The Friends We Meet, The Lives We Touch

BEST TRAVEL ESSAY EVER
*Reprinted by permission from Michael Kraabel

My travels have taken me far from home; across oceans, continents, mountain ranges and to distant lands. I am the outsider in these voyages. I leave my friends, family and love interests behind in my quest to find something inspirational, the precious diamond and experience that as a child I could only read about. I come from a generation of fortunate youth that have had access to an open world -- without limits on movement or aspirations.

These journeys take us collectively to all ends of the earth. We are a nomadic tribe of lost souls wandering around, seeking comfort, companionship and experiences. We study cultures, religion, architecture, ancient civilizations. We pack only our minimal necessities and open ourselves to what might come our way. We shun pre-packaged tours and scoff at the thought of an all-inclusive resort. We are indignant at times when people call us tourists. We have an ego about our way of life and in an arrogant way we carry our superiority complex as a badge of honor.

Yet we flock together in local pubs, cafes, pizza shops and a variety of other establishments aimed at helping us pass time. It is in these places that we congregate to share our stories, buy each other drinks and confirm our communal existence. There is no secret handshake to this club, there are no passwords, only the willingness to open up with complete strangers and become family – if only for a few hours.

I have met myriad of characters, each with their own narratives and their own histories. I mentally catalog their stories, their experiences and their thoughts. They weave an intricate tapestry of life. But with every story there is a hidden sub-text that helps to explain the person. Everyone has their own reason for leaving home, whether it was trouble or simply the pursuit to conquer the banality of everyday existence. They are students, hippies, drug dealers, tequila smugglers, corporate employees, scorn lovers, writers, photographers, poets, musicians and lost souls. Their trips last from one week to a lifetime.

It is not uncommon to find these long-term vagabonds setting up bookstores, shops, galleries and bars to continue to fund their lifestyle. And in return, they help feed the passion of others like them. They provide us with a safe haven to gather and pass information from one person to the next. It is a traveler’s credo that we must help each other out, from sharing a taxi to taking care of someone with food poisoning. I have been with people fearing for their lives and people who, after a long and torturous relationship, are just starting to feel life.

Sometimes the Swedes gather with Swedes, the Germans with Germans, the Israelis with Israelis. For some strange reason there are few Americans. For the most part, however, these stopping points are a melting pot of cultures from about the world. The tribe speaks English, listens to Bob Marley, drinks local beer and enjoys watching bootleg western movies late at night over a fruit shake. Some shower twice a day, others shower when they feel like it. Some take this opportunity to grow beards, shun shaving their legs and dress in a relaxed bohemian style.

There are the early-twenties gap year kids who drink heavily and do as many drugs as they can find. They smoke weed, buy bootleg CDs and enjoy living off their frustrated parents. They change clothes into something that’s just barely cleaner than the stuff they wore the day before. They ignore local cultures, live as cheaply as possible and are always looking for a way to extend their holiday and put off the inevitable growing up.

There is another group of people from their mid-twenties to mid-thirties that appreciate local culture. There are corporate drop-outs, expatriates, aspiring artists and dreamers. They have experienced structured life and find that it doesn’t provide them the solace they thought it would. They travel to discover new worlds rather than out-of-body experiences. There are still a few stragglers in this group that haven’t found their place in life yet, they’ll try opium, learn the local language, smoke heavily, hike to remote tribes and take every form of transportation imaginable. They travel alone rather than in the young flocks. They meet up with each other and follow the trail together for a few days at a time, only to depart and meet up with someone new.

There are the couples who travel together, only to return home to discover they have nothing in common. Some get married and continue to travel for life, putting off children for as long as they can. There are people that meet up and travel together in a singles lifestyle that encourages men and women to join together to travel as friends. I have been blessed to meet both men and women that I consider brothers and sisters. Our will to be with others is not sexual; it is simply the quest for companionship and someone to share our experiences with. This is hard to explain to people who have not traveled this way. This is not a Vegas or Cancun experience. It’s something on a higher level.

