….or perhaps it should be titled “Being a really really pale white person in Vietnam”
Vietnam was THE country that I’ve experienced the most attention in. And oddly enough, it wasn’t so much because of the hair (well it was a little bit). It was more because of how pale I am. Therefore, this post will be divided into two sections.
1. I’m a really really white white person
Who knew really really pale gingers caused such a stir?
The Vietnamese are kind of obsessed with having white skin. As is most of South East Asia. Initially, it was just offhand comments about “oh you have such nice white skin”. But it culminated in one of the last towns I visited in Vietnam. I have no idea what the name is called as I just transferred buses there, so I call it ‘Nameless Town’. In the half hour I spent walking around that town, every woman who saw me stared. And after she got over the initial shock/envy/whatever, she would elbow her friend and they would both stare.
The more shocking part came when I was walking through the market. As markets in Asia tend to go, they were fairly narrow walkways, pretty standard. The surprising part was when I was walking through a few women reach out to touch my skin. Not timid attempts to touch it, but full on running their hands down my whole arm. I guess they didn’t know whether it was real or not. Luckily, I’m pretty used to getting weird reactions in this part of the world.
2. That Ginger has weird eyebrows
The seems like a strange name for the title of this subsection but trust me it isn’t. The main stir caused by my hair happened in Dalat. Prior to that, the only other incident was in Hue. Where at the hostel, I gave my food order to one of the Vietnamese staff, and turned around to talk to my friends. All of a sudden I feel something in my hair, give a slight start and turn around to see that it is the employee essentially stroking my hair. I let her continue because, again, I guess she didn’t think it was real. She eventually stopped and went back to work.
The club in Dalat where the eyebrows situation went down
As I said the main event with my hair was in Dalat. My friend and I were hanging out with this group of Canadian guys and we decided that we wanted to go out. We found a Vietnamese club and had a grand old time. I was trying to explain to them what it’s like to be a ginger in Asia, but it’s difficult information to relay. This club also had women hired to dance there. Not strippers, they just kind of hung out on the dance floor and did shots with patrons. Well I went to use the washroom at one point and a few of the dancing girls were in there fixing makeup and hair. When I went to wash my hands, they all turned around and started looking at me. There were the standard comment and grabbing at my arms because of the white skin. Then a few of them wanted to touch my hair. Honestly, pretty standard at this point in the trip. But the strange part was one girl could not get over the colour of my eyebrows. She just kept pointing to her eyebrows, then my eyebrows, then my friend’s (who has dark brown hair) eyebrows, over and over again. I’m used to people staring or wanting to touch my hair, but eyebrows…that was a new one!
Hi Heather, I found your travel blog on Twitter today and I love it!! I’m also a nomadic ginger, but haven’t had the experience of my hair being petted yet like you. How long have you been in Asia?
Thanks! I’ve been in Asia since September 1st. Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and currently in Thailand. I’ve obviously super behind in posting! It’s been pretty great so far. I’m just taking an extended break (well for me, 9 or 10 days) in Chiang Mai to get some R&R before heading off again. Will be in Australia starting mid-January. Are you currently travelling or something else?
Sounds like a great itinerary, and full of adventure. It seems that Chiang Mai is a popular backpacking spot to rest and relax, there are so many travel bloggers there. How are you enjoying it?
I travel whenever I get the chance, but my first priority is to finish my bachelor’s degree, so I can’t travel full-time until next year. In the meantime, I’m using my university holidays to travel around the US – like visiting New York for New Years.
I’m not quite sure how many bloggers are here right now. Everyday I hear about more and more. I think there might be at least a dozen or so. But overall it’s really great. I met up with the Globetrotter Girls and we went to a temple yesterday. I was actually supposed to leave but I’ve somehow extended my stay again.
Fair enough about the degree. I only graduated from university in May and it killed me not really being able to travel for those four years.
Great post. I was in Thailand awhile back and while I’m not a ginger, I am 6’5″. That made for some funny looks. Also made the tuk tuk rides pretty interesting!
I can only imagine how interesting riding in tuktuks would be! I have trouble fitting in them sometime and I’m a full foot shorter than you!
This is so funny, and strange. I stopped in Bangkok for just a day on the way home from a recent trip abroad, and I was stopped on the street by someone commenting on my white arms. It was seriously strange and I hadn’t had that reaction to my often pale skin ever… I can’t even imagine all the staring and pointing over in Vietnam!
Your post brought me back to when my sons were little. They were both total towheads with white blond hair. We lived in Ethiopia at the time and they caused such a stir! People were constantly reaching out to touch their little heads. One of my twins tolerated it OK, but the other one hated it! He got to the point where he would slap people’s hands away!
I think Africa and India are likely the worst for it. I haven’t been to either of those yet but from what I gather it can get pretty intense. I’m surprised your sons were even relatively OK with it all. Happy travels!
Great story….that has to get old! I remember when I was in Korea I had kids come up on multiple occasions and start petting my arms because of the hair on them…
It doesn’t get too bad! Most of these are standalone incidents. The staring might be fairly constant but that’s it. Luckily people aren’t constantly touching my skin!
Vietnam is on my bucket list- thanks for the heads up about the red-head thing. My tan is other people’s white-lol. Forewarned and all that….
Vietnam is a wonderful country. It was baptism by fire for my first country in South East Asia. But I loved the intensity! Be forewarned it can be very in your face at times.
Interesting..
I’m 6’4″, male and have red hair.
I’m going to Vietnam in january 2013..
How did you go with the sun? I want to enjoy the country and setting but I’m worried ill just constantly get nailed by the sun and heat.. Was this a problem for you?
I also plan to ride from the south to the north.. So I’d need sunscreen on and big spray.. And it’s need to be reapplied every few hours.. Is it that bad or not really?
Any info would be appreciated
Thanks.
I replied in an email. Hope you got the information and your trip goes swimmingly