Vietnam 2011

Day 14 – Home time

// May 15th, 2011 // No Comments » // Vietnam

All good things must come to and end, and sadly day 14 for Hannah, Deb and Glen meant we were voted off the trip and it was time to come home. Pretty uneventful trip home, again via KL, so no need to go into detail about that.

What I will say is what a great time we had and to sum up the trip as best I can.

Vietnam is an enigma in many ways. It’s quiet yet loud, small but overtly large in areas and poor yet capitalist. It doesn’t conform to anywhere else we’ve been in that it feels that everyone works as hard as each other – there are no passengers. The women do as much if not more manual work as the men, the children are well behaved and have that hard work attitude drilled into them from an early age.

My fear for Vietnam is that they’ll be exploited by the West in the next decade or so. Clearly there’s little in the way of money within the country, so to grow, they need outside help. Vietnam has what the west want: beaches, warm temperatures, an interesting culture and cheap (and desperate) labour. The resorts, golf courses and brand new international airport in and around Da Nang show where the country is ultimately headed. I just hope that Vietnam retains what makes it special and doesn’t become even more reliant on the tourist dollar to get them through.

If you’re thinking of visiting Vietnam, I’d do it sooner rather than later. I have no doubt that Vietnam in 2020 will be a great place to visit if you’re keen for a fairly cheap and enjoyable resort-style getaway, but if you want to get in and really see a country, I think you’ll be too late. Already people are saying that Cambodia is what Vietnam was 10-20 years ago and for the more intrepid traveller, my bet is that’s where the backpacking tourist wanting to see SE Asia will head.

My other tip for Vietnam is to do your research before you go. There’s heaps to see and do, but getting around isn’t always simple. It’s not necessarily a country made for tourists who are used to the luxuries that say Europe can offer – so make sure you’re fit and healthy before you go.

One last thing – on behalf of Deb and myself, a massive thanks to Laura, Ben and Hannah for being great touring companions. Not an argument was had and given we did almost everything together – that’s quite an accomplishment. We had a fantastic time and look forward to reliving the memories for years to come!

Day 13 – Hanoi

// May 15th, 2011 // No Comments » // Vietnam

As I mentioned in the last post, Hanoi is insanely busy but not pushy like Saigon. It’s hard to put a finger on why it’s different, but it’s probably a bit more upper class in some respects and is certainly more beautiful. In the middle of the city is an enormous lake complete with a beautifully designed bridge that looks a treat lit up at night.

Since this was our last full day in Vietnam, we decided to see as much of Hanoi as we could and then have a special last dinner. We split the day into 2 – sight-seeing in the morning with a bit of markets action and then water puppets in the afternoon.

We’d seen on Top Gear that there’s a wrecked B-52 bomber from the war still in a lake in the city somewhere. We caught a taxi and made our way out there. We found a few interesting bits and pieces hidden in the backstreets of Hanoi – very much off the tourist track. Walking down tiny alley ways really opens the mind to what the real day-to-day life of a local is. Open-air butchers, markets, eateries, hair salons… it’s a microcosm for the greater Vietnamese way of life.

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Days 11 & 12 – Halong Bay

// May 15th, 2011 // No Comments » // Vietnam

The 2nd day of our 3 day cruise around Halong Bay started with us taking our bags ashore with us to the island of Cat Ba Island. Cat Ba Island is the largest island within Halong Bay and makes for a great stop-over place when doing cruises in the Bay. It’s a surprisingly big place – we were in the bus from where the boat dropped us until we reached our resort (nice to say that!) for about 20-30mins. The island is home to 8,000 – 10,000 people and is somewhere you could spend a decent amount of time.

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Day 10 – Halong Bay

// May 1st, 2011 // No Comments » // Vietnam

After booking our accommodation in Hue for a cruise around Halong Bay – 1 of the 7 natural wonders of the world, we waited patiently in our hotel lobby for the bus. It didn’t come. Thankfully the hotel owner spoke perfect English and he sorted it all out for us.

So, Halong Bay… If you haven’t heard of it or haven’t seen it, you’re missing out. The place is amazing both naturally in how it looks and what the local people do there. It’s essentially huge rock formations that stick out of the water everywhere, all of varying size.

Overtime, they have eroded and now have their own characteristics to them. Whether that be a beach, cave, a gap to canoe through or similar. Almost all have small trees and shrubs growing straight off the rock.

