At newsstands around the Old Quarter there are plenty of Vietnamese language publications to enjoy with breakfast, but so far I've found nothing in English.
In my traveling career, the best bet for American journalism overseas has been the International Herald Tribune which was once co-published by the New York Times and the Washington Post.
The IHT still exists but only online here.
The paper version has been recently re-branded as the International New York Times and it's available in most major cities around the world including Bangkok where it's sold for 80 baht ($2.50).
I'm sure I'd be able to find the INYT in Hanoi at maybe one or two specialized shops such as English language bookstores, but as for finding it on my usual rounds, forget it. . .
This reminds me of my admittedly limited experience with Communist countries over the years. On my day trip through Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie to visit East Berlin in December 1983--at the height of the Cold War--I wasn't in the market for a Western newspaper, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have found the IHT even if I'd been looking for it.
Besides, it was easily available just over the Wall in West Berlin where I was staying.
My only other experience with Communist media was in Laos, a nation which is linguistically and culturally a cousin of Thailand but which is politically and philosophically tied to Vietnam.
As I recall, the Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic's government was so secretive in my day that it didn't even have a Lao language newspaper for sale. Whenever I entered the Lao PDR for a visa run or a trip down the Mekong from Thailand, I was entering a virtual news-free zone.
Occasionally one could find a week-old copy of the Bangkok Post, but that would've been a very lucky day.
These days you can read the Vientiane Times here.
Back in Hanoi this year, after some googling around, I found the Vietnam News online. Today's top story reads like a Central Committee memo with the headline "Nation pushed to achieve higher growth" as it outlines a Party plan to reach annual economic growth targets of 8%-9%.
Other headlines and text reveal that "Venezuela becomes strategic ally", "Voter ask PM to take tough stance on East Sea (the South China Sea)", "President praises fishermen for conducting peaceful fight", and "China has broken its promise".
OMG! Is this all the Vietnam News has to offer its loyal farang readers? Pretty much, I'm afraid. You really have to dig for something that doesn't completely bore one to tears, such as this item:
http://vietnamnews.vn/learning-english/256905/meet-ha-nois-music-mechanic.html
But my all-time favorite communist media outlet has to be KCNA, the official news agency of the Korean Workers' Party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea.
Here is a fascinating piece about the recent visit of a Vietnamese delegation to Mangyongdae:
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
Showing posts with label Laos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laos. Show all posts
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Friday, July 4, 2014
Doing the Hustle in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
My two "visits" to Cambodia over the past 25 years were limited to a 2001 trip to the Aranyaprathet-Poipet border towns and to the disputed temple ruins in Phra Viharn, a World Heritage site which is technically in Cambodian territory but accessible only from the Thai side of the border.
I did both these excursions with my artist friend K who at the time was documenting a large photo project of Khmer ruins sites in Thailand as part of a much bigger multi-continental conception of religious-cultural exploration in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
So my personal experience of the Indochinese "dominoes" of the '60s-'70s is limited to 7 or 8 trips, mostly of the "visa run" variety, into Laos between 1991 and 2001, and to my current visits to the capital of (formerly North) Vietnam.
In Indochina the French colonists left behind a number of things, most notably their churches and colonial-era architecture, but they also left their taste for fresh crispy baguettes, strong sweetened coffee, crafted beer and wine, and world-class cuisine.
Even the French language lingers here as many older people can speak and understand at least a little French. This morning at breakfast in my hotel I overheard a young woman, almost certainly a French-Vietnamese, in conversation with her farang French boyfriend. On TV here I have seen young Vietnamese translating for French journalists in travelogue pieces for French television.
Like Thai people, the Lao and the Vietnamese are quick with the broadest of smiles for foreign visitors. But I've noticed that many people I meet on the street in Hanoi are also aggressively on "the make", looking to hustle the tourist out of her hard-earned dollars, euros and yen.
In my few days here I've been overcharged for a moto taxi (motorcycle taxi) service and for cold bottles of water or Coke. In the larger scope of things, these are minor irritations, but travelers know that this kind of hustle isn't sustainable over the long term. Tourists quickly grow weary of getting charged $2-3 for a $1 Coke or a 50 cent bottle of water. Then they often become wary of many impromptu interactions with locals on the street.
In Hanoi I've been approached by a few young people claiming to be students who want to "help" me by becoming my temporary guide around town on their motorbike, for a fee of course, or so I've assumed.
