Indochina loop continued - Vietnam

Vietnamese Vocabulary:

ba ba ba (local beer 3 3 3 - but if said in the wrong tone, comes out as '3 old ladies')

Sim Chow - hello

Cam on - thank you

Friday - Ninh Binh

So, after a difficult run in with officialdom, we were finally let into the completely culturally different country of Vietnam - the land of the horn and the Dong!  Let me explain...

After leaving quiet Laos, we were thrust into the hustle and bustle of Vietnam.  Road manners are out of the window, overtaking, undertaking, wrong direction, sharing two lane road with bicycles, motorbikes, trucks, buses, cars, and pedestrians.  Everyone hoots their horn and they have amazing spacial awareness as we have only seen one accident so far!  Crossing the road is an experience in itself - forget zebra crossings and the little green man, its just run for your life between the gaps!

We had a long drive to our hotel in Ninh Binh.  We stopped at a weird service station and couldn't work out why our guide said to take our cameras in with us.  We soon found out why - pickled snakes greeted us!  None of us dared to have a glass of snake wine.  Next was our usual scarey WC moment.  This was so horrible because there were female urinals with no screens or separation of any kind!  Fortunately there were two cubicles but one of them had footprints on the seat where somebody had stood on it to squat - GROSS!!!

Our hotel was ok - the architecture here is very much like Amsterdam - tall narrow buildings.  The fronts are very ornate but the sides and backs are just concrete - weird!  Our room was on the fifth floor with no lift but a kindly porter saw me struggling with 'dead body bag' and helped me up the stairs.

Saturday - Halong Bay

We piled back into the minibus for another early and long drive.  The drive was interesting going through towns but each looked the same.  The vehicles on the road were fascinating and we saw bicycles laden down with everything from cages of pigs, chickens, dogs and even one dead cow!  The motorcycles carry whole families with usually child at front and another squashed in middle.  Very few people wear crash helmets but there are two main forms of head gear - first being the conical straw hat (will get one soon and show you pic) and the other is a green pit helmet!  Also, the women are obsessed with not getting the sun on their skin and they cover up completely including face masks.  They also purchase skin whitening cosmetics.

We arrived at our destination, Halong Bay.  Being Saturday, it was mobbed!  Unfortunately, our boat wasn't available but after a little bit of negotiations, we were offered the luxury cruiser instead!  What a treat!  It was amazing - and we arrived on board to be greated with wet flannels and cold drinks.  Our group were the only passengers.  We were shown to our cabins and then went back on deck for some sunbathing whilst the boat cruised around the bay and its 2000 limestone rock islands.  After a sumptuous lunch which catered for all the fussy eaters,  we stopped at some caves and spent an hour or so intreagued by the formations of the stalegmites/tites. Back to boat and swimming time, which most of us did by diving off the side of the boat.  The water was so warm and we enjoyed our swim until the current suddenly changed and pulled us away from the boat.  It was really hard to swim back but we all managed safely.  After a quick shower, it was time for cocktails on the upper deck on the sun loungers, watching the sun set.  What an amazing array of colours in the sky and the other boats that were anchored started to twinkle with their lights.  We had another huge meal and then someone put on a karaoke video - the alchohol had to be drunk in large quantities to participate.  A disco light ball was also prouced and the party went on till gone midnight.  Great fun.

Sunday - Hanoi

Left the boat after breakfast and continued our journey by road to Hanoi, the capital.  Hotel ok.  Spent afternoon walking round the Hoa Lo Prison (famous for holding American pilot prisoners).

Nothing can quite prepare you for the roads here in Hanoi - just one word to sum it up MENTAL! The traffic, mostly bikes and cycles, weave in and out of each other and pedestrians.  Our guide thought it fun for us to experience more of this chaos by organising a Cyclo tour.  We each had our own cyclo (like a rickshaw) being peddled by a local crazy dude.  They wanted a race, so 11 of us set off from outside the hotel, racing round the city, weaving in and out.  I took photos, but they don't really do it justice.  I have a video which I hope to put on here.

