Motorbike Misdemeanor in Vietnam

After an unpredictable, yet totally amazing time in Shanghai I was ready to venture off with Eric to Vietnam.  Now let me preface this by saying, “I CAN’T BELIEVE we’re going to Vietnam!”  Never in a million years would I have expected to come here, and yet, here we are! 

After being here for about four days, I am totally impressed by Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).  This should really be a destination spot on its own.  It’s a pretty walkable city with many beautiful parks.  At nighttime, everyone emerges from their homes and into the parks to play badminton, practice dance routines, Tai Chi, and just to hang out.  Even babies and children are out playing until one o’ clock in the morning.  The weather is so unbelievably hot during the day that the night time is their relief from the stronghold of the summer sun.

So far we’ve really made our mark on Vietnam, we’ve managed to bribe a police officer, run a motorbike into a taxi, spend about a half a day in the local police station, and try and swindle our way through the immigration services.  It’s been an amazing past couple of days!

Let’s start with the motorbike incident…  You may know that when we were in India, Eric kept insisting that he buy a motorbike to ride around India in.  Of course, I responded with, “Are you crazy?!”  Even in Boston, Eric was eager to get a motorbike to go back and forth to classes on. I used the “it’s just too expensive and not necessary” line to avoid that request.  Now that we’re in Vietnam, the motorbike capital of the world (or so it seems).  There was no avoiding it. 

While hanging out with our friends Helen and Toan, they mentioned that if Eric wanted to rent a bike, he should do it tonight so that Toan can teach him how.  I felt alright with this, and figured if there were any time for Eric to learn then this would be it.  So we decided to wait until around 10:30pm when there were fewer vehicles on the road. 

Eric was so excited to finally ride a motorbike in Vietnam, you should’ve seen the giddy expression on his face.  He carefully backed the bike out of the rental shop, Toan showed him the controls and Eric strapped on his helmet and said he’ll take it for one practice round.  Before we knew it Eric was off!  Toan tried to follow him, but Eric whipped away faster than expected. 

Helen and I stood outside of the rental shop for about 15 to 20 minutes, waiting for Eric and Toan to come back so that we could hop on with them.   I was getting a little worried, but figured that Eric was just enjoying his freedom on the motorbike.  Then…. Helen received a phone call from Toan saying that Eric hit a taxi.  I heart beat so fast I thought it was going to jump out of my chest.  We rushed off to find him.  Luckily, Eric was okay, not a scratch on him, the motorbike was under the taxi and there were some pretty good dents in the vehicle.  Get this… Eric didn’t even make it 200 feet, then while trying to turn, that poor guy ran into a PARKED taxi!  The taxi driver yelled at Eric and told him to pay $100 USD.  It’s a good thing Eric’s been traveling in Asia for the past two weeks and has been in his negotiating mode because even in Eric’s state of shock, he managed to bargain the guy down to $60.

Helen and I had a good time teasing Eric about this one.  He didn’t do much more riding that night.  Well, Toan gave him some more in depth lessons on riding motorbikes, but there’s was no more solo bike time for Eric that night.  We’re leaving for Phu Quoc tomorrow, a remote island just an hour flight away from Saigon, and we plan on renting a motorbike there and taking it all over the island!  I am super excited!  Phu Quoc will have much fewer vehicles on the road, too few to worry about Eric running into anything again… maybe a monkey or two but that’s it!

Shanghai to Tongli: Water Village Woes

So let me tell you about the day I lived off of cereal bars and almost broke down from frustration over almost getting lost on my way and then coming home from a water village called Tongli.

Based on a strong recommendation from a friend (Thanks, Katy…), I decided to go to a water village that was supposed to be about two hours outside of Shanghai.  My plan was to leave at 10:30am, be there by around 12:30 for lunchtime, walk around the village for about four hours, and then leave to be home by 8:00pm, just in time for dinner in Shanghai and to go out for some good ol’ dancin’!  After doing some research, I figured I could get there in an hour and a half…  WRONG.

