Howdy there. I’m Kris. Lyna’s sister’s fiancé. I read Lyna’s blog weekly, so I thought it was only appropriate that I contribute.
That, and I just got back from a trip to Vietnam and Malaysia with Lyna, Paul, Lyna’s cousin Billy and our friend Jason.
There is soo much to cover from a 2 week trip so I’ll try to summarize.
It all started a few days before the trip when I failed to navigate stairs the way I have for the past 34 years and somehow badly sprained my ankle. It turned black and blue and I couldn’t put pressure on it. The doctor gave me a walking cast. Not the type of thing you want to do days before a trip to a foreign country that will involve a ton of walking on uneven ground and climbing ancient stairs.
After a few days of icing and elevating my foot, we were off to the airport. It was a long flight with a connection in Taiwan but overall it wasn’t terrible. Air China is pretty good with the on demand movies etc. Oh and Ambien helps.
We arrived in Saigon right around rush hour. After trying to get ripped off by local cabbies, we finally negotiated our way into a van cab. At this point I am so grateful that Kat speaks Vietnamese. Kat and Lyna’s ability to communicate helped a ton in Vietnam. Traffic in Vietnam is CRAZY. There are thousands of scooters and mopeds on the streets at the same time, all going in different directions with what seems like zero traffic laws. Not only that but we saw 2,3,4 up to a family of 5 on a single scooter. Babys with no helmets etc. We also saw people hauling anything they could carry (groceries, tools, lumber, one guy had a refrigerator). It’s not uncommon for people to transport something 5x the size of the scooter via scooter. After weeks there you still don’t get used to it. It’s CRAZY. And the whole “yeah but you never see any wrecks” thing is b.s. Granted, there should be thousands of wrecks each day but we only saw 4 the whole time we were there.
We spent the first day of the trip in District 7 where Lyna lives. It’s a new expat area of Saigon and was super nice, not very crowded etc. Basically, the Beverly Hills of Saigon. Felt more like we were San Gabriel Valley. So, that was nice to ease us into it and also to have some calm area to go home to at night. Also, it was SUPER helpful to have Lyna and Paul there as our guides. I highly recommend travel with a local guide. Oh and the free place to stay was cool too.
We brought several handles of liquor but they didn’t stand a chance against this group. Card games and pre-partying before going out each night killed those quickly. Lyna showed us all over town. We ate 5-6 times a day. No joke. There were so many restaurants and dishes to sample that we were eating machines. However, a full meal with apps and beers was only like $5-6 per person so it seemed like the thing to do. We did some bargain shopping, some clubbing, trivia night, karaoke, walking around and exploring etc. Lots of street meat and street vendors to keep you busy. We would negotiate prices down to $10 for a t-shirt thinking we got a good price. Then Paul informed us that they should be $5. So, he became our chief negotiator moving forward.
Crossing the street in the crowded areas was like a game of frogger. The flood of scooters never really stops. So, you have to just walk out and hope they don’t hit you. There were a few times where Kat and I were stuck on the other side of the street because we hesitated.
It was warm but not terrible hot. Only a few nights where it was muggy out. We also did a few day trips. We did a Mekong Delta tour where we watched them make candy, perform some local theater and visit some local vendors.
After several days in Saigon, we flew to Hanoi for Xmas. After a short game of pack, repack and repack again at the airport because all of our bags were too heavy, we boarded the plane. Only after giving up and paying for extra baggage fees. Upon landing in Hanoi, you could immediately tell that there was a big difference between the two cities. Hanoi is farther north and quite a bit colder. Saigon was hot and muggy and Hanoi was San Fran cold. It also was more developed. With main highways, huge bridges, tons of factories and industrial parks. We arrived on Xmas eve and after checking into our hotel we walked around. They were having an Xmas eve celebration and blocked off the streets for a huge parade and fair. It was crowded but really cool to see. Jason bought us all reindeer antler headbands to wear which turned out to be the most useful tool on the trip as we could find each other in the crowd. Overall, a good night.
The next morning we went to Ha Long Bay. We booked an overnight cruise on a fancy boat. This was the most expensive and fanciest thing we did all trip but it was worth it. The food was really good, the ship was super nice and overall it was cool as hell. Great views from our cabins on the boat and from the deck up top. We would take a smaller boat over to different islands and go explore etc. I think this was my favorite thing about the entire trip.
Then, we had one more night in Hanoi. We tried to walk around and soak up everything before heading off to Malaysia the next day.
