My Trip to Asia

[richn001]

As many of you may know, I recently returned from a 2 week jaunt to Asia. My travels took me to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Saigon. It was quite an interesting trip. I was able to absorb so many different things in a short period of time. Each place had their own pros and cons, but it was all worth it to be able expand my experience of different cultures. Within China, each place had their own type of people, food, and culture. However, you can definitely see the transitioning of the global experience everywhere. Western influence is so powerful whether in food or business or mannerisms. Hong Kong by far has the greatest examples of Western culture since it was once a British colony. Everywhere I looked, I could always find a KFC, Starbucks, or McDonald's. Haagen-Dazs ice cream seemed to be another favorite as well as Pizza Hut. None interested me as I was in search of a true authentic experience. (I did have KFC once just to see if there was a difference. There was.) Amidst the Louis Vuitton and Georgio Armani stores in the city centers, I made my way to see some more ancient sites with the little time that I had. Those moments intrigued me the most. I found myself to be overwhelmed with a sense of inspiration when I stepped out of 2007 to a time where a statue or a building was made with heart and hand.

I have to say, my food experience was fantastic. My stomach was a steel cauldron the whole time, so I ate with no problems. Each place had its own style of food. My taste buds were tantalized with a cornucopia of food. I did, however, find a way to have a bit of turkey on Thanksgiving. The Indian chef at the Regal Hotel did a great job to provide a means for Americans to have their annual turkey tradition. In both China and Vietnam, the food was very fresh and the good restaurants were clean with modern amenities. In fact, most of the time, I was able to walk with the waiter to pick out what I wanted out of an aquarium. I had some exotic foods especially when it came to seafood, and I did have a snake in Vietnam. Not exactly what it was cracked up to be being a little bony, but when would I ever get to do it again? Worth it? Sure...just to say I did. Do it again? Nah, Texas fried rattlesnake is better.

Although the American dollar has fallen so much in the past few months, it still is somewhat strong in comparison to their money. In China, it was almost 7.5 to 1 and in Vietnam, it was 16,000 to 1. There was a delightful feeling to be a millionaire in a matter of minute as the currency exchange guy gave me 1.605 million dong for a 100 USD. This money allowed me to experience the best of their best. I took my family in Vietnam to places that they never dreamed of going to whether they wanted to or not. We had a meal for 8 for $35 USD. (In the US, that would be a $300+ meal) In Saigon, I stayed at the Indochine for $30 USD/night. It was fantastic, clean, and accommodating. Around the corner was the Caravelle Hotel which was $300+ per night. I'm glad I am a bargain shopper! There was this one day I remember, my uncle and I were having guava tea for 30,000 dong (almost $2). My uncle had one, too, but said that he would never have ever tasted this if I didn't buy him it since his daily earnings are something like 50-150,000 dong. If he wanted to drink something out of the norm, he would have an ice coffee for 5.000 dong. Smiling, we sat there and had 2 more each.

I definitely recommend visiting both of these countries to all interested. There is alot to see, so make sure you have time. Vietnam itself is really a 2-3 week trip in itself. China is the same. Travel is easy between places once you are there. Try a direct flight from the US to Asia if you can. There was a huge difference between my 20 hour flight there and the 15 hour flight back. My ass hurt like no other when I got off the plane in Hong Kong. In fact, I even went and got some acupuncture done.

Couple of other things...

1. Negotiate the crap out of anything and everything. They will rip a foreigner off with no hesitation. I found that even when I thought I got a good deal, I was still being ripped off. I negotiated something from 1200 yuan to 251 yuan. It was a fight but well worth it.

2. Be careful. Its better if you go with someone that speaks the language. My friend that went with me spoke Mandarin and I was good in China and vice versa in Vietnam. English is hard to come by outside of Hong Kong or hotels. A taxi driver taking me to a meeting dropped me off and told me to take a left at the light. I thought I was much closer, but finally figured out 15 minutes later that I needed to walked to the right 3 blocks. Freaking idiot. Pickpockets are there among the other types of thieves. I had no such issues, but was careful the whole time. FYI, I'm Asian and they could tell I was a foreigner a mile away. Some lady walked 3 blocks with my uncle and I begging us for money. I gave her some spare dong for her effort. (dong = Vietnamese dollar) Thank God the homeless in New York aren't as persistent.