We booked about the last 2 night package available as it’s the busiest time for the region due to the celebrations on May 1st. Our bus picked us up, without the ability for us to take our luggage due to no space, so a quick pack of an overnight bag and we were away, hoping our luggage will be at the hotel when we’re back.

Halong Bay is about a 3.5hr drive from Hanoi. From there, you board a small boat which takes you to the big boat, an imitation Chinese Junk that’s anchored in the bay.

Due to our last minute booking, we could only purchase the supreme accommodation – what a shame! After we got settled, we had a delicious lunch as we started to cruise the bay and explore in and around the hundreds of rock formations.

Our first adventure was to check out some relatively recently discovered caves, well around 1992. Off the boat we got, hike up a large number of steps on this island and we enter the cave. We were expecting to crawl around a bit – we were wrong. Very wrong. The cave is simply enormous. Think basketball stadium size but higher in some parts. They’ve lit it up in various colours to show off the stalagmites and stalactites and after 20mins of exploring, we exited via another opening, amazed at what we’d seen.

We went down along and then up another path to the opening of another cave. This was more traditional in that it had a huge mouth and had a large concave back to it. This one is very visible from the water and has been used for a long time for celebrations etc.

From there, back on the small boat and off to a full-time floating village complete with general store, a dozen houses or so and a school! We proceeded to kayak around the area, exploring the community and going under the huge rock formations to find an oasis – a bay within a bay. Was great fun & astounding at how some people are able to live… Apparently some of the people never put foot on land in their lifetime!

There are a number of floating villages around Halong Bay of varying sizes. An incredible way to live and I guess kind of sadly, they’re becoming more reliant on tourism to survive.

Our final adventure for the day was back on the Junk… Swimming. And jumping. This was bloody good fun. The junk has 3 levels, bottom floor, main floor including the premium accommodation plus eating area and then a rooftop area. This is where some of us jumped from into the salty green water below. We estimated the drop was about 9m and felt it. Me (Glen) was the only one stupid (def. not brave) enough to go from the top whilst the others had a go from the bottom level. Much fun was had!

The final “entertainment” for the day was karaoke after dinner. Who knew Asians were so into it? the crew were into it in a massive way, mainly singing Vietnamese songs with a few western ones thrown in for good measure. It was hard to get them off it!

The girls did a good job of representing Australia and belted out quite a few numbers. The boys tried a Dire Straights song but the words were totally wrong, not just slow, so the system matched our voices.

We slept in our cabins and was a pretty good experience. The junks all moor together since the accident and the Government took around 50 Junks off the water due to poor safety. Let’s just say they must have been bad. All in all, I counted around 60 junks that anchored around us for the night. How did the Government choose where boats would stop for the evening? This part of the bay is shallow, so if the boats do sink, they will still be above water! Now that’s safety for ya!

That’s just day 1! Day 2 & 3 to come soon.

Day 9 – Hue

// May 1st, 2011 // No Comments » // Vietnam

Hue is pretty impressive… We would have done well to stay here longer, but as it happens, we only had a day here.

Hue is home to an enormous Citadel in the middle of the city. It was built in the 1800s although it looks like it could be 1000 years old. It was home to the royal palace and also some bloody battles in the Vietnam War.

It’s also hot. Damn hot. Due to the enormous gardens and greenery everywhere within the 10km circumfrence of the citadel, it just amps up the humidity and it’s moister than a fat girl’s sock. We basically walked for 5 minutes, took a rest for 10 and went through a litre of water. Rinse (literally) and repeat.

Took some great photos if we do say so ourselves, including bullet holes in the old walls at the site of the battles.

Hue, Vietnam 2011

From there, we went into the city more, had a few drinks & lunch at the well-known DMZ bar, then tried to source our trip to Halong Bay. Now that’s an ordeal… there’s a hundred different options to choose from all with slightly different accommodation; itineraries and inclusions/exclusions. In the end, it was pretty simple, we only found 1 mob who would allow us a 2-night stay… 1 on the boat/junk and 1 on CatBa Island, the biggest island within Halong Bay.

We tried a river cruise which was about 90 minutes and went up and down the river.  A very pleasant way to finish the day before having a very traditional meal at a non-tourist restaurant… we are branching out! The food was really tasty and rather cheap cheap! Not sure it agreed with Ben so much or if it was something from earlier in the day.

