With no more than about 12 hours to explore Hanoi we decided not to bother with a hotel. The tour office at Ocean Tours was nice enough to let us chill out upstairs using the internet, drinking free coffee (and Milo) and we could shower to freshen up. A few hours after we had arrived from the Sapa overnight train, we had refreshed ourselves, recharged our camera and netbook, dumped our photos, updated our internets, written postcards, changed our clothes, repacked our bags and chatted with the Aussie couple who’d travelled from Sapa with us. They were about to head out on the Ha Long Bay tour we’d done three days prior. We just wanted the cafes to open for breakfast.
The caf้s did open, and we returned to the fancy one and had more Nordic Eggs. I suppose I don’t need to re-list the lavish ingredients, buy I will note it only cost $5 each, including real coffee. With our energy replenished we headed out into the quiet Sunday morning. Hanoi is a crazy chaotic city with endless streams of scooters zigzagging in every direction in a mess of horns and exhaust fumes. Except on Sunday mornings. That Sunday morning everything moved at a much softer and quieter pace, it was almost peaceful without the constant blaring horns and ducking and weaving traffic. The exhaust fumes still lingered, they gathered and swirled to form a thick layer of rich smog.
We walked to the Theatre to buy a ticket to the Water Puppet show for later in the afternoon, with a stroke of luck we arrived at 9:30 to find that there was a Sunday morning show at 9:30. We paid too much for a VIP ticket sitting near the front that let us use our camera, but we didn’t realise we’d paid to use our camera, so while sitting inside the dark theatre, we did use our camera. But we did it like sneaky stealthy ninjas. Ironically almost none of the photos worked. Without the flash the puppets were too blurry and when we did use the flash it picked up too much mist in the atmosphere. Oh well, the video worked well.
The puppet show was amazing and good honest fun. Sure they are designed for kids, but it was definitely a spectacle which appeals to all ages. Basically a group of puppeteers stand in knee deep water behind a screen and use long poles to move puppets around on the surface of the water in front of the screen. The water is dark and gives the illusion that the puppets are walking on the water (or swimming, rowing, fishing etc.) and all of this is accompanied by a traditional musical instruments and singing performed by the band on the side of the stage.
After the puppet show we went for a walk around the lake, which was convenient as we were already at the lake and to not walk around it seemed a waste. The lake was quite pretty, despite the lingering smog and greenish sludge that alleged tortoise live in. But without the sludge there wouldn’t be a lake as the sludge is the lake. We found it hard to believe tortoise could live in the sludge, but the gardens around the lake were quite pretty and scattered with some quite obviously phallic and almost vulgar sculptures.
There were a lot of couples on benches around the lake, perhaps drawing inspiration from the garden art. There were people playing badminton as there almost always is, there were energetic forms of Thai Chi, contemplative students, squealing children on bicycles. But more than anything else, the lake was drowning in Brides.
It would be a funny thing to be a bride at the lake in the Old Town precinct of Hanoi on that smoggy Sunday morning. I could imagine that a bride returning to the professional photographer weeks later to see to proofs of the photos, would probably entail a humorous conversion at the point where you realise every single photo contains at least one other, completely different and unknown bride, lingering in a pose across the other side of the lake in the background of the photo. Yes, there were lots of brides at the lake, and shit food too. We ordered a drink instead and left the lake, sad that we didn’t spot a tortoise, and suspicious whether the tortoise saw us.
We walked around the streets for a while sucking in the energy of Hanoi mixed with a solid portion of smog, and found our way to a foot massage place situated five floors up stairs, that required a foot massage after climbing, so was actually quite convenient. Our feet and legs still ached from climbing the hills of Sapa and our foot massage (which actually covered shoulders head and back too) was so relaxing I drifted in and out of snoozing, trying hard not to snore while the lady rubbed away.
The massage was perfect but was let down by a few irritating details. The first being the guy sitting next to Prue who smoked a cigarette throughout his massage, not too pleasant when in a room with closed windows five floors up. The second was the massage lady who began her spiel by letting us know she was overworked and underpaid, the ended the massage by asking for a tip. I would have given her a tip if she had not asked, because the massage was good. By asking for a tip, they make you feel shit, you don’t want to tip them after they ask, so we didn’t.
The third let down was our lunch. We walked past a nice looking restaurant on the way back downstairs. The view from the balcony at the restaurant looked out over the street to an intersection of five roads. In Saigon we were treated to the joys of watching busy traffic from a vantage point, sadly being Sunday there wasn’t as much traffic, but it was still entertaining to watch and you always think any second there will be an accident, but it never happens. The view was nice, the food was shit, it reminded me of the lake, we could still see the lake. I figure it is the lake’s fault the food was shit, or it could be the chain restaurant we choose to eat in.
We wandered through the street stores and markets back to the travel office to regroup. Back at the travel office Prue remembered she wanted a pillow for the 24 hour bus ride to Laos. We wandered back through the street stores and markets looking for a pillow. It is a funny thing that when looking for something you never find it, but when you stop looking (or have found it) it is everywhere.
The streets of Old Town are named according to the things that are generally sold there. The street our travel office was on was called “silver” street, and there is a “shoe street” for shoes a “silk street” for clothes and a street for toys but we didn’t know what it was called, probably “toys street”. Either way we took a punt and headed to “cotton street” to find Prue a pillow, greatly reducing our chances of not finding what we were looking for.
After acquiring the pillow filled with cotton for a “cheap cheap” price, we wandered back to the sanctuary of the travel office. Prue comically tried to sell her pillow for double what she paid to every street seller that stopped us to buy something for double what it was worth. The shoe was on the other foot, and strangely it made walking “home” a lot easier. Back at our upstairs little haven at the travel office we reorganised our bags, showered, changed into clean clothes, updated our internets again, dumped more photos and I drank more free coffee adding free Milo into the mix for extra flavour.
Feeling fresh again we thanked our hosts at Ocean Travel for their hospitality and headed off around the corner to catch our bus to Laos. We were finally leaving Vietnam, though about a week behind schedule and with a sour taste left in our mouth from the aggressive money scamming personality of many Vietnamese. Regardless, Vietnam was a beautiful country and we met many lovely non-ruthless people Hopefully our bus would get us across the border before our visa ran out, so that we’d be able to return to paddle the caves of Ha Long bay, walk the hills of Sapa, peruse the stores of Hoi An , cruise the various mountain roads on an Easy Rider or just sit and watch the traffic.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
These Hills Were Made for Walking
We left Ocean Tours in a Taxi provided by them and saying goodbye they told us three times that the taxi had been paid for. This seemed like overkill to us as we’d heard him the first time. When we got to the station our taxi driver asked for cash. With our extensive knowledge of the dodginess of some Vietnamese people we smiled at him and laughingly told him that it was a nice try. He smiled a little and let us grab our bags and head into the station. We were pointed across a train yard and to our surprise we had to walk across the tracks to find our train. After crossing about 5 lines past parked and shunting trains we found our platform 9 and พ’s. We climbed on the train into a nice compartment with some locals and made ourselves at home. The bed was hard but the blankets were lovely and clean so we chilled out and read until the train headed off and then relaxed for a nice sleep.
We arrived into Sapa at 5:30am, after being woken up only about 10 minutes before we arrived we stumbled off the train expecting it to be freezing. But the station at the bottom of the mountain isn’t that cold so we were lulled into a false sense of security and decided that we’d think about warm clothes when we got to the hotel where we were to meet our guide. We walked out of the station and found a man holding our names and followed him to the bus that was to take us to the mountain. We headed up a long winding mountain road as the morning finally started breaking. We were thinking about taking photo’s and had decided we’d take them when we reached Sa Pa and weren’t on a moving bus.
Just after this conversation we headed into the cloud line and the temperature started to plummet. Mmm…maybe not changing wasn’t such a good idea after all. When we reached what we assumed was Sapa (as we hadn’t seen anything in the fog for about an hour) the door was finally opened to allow passengers out and we got our first taste of the freezing temperatures on the mountain. It was at this point that we also saw the colourful Sapa ladies who follow you around trying to got you to buy some of their handmade materials. We had been warned that they were like Hyenas and would follow anyone, but if you show you’re weak or wounded they would pounce on mass.
We were the last stop on the bus and we got off out our hotel and walked into reception. We weren’t staying at the hotel, but because our tour company also has the hotel stay there, they would store some of our luggage. When we got there tired from the train they surprised us with the use of one of their rooms for a hot shower and to rearrange our bags so we only needed our day trip bags and not our big backpacks. After cleaning up and organising everything we headed down for our free breakfast and to wait to meet our guide. There had been a girl in reception when we got there who was dressed in local traditional clothes. I had suggested to Drew that she might be our guide. Drew didn’t think so and I began to agree thinking that it was more likely it would be a normal guide like all our other tours.
After a great breakfast we waited in reception and were greeted by a bubbly, colourful local who said ‘hi, my name’s So, but if it helps you can just call me So So’. With a grin and a happy moment of her saying ‘and you’re short like me’ (So was actually about 3 inches shorter than me, I was a GIANT!! First time for everything), we headed off. We walked out of the hotel into the foggy day and were immediately set upon by about 5 local Sapa girls in all their lovely clothes. They didn’t seem to want to sell us anything, they just walked with us and chatted to us, in mostly perfect English, about where they were from and their names etc. We walked through town past the human like screams of a pig being slaughtered and down a steep foggy road with loads of people heading off for trekking just like us.
