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Southeast Asia

June - July 2019
Wandering through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Read more
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  • Sean PlamondonSoutheast Asia
    1
    11
    Day 1

    Montreal Calling

    June 30, 2019 in Canada ⋅ 🌧 23 °C

    35 hours of transit between leaving Ottawa and arriving in vietnam starts now. Woowoo. I expect the excitement to dwindle precisely at hour 6. But i suspect thats why they have free alcohol on long haul flights. I wonder how many tiny bottles of wine i can consume across 11 timezones?

    My father was kind enough to drive me to the montreal airport today, and a trip to montreal wouldn't be complete without a beer at a pub dans la belle province. His best friend and bf's gf joined us. Let the beers fall where they may.

    Summer of Sean has begun...

    Next stop, Paris... salut!    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonSoutheast Asia
    Day 2

    Reunited in Paris

    July 1, 2019 in France ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Got off the flight and first thing i saw was the air Canada lounge. Fate! So had some free food and found a comfy lounging chair to stretch out and nap a bit.

    Vicky and alexa were connecting to greece at same time, same airport as i was connecting to bangkok, so we met up for a bit and i got to see alexa one last time before my 12 hour flight into east asia.

    Not feeling great today. Bit of a fever and chills earlier and during flight to paris. But I've improved since then. Hopefully its mostly behind me now.

    Happy Canada Day! 🇨🇦 🎆    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonSoutheast Asia
    Day 3

    Bangkok Crosswalk

    July 2, 2019 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Hanging out in bangkok airport waiting for last flight to vietnam. 30 hours down, 5 to go. Shockingly i feel great.

    Thai airways was great. All the stewardesses are decked out in traditional clothing and bow down with hands in prayer formation to greet every single person. Mad at myself for not getting a shot of it. Whole airplane smelled like a thai restaurant... and food was really good. I will be sure to have my camera ready for my last flight today with vietnam airways.

    My old ratty orange backpack is done. I noticed mid flight the bottom had a big hole in it and my stuff was falling out the bottom. Good thing it happened there and not while walking around! If only i was in a country that manufactured textiles and goods for cheapie cheapie prices...    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonSoutheast Asia
    2
    Day 3

    Ho Chi Minh City - Day 1

    July 2, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Finally arrived in HCMC. What a zoo!

    I've been a lot of places but I've never seen traffic like this. Its really challenging to be a pedestrian... scooters are everywhere, even on sidewalks whizzing by you. Crosswalks are purely decorative! What a waste of paint haha. Crossing streets is like playing frogger or crossy road. You have to walk right into traffic and trust the vehicles to go around you.. not intuitive at all !

    After settling in, I went for a walk and stumbled across a tiny microbrew place. Tried a few mango and chilli beers then went off to find food. People here are incredibly friendly, plus i really stick out i guess in a sea of asians everywhere. People talk to me everywhere i go.

    One person i chatted with for a while took me to a traditional viet restaurant and ordered a ton of food for us. It was amazing. Altho i was a bit embarrassed at my inadequacies with chop sticks. I paid the bill and it was 10 dollars including our drinks. Ridiculous! Will post a pic of our feast.

    Finally the jetlag caught up and i had to crash hard. Slept a few hours and then went back to the same microbrew to close out the night .    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonSoutheast Asia
    Day 4

    Ho Chi Minh City - Day 2

    July 3, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    This is a very hard city to sleep in. Super noisy with everyone honking constantly. It never stops. I gave up trying and wandered over to a nearby starbucks at the foot of a traffic circle and let myself be hypnotized by the perpetual string of near collisions. You really have to see it to believe it.

    Which makes my next decision really weird. I hired a rickshaw chariot guy to cycle me to the big market, and he had us right in the middle of the street aka chaos. I thought we'd be riding by the curb. Nope!

    Surviving that, i wandered the biggest collection of knockoff you-name-its, bought some souvenirs and replaced my backpack. I was feeling pretty happy about my haggling victories until i got outside and had to contend with a torrential downpour. Normally I'd just call a Grab (uber) but i had no wifi, no cell plan here and no restaurants in sight to leech their information super highway.

