As promised, a little late, but still here. The Castaway Trailer!
While in Hanoi, Vietnam, many backpackers would go to Ha Long Bay through one of the cheaper tour companies to save money (run as low as $50 US compared to $220). Well here’s why that’s a mistake and hence the begging of the video, “What if you didn’t?”.
Here’s the original post on Castaway. Enjoy!
Another awesome video has emerged from a friend I met in Vietnam during my first “Castaway” tour. Damien has also sent me some amazing tracks from his Sound Cloud page. I’ve imbedded my favorite below the video. Enjoy!
Track – Flume, Dipcity Remix. Download, Enjoy, Support!
Again, I’m free! No more waiting or whining about the package from hell.
Today I fly to Malaysia for one night, party, snap some photo’s, take some videos, power nap it, get on plane and fly to Kathmandu, Nepal before taking a puddle jumper plane into the mountains to start the a 14 day trek to everest base camp.
Couldn’t be more pumped. Meeting up with two canadians, Brandon and Tyler, I met in Vietnam for the trek, but I’m not sure if they’ll be any fun… we’ll give them a chance though, eh?
I at least know Tyler (on the left) has his eye on the prize.
So my energy is still through the roof from getting my package, which waiting for was like a South East Asia prison sentence. But I’m finally free from the oppressiveness of hot women and the beer that flows through Hanoi Backpackers!
With that I have some exciting news!… but I’m not going to tell you, yet…
For now, all you’ll getting is this.
Castaway… I went on again. This time as a “staff member”, or in other words a dude with a camera. Soon all it’s amazingness will be brought to you fully cut and edited with all it’s luster. (This is assuming my computer can handle Final Cut Pro X much longer which has been a graphics card slayer; i.e. my computers not equipped to handle the files I shoot and record in, which is why you don’t see as many videos as I would love to show you, as they’re awesome!).
Well maybe a few more seconds… As with any country there’s a standard route that’s traveled. In the case of Vietnam, it’s North to South coming from Laos, and that’s what I would recommend (over South to North). So here we go;
Hanoi – The Smaller yet more cultural of the two major cities. Stay at “Hanoi Backpackers”; walk the city, see a museum, and get to Sapa or Halong bay (Read below). Staying at Hanoi Backpackers will ensure you’ll meet many of the same friends on your trek south towards Ho Chi Minh City, as they know how to unite people through beer.
Sapa – A beautiful rice step farming community that offers the opportunity to stay with a local family. You can do it on your own for cheap ($50ish), but expect a quiet, peaceful, beautiful trip. If you’re a backpacker you probably want a quiet, peaceful, beautiful trip and good people with plenty of free rice wine to share the experience with (wink, you know who you are). In that case, book through Hanoi Backpackers ($120ish, a lot of the extra price goes to a more expensive sleeper train ride, but it’s comfy as hell and includes a free toothbrush). Also, don’t forget your hiking boots! Fun Fact about Sapa; They originally applied to be an opium farm but were denied the license, so grew rice instead.
Ha Long Bay – A beautiful bay with islands of shear cliffs rising from the ocean all round you. Again, you can do a boat cruise for cheap through any local travel agency (they’re everywhere and will run you about $50-$100 everything inlcuded), or you can do it the backpacker way (It’s $210, very expensive! but read about Castaway and see if it’s right for you).
Hue – Very significant during the Vietnam War with a many relevant and popular historic sites (i.e. the Citadel).
Hoi An – Food, shopping and very pretty (I didn’t go). Suppose to be some of the best food in all of Vietnam and great shopping. Also, the place to go for custom suits and clothing. Some tailors are dirt cheap and some are fixed and a little more pricey. Ask your hostel/guest house for recommendations, as there are some very high quality tailors but plenty of ripoffs.
Hue vs. Hoi An – Many try to choose one or the other, as I did… either do that based on above, or choose option three; Start at one and do one of the motorbike tours to the other. You can ride on the back of a motorbike or rent your own with a guide (or go all solo, but if you do, don’t tell the bike rental shop your leaving the town. They’ll charge 4x as much). Everyone who chose this motorbike option loved it.
Na Trang – A beach front city that has it all. You can relax at the beach all day, go to a mud spa, or to the water amusement park for like $4, shop; whatever you want… It’s a city with a beach. It also has a very established backpacking culture which means booze cruises and backpacker bars. While booze cruises are plentiful around Asia, the one’s in Na Trang do offer something a little different, making it worth it. PS. Lots of Russian’s.
Mui Ne – A pretty and small beach fishing community with awesome sand dunes. Many go here to relax and see the beautiful sand dunes. I did not go and regret it. It’s a good stop in between Na Trang and Ho Chi Ming City; it breaks up the bus ride and can be done in a day or two.