The thick fog created an image in our head that we were the only ones in the whole town heading off trekking. But when we stopped early at a toilet stop and saw the milling hikers and their entourage of locals following them down the mountain. After a quick break we headed off the road and down a muddy path straight down the mountain. The lower we got on the mountain the more the landscape opened up. We were about 5kms into the trek when you could really start to see the amazing impact that man has had on this environment. The hills were cut into stepped fields that went from the bottom to the top of mountains.
Walking down between them we saw water races, water buffalo and many other animals. It was winter though and there didn’t seem to be too much in the fields at this point. We were still with some people at this point, but mainly it was just So, who kept us moving at a blistering paces so that we were overtaking hikers left and right while the Sapa girls followed behind weaving horses and love hearts out of foliage to gain our affection. We’d walked about 9kms downhill when we reached the valley floor and So found us a beautiful route through the fields and along the river. Sadly this tactic, though beautiful, allowed me to both slip down a small hill and then further on I had the remarkable idea that I should take a dip in a creek. Luckily I only got one booted foot in before some of the Sapa girls came to my rescue. With a bunch of giggles from So we linked arms and made for the Lunch break at a village called Lao Chai village which was So’s home village.
The cultural group was the Black Hmong, So had married to a Black Hmong man at another village though. As soon as we sat down and waited for lunch the Sapa girls descended. We were kind of happy to get the hard sell out of the way early though and boy could they hard sell. They made my old candle shop forced selling look like kindergarten. After about 15 minutes of the hard sell So bought us lunch and the girls fell back. Drew and I discussed tactics and seeing as I wanted one of the bags that they made but nothing else we agreed that I’d buy a few friendship bracelets that looked a bit dodgy but we figure they would then have not walk 14kms for nothing. I picked my bag and a few bracelets and paid about $5 all up before sadly saying I couldn’t get anything else.
After lunch the girls didn’t follow us and we were left to wander the extra 3kms to our homestay. We passed through several small villages dropping past a school before we reached the village we were staying in. The village was called Ta Van which belonged to the Green Zai cultural group. The house was cute and clean and unlike what we feared (which was separate guest rooms) it appeared we got a curtained off area in their lounge room to sleep in. It had a lovely thick blanket and seeing as it was so cold they gave us an extra one just in case.
As it was only about 2pm I abandoned my wet sock and shoes to So to put by the fire and Drew and I headed off to walk around the village. We walked for hours, but sadly as it started to get really cold, my thongs weren’t doing the job so we headed back. We met another couple from Munich where we are headed before heading to Laura and Headley’s wedding and we had a great time chatting with them about places to go in Munich. The guy was really tall and helped the ladies pick some fruit from the tree just next to the house.
We chatted with So and she told us about her husband and her daughter. She also showed us some photo’s of her family that she had got from travellers who come before us. Her daughter had just turned 3 and was off to school already. As it started to get dark all the ladies in the family, some of the guys and both us and the other couple made our way into the kitchen and sat on tiny little stools around the cooking fire. So and the other guide Sinh cooked us an amazing meal as we watched. So and Sinh told us stories and myths from their different cultural groups and explained which traditions had been dropped with time and which traditions were still practiced today as well as many other insights into their cultural groups.
The mum in the house had just had a little girl 3 weeks before we were there and the baby sat in mums arms with all of us. It felt like a family dinner and we were invited. That’s what you hope for when you do a homestay and we were so excited that it seemed we’d been allowed in to their private lives with them. So double checked that we were ok with eating with the family as she’d told us that some tourists had chucked tantrums and didn’t want to have to eat with the family. We were happy to be invited and they seemed very happy to share the experience with us. After an amazing meal So brought out some homemade rice wine which she wanted us to try. I only had a little bit and I think it burned a hole in my tummy. Drew and the German guy had a few shots, but even they called it quits after that. With full bellies we all went back to our sleeping areas and after such a big walk slept like logs.
We woke early and So and Sinh had both made us a huge pile of pancakes and had some bananas to have with them on the side. It was lovely. After saying goodbye to the family and giving them our heartfelt thanks we headed off, me arm in arm with So and Drew bringing up the rear. Drew turned around early on and told some girls who started to follow us, that they were welcome to follow, but we wouldn’t be buying anything today. The girls melted away and we powered on passing other groups again and making for a bamboo forest that we had to walk through to get to a water fall and today was to be mainly up hill.
Sadly it was still pretty foggy and though beautiful we still couldn’t see the amazing views that we knew we were passing. After slipping and sliding our way to the waterfall we grabbed a photo with So and headed down for a bit to the village of Giang Ta Cha (Zan Te Cha) which is a village that has both Green Zai and Red Zai cultural groups. So made us a beautiful lunch again and then we headed across a local suspension bridge and up a hill to the road. This took us to our total of 25kms hiking and So organised our transport in an old army jeep back up to Sapa. The fog was so bad now that we could literally only see about 1m in front of the bonet of the car. We kept our fingers crossed as our driver flew around the corners only just missing trucks and busses coming the other way.
We got back to the hotel and dropped off our stuff and So said she’d show us through the local markets before we headed off. We wandered up through the markets and So showed us some items and told us the price we should pay for some of the things. She then finally said goodbye and after many hugs with me she left us to explore on our own. I ended up buying one of the scarfs that are traditional among the Black Hmong (So’s cultural group) and Drew and I bought some more friendship bracelets, though these one were actually made in Sapa and not China like we found out the ones we bought the day before at lunch were.
We headed back to the hotel and were again surprised to learn that we had access to a room again. After another hot shower and a change of clothes we headed down to the mini van and down the mountain to the train. We chatted with another Australian and American couple and then found our train car and basically crashed after a huge two days. We got back to Hanoi at 4:30am and seeing as we were on the same tour we shared a taxi with the Australian couple and rang the bell to be let back into the Ocean Tours office. We made our way to the top floor and relaxed for a few hours drinking free tea and coffee and interneting while waiting for the local cafes to open for breakfast.
We arrived into Sapa at 5:30am, after being woken up only about 10 minutes before we arrived we stumbled off the train expecting it to be freezing. But the station at the bottom of the mountain isn’t that cold so we were lulled into a false sense of security and decided that we’d think about warm clothes when we got to the hotel where we were to meet our guide. We walked out of the station and found a man holding our names and followed him to the bus that was to take us to the mountain. We headed up a long winding mountain road as the morning finally started breaking. We were thinking about taking photo’s and had decided we’d take them when we reached Sa Pa and weren’t on a moving bus.
Just after this conversation we headed into the cloud line and the temperature started to plummet. Mmm…maybe not changing wasn’t such a good idea after all. When we reached what we assumed was Sapa (as we hadn’t seen anything in the fog for about an hour) the door was finally opened to allow passengers out and we got our first taste of the freezing temperatures on the mountain. It was at this point that we also saw the colourful Sapa ladies who follow you around trying to got you to buy some of their handmade materials. We had been warned that they were like Hyenas and would follow anyone, but if you show you’re weak or wounded they would pounce on mass.
We were the last stop on the bus and we got off out our hotel and walked into reception. We weren’t staying at the hotel, but because our tour company also has the hotel stay there, they would store some of our luggage. When we got there tired from the train they surprised us with the use of one of their rooms for a hot shower and to rearrange our bags so we only needed our day trip bags and not our big backpacks. After cleaning up and organising everything we headed down for our free breakfast and to wait to meet our guide. There had been a girl in reception when we got there who was dressed in local traditional clothes. I had suggested to Drew that she might be our guide. Drew didn’t think so and I began to agree thinking that it was more likely it would be a normal guide like all our other tours.
After a great breakfast we waited in reception and were greeted by a bubbly, colourful local who said ‘hi, my name’s So, but if it helps you can just call me So So’. With a grin and a happy moment of her saying ‘and you’re short like me’ (So was actually about 3 inches shorter than me, I was a GIANT!! First time for everything), we headed off. We walked out of the hotel into the foggy day and were immediately set upon by about 5 local Sapa girls in all their lovely clothes. They didn’t seem to want to sell us anything, they just walked with us and chatted to us, in mostly perfect English, about where they were from and their names etc. We walked through town past the human like screams of a pig being slaughtered and down a steep foggy road with loads of people heading off for trekking just like us.
The thick fog created an image in our head that we were the only ones in the whole town heading off trekking. But when we stopped early at a toilet stop and saw the milling hikers and their entourage of locals following them down the mountain. After a quick break we headed off the road and down a muddy path straight down the mountain. The lower we got on the mountain the more the landscape opened up. We were about 5kms into the trek when you could really start to see the amazing impact that man has had on this environment. The hills were cut into stepped fields that went from the bottom to the top of mountains.
Walking down between them we saw water races, water buffalo and many other animals. It was winter though and there didn’t seem to be too much in the fields at this point. We were still with some people at this point, but mainly it was just So, who kept us moving at a blistering paces so that we were overtaking hikers left and right while the Sapa girls followed behind weaving horses and love hearts out of foliage to gain our affection. We’d walked about 9kms downhill when we reached the valley floor and So found us a beautiful route through the fields and along the river. Sadly this tactic, though beautiful, allowed me to both slip down a small hill and then further on I had the remarkable idea that I should take a dip in a creek. Luckily I only got one booted foot in before some of the Sapa girls came to my rescue. With a bunch of giggles from So we linked arms and made for the Lunch break at a village called Lao Chai village which was So’s home village.
