Journey to Khe Sanh- Hai Van Pass, Self Discovery, Vietnam

Well it has been three months since I came to Vietnam and I am all settled into my apartment. I found a job teaching English online. However, I am still on a tourist visa and it is about to expire. I arranged with a tourist office and got another letter of invitation. This will give me an excuse for a motorcycle road trip with my brand new motorcycle. To renew my visa I will have to leave the country, cross the border, get my passport stamped and return. Laos is only several hours by motorcycle. That means motorcycle road trip!!!!! Oh yes, I forgot to mention. I bought a motorcycle.

*Cruisin round Vietnam…waving at the lady pandas. Now how do I reach the clutch?*

While planning the road trip I was studying the route on google maps and I saw that the town of Khe Sanh was less than an hour from the Laotian border. The name, Khe Sanh, will stick out for any student of the history of the Vietnam War. Khe Sanh was a small town that served as a special forces base for Americans to train local Vietnamese to resist Communist forces. The North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong allies besieged the base for nine months and it is still one of the most famous battle of the Vietnam War. I will go into more details of the battle later but the history enthusiast in me jumped at the opportunity to visit the battlefield of Khe Sanh. So with my visa approval letter and a back pack I hopped on my bike and went on my first ever motorcycle road trip.

On the way there I had the opportunity to ride my motorcycle through the famous and beautiful Hai Van Pass. The pass was made famous by the TV show Top Gear and now it was my turn to ride the Hai Van Pass.

A lonely, empty peaceful beach. Stories suggest that American army nurses used to come here and that American pilots would swoop their planes over the beach trying to peek on the cute nurses as they sunbathed.

While riding through the pass I looped in and out as the crazy roads matched the winding sides of the mountain. I played chicken with giant 18 wheeler trucks carrying gasoline and reveled in the thrill and danger of the ride. I made sure to pull over to have a coffee and enjoy the view.

An indigenous but rare species of the verdant mountain forests, the motorcycle riding panda.

I eventually reach the peak of the pass. I paused for a few more pictures before continuing my journey to Khe Sanh.

If you look closely behind me you can see a small town beside the crystal blue sea. The town is called Lang Co and is famous for sea food.

It was while going down the pass that I realized just how dangerous what I was doing. There were many cars and trucks that could run me over. I could easily slip on the extremely tight turns that required me to lean so far I could easily tip over the bike. Too much throttle and I could slam into the cement wall or worse, go over it and tumble to my death.
And I loved it. I loved the thrill and adventure. I felt like I was a finally a cool panda and not just a nerdy panda.

Now this is what True Freedom feels like. No boss, No teachers just me and my motorcycle and the road.

As I was thinking about “how cool” or “how brave” I was I remembered the sad days of my youth.
You see when I was a young panda I was sent to a Catholic Boarding School. I left the comforts of home to be crammed into a room with 5 other boys.
One of the other boys had a saying for me “Hunter, you are scared if your own shadow”.

Of course I was scared of my own shadow. I went there as a scared young child and the staff and senior students told me I was a coward and a pansy and that they were going to “toughen me up”. The hit me, punched me and kicked me. Humiliating acts of hazing were done on a weekly basis. Every day I was sent to the rugby pitch and pummeled every day by the varsity. When I complained about this the staff shrugged “you are a first year and a third string rugby player getting hurt so that varsity can practice is your job. ”

“Get beaten so that the varsity players can have their glory. Great.” I thought. I was obviously not happy there and I was told that I was unhappy because I was a pussy and that I needed to be toughened up more. They told me I was a coward and that if I didn’t toughen up the real world would chew me up and spit me out. Only they could prepare me for the real world.

I was eventually sent away from the school for depression and anxiety. Lack of employment caused me to run to the Canadian Armed Forces for work and to my surprise I got through boot camp without too much difficulty. Despite being treated fairly well in the military, making many friends, having fun and I was generally regarded as a good soldier and technician, I found the military life difficult.

The rigid and strict nature of the military lifestyle didn’t gel well with my freedom loving personality and I was ridden with anxiety and depression throughout my whole career.

