Same Same But Different... It's perhaps the official slogan of Vietnam.... And Cambodia for that matter. Simply the phrase refers to the sameness of everything. You might have one street where every vender sells backpacks. A whole street of backpacks mind you...The catch being they all are the same backpacks...Over and Over...The different part being the price.....Maybe??? Most of the time;however, even that is the same. Seemingly, the vendors get together to buy the same products and then offer them at the same price...I don't know for sure, it is just a theory. It is a competitive marketplace for sure, just lacking serious creative ingenuity...It applies to pretty much everything as well. A very good example is the Sinh Cafe. This tourism company offers very reputable and reliable tours and bus transportation. Originating in Saigon, the main office is quite easy to locate. In Saigon that is.....Hanoi is another story. In Hanoi there are hundreds of Sinh Cafe's. Same Same but Different!!! Only two are legitimate Sinh Cafe's. The other's; not so creative imposter's I suppose. This doesn't necessarily mean the imposter Sinh Cafe's are bad; however, I always assume that if they can't even create name how realiable could they be....
Copyright...I suppose it simply means the right to Copy. At first, all of the same same stuff was quite funny.... Then, slowly.... it started to get on my nerves.... And now it is starting to get annoying!!!!
Nonetheless, we are Laos bound tomorrow. And although the same same stuff doesn't yield quality, honesty, or reliability it can yield pretty good prices??????????Perhaps I'm really stretching to find the positive on that on.
Vietnam has been very interesting; from a cultural and geographical standpoint. The local people are quite kind and engaging; certainly quick to get down to business, but for the most part pleasant have made my stay pleasant
Our two weeks of travel took us from Saigon-Dalat-Na Trang-Hoi An-Hanoi-Halong Bay-Hanoi- not without a few bumps along the way.......
From busy Saigon we traveled to the Central Highland feature attraction..Dalat..At about 1700 meters high, Dalat was literally a breath of fresh air. The temperature all of the sudden dropped about 20 degrees and made summer travel in Vietnam quite pleasant. We only spent two nights in Dalat, but enjoyed a nice trek up one the highest peaks in the area. Spectacular views and a pleasant Vietnamese guide were definite highlights. For me the hikes most memorable moment came during a conversation with my guide. He asked me to look out in the distance, out towards a hill to the North ...Then, he asked if I could identify the rows of solid white objects sticking out of the ground above the hill. I said they were graves...He said NO! Those are where they put dead people. I didn't say it although I definitely thoughtit. Same Same...But Different!
From mountain high Dalat would took a winding, puking bus ride to oceanside Nha Trang- and ended up staying there overnight. The bus ride from Dalat to Nha Trang was by far the worst of the trip. Until the next night Hoi An that is.....But I didn't know that at the time. The mountain roads were bumby and windy...nauseating in fact..although i'm not quite sure if my nausea was induced by the roads or by the sound of the lady hurling behind me. Then the symphony began......The woman hurls, her daughter cries, the bus exhaust pipe drags on the road...The woman hurls, her daughter screams, the bus brakes. And it went on, but eventually the woman and her daughter fell a sleep and the bus stopped. About 150 km and 4 1/2 hours later we arrived in sunny Nha Trang. We hadn't planned to stay but all of the buses to Hoi An were full, and the trains to Danang...Full! Same Same strikes again. I still haven't quite figured out how all northbound transportation out of a city of 300,000 could be full, but I'm not that smart I suppose. Nontheless, a day on the beach in Nha Trang was worth it. A less developed Gold Coast, Australia I would say. The water is beautiful and the touting is minimal.
From Nha Trang we caught and overnight bus to Hoi An. This time the buses weren't full but the trains were. To avoid the 12 hour bus ride the plan had been to grab a sleeper car on an overnight Danang bound train. No such luck. Our options were to either sit up on train or sit up on the bus. We had already purchased the bus tickets, so we chose the greater of the evil's. An amusing mistake in hindsight. Evidently it was training night, because for the first 40 km our bus driver couldn't shift to save his same same. He even managed to kill on the highway. It got to the point where the rowdy's in the back of bus were telling him when to shift. In unison, 5 or 6 nervous folks, myself included, would yell SHIIIIIIIIIFT at the sound of the gears grinding. By this point the trainer, assumingly the official bus driver, was passed out in hammock he strapped from a first row seat to the door. Good times....
After narrowly missing several semi's in head on collisions we did finally make it to Hoi An....Eagerly greeted by a hyperactive hotel clerk touting his sister's catalog and tailor-made clothes..Which is all fine, just not at 6 a.m.....After a 12 hour overnight bus ride with a Same Same trainee bus driver.
Hoi An is really an impressive place. An old port city with Chinese, Portugese, French, etc. influence- the filming site of "The Quiet American". Roaming the streets you feel apart of a different time. We spent about three days there walking around, not getting clothes made, chilling on nearby Cui Dai Beach. Our second day there, we hired a motorbike and cruised up to the nearby Marble Mountains and China Beach for a look. A lunch stop on China beach proved quite eventful, and although the natural element of the area was impressive it was a Karaoke wedding party that really captivated our attention. Someone definitely sang a Righteous Brother's song but it wasn't Same Same...Very Different.
After leaving Hoi An we flew from nearby Danang to Hanoi. We are bussed out I'm afraid. What would have been a 16 hour bus/train ride turned into a 45 minute flight. Nice. Arriving in Hanoi's Old Quarter, you kind of get the feeling of what a major French city would look like if under Viet Minh control for a significant amount of time. Colonial,nice, narrow,motorbikes everywhere, very same same.
Once in Hanoi, our top priority was booking a trip to Hanoi Bay...Which we did and it was really good! Full of incredible, romantic backdrops we got a nice taste by spending a night on a junket(maybe a pirate ship??), and kayaking around a few of the 2,000 some odd limestone islands in the bay. Last night we stayed on Cat Ba island; and although we didn't rock the Cat Ba it was worth visiting as well. Tonight we are back in Hanoi, for one finally night, to soak up all that is good and same same!!!!! Tomorrow Air Laos and Luang Prabang.
