-wracking to say the least, even for this native New Yorker.

My most recent stop, Hoi An, "the suit city", was a step in the right direction after the disappointment of Hue and Halong Bay.  Though the sun made only occasional brief appearances, it remained warm and dry enough to enjoy leisurely bike rides around the old city and along the river two out of the three days in town.  And how about that third day, you ask?  Let's just say that it was spent absorbing the lesson of what happens to this American when he is deluded enough to think he can keep pace with a group of Brits over the course of two football games and a post-midnight trip to the disco club/beach bar (though to be fair, none of them ended up in such great shape either).

My day-'o-recovery wasn't a complete waste though.  When I finally dragged myself out of bed, I went across the street and visited one of the city's hundred or so tailor shops, where I had my measurements taken for the suit, dress shoes, belt, 2 pairs of jeans, 3 shirts, 3 ties, and 3 pairs of socks that I would come back to have adjusted and wrapped up the next day for a grand total of $225.  Yep, pretty ridiculous.  I mostly just needed the suit and other dress clothes for the wedding I'll be attending in India next month, but at $20 per pair for jeans that actually fit, I just couldn't resist.

Wait, back up... wedding in India?  Ok, time for an update on my travel plans.  I'm currently traveling with the Brits on an open bus ticket from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City which allows me to stop at about five cities along the way and pick up the next segment whenever I feel like it (though, as I learned yesterday, it helps to confirm your spot a couple days in advance so the once-daily bus doesn't fill up).  I have a flight booked from Ho Chi Minh City to Mumbai on December 4th, where I will be meeting up with one of my best friends from college, Erica, and accompanying her to the wedding of one of her best friends, Anisha.  After Anisha's wedding, I will be traveling with Erica and a couple of her friends to Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Varanasi until December 29th, at which point I have a flight booked to Singapore where I had tentative plans to spend New Years with various friends from college and DC.  It's now sounding like many of them can't make it, so I'm considering trying to cancel that flight and just stay in India, since my flight to Tanzania on January 6th leaves from Mumbai.

Wait... Tanzania?  Wasn't I supposed to visit China, Australia, and New Zealand before heading to Africa?  (To be fair, I doubt many people beyond my parents and grandmother even knew/remembered that was my original plan.)  I've decided to put those destinations on hold for now and spend a couple months in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where I will be volunteering with KickStart, a fantastic nonprofit organization that develops, launches and promotes simple money-making tools that poor entrepreneurs can use to create their own profitable businesses.  While in Dar, I will be staying with KickStart's Country Director (and former-President of Community Wealth Ventures, who I worked with my first year at the firm), Alfred, his wife, Hillary (Country Director for TechnoServe, another nonprofit I have long admired), their 4-year-old son, Bodie (who I remember as one of the happiest, most precocious 2-year-olds I have ever met), and two rather large dogs.  I'm very excited by the prospect of starting off in Africa in such an incredible situation, staying with such wonderful people and volunteering for a such great organization.  I think I may have mentioned in an earlier post that I was finding it harder than I expected to pull myself away from the tourist trail and get involved in volunteer opportunities, so I'm looking forward to the chance to really dig in and try to make a meaningful contribution to a community.  If all goes well, I'm thinking of potentially extending my stay in Africa with other potential volunteer or employment opportunities in Kenya or Uganda.  For now though, knowing that I have that solid chunk of time set aside for changemaking has lifted a bit of weight from my shoulders, and I know it will now be easier to really let myself relax and enjoy the next month and a half of traveling.