Now I don't mind paying a reasonable fee for a reasonable service, and I've been quoted a price of $20 for a half day, or $40 for a full day, of guided moto service to museums and other city landmarks. This price seems reasonable, but it depends partly upon the guide's facility with English. And another big question is: will (s)he stick to the agreed upon itinerary, or will (s)he be looking to upsell additonal services into the bargain? ("My wife will go shopping at the market and cook lunch for you; pay what you like!" or "My niece owns a store selling Vietnamese handicrafts; shall I call her and say we will visit this afternoon?")
What really gives me pause, however, is the person who says "Pay what you like." That seems to me to be an open invitation to serious conflict later in the day.
All the guidebooks I've checked out warn about the friendly hustle going down in Hanoi, which--compared to Thailand or Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon)--is relatively new to the Southeast Asian tourism game. And they warn about the airport taxi scams, aggressive moto drivers, fly-by-night tour operators, fake guesthouse scams (where crooks steal the name of a reputable hotel or tour company and cash in quickly before closing down the enterprise), and other tourist pitfalls in Vietnam generally, and in Hanoi in particular.
I understand all this: I know that farang tourists are going to pay a premium--whether in Thailand, Laos, or Vietnam--and I also know that my comprehension of the Thai language and Thai social customs is often rewarded with a 30%-50% discount on a wide array of goods and services in Thailand. I also know that I'm not entitled to the same sort of discounts in Vietnam.
And I'm not saying that the farang premium is always bad--indeed, I will gladly pay more for a service that I want, when I need it, and as long as it's within my often-limited budget.
But I object to touts who insist "we must go now, today" before one can get his proper bearings, or others who persist in advancing their paid agendas despite several obvious, emphatic "No's!" on my part.
Whenever I've said "No, not today, but what are you doing tomorrow morning?" (after I've had a chance to do a little more research), almost invariably my interlocutors lose interest in me and are off to corner their next tourist prospects.
I did both these excursions with my artist friend K who at the time was documenting a large photo project of Khmer ruins sites in Thailand as part of a much bigger multi-continental conception of religious-cultural exploration in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
So my personal experience of the Indochinese "dominoes" of the '60s-'70s is limited to 7 or 8 trips, mostly of the "visa run" variety, into Laos between 1991 and 2001, and to my current visits to the capital of (formerly North) Vietnam.
In Indochina the French colonists left behind a number of things, most notably their churches and colonial-era architecture, but they also left their taste for fresh crispy baguettes, strong sweetened coffee, crafted beer and wine, and world-class cuisine.
Even the French language lingers here as many older people can speak and understand at least a little French. This morning at breakfast in my hotel I overheard a young woman, almost certainly a French-Vietnamese, in conversation with her farang French boyfriend. On TV here I have seen young Vietnamese translating for French journalists in travelogue pieces for French television.
Like Thai people, the Lao and the Vietnamese are quick with the broadest of smiles for foreign visitors. But I've noticed that many people I meet on the street in Hanoi are also aggressively on "the make", looking to hustle the tourist out of her hard-earned dollars, euros and yen.
In my few days here I've been overcharged for a moto taxi (motorcycle taxi) service and for cold bottles of water or Coke. In the larger scope of things, these are minor irritations, but travelers know that this kind of hustle isn't sustainable over the long term. Tourists quickly grow weary of getting charged $2-3 for a $1 Coke or a 50 cent bottle of water. Then they often become wary of many impromptu interactions with locals on the street.
In Hanoi I've been approached by a few young people claiming to be students who want to "help" me by becoming my temporary guide around town on their motorbike, for a fee of course, or so I've assumed.
Now I don't mind paying a reasonable fee for a reasonable service, and I've been quoted a price of $20 for a half day, or $40 for a full day, of guided moto service to museums and other city landmarks. This price seems reasonable, but it depends partly upon the guide's facility with English. And another big question is: will (s)he stick to the agreed upon itinerary, or will (s)he be looking to upsell additonal services into the bargain? ("My wife will go shopping at the market and cook lunch for you; pay what you like!" or "My niece owns a store selling Vietnamese handicrafts; shall I call her and say we will visit this afternoon?")
What really gives me pause, however, is the person who says "Pay what you like." That seems to me to be an open invitation to serious conflict later in the day.
All the guidebooks I've checked out warn about the friendly hustle going down in Hanoi, which--compared to Thailand or Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon)--is relatively new to the Southeast Asian tourism game. And they warn about the airport taxi scams, aggressive moto drivers, fly-by-night tour operators, fake guesthouse scams (where crooks steal the name of a reputable hotel or tour company and cash in quickly before closing down the enterprise), and other tourist pitfalls in Vietnam generally, and in Hanoi in particular.