Now, however, as I zig-zaged through the wild mountain roads of Vietnam I was no longer a scared catholic boarding school panda. I am an adventurous panda. I am a free Panda. I am a Travelling Panda.

As I road through a tunnel I had that sudden realization and I raised my paw into the air in a silent celebration. I had finally broken the chains of self doubt and discovered my true self. Hunter the Traveling Panda.

All it took was a Road Trip through Vietnam.

“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives but none about his or her own” – Paulo Coelho from the The Alchemist

Below are a few more pictures from the lovely Vietnamese countryside.

The locals were looking at me strange when I took this photo. This landscape was mundane but I though it was lovely.

Vietnam wins Gold – SEA Games

The South East Asia Games were created thirty years ago as a way of encouraging cooperation and friendship between the developing countries of South East Asia. It is a very exciting mini-Olympics with many sporting events and hundreds of athletes from many countries (Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Timor-Leste).

Like the Olympics they had the usual popular sports like Basketball, table tennis (ping pong), volleyball (team and beach), handball, swimming, diving, track and field and many others. Lesser known events like billiards and dance sport. They also incorporated not so popular sports in the region, like Ice hockey, which this Canadian approved enormously. They even incorporated E-sports like Starcraft II and hearthstone, which as a big fan of E-sports I thought was great. They also had more unusual sports like underwater hockey.

The biggest event of the tournament, however, was the football (soccer) tournament. Every nation in South East Asia fielded a men’s team. Unfortunately, not every nation sent a women’s team. It was by far the most watched event of the tournament.

Now, in Vietnam, football is as loved here as it is in such countries as Brazil and Italy. But because of its fairly recent introduction to the country and unstable history, Vietnam has been unable to field a team that can go toe to toe with the world football powers from Europe and South America.

However, that doesn’t stop their passion for the sport and Vietnam’s football program is growing. Vietnam brought in a well know Korean Football coach named Park Hang-seo and he has helped transform Vietnamese football. When Park Hang-seo first arrived Vietnamese football fans were skeptical of him but their opinion was quickly changed when Vietnam won the 2018 AFF Championship. For a country which is still developing their football program this was an enormous morale boost. After that Vietnam won 2nd place in the 2019 AFC-U23 championship. The Vietnamese people now loved their new coach and at Vietnamese football events you will often see Korean flags flown alongside Vietnamese flags as a token of appreciation for coach Park Hang-seo.

In the 2019 Asia Football Cup Vietnam shocked the Asian football world by defeating Jordan to advance to the round of 8 in Vietnam’s greatest ever showing. They lost to the eventual winners of the tournament, Japan, but the Vietnamese people were enormously satisfied with this accomplishment.

Vietnam’s greatest Football accomplishment was yet to come. Vietnam came into this tournament as one of the favourites of the event but nothing was guaranteed. One of Vietnam’s early games was against the tiny but very rich nation, Brunei. The Sultan of Brunei, one of the richest men in the whole world, promised the Brunei football program 10s of millions of dollars if they could at least tie Vietnam. The Brunei football team came out motivated and ready….and then promptly lost 6 – 0. A good start for Vietnam.

I made sure to watch most of the games with my Vietnamese friends which was a lot more fun that watching alone. Vietnam then went on to trounce Laos 6 – 1. Sneak away with a win against Indonesia by scoring the go ahead goal in 91st minute (2 – 1) and defeat Singapore 1 – 0. At this point Vietnam was undefeated in their group and had merely to tie or lose by 1 goal to qualify for the next round. The next game was against regional (and mostly friendly) rivalry with Thailand. After falling behind 2 – 1 Vietnam equaled things up with a penalty shot goal in the 72nd minute. Vietnam was going through to the next round.

I missed the semi-final game against Cambodia because I was teaching an English class but I could hear and see the celebrations as the public celebrated their convincing 4 – 0 win against Cambodia. I made sure not to have any English classes booked for the Gold Medal match.

For this game I was invited by a friend to watch the game with his family. I was warmly welcomed into their home and they were delighted with my broken Vietnamese and my love of Football. The game itself was only moderately exciting because Vietnam retained almost complete control of the whole match, ending the game with a 3 – 0 victory.

