Last Tourist in Hanoi

An interview with local Aspiring Photographer, Stella Nguyen, IG @JpegbyStella,  coming soon! 

“The best journeys in life are those that answer questions you never thought to ask.” 

~ Rich Ridgeway

I've been extremely grateful and impressed with Vietnam and how they have handled the Covid-19 pandemic. Things are just about back to normal and businesses are hustling and the people are back in the streets. I see fewer and fewer people venturing out with masks on. So much so, that I often forget to grab mine before leaving my hotel.

But the one thing that remains empty in the streets are tourists. Hanoi is still devoid of tourists. Am I the last remaining tourist here? I don't know. I haven't seen any immigration stats that prove or disprove that, but it damn sure feels like it. I have seen non-Vietnamese people from all over, but they live here. And I did meet a really great guy who arrived here about the same time I did, Char Bel from Lebanon. He's been traveling the world much like myself, but he just recently left Hanoi.

Char Bel introduced me to some of his peeps. He invited me to a comedy club where comedians excoriated the US. I couldn't say shit because everything they said was true and funny. That, and my dumb ass had to shout out something when a guy on stage said something about Texas. Now everybody knew where the US guy was and they always checked out to see how I was handling the latest joke. We've certainly giving them enough material to work with between the riots, the protests, how we're handling the pandemic, and of course everything tweeted from the White House.

Hanging out with some great peeps at Hanoi Social Club

“Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” 

~ Lawrence Block

I am the trifecta here. A black tourist from the US. Everybody wants a perspective on what is going on in the United States. Did your president really mean that? Are your people really fighting over toilet paper? Is the police really killing black people? Why do the white people hate you so much? I do my best to be an ambassador for my country. I've been questioned like this EVERY where I go. I've ALWAYS had some sort of answer or explanation that either comforts or better informs. "Do you actually believe, us Canadians, are a National Security threat to the US?" That was in 2018 in Colombia speaking to Canadian tourists in a cooking class I photographed for promotional work for a restaurant.

Recently, however, I was put to shame by a question a young lady asked me, for which I had not answer. There was nothing I could say to comfort and nothing I could say that informed her of any worthwhile reasoning that she simply wasn't privy to. There was no media misinterpretations and nothing was taken out of context.

The young woman could not understand the US. She asked me how the people of Vietnam has treated me. I have been applauding the treatment I've received since I've been here. She went on to tell me that even despite the War, Vietnamese people are very nice and kind and we do not mistreat foreigners. I agreed with her. I have heard of no reports of that sort of mistreatment. Then she asked why Asian people in the US could not expect the same sort of treatment.

I was stunned into silence. I knew what she was referring to. She alluded to all the instances of racial attacks on Asian-Americans, regardless of exactly where they come from, as responsible for Covid-19.

Authorities in New York City and Los Angeles say that hate incidents against people of Asian descent have increased, while a reporting centre run by advocacy groups and San Francisco State University says it received over 1,700 reports of coronavirus-related discrimination from at least 45 US states since it launched in March.
"Coronavirus: What attacks on Asians reveal about American identity" by Helier Cheung & Zhaoyin Feng & Boer Deng, BBC News 27 May 2020

Hate crimes, Anti-Asian assaults, prejudices, and xenophobia rose significantly over the last few months and the title of that article raises a good question. What does this reveal about the American identity? What are we really? All I could say to the young lady was, "I'm sorry. I am so friggin' sorry..." I suddenly felt like I did not belong in this country or deserve to be here. Vietnam has been one of, if not the BEST country to be in, if you want to sit out the Coronavirus. I've been fortunate to be here and have been treated with the utmost respect and professionalism.

It was a heart-breaking experience and this was not long before the policemen murdered George Floyd. Can you feel me? It's like I come to your house and you give me your best room and feed me well. But when you come to my house, my people treat you with mistrust and try to run you down in the road.