We leave behind preconceptions about who we are and what others appear to be. I could be a poor backpacker living on my last dime, or an executive at a top agency and it wouldn’t make much of a difference to those around me. We are who we are and the sum off all of our experiences.

This story is not finished, nor do I think it ever will be. There are always going to be people that come in go in our lives. Travellers will continue to wander the globe, sharing information and telling tales. It is during those brief moments in our lives where our lives connect with one another that time seems to stop.

Posted by kraabel at May 23, 2006 1:21 PM
http://www.unrealtravels.com/archives/2006/05/the-friends-we.php
© Unreal Travels (2002-2004). All rights reserved.

Video from Saigon Cosmetics

Saigon Cosmetics and Dodging Motorcycles

This morning we spent visiting Saigon Cosmetics, listening to their chief marketing director, as well as our own group from Loyola give presentations regarding the company and possible future marketing plans. The most interesting aspect of the visit for me was imagining the possibilities that this company could undertake in the future. From my perspective, it is a very small operation. But they have they drive and ambition to be a major player in the cosmetics world in the near future. They have the space, the knowledge, the people, and just about everything else needed to make strong inroads into additional markets as well as the Vietnamese market.

While touring the manufacturing facility, I took particular note of their quality operations. Brian Murphy was talking with one of the staff about their inspection and testing processes which were very interesting. Ben Ruf and I noticed the problems they were having with their soap extrusion process and pondered possible solutions.

Ok - enough of that. On to the motorcycle dodging. Here is a video of Steve and Kyle trying to get good footage of the madness that is the motorcycle traffic here in Saigon.

Majestic Rooftop Reception & Vietnamese Karaoke

Wow, there is so much to say .... I'll start with last night and work backwards. Our class officially started yesterday, and last night was our first night out as a group. All 24 MBA students, our esteemed professor Dr. Shultz and his former students from the Harvard Fulbright Center gathered together for a welcome reception on the rooftop of our hotel, The Majestic, in Ho Chi Minh City. The outdoor setting overlooking the Saigon River with a twilight view of the city was amazing. I found it fascinating talking with former students of Dr. Shultz and learning about their passion for entrepreneurship and building a better community in Ho Chi Minh, as well as throughout Vietnam.

To give you, our friends and family, a little perspective on the genius that is our Loyola professor, Clifford J. Shultz II, Ph.D., he has been teaching and consulting on Southeast Asia's socio-economic development and consumer behavior marketing practices for over 20 years. He pioneered this study abroad immersion at Columbia University in New York and has lectured at numerous worldwide conferences and universities including Arizona State University, and most recently, Dr. Shultz was recruited to join Loyola University Chicago's business faculty as a professor and Kellstadt Chair for the MBA program and undergraduate curriculum. In addition to being a smart academic and expert on the region, Dr. Shultz is also great karaoke singer. We found that out last night. Tell him that you heard it from the "Winter Quarter 2011 group," that his song is "Surfing USA" by the Beach Boys.

A special thanks goes out to our new friends from the Harvard Vietnam Fulbright Center who introduced us Loyola kids to Vietnamese karaoke last night. I'll let my other classmates catch you up on that experience. It was a fun night for all and in tandem with the rooftop reception really set the tone for the first night together.

Today in a couple of minutes, we are departing for a consulting meeting at Saigon Cosmetics and an afternoon meeting at Intel. Four of our classmates are making a business presentation to executives from Saigon Cosmetics.

