First a prelude... so I've started using that Twitter thing (@listentome23) to communicate with the world... I'm getting into it and it is quite cool and weird (last night I read messages between robbie savage, rio Ferdinand and Andrew Flintoff... one thing I've noticed is these things called hashtags... what happens is I think after a message on twitter (or a tweet, if you will) people will put words to label their message so that if someone is looking for tweets on that subject they will find your message... i.e. Henry Winter (Telegraph football correspondent) puts a # and the initials of the football club he is tweeting about in his message (e.g. #mufc)... but people have started using then as like punchlines to their tweet, putting an unusual hashtag at the end... I'll just find an e.g. ...
rioferdy5 Morning tweeps! That time again #ff aka #followferdy I'll #ff as many of u as I can who tweet #ff aka #followferdy - go go go tweeps!
That's an example from our man Rio Ferdinand... but anyway, I'm gonna use this hashtag thing in this post to help people in their search for the things I write about here... anyway, that probably didn't make sense to most so I'll just get on with the blogging... :)
So here I am in Saigon on New years eve... it really is a crazy city... we arrived by bus after the sun had fallen (#wheredoesitgo) and the city is alive with lights, like Times square or the equivalent place in London (#thenameelludesme)... noises flood the streets... women walk down the street with towers of books to sell to travellers (#enivatablephotocopies)... Waitresses holler (#holla) and clap to get your attention and get you into the bar... it has a kind of thrilling atmosphere but I can't tell if, once I've scratched the surface of this wonderment, Siagon might actually turn out to be one frustrating pool of busyness and chancers... like a child in awe of disney land until he catches a sight of goorfy with his head off, smoking a fag and leering at his mum (#justametafoenotarealexperience)... ... ... I'm now all the way down the length of Vietnam, well almost, and I still haven't decided how I feel about the country... my feelings ossicalate and flicker like a blinking phosphorous tube lamp... flickering between light and dark, between great and rubbish, but often annoying (not really often annoying but it just fit with my metafore:) ... ... Vietnam does seem to bring the worse out of my sworn enemy, the thrifty traveller (#hipocracyalert)... Those people who pinch the pennies, who congratulate themselves when they save a dollar on a price and who go crazy when they get scammed out of 5000 dong (10-20p) (#itstheprincipalofthething)... I've met some cool guys who've I've travelled with a bit recently but (#everythingbeforethebutisbollocks) they have taught me the difference between a thrifty traveller and someone who just doesn't pay their way... they congratualated themselves like heros when they got a tour for $5 when others paid $8 (to be fair, they got me the $5 price also) but then on the tour me and David paid for sledges for us to use to tobogan down a sand dune (#iprobablydidntleaduptothatlikeishouldof) and they didn't offer to pay their half... they are not thrifty, they are scabby (sorry if you're reading this guys but it's true)... the irony is that by making me so frustrated by their penny pinching I've allowed them to also get me all concerned about money... it's got to a point where I actually need to be carful that I don't start splashing round the cash too much just to spite them (#cutoffyournosetodpiteyourface)... but anyway, all I say is beware the thrifty traveller!
... One big thing I've experienced in Vietnam and maybe in asia generally is the jealousy (or more accuratly admiration) of youth (I know I'm 25, not old, but I mean children)... everywhere I go children are so happy and playing (well except for those who have to run around selling stuff to tourists... their playfulness is tinged with sadness), they wave and smile and shout "hello", in Nha Trang a little girl was playing hide-and-seek around me... hiding from me by hiding behind me... ... I'm suddenly realising what is so cool and great about kids (in small doses;), the freedom and the adventure is so cool... and also aisan kids are so cute (#notinagaryglitterway) and adorable... ... generally kids are cool little things when they are lost in play:)
I've just been in Muine, the kite-surfing capital of the world (I didn't kite surf, I just realised this place was where it's at after arriving)... I did a tour (the ill fated $5 tour;) and visited sand dunes and a river called the fairy river... ... ... ... OK, it's new years eve, 7:06pm... I meet people at 7:30 for drinks and I feel a bit disjointed now and can't write more (#calmbeforethestorm)... so I'll prick up tomorrow or the next day...
I hope you all have a superb New Year and great celebration and all your dreams come true... I'll write more soon:)
Love to all you beautiful people... I'm in my lumberjack shirt and ready to roll... and don't worry about some of my recent grumpyness, I'm coming out the other end of my mid-travel crisis (#dontrealisehowluckyiam) and perking up... life is full of ups and down and they are all relative... I'm lucky to be in this crazy city with good people to celebrate a happy time of year... I hope you are all as lucky as me:)
HAPPY NEW YEAR:))
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