I don't know everything there is to know about Vietnam. I only know what I see and what I learn from these great people here who tell me what they think about their country. Everyday, I remember Muhammad Ali when he refused the draft citing he had no quarrel with the Vietnamese people as they have never called him a nigga. My 2020 motto so far... as I find myself often saying has simply been, "Thanks, Vietnam".

I've been extended until August here and am grateful for it. Yet, I am in no hurry to leave. I am not trying to live here, but I would sincerely like to stay for another year, traveling the country and taking pictures. One good year, moving from one end to the other, traveling as slow as I want, stopping where I want, and just taking my time photographing the beauty of Vietnam. I'm doing an online photography landscape course and I want the Vietnam landscape to be the culmination of my study. No clue on how to qualify for either a year-long tourist Visa or a Business Visa. I hope to find out soon and be like the other foreigners who have figured out how to stay. 

Vietnam is Coming Alive Again

"Vietnam's economy could boom thanks to fast coronavirus response"

~ Axios, May 4, 2020 - Economy & Business, Dion Rabouin

On April 23, 2020 the government of Vietnam rescinded the lockdown mandate across the nation. People slowly came back to the streets. The hotel where I'm residing opened it's coffee shop and for the first time in almost 2 months the chairs have come down from being stacked on top of the tables which have been pushed to the sides along the wall. Customers populate the sitting area and enjoy a foamy caramel macchiato alone with laptops and cell phones or chatting with friends. Hanoi had come alive again.

I hope it's not too soon. In the last three weeks, there has been one new case and that came from a British Oil expert who flew in for a project, but was immediately put on quarantine upon arrival. So he had no contact with the public. I can hear the distinct difference in pedestrian traffic from my hotel room. And when I go down stairs, the coffee shop is most always packed with visitors. It has always been open. It never closed down fully, but customers could not take a seat and only 5 or so were allowed in at a time. And when you placed your order, you had to stand in circles that were 6 feet apart and you had better be wearing a mask.

I have been in this particular hotel for about 6 weeks and I had no idea what many of the staff looked like until recently, as I have caught them sometimes without a mask. The lady that cleans my room or the one that brings my breakfast, initially left it on a stool at the door. Now they knock and bring my tray inside my room and set it down for me, sometimes wearing a mask... sometimes not, but always with a smile.

I am waiting on my visa extension approval to be processed. These are done through 3rd party travel agencies instead of the official government immigration office, although I have no idea why. I was told it would take 7 to 12 working days for my 3-month single entry visa extension. The going rate is $360, which is twice what I paid for my initial 3-month visa which was muli-entry. But whatevs... I'll deal with it, if that's what is required. Unless they are quicker, I have another week before I can expect it to be processed.

The company which is processing my visa extension says I should be good to go as long as I have broken no laws. I haven't been anywhere to break any laws. If she's correct, my visa will extend until August. I currently have no plans to go anywhere! The thought crossed my mind to try to do Sa Pa and the border villages I initially tried to do mid-March before all that got shut down and Sa Pa kicked everybody out. I would still like to get more pics of Vietnam.

I am also keeping an eye out for Thailand and Cambodia to see how they are handling this pandemic. Nobody in this region is doing as well as Vietnam, but I still have to chart my way around the world. It feels like a game of hopscotch where I may have to skip over a country here and there. Cambodia only has one month visas. That may not be doable for me. Laos is the same, but you can extend for 60 more. Ninety days is what I'm generally looking for. I am not traveling fast.

Congratulations, Vietnam!

Latest Updates:

• Vietnam’s early border restrictions and social distancing measures have helped the country avoid a large wave of infections.

• Despite sharing a land border with China where the coronavirus first emerged, Vietnam has reported just 271 cases and no deaths in a population under 100 million. It has not reported any new local cases in nearly three weeks.

• Vietnam’s success in containing the virus is attributed to decisive measures the country made early in the outbreak, building off its experience with SARS in 2003. Back then, it was the first country to be removed from a list of countries with local transmissions, according to the World Health Organization.