3. Hong Kong is the shopping capital of the WORLD. EVERYTHING is a mall. You think I'm joking? My hotel was connected to a 4 story mall. In Kowloon, the entire freaking city is one big mall. Guys, you may want to accidentally misplace your significant other's credit card in the hotel. Seriously...no joke. Confucius say: Those who don't listen must buy more luggage.

4. The Chinese try to perfect everything cheaply from Zippos to Rolex's. No one ever mentions their perfection of the mullet. I have never seen so many mullets in my life. Its like a "thing" or something. Very sick, but apparently they like it.

5. Pollution. YUCK! The one thing that I noticed in all the cities. With the millions of scooters, cars, and buses, there air was so heavy and gross. They need a giant HEPA filter in the middle of every city. That is definitely the one thing I didn't like at all. I wouldn't be surprised if there was an epidemic of emphysema or lung cancer just from that.

6. The tea in China is amazing. Try to have a tea ceremony. My favorite is jasmine and the premium grade is incredible. There's also white, olong, and green tea.

7. The disparity between the rich and poor is amazing. In all cities, you'll see something like a Mercedes S500 followed by a guy on a moped with his family and a pig. The middle class is almost nonexistent. Sometimes it makes you think about what poverty really is. My Aunt lives in a three room house. You walk in off the street into a room that is 10 X 10. Behind there is a kitchenette and washroom (couldn't even begin to call it a bathroom) and upstairs is the bedroom where 8 people sleep. I was shocked to see that type of condition for my family. No wonder they think the rest of us in America are filthy rich. The standards are completely different.

I hope you enjoyed my blurb about my trip. I've included a few videos of my trip. Remember, I am condensing 2 weeks into a few minutes of video. Hope its not too boring and it is a good representation of the places I visited. Happy belated Thanksgiving and have a great holiday season.

China:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTPYoAT-ecs

Vietnam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM_zz03s2wo

Food and Mullets (the food will appetize you and the mullets will make you throw up):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju54im-TY84

Rich

[RPM217]

Welcome back "Lost Boi", thanks for sharing, loved the entire narrative, especially the part where you complained about the pollution, as if you're smoking gives you the right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! J/K- Welcome back I hope that you were able to accomplish the main mission of your trip and that your success is at hand!

[thedon67]

Welcome Home! I really enjoyed the summary and look forward to wathcing the videos later.

[TigerNSX]

By far, one of the best writeups I read on the forum! Thanks for sharing your experience!! I grew up in Asia and some of your comments resonated with my childhood memory.

Confucius say: Those who don't listen must buy more luggage.

I am writing this down on my notepad to carry around in my wallet

[KingkongNSX]

Great write up dude. Thanks for sharing your experience! I traveled to China (BeiJing, Shanghai, Canton, Hong Kong) and Taiwan in 2005. The pollution was the worst in BeiJing IMO. I had a sore throat everyday after I was out for a few hours...but I had to see the Great Wall. Hopefully, they will clean it up well before the Olympics.

The video and pictures are fantastic, it took me there again...thx.

[Liquid]

Very interesting writeup, thank you for taking the time to post this.

[Rtype1206]

Hey... what about the ladies and the massage parlors??? Any good? Recommendations? hehehe

[richn001]

RTYPE1206, I have no idea what you are talking about. What are massage parlors? You can get massages there??

Women? Hmmm...they're not of the pretty sort in China. I remember saying, "Land of the flat asses." and "Wow, He/she looks like he/she got beat with a shovel." alot. Better in Shanghai but not all that great. Attitude is also pretty foul. People in general always look like they hate life. Customer service is horrendous at the stores, even in the nice department stores. The best customer service in China are in the hotels or the nice restaurants.

