Journey highlights - Transit!

Clearly this post comes well after that spectacular trip - almost two years to the day.  However, I need to keep the blog going.  I'm heading out again soon for another trek (European return!) and as I'm looking back to be inspired, I'm finding some great shots from my last overseas jaunt.

Here, in a raw and unorganized form, are some photo highlights from the Asian 2011 adventure.


Transit:

Everywhere around the world people will find the most convenient, cost-efficient, and accessible ways to move themselves and their things.  But not everything translates across borders - and to see things done differently than what I see in my normal, everyday default world is what Travel is all about. 



By road!

Everywhere in Asia and worldwide, bus  is most often the cheapest way to travel.  Horror stories abound of bus travel misadventures, and if you're reading this chances are you have your own tales.  But whatever ones own experience, bus travel will remain with us as long as petrol flows and distances are long.

  Fantastic bus experience in southern Vietnam.  These bus seats recline to near horizontal, and still something like 30 people fit on this bus with TONS of luggage.  While relatively expensive for regular long-distance commutes for locals, plenty of foreign and holiday travelers (Lunar New Year!) enjoyed the comfort of these buses from Saigon.  En route to Mui Ne, Vietnam from Saigon.

 This was a very different kind of bus experience.  Clearly, this is the more typical bus travel situation - and, yes, even this is quite comfortable as far as global bus travel goes.  Enroute to Dalat, Vietnam from Mui Ne.

 The perils of being in 3D.. and in an overburdened truck on windy mountain roads.  A poignant lesson in taking initiative, even as an independent budget travels, to make sure you inspect and feel confident about your travel choices.  Even if it costs a bit more or may take you longer to arrive - it pays to make sure you arrive in one piece.

Another exceedingly popular and efficient way to move around, all over the world, is motor bikes, smaller utility trucks, and human-powered vehicles of innumerable variety.  In these parts of Asia motor bikes and little trucks, tuk tuks, and bike-carts were literally everywhere, and particularly moreso along the southern sweep of the journey (weather is warmer) where the shape and variety of vehicles exploded in diversity.

Maximum utility & ingenuity, borne out of daily necessity.  Another of my favorite shots - local living in gorgeous southern Vietnam. 

Downtown Saigon - world-famous pushcart drivers, yet another remnant from the French Indochina era of Vietnam.  The city is working to phase these guys out entirely, eliminating a whole segment of the transit infrastructure.  And a great tourist trap. 

 

Sharing the road has a wider application beyond the US.  A fun respite from the high-speed bumpiness of the road outside Mui Ne, Vietnam.

 Creative, effective, & totally illegal if this were the US.  Clearly its not an issue here.  Vietnam.

By rail!

Train is by far one of my favorite ways to move around when trekking anywhere.  Handing the hassle of the journey to the pro's, I almost always enjoy a great time-saving trip from one point to the other.  Some snapshots here reflect the diversity of global train experience, with an Asian twist this time. 

Freight & people, all over the world both share the same tracks on the older, established lines.  Train delays in most places are caused by the competing priorities of commerce and human transit.  Here, waiting enroute.. to somewhere, China.

Relatively clean, comfortable, and extremely timely - the awesome train system in China. 

 Where pop-a-squat takes on a whole new meaning, particularly when passing through the hillsides!  Train in China. 

Freight and passengers, all standing by.  A short train delay in Vietnam.

Its never hard to make friends on the train anywhere in the world.  Here, a fellow traveler was heading home with her mother for the New Years holiday.  Zaijian, pengyou!

Smudgy view along the riverside tracks, somewhere in central China.

The photos laid out heretofore are taken with an Olympus Stylus 1050 SW 

 
These works by Tim Paez are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Mui Ne Beach - Seaside amblings in a Socialist.. ..paradise?

5 - 8 Feb. 2011

Mui Ne, Vietnam.

This wanna-be sleepy beach town is split into two parts - tourist and local. The local side is a a neat sprawl of family homes, small temples, and few tall buildings, but with a breathtaking local fishing fleet. The touristy part is a narrow strip of low-lying hostels, hotels, bungalows, and resorts, among which are sprinkled some local homes and open-air, open-air restaurants - all lining the shoreline somewhere just above the littoral zone.

Dusk, over Phan Thiet Bay, across the street from our hostel.

Also in front of the hostel, my favorite reading spot in Vietnam.

Riding the white sand dunes. Intrepid travel partners, all in one frame; another favorite shot.

Chris K., clearing shoes of sand... in the desert.

Tim W. with sled gear, trekking upward to ride the dunes.

Chris, along a well managed lake-side evergreen path, approaching the white sand dunes.

White sand dunes, seen from across the lake.

It's a relaxing town, off the high-season; but development is encroaching on the whole region. Even off-road spots have been linked to the tourism trade - like huge local sand dunes, the one-time quiet fishing town, a freshwater spring that flowed from the sands in a greem & shady desert valley - and is staffed by local underemployed children & wives, catering to the increasing tide of tourist. Like many places that were once upon a time little-known and in development, Mui Ne is rapidly being connected to the modernizing world. I'm glad I got here when I did. And moreso before vehicular law enforcement has become a priority...

Learned early and lived everyday - camaraderie is here a real way of life.

Downstream of the Fairy Spring. I never reached the end to see the source..

Along the walls of the valley containing the Fairy Spring, the water table leaks freshwater. All this around the desert region of Mui Ne.

Fellow travelers, Nadya and Tim, posing with a gregarious posse of locals.  Nearby the Fairy Spring, Mui Ne, Vietnam.