The cultural group was the Black Hmong, So had married to a Black Hmong man at another village though. As soon as we sat down and waited for lunch the Sapa girls descended. We were kind of happy to get the hard sell out of the way early though and boy could they hard sell. They made my old candle shop forced selling look like kindergarten. After about 15 minutes of the hard sell So bought us lunch and the girls fell back. Drew and I discussed tactics and seeing as I wanted one of the bags that they made but nothing else we agreed that I’d buy a few friendship bracelets that looked a bit dodgy but we figure they would then have not walk 14kms for nothing. I picked my bag and a few bracelets and paid about $5 all up before sadly saying I couldn’t get anything else.
After lunch the girls didn’t follow us and we were left to wander the extra 3kms to our homestay. We passed through several small villages dropping past a school before we reached the village we were staying in. The village was called Ta Van which belonged to the Green Zai cultural group. The house was cute and clean and unlike what we feared (which was separate guest rooms) it appeared we got a curtained off area in their lounge room to sleep in. It had a lovely thick blanket and seeing as it was so cold they gave us an extra one just in case.
As it was only about 2pm I abandoned my wet sock and shoes to So to put by the fire and Drew and I headed off to walk around the village. We walked for hours, but sadly as it started to get really cold, my thongs weren’t doing the job so we headed back. We met another couple from Munich where we are headed before heading to Laura and Headley’s wedding and we had a great time chatting with them about places to go in Munich. The guy was really tall and helped the ladies pick some fruit from the tree just next to the house.
We chatted with So and she told us about her husband and her daughter. She also showed us some photo’s of her family that she had got from travellers who come before us. Her daughter had just turned 3 and was off to school already. As it started to get dark all the ladies in the family, some of the guys and both us and the other couple made our way into the kitchen and sat on tiny little stools around the cooking fire. So and the other guide Sinh cooked us an amazing meal as we watched. So and Sinh told us stories and myths from their different cultural groups and explained which traditions had been dropped with time and which traditions were still practiced today as well as many other insights into their cultural groups.
The mum in the house had just had a little girl 3 weeks before we were there and the baby sat in mums arms with all of us. It felt like a family dinner and we were invited. That’s what you hope for when you do a homestay and we were so excited that it seemed we’d been allowed in to their private lives with them. So double checked that we were ok with eating with the family as she’d told us that some tourists had chucked tantrums and didn’t want to have to eat with the family. We were happy to be invited and they seemed very happy to share the experience with us. After an amazing meal So brought out some homemade rice wine which she wanted us to try. I only had a little bit and I think it burned a hole in my tummy. Drew and the German guy had a few shots, but even they called it quits after that. With full bellies we all went back to our sleeping areas and after such a big walk slept like logs.
We woke early and So and Sinh had both made us a huge pile of pancakes and had some bananas to have with them on the side. It was lovely. After saying goodbye to the family and giving them our heartfelt thanks we headed off, me arm in arm with So and Drew bringing up the rear. Drew turned around early on and told some girls who started to follow us, that they were welcome to follow, but we wouldn’t be buying anything today. The girls melted away and we powered on passing other groups again and making for a bamboo forest that we had to walk through to get to a water fall and today was to be mainly up hill.
Sadly it was still pretty foggy and though beautiful we still couldn’t see the amazing views that we knew we were passing. After slipping and sliding our way to the waterfall we grabbed a photo with So and headed down for a bit to the village of Giang Ta Cha (Zan Te Cha) which is a village that has both Green Zai and Red Zai cultural groups. So made us a beautiful lunch again and then we headed across a local suspension bridge and up a hill to the road. This took us to our total of 25kms hiking and So organised our transport in an old army jeep back up to Sapa. The fog was so bad now that we could literally only see about 1m in front of the bonet of the car. We kept our fingers crossed as our driver flew around the corners only just missing trucks and busses coming the other way.
We got back to the hotel and dropped off our stuff and So said she’d show us through the local markets before we headed off. We wandered up through the markets and So showed us some items and told us the price we should pay for some of the things. She then finally said goodbye and after many hugs with me she left us to explore on our own. I ended up buying one of the scarfs that are traditional among the Black Hmong (So’s cultural group) and Drew and I bought some more friendship bracelets, though these one were actually made in Sapa and not China like we found out the ones we bought the day before at lunch were.
We headed back to the hotel and were again surprised to learn that we had access to a room again. After another hot shower and a change of clothes we headed down to the mini van and down the mountain to the train. We chatted with another Australian and American couple and then found our train car and basically crashed after a huge two days. We got back to Hanoi at 4:30am and seeing as we were on the same tour we shared a taxi with the Australian couple and rang the bell to be let back into the Ocean Tours office. We made our way to the top floor and relaxed for a few hours drinking free tea and coffee and interneting while waiting for the local cafes to open for breakfast.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Tofu
When booking our tour for Ha Long Bay we took the advice we had reiterated to us by a host of travellers as we travelled north, -”you get what you pay for”. So we booked from the tour office that was recommended to us and were amazed to find that they offer traveller services, a hot shower, toilet, internet, a kitchen and a comfy place to hang out. From this tour office we were able to spend time in Hanoi with out staying in a Hotel. But no time for much the first morning,
After arriving in Hanoi at 6am from the Sleeper bus we were already on our way to Ha Long bay on a very comfortable tour bus by 8:30am. Our tour to Ha Long bay was great fun, on the way we easily struck up conversations with every one on the Bus. Offering advice to an old Irish couple who had just arrived in Vietnam, and swapping travelling stories with an English girl we had seen the day before in Hue. There was a French couple a German couple, an Aussie couple from a country town in Gippsland (who study in Melbourne) and another Aussie girl and Kiwi girl who had some great stories.
By the time we arrived at the boat and sat down to eat a banquet on the boat everyone felt comfortable like sitting down for a family dinner. The boat was really luxurious with three decks, a bar and restaurant and cabins to sleep about 12 or so people, all decked out in ornate dark wood. As we had booked last minute there was no room for us to sleep on the boat, so we were spending two nights on the island. The island was a private island with a small bar and restaurant and about 12 bungalows set in between the cliffs and the beach, while it would have been nice to stay on the boat, we were pretty happy with the island.
For our lunch on the boat we were served a feast of Crabs, Prawns, Calamari, Fish and numerous other culinary delights. The old Irish couple had been told by their travel doctor not to eat Shellfish in Asia and as they were going to Australia after Vietnam they were more than happy to just eat beef and chicken. So we were more than happy to make sure the surplus Crabs and Prawns didn‘t go to waste. The only annoyance on the boat was the drink prices were a little high. But complaining that beer is expensive when it is still only $1.50 is a bit pointless.
On the way through Ha Long bay we were flanked on either side by the most amazing cliffs and islands jutting out of the sea. Our guide told us their was 1969 islands in Ha Long bay, but Ha Long bay is just one of three bays covered in thousands of islands and spectacular scenery. Unfortunately for us on our first day there was quite a heavy fog, or maybe sea mist or maybe it was pollution. Either way the entire horizon was shadowed with the hazy silhouettes of the islands. But by the time we were halfway through lunch we were surrounded by magnificent views and it was a dilemma whether to finish eating the amazing food or run outside and take photos from the top deck.
After lunch we stopped in an inlet surrounded by tall islands but protected from the sea. The water was a calm and beautiful crystal clear pale blue. We hopped into to Kayaks and paddled amongst the cliffs and through an open cave to hidden lagoon, spending most of the time just drifting along with our jaws open bewildered by the scenery. Our guide said that each year he only ever sees two or three monkeys. We were lucky enough to spot two monkeys playing in the tree-tops high above.
Around 5pm we had to say goodbye to the other people we had met as they were staying on the boat and we were transferred to the island. Our transfer was another large, beautifully carved wooden boat which we had all to our self, with only the captain and first mate aboard. Prue and I danced around on the top deck as we basically rotated around taking in the 360 degree views for the hour and a half trip to the island. We arrived at the island and found another group already there but the people travelling didn’t really seem as much fun as our group from the boat. So after eating a yummy BBQ and retiring to our cabin we weren’t too upset to wake up the next morning to find everyone had left, and we had the entire place to our self.
Our own private island was actually exactly as nice as it sounds. We spent the day just chilling out, Prue sat in her rocking chair on the balcony and read a book while soaking up the view. I went for a bit of a paddle in the sea kayak, then played a couple of locals at pool while sipping Black Russians. For lunch we got a sea taxi, which was no more than a wooden dingy with an engine and an tarp for a roof, to take us to Cat Ba island.
Then after returning to our private island we were greeted by our group from the boat the previous day. Needless to say we spent the night laughing and drinking and telling stories of our travels on our own private island paradise. Our last day was spent cruising back through the cliffs soaking up the sun on the top deck of the boat, while soaking up the amazing views. The sea mist pollution fog had cleared a lot more and the depth and the sheer size of the islands was incredible and surrounded us in every direction with a magical view.
