It's been a good choice. Both of us were a little concerned about the language barrier and how safe it would feel traveling around internally and from country to country, but we soon found it to be very safe and easy to be out on the streets of the cities and/or biking through the countryside. The language barrier is minimal. Learn how to say hello and thank you, like the polite Canadians we are, and you can get by. Many people speak English, either fluently or enough to converse. It spurs me to recommit myself to practice learning another language. If the locals of southeast Asia can do it, with far less formal education opportunities than I've had, then I have no excuses.
We chose to do an organized tour this time, simply for the convenience of having our travel and accommodation taken care of. It is a wonderfully liberating sensation to show up in the lobby of your hotel, have a bus pull up, throw your bag in and go, knowing someone is taking care of all the arrangements at the other end. It's a carefree way to travel. However, both of us feel we would not travel this way again and if (when) we return to Asia, we would (will) strike out on our own. Our tour has allowed us to see how it all works and we feel we can take it from here. The rigidity of being part of a tour and having to follow a set schedule is a drawback and we've found we like to keep our own travel pace and rhythm rather than follow another.
If the Laotians are a placid country of quiet followers, the Vietnamese are born hustlers, working every angle to make a living. Industrious, they live very simply in small spaces with the family all together. They are a resilient bunch and it's not hard to see why the French and later the Americans could not squash them into submission. They're survivors. Heck, they lived for years in miles of claustrophobia inducing tunnels to avoid American bombing attacks. Cooking out on the street and sleeping three to a bed is luxury. They are willing to endure great sacrifices and make do with little. Observing how they live stirs within me a ripple of awkwardness and discomfort. My North American lifestyle seems extravagant and a touch self indulgent in comparison. These people are focussed on the basics — food, water, family and enough money to keep those first three together. There's no time for navel gazing, for introspection. No time for travel and life shifts! The Buddha plays a large role in the spiritual life of the people and that is all most have beyond their daily work. They are hardened from years of war and sacrifice and I better understand now why countries such as China, Vietnam, Korea and India are rising up as strong developing nations — having endured decades of hardship and life threatening conditions and they have the work ethic and the will to push forward. Their focus is not on goods consumption. They leave that to us and will gladly supply it all...
If they live long enough, that is. Everyone in southeast Asia seems to have some sort of respiratory/sinus issue manifesting as a nasty cough, constant sniffling, thick phlegm and no aversion to spitting under any occasion. Could it be the smog? Exhaust? Smoking? (A pack of butts is only $1.50) Bird flu? Agent Orange contamination? One begins to understand all the face masks the people wear and even start wishing for one yourself.
I was a little concerned about how it would FEEL to be in south east Asia. These are countries that have endured long, brutal wars and endless suffering and tyranny. Surely, that history would be felt in the land and people of Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. And yet, so far, in Laos and Vietnam, we have felt none of it. The energy is very light and gentle, like wafting incense. The endless, maddening crush of humanity does not bother them. Packed in together with a traffic system that would drive the most patient saint bananas, they carry on with a calm, quiet disposition. They rarely have an angry word for each other (but maybe an irritated horn honk). There is a serenity and sense of joy and acceptance. Perhaps the millions of practicing Buddhists and their daily meditations have helped to counteract the years of pain and suffering that have settled into the land. They apparently have no anxiety and no egos. They don't get hung up on a thousand safety guidelines or rules and no doubt laugh at our "uptight" western ways. They just get on with it. It is refreshing to immerse in it all. A little odd too.
Paradoxically, mixed with the serenity is an underlying brutality that is also part of the culture. Compassion for creatures is rare. One visit to the market confirms that most animals are considered a much lower form of life and are therefore treated as such. Medical care for the people is by payment only and most can't afford it leaving many to suffer through ailments. You need to learn how to survive here on your own and there's not much help for you if you can't, unless your family takes you in. And then there is the cruelty inflicted by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, between the north and south Vietnamese (and Americans) on the Laotians and on their own people during the wars, by the French...the list goes on and on. The torture and brutality is horrific, something you would imagine could only happen hundreds of years ago by a less conscious society, yet it happened here in vast numbers and less than 50 years ago. However, then I think of what's happening in Sudan right now and realize we're still very capable of it.
I have been interested to read more about the histories of these countries. I thought I knew my facts, but I don't. I've learned about the ancient empires and civilizations, the kings and emperors, the secret war in Laos, the French and US involvement in Vietnam, the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge, the Japanese invasion and the dozens of other wars that have raged in all these lands. It has been a much appreciated and extensive history lesson leaving me with a fresh and enlightened perspective.
South East Asia is an emerging market, untapped and growing in so many areas. It feels lively, fluid and exciting - much more so than North America which in comparison feels predictable and a bit stagnant. On the streets of Saigon last night, crouched on plastic stools and drinking 50 cent beers in one of the curbside bars, I had my first sense of what Paris must have been for the lost generation. There was a terrific buzz. Traffic, lights, barbecued food. Massuers giving $2 massages at your table. Sellers hocking books, DVDs, drugs, cigarettes - all dirt cheap if you want it. Just about anything goes here. It's the wild, wild east with a blossoming creative energy and a great deal of potential... if you're a hustler.
My favourite so far has been Laos, due to the simplicity and depictions of traditional Asia. Vietnam I initially had mixed feelings about, but I realized last night it has grown on me. The opposite of Laos, it's frenetic energy can be equally enjoyable. There is more style and creativity. But it is also more westernized, and you lose some of the charm Laos has.
Today we arrive Cambodia. Early impressions, as I write this on the bus to Phnom Penh, is that it is less developed and more like Laos.
A bit more time here will reveal the true Cambodia.
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