ROUND 1: Shanghai to Tongli: I started my day at 10:30am, walked about a half mile to the metro station where I got on at the Shanghai Zoo stop.  After a 15-minute metro ride to the Hongqiao Railway Station, and after about a 30-minute wait in the ticket line, I managed to get a train ticket to Suzhou South Station.  Okay.  Everything is good so far. My train left at 12:15pm and would arrive at Suzhou South Station by 12:46pm.  Another hour bus ride after that and I’ll be there.  Easy peazy.

Now you should know that I didn’t actually have concrete directions to Tongli.  My friend, Selena, wrote down each train station or destination that I was seeking in Mandarin so that I could show the characters to people and they would point me in the right direction.  I did know I needed to get to Suzhou South Station and then there would be a tourist bus to shuttle people to this water village.  Pretty easy, right?  WRONG.  It was horrendous!

When 12:46pm came around, I noticed that the next stop’s characters matched the ones I had written down, BUT the stop was called Suzhou North Station.  So I showed a train assistant the characters and asked if this was the right station to go to Tongli.  He nodded and motioned his hands for me to leave the train at that stop.  Being a little skeptical, I nodded, said, “Xie Xie,” and scurried off to find another train assistant.  She indicated the same thing and motioned for me to leave the train at this stop.  Ok… this must be it, right?  WRONG.

After leaving the train, and then asking at least five different people which bus would take me to Tongli and getting many confused looks… I had obviously gotten off at the wrong train station.  ARGH!  Finally a security guard motioned towards one of the city buses. 

I got on thinking this bus would take me directly to the water village, and even showed the bus driver the characters for where I needed to go.  He nodded and waved me forward.  Obviously, these nods and waves forward mean nothing.  After about 20 minutes on the bus, and passing suburban  shopping marts, and rural farms, I saw a few Chinese girls who looked like they were about 16 years old and figured they may know a bit of English.  Luckily, the one young lady knew enough to understand what I was looking for, and told me what stop to get off at.  She said that I would need to catch another bus from that stop, but she did not know which one.  I figured this was better than nothing… so about 30 minutes later, I get off at a bus stop/train station.  At this point I knew I was pretty far outside the city.  After asking multiple folks, security guards, and walking into a couple dead ends, I finally found the place to buy a bus ticket to Tongli.  This bus left at 2:15pm.  Alright…. Now I’m on track.  This bus should drop me off right at Tongli, since it’s a shuttle bus especially for Tongli.  WRONG. 

I spent about an hour on that daggone bus sitting next to this guy with grossly long fingernails (I am not digging that trend here in China, not in the least!)  This kid’s fingernails were so long they made a tapping noise every time he texted and then he would make this flicking noise with them every couple minutes… UGH!  I couldn’t wait to get away… just imagine, it’s hot, I’d just been traveling for the last three or four hours and I also hadn’t eaten, which if you know anything about the Bhullars, we get grumpy and irritable when we are hungry.  (Yes, even me!)  Luckily, I had some cereal bars and nuts in my purse so I scarfed them down for some temporary satisfaction.

Anyway, we finally arrived at Tongli station.  I was so relieved to finally be there…. But then I get out of the bus and there was no water anywhere to be seen!  No signs either.  Nothing but a shanty old town.  “Where the heck am I?!” I thought. 

Then I saw two people with backpacks, and, you know me, I walked up to them and asked if they knew English.  They kind of chuckled then said, “No.”  They said they were from Beijing.  I tagged along with them anyway, and I’m so glad I did because we had to walk another mile and  a half just to get to the water village.  And… there was no way of knowing where it was unless they asked random townspeople for directions in Mandarin!  Finally, after following those two lovely folks for about 30 minutes, I made it to Tongli, yes the water village part, around 3:45pm.  The water village itself was neat because it looked like how China may have been about 100 years ago with small wooden bridges stretching across the water canals and its small winding streets. 