We arrived back in Hanoi and said goodbye to the Irish couple who were rushed off in a taxi to catch a flight to Hoi An. We made use of the travellers lounge area at the tour office and chilled out on the cushions and Skype’d home, repacked our bags and freshened up. Then we joined the Aussie couple for a quick dinner before another goodbye as they caught the sleeper train south to Hue. Again we had no time to explore Hanoi as by 9pm we were settling into the firm bed of the sleeper train heading north to the mountain village of Sapa…
After arriving in Hanoi at 6am from the Sleeper bus we were already on our way to Ha Long bay on a very comfortable tour bus by 8:30am. Our tour to Ha Long bay was great fun, on the way we easily struck up conversations with every one on the Bus. Offering advice to an old Irish couple who had just arrived in Vietnam, and swapping travelling stories with an English girl we had seen the day before in Hue. There was a French couple a German couple, an Aussie couple from a country town in Gippsland (who study in Melbourne) and another Aussie girl and Kiwi girl who had some great stories.
By the time we arrived at the boat and sat down to eat a banquet on the boat everyone felt comfortable like sitting down for a family dinner. The boat was really luxurious with three decks, a bar and restaurant and cabins to sleep about 12 or so people, all decked out in ornate dark wood. As we had booked last minute there was no room for us to sleep on the boat, so we were spending two nights on the island. The island was a private island with a small bar and restaurant and about 12 bungalows set in between the cliffs and the beach, while it would have been nice to stay on the boat, we were pretty happy with the island.
For our lunch on the boat we were served a feast of Crabs, Prawns, Calamari, Fish and numerous other culinary delights. The old Irish couple had been told by their travel doctor not to eat Shellfish in Asia and as they were going to Australia after Vietnam they were more than happy to just eat beef and chicken. So we were more than happy to make sure the surplus Crabs and Prawns didn‘t go to waste. The only annoyance on the boat was the drink prices were a little high. But complaining that beer is expensive when it is still only $1.50 is a bit pointless.
On the way through Ha Long bay we were flanked on either side by the most amazing cliffs and islands jutting out of the sea. Our guide told us their was 1969 islands in Ha Long bay, but Ha Long bay is just one of three bays covered in thousands of islands and spectacular scenery. Unfortunately for us on our first day there was quite a heavy fog, or maybe sea mist or maybe it was pollution. Either way the entire horizon was shadowed with the hazy silhouettes of the islands. But by the time we were halfway through lunch we were surrounded by magnificent views and it was a dilemma whether to finish eating the amazing food or run outside and take photos from the top deck.
After lunch we stopped in an inlet surrounded by tall islands but protected from the sea. The water was a calm and beautiful crystal clear pale blue. We hopped into to Kayaks and paddled amongst the cliffs and through an open cave to hidden lagoon, spending most of the time just drifting along with our jaws open bewildered by the scenery. Our guide said that each year he only ever sees two or three monkeys. We were lucky enough to spot two monkeys playing in the tree-tops high above.
Around 5pm we had to say goodbye to the other people we had met as they were staying on the boat and we were transferred to the island. Our transfer was another large, beautifully carved wooden boat which we had all to our self, with only the captain and first mate aboard. Prue and I danced around on the top deck as we basically rotated around taking in the 360 degree views for the hour and a half trip to the island. We arrived at the island and found another group already there but the people travelling didn’t really seem as much fun as our group from the boat. So after eating a yummy BBQ and retiring to our cabin we weren’t too upset to wake up the next morning to find everyone had left, and we had the entire place to our self.
Our own private island was actually exactly as nice as it sounds. We spent the day just chilling out, Prue sat in her rocking chair on the balcony and read a book while soaking up the view. I went for a bit of a paddle in the sea kayak, then played a couple of locals at pool while sipping Black Russians. For lunch we got a sea taxi, which was no more than a wooden dingy with an engine and an tarp for a roof, to take us to Cat Ba island.
Then after returning to our private island we were greeted by our group from the boat the previous day. Needless to say we spent the night laughing and drinking and telling stories of our travels on our own private island paradise. Our last day was spent cruising back through the cliffs soaking up the sun on the top deck of the boat, while soaking up the amazing views. The sea mist pollution fog had cleared a lot more and the depth and the sheer size of the islands was incredible and surrounded us in every direction with a magical view.
We arrived back in Hanoi and said goodbye to the Irish couple who were rushed off in a taxi to catch a flight to Hoi An. We made use of the travellers lounge area at the tour office and chilled out on the cushions and Skype’d home, repacked our bags and freshened up. Then we joined the Aussie couple for a quick dinner before another goodbye as they caught the sleeper train south to Hue. Again we had no time to explore Hanoi as by 9pm we were settling into the firm bed of the sleeper train heading north to the mountain village of Sapa…
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Tomb Raider.
After two hours sleep and with a heavy head we devoured a minimalist breakfast on the run to absorb the alcohol still afflicting us and jumped on the Bus bound for Hue. After an hour or so cruising from Hoi An and through Danang, the road opened up to a beautiful beach side mountain pass. Almost in unison with every one else on the bus (For the first time mostly full of Westerners) I reached into my bag and pulled out the camera, switched it on and lined up a snap. A collective “Ohhh” rang through the aisles of the bus as we drove straight into the mountain by way of a very, very long tunnel.
Twenty minutes later we emerged from the tunnel to look back over our shoulders to see our beautiful views disappearing behind us. It was at this exact point that we realised we had missed one of the moments we had looked forward to the most. Not long before leaving Australia the guys from Top Gear did a Vietnam special which heavily inspired our trip. There was a moment in the show where Clarkson and Hammond sat by the side of the road waiting for May to catch up while overlooking the most spectacular view. The exact spot was visible up the old coast road behind us to the left. The tunnel we emerged from had bypassed that from the right. Oh well, next time Gadget, next time.
We arrived at Hue and again as we alighted the bus we were instantly set upon by a horde of Hoteliers, Taxi drivers and Motor Bikers each one pleading, nay, pushing for our business. One went so far as to follow us all the way to the hotel area, nicely agreeing to walk on the other side of the road to leave us alone, yet still directing us from every corner to his hotel. Needless to say when we did get to his hotel, we chose to stay in the one next door, the one we had picked from our guide book.
Right next to our hotel was a delicious Indian restaurant, which we gorged ourselves at and compared favourably to every other Indian restaurant we’d been to, yes, even “Priya” near Watergardens. Deciding to spend only one night in Hue I walked down to the local travel agency and booked the sleeper bus for the following night to take us to Hanoi. We decided to use Sinh Cafe้ bus company as we had seen their buses and been recommended them as they were the most modern and comfortable looking option for a long haul trip. With our exit strategy planned we decided to make the most of the small time we had in Hue and see the sights. Opting for the relaxed approach we hired a Cyclo each to take us on a tour around the Citadel.
Hue was once the Center of the Vietnamese Empire, and previously home to the Emperors. The Citadel is the Palace of the Emperor, or at least it was, until the Americans bombed the shit out of it, as they do. We decided not to pay the $5 entry fee as it was late in the day and we were going to have more time to explore the next day, so we got our Cyclo drivers to take us on a peaceful trip around the Citadel and back through the town to the restaurant strip. So peaceful was the ride in our Cyclo I could help myself nodding off a few times in the middle of traffic. But hey, I’d only had two hours sleep.
Our Cyclo drivers organised to pick us up the next morning on motorbikes for a tour around, and we spent the rest of the night wandering though the town with a feeling of “whatever” about it all. I think around this point we were starting to get a bit tired of people trying to sell us shit, scam us, beg from us and con us, but then again we’d only had four hours sleep. After another pleasant (but not seedy) massage, we found a cafe้ next to the hotel for dinner and swapped traveling stories with a few backpackers, before retiring for a relatively early night. The Cafe้ we went to was called “Cafe้ on Thu Wheels” and specialised in motorcycle tours. Our enthusiastic and friendly host, became introverted and moody after we told him we’d hired a guide off the street. Oh well, next time Gadget, next time.
Checking out of our hotel brought up our reoccurring feeling of being ripped off. With the hotel charging an extortionate exchange rate for paying in Vietnam Dong, rather than US Dollars. After a small pointless argument we paid the bill on our Travel Card in US dollars and saved ourselves a few pointless dollars out of spite of being rorted.
Our motorcycle tour of Hue’s surrounding Tombs and Pagodas started with a hitch as Prue’s guide stopped for Petrol and I went ahead with my guide. After waiting about ten minutes for her to catch up my guide realised they weren't coming and left me waiting on the side of the road where I was mocked in Vietnamese by a small school boy after I refused to give him a cigarette. A minute or two later my guide came flying back around the corner and whisked me off to the site that Prue had been taken to. Ok, well organised tour so far.
The Tombs of the previous Emperors were quite impressive although the $5 entry fee at each site for both of us seemed a little bit high. Again we felt reinforcement in the feeling that everyone in Vietnam is just trying to get money out of us. The Pagodas were free to enter and the last one we went to was quite impressive although it housed a somber mood in a garage at the rear of the temple. There we found the Austin driven to Saigon by the Monk who Self immolated (Burned himself to death) in protest to the South Vietnamese Government’s treatment of Buddhists, the same Austin is visible in the iconic photo of the event.