CNBC.com MAY 5 20201:38 

Huileng Tan

@HUILENG_TAN

Quarantined in Hanoi, Vietnam

Heading out to the next hotel

Latest Updates:

• As of April 6, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health confirmed a total of 241 cases of COVID-19. The updated number was an increase of just one additional case as of April 6 morning in the past 24 hours.

• Vingroup, Vietnam’s large conglomerate, plans to produce around 55,000 ventilators a month to combat COVID-19.

• Authorities have submitted a proposal to delay tax and land lease deadlines for a number of industries from real estate to labor services affected by COVID-19.

• Hanoi city authorities stated they would intensify the social distancing rules and fine people who were out for non-essential reasons. In addition, ride-hailing motorbike services have also been temporarily suspended in Hanoi.

• Vietnam imported 200,000 rapid test kids from South Korea to carry out mass testing.

I was identified for possible contact exposure via Coronavirus Case #237 after I arrived at this new hotel. He stayed one night at my last hotel while I was there, but I never interacted with him. Nonetheless, my current hotel and the local government sent me paperwork ordering me to quarantine myself in my room. They send me paperwork to record my temperature twice a day. Today, April 7th is my official last day to do this, but I believe I will volunteer for one additional week. The mandatory shelter in place is still effective until the 15th. I figure it won't do any harm. I am well cared for and have everything I need. And I think it will help make the staff here comfortable being around me.

I'm taking every day one at a time and figuring it out as I go. This obviously won't be the type of trip I counted on. At some point, I'll have to cross over into Cambodia and I hope they have their situation contained. They currently have about 114 cases, but the borders are closed. I'll have to head down that way soon, through central and South Vietnam and over the border. I have't checked into Laos yet, but that may be an even better option. I don't know. 

A few people have asked what the weather is like here. It ranges between 65 - 75 degrees Fahrenheit, give or take 5 degrees in either direction. Many days there is a low lying fog over the cityscape. I can leave my windows open during the day to freshen the air and turn the AC off if it's not too hot. The traffic outside is consistent during the day, but it's not blaring traffic with a lot of horns, nor is there much smog or exhaust fumes, despite being on a busy street. I can look down and see some pedestrians, but there is not much on any given day. 

Watching the Dragonball Z, "Perfect Cell Saga" with some seafood spaghetti and spring rolls. 

Though many people here can speak English it is sometimes a challenge to understand English phrases. It's particularly more difficult on quarantine where I cannot speak face to face with anyone and I don't have the benefit of Google Translate on my cell phone to show them. For instance, it proved difficult to get a lady to understand that I wanted a sandwich with double the meat, not two sandwiches. They call the sandwiches "bread", for some reason. Not sandwich. They had a chicken sandwich. It was hella bread and little meat. So I asked for one sandwich with double the amount of meat. I tried many different iterations of that before it finally clicked. 

Another time, I requested my temperature monitoring paperwork which is supposed to be delivered in the morning and afternoon. They were late one afternoon and when I requested it, she thought I was referring to toilet paper. Then she thought I wanted paper for me to WORK on. But, I don't lose patience. I find a different way to say it. 

"I'm on quarantine, right?"

"Yes."

"And I need to take my temperature."

"Okay."

"Yes... so I need the paper to record my daily temperature on that I get every morning and afternoon."

"AHHH!! YES! Sorry, we will bring it up to you, right away."

They have all been good to me and have treated me kindly. Even though I don't know the language, I'm still learning a lot about communication. I can easily put myself in their shoes. I've been there. AND they know a ton more of my language despite me knowing ZERO of theirs, despite being in THEIR country, not mine. Respect. 

How the Coronavirus Has Affected My RTW Backpacking Trip

By far, this has been my strangest experience in any country I've visited. Not so much for the country itself, but because of this world pandemic that's locked up the planet. I think at some point I'm going to have to come back here and do this country all over again, because I know I'm missing the beauty I came here for.