We had a late flight to Hanoi at 22:10 which quickly became 23:20 when we got to the airport… of course we got there early due to previous “issues” with our last flight, and so we had 3+hrs to kill. Apparently sitting in front of the fan in a non-airconditioned building is a no-no over here… No fan for you!

Some very weary travelers eventually arrived in Hanoi and to our hotel at about 1am, ready for a 7:30am departure for Halong Bay… Best part of the travel was the taxi into Hanoi from the airport where we saw the market sellers taking their goods in for the morning (this is after midnight remember)… we could not get over how much they can fit on the back of a motorbike… If only we could have taken photos. Put it this way – we scoffed at one guy for *only* having a bail of herbs/green stuff the height of him behind him. The others had at least double if not triple that. Imagine panier bags but ones that almost touch the ground and go out double the width of the bike full of flowers, herbs, morning glory (leafy greens), cabbages – you name it.

The next 3 days – Halong Bay, potentially one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world!

Day 7 & 8 – Hoi An

// April 27th, 2011 // No Comments » // Vietnam

I’ll condense these 2 days into 1 to save a bit of typing…

We rose early (5am pick-up from our hotel) to head off to My Son (pronounced, Mee Sun). They’re these very impressive ruins built back in the 4th century right through to the 13th century using a special type of bricks and a particular plant product in place of mortar. The end result is pretty bloody impressive – the bricks are divided by nothing it seems, yet hold a perfect form.

Unfortunately the Vietnam War affected some of the area and restoring is incredibly difficult given the lack of standard building methods not being able to be used. So you could say it was a bit “ruined” – boom-tish.

Thankfully for inspiration, Deb & Laura were able to use their nail polish for inspiration where many, many photos were taken with their french nails in view with the ruins providing an inspirational backdrop. Much fun was had by all! Except poor Hannah, who woke up feeling a bit crook and decided to pass on the journey.

For the rest of the afternoon, we looked around the town further including a first try-on of our tailored clothes – which, let’s just say, went well for some, not so much for others. For the sake of anonymity to protect the guilty, some were happy with what they got, some were ambivalent, some were rather displeased with the efforts of the local tailors. Some decided to get the hell out of there and go for a “fresh beer” in a pub near the river. Those 2 were particularly smart.

The tailors gave us notice that they’d be finished in the morning (the day we were to leave) and to come back then. Of course a local dinner was to ensue and some more drinks which ended a very enjoyable day.

The next morning, we picked up the clothes, happy that they were now pretty damn good, checked out of our “resort” – who knew that you must pay for resorts in cash only… And onto a “sleeper bus” we went. One thing of note – Laura & Glen popped outside to the local street vendor to grab some supplies for the 4hr+ journey to Hue and we bought some drinks and pringles off an elderly local woman. So for 2 large waters, 2 pringles and a can of drink was $5. We both pretty much got the same order so we handed over $10 or so.

She said to me as I left, “Thank you very much, I am very lucky today”. It kind of makes your heart sink and realise just how tough a lot of them do it here.

The bus ride to Hue was really quite nice. For those of you who haven’t experienced a sleeper bus, they’re very different to a traditional bus. Very large, they have fully recline-able seats and you stretch out in front – 2 stories of people… A pretty good way to travel! Picture here…

The countryside between Hoi An and Hue is breathtaking… green rice fields with a huge mountain backdrop is a familar sight on one side whilst more rice fields butting up against the ocean with half-moon shaped bays to the other… Once through the enormous tunnel, you come out to a very mountainous area with sheer cliffs to the side. As you climb to the top, you see what’s to come which is a large decent down towards more water and just awesome driving roads… If only we had a motorbike or car! Unfortunately it’s a good 2hrs+ from either Hue or Hoi An so it’s a day in itself… Next time!

We arrive in Hue safely and find our hotel with a very expensive $1.20 cab ride. Speaking of money, the bus from Hoi An to Hue was a whopping $3.50 each… for 4hrs! Also, I bought a can of coke and some weird and chewy peanut type things at the half way pit-stop from a bunch of women selling refreshments. For $1.50 i got 8 of the peanut things + the coke and a massive thank-you smile from the local. Funny thing is though, they all sell the *exact* same thing. There’s no variation, so whether you pick woman 1 or woman 6 is totally down to luck… I guess that’s what the first woman meant by lucky… that’s all it’s down to.