After a few hours of riding around on narrow back roads our drivers took us to a local place for lunch where we were fed suspicious food that thankfully never made us sick and then they dropped us at the front gate of the Citadel. Trying to pay for the Guides started an argument as we believed we were paying $5 each for what was supposed to be a two hour tour. They believed that as the tour had taken nearly four hours (not our fault) we should pay double. Originally it was only going to be $8 each for the whole day. So we bluffed calling the Tourist Police and bailed out at the original price of $5 each. Needless to say our patience with the Vietnamese constant attempt to make us part with extra (or any) cash was starting to wear thin.
The Citadel was a bit disappointing, most of it was destroyed, so everything that couldn't be restored was still in the process of being rebuilt. The majority of the grounds felt like a work site, although a few areas that had either been repaired or were never destroyed were quite impressive. Hue was a lovely city with some amazing old sites to visit and I’m sure given a bit of extra time to absorb the atmosphere of the town we would have enjoyed it a lot more. Unfortunately a few irritable incidents put it on the back foot, and we boarded the bus eagerly looking back at the city of Hue with a strong sense of nothing much at all.
The 13 hour trip between Hue and Hanoi was relatively comfortable. I found myself about 4 inches short on leg room in my sleeping berth. Prue on the other hand slept fairly soundly. The ride itself was a lot smoother than some of our previous bus trips. The large Sinh Cafe้ coach strategically lined itself in the middle of the road and blazed a trail to Hanoi letting all other traffic flow around it. We arrived at Hanoi at 6am, walked around the corner to the office of a tour company we had been recommended, only to find that it didn't open until 7am. Not much of anything was open for breakfast and we waited patiently until the tour office opened, purchasing a three day tour to Ha Long Bay that left at 8:30am then treated ourselves to a delicious breakfast before setting off on our next adventure...
Facebook is working where we are, the photos from Hoi An and Hue can be found [HERE].
More photos should come in the next day or so now that we have facebook again. It takes a bit of free time to organise the photos and write the blogs and lately we haven't had much free time...
Twenty minutes later we emerged from the tunnel to look back over our shoulders to see our beautiful views disappearing behind us. It was at this exact point that we realised we had missed one of the moments we had looked forward to the most. Not long before leaving Australia the guys from Top Gear did a Vietnam special which heavily inspired our trip. There was a moment in the show where Clarkson and Hammond sat by the side of the road waiting for May to catch up while overlooking the most spectacular view. The exact spot was visible up the old coast road behind us to the left. The tunnel we emerged from had bypassed that from the right. Oh well, next time Gadget, next time.
We arrived at Hue and again as we alighted the bus we were instantly set upon by a horde of Hoteliers, Taxi drivers and Motor Bikers each one pleading, nay, pushing for our business. One went so far as to follow us all the way to the hotel area, nicely agreeing to walk on the other side of the road to leave us alone, yet still directing us from every corner to his hotel. Needless to say when we did get to his hotel, we chose to stay in the one next door, the one we had picked from our guide book.
Right next to our hotel was a delicious Indian restaurant, which we gorged ourselves at and compared favourably to every other Indian restaurant we’d been to, yes, even “Priya” near Watergardens. Deciding to spend only one night in Hue I walked down to the local travel agency and booked the sleeper bus for the following night to take us to Hanoi. We decided to use Sinh Cafe้ bus company as we had seen their buses and been recommended them as they were the most modern and comfortable looking option for a long haul trip. With our exit strategy planned we decided to make the most of the small time we had in Hue and see the sights. Opting for the relaxed approach we hired a Cyclo each to take us on a tour around the Citadel.
Hue was once the Center of the Vietnamese Empire, and previously home to the Emperors. The Citadel is the Palace of the Emperor, or at least it was, until the Americans bombed the shit out of it, as they do. We decided not to pay the $5 entry fee as it was late in the day and we were going to have more time to explore the next day, so we got our Cyclo drivers to take us on a peaceful trip around the Citadel and back through the town to the restaurant strip. So peaceful was the ride in our Cyclo I could help myself nodding off a few times in the middle of traffic. But hey, I’d only had two hours sleep.
Our Cyclo drivers organised to pick us up the next morning on motorbikes for a tour around, and we spent the rest of the night wandering though the town with a feeling of “whatever” about it all. I think around this point we were starting to get a bit tired of people trying to sell us shit, scam us, beg from us and con us, but then again we’d only had four hours sleep. After another pleasant (but not seedy) massage, we found a cafe้ next to the hotel for dinner and swapped traveling stories with a few backpackers, before retiring for a relatively early night. The Cafe้ we went to was called “Cafe้ on Thu Wheels” and specialised in motorcycle tours. Our enthusiastic and friendly host, became introverted and moody after we told him we’d hired a guide off the street. Oh well, next time Gadget, next time.
Checking out of our hotel brought up our reoccurring feeling of being ripped off. With the hotel charging an extortionate exchange rate for paying in Vietnam Dong, rather than US Dollars. After a small pointless argument we paid the bill on our Travel Card in US dollars and saved ourselves a few pointless dollars out of spite of being rorted.
Our motorcycle tour of Hue’s surrounding Tombs and Pagodas started with a hitch as Prue’s guide stopped for Petrol and I went ahead with my guide. After waiting about ten minutes for her to catch up my guide realised they weren't coming and left me waiting on the side of the road where I was mocked in Vietnamese by a small school boy after I refused to give him a cigarette. A minute or two later my guide came flying back around the corner and whisked me off to the site that Prue had been taken to. Ok, well organised tour so far.
The Tombs of the previous Emperors were quite impressive although the $5 entry fee at each site for both of us seemed a little bit high. Again we felt reinforcement in the feeling that everyone in Vietnam is just trying to get money out of us. The Pagodas were free to enter and the last one we went to was quite impressive although it housed a somber mood in a garage at the rear of the temple. There we found the Austin driven to Saigon by the Monk who Self immolated (Burned himself to death) in protest to the South Vietnamese Government’s treatment of Buddhists, the same Austin is visible in the iconic photo of the event.
After a few hours of riding around on narrow back roads our drivers took us to a local place for lunch where we were fed suspicious food that thankfully never made us sick and then they dropped us at the front gate of the Citadel. Trying to pay for the Guides started an argument as we believed we were paying $5 each for what was supposed to be a two hour tour. They believed that as the tour had taken nearly four hours (not our fault) we should pay double. Originally it was only going to be $8 each for the whole day. So we bluffed calling the Tourist Police and bailed out at the original price of $5 each. Needless to say our patience with the Vietnamese constant attempt to make us part with extra (or any) cash was starting to wear thin.
The Citadel was a bit disappointing, most of it was destroyed, so everything that couldn't be restored was still in the process of being rebuilt. The majority of the grounds felt like a work site, although a few areas that had either been repaired or were never destroyed were quite impressive. Hue was a lovely city with some amazing old sites to visit and I’m sure given a bit of extra time to absorb the atmosphere of the town we would have enjoyed it a lot more. Unfortunately a few irritable incidents put it on the back foot, and we boarded the bus eagerly looking back at the city of Hue with a strong sense of nothing much at all.
The 13 hour trip between Hue and Hanoi was relatively comfortable. I found myself about 4 inches short on leg room in my sleeping berth. Prue on the other hand slept fairly soundly. The ride itself was a lot smoother than some of our previous bus trips. The large Sinh Cafe้ coach strategically lined itself in the middle of the road and blazed a trail to Hanoi letting all other traffic flow around it. We arrived at Hanoi at 6am, walked around the corner to the office of a tour company we had been recommended, only to find that it didn't open until 7am. Not much of anything was open for breakfast and we waited patiently until the tour office opened, purchasing a three day tour to Ha Long Bay that left at 8:30am then treated ourselves to a delicious breakfast before setting off on our next adventure...
Facebook is working where we are, the photos from Hoi An and Hue can be found [HERE].
More photos should come in the next day or so now that we have facebook again. It takes a bit of free time to organise the photos and write the blogs and lately we haven't had much free time...
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Primitive Vehicle Users Only.
The Archaeological history of the places we are visiting is something that I am finding most fulfilling. At Quy Nhon we saw the wonderful Cham sites that were fairly unvisited yet largely restored. This makes sense as the Vietnamese people take great pride in their history. We were heading to Hoi An next and this promised to be interesting for it’s great old city centre and for the ruin that lie outside the city in a site called My Son (pronounced Me Sun).
We climbed on the train and travelled to Hoi An via Danang on a soft seat in air conditioning this time. This wasn’t by choice, the hard seat wasn’t available at the time we wanted to travel. It was only an extra 40,000 Dong so we were complaining. Surprisingly, we were again, the only westerners on the train. This is fun because we get to be the only ones immersed in with the locals. At the same time though we are getting to the stage where we want to meet some people who speak English and are in the same backpacker boat as us.
We decided that in Hoi An we’d make more of an effort to meet and hang out with backpackers and with that in mind our driver and his sister (who was in the front seat) talked us into staying at the An Phu hotel in Hoi An. The place was a cool old building that had been turned into a hotel. We walked in and were shown a few rooms and after picking one of the cheaper ones with a private balcony we settled in. There was something a bit creepy about the hotel though and over the course of the first day we saw bats, rats and cockroaches. Granted the roaches are pretty common in SE Asia, but the bat flying in the hallway and the number of large rats I saw gave me pause. We were there now though and we were only staying 3 nights so I decided to stick it out.