    Impatiently i opted to run a few blocks (5?) until i found a vegetarian place (eww) and ran in soaking wet. They sat me at a table that seats 4 (odd choice i thought), and 10 minutes later they sat two more locals (Vu and Than) with me haha. This is new! Very fortunately they were incredibly nice and spoke great english. They even insisted on me sampling food from their plates. I love this country, everyone is ridiculously kind.

    Later, grabbed a Grab ®️ and went to another brew pub. Another backpacker sat near me and paid for a beer for me as we chatted away. Another joined us and turns out he's going to be in the north when i am so we traded info to maybe travel together later. A local girl joined us too and suggested a great restaurant for Pho.

    The other guys took off but i went with her and she taught me how to use chopsticks which i gotta say, i got pretty decent at. We chatted away and turns out her good friend is getting married in two days and i have now been invited to attend lol. This would throw off my loose itinerary, but would be also be quite the experience. Stay tuned tomorrow for what Sean chose ....    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonSoutheast Asia
    Day 5

    Dak Lak Wedding - Day 1

    July 4, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Today i taxied (grab ®️ ed) a ride to the airport and caught a flight ($50) to buon ma thuot... which I'm sure needs no intro haha. Followed by a driver taking us 30 mins into the mountains of dak lak. Really pretty area where mountains meet rice patties.

    We were dropped off at the end of a lane way to a country farm house and as we approached i realized very quickly i was not the average bear here and perhaps i would not be able to fit in.
    Everyone stopped what they were doing like the music abruptly stopped and stared directly at me. Yie, what had i decided on? It was this or a cool beach town that looked like cabarete. Everyone who knows me at all knows what a hard decision i had made.

    People approached me with bewilderment in their eyes and warm smiles on their faces. I was like a rainbow unicorn haha. Kids giggled near me and wherever i walked, all eyes were on me.

    Dinner time finally came and we were seated at a 10 person table, full of platters of food, a hotpot, and a case of beer at my feet under the table. I think there were maybe 150+ people? I was asked several times how much beer i could handle lol.. unaware of exactly where that was heading... BTW, this is at the bride's family house.

    My newly acquired chopstick skills failed me badly. They weren't ready for this kind of public scrutiny. The woman next to me very quickly recognized my struggles and charitably transferred some food from table food platters to my bowl. Yie what a relief. Every eye was watching me struggle to tap my chopstick ends together while catherine whispered words of encourage to me like a teacher to her student. Embarrassing!

    Then the parade of people showing up at the table, cheering me, started. Different males walked up, smiled at me, beaming with their bravado and tapped glasses with only me. They wanted me to drink beer with them but i didn't quite understand what was incomplete in their eyes each time. They wanted the whole glass drank in one go.

    At first the groom expressed a lot of concern for where it was heading with me but then he sat me at his table with his best friends and egged me on to chug beers too. And by the end of the night he adamantly expressed how much it would mean to him if i could stay for the entire 3 day celebration of this union until sunday. Very touching.

    Every male came by before leaving to shake my hand and every female waved with a warm smile.. i swear i am (much!) more popular than the wedding couple. Then i was given a place to sleep on the floor under a mosquito net in front of a buddhist shrine to finish my night. I was the only person in the shrine room.. no idea if that was by design. But was a nice way to end a really crazy night here.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonSoutheast Asia
    Day 6

    Dak Lak Wedding - Day 2

    July 5, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    I have a better handle on how this wedding celebration works now. Its 4 consecutive parties. Two at bride's house, an informal one in the evening and a formal one in the morning, followed by an informal evening one at groom's house and another formal one the following morning. After that the bride moves into the groom's house to live with family.

    The morning party had everyone dressed up and the bride in her wedding dress. Today the guest list was 500 people! People were very interested in me still but much more sedated this time around. Probably because everyone was sober. Which was great as i wasn't exactly feeling tip top. The food being served was overwhelming. Not everything to my tastes but overall very good. Funny to see how creatively they could tear apart a chicken breast with only chopsticks. No one tried to get me chug any beers thank god haha.