After a brief walk around Hue, we realise it’s pretty different again to Saigon & Hoi An. It’s a very large but very nice city. No more annoying hawkers coming up to you – they rely on you approaching them which is refreshing. We had a large and very “local” dinner on a floating restaurant on the river as we watched the huge bridge fade from one colour to another. Very pretty.

Deb & Glen decided to head back to the hotel via “cyclos”… I think we got ripped off, as the price for 2 quickly became the price for one… but when you’re paying only $3 and it becomes $6 for 30mins, you don’t really care. They certainly need it more than us! The poor guys just sit around hoping that someone will pick them to take them back to their hotel… again, there’s that “luck” attitude.

Hannah, Laura & Ben went on a walk around the city and found, what do you know… some more markets. Apparently as you go further north, it gets cheaper, and that’s certainly true so far.

Day 5 – Hoi An (part 2)

// April 26th, 2011 // No Comments » // Vietnam

Hoi An is the tourism capital it seems of Vietnam, well for what we’ve seen of it anyway.

Almost the entire city centre is geared up for us – Australians, Germans, English, French… we certainly make the wheels go round. And unfortunately, both parties know it.

It’s a very pretty place, river that runs by the town, very old buildings/shopfronts line the roads with street vendors everywhere selling you name it – drinks, cigarettes, fresh fruit/veggies, snack food, street meat… not to mention the huge number of nick-nack vendors selling all kinds of crap.

It doesn’t have the pace of Saigon and is so much better for it. We have really enjoyed our stay here for a number of reasons:

• we all got tailored clothing – a suit, a tux, some dresses, bathers, shorts – some copies of what we had, some taken from magazines… some just conceptual
• tailored shoes – made to measure in whatever fabric you want and in any style
• great restaurants – had the best food of the trip so far here
• friendly people (for the most part)
• a lot more relaxed  – it’s touristy, but in a good way

So to pick up on what we’ve done… we caught a taxi in to Hoi An and the driver didn’t know where our hotel was.  So he stopped by the side of the road, asked a woman who gave good instructions on where to go, then for the next 5 minutes, quizzed us on what we wanted to buy here. Turns out her sister owns a tailoring business in the markets. We feigned interest and finally got away from her and onto our hotel.

The hotel is very nice – right on the river and is kind of resort-style, but a poor  man’s version. Can’t complain for $45/night. We dump our gear and walk back across the river into town.

Who should be waiting for us? Yep – directions lady. She just “happened” to be walking by and showed us where we should go. We were hungry, so she took us to the “best restaurant in town” – no doubt owned by a relative. Funniy enough, the food was fantastic and cheap, so we were happy with the recommendation.

Whilst eating, we couldn’t help but notice her happen to walk by now and then, sit on the other side of the road apparently busy… As soon as we walked out of the restaurant, she was on us like a hawk. “You come to my shop now”. She grabs us by the arm and away we go. In some ways, it made it easy, choosing a tailor is incredibly hard, the prices vary hugely apparently as does the quality. We took a punt and her sister, the seamstress, certainly knew her stuff.

We got measured up, showed what we wanted and about 2hrs later, we were pretty happy with ourselves. We walked the town for the rest of the night until we had a late dinner at what must by a restaurant only reserved for Australians.

So our first day in Hoi An was very interesting and very enjoyable… Day 6 coming soon.

Day 4 – Mekong Delta trip

// April 23rd, 2011 // No Comments » // Vietnam

Laura’s birthday! Happy birthday, Laura!

After a good night’s sleep (for most of us), we had a quick breakfast and then walked up to the river area where we caught another boat to go and visit the floating markets. These things are incredible… the locals harvest their goods, load up their boats and then all meet at the same point in the river each morning to sell/trade their goods.

It’s predominantly fruit and veg, so things like pineapples; watermelons; cabbage; carrots; bananas… that kind of thing. It stretches across probably 2 thirds of the river and boats shackled to each other as they trade. Many have flag poles with the type of product they’re selling in a net at the top… say a watermelon or similar, to indicate what they have on offer.

We were treated to a pineapple cut in the most ingenius way. They take the bottom off, cut off the leaves at the top but leave the stem. They strip the outside of all the prickles, then expertly carve out all the smaller prickles in the flesh of the fruit giving it a zig-zag style. They then cut the fruit up the middle from top-to-bottom splitting it in 2, including the stem. You then hold the stem and eat away! Absolutely delicious! The fruit is apparently picked one day, sold the next. The princely sum for this treat? 10,000 dong. About 50c Australian. Baaargain.

