randomness
How lucky am I?
I have previously mentioned how I met a great group of people in Luang Prabang with whom I felt like I had been traveling with for months. We all grew to be friends, Kristina and I iron pilled popped together, Bonnie and Dave are just the coolest couple ever. Bonnie and I had a few crazy drunken nights which we paid for pretty badly the next day. Pradeep was my everything from mountain biking to drinking, to cheese tasting best friend. Sahana, an 18 year old from BC who is traveling alone before she figures out what she wants to study in....18! How amazing I was still not sure about going downtown alone at 18 ...
In fact Sahana was the first to go bald and I sorta followed her example, I also want to adopt her as my little sister :) Pradeep and Hemal are of Indian origin, one from the states and the other from England and the 4 of us hung out and shared a room in Vientiane. So we were known as the baldies and the brownies. I'm back in Saigon now and on my flight from Laos people were actually talking about the 2 bald white chicks :)
So I left Laos and I'm back just for one night in HCMC. As I got out of the airport, where cab drivers were trying to charge me 4 times what I had paid last time I needed to get into town, I imposed myself on 2 other backpackers and shared a cab with them.
Matthieu and David are from the french side of Switzerland. Two nurses doing volunteer work here for a few weeks. Needless to say they were great, we had lunch and a few beers and after just a few hours it felt like we had been friends for years. You know how you start being all polite and interested and by the end you make fun of where the other one comes from....well That's what it was like and now I have a free place to stay in Lausanne (or at least I think I do).
So that's what it's always been like, if ever lonely the universe has provided the nicest of people. In fact for the first time in all my travels the people I have wanted to meet or ended up befriending most were foreigners. It's hard to get to know the locals and more so here in Vietnam.
I miss Laos, it's soo crowded here and the people so pushy and I'm sorry to Chau or anyone else but so far I haven't felt any kind of attachment to the locals. That being said though tonight I went to have street Pho and the couple next to me (Vietnamese) bought food for a homeless boy and his sister which really touched me. Then as I walked through the night market I got a great deal of you buy something!!! But also some wow nice Hair Lady. I bought litchis I was randomly handing out and it made people laugh and soften up a little. Of course like anywhere else, there are nice people and then not so nice people and Vietnam is not exception. I hate that my contact with the locals has been more negative than positive.....but It happens I guess.
On a side note, I wish I could grow out my hair and walk around topless here and see if I would get as many stares as my bald head is getting right now!
I have previously mentioned how I met a great group of people in Luang Prabang with whom I felt like I had been traveling with for months. We all grew to be friends, Kristina and I iron pilled popped together, Bonnie and Dave are just the coolest couple ever. Bonnie and I had a few crazy drunken nights which we paid for pretty badly the next day. Pradeep was my everything from mountain biking to drinking, to cheese tasting best friend. Sahana, an 18 year old from BC who is traveling alone before she figures out what she wants to study in....18! How amazing I was still not sure about going downtown alone at 18 ...
In fact Sahana was the first to go bald and I sorta followed her example, I also want to adopt her as my little sister :) Pradeep and Hemal are of Indian origin, one from the states and the other from England and the 4 of us hung out and shared a room in Vientiane. So we were known as the baldies and the brownies. I'm back in Saigon now and on my flight from Laos people were actually talking about the 2 bald white chicks :)
So I left Laos and I'm back just for one night in HCMC. As I got out of the airport, where cab drivers were trying to charge me 4 times what I had paid last time I needed to get into town, I imposed myself on 2 other backpackers and shared a cab with them.
Matthieu and David are from the french side of Switzerland. Two nurses doing volunteer work here for a few weeks. Needless to say they were great, we had lunch and a few beers and after just a few hours it felt like we had been friends for years. You know how you start being all polite and interested and by the end you make fun of where the other one comes from....well That's what it was like and now I have a free place to stay in Lausanne (or at least I think I do).
So that's what it's always been like, if ever lonely the universe has provided the nicest of people. In fact for the first time in all my travels the people I have wanted to meet or ended up befriending most were foreigners. It's hard to get to know the locals and more so here in Vietnam.
I miss Laos, it's soo crowded here and the people so pushy and I'm sorry to Chau or anyone else but so far I haven't felt any kind of attachment to the locals. That being said though tonight I went to have street Pho and the couple next to me (Vietnamese) bought food for a homeless boy and his sister which really touched me. Then as I walked through the night market I got a great deal of you buy something!!! But also some wow nice Hair Lady. I bought litchis I was randomly handing out and it made people laugh and soften up a little. Of course like anywhere else, there are nice people and then not so nice people and Vietnam is not exception. I hate that my contact with the locals has been more negative than positive.....but It happens I guess.
On a side note, I wish I could grow out my hair and walk around topless here and see if I would get as many stares as my bald head is getting right now!
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