I was so excited that I had finally reached the village that I forgot my hunger and just strolled around the town.  My favorite part was walking alongside the canal in the back of the village where the locals lived, washed their clothes in the river, and hung out along the dirt path.  I walked as far as I could in that area and then ventured onto the main streets to look for some food.  Many of the restaurants served essentially the same thing, but there wasn’t anyone eating at these restaurants, so I was a little skeptical about the food.  Then, the restaurants that I decided to take a chance on were not serving food because it was in the weird twilight hour between lunch and dinner.  Eventually, I found a place that served at least fruit salad (AKA giant grapes).  At first, I wasn’t going to eat there, but after using their bathroom and being impeccably impressed by its cleanliness and design, I decided to hang around.  Although, I do think the window in the bathroom was a bit lower than expected so I had to remain semi-crouched down to ensure passing townspeople didn’t get an unwelcomed peep.  Awkward! 

I order my fruit salad and a mango passion fruit tea.  Now this little café was brilliantly decorated, and pretty out of place.  It had comfy black and white couches, played calming Norah Jones-esque music, and had images of cats all over the walls (reminded me of my bedroom in my house in Somerset).  I was the only person in the café, and even found the waitress sleeping on one of the couches.  She shot awake when she saw me come in!

I took a seat at a bar stool overlooking the canal through a wooden gated window that opened to the canal.  It was so serene and really provided the peaceful atmosphere that I needed.  My tea came and it was fantastic!  Then the fruit salad came…  my yummy giant grapes were SLATHERED in mayonnaise!  YUCK!  Can you believe that?!  Even after the day I had, I didn’t care how hungry I was, that was not appetizing in the least.  So I finished my bag of nuts off, sipped my tea, and left for my journey home.  Eager for a good dinner that night back in Shanghai.

It was about 5:15pm when I left the village (That’s right!  After a five-hour trek to get there, I could only spend about an hour and fifteen minutes exploring it… argh…).  BUT I was glad that I Ieft when I did because it took me just as long to get home despite taking all of the right vehicles.

ROUND 2: Tongli to Shanghai: I walked back to the bus station and hopped on the first bus that was leaving (it happened to be around 5:45pm).  I reached the Suzhou South Station (ah, yes, it does exist.) 

First, it took me forever to find the ticket office for the train, and when I finally did, remember those crazy long lines from Shanghai’s station, well they were even worse here!  There were probably 15 long lines leading up to ticket windows.  I got in one that seemed to be going rather quickly.  After waiting for about 20 to 30 minutes, I was the next person to purchase my ticket.  I stepped up to the window and would you believe it…. That &%$%##% woman pulled the curtain down on me?!  It felt like she was playing a joke on me and was going to pop her head up any second to say, “Just kidding!”  I just stood there staring at the curtain for moment in utter shock.  Then I went to the back of another line to start my wait all over again.  I repeated this at least twice more.   One time the computer broke in the line I was in and I had to restart my wait again (Yeah, I was really ready to hit my limit.)  Over the next hour, I managed to get my ticket.  *Sigh… Finally!  I would be leaving at 8:14pm and would be back to my apartment by 9:15pm….

Around 8:05pm we started boarding the train, I slipped my ticket through the machine and it denied my entry. Hmmm.. perhaps I just put it in upside down… I flipped it over and slipped it again.  Denied.

I went over to the Train Assistant and showed her my ticket and she just waved her hand from side to side with no explanation as to why I could not go in.  I kept asking her why I couldn’t and tried to rephrase it as best I could to understand her when luckily a Chinese man came up behind me to help.  He explained that I had been issued a ticket for May 26^th rather May 24^th at 8:14pm and that I would have to go up to the ticket office again to correct it (yeah, that stupid crazy long line AGAIN!).  This was it.  I had hit my limit.  The Train Assistant wouldn’t let me through no matter how much I begged her.  I ran upstairs hoping that I could get a ticket before that train left, but the line I went directed me to a different number… eventually I got another ticket back to Shanghai for 8:44pm, which in all honesty was much better than I expected. 