After an hour of white knuckle riding, we arrived at the theatre of the famous water puppets.  I guess it might have helped if we had understood what was going on, but the locals loved it.  For us, sitting at the back heckling, it was like being on a huge acid trip - the whole thing was surreal with their singy song music and puppets in the water being controlled on rods from behind curtains.  Thank goodness it only lasted an hour!

Off for a dinner in a local restaurant - nothing fancy but we are all improving with our use of chopsticks and our ability to down several pints of local beer.

Monday - Hanoi

Had a lie in (well actually I woke up at 6.30am but we had arranged to meet for breakfast at 9am).  After breaky 5 of us headed off for the Revolutionary Museum only to find it closed, like all museums here on Mondays.  Pity our guide hadn't bothered to tell us that! We spent rest of day walking around the beautiful lake with its legend of the turtle and the sword and then shopping all in 36 degree heat and hellish humidity.  For some strange reason, a couple of street traders were not happy when we said no to their wares and slapped one or two of us on the arm!  Bizarre, but apparantly they like to touch western people.  Next person to slap me, gets one back!!! Crossing the road is getting easier, maybe because we are more confident about dodging the traffic.  It really has to be seen to be believed.

Tuesday - Hanoi

Breakfast in KOTO (Know one, teach one) a kinda Jamie Oliver 15 type training restaurant.  Buffet was excellent and very filling. That set us up for the long day ahead.  We queued for over an hour in the heat to see 'Uncle Ho' (Ho Chi Minh).  We had to be very solemn in the queue and not talk or laugh but of course one of our group decided to test the guards and see if she could get arrested (pity they did't put her in the 'Hanoi Hilton' and we still have her in our group (NO, it wasn't me!) We all filed past in silence and it was all over very quickly (FACT: Ho Chi Minh's dying request was to be cremated, not embalmed so it is amazing that for a nation that loved him so much, they disregarded his wishes.  However, we have concluded that he did get his wish and the body we were looking at was actually a wax work!).  Next we trouped around the museum and his houses.  The museum was weird and history has a strange slant to it over here!  The museum was full of HCM's belongings and we half expected to see his toenail clippings in there somewhere!

Our train was due to leave at 7pm so we had to drag our bags 10 minutes across town in the heat and humidity and rush hour. We had seen news reports that the weather was getting bad in the centre of the country but nobody was worried.  Our sleeper train had 4 berth compartments but for most of the evening we squeezed 6 of us in to play the crazy card game 'Backpacker'.  I have never known a card game to have 3 pages of rules!  This train was in no way as luxurious as the one we took from Bangkok.  We went to bed at 11pm but the Irish contingent in the next compartment wanted to party till about 1am.  By 4am we realised that we weren't moving and stuck at a station.  After listening to the announcements in Vietnames, our guide found someone to translate and discovered that the train wasn't going to continue the journey as there was heavy flooding and landslides ahead.

Wednesday - (Vinh station to Hue by road)

By 10am our guide decided that she should make a decision about how to progress this journey!  Luckily there were 3 other Intrepid groups on the train and the office managed to rustle up a couple of tour buses to take us to our destination.  We were so tired and hungry and the rain was torrential.  I have NEVER seen such heavy rain in such a short space of time.  The roads had turned to rivers.  We stopped at a restaurant and had to be escorted, 2 at a time, under the big sun shade umbrellas.

We took bets on the time we would arrive at our destination.  After 7pm, 8pm, 9pm passed, we started getting tired and silly.  I said "wouldn't it be ironic if our coach broke down" (remember this for later).  We had a couple of stops along the way and took the pleasant coastal road but we were too tired to appreciate the scenery.  Guess what, as we got close to our hotel around 10.30pm, our bus broke down!  I was not the most popular person on that bus! We were debating whether to continue by taxi but eventually the driver got it going again.  We arrived at our hotel at 11.30pm, tired, miserable and hungry but hit the shower and straight to bed!