We headed into town which was just down the road from the hotel (which was another reason to forgive them the animals). The centre of Hoi An is like the South East Asia that we had read about in old novels and see in old movies but just doesn’t really exist anymore. After walking down the first street we quickly realised that tailors were the main enterprise in Hoi An. One after the other the tailors line the streets with mannequins out the front clothed in their designs and even more hanging from every conceivable location inside the stores walls and from the roof. With much bemusement and a chorus of “come in sir/madam, see my store” or “you want a new suit, I make for you 12 hours” we headed towards the river and grabbed an early dinner at a cute little restaurant called cordon blue.
I’d like to note that I am enjoying the fact that we are finally in a part of Vietnam where you don’t have to search to find Pho Bo (pronounced fo ba, or at least that‘s how it pronounced here). I’ve been told that it’s more of a dish from northern Vietnam so I look forward to eating more of the fabulous beef noodle soup in future.
We were treated to a sunset like nothing else we’ve seen so far I think. The strong pinks and oranges were breathtaking and the view from one of the bridges with it setting over the old city just reinforces all of the old SE Asia images you didn’t even know you had. Walking around the city at night is just beautiful and at night there seems to be a rule where no motorbikes are allowed to be ridden. This means that you can walk around in the middle of the street with just push bikes around you and everyone is dressed beautifully.
We later found out that another rule for locals states that in the old city ladies must be dressed either in traditional attire or at least in clothes that covers them up conservatively. No one seemed to bothered with it though and it really did add to the relaxed feel of the city centre. In the end we made it an early night and headed back to the hotel for a drink. It was at this point that we saw our first huge rat and a bat flying through the hotel.
We headed out the next morning with an aim to get me an outfit for Laura and Headly’s wedding in Austria. Thanks to our exploration last night we were able to narrow down the areas we saw that looked like they had nice clothes shops. We headed into the city centre and after wandering around and seeing all the outfits that everyone had out, I hadn’t seen too much that I was hanging out for. I liked some of the Chinese style tops and there were lots of winter jackets, but nothing that screamed out that it was what I wanted…or needed. Drew finally suggested a tailor that had some beautiful jackets.
It was just inside the door that I found a lovely knee length jacket in a forest green that did up on an angle and had a really cute neckline. This was my first time buying anything to be made and I was worried that the price would be more that we could budget, in the end the lady said $37 US and agreed to make it up in a dark red with cute black buttons. She also threw in a think extra lining for free and said to come back the next day to check it. This was amazing!
We headed off to be inspired by something else for the wedding and finally found a shop that didn’t look quite as nice but had some great examples in the windows. In the end we settled on Thai Silk, also in red. We came up with a nice design and then after some consideration I agreed to get a suit jacket to go with it that could double for work when we got to England. I looked and looked with the girls for a design for the jacket, but could only find a few parts that I really liked. In the end I picked some parts from other jackets and designed a cute pleated part at the back that I had dreamed up myself. I was a bit nervous, but in the end with the Thai Silk outfit and the suit jacket was $59 US. Pretty nice if I do say so myself.
With all the outfits I could possibly need ordered, Drew and I headed back to the hotel and rented a motorbike and headed down to the beach. I wasn’t really in the mood to swim so I paid 10,000 Dong and rented a sun bed. The beach is under reconstruction after a large typhoon which wiped most of the beach out. It’s being rebuilt by moving sand down to the shore and planting big palm trees to try to stop the sea washing away. The water was nice, but the waves were mainly dumpers and the rips were really strong. In the end it got overcast and cold so we headed back to the hotel and then headed to a second hand bookstore.
It was run by an American expat who stocked some romance novels!! Finally. I ended up buying the 3rd in the Clan of the Cave Bear series, the first in the Mercy Thompson series and a Susan Elizabeth Philips book called Ain’t She Sweet. I got a discount because we ended up swapping them for some of the books that we’d finished. We then dropped the motorbike off and headed out to dinner at a place we’d seen the night before called the Before and Now bar. It ended up giving us one of the best Western meals this far. The Brusetta was lovely and I had a spag boll that was fantastic. We wandered to a bar and had some drinks and played some pool and then headed home to bed.
The second full day in Hoi An we headed out on a tour to see My Son (pronounced Me Sun) which is one of the most extensive Cham sites in Vietnam. The bus was a really dodgy tour that gave us a bus with a hole in the floor, but it was cheap at $6 so we didn’t complain. My Son was meant to be one of the main capitals of the Cham culture that migrated from Indonesia many many 100’s of years ago. We got a ride from the gate up to the walking trail in old American Army jeeps. We had an a very enthusiastic explanation of the site from our guide and then headed up the track to the first site.
The site is extensively damaged and you can still see the bomb craters. The site is intriguing to Archaeologists because the bricks that make up the towers and rooms you go into are not held together by any visible cement or glue. The most recent suggestion says that they were held together by honey and some other ingredient from the forest. The site is quite overgrown and the parts that have been cleared are beautiful, but the extent of the damage is devastating. The buildings that remain have had a lot of work and there is still work going on with the help of UNESCO.
The buildings are a light brown stone and are all dedicated to a Hindu god. There were some intriguing stone alters that I would suggest would be sacrificial stones that were the same as some we’d seen at Angkor. The guide on our tour that we were only following and listening to occasionally finally confirmed my theory, though in Angkor they swore it wasn’t for sacrifice but they couldn’t tell me what it was for.
Site A at My Son was clearly at one time the centre piece for the culture. It would have been huge if the dimensions of the destroyed portions of the part that remains is an indication. It would have had a temple that was easily three or four times the size of the other temple we had seen at another part of the site. The floor plan looked like it would have been similar and the carvings that remain on the base were of a similar style to the other existing temple. This is one of the sad losses in the war with America, they had bombed this site and when they couldn’t destroy it they sent a helicopter in to hover over it and blast it till there was nothing left.
The VC never occupied the site during the war and the USA only destroyed it to make sure they couldn’t occupy it in future or for some twisted psychological reasons. After looking at some more destroyed temples and some bomb craters where temples were, we headed back to the bus and then got transferred to a boat for lunch and a cruise down the river back to Hoi An. We stopped by an artists village and watched some amazing wood workers creating wonderful things.
When we arrived back in Hoi An we went to the coat shop called 'Na Na' first. The jacket was beautiful and fit me perfectly first time. With many thanks and a spring in my step we headed to the next tailor to pick up my jacket and silk outfit. The jacket was perfect and the skirt was lovely, but it needed a little tightening. The top was nice, but sadly was nothing like what I thought I’d asked for. In the end they said they’d remake the outfit to be what I wanted and the jacket was so lovely that I ended up getting a work skirt to match, we agreed to head back there in four hours and pick it all up.
We ended up renting a motorbike and heading to the beach again. The weather was a little warmer so I decided to go for a swim with Drew, sadly it was still dumping and had a strong rip so I didn’t stay in long. We headed back into town and picked up my clothes that were all fixed and fitted perfectly and I dropped some clothes off that needed to be taken in, we were told to come back in about 2 hours. We then we headed out to dinner at the Before and Now bar again. The last time we ate upstairs in the restaurant and this time we decided to eat in the more relaxed bar. It was just as good as the first night. We just needed a few good comfort meals to allow us to continue on our way.
On the way back from the restaurant we walked past a cute skirt, I decided to try it on, it was a little too tight and the girl agreed to let it out a little. As it was already 9pm she said she’d drop it at our hotel reception for me, after she was finished. Then we picked up the pants I was getting taken in from the tailor which was the shop next to the hotel. We headed out to have a drink at a bar around the corner from the hotel called the "Why Not?" bar. This is not the only 'Why Not' bar we’ve seen, but they don’t have anything in common. (Well... Other than booze -Drew)
We had some drinks and started talking to the people in the bar, there were people from France, Canada, Germany, a fat guy from Russia that knew no English and a few Aussie’s. We drank and chatted for hours until we found the bar closing. We then got "free shuttle" to a place called the "Last Stand Bar". The 'free shuttle' was three to a motorbike so a girl I’d just met and I climbed on the back in the rain and headed for the bar located just over the short bridge from old town on Cham island.
It was a great night fun and the next time I checked my watch it was 3am. We were catching a bus at 7am and I hadn’t even gone to bed yet. I left Drew at the bar and headed home on a motorbike taxi and after picking up my package of clothes from reception, I headed to bed. I hoped Drew would come back before the bus left for Hue in the morning…
Note: At this point we are about a week or so behind in our blog posts after travelling to Hue, then to Hanoi were we took a tour to HaLong Bay and have just returned to Hanoi from a tour to Sapa. Later today we take a bus to Laos and we have a bit of time near the internet to hopefully catch up, Facebook is still not working so hopefully we'll upload a bunch of photos when we get to Vientiene in Laos.
We climbed on the train and travelled to Hoi An via Danang on a soft seat in air conditioning this time. This wasn’t by choice, the hard seat wasn’t available at the time we wanted to travel. It was only an extra 40,000 Dong so we were complaining. Surprisingly, we were again, the only westerners on the train. This is fun because we get to be the only ones immersed in with the locals. At the same time though we are getting to the stage where we want to meet some people who speak English and are in the same backpacker boat as us.