I understand all this: I know that farang tourists are going to pay a premium--whether in Thailand, Laos, or Vietnam--and I also know that my comprehension of the Thai language and Thai social customs is often rewarded with a 30%-50% discount on a wide array of goods and services in Thailand. I also know that I'm not entitled to the same sort of discounts in Vietnam.
And I'm not saying that the farang premium is always bad--indeed, I will gladly pay more for a service that I want, when I need it, and as long as it's within my often-limited budget.
But I object to touts who insist "we must go now, today" before one can get his proper bearings, or others who persist in advancing their paid agendas despite several obvious, emphatic "No's!" on my part.
Whenever I've said "No, not today, but what are you doing tomorrow morning?" (after I've had a chance to do a little more research), almost invariably my interlocutors lose interest in me and are off to corner their next tourist prospects.
Back in Post-Vietnam War Hanoi
I arrived in Hanoi on Tuesday July 1 and was almost the first in line to present my extraordinary health declaration to Vietnamese officials--now required of all visitors flying from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern countries--amidst a swarm of news cameras and media spotlights.
My declaration was only a formality since technically I spent the last 30-some days in Thailand, but I flew in on the regular Qatar Airways Bangkok-Hanoi flight, and the news crews were on hand to document the first 200 passengers to arrive in Hanoi under the new regulations.
The form I filled out never mentions the deadly MERS-CoV which has lately been in the news, but I knew I'd guessed correctly about its purpose when I googled the whole episode later the next day.
It's always an adventure when I visit a country new to my own experience--especially when it's a country that's been on my "to go" list for three or four decades, as is Vietnam.
I grew up with the Vietnam War, the first TV war in America's checkered history of international interventions, and somehow I was profoundly affected by the experience of seeing so many American boys return from this mysterious Southeast Asian land, which looks like a serpent on the map and which always seems to have had such colorful postage stamps, in body bags and caskets.
Although I was only six years old at the time of the February 1968 Tet Offensive I distinctly remember being frightened at the prospect of getting drafted for the slaughter of a long-running quagmire that I was sure--deep down--would see Americans and Vietnamese killing each other well into the 21st Century. When I was 10 years old I was already planning my trip to Canada or Sweden to avoid that prospect.
My uncle was stationed in Hue, not so far from the DMZ marking the border between North and South Vietnam, but his 1965-66 tour was relatively early in the conflict, before the Lyndon B. Johnson administration began its upsizing from a few thousand military "advisors" to the eventual 500,000 troops that were stationed in the south at the peak of the war.
In retrospect, the U.S. attempt to prevent the Soviet-backed, Red Chinese-inspired Viet Cong from toppling the corrupt, inept South Vietnamese government was obviously doomed to failure. But at the time it may have seemed reasonable to most Americans that if South Vietnam fell to the "communist monolith" it would necessarily be the first of several Indochinese "dominoes" to topple, perhaps bringing Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia down with them.
In fact, American involvement in the war inevitably spread to Cambodia where the murderous Khmer Rouge for several years was battling the right-wing Lon Nol regime for control, and to Laos where another low-level "communist" insurgency--similar to that taking place in northeastern Thailand--was also brewing.
It bears mentioning that these Indochinese wars were taking place in three of the poorest countries on earth.
When the U.S. and North Vietnam finally agreed on a peace accord in January 1973 that would see a complete American withdrawal in exchange for the return of all American POWs held by Hanoi, it was only a matter of time before the Indochinese insurgencies bore fruit. By the end of April 1975 Vietnam was reunified under Hanoi, and communist regimes were in control in Phnom Penh and Vientiane as well.
But Thailand successfully crushed its own low-level insurgency in the 1970s and 1980s, as Malaysia had done in the 1950s-1960s.
My declaration was only a formality since technically I spent the last 30-some days in Thailand, but I flew in on the regular Qatar Airways Bangkok-Hanoi flight, and the news crews were on hand to document the first 200 passengers to arrive in Hanoi under the new regulations.
The form I filled out never mentions the deadly MERS-CoV which has lately been in the news, but I knew I'd guessed correctly about its purpose when I googled the whole episode later the next day.
It's always an adventure when I visit a country new to my own experience--especially when it's a country that's been on my "to go" list for three or four decades, as is Vietnam.
I grew up with the Vietnam War, the first TV war in America's checkered history of international interventions, and somehow I was profoundly affected by the experience of seeing so many American boys return from this mysterious Southeast Asian land, which looks like a serpent on the map and which always seems to have had such colorful postage stamps, in body bags and caskets.