    The evening affair was at the grooms house, also 500 people and this time there was only rice wine on the tables. Tasted like pure alcohol which probably explains why we all had tiny shot glasses. My celebrity status was back. Everyone wanted to come by and meet me and usually have a shot too. A few made me sit at their table and would pour me shots over and over so i really had to have a continual escape plan.

    But things got weirdest when i kept being asked to get up on stage to sing a song. Even the groom took me aside and requested it. I repeatedly declined politely. They also wanted me to do some bizarre solo dance on stage to their music.. which resembles nothing like what we have back home.

    At one point, three guys physically carried me onto the stage where i stood sheepishly for a moment laughing, raised my hand to acknowledge my fans and apologized and found my seat again haha. I wish i had all this on video.

    Following that, went back to the brides house where i was staying. The father of the bride showed me how he makes his own rice wine which had a lot more machinery than i expected. He also told me he wants me to come back and stay with them the next time i am back. And he wants to come visit me in canada as well. I am part of the family now.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonSoutheast Asia
    Day 7

    Da Nang - Day 1

    July 6, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C

    For some reason we all had to get up at 5am. My back was aching from second night on hard floor, so why not. There was some sort of buddhist ceremony in the shrineroom and then everyone headed to the groom's house again. More food and beer to no end.

    Poor Catherine. This morning she had to explain to a few people that she is not in my entourage as a hired translator and that she is good friends with the bride. Haha

    People were getting more comfortable with me and wherever i walked in the room of banquet tables, everyone would smile and wave or shake my hand. I'm going to miss this, i think haha. Lots would now walk up to me and put an arm around my neck or back or hug me. And as lunch progressed, the beer challenges increased. But it was all in the most genuine, warm, flattering way of course. Still, thats a lot of beer.

    As i suspected, the requests for me to sing kicked up again but this time i was ready! I declined a few times until i had just the right amount of beer in me and shocked them by agreeing to sing a song. I got up on stage and did my best version of Patience by Guns N Roses haha. Its really hard to carry a song properly without background music plus nervousness. Anyways, the groom profusely thanked me. And i exchanged numbers with tons of people who want to keep in touch. One guy lives in Hanoi, so i will be looking him up when i get there for sure.

    Then back to the bride's house where they all told me again i have to return some day. The young boys asked me in the morning if they could take me up a nearby mountain after the wedding to show me the views but i had to decline with my flight schedule. My ride eventually appeared and i was off to airport to fly to Da Nang, a beach town.

    Da Nang is really touristy. Lots of Russians everywhere and the pub next to my beach hotel was full of rowdy Aussies. It was hard to remember i was still in Vietnam. Too spoiled by that Dak Lak experience! For a little while i enjoyed being quiet and invisible in da nang but not long after that, i missed all my new friends and family from dak lak.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonSoutheast Asia
    1
    Day 8

    Da Nang - Day 2

    July 7, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

    For some reason all the atm's near my hotel will only dispense the max equivalent of $17 per transaction. Thats not a typo. Ridiculous. My transaction fees will be about the same as that. So i went in search of a real bank. Also cibc has once again frozen my credit card. With the time difference, i will have to wait until tonight to call them. Apparently i can call them via skype. So today is all about fixing some stuff before it becomes problematic.

    Anyways ended up relatively close to the famous dragon bridge so wandered a bit further to get some shots of it. Apparently fire comes out its mouth sat and sun nights. And what do you know, there's a brewery right across the street from it. The only one in da nang. What can i say, i have a tslent :) Ordered the worst food I've ever had anywhere. Intentionally dried out squid. Was like chewing on bark. Blech.

    Got back from there and headed to beach. Beautiful and no one on it for miles. Crazy hot sunday afternoon and town is full and no one is there. Weird! Water was also warmest I've ever felt. Must have been 95F, no joke. Wasn't even refreshing lol. But pretty wonderful to walk into. I was giggling to myself haha.

    Scribbled on bar in front of me: "don't wait for perfect moment, make the moment become perfect". Speaking of which, that place was the perfect bar with a perfect beer and perfect playlist. Perfect.

    Some fun facts... domestic beer at a bar is a bit more than a dollar. Craft beer, around 4 dollars. Oh i also noticed today that this country has no stop signs. Everything is implied yield from what i can tell.    Read more

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