We decided that in Hoi An we’d make more of an effort to meet and hang out with backpackers and with that in mind our driver and his sister (who was in the front seat) talked us into staying at the An Phu hotel in Hoi An. The place was a cool old building that had been turned into a hotel. We walked in and were shown a few rooms and after picking one of the cheaper ones with a private balcony we settled in. There was something a bit creepy about the hotel though and over the course of the first day we saw bats, rats and cockroaches. Granted the roaches are pretty common in SE Asia, but the bat flying in the hallway and the number of large rats I saw gave me pause. We were there now though and we were only staying 3 nights so I decided to stick it out.
We headed into town which was just down the road from the hotel (which was another reason to forgive them the animals). The centre of Hoi An is like the South East Asia that we had read about in old novels and see in old movies but just doesn’t really exist anymore. After walking down the first street we quickly realised that tailors were the main enterprise in Hoi An. One after the other the tailors line the streets with mannequins out the front clothed in their designs and even more hanging from every conceivable location inside the stores walls and from the roof. With much bemusement and a chorus of “come in sir/madam, see my store” or “you want a new suit, I make for you 12 hours” we headed towards the river and grabbed an early dinner at a cute little restaurant called cordon blue.
I’d like to note that I am enjoying the fact that we are finally in a part of Vietnam where you don’t have to search to find Pho Bo (pronounced fo ba, or at least that‘s how it pronounced here). I’ve been told that it’s more of a dish from northern Vietnam so I look forward to eating more of the fabulous beef noodle soup in future.
We were treated to a sunset like nothing else we’ve seen so far I think. The strong pinks and oranges were breathtaking and the view from one of the bridges with it setting over the old city just reinforces all of the old SE Asia images you didn’t even know you had. Walking around the city at night is just beautiful and at night there seems to be a rule where no motorbikes are allowed to be ridden. This means that you can walk around in the middle of the street with just push bikes around you and everyone is dressed beautifully.
We later found out that another rule for locals states that in the old city ladies must be dressed either in traditional attire or at least in clothes that covers them up conservatively. No one seemed to bothered with it though and it really did add to the relaxed feel of the city centre. In the end we made it an early night and headed back to the hotel for a drink. It was at this point that we saw our first huge rat and a bat flying through the hotel.
We headed out the next morning with an aim to get me an outfit for Laura and Headly’s wedding in Austria. Thanks to our exploration last night we were able to narrow down the areas we saw that looked like they had nice clothes shops. We headed into the city centre and after wandering around and seeing all the outfits that everyone had out, I hadn’t seen too much that I was hanging out for. I liked some of the Chinese style tops and there were lots of winter jackets, but nothing that screamed out that it was what I wanted…or needed. Drew finally suggested a tailor that had some beautiful jackets.
It was just inside the door that I found a lovely knee length jacket in a forest green that did up on an angle and had a really cute neckline. This was my first time buying anything to be made and I was worried that the price would be more that we could budget, in the end the lady said $37 US and agreed to make it up in a dark red with cute black buttons. She also threw in a think extra lining for free and said to come back the next day to check it. This was amazing!
We headed off to be inspired by something else for the wedding and finally found a shop that didn’t look quite as nice but had some great examples in the windows. In the end we settled on Thai Silk, also in red. We came up with a nice design and then after some consideration I agreed to get a suit jacket to go with it that could double for work when we got to England. I looked and looked with the girls for a design for the jacket, but could only find a few parts that I really liked. In the end I picked some parts from other jackets and designed a cute pleated part at the back that I had dreamed up myself. I was a bit nervous, but in the end with the Thai Silk outfit and the suit jacket was $59 US. Pretty nice if I do say so myself.
With all the outfits I could possibly need ordered, Drew and I headed back to the hotel and rented a motorbike and headed down to the beach. I wasn’t really in the mood to swim so I paid 10,000 Dong and rented a sun bed. The beach is under reconstruction after a large typhoon which wiped most of the beach out. It’s being rebuilt by moving sand down to the shore and planting big palm trees to try to stop the sea washing away. The water was nice, but the waves were mainly dumpers and the rips were really strong. In the end it got overcast and cold so we headed back to the hotel and then headed to a second hand bookstore.
It was run by an American expat who stocked some romance novels!! Finally. I ended up buying the 3rd in the Clan of the Cave Bear series, the first in the Mercy Thompson series and a Susan Elizabeth Philips book called Ain’t She Sweet. I got a discount because we ended up swapping them for some of the books that we’d finished. We then dropped the motorbike off and headed out to dinner at a place we’d seen the night before called the Before and Now bar. It ended up giving us one of the best Western meals this far. The Brusetta was lovely and I had a spag boll that was fantastic. We wandered to a bar and had some drinks and played some pool and then headed home to bed.
The second full day in Hoi An we headed out on a tour to see My Son (pronounced Me Sun) which is one of the most extensive Cham sites in Vietnam. The bus was a really dodgy tour that gave us a bus with a hole in the floor, but it was cheap at $6 so we didn’t complain. My Son was meant to be one of the main capitals of the Cham culture that migrated from Indonesia many many 100’s of years ago. We got a ride from the gate up to the walking trail in old American Army jeeps. We had an a very enthusiastic explanation of the site from our guide and then headed up the track to the first site.
The site is extensively damaged and you can still see the bomb craters. The site is intriguing to Archaeologists because the bricks that make up the towers and rooms you go into are not held together by any visible cement or glue. The most recent suggestion says that they were held together by honey and some other ingredient from the forest. The site is quite overgrown and the parts that have been cleared are beautiful, but the extent of the damage is devastating. The buildings that remain have had a lot of work and there is still work going on with the help of UNESCO.
The buildings are a light brown stone and are all dedicated to a Hindu god. There were some intriguing stone alters that I would suggest would be sacrificial stones that were the same as some we’d seen at Angkor. The guide on our tour that we were only following and listening to occasionally finally confirmed my theory, though in Angkor they swore it wasn’t for sacrifice but they couldn’t tell me what it was for.
Site A at My Son was clearly at one time the centre piece for the culture. It would have been huge if the dimensions of the destroyed portions of the part that remains is an indication. It would have had a temple that was easily three or four times the size of the other temple we had seen at another part of the site. The floor plan looked like it would have been similar and the carvings that remain on the base were of a similar style to the other existing temple. This is one of the sad losses in the war with America, they had bombed this site and when they couldn’t destroy it they sent a helicopter in to hover over it and blast it till there was nothing left.
The VC never occupied the site during the war and the USA only destroyed it to make sure they couldn’t occupy it in future or for some twisted psychological reasons. After looking at some more destroyed temples and some bomb craters where temples were, we headed back to the bus and then got transferred to a boat for lunch and a cruise down the river back to Hoi An. We stopped by an artists village and watched some amazing wood workers creating wonderful things.
When we arrived back in Hoi An we went to the coat shop called 'Na Na' first. The jacket was beautiful and fit me perfectly first time. With many thanks and a spring in my step we headed to the next tailor to pick up my jacket and silk outfit. The jacket was perfect and the skirt was lovely, but it needed a little tightening. The top was nice, but sadly was nothing like what I thought I’d asked for. In the end they said they’d remake the outfit to be what I wanted and the jacket was so lovely that I ended up getting a work skirt to match, we agreed to head back there in four hours and pick it all up.
We ended up renting a motorbike and heading to the beach again. The weather was a little warmer so I decided to go for a swim with Drew, sadly it was still dumping and had a strong rip so I didn’t stay in long. We headed back into town and picked up my clothes that were all fixed and fitted perfectly and I dropped some clothes off that needed to be taken in, we were told to come back in about 2 hours. We then we headed out to dinner at the Before and Now bar again. The last time we ate upstairs in the restaurant and this time we decided to eat in the more relaxed bar. It was just as good as the first night. We just needed a few good comfort meals to allow us to continue on our way.
On the way back from the restaurant we walked past a cute skirt, I decided to try it on, it was a little too tight and the girl agreed to let it out a little. As it was already 9pm she said she’d drop it at our hotel reception for me, after she was finished. Then we picked up the pants I was getting taken in from the tailor which was the shop next to the hotel. We headed out to have a drink at a bar around the corner from the hotel called the "Why Not?" bar. This is not the only 'Why Not' bar we’ve seen, but they don’t have anything in common. (Well... Other than booze -Drew)
We had some drinks and started talking to the people in the bar, there were people from France, Canada, Germany, a fat guy from Russia that knew no English and a few Aussie’s. We drank and chatted for hours until we found the bar closing. We then got "free shuttle" to a place called the "Last Stand Bar". The 'free shuttle' was three to a motorbike so a girl I’d just met and I climbed on the back in the rain and headed for the bar located just over the short bridge from old town on Cham island.
It was a great night fun and the next time I checked my watch it was 3am. We were catching a bus at 7am and I hadn’t even gone to bed yet. I left Drew at the bar and headed home on a motorbike taxi and after picking up my package of clothes from reception, I headed to bed. I hoped Drew would come back before the bus left for Hue in the morning…
Note: At this point we are about a week or so behind in our blog posts after travelling to Hue, then to Hanoi were we took a tour to HaLong Bay and have just returned to Hanoi from a tour to Sapa. Later today we take a bus to Laos and we have a bit of time near the internet to hopefully catch up, Facebook is still not working so hopefully we'll upload a bunch of photos when we get to Vientiene in Laos.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Comfort Food.
