Travel Talk

Night Bus to Hoi An from Nha Trang


Good day,

Taking the night bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An. We paid like $30us for the tickets and get a few stops, this is the next one.

I’d love to buy a tuxedo and a top hat but realistically what would I do with it, you say wear it? It’s hot as h3ll here and nothing says “jack me” like walking around in one of those. If one were to have one, you’d need a driver… hmmmm.

Could send it home but what’s the point.

I say this because Hoi An is the “tailor” of Vietnam and great deals are to be had. I was going to write about how little $$$ I spent here but after doing some basic arithmetic, I’ve spent about the same I do everywhere. It’s eerie but I always average out at $XX a day.

That said, if my finances were a ship, there would be a few “holes” and “patches” which let unwanted filthy sea water into my fine vessel which thankfully, has no problems staying afloat. That said, any good captain must fix such said holes because you never know when a canon ball may strike from a wily pirate.

Have to check out of this room at 5PM. Then I will devour some delicious seafood and take a night sleeper. I kinda like the night sleeper, dare I say.

Today, this dude approached me, I wanted to tell him to get lost but didn’t, he sat with me at coffee. I offer him one, he says no. He offers to teach me some Vietnamese and I am much obliged. When we’re done he asks for 100,000vdn. THE NERVE.

Should of having known better, I say “I’ll give you 50” but only have a 100 on me. Reason #2340324 to have small bills. The guy looked like he was dying, very old and spoke perfect English. I gave him the ~$5US. After, the coffee guy said “What a punk, he should teach you for free”, indeed he should have!

What’s worse, you can buy a whole phrase book for 80,000vdn (opening price) probably get it for 60,000. Either way, I can speak a handful of terms now and it’s much more fun watching peoples faces light up when they hear you speak in their native tongue instead of just being some monolingual mullet bearing maggot. To add insult to injury, after saying “no” to the book, I see him again and he asks if I can “help him out”. I told him he had just gotten all the help he needed from me. I was going to post a picture but I’ve never walked an inch in his shoes, let alone a mile so I won’t, it wouldn’t be very gentleman like.

I will note that the street vendors, ladies and gents who run legit kiosks have much disdain for the street peddlers as in “get a real job style”. I mean these people man their shop and sleep behind them most of the time. I felt like a loser giving that guy 10X the price of the 2 coffees and the nice guy at the shop nothing, anyways enough on this.

He did tell me that 1.5 million Vietnamese died in these tiny boats when everyone left during the war. These boats are tiny and I have a post card with them, that’s how we got into this whole convo. He said they’d cram 100 people on these boats. These boats look built for 15. He said you couldn’t move, it was insane. Not sure if he went with them or not.

It’s hilarious that I even mention this $5 expenditure as back home, I was getting robbed of my hard earned coin hand over fist from every single vendor ever and thinking nothing of it. By being robbed, I mean being robbed in broad day light, with security cameras inside stores that buy bulk clothing and appliances from Asia at criminally low prices and charge preposterous prices to an unwittingly naive and complacent public.

Finally in closing and on the topic of finance, I have decided that I can have 85% – 120 % of the enjoyment I’m currently getting on 66% of my current expenditures. I’d say that I would make an effort to track expenses but I already know where it flows.

If you golf or do anything everyday, as crazy as it sounds, it often starts to feels like a chore. Felt that way driving to golf more times than I’d like to admit. If you go out and socialize until dawn or later, same thing. I do believe a good Saturday night with a mix of other activities would prove to deliver a much more wholesome and enjoyable experience, I do indeed.

I’m digressing as I so often do, good day to you.

Tips hat,

P.S: I speak ~fluent French and almost nothing brings me more joy than speaking fluently in a different language. I rock it every chance I get. Next country I go to, I’m printing out a phrase book and studying it. I want to rock it from the minute I step on the soil. In my mind, languages aka the “art” of linguistics are lavishly luxurious and open up the world like a book instead of just taking photos of the cover and being so naive to even imagine you have the faintest clue of the contents.

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