So that was the last of my series of holdups and the most frustrating day of travel in my entire life.  I eventually got home at 10:00pm and still hadn’t eaten dinner or really any meal for that matter.  In good American style, I made a peanut butter and mango sandwich and a glass of red wine.  (Well deserved red wine if you ask me!) 

The night ended up being amazing though.  I went with the International MBA students, and my colleagues Kim and Selena to a crazy dance club called Club 88 and we danced the night away!

It felt so good to just let loose on the dance floor.  That was the best stress-relief I could’ve ever found!  In fact, this place in particular played awesome music and had performers up on stage that looked like characters out of X-Men!  It was crazy!  I can definitely tell that the nightlife in Shanghai trumps Boston, Philly, and Pittsburgh 100 to 1!  A crazy and fun time to end a crazy and horrendous commute to the outskirts of Shanghai.   

First Day in Shanghai: Scam Artist and All!

It’s official.  I love Shanghai!  (well, most of it) What an awesome city, with its abnormally modern subway, futuristic financial district, unique fashion, and tea performance scam artists, it’s sparking my curiosity in every way. 

I began my first full day in Shanghai at 8:20am, out the door and ready for the chaotic calamity just waiting outside the doors of my serene hotel.  What I found is that Shanghai is strangely clean and modern with a hint of the old-style intermixed into the daily life (i.e. the toilets are still holes in the ground and you have to carry your own toilet paper).  The streets are not mass chaos as I had imagined (based on my experience in Amritsar).   

The best part about Shanghai is the people, well, SOME of the people.  In an effort to pay for my metro ticket, a young man gave me 6 RBM (equal to $1) because the machine would not take my 100 RBM bill.  I felt a bit like a panhandler so I offered my 100 RBM bill (equivalent to $15).  He refused (good guy, right?) my generous offer and let me be with the 6 RBM.  That was ‘act of kindness’ number one. 

Act of kindness number two happened right about noon and actually to be nothing but a scam… and the sad thing is that I didn't realize it until NINE hours later!  Let’s see if you see the signs.    

I strolled down Nanjing Road all the way down to People’s Square when a guy named De Ji and his friend, a cute girl about 5 foot tall named LeeLee asked me to take a picture for them.  Of course I’ll take a picture for you!  Now these two were quite the curious pair!  I’ve never had two people comment so much on how beautiful my big nose is!  MULTPLE TIMES!  We could be talking about the Dragon Boat festival and (whoop!)  one of them would mention my beautiful big nose again and my double eyes!  They insisted that these features are valued in the Chinese culture.  Whether this is true or not, it sure was comical to hear their excitement and how they described my features in their broken English. 

Apparently, they were on their way to a tea performance and asked if I wanted to come with.  Of course, why not, right? 

Now, a tea performance… I didn’t really understand what this was, in fact I actually thought it was a dancing performance for the dragon boat festival based on our conversation (their English was pretty choppy so it was hard to follow the conversation entirely).  But they said it was at the Champs Elysee. This is nothing like Paris though, folks.  We walked for about ten minutes until we reached  a large old red gate.  They took me to a building where a woman dressed in light pink traditional attire greeted us at the door and guided us into a small room with cute little tree stumps as seats and beautiful traditional decorations. 

Then the tea performance started, or tea tasting rather.  My two new “friends” were so excited to translate the history of China, and we oooooed and awed at the tastes of the six different teas that we sampled throughout the next hour.  They taught me “Gambei!” (Cheers in Mandarin).  They told me stories of how tea merchants always wanted tea leaves from the mountains because they were the purest of all.  De Ji would happily explain the health benefits of each tea.  He would say, “Ah, yes, Pink Lady tea for young woman to keep you looking bootiful.  You and LeeLee are Pink Ladies!  Then LeeLee would joke and say that De Ji is a Pink Man which essentially means a ‘Playa.’  

