In some country we drive on the right in others the left but in Vietnam ….

Auf Englisch bitte…

He was sitting on the floor right next to me on the slow boat to Laos. His long skinny legs tried to find their place between all the backpacks. He seemed to be a quiet one. He pulled a little book out of his bag and started writing. Where might he be from, I asked myself. He wrote in English. I tried to read, but all I could see is one line that says “Little story… If you can’t hear, you have to feel… But book I forgot…” Wow, maybe he is a writer.

My friend who was lying on the floor said I should speak to him. I was not in the mood. Later on she did.  The next day, we were on the same boat again. It was a quick journey for me, because all I did was sleeping. All I remember was, Alev and him sitting on a bench talking for hours. I woke up several times, they were still talking. In Alevs’ eyes I could see her excitement and for a few seconds I thought “maybe I should have talked to him the day before.” He must have seen my look at them as he suddenly said “Are you sick?” What? No! Why should I? Tsss… I am just tired, I thought. The last hour on the boat I was awake sitting right next to Viola as Alev and he came over to join our conversation. Viola talked a lot, Alev smiled and he seemed to enjoy the conversation with the girls.

I met him again at the bowling place at Luang Prabang / LAOS. We were standing all together as my friends went to the bar and I ended up in being the only one standing next to him. After a few second of uncomfortable silence he looked at me saying “You are always so quiet” and all I could respond was “Ja, I know. But see, now I don’t know what to say.” We both laughed.

At Vang Vieng (still Laos) we met again. We met each other accidentally at the same restaurant, went tubing together the next day. Went tubing together the other day again, when the “No. 1 Black Man – non-swimmer” almost died.

The English black man (or better The Londoner) and the three German girls. We had fun at the Bucket Bar, we woke up together in the same room with the other German girls and their one-night lovers. He waited for us for hours until we got ready to go out. We bonded and wanted to travel together. And so we did.

We went on to CAMBODIA. Were we had lots of fun. Happy family!

The girls left and here we go. This is me and the tall black man travelling together.

Ladies and gentleman, this is DANIEL CHARLES.    

And here is a diary of our days in VIETMAN.

Day 1: Am I special?

I woke up at 6.20 while he was already brushing his teeth. At 7.30 we entered the bus which brought us to the capital of Cambodia from which we’ll go on to Ho Chi Minh / VIETNAM.

So we stopped to change the bus. Still sleepy I asked…

“Daniel, where are we?” – “Siem Reap.” – “OK.”

Wait. Where are we? Right answer would have been Phnom Pheng. However, he seemed to be quite convincing… as he never knows where we are.

After some hours which we spent sleeping on the bus we stopped again, this time to cross the boarder. Passport check. They took a picture of every tourist, but taking a picture of the tall black guy is not that easy as all you could see on the camera was his white chest. White chest? What a lie ;-)                Of course, it was just his shirt being white.

Another stop 100 meters further. Luggage check. “Quick, quick, I want to be first walking with my backpack through that gate ‘cause nothing else will happen. We just have to walk through,” he said.  So we went off the bus quickly, took our backpack and walked through that gate. – “I told you so!”

Vietnam, here we are.

Here we are and there are the all these motorbikes around us. Where? Everywhere. And I mean it.

We celebrated Chinese Happy New Year with thousands of Vietnamese people and their motorbikes. (No, no drums!)

Later on we walked around for a bit. But what happened was different to how we walked around in Lao or Cambodia. For the first time people where staring at me more than they stared at him, waving their hands wishing me a happy new year. Even worse was the fact that we saw some other black men. You might wonder why, because he seemed to be the only tall black guy in whole Asia. We were wondering as well and are still surprised by the fact that he is not.

However, instead of going to bed early we entered a bar to get a drink. The nice Vietnamese waiter at the bar close to our place offered us a table upstairs. “Second floor, second floor,” he said. By looking forward to just have a seat, no matter where, we followed him and ended up in a night club which played 50CENT by the time we entered. We looked at each other, at the waiter, at each other again, the waiter again, and then decided to stay. “Ya, ya, dancing, dancing,” he said and left us there.

Having a quick look around it seemed as if we have joined the black community of Ho Chi Minh.     And here we go again, people were staring at me. Also at him but afterwards at me again. Haha.         A kiss on the dance floor and everyone around us must have thought he succeeded in getting a blonde western girl that night. And me (please don’t get me wrong), I was standing there with MY black guy, now, a black guy out of lots of black guys around me. So is he still special? Special for being black. Special for being tall. Special for being black and tall. Tall and black.

Maybe. Maybe not for this reason. Maybe not for this reason only, but for lots of other reasons          (I know).

Day 2: Happy – everything is closed – New Year

We woke up at 9.30 p.m. but got up at 12 until we finally had breakfast at 3 p.m. It was a sunny day, so we went back to our room to get the sunglasses. Don’t ask why, but we left the room at 6 p.m. and started our day before it was fully over. Of course without sunglasses.

