Entering Vietnam means we’ve hit the South East Asia backpacker trail and don’t we just know it. In Hanoi the amount of western restaurants and hotels being advertised is plain for everyone to see but the main difference is the amount of westeners around.
We began our journey in China (as I hope you know) to a very different scene to what we have experienced so far in Vietnam. Of course there are many westeners in China but bumping into them was quite rare in some places and western restaurants were few and far between (in comparison). So Naturally ‘we’ had no place to congregate and the party feel to backpacking didn’t exist as it does in Vietnam. We were amazed during our first week in Vietnam how many groups of young backpackers that were around, we obviously fall into this category but in China we were the minority rather than the norm. We quickly made the most our new surroundings and got stuck into Hanoi backpackers and their Ha Long Bay Tour.
In China travellers were all very nice to each other but there wasn’t the same get together feeling that there is here. I think the reason for this is the well known route through SE Asia, for example most people here in Vietnam make thir way up/down the east coast. It’s easy for people to get together and travel as they often find they planned to do the same route anyway (I suspect this is common across all of SE Asia, I may be wrong?) but in China there isn’t really a route to follow and often found everyone was going in completely different directions.
Hanoi Backpackers Hostel
The problem for us is we are meeting so many awesome people but their plans are completely different to ours. Most seem to have a couple of months to fly through SE Asia but we are spending six weeks in Vietnam alone. An example of this is the group from our Ha Long Bay tour, most of them have now stuck together and are travelling through Vietnam together and maybe further. We would love to travel with them as we know we would have a lot of fun, but we would have had to miss out one of our planned stops straight away, so we had to decline.
As much as having no plans and at least 7 months to travel around South East Asia, we can’t keep changing our plans and stay with the people we meet along the way as we know it would only lead to regret in the future about the other places we could have visited. Part of the fun of travel is these short close friendships and staying with some people could mean a missed opportunity to make more friends somewhere else.
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{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
So wise! You are learning something so important that travel teaches you- things come and go. You have to learn to let go, just appreciate it for what it was and know there is more around the corner.
Keep that memory you created of your friends in Halong and trap it in your heart forever. I think often if you continue traveling with people in situations like this, things change and it ends up killing that treasured memory you have of that time you spent together.
There are some people I haven’t wanted to meet up with again because the memory of who they were in that moment and how they impacted my life is far too precious to have it destroyed later on.
I first went to Vietnam in ’99 when there wasn’t a whole lot of travelers and then when I went again in ’02, I was astonished at how much it had grown into a backpacking trail in such a short time. I can only imagine it now. But it’s fantastic there so I know why
Caz Makepeace´s last blog post ..Favourite Travel Blog Posts for the Week of Oct 11
I think your very right – Why ruin something that has been so great. I know there will be so many more occasions when it will be tough to say goodbye but that is just a sign of how good it has been.
I think you would be amazed now – it seems everything is aimed towards us but its still an amazing place – Why some people do not enjoy Vietnam I don’t know.
I traveled Vietnam and with then-boyfriend and we found the backpacker trail a bit faint in Vietnam. It was cheaper and easier for us to just stay in hostels and if we didn’t head to gringo zones we didn’t meet a lot of other backpackers.
But Vietnam is one of my favorite countries and I hope it treats you well.
Ayngelina´s last blog post ..The ethics of being robbed
I’m suprised at this, maybe coming from China is why it seems this way to us.
Vietnam is treating us great…..so far.
I second Caz — things come and go!! In my first few months of travel around Australia so many options presented themselves….I had to figure out what I wanted to incorporate into my loose plan and what gratefully to consider and then not accept.
It’s been hard to meet some great people for such a short amount of time, but I’m already hoping to see some of them in the future — like two girls from London I met in the Outback!
Enjoy slower travel through SE Asia…it deserves it.
Heather´s last blog post ..Epic East Coast Trip- The End
That’s the hard part – with so many options sometimes its hard to know what to do.
At least with facebook and emails it’s so easy to keep up with everyone we meet so who knows what will happen in the future.