All-in-all, this was definitely a performance, by not only the Tea Specialist.  When tea was poured, you should have seen how excited De Ji and LeeLee got.  It was like we were all kids seeing a magic show!  Especially, when the Tea Specialist brought out the Fairy Blossom tea, which blossoms into a flower when hot tea is poured over it.  And then there was even a tea cup with a black dragon on it that changed to red and blue when you poured hot tea in it.  We were all just carrying on and having a good time cheering at every little blossom, change of color, new tea to taste, I mean we celebrated EVERY LITTLE THING... and I was just eating it all up! 

We were really enjoying ourselves, in fact this tea performance and meeting this comical pair was the highlight of the entire day!  They were just so happy, energetic, curious, and just easy to be around!  It’s weird, they were almost spellbinding.  I’m sure you can imagine how happy I was in this setting…. Tasting different teas, enjoying lots of conversation with these two delightful people, sharing in a typical Chinese cultural experience (yeah… a scam), being complimented on my big nose, double eyes, and how smart I was since I just finished my MBA.  Pshhhh… 

Then we got the bill.  Now they showed me the prices beforehand and I didn’t want to be Debbie-downer on their tea outing that they had already planned so I didn’t care so much about the prices.  The final bill was like $2,500 RMB (equivalent to $387!).  I guess I didn’t realize that it would come to THAT price!  De Ji showed me the bill and asked me kindly, “How would you recommend we pay for this?”  (Which I felt was a bit odd.)  I suggested to split it in three ways.  And then I realized that I was the only person who had purchased tea to take home so I offered to pay a little more. Surprisingly, De Ji said, “No no no… you don’t need to.”  So I forked over 850 RMB, which is about $130.  This is an insane price to pay for a tea tasting especially in China!  De Ji then handed me (with two hands, in typical Chinese gift-giving tradition) a bag of Fairy Blossom tea balls and thanked me for coming with them and then insisted that I marry him. Lol Can you believe this kid?!   

So anyway we walked back out onto the main street where we gave each other hugs, and said our goodbyes.  I felt so good about that daggone tea performance until… I started writing this blog and noticed that some of the things that took place clearly made this a scam.  The location of the tea room, the speed of which the Tea Specialist explained things, the email addresses that they gave me (all numbers@ QQ.com), the fact that they were ready to part right after the tea performance, the PRICE of the performance, asking me how I would recommend paying for it...  Ugh… I’m such a nitwit sometimes. 

NINE HOURS later, when I realized that I was scammed, I felt even more stupid than when someone points to your chest, says, “You got something there!”, you look down and get your nose swapped at.  Yup, I felt a million times more stupid than when that happens.  It’s the oldest trick in the book!  That’s why! 

Even while I was telling my Director and colleague about this whole experience, they kind of looked at each other, and said, “Ya know, that’s pretty expensive.  You may have been scammed.”  I said, “Nooo… of course not.  They were so nice!”  Pshhhh… Pammi! 

Yup… I was scammed and I didn’t even realize it the whole time, in fact, I had a such a fantastic time, I would’ve recommended it to others despite the price!  That’s a true scam artist… they make you feel good about the experience. 

Prior to finding this out, I was in such a cheery mood so let me tell you about the next person I met.  On my way to find The Bund (a beautiful riverwalk along the Jetson-esque skyline of Shanghai), I saw a foreigner looking at a map at the crosswalk, I walked up to him and asked if he spoke English.  He said very fervently and with a thick Russian accent, “No. Russian.”  I said “Oh, ok.  I am from the U.S. (chipper as ever)," and continued to walk across the street with him.  I kept talking with him despite him indicating that he doesn’t speak English, and learned that although he can’t speak it, he’s decent at understanding it. So I tagged along with him asking him questions about his visit.   

[This poor guy; he was enjoying his lovely lone walk when this crazy American girl jumps in to put a stop to his peace.]   