In the 30 years since the SEA games was founded Vietnam had never won gold in Football. But they did now and Vietnam exploded. The Vietnamese people did what they call “đi bão” which literally means “Go Storm”. Oh and did they ever go and storm the street.

I hopped on the back of my buddy’s motorcycle and we rushed downtown where thousands had gathered. The city was awash in a sea of red as hundreds of Vietnamese flags were flown. The street were clogged full of motorbikes and cars as the people chanted “Việt Nam vô địch” which means Vietnam Champion. Bartenders and wait staff abandoned their posts to celebrate on the streets, foreigners abandoned their upscale bars to join in, as I went by a few sharply dressed Vietnamese bartenders ran up to me and forcing a beer into my paw we chanted “một, hai, ba, yo” which is their version of cheers, a few brilliant entrepreneurs rolled in the profits as they sold merchandise on the side of the road. A young Vietnamese man handed me a little flag so I could join in too. A few people held up portraits of Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of Vietnam (I’m sure he’d be proud). Traffic police gave up trying to control the chaos as disgruntled and trapped Korean tourists looked out from the taxis they were stuck in as traffic ground to a halt.

It was one of the most fun nights I ever had in Vietnam. Man I love living in this country.

Stay Tuned for more South East Asia adventures.

Choosing a place to live

This post isn’t about travel or photography (more to come) but rather how I chose and settled down into my first home in Vietnam.

Before I came to Vietnam I had a job offer in Saigon. It was a nice safety net to have but as I wrote in an earlier blog post, I hated Saigon. I loved Vietnam but I hated Vietnam’s biggest city. So I was very skeptical of accepting the job there and felt uneasy about the start to my future in Vietnam.
“I will think about that at another time” I thought to myself “I am here to visit my language exchange partner”. And so I did. I had dinner with my new best friend in Vietnam almost every night and I practiced my Vietnamese. She taught me how to ride a scooter in Vietnam (a terrifying and amazing experience at the same time) and we visited the numerous cafes, restaurants and night markets in Da Nang. The more time I spent here, the more I liked Da Nang.

The more time I spent in Da Nang, the more I questioned the idea of moving to Saigon, Da Nang was growing on me. It was a big city, and I generally disliked big cities but unlike other cities, Da Nang was not polluted, it was not too hot and traffic, despite the more than 1 million inhabitants, was free flowing and traffic jams were very rare. It had a nice beach a small expat community but still felt like a genuine Vietnamese city, unlike the cosmopolitan Saigon. I was starting to consider making Da Nang my long term home.

Fulfilling an earlier promise I bought a one way ticket to Da Lat to visit my friends there. After a few days of joyful reunion I had to make a decision about where I really wanted to settle here in Vietnam. I sat down on the porch that had a gorgeous view of the misty valley below and I thought. As I thought I recalled that it was in this exact spot that I first read the international bestseller The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The fable about following your dreams. The book says to follow the omens while you pursue your dreams. Perhaps visiting my friend in Da Nang was the omen. Perhaps the omens had introduced me to the wonderful city of Da Nang as a sign that I should settle there. It was then that the decision was made. I will not go to Saigon. I will go to Da Nang.

I sent an email to the job in Saigon with a polite rejection of the job and a sincere apology for waiting so long to officially reject the job. I am a very agreeable panda so saying “No” is a very difficult thing to do and I was rife with guilt when I sent the email.
My would be boss, however, replied with much sympathy and understanding. She accepted my letter of rejection with much dignity and respect. She understood why I did not want to go to Saigon and said that I would have a wonderful time here in Vietnam. She wished me good fortune and we parted ways on good terms. It was an enormous relief to me for her to be so polite and kind. What could have been a bad start to my Vietnam adventure turned into a good one.

I messaged my best Vietnamese friend in Da Nang with the big news. I was moving to Da Nang. She introduced me to her friends, a couple that owned a small apartment, and they offered me a place to stay. I enthusiastically accepted.

One month before the apartment was available I stayed in a nice but affordable motel by the beach and started my job hunt for English teaching jobs and practicing my cardio. Every morning I ran 7 kilometers beside the beach. I could get used to this place.

And that is how I chose a place to live here in Da Nang. Next post I will tell you all about how the whole of Vietnam exploded in joy.