Ho Chi Minh City – The Vietnam’s largest and most modern city. Most go and see the “Cu Chi Tunnels” which were part of the underground network of tunnels used to fight America during the war (Two hours outside the city and only around $15 for a day trip). Some take two day trips to the “Delta’s”; A river network outside the city said to be beautiful. At night most drink in the backpacker area where there are hundreds of child sized plastic chairs crammed together and beers are 50 cents. A fun and funny experience for a night or two.
I try to keep these overviews short and sweet, but ask any questions you’d like. For instance; what was it like being woken up at 2am by two drunk, hot, half naked girls running around the dorm room wasted (an Aussie and English). There were two more girl’s, but they were sober and kept their bra and undies on.
So there’s one of two theory’s here;
1. I was naive enough to think, “Hey I should have brought my IPhone for the Wifi, and since Sovereign Bank has been bending me over every ATM and raping me with ridiculous fee’s; I’ll simply mail my IPhone and a new bank card to Vietnam”. Noble prize worthy like thinking, right! Wrong.
2. Vietnam’s sending me a message; “Hey Carl, the last month you spent being taught how your imperialist country pulled out the teeth and fingernails of every man woman and child for fun, while your American POW’s stayed at “Bed and Breakfast” like prison’s with; massage parlors, swimming pools and personal butler services… we don’t think you got the point. So, you want your package, come back and get it… Punk!”.
Okay, I embellished on the “Punk” part.
Regardless of which theory you buy, I flew back to Vietnam yesterday. The package that was going to take 6-10 days according to UPS, is on day 44 and counting. Vietnam sent a letter saying they wont release the package without a copy of my passport and visa (which had long since expired).
You may be asking yourself, “is this package really worth it?” Well, I have the dollar cost analysis, and pro’s and con’s sheet typed up; feel free to request a copy.
The good news: Hanoi Backpackers is a great place to be stuck and I may be able to partner up with them for some filming.
Bad news: $340 of flights, another $65 visa. Sitting in a coffee shop in Hanoi when I should be on a beach in Sri Lanka, and Finally… I’m complaining to a bunch people who see my complaints as a good enough reason to slap me.
Editors Note: On a serious note, these are mistakes that are easily avoidable, so I’ll write a quick post on how and why, coming up next…
In the past 169 days I’ve traveled across 12 countries and through 27 cities. A big chunk of my time has been in South East Asia, so it’s probably comes as no surprise that things seemed to start repeating themselves. Vietnam has been awesome, but it feels like I’ve I done this all before in Cambodia and Thailand… that’s until “Castaway”.
Even though the trip cost more then bribing the Ukraine government to let me into Chernobyl, it was still worth the $220. “Castaway” is a boat cruise you do through the “Hanoi Backpackers” Hostel. It’s essentially a boat trip on the beautiful Ha Long Bay with one day on their private island and two nights of partying with other ‘Castaways’.
What makes it different is their amazing private island with a small beach surrounded by sheer cliffs. By day you can go rock climbing, wake boarding, play volleyball, kayak, or just do nothing.
The nights are made interesting by the way they stagger the guest arrival to the island. When you show up on the boat, there’s already a crew of Castaways waiting who have been their since the previous day. You party through the night with them and then they leave early in the morning, leaving the island to you and your crew. Your last night, it happens again; a boat shows up and you have a new set of guys and girls to party with, then it’s your turn to leave in the morning. So if you like the laws of probability; you have three chances and two night to “get it right”. Unfortunately the laws apparently don’t like me.
It’s a formula for an amazing time and has broken the redundancy of; beach, city, museum, tour, repeat. Regardless, I think I’m about ready to say goodbye to South East Asia and go somewhere fresh. Tonight I’ll head to Sapa which is up in Vietnam’s mountains near China, shake off the effects of Ha Long Bay and the Tet New Years, then head to Cambodia where I’ll settle in for a two weeks to play catch up, take care of some busy work and start working on a trailer. From there it looks like Sri Lanka, India, then Trekking in Nepal are up next… tough life, I know.
PS. The second day, two of the legendary guides pulled me aside and said they wanted me to apply to become a Castaway guide… When you die you’re suppose to see your life flash before your eyes, at that moment I saw paradise, pure bliss and babes flash before my eyes… But the show must go on and I would miss all the hours of typing on my computer, backing up videos, getting releases signed, doing research and everything that is the Backpackers Union. Shit, what am I talking about, I think I messed up…
I feel like the ultimate Z list celebrity! It went something like this… I told a guy about Backpackers Union at our hostel in Hanoi, and he later said to a girl;
Guy – “This is the kid I was talking about”
Girl – “Oh, I heard about you in Southern Vietnam. You’re trying to get Americans to travel or something…”
Me – “Kinda…!”
It was epic by all accounts. The weight of success is getting heavy though. May have to lay low for a while.
