 | Lodgings: Amenities TOILETS:
Whole books have been written (and published) on how to defecate in the woods so I thought this one deserved its own category... "The young girl silently pointed out the toilet. It was one of those packing-crate affairs that stood on stilts over the fishpond. When I clambered up the wobbly plank the mirror-smooth water beneath me suddenly began to churn and boil with expectant fish. They had felt my footsteps and were gathering under the hole. Bits of paper, handwritten receipts and used shopping lists floated on the surface. I took a deep breath, dropped my pants and tried to distract myself from the painfully public setting by closing my eyes and assuming that if I couldn't see anyone, neither could they see me."Excerpt from Hitchhiking Vietnam |
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| Public toilets are hard to find in Vietnam. This isn't much of a problem for men, but can be disconcerting for women. The truth is that Vietnamese see bodily functions as fairly natural acts and so are quite willing to defecate over a sea wall, the back of a boat, the bank of a river. This used to cause me some emotional discomfort. It still does. | | Toilet Paper. Always carry some in your back pocket. If you run out, replace it immediately or you'll forget. Okay, you may never forget, but after six years of traveling, I still do. | | Most budget lodgings in Vietnam will have squat (Turkish) toilets. These are basically porcelain or plastic holes in the ground with a flat place on each side to plant your feet. They may seem awful at first but they are considerably more hygienic than the western style and are a lot less complicated to install. You flush them with a bucket of water standing nearby. | | If you're female and you're on a long bus ride and you have to go to the toilet and there's nothing to squat behind, ask an old woman passenger with a long skirt to accompany you out into a field. She can hold up her skirt to shield you from prying eyes. | | Flophouse toilets are unspeakable... | | Villagers will often use the edge of a stream, canal or pond to do their business. This is unfortunately often the same place they do their laundry, bathe, and wash their food before cooking. | | Beautiful sandy beaches with turquoise water are natural latrines for nearby villages. Watch your step. | | Train toilets are filthy and empty directly onto the tracks. |
BATHING:
| | Some places will actually have a water heater and some sort of shower head. Turn the heater on 10-20 minutes before you want to shower to give the water time to heat up. If it doesn't work, check the circuit breaker near the switch and (if it's missing) replace it with a bit of wire or a foil chewing gum wrapper. If there's no hot water in the shower there may be some in the sink. Just because you have a heater is no reason to assume you will have hot water. Luckily, you are in a (mostly) tropical country so a cool dousing won't do you any harm. In the absence of a shower you will most likely find a large urn filled with water and a ladle. Strip, stand beside it, take a deep breathe, and pour a ladleful of cold water over your head. Soap up, then douse again. Don't contaminate the urn with soap (by dipping your soapy hands or other body parts in it) unless you hate everyone else who happens to be sharing your bathroom (could be a lot of people). It's called a dip-and-pour and, after a long hot day on a bike or in a paddy field, there in nothing more appealing on the planet. You can, if you're really organized, stand on your clothes while you're washing. Do a little jig whenever you douse yourself and then finishing scrubbing your clothes when you're done (saves on soap too). This may sound a bit odd, but if you ever decide to get a massage with butter up in the mountains on a cold night, make sure the shower has hot water first... | |
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ACCESSORIES: Electricity
| Vietnam mostly runs on 220 volts even if the socket has 110 volt prongs. | | The wiring in Vietnam is not up to Western standard. This is not only dangerous to your electrical appliances but can be deadly to you. There is generally no separate shower stall in the bathroom - you stand in the middle of the floor (over the drain) and wash. That means the walls, ceiling, and fixtures gets wet. If there is loose wiring anywhere in the bathroom you are in danger of electrocution. I once stood in the door of the bathroom scant moments after I had finished bathing and watched the water heater send off jolts of electricity that made the room light up like an arc welder. | | Electrical shortages are common. In many places the electrical supply is a diesel generator. This generally gets shut off between 9 PM and midnight. That means if you have an air conditioned room you will have several long nightmares about saunas and then wake up at around 1:30 AM drenched in sweat. | | Assume all wires are live and deadly. They probably are. |
"My guide tapped me lightly on the shoulder, then pointed at a thick wire strung along the bridge inches from my forehead. He pretended to touch it, made a hissing sound and indicated the smoldering tip of his cigarette. A live wire carrying enormous current. I remembered seeing the government placards describing the perils of electrocution. At first I had thought the warnings, showing men tumbling headlong from poles and rooftops with x's in the place of eyes, were public service bulletins. Later on I heard that electrocution was a leading cause of death in a country so poor that stealing power was a necessary national pastime."Excerpt from Hitchhiking Vietnam |
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AIR CONDITIONING:
| I try to avoid it unless I'm sick or really need to recharge my energy. The reason for this is not stinginess (well, maybe a little). It's that I end up never wanting to leave my room. A night in a lovely cool room is followed by a hideous transition (it feels like walking through a pressure lock) into the stifling tropical air the next morning. Your glasses fog up, you feel like you're slogging through fluid, your shirt instantly soaks through and Velcros itself to your back... You will often be charged a couple of dollars more for the right to use the air conditioner in your room. This, you will be told, is because electricity is so expensive. Surprisingly, if there is an all-day (or all-week) power outage then you will not be reimbursed for the air con. you couldn't use. Power outages aside, check to make sure it works before paying for it. Many air conditioners. ran out of freeon years ago and are basically functioning as fans. | | | |
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LAUNDRY:
- Almost every lodging has someone ready to do your laundry for a small amount of money. Allow a day and a half for it to dry (in good weather) since dryers are unheard of. If you're in a terrible hurry they can usually dry damp clothes with repeated ironing.
- If you decide to do your own laundry then buy a cheap scrub brush, a packet of detergent, and do it on the tiled bathroom floor. Then ask someone who works at the hotel if there's a place on the roof or out back to hang it.
- If they do the laundry it will be much cleaner and much more threadbare. In rural areas you may have to provide the soap since their method for scrubbing clothes is to slap them repeatedly against rocks to loosen the dirt and then use friction to set it fee.
- You can buy a hairdryer in the local market to help dry your clothes. That's not the only thing its good for...
OTHER:
Vietnamese blankets have the weight and consistency of a sack of potatoes, especially in the north. Always insist on mosquito netting unless you are high up in the mountains and it's cold. Mosquitoes are more than an annoyance - they carry deadly diseases. Netting is more important than all those vaccinations you took back home and all the pills you're taking underway. Almost every room will have a thermos of hot water, a few cracked cups and a little jar of moldy tea. Help yourself. | | 