There have been a few times on our tip where we have found ourselves out of our comfort zone. While walking the streets of Dalat after dinner we stumbled into a night market in the middle of the road. The market was no more than a few rows of canvas bags spread out across the ground selling all of the seconds clothing. There wasn’t anything particularly special about the market itself, but as the vendors went about selling their wares they all had a unique chant like sales pitch which when combined with all of the market vendors created an orchestral rhythm. It reminded me of walking through Ankor Wat and listening to the band of landmine-victims playing local instruments on the side of the path. When you single out one instrument to listen to it, it just sounds like noise, but when collaborated as a whole it creates music.
Browsing the market stalls I turned to Prue and asked “are you out of your comfort zone yet?”. No sooner had she replied “no” with a shake of her head and a bewildered smile when suddenly all of the vendors starting yelling frantically and grabbed their canvas bags running and dragging them off the street, over the top of us, and retreating to the edges of the sidewalk. Within ten seconds the entire street had cleared of market stalls and while Prue and I stood in the middle of where the market had been, a truck with a tray full of baton wielding police officers roared around the corner charging into the empty space the market had occupied. Prue grabbed my arm and said “ok, now I’m out of my comfort zone” and with that we decided it was best to leave the area.
Mostly being out of your comfort zone doesn’t necessarily mean being uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is the only word I would use to describe our bus ride from Nha Trang to Qui Nhon, I might even add a curse word to the front of it. We were booked on a 16 seater mini-van for the five hour trip, 16 seats might work for tiny little Vietnamese, but when you try and shoehorn the two of us into the back seat, sealed in by two more locals, with one leg up in the air and our bags sitting on our laps in a mini van that decided it needed to be parked in the sun for fifteen minutes before leaving without the aircon on… Well it’s fucking uncomfortable
We had an opportunity to bail about ten minutes into the trip heading out of town, again the bus decided it needed to be parked on the side of the road for fifteen more minutes. Prue and I sat and debated whether or not we would get off, and after much debating we finally though “fuck it, lets get out of here”, we moved to get out, which would involve literally climbing over people. Suddenly fate raised its hand and bitch slapped us back down into our seat as the door slammed shut and the bus speed forward to Qui Nhon with 14 locals and us, crammed in the back sweltering, sweating, squished and so terribly uncomfortable.
We had decided to take the bus against our better judgment, as bus rides in Vietnam tend to be more like a death defying rollercoaster when compared to the safer and smoother option of the train. The train timetable didn’t have an appropriate departure time for us so we ended up crammed into our mini-van as we twisted and winded our way up through mountain trails along the beautiful ocean road, with gorgeous beaches and off shore islands on one side and gigantic mountains and cliffs on the other side. The Vietnamese could be forgiven for not bothering to visit our own Great Ocean Road, they have one, and it’s very bloody beautiful.
Or at least, we’re pretty sure it was. It’s hard to sit and enjoy the views. Not because we were squished uncomfortably into the back of the mini van. It’s hard to enjoy the view because you just cant take your eyes away from the road and the certain death that honks its way toward you at every turn, on every straight and always on your side of the road. Unless of course it is you who driving is on their side. We may have been under the impression our driver was Australian as he actually spent more time driving on our side of the road (the wrong side) than he did using the imaginary middle lane. Driving into darkness didn’t offer much relief either, as now their was no view to distract you from the road, and you are always wondering if the headlight of the scooter you are approaching head on to bully off the road, is actually a truck with one blown light.
It’s a bit of an adrenaline rush escaping death over and over, occasionally muttering an “oh shit!” or gripping the edge of you seat. It is truly frightening however, when the locals who seem mostly oblivious or desensitised to the road mayhem start popping their head up going “oh oh oh…” as the narrowest of margins saves you from being worm food. In the end we made it safely albeit uncomfortably to Qui Nhon.
Qui Nhon is a beach side city in the foot of the mountains and a place with little to no western tourism. it’s a bit of a shame that there isn’t much tourism as it is a lovely place. But I suppose it is made a little lovelier because of the lack of tourism. We were able to walk down the street without vendors pleading with us to come in and have a look, and we were able to sit and have a meal without peddlers walking up to us selling crap. We decided to do what anyone in a place without tourism would do, we checked into a resort.
Using modern technology we negotiated a cheap rate by bringing up the internet on Prue’s iPhone while standing at the reception desk, we found the resort mostly deserted as it is the off season and it kinda made us feel like the whole place was for us. So we relaxed in our complimentary bath robes, ordered Australian steak from room service, had a swim, a massage, a sauna and pottered around the quiet town of Qui Nhon, checking out a few nearby Cham sites. After two relaxing nights we set sail for the clothes tailor capital of South East Asia, Hoi An. This time we took the train.
Browsing the market stalls I turned to Prue and asked “are you out of your comfort zone yet?”. No sooner had she replied “no” with a shake of her head and a bewildered smile when suddenly all of the vendors starting yelling frantically and grabbed their canvas bags running and dragging them off the street, over the top of us, and retreating to the edges of the sidewalk. Within ten seconds the entire street had cleared of market stalls and while Prue and I stood in the middle of where the market had been, a truck with a tray full of baton wielding police officers roared around the corner charging into the empty space the market had occupied. Prue grabbed my arm and said “ok, now I’m out of my comfort zone” and with that we decided it was best to leave the area.
Mostly being out of your comfort zone doesn’t necessarily mean being uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is the only word I would use to describe our bus ride from Nha Trang to Qui Nhon, I might even add a curse word to the front of it. We were booked on a 16 seater mini-van for the five hour trip, 16 seats might work for tiny little Vietnamese, but when you try and shoehorn the two of us into the back seat, sealed in by two more locals, with one leg up in the air and our bags sitting on our laps in a mini van that decided it needed to be parked in the sun for fifteen minutes before leaving without the aircon on… Well it’s fucking uncomfortable
We had an opportunity to bail about ten minutes into the trip heading out of town, again the bus decided it needed to be parked on the side of the road for fifteen more minutes. Prue and I sat and debated whether or not we would get off, and after much debating we finally though “fuck it, lets get out of here”, we moved to get out, which would involve literally climbing over people. Suddenly fate raised its hand and bitch slapped us back down into our seat as the door slammed shut and the bus speed forward to Qui Nhon with 14 locals and us, crammed in the back sweltering, sweating, squished and so terribly uncomfortable.
We had decided to take the bus against our better judgment, as bus rides in Vietnam tend to be more like a death defying rollercoaster when compared to the safer and smoother option of the train. The train timetable didn’t have an appropriate departure time for us so we ended up crammed into our mini-van as we twisted and winded our way up through mountain trails along the beautiful ocean road, with gorgeous beaches and off shore islands on one side and gigantic mountains and cliffs on the other side. The Vietnamese could be forgiven for not bothering to visit our own Great Ocean Road, they have one, and it’s very bloody beautiful.
Or at least, we’re pretty sure it was. It’s hard to sit and enjoy the views. Not because we were squished uncomfortably into the back of the mini van. It’s hard to enjoy the view because you just cant take your eyes away from the road and the certain death that honks its way toward you at every turn, on every straight and always on your side of the road. Unless of course it is you who driving is on their side. We may have been under the impression our driver was Australian as he actually spent more time driving on our side of the road (the wrong side) than he did using the imaginary middle lane. Driving into darkness didn’t offer much relief either, as now their was no view to distract you from the road, and you are always wondering if the headlight of the scooter you are approaching head on to bully off the road, is actually a truck with one blown light.
It’s a bit of an adrenaline rush escaping death over and over, occasionally muttering an “oh shit!” or gripping the edge of you seat. It is truly frightening however, when the locals who seem mostly oblivious or desensitised to the road mayhem start popping their head up going “oh oh oh…” as the narrowest of margins saves you from being worm food. In the end we made it safely albeit uncomfortably to Qui Nhon.
Qui Nhon is a beach side city in the foot of the mountains and a place with little to no western tourism. it’s a bit of a shame that there isn’t much tourism as it is a lovely place. But I suppose it is made a little lovelier because of the lack of tourism. We were able to walk down the street without vendors pleading with us to come in and have a look, and we were able to sit and have a meal without peddlers walking up to us selling crap. We decided to do what anyone in a place without tourism would do, we checked into a resort.
Using modern technology we negotiated a cheap rate by bringing up the internet on Prue’s iPhone while standing at the reception desk, we found the resort mostly deserted as it is the off season and it kinda made us feel like the whole place was for us. So we relaxed in our complimentary bath robes, ordered Australian steak from room service, had a swim, a massage, a sauna and pottered around the quiet town of Qui Nhon, checking out a few nearby Cham sites. After two relaxing nights we set sail for the clothes tailor capital of South East Asia, Hoi An. This time we took the train.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Facebook is working sporadically in Vietnam at the moment, so here are the links to a couple of new photo albums:
The first album is our days spent in Dalat... [Click HERE]
The second album is our days in Nha Trang and Qui Nhon... [Click HERE]
We'll post a new blog post in the next day (hopefully), at the moment we are in Hoi An, clothing tailors paradise.
The first album is our days spent in Dalat... [Click HERE]
The second album is our days in Nha Trang and Qui Nhon... [Click HERE]
We'll post a new blog post in the next day (hopefully), at the moment we are in Hoi An, clothing tailors paradise.
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