2008 Blogs

My long walk

01/31/2009

It's still very quiet around the University.  Yesterday I walked to the local market and found a small number of stalls selling fresh produce, tofu, and meat.  So today I decided to walk downtown and make an adventure of it, with my goal being to shop at the A-Mart (a little "supermarket," much smaller than the Maximart, which is still closed).  Pictures from the walk are up on the Picasa site in the February folder (even though this is January 31).  The picture of the man with his bike on the beach is my favorite, and I took it for friends back home who love to cycle.

I left the dorm at 8:30 a.m., and could already tell that it would be a warm day.  Down the hill and onto the side of the street I went.  Immediately I was approached by a guy on a motorbike who wanted to give me a ride.  He was the first of many xe om drivers I encountered along the way, and each time I simply made the hand signal that means no and they drove away.

As I walked along the waterfront I saw many things, including a man with no hand, valet parking at a little restaurant along the beach (it's amazing how many cars and motorbikes can be crammed into a tiny space), a destitute man lying on the sidewalk, a man shaving long pieces of bamboo into flat pieces, and men fishing on the bridge.  I watched to see how many people could fit on a motorbike.  It is very common to see two and three people (usually two adults and a small child), sometimes I see four, and today I even saw five on one bike.  Needless to say, three of them were children, but still.....it's amazing to behold.

After walking about 55 minutes I came to my first destination, Shorty's Bookstore.  It's a tea or coffee shop with one row of bookshelves containing more-than-gently used copies of English-language books.  I assume that many of them come from expats and Australian tourists here on holiday.  I had stopped at Shorty's before Tet, but couldn't bring myself to part with 90,000 dong (about 5 dollars--and if George Blakey is reading this, your books are a really good value!).  Today I was eager to find a good novel, and when I asked the price it was only 65,000.  I chose a book I hadn't heard of before, but it's by a British travel writer, Hilary Mantel, and looks intriguing.

I asked the man in the shop for directions to the A-Mart before continuing on my way, and only had to ask directions two more times.  It wasn't that difficult to find, really, but it was closed!  Since I was downtown, it seemed like a good time to explore a bit.  I figured that as long as I continued up the street (which runs parallel to the ocean), I couldn't get lost.  Of course walking up a street here really means walking in the street because there are so many motorbikes parked on the "sidewalks."

A short while later I was quite pleased to discover a liquour store that also sold food.  Naturally, the prices were higher there, but it was so nice to shop in an uncrowded store where prices are labeled.  Shops like this cater to western travelers, so it was well supplied with junk food and other items famililar to American taste buds.  Indulging myself, I bought something that is the equivalent of Moon Pies back home and some instant coffee (I have not had any coffee since January 4--a record for me.  I thought I was going to give it up completely, but after reading that coffee helps prevent dementia, I'm ready to take up the habit again!).

Continuing up the street, I encountered more xe om drivers wishing to give me rides, a place called the "Cheers Cafe," and the Green Hotel which, as you guessed, is green.  I had hoped to find a bus stop for the return ride to campus, but gave up and decided to get more exercise.  If you haven't guessed, I have lost some weight since being here--in part due to my diet of fruit and noodles, and also because of the walking.  Last night I was walking with a friend from Bangladesh and he asked my age.  Expressing surprise that I could walk so much, he observed:  "In my country women your age have one foot in the grave."  Naturally, when I returned to the room I had to look up Bangladesh in the CIA World Factbook and learned that female life expectancy there is 63.

I'll leave you with one more image today.  I'm constantly struck how Nha Trang is a city of contrasts, of old and new ways interspersed.  In the midst of the tourist district, with its posh hotels, you find fishermen (like the one portrayed above) and enterprising women on bicycles who earn their living by selling a wide array of goods.  On the back of this women's bicycle, she carried dried fish and a small bag of cigarettes.  The bags on each side contain snacks--dried jack fruit and pineapple, chips, and other items tourists like to consume.  Up and down the beach she went.  Just as I started to feel hot and tired, I saw her one more time,  If she can do this, I thought, I cannot complain about the little things that make my life less than perfect.  After all, I can return to my modern dormitory room, fix a delicious cup of instant coffee, and cool down before resuming the work that is my primary purpose for being here.  It's all relative, I know, but being here certainly gives me a new appreciation for creature comforts that we in the U.S. all too often take for granted, and for the many things that we THINK are necessities, even during this economic downturn.  It's good to be reminded that the necessities, as many of you know, are in reality things like potable drinking water, health care, and education for empowerment.