Although I was only six years old at the time of the February 1968 Tet Offensive I distinctly remember being frightened at the prospect of getting drafted for the slaughter of a long-running quagmire that I was sure--deep down--would see Americans and Vietnamese killing each other well into the 21st Century. When I was 10 years old I was already planning my trip to Canada or Sweden to avoid that prospect.
My uncle was stationed in Hue, not so far from the DMZ marking the border between North and South Vietnam, but his 1965-66 tour was relatively early in the conflict, before the Lyndon B. Johnson administration began its upsizing from a few thousand military "advisors" to the eventual 500,000 troops that were stationed in the south at the peak of the war.
In retrospect, the U.S. attempt to prevent the Soviet-backed, Red Chinese-inspired Viet Cong from toppling the corrupt, inept South Vietnamese government was obviously doomed to failure. But at the time it may have seemed reasonable to most Americans that if South Vietnam fell to the "communist monolith" it would necessarily be the first of several Indochinese "dominoes" to topple, perhaps bringing Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia down with them.
In fact, American involvement in the war inevitably spread to Cambodia where the murderous Khmer Rouge for several years was battling the right-wing Lon Nol regime for control, and to Laos where another low-level "communist" insurgency--similar to that taking place in northeastern Thailand--was also brewing.
It bears mentioning that these Indochinese wars were taking place in three of the poorest countries on earth.
When the U.S. and North Vietnam finally agreed on a peace accord in January 1973 that would see a complete American withdrawal in exchange for the return of all American POWs held by Hanoi, it was only a matter of time before the Indochinese insurgencies bore fruit. By the end of April 1975 Vietnam was reunified under Hanoi, and communist regimes were in control in Phnom Penh and Vientiane as well.
But Thailand successfully crushed its own low-level insurgency in the 1970s and 1980s, as Malaysia had done in the 1950s-1960s.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
That Old Visa Run
I had to do a "visa run" to Mae Sai on the Thai-Myanmar border to extend my stay in Thailand sufficiently.
Ah! The visa run. . .so definitive of the expat experience in Thailand.
I've had every type of "easy access" visa that Thailand offers: the ordinary two-month tourist visa, the three-month non-immigrant visa, the six-month double entry visa, the six-month double entry with work permit visa, and the 15-day visa on arrival at Bangkok's airports.
Now the Thais give 30 days on arrival for citizens of about 25-30 countries including the U.S.
In Thailand, you need a visa to stay for longer periods of time. And if you want to stay even longer, you have to do a visa run.
I've done every type of visa run imaginable: I've run to Penang, Malaysia too numerous times to count; I've run to Vientiane, Laos probably at least five times; I've also entered Laos from the north, not too far from Chiangmai, and taken the slow boat down the Mekong River to the ancient Lao capital Luang Prabang; and I've even used a dodgy service that sent my passport to a northern Thai border post with Laos and arranged all the visas and stamps--in other words did all the paperwork--while my person continued to stay and work in Chiangmai.
The latter service was definitely some type of corrupt enterprise endorsed by fairly high Thai/Lao police commanders--the equivalent of regional chiefs rank.
I've extended my stays at the Chiangmai Immigration office, at the Bangkok Immigration office, and at the Mae Sai Immigration office. These types of extensions are very limited--only 5-10 days or so--and they cost money in the range of 500 to 2000 baht.
I've also overstayed my visa, but you can never do too much of that; the fine for each day of overstay used to be 100 baht (four dollars back then, three dollars now), but now it's a steep 500 baht per day. This is what they will charge you at the Bangkok airport whenever you finally leave the country. And if you can't pay the fine, you will be detained and held in an immigration police lock-up--with 150-200 mostly Burmese and Cambodian illegals--until you can do so.
I've also done the run to Mae Sai--the northern-most point in Thailand, about 1000 km north of Bangkok--probably at least half a dozen times that I can remember now.
When Burma (Myanmar) started cautiously opening up in the early 2000s, they allowed farang tourists to visit the border town Tachilek, just opposite Mae Sai, on a day pass only. I remember the whole process being exceedingly tedious with one official checking the passport, another taking your photograph, another collecting the 500 baht fee (though they preferred to be paid in dollars), and yet another stamping the passport and handing over a receipt.
Now the Burmese have really got their act together with the streamlining: just two officials collect the 500, stamp the passport in and out, and you can even have the option of overnighting in Tachilek.