Thursday - Hue (pronouced Hooaiy)

Early start as we were collected from our hotel by 12 motorcyclists ready to take us site-seeing as pillion passengers.  Each one of them looked the same - green hat, green shirt and green trousers (oh and moustaches seem to be in vogue here!).  Our guide said "don't worry, they will recognise you!".  We had a great time weaving through the traffic (not as mental as Hanoi) stopping at various sites - the Citadel, the amphitheatre, pagodas, and then lunch at a nunnery.  Had the most sumptuous vegetarian lunch where the nuns proved that you can make tofu and been curd taste amazingly good.  Next stop was the conical hat maker.  This lady has spent over 30 years making the hats in her front room but the amazing thing is that she only has one hand.  Her other arm is missing below the elbow but that didn't hinder her in any way.  Back to the hotel to catch another  minibus to our next destination.

Arrived in Hoi An around 5pm so only time for eating and drinking before hitting the sack, thoroughly exhausted.

Friday - Hoi An

Most of the group starting to feel a bit run down and this is the first opportunity to have some 'chill out time'.  Unfortunately, there is a plethora of tailors and shops in this town and despite most of our best intentions not to have too many clothes made, most of us managed to visit a tailor or two!  In this town you can have anything made/copied from clothes to shoes, jewellery, bags etc.  I only had one pair of jeans (cos I am an awkward shape for off the peg stuff) and a pair of light weight trousers made and bought a pair of flip flop kinda shoes.  Town has some lovely restaurants and places to stop for a drink overlooking the little river.  Hotel not very nice although it does have a swimming pool and free internet.

Saturday - Hoi An

Back to the tailors for final fittings.  Chilling by the pool.  General shopping and eating/drinking. I bought a backpack to replace the 'dead body bag' but of course I can't carry both around, so have had to fill the backpack and pack that inside the big bag!

Sunday - Hoi An

Everyone regretting buying so much cos now they can't stuff it into their backpacks.  Most of them have decided to post clothes home so they rushed around  doing that whilst I sat by the pool relaxing.  Luckily, Tom will take most of my excess baggage home with him.  Afternoon flight to Saigon. Cyclo tour around town - not as manic as Hanoi but still pretty busy!  Hotel OK.

Monday - Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City

Morning visit to the Cuchi Tunnels where the Vietnamese people lived for up to 15 years underground hiding from the Americans.  The tunnels have been widened for Westerners to visit but I didn't get all the way in as it was very claustrophobic.  The Vietnamese were very ingenious in the ways they hid and laid traps for the Americans.  There was also a shooting range there where visitors could pay for ammunication and shoot into barrels - I stayed in the cafe well away from the firing range.  Starting to get a cold which is dampening my enthusiasm.

Tuesday - Saigon

Our morning started by each one of us being packed into a cyclo with our baggage to meet our 'public bus'.  We had images of the local buses that carry every man, woman, child,chicken, dog, goat etc... luckily it was an airconditioned coach whose only other travellers were Koreans!  After 4 hours or so,we arrived at the Cambodian border.  Handed over our dollars, photo and bribe money and waited to be called individually.  My name wasn't called and I started to get worried.  Perhaps I shouldn't have coughed and sneezed whilst looking directly at the health quarantine official dude!  Our tour leader didn't seem too bothered and buggered off to the waiting coach.  Becky stayed with me and eventually my name was called and passport handed back - bit of a scarey moment! Another 4 hours later we arrived at our destination of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.  The roads were unmade and dusty and so very different to the Vietnam we had left behind.

My thoughts on Vietnam - some really nice places but in the main, noisy, humid, people far too tactile for my liking.  Relatively cheap and a fantastic opportunity to get clothes/shoes made to measure.  Apparantly, Vietnam is the number one holiday destination for Australians who don't want to go to Bali/Malaysia since the bombings.  You can see that they are gearing up for tourism and will soon become as popular as Bangkok.