When I would ask questions, he would answer with one word and would often ask me a question by using fragments and using his Iphone to speak/translate.  We went on to talk about Shanghai, and I said my favorite part are the people, they are just SO nice.  I explained the whole tea performance and how lovely those individuals were and how fun that whole ordeal was.  Yeah… if he knows about this whole scam tradition AND understood anything I was saying then he probably found this story ridiculous, especially because I was still so oblivious that I’d been scammed.  

Within minutes of walking with him I saw a cart with a GIANT slice of Chinese cantaloupe, and I gasped and said, “Oh Wow! Do you want one?”  He grunted, “No, no sweet.”  As I got my money out the woman handed my cantaloupe on a stick to this Russian guy, lol and so this TOTAL STRANGER is stuck holding this giant fruit on a stick waiting for me to find two coins instead of continuing on his pre-planned route.   I can imagine that he felt a little silly and was probably thinking, “WHAT THE HELL IS THE CRAZY GIRL DOING AND WHY AM I HOLDING HER FRUIT LOLLIPOP?!” 

I take a bite and then I hand it to him and ask again if he wants some, lol, now I think about it, and it’s like, “Pammi.  Honestly. Who wants to eat after a girl they just met walking along on the street.  Of course he doesn’t want any!” 

We walk along and run into a Chinese couple who asks us to take a picture for them.  They ask where we are from and Roma (that’s the Russian man’s name) says, very proudly, “Russia.” And I say, “The U.S.”  These two Chinese folks were so confused.  I mean think about this for a second.  It’s like the beginning of a joke.   

A Russian and an American are walking down street and they run into two Chinese folks…  

Now to understand how ridiculous of situation, you relaly have to think about like movie in your head. I’m walking along with this Russian guy, who is insisting that China is the most powerful country in the world.  We run into this Chinese folks who for all I knew would love to take us to a freakin’ tea performance.  They apparently thought this guy was my boyfriend.  But I just met him about 15 minutes ago on the street.  I've got this giant Chinese cantaloupe with juice ripping my chin and I'm talk to these people.   It's kind of ridiculous scene...  I mean if the leaders of the countries could just be as friendly as we all were then the world would just be a better place, right? 

I walked along with him chatting and just really enjoying his company (primarily because I was eager to find a traveling buddy).  You could tell this guy got a kick out of my reactions to Old Town, and the architecture and all that so I really did think he was enjoying my company as well.  Although, there was that one time when he seemed to drop a hint that he loved traveling alone… Pshhh  

As we were getting closer to the Bund and the Ya Yuan Gardens, I reassured Roma that I wouldn’t tag along much longer because I was planning to go to the Bund (whereas he planned to go to the Gardens).   But once we got to the Gardens, I thought, “Wow! I want to explore this place!”  So I followed him into the Gardens and asked, “Would it be alright if I came along with you into the Gardens?”  And he looks up and kind of cringes his eyes and says, “Hmmm… meh.”  I wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic, but I took it as a clue to leave him alone so I chuckled at his honesty, shrugged a bit (not gonna lie I was disappointed), then shook his hand, and said thank you so much for the company and wished him luck on the rest of his trip. 

The rest of the day was filled with fun times on the Riverwalk, in the Bund, the Gardens, and a unique dumpling lunch of prawns and kale and some yummy dried mango and papaya.  I had a great time that day and it’s funny when I think that the best part of my day was with those two mangy little swindlers.  I’m not gonna lie, I felt pretty cruddy that night when I realized I was scammed, but after talking to my Director, she insisted that I was never really in any danger and that it’s just a business transaction to them.  That's kinda what hurts though.  I thought I actually found friends!  Oh well, I did really enjoy the experience, and boy does it give me a good story!  Honestly, the in-person version of this story is much funnier…. But I tried my best to reenact it.   

Moral of the story… don’t trust people on the street…. Ugh…  That’s no fun…. I will just be more skeptical next time.  Oh well, this is why we travel, right?  To experience other cultures, scam artists included!