It was hard for me to meet people that I really clicked with on the road and then say good-bye so quickly. There were a handful of people that I knew could be lifetime friends if we were ever in the same spot to build upon that relationship, we just clicked.
It’s part of the backpacker life though. You get good at saying good-bye.
Jenny´s last blog post ..The thrilling adventure of selling everything
I’m rubbish at goodbyes so maybe this will do me good and turn me into a social king!
its great fun meeting new people everywhere, and since you will have their contacts you can alway call them up again.if you stay at a place for a short period of time you might lose a chance to really see the place
You’re right and we’ve always said we want to travel slow so giving that up is not something we want to do. Everywhere we go there are bound to be new interesting people to meet.
Thanks for visiting.
That was always the hardest part for me: meeting all these awesome people on the road and not knowing if I’d ever see them again.
Camels & Chocolate´s last blog post ..Turtletopia
It’s tough to make friends so quickly and then say bye but at least we get to meet all these people in the first place right?
Poi and Kirsty,
Your post and the comments open a window for me on the life of you youthful rtw travelers. At hostels and similar locations, you have natural or organic interactions with other travelers. As seniors traveling in retirement, we, and I think most other senior travelers, Dottie and I are a bit more insulated and isolated from such contacts.
I’ve begun to strike up conversations with people. That gives me a bit of connection, but I’m thinking that we seniors need to take more initiative to connect with other travelers.
The closest we’ve come to having to “give up” acquaintances was at the end of our Cruise North Expeditions cruise along the coast of Labrador last year. And we haven’t given all of them up. We’re still in contact with one or two of them. As I get Scribbler’s Travels up and running, I’ll contact several more.
Thanks, everybody for your stories and your insights.
Russ
Russ’s latest blog: Wild West, Returning Falcons to the Wild…http://scribblerstravels.com/
Hey Russ – It’s great that your making an effect to get to know people while travelling, it’s not always easy for us either, being a couple, we have each other so we maybe don’t have as much pressure to talk to other people but we try to put ourselves in situations were we are forced to get a bit more involved and it always pays off.
just a few thoughts… because i’ve done it both ways. i left a place i would’ve stayed longer (jordan) simply because i wanted to continue hanging out with & traveling with some new friends. and i’ve stayed on track and continued with my own travel plans (egypt) saying goodbye to my new friends.
each way is worthwhile. i think it’s simply important to just not have any regrets.
adam´s last blog post ..A forest in the middle of a city
Sounds like you’ve had the best of both worlds – I’m sure if the time is right and we’re with the right people we’d be willing to give up somethings.
Meeting people on the road is one of the greatest benefits to traveling, but leaving them is also one of the biggest detriments. When I’m on the road, sometimes I stay with people I like and change my plans and sometimes I don’t and if I’m really lucky sometimes they’ll change their plans to see the things I’m interested in. Traveling creates so many options, the best you can do is just follow your gut and remember that there is much more coming down the road that will make you smile.
I hope we’re lucky enough to have some people want to tag along with us at some point, that sounds great.
Thats what we try to remember, There is so much more yet to come our way. Thanks for visiting!
I love hearing stories of the backpacker culture on the road. Can’t wait to read even more! Safe travels, guys!
Abby´s last blog post ..To be free
Thanks very much – Glad you enjoyed.
The friend thing I think will be the hardest thing for me on the road. I tend to grasp on to friendships firmly.
Kudos to you guys for sticking strong to your agenda.
Erica´s last blog post ..Happy Halloween 2010!
To be honest I think it was just so early into our trp it would have been really hard to abandon our plans so early. Maybe a bit further on we will be a lot more tempted.
SE Asia and Central and South America – backpacker trail central. Glad you are having a good time.
Michael Hodson´s last blog post ..Interview with Gary Arndt of Everything-Everywhere- Lucky 13 Questions
Thanks! We knew it would be but didn’t realise to what extent!
Just think about all the interesting stories you will be able to share about your China travels and post Vietnam gigs that other people won’t be able to say “Oh yeah, I was also there last week.”
BAM! Even more insta-friends! (Even if they are only short-term…)