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Journal of Vietnam Bicycle Tour

Vietnam, spring 2000 [II]

Agelasto
2004-05-20 20:18:42

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III. Problems

So far the trip has been uneventful. On my first cycling day (an easy 78 kms, 4 hours) I reach
Hoa Binh, a town of 25-50,000 people (I estimate about 100 portraits of Uncle Ho on the
streets). This is not a place many foreigners visit, but it is the provincial capital and thus has
several state-run hotels. I will come to realize that hotels in Viet Nam are somewhat
standardized, seemingly all part of a gigantic national chain. Few are older than 5 years. They
all charge foreigners about US $10 per night for a bedroom with an attached toilet/shower room
(The hand held shower inevitably wets the toilet seat). The rooms are fairly clean, have
mosquito nets and color TV, provide towels, soap, toilet paper, boiled water and tea,
sometimes even shampoo and toothbrush. The tariff is according to room, not number of
persons or beds. A typical room has two beds, so I am paying twice what a person who
travels in a pair pays. When you least expect it, a hotel staffer will use her passkey to enter
without bothering to knock. Just like China. But, unlike in China, there is usually a deadbolt on
the door to prevent this, if it really matters. I eat both lunch and dinner in the hotel, venture out
only once to survey the town, and take a long nap between meals. I have developed a slight
chest cold which will get neither better nor worse the entire month I am in Viet Nam. (It will
clear up the day I return to Shenzhen).

I flip on the TV. It doesn?t take me long to realize that there?s really nothing I want to watch.
The two state-run channels often present the same program. I am visiting during the year-long
celebration of the 25th anniversary of Viet Nam?s reunification. (This is the way the events are
usually portrayed, rather than as the victory over the US or foreign imperialism/aggression).
There always seems to be a panel ...