Chris, with another verdant backdrop, at the rim of the valley from where flows the Fairy Spring.

From the crest of a dune, overlooking Mui Ne and Phan Thiet Bay. Not all deserts are bare..

Yup, a giant golf ball ready for tee-off in front of a new country club development for the regions elite. And Chris piloting a motor bike. Can you see where I crashed it? Ya, didn't think so. 1 Million dong fee...

More on the local side of town, Mui Ne's fishing fleet. Unfortunately, I did not awake in time to catch the morning fish market where those who own and operate the ships in this fleet make their living.

Local on the prow. Local on the prowl.

We arrived here from Saigon, initially planning an overnight stop to relax on the beach for a bit before tacking north up to Dalat. On the eve of our 4th night, we decided we should find bus tickets asap and plan to head out. Otherwise, chances were very high that the remaining week we would share in Vietnam would very likely find us along this same 10-km stretch of beach. Our hours would be whiled away reading and conversing over bottles of delicious Dalat wine, interspersed with $10USD day-long moto-bike rentals, lavish (but hella cheap in $USD) seafood feasts along the sand with traveling friends, with swims and walks (Tim & Natasja jog) in between. To maintain the figure. Not a bad way to spend mid-winter in Asia - relaxing in shorts and flip-flops in the sun - though also rather unexciting and not the best way to experience the most of the fantastic South of Vietnam, from food to culture. While its changing, much of Mui Ne seems to have remained the same.. And here, that seems to be a great thing.

The photos laid out heretofore are taken with an Olympus Stylus 1050 SW 

 
These works by Tim Paez are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Saigon - not the Little one.

30 January - 5 February, 2011
Saigon, Vietnam.

Rice paddies along the way south from Hanoi, rather early into the 36-hour train ride.

Large, crater-like ponds... I'm not sure of their origin, but the landscape and region correspond to a violent history.

Closer to Saigon on the coastal approach between Hue and Danang, we were greeted by this wide expanse of warm, well-protected bays.

Truly, the end of the line. Behind Chris converges the terminus of what, in whole, is often billed as the Reunification Express. Its over 1,726km of track links North with South, and is the entirety of the Hanoi-Saigon rail line.

So, honestly, I'm not sure if to use Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Who you ask, and how you beseech the answer, is likely to yield varying advice - and even then it may totally depend on where you are when you ask.
Truthfully, I prefer Saigon - and apparently the roots to that name run slightly deeper than those of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Regardless, the respect for the man who is the inspiration for the contemporary nomenclature remains great, and I am inclined to conclude it is rightfully deserved.  He and others led the first post-industrial peasants revolution in Southeast Asia - in the context of a in increasingly interdependent and quickly modernizing, global capitalist economy, dominated by the West - and his reputation here and abroad stands rather sustained.

Serious, all over the world; but here, aggressive public stance.

Hardy travel compatriots enjoying a meal break from the heat. Yup, mist spray.

The unsung heroes of Saigon - street sweepers, after 11pm, attack refuse with abandon.

We spent nearly a week here, during the major national and cultural holiday of the year. We were graced with stern, local advice for foreigners that greatly enhanced our stay, and intensely enjoyed the esteemed company of all members of my very good friends' family (the invitation was extended from his grandmothers household!!!). I still feel like the surface was barely scratched, and it retained through my stay a lush, explosive sheen of celebratory cheer!

Ostentatious, colonial architecture, clearly Western. Presumably French...?

Peace. Solidarity. Friendship. Cooperation. Development. & Tanks. War Remnants Museum.

I dream about buildings and city blocks that look sport this motif in the U.S. One day...

Notre Dame cathedral & Mary.

Elaborate mosaic of glass and ceramic plates. Le Van Duyet Temple.

We were fortunate in Saigon at this time for another reason - we arrived during a major national holiday celebration in one of the capitol city's major parks. At Cong Vien Van Hoa park, in the center of the city, we found a massive, green public space converted into a showground for exhibits of Vietnam's plethora of natural and cultural treasures. Flowers, bonsai, gems, birds, fish, butterflies, handicrafts, art, sculptures, and more were on display across acres and acres, showcasing among the best of 2010's pieces.

Butterfly tent at the New Year's fair. Cong Vien Van Hoa Park.

A favorite photo, came out so crisp.. Cong Vien Van Hoa Park.

Hedgerow and flowers dragon, easily +35 ft. long. Cong Vien Van Hoa Park.

Elaborate sculptures using local foodstuff - chilis, peppers, fruits, nuts, & flowers. And this was a basic one... Cong Vien Van Hoa Park.

Year of the Cat, a rotating homage in flowers. Easily 15 feet tall. Cong Vien Van Hoa Park.

Plagued with nauseous nicotine withdrawl and something akin to delayed cabin fever from the train, didn't visit the People's Committee Building and the nearby holiday night fair/markets. Chris K., photog.

Traditional ethnic weaving, employing an ingenious array of rope&pulleys, and such deft motions as to nearly render me hypnotized.

The pace is far from breakneck. Food must be approached with caution. And learning the local driving etiquette is more like taking instructions to etch-a-sketch a Hieronomys Bosch painting with your hands behind your back - to quote Jim Bruer's Brian, in Half Baked (1998), it's "fuckin' impossible, man". Which is all exactly what contributes to its all-pervasive sensation of being at all times both a beautifully gritty and harshly serene, while remaining a consistently dynamic city of world-class cultural richness and depth.

Moments into the Year of the Cat, sharing in cheer.