I couldn't take advantage of this welcome hospitality because I was on a day-long mini-bus run from Chiangmai and back again the same day. For 550 baht I booked a place on the 14-seat van with maybe half a dozen other farang from England, Holland, Australia, and the U.S. The service picks you up at your hotel at around 7.00 a.m., departs Chiangmai at 8.00 for the four hour trip through Chiangrai to Mae Sai, and returns you to your hotel at about 5.00 p.m.
In Mae Sai we had just an hour to stamp out of Thailand, stamp into Myanmar, and stamp back into Thailand. I expected, and received, an additional 30 days. But there were other people on my run who received only 15 days for any number of reasons.
The word in the expat community lately is the Thais are cracking down on people who do the visa run too often. They are tightening visa requirements for some people while trying to ensure that long-staying farang aren't doing so as a tourist--because that would be illegal.
But I hear the Thais are also tightening up on the non-immigrant type visa requirements. More than ever, the Thai government seems to prefer farang who have bigger money--one or two million baht--to invest in a Thai business before they will approve one of the more coveted visas.
The next best option is to marry and have children with a Thai.
Ah! The visa run. . .so definitive of the expat experience in Thailand.
I've had every type of "easy access" visa that Thailand offers: the ordinary two-month tourist visa, the three-month non-immigrant visa, the six-month double entry visa, the six-month double entry with work permit visa, and the 15-day visa on arrival at Bangkok's airports.
Now the Thais give 30 days on arrival for citizens of about 25-30 countries including the U.S.
In Thailand, you need a visa to stay for longer periods of time. And if you want to stay even longer, you have to do a visa run.
I've done every type of visa run imaginable: I've run to Penang, Malaysia too numerous times to count; I've run to Vientiane, Laos probably at least five times; I've also entered Laos from the north, not too far from Chiangmai, and taken the slow boat down the Mekong River to the ancient Lao capital Luang Prabang; and I've even used a dodgy service that sent my passport to a northern Thai border post with Laos and arranged all the visas and stamps--in other words did all the paperwork--while my person continued to stay and work in Chiangmai.
The latter service was definitely some type of corrupt enterprise endorsed by fairly high Thai/Lao police commanders--the equivalent of regional chiefs rank.
I've extended my stays at the Chiangmai Immigration office, at the Bangkok Immigration office, and at the Mae Sai Immigration office. These types of extensions are very limited--only 5-10 days or so--and they cost money in the range of 500 to 2000 baht.
I've also overstayed my visa, but you can never do too much of that; the fine for each day of overstay used to be 100 baht (four dollars back then, three dollars now), but now it's a steep 500 baht per day. This is what they will charge you at the Bangkok airport whenever you finally leave the country. And if you can't pay the fine, you will be detained and held in an immigration police lock-up--with 150-200 mostly Burmese and Cambodian illegals--until you can do so.
I've also done the run to Mae Sai--the northern-most point in Thailand, about 1000 km north of Bangkok--probably at least half a dozen times that I can remember now.
When Burma (Myanmar) started cautiously opening up in the early 2000s, they allowed farang tourists to visit the border town Tachilek, just opposite Mae Sai, on a day pass only. I remember the whole process being exceedingly tedious with one official checking the passport, another taking your photograph, another collecting the 500 baht fee (though they preferred to be paid in dollars), and yet another stamping the passport and handing over a receipt.
Now the Burmese have really got their act together with the streamlining: just two officials collect the 500, stamp the passport in and out, and you can even have the option of overnighting in Tachilek.
I couldn't take advantage of this welcome hospitality because I was on a day-long mini-bus run from Chiangmai and back again the same day. For 550 baht I booked a place on the 14-seat van with maybe half a dozen other farang from England, Holland, Australia, and the U.S. The service picks you up at your hotel at around 7.00 a.m., departs Chiangmai at 8.00 for the four hour trip through Chiangrai to Mae Sai, and returns you to your hotel at about 5.00 p.m.
In Mae Sai we had just an hour to stamp out of Thailand, stamp into Myanmar, and stamp back into Thailand. I expected, and received, an additional 30 days. But there were other people on my run who received only 15 days for any number of reasons.
The word in the expat community lately is the Thais are cracking down on people who do the visa run too often. They are tightening visa requirements for some people while trying to ensure that long-staying farang aren't doing so as a tourist--because that would be illegal.
But I hear the Thais are also tightening up on the non-immigrant type visa requirements. More than ever, the Thai government seems to prefer farang who have bigger money--one or two million baht--to invest in a Thai business before they will approve one of the more coveted visas.
The next best option is to marry and have children with a Thai.
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