As it turns out, however, I am really thinking I couldn't be in a better place, though. Honestly! Vietnam has been on top of this this Covid-19 Coronavirus since the beginning. They only had 17 confirmed positive cases as of early March and 16 of those were already treated, cured, and released from the hospital. They were almost able to declare Coronavirus-free. Then a couple of cases got through from someone traveling through Europe and in hardly 10 days, that rose to over 130. Comparatively, that's still quite a low number. 130 cases, 0 deaths. Today, I think that number is about 160. They do this by keeping the public informed with a solid government coordinated effort. No mixed messages. Then they test, test, and test. After that, they treat. So far, I've only seen them take decisive, definitive, and quick actions as a country. Europe has not done this. The US has not done this. Vietnam has deployed a relative low-tech approach.

"An Italian woman living in an area badly impacted by coronavirus admits: 'We expected other countries that are much closer to China to be in this situation before us so we just joked about it' " - Business Insider

I arrived in country on Feb 10th after getting my 3-month Visa in the mail a week or so before that. I exited the country via San Francisco and had a 9 hour wait until my next connection to Taiwan. For the first time in my life, I experienced the USO lounge I'm going to have to do another blog post on those guys because they made that half-day wait worth it!

Sa Pa countryside. Behind me is where it got steep and slippery. ©2020 Terrell Neasley

I got to Vietnam a day earlier than my visa was for. They gave me a problem at first and told me I'd have to wait in the airport until tomorrow. I didn't even trip. I looked homeboy in the eyes and said, "Dude. I need to talk to your boss, if you can't work something." I had a driver waiting to take me to my hotel. It had been a long day... 26 hours of travel. I had no time for BS. Dude made it easy and just backdated my visa. Now I have to leave the country a day earlier than my visa says. Simple. I'll take that. It's still 90 days.

To take the fight to coronavirus, Vietnam instituted rigorous quarantine policies, and carried out complete tracing of all people who came in contact with the virus. These measures were implemented much earlier in the course of the epidemic than in China, where lockdowns of entire cities were used as a last resort to keep the virus from spreading further.

For a month, I stayed in the Canary Hanoi Hotel and got to know those people. They were initially bewildered because I didn't do a lot of sight-seeing or adventures. But I was doing just as I set out. I wanted a whole month on my ass in one spot, to let my knee heal up and rest. I'm still dealing with that Vincinguerra Glacier hike I did in Ushuaia, Argentina. I am literally conscious of every step I take.

After that month, I began to feel better. I booked a train ticket to Sa Pa, further up north by the border. I was looking to do some LEVEL hiking or at least minimal elevation. Yeah. No. The train stopped in Lao Cai, next to the border. Then I had a one-hour shuttle ride to my hotel in Sa Pa. That was an hour of  continuous elevation gain. And my hotel was at one of the highest points. So going ANYWHERE meant a straight down walk and back up again. It was like I was back in Ushuaia! But I was determined to get something. I needed this. I had spent a month in my hotel and I needed to shoot.

Leaving Sa Pa. Rice planting season is just getting started. ©2020 Terrell Neasley

I was there for a week and I had 1 full day of no fog or cloud cover. Not cloud in the sky... cloud in your face. You could see maybe 30 feet before your vision became obscured. I thought I'd make the best of it anyway and picked a site on the map to hike to. A waterfall. Looked simple. I got maybe two miles, left the paved roads, and had just entered the trail between farmlands. I passed people tending their vegetables in the fields, in the mist. I got to the edge where it got really steep. It had rained the previous day, and in that mud... for a split second, I lost my footing. I didn't bust my ass! But in the process of arresting my fall, I did a little twist on that knee. It was reactionary. Couldn't help it.

So then I had to hump it back up that hill on that knee. Had to sit my butt down again. My plan was to tour 3 cities around the border. I had 4 more days until I would book a shuttle bus to Ha Giang for a week or so then one more trip to Cao Bang. Then Coronavirus came to Sa Pa. Two Germans brought it and infected some people in Cat Cat Village... not near me, thankfully. That was all she wrote! The local government shut down Sa Pa for quarantine. I got the notice at 11:30pm that I had to check out the next morning by 8am.