Saigon women, I am proud to say, are MUCH prettier. They seem to take care of themselves better. However, there is definitely a reason for that. Alot are looking for sugar daddies, husbands, or the naiive idiot, and others, well, let's say they aren't the kind of girls you bring home to mom.

Warning to all though, not to pee in your cereal or anything, but be VERY careful over there or anywhere where sex is an obvious industry. My uncle was telling me how STDs are VERY prevalent. STDs of the deadly kind. His quote, "The prettier they are, the higher the chance of them being sick with something."

Not really my style, so I wasn't messing around with that. Really, I was happy to see my family and be a fat American tourist.

Well, there is my "after school" special message for the day!

BTW, fix your quote. One too many S's.

[mickeylex]

Great writeup. Thanks for sharing your story.

I was in Thailand for two weeks earlier in the year. Had a great time, but got chased down a hill by a big friggin' monkey. I ran like h3ll.

[HTN]

Rich,
Thanks for the write-up.
I am leaving for VN next week with my wife, sister and her husband.
I've never been back since 5 years old. Can't wait.
You answered alot my my questions through the video.

Thanks.
Huy

[richn001]

Huy, I dont know how long you are going for but have a great trip! If you are in Saigon, you gotta eat at three places. Pho Hoa for pho, Quan Ang Ngon...nice, clean, modern, tasty, and CHEAP! There's one more place. Its a little Hue place going on Hai Ba Trung away from the river. I forget the name but its worth finding. Its not far from downtown. Im sure you have plenty of people to visit but if you make time, go do a tour of the Mekong Delta. I thought that was pretty cool. I also hear that Nha Trang's beach is awesome if you have time. So, enjoy and take lots of pictures!

[HTN]

I will be there for 3.5 weeks. Eating is definitely on my agenda.
The video that you posted showed a Ferrari on the streets of Saigon. That's pretty wild. That's a far way from Cyclo.
Did you have to bribe gov't officials there to get through customs quicker?
Just wondering if this crap actually goes on there or just a myth.
If so, I better get some cash ready.
Thanks Brother.

[azndng]

sounds like a blast.

your write up is pretty much on point. i've gone to 3 out of the 4 places you visited. (hk, saigon, nanjing). i will say my favorite is HK. i personally thought it was the cleanest city of the bunch. there were massive parks and trees on hong kong island. but i will agree, it "was" the shopping capital of the world.. UNTIL i left HK for tokyo. if you thought HK had it bad... multiply that by 10! and you have tokyo shopping.

but saigon by far has the best vietnam food. i did a 2+ month tour of asia (1 month in vietnam, i have family all around vietnam). but the pollution/air quality is by far one of the worse i've ever experienced. the last leg of my trip was 6 days there, and i got so sick it was just a joy flying 20 hours to JFK.

-------------

i suggest going where locals eat, when you visit your family, they'll have the best spots, but for more of a upscale dinner or one time celebration meal, it'll be best to go to higher $$ places for the service/space/convenience. other than that, enjoy vietnam. although i think its a bit too cold to hit the beaches now, nha trang does have a nice strip of restaurants/water front hotels. it'll probably best to visit this time of year, because summer was unbearably hot, and vietnam is still a developing country, so aircondition/central air is very hard to find.

[azndng]

Quan Ang Ngon...nice, clean, modern, tasty, and CHEAP!

if you translate this out literally.. it says: Place (for) Good Eats. hope its not a marketing ploy ;0 j/k

[richn001]

Place for good eats, huh? I got the last two words but my vietnamese is terrible so I didnt get the first word. It was good enough for me to get through my trip though. I had to ask my grandmother to slow down when speaking to me, but otherwise, I was good. Place was a damn good place to eat though. Definitely a must try place!

No bribing anyone. I had no troubles getting through.