Malaysia is where it all went askew. I don’t want to harp on it or type a ton of negative stuff so I’ll start to be a little more brief. A bit of background on Malaysia. We were looking at places near Vietnam to add another country to the trip. We considered Cambodia and Laos but figured it might be too similar to Vietnam and they are even less developed so it might be like being in the countryside. We considered Thailand but some of the group already planned to go there later in the year and all I hear are horror stories about Bangkok. So, Malaysia looked like a great option. It has a big city (Kuala Lumpur), rainforests, scuba diving and snorkeling, hiking, etc. Plus it is a melting pot of people from Asia and everyone is fluent in English and they accept US currency. At least that is how it was marketed on all the websites. Not the case.
After booking our flights we discovered that we were going during the monsoon season. This meant that the entire east coast of the peninsula was off limits. That meant no rain forests, no water activities, no island stuff. We were basically limited to Kuala Lumpur and day trips from that area. We also discovered that the country was predominantly Muslim. However, all of the websites said that this wouldn’t affect westerners trips much. Girls just had to wear a scarf over their heads when entering temples and alcohol is still served everywhere. Not the case.
Kuala Lumpur overall just seemed awful. We kept trying to give it the benefit of the doubt and thinking that the next day would be better but it wasn’t.
Let me preface the rest of this by saying that I’m not being ethnocentric. I’ve been to over 25 countries and many of them were third. My complaints about Kuala Lumpur are based on expectations that were raised too high due to websites and marketing materials. It also was purely the attitude of the locals towards us. They just didn’t seem to want us there at all.
It’s hot as hell. I mean hot. And we were there during the winter. The sun was just brutal hot. Things are more expensive than Vietnam but they were still cheap. However, alcohol wasn’t that cheap. It turns out there is a 100% sin tax on alcohol. So, you were still paying $3 a can at the corner store and $5 a can at a bar. And that was when you could find one that served alcohol. They weren’t as prevalent as the websites made them out to be. They do not accept US currency. Not at all. No one does. I normally wouldn’t expect this if it weren’t for websites saying they did. I have no idea why websites said that. They do not speak English that well. All the websites acted like everyone was fluent in English but they were not. Once again, I normally wouldn’t expect this if it weren’t for websites saying they did. Communicating with locals was very difficult.
Then there was the issue of the women’s attire. The girls were constantly glared at, and even hissed at by several people because they were wearing t-shirts or tank tops that showed their shoulders. They had to start covering up with scarves and wearing long sleeved shirts and long skirts in the god awful heat. Even then, they still got looks.
Every single tourist attraction was a let down. The Batu Caves involved a ton of steps and the monkeys were cool but inside was full of trash and graffiti. Literally looked like a landfill in there. Later, we walked halfway across earth to get to a temple and it was a huge letdown. They had club music playing in the building below it and the whole thing looked like it was built in 2007. Little India was okay. Chinatown was okay (although it might be the dirtiest Chinatown I’ve ever been to in any country in the world. I saw a woman defecating into a storm grate in the middle of a busy intersection).
If you ever find yourself stuck in Kuala Lumpur, the only thing you need to do is go to Jalon Alor street food market. It was a ton of tables and chairs and vendors in the street and they sever all sorts of street meat and beers. This was our best night in the whole place. Good food, good fun.
Oh and to add insult to injury, they are a toilet paperless country. Most bathrooms are just a hole in the ground. Some are western style toilets but instead of toilet paper there is a hose. We all just waited until we went back to the hotel.
I think the main issue was the attitude towards westerners and tourists. In Saigon and Hanoi they were super friendly towards us. And this is a country we went to war with not even a generation ago. No hard feelings. Sure they would see the foreigners coming and try to jack up the prices on whatever they were selling but they would do it with a smile and would joke with you. Despite the poverty in most of Vietnam, people seemed to be in good spirits and laughing with one another. On the other hand, Kuala Lumpur seemed miserable. Maybe they see us as infidels and our normal behavior flies in the face of everything they believe. Maybe we are the walking devil to them. That’s how they acted. We couldn’t get cabs. When they did stop, they would ask us where we were going and then just say no. This was odd because instead of just naming a price 3x what they normally would charge a local they just said NO. In fact, NO was the main word everyone there knew. Can we use the internet, NO. Can we get a roll of toilet paper, NO. Do you know where this thing in the town you live is, NO.
Then there was the mugging. Three of the guys in the group got mugged. Some guys posed as police and caught them on the side of the rroad and took their cash. Afterwards, we looked it up and it turns out that crime in KL has been on the rise but the government never posts anything or files reports because they don’t want to scare away tourists or businesses. This left a bad taste in our mouths.
Needless to say, we were happy to head home after 5 days of this place.
Overall, it was a great learning experience. Vietnam was definitely cool to see and we had some good times there. However, visiting Malaysia taught us to do deep deep research before choosing a location. Things that might make a difference are weather, monsoons and does your everyday way of life offend the religious beliefs of 99% of the locals.
Will have to keep this in mind for the next trip.
Kris McDonald aka Lance Armstrong
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