Hồ Bảy Mẫu... Seven Acre Lake, Hanoi, Vietnam ©2020 Terrell Neasley

That was cool. It put me in a bind. But locals are becoming wary of foreigners. They petitioned the local gov't to do something. It took less than a day. So I was gratefully on a bus back to Hanoi, not really sure what was there either. I was hearing about so many closures. I did not want to continue on to Ha Giang and make people uncomfortable wondering if I was bringing infection to their village. So bowed out of that notion and returned to the place where at least somebody knows me... Canary Hanoi Hotel. They welcomed me back for a little more than a week. Then things changed there, too. Without foreign visitor reservations, they needed to shut it down. But they sent me out in grand style. They invited me to a party, made me the guest of honor and made me promise to return when they open in 30 days. I plan to do just that.

And then those good people connected me with their partner hotel, much bigger, more grand, and a room twice the size, but so far, I prefer Canary. I am here at Halais Hotel just around the corner. I'll do my month here and return to Canary. My visa is up May 10th. I will request an extension soon in another week or so for another 3 months, which will put me here until August. If I am fortunate to be allowed to stay, I'll do just about all that time right here in Hanoi. I'm not going anywhere if I don't have to. I want to stay as long as I can before trying to enter Cambodia. I'm cool with sitting right here, reading, writing, and keeping myself occupied. There is plenty of toilet paper and food everywhere. And it's definitely much cheaper staying here in Vietnam. Pray I get that extension!

Hồ Bảy Mẫu... Seven Acre Lake, Hanoi, Vietnam ©2020 Terrell Neasley

I wear a mask when I go outside. Not because I think I need to, but rather to help make people comfortable being around me, serving me, or interacting with me for whatever reason that might be necessary. Today, a man saw me, he wasn't wearing a mask. I was just walking by and he immediately put a mask on and actively avoided me like a shy child hiding behind his mother's skirt. I just rolled my eyes, waved, and kept going.

I'm grateful that I am stable and safe, but I still feel for my family, peers, and countrymen back home and through out the States that have to scramble like they are in some Mad Max Zombie movie. Big-Ups and mad respect to those healthcare workers that stay the course fighting the hours while ill-equipped. The mailmen, the grocery store workers, and all those who are providing those essential services for $15 an hour. I'd better stop. That's not the subject matter I want to go deep on in this post.

Streets of Hanoi. Around 2am. ©2020 Terrell Neasley

A few nights ago, I set out at 2am just to go walk the streets. I was only gone for a hour. I walked a 2 and a half mile triangle though the city. I looked for alleys and there was one train track that went into this village section of the city. I think I got some decent shots. I enjoyed myself, despite getting scolded the next morning for not being safe. But I was cool. As of today, the Government of Hanoi or Vietnam... not sure which, has told everyone to stay inside for two weeks.

I'll keep you updated on my progress, efforts, and happenings. In the meantime, take care of yourselves. Wash your hands. Think about what you do and how it affects other people, but protect yourselves. There are assholes out and about right now.

27 March 2020 Latest Updates - 1.5 persons per million infection rate in Vietnam. (US is 285 people per million.)

• As of March 27, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health confirmed a total of 153 cases of COVID-19. However, 20 of the affected patients have recovered. Zero deaths.
• Vietnam has banned the gathering of more than 20 people for at least two weeks from March 28 and temporarily shut down services like massage parlors, tourist sites, and cinemas nationwide. In addition, major cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Can Tho and Da Nang would need to temporarily shut down all service facilities except for food, pharmacy, and medical treatment services.
• The government has also prohibited the gathering of more than 10 people outside offices, schools, and hospitals. 
• Authorities have made it mandatory for all travelers to declare their medical status on domestic flights and public transport.
• Authorities in Hanoi on March 25 ordered the closure of non-essential businesses like bars, night clubs, movie theaters, and karaoke clubs until May 4. Necessities like food, medicine, and fuel stations will remain open.