Requirements to Live in Saigon

As we toured around Saigon (Ho Chi Min City - is far too long to type) today in our lumbering tour-bus, I noticed a few things. First - to get around this city, it is a requirement that you drive a scooter/motorcycle. Second, while driving your motorcycle, you probably will want to wear some sort of surgical mask or bandanna to cover your nose and mouth to prevent ingesting too much dirty air. Next you must ignore the fact that you wear the mask when you are riding your motorcycle to prevent ingesting the dirty air, and smoke as many cigarettes as possible, occasionally while wearing the mask and riding the motorcycle. If you have to go to the bathroom, no problem, you can stop pretty much anywhere and urinate on a tree or fence or wall or something, then get back on your morotcycle and speed away. Well, not really speed away, lumber away at a blistering pace of 40kmh - the standard speed limit which seems to be heavily enforced. Hungry? Stop by any one of a thousand places serving Pho, eat on the sidewalk, and leave your dish on the curb. Someone will pick it up eventually...

First Impressions

Although the official trip to SEA has not started, a few of us (Kyle, Mark, Michelle and Mark L.) met in Hanoi. The details of the trip will be funny and amazing and I will let some of the other people that shared the flight with me to give some of the details also.(steven)
We were all excited to get to SEA and were assuming the flights would be boring, dull and repetitive. Little did we know that every flight we would get on, some of our seats would be stolen by non-English speaking individuals. From this point on, we knew this trip would go down as a trip we would all never forget. (Kyle)
Once in Hanoi, the first impression there was a sense of disorganization and chaos, but as time went on the chaos turns into a way of life and into the rules of engagement. The people were coming from every direction, left, right, diagonal, behind and in front of you, which apparently meant that you must have an owl’s ability to see 360 degrees. As we got acclimated to the environment, we quickly learned that people around you do just that, go around you. So the perfect formula for not getting run over by 50+ motorcycles and cars is to be predictable. What we all found extremely impressive is the fact that even though there is no rhyme or rhythm to the traffic, there really aren’t traffic jams. The only traffic jams we experienced were because of the three traffic lights that Hanoi a city of seven million (Proved) had. It may seem obvious at first, but when you are staring up a street full of cars and motorbikes zooming past you the first thing you want to do is speed up or slowdown, which is not a good idea. The best way to make it across is to be assertive of your moves. If you hesitate, you will lose the right of way, which means that you will not be able to continue walking, which means that you are not being predictable, and also means that you are going to get run over! In other words, just start walking and keep walking at the same pace. As I (Kyle) was walking across one of the roads I only was looking left and happened to notice a motorbike flying towards me so I stopped. Little did I know that to my right another motorbike had to slam on his brakes because I stopped and came within two inches of knocking me back to America. I quickly learned that the best way to complete the daunting task of walking across the street is to literally close your eyes and walk forward. I now know what it feels like to be the frog in frogger.
The markets are fantastic; people are friendly and make for interesting conversations (although nobody really knew what the other person was saying). As we tried to ask for things in Vietnamese they would look at us and try to respond in English; then we changed to English and they switch to Vietnamese. When things get really confusing the Vietnamese shop/restaurant owners usually just order for you which happened to us when we were looking for street food. As the group was walking down the street we decided to grab some street food, smart right? During our adventure to find street food we somehow ended up getting yelled at too sit down at a table with toddler seats and next thing we knew there was food in front of us. Too sum up the experience, as we were eating I (Kyle) looked down and noticed a dog eating food off the ground next to me. This is important because the day before our tour guide told us quote, “We have to chain up our dog every night because we are afraid our neighbors will eat him”. As soon as I pointed the dog out to the rest of the group they quickly set their reusable chopsticks down. It was interesting, fun, frustrating, and disorienting, but we all had a good laugh and went on to the next stop. There is so much to write about, but so little time to do so. When you are here you want to take advantage of every second you have in order to make the most of time. As an example, I (steven) got up at 5 am (woke up Kyle who later fell asleep again) to read emails, download pictures from my camera to my computer and reviewed them, and started writing this.
Today we will explore some of Ho-Chi-Minh City and will update you on more details. I am sure we will be comparing the two cities within Vietnam to see what the major differences are. Keep posted and you will learn about Vietnam through us.

Chao!

Getting there is half the fun (not really)