After Daniel had read the faked Lonely Planet the day before (the “high” quality of its maps must be mentioned here), we had a big plan for today. So we went to the market place, the market was closed – holiday, happy new year. So we took a mototaxi, which drove us to the Highlands Coffee Place where there was nothing to do, neither to see. What to do next? Cinema? Ja, cinema. The cinema was opened, but unfortunately showed no English movie, although the Lonely Planet says it is an international cinema. Liar! However, Vietnamese people know about sweet popcorn and also know how to make it. So we had sweet popcorn, without any movie.

On our way back, we had a great tiger head photo shooting in the middle of lots of people and motos of course. People are not only staring at us any more, now they start to take pictures. And so they did. Happy New Year!

Day 3: In some countries they drive on the right side of the street, in some on the left, but in Vietnam…

My head is hot, my bum is hurting. The sun is burning. I breath in. Dust. All I hear is the sound of engines and breaks. One after another blows the horn. On my right, a family. Kids held in between the tiny narrow space between mum and dad. On my left teenager waving their hands. 5,4,3… peeping and within seconds I can feel a breeze in my face. Peeping again. We already passed this big junction.

It’s crazy to ride a motorbike in Ho Chi Minh the so called Moto-City. Especially when you were not born in this city. It’s crazy and so are we. There are no rules on the road and the most important thing on your bike seems to be your horn. No, the most important thing is the horn.

It’s gone dark now. All I can see are lights. Lights everywhere. Lights in every colour. Advertisement, decoration, streetlights, traffic lights,… lights everywhere. I breath in. Dust. All I hear is the sound of engines and breaks. One after another blows the horn.

It’s crazy to ride a motorbike in Ho Chi Minh and so are we. But no one who never did it can ever imagine how much fun it is.

In some countries they drive on the right side of the street, in some on the left,                                       but in Vietnam…                                                                                                                                                        … and this is why we can proudly say today: We survived Saigon traffic!

Day 4+5: Hello my friend... (Trip to Mekong Delta)

It’s hard to find words for our trip to the Mekong Delta. All I remember is “hello my friends”, holiday, happy new year and “you can leave your big luggage here”.

But remember, there were some moments when we almost cried because of laughing. Just think of...

... the singing lady  (singing? I still keep asking myself what she did.)

... the old man on the bus who almost died because of coughing

... the waiter offering “sharped” noodles

... the old man on the bus who did not know how to finish his ice cream because his corn looked different than that one of the guy sitting next to him. This confused him a bit. Only a bit ;-)

Day 6: I don’t like sick Germany!

Neither do I. But the girl who never gets sick got sick as never before. So after a night of becoming best friend with the bin (I don’t want to give any details), we went to hospital this morning. By Moto of course! Entering the emergency room we both weren’t sure whether we can find help here or not. More than 20 beds in one room, sometimes two persons in one bed. Strange old equipment was used but at least we did find help. Trip, cold belly time and medicine and Germany finally found some sleep.

Back home, bed time. “You’re hot”, “you’re boiling”, “I’m sure you’ve got a fever,” he said. He was right which means more bed time for sick Germany. The Paracetamol of Dr. Daniel Charles finally caused that I felt better in the evening.

Thank you so much for everything!

Day 7: Nothing, I just hit the pavement!

Daniel, what did we do today? – Well, we tried to do some shopping. Did we? Oh yes, we did. But let me start from the beginning. Today we booked our flight to Bangkok from where your flight goes back to Melbourne. After we had toasted air-bread for breakfast we rent a scooter and visited all the famous shopping places the Lonely Liar Planet recommended. Liar, I told you!

Anyways, who needs a market or a shopping centre? All we wanted to buy was finally found in our road or at the street around. So we spent our last million on buying T-shirts and bracelets.

However, we had our Moto Moto and joined the crazy traffic of Saigon for one more time. We made our way to a Park/Zoo. “They should have put us in a cage,” he said and he was so right. Everyone was amused by this tall black man.

We made our way back to the centre. The more traffic, the more fun! And we had lots of fun.

So what’s today? I think our last day. I already started crying days before. I’m sorry! It’s just because I am going to miss Daniel (my Mister, Mister) and everything around us. But now it’s time to go back to real life. To the same life as before, although we’re not the same. We’ve changed. Changed in thinking by making experiences. Experiences which make us rich. Rich in countries we have seen, rich in friendships we have made, rich in understanding who we are. In this case, we can never get poor again.

For me,I will always remember this tall black man called Daniel Charles who loved to asked me what I am thinking, with who I could talk about sports for hours (its training, its advantage and its passion – and the fact  that black people are not made for swimming J), who liked to say “oh my Hulia” when we were sitting on the scooter crossing a junction and who kept on saying “I told you so” or “I knew it”, with who I could laugh until we cry and with who I could be quiet. With who I could be quiet with, when there were no words needed.

Written by Hulia my last German girl a true friend, partner and travel