[azndng]

No bribing anyone. I had no troubles getting through.

are you referring to the vietnam's customs?? about 8-9 years ago when i went back, there was so much corruption and bribing going on it was unbelievable. the workers doing customs (probably military/government anyways) were the real rich people of the country.

but when i went in june, i was VERY surprised how fast i went through... it seemed everyone got through relatively quickly with no non-sense. i guess vietnam finally learned they had to get rid of *some* corruption in order to excel as a SE Asia power? but i will admit, i had trouble getting out of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to enter China. I didn't want to deal with those a-holes, so i spoke english just so they wouldn't hassle me.

[richn001]

yeah, I must have missed that. The airport in Saigon is brand new and it just seemed like any normal customs entry.

[BATMANs]

I was in China 2 years ago.

17 days and 9~ major cities.

Didn't care for the food (so spoiled in the USA for food diversity).

I loved the shopping (it really is that cheap here)

Hated the pollution. The weird thing is that I rarely saw insects or birds. Can't be a good sign.

I'm not sure if it was the food or the pollution, but something made me mad horny there and I was hitting alot of gals (they are easy when u bust out that blue passport).

I normally go for Anglo Saxon gals, but since China I have the other "yellow fever"

[BATMANs]

[Ben]

I was in China 2 years ago.

17 days and 9~ major cities.

Didn't care for the food (so spoiled in the USA for food diversity).

I loved the shopping (it really is that cheap here)

Hated the pollution. The weird thing is that I rarely saw insects or birds. Can't be a good sign.

I'm not sure if it was the food or the pollution, but something made me mad horny there and I was hitting alot of gals (they are easy when u bust out that blue passport).

I normally go for Anglo Saxon gals, but since China I have the other "yellow fever"

Things have definitely changed since 2007 when this thread started.

As of 2012,

- Lot more choices in food these days, even in 2nd tier cities, and quality has improved dramatically for both Chinese, other Asian, and Western offerings.

- For comparable quality, shopping in US is now cheaper than China for a wide array of goods. It's actually cheaper to stock up in the US, and pay luggage or shipping fees to bring it over. I don't know what the heck the US government is thinking when they say the RMB is undervalued, if the RMB goes up more than it already has, the cost of living for expats spending US dollars will be more expensive than Tokyo, Paris, London, New York, etc. in any of the 1st tier cities. Since this thread started, the RMB has already gone up 20% against the US$. Basically, for those earning US$, everything is 20% more expensive in China than it was at the time of the start of this thread. Actually, more than 20% when you account for 5 years of inflation.

- Pollution is still the same.

- Blue passport means nothing now. Almost all the wealthy people are local Chinese who came into sudden wealth over the last 5-7 years. The expats are the poor ones these days. Expats came to China to seek their fortunes as the economy in their home countries went south, and opportunities at home dried up, and the local Chinese know this.

[richn001]

You are right on the money!

Rich

Things have definitely changed since 2007 when this thread started.

As of 2012,

- Lot more choices in food these days, even in 2nd tier cities, and quality has improved dramatically for both Chinese, other Asian, and Western offerings.

- For comparable quality, shopping in US is now cheaper than China for a wide array of goods. It's actually cheaper to stock up in the US, and pay luggage or shipping fees to bring it over. I don't know what the heck the US government is thinking when they say the RMB is undervalued, if the RMB goes up more than it already has, the cost of living for expats spending US dollars will be more expensive than Tokyo, Paris, London, New York, etc. in any of the 1st tier cities. Since this thread started, the RMB has already gone up 20% against the US$. Basically, for those earning US$, everything is 20% more expensive in China than it was at the time of the start of this thread. Actually, more than 20% when you account for 5 years of inflation.

- Pollution is still the same.

- Blue passport means nothing now. Almost all the wealthy people are local Chinese who came into sudden wealth over the last 5-7 years. The expats are the poor ones these days. Expats came to China to seek their fortunes as the economy in their home countries went south, and opportunities at home dried up, and the local Chinese know this.

[RPM217]

You are right on the money!

Rich

Happy Birthday Lost Boi!!!!!

[Tytus]

Happy Birthday Rich!!

Tytus

[richn001]

Happy Birthday Lost Boi!!!!!

Thanks for the b-day wishes, Roger and Tytus! Hope you guys are doing well!

Rich