We then took a trip further down the river to a local family’s livelihood of making rice paper. We were guided through the entire operation, from the breaking down of rice into a liquid, the topeka they add to it, the making of the large round cakes and then their drying in the sun. It was a million degrees in there – I just don’t know how the locals do it. Bloody interesting process though.

We had a quick tour of a rice factory after that, showing us the different types of rice, the way it’s broken down and packaged and so-on. From there, a fairly long boat ride back to where we started where we had a meal at a restaurant. Being fish-friday and the good Catholics we are, the choices were a bit limited as you can imagine, seafood is a pretty integral part to the local diet.

The bit we all dreaded came next – the 4hr bus ride back to Saigon. A worse driver than the first, a more cramped bus than the last and peak hour driving didn’t help the cause. Still, it was an adventure and we made it back safely.

To celebrate Laura’s birthday, we ventured off to a nice restaurant and then of course, back via the markets, where Ben bought himself a watch to celebrate Laura’s birthday.

We learnt a heap more on this overnight trip… looking forward to flying to Da Nang tomorrow (Saturday) and then onto our hotel in Hoi An!

Day 3 – Mekong Delta trip

// April 23rd, 2011 // No Comments » // Vietnam

The Mekong Delta is in the south of Vietnam where the Mekong River meets the sea. It’s extremely tropical, has lots going on with the local people and is a large source of the nation’s fruit and other food.

We took a organised trip down there and stayed the night at one of the hotels.

Starting the day was an adventure to say the least. We were picked up in a small bus, then transferred about 10 minutes later into a slightly larger bus. Certainly not a bus you’d want to be in for more than an hour or at the most, two. It was cramped, pretty warm and rough to say the least. Combine that with the atrocious roads here and you get the picture…

About 2.5hrs later after braving the 80km/h traffic, 10million motorbikes and where traffic lane markings are purely there for decoration it seems… we made it to the Mekong River.

The river is enormous as are the many tributaries surrounding it. We got in an old school boat and made our way across the river to one of the four islands. This is where we did a bunch of activities, learnt about the locals and so-on. They included:

• tasting locally made honey tea
• tiny but long row boats complete with conical hats
• see how coconut candy is made (which is delicious by the way)
• had lunch in the middle of the island (basically a jungle)
• tasted the many fruits that grow natively in the area
• then it was back via a lengthy boat ride back to the bus, then another 2hr bus ride to our hotel

The hotel, was, well, basic. But 2 of our rooms were pretty livable. Poor Hannah didn’t realise until later in the night that the rest of us should have said, “don’t let the bed bugs bite”, as she had a plague on her hands. So being the thinker she is, she wrapped herself up in her poncho, shower cap, lathered up in insect repellent and slept as best she could. Makes for a good story if nothing else!

We went out on the town for the evening. Absolutely nothing like Saigon – still busy, still a crap-load of motorbikes, but nothing like Saigon. The people clearly weren’t as used to tourists and were very friendly towards us. No pushing of stuff we don’t want on us either  – was very enjoyable. We checked out the bakery, bought some incredibly cheap goods (dinner costs per person was about 90c for 3 items), then made our way to a cafe style place.

It was a long day so after a few drinks and checking the local night markets, we headed back to the hotel ready for a big day 2.

Vietnam – day 2 – HCMC

// April 22nd, 2011 // No Comments » // Vietnam

This will be brief and I’ll fill in the details tonight:
* hired a car for the day with driver for $70
* went out to Cu Chi – home of the 200km tunnels used in the war
* took a tour of the surrounding area, climbed through the tiny tunnels – not suitable for Glen-size people
* saw a bunker that a B52 bomber made when they dumped their payload trying to find the tunnels
* shot an AK47 gun – 10 rounds each for Hannah, Ben and Glen
* Glen got hit by a stray spent cartridge – small burn mark, so I can say I’ve been injured in gunfire in ‘Nam
* back to hotel and girls went searching for bargains at huge market
* Ben & Glen went in search of beer
* both parties happy with their finds
* experienced first downpour. When it rains, it rains!

Huge day and very enjoyable! learnt heaps about the war and the local people.