Weekend Excursions -- for the first 7 weeks.
Trip Start
Aug 18, 2003
1
2
6
Trip End
May 28, 2004
Dam Tao, Cao Bang, Halong Bay, Saigon, Dalat, Nha Trang,
Vietnam
Sunday, October 5, 2003
Dam Tao: The first weekend here a group of us went to Dam Tao, a town located atop a mountain about 2-hours south of Hanoi. It was great to get out of the city and to cooler weather... though I walked away from the weekend with about 30-bed bug bites. We also spent an hour climbing a mountain via a stone-staircase in a monsoon to reach what we hoped would be an incredible waterfall¡K it turns out the Vietnamese name for waterfall and radio-tower are almost identical, and to many in the village, the radio tower was quite a sight to see. We did get to see some great mountainside Buddhist pagodas on the way up the mountain though! Well worth the trip, and a great introduction to traveling in Vietnam.
Cao Bang: The next trip was an extended 4-day weekend to Cao Bang, a 10-hour bus ride north through some of the most scenic, and scariest mountainside roads I¡¦ve ever seen
cool bridge
. Super windy roads with near misses with falling boulders and steep cliffs (at one point we were delayed for an hour while a makeshift crew worked to clear debris from a landslide off the road). The mountains up north were exactly what I envisioned far east mountains to be: tall, pointy, spire-like rock outcroppings. This scenery was most dramatic when we were near the Chinese border; craggy, behemoth mountains sprouted up randomly out of the flat and vast rice-paddy landscape, all shrouded in an ever-present fog that felt eerie at times and calming at others. *Wow, being in Hanoi really makes me miss natural beauty.* Highlights of the trip include drinking tea in one of the homes of an ethnic minority village, seeing a waterfall that rivals Niagra Falls and swimming in the side lagoons and pools, seeing China on the other side of the waterfall, and celebrating the national holiday called the Autumn Lunar Festival in the small town of Cao Bang with all the locals. Oh, I had my first taste of rice wine too (cheap home-distilled vodka made out of rice¡XVERY potent stuff).Halong Bay: The next weekend has turned out to be by far one of my favorite weekends. We went to Halong Bay, a 3-hour bus ride east of Hanoi to the coast. 15 of us rented out a 3-story wooden boat for the weekend, which was equipped with a great captain and 2 incredible cooks. We meandered through the extensive maze of rock outcroppings and mini-islands for an entire day until we reached Cat Ba Island (¡§Gut-Buh¡¨), one of the largest National Parks in the chain of islands there
Dam Tao
. On our way to the island we stopped to tour a huge cave system, bought fresh seafood from one of the many people living on floating houses, and swam at a tiny beach (20ft of sand) hidden in a tiny cove of one of the islands. WOW. That night we took a peaceful boat tour of the island bay during sunset, mmmmm, so peaceful and relaxing. The next day we swam at another incredible secluded beach before departing Cat Ba Island. We asked the captain to take his time, so he put up the bamboo mast and hand-sewn, bamboo laced sail to get us back¡K it took us 6-hours to get back¡K I didn¡¦t want the trip to end. Sun bathing on the upper deck with incredible scenery and a Tiger beer¡K there¡¦s no better way to vacation. Saigon/ Mekong Delta/ Dalat/ Nha Trang: 10-day trip (2-weekends) that required us to take many modes of transportation (plane to Saigon, boat to Mekong Delta, bus to Dalat and Nha Trang, and plane back to Hanoi out of Nha Trang). Incredible...
Saigon: I got to meet my maternal grandfather for the first time, as well as 5 of my mother¡¦s sisters, a few uncles, and some cousins (all for the first time). Since I only gave them a days notice I only got to see about 10 relatives¡K I have about 40 in Ho Chi Minh City. I spent most of my time in Saigon visiting family and touring the city on the back of my cousin¡¦s motorbike
Fresh Veggies in Dalat Food Market
. Saigon also has DSL internet connection! So I got to talk to my parents via an internet phone for super cheap, that was great! The food and nightlife in Saigon are unbelievable too. Paula, Erin, and I partied like rock stars the entire trip, hitting almost every bar that the lonely planet recommended in each town. For Saigon, I recommend Saharra, a great place to dance (on pool tablesfº). Unlike Hanoi, the bars in Saigon stay open past midnight¡K actually, some don¡¦t close! Mekong Delta: On the fourth day we took a boat tour of the Mekong Delta, very touristy, but cool nonetheless. Fresh coconut candy and rice wine were some of the highlights of this trip. These trips are very standardized and are offered by a number of big/cheap tourist companies (lonely planet calls them ¡§fast-food tourist companies). Our trip cost $5, which included the 2-hour bus ride to the delta from Hanoi, lunch, fruit sampling, local snacks, etc. Super organized, but felt like you were on a conveyer belt being shuffled through the processing plant.
Dalat: On the fifth day, we took a 7-hour bus ride to the mountain town of Dalat, which was actually COLD (every place in Vietnam seems to be ¡§cool¡¨ relative to the normal temps. found in the lowlands, but Dalat turned out to actually be cold
Halong Bay
! It felt like Autumn in the states). Dalat is known for it¡¦s fresh vegetables, great wine, strawberry jam, and outdoor activities/mountainous scenery. We were beat from the bus ride and still recovering from our days in Saigon, so our nights were mostly filled with coffee and cards. On our second day we rode elephants and toured some other really cheesy sights. *Note, almost all the elephants (and other big game animals) have been hunted clean in Vietnam. These elephants were imported from Thailand. As cool as riding the elephants were, I don¡¦t think I¡¦ll ever do it again. Those animals live a life of indentured slavery; the particular elephant I rode has been re-sold 5 times over a period of 22 years, and has always been used as entertainment in the tourism industry.* Dalat also has a killer food market and great vegetarian food on the upper floors. Nha Trang: After 2 nights in Dalat, we departed on the 7th day of trip for the beach town of Nha Trang. After 5-hours on the bus we found ourselves in a rainy Nha Trang. We decided to get some emailing done, chilled in a coffee shop, ate dinner and rested before exploring the night life. Crazy Kim¡¦s and the Sailor¡¦s Club are great places to party. The next day we took an awesome boat trip to 4 islands. We snorkeled at the first island (some of the best snorkeling I¡¦ve ever done) while the crew prepared our lunches by diving into the water to spear fresh sea urchin and fished off the back of the boat for fresh fish, the second island allowed us to go parasailing ($10), the third island had a floating bar and live music by our tour guides (drum made of buckets and cooking pans, electric guitar rigged to a speaker, and microphone stands made out of tree branches). They were hilarious, and surprisingly pretty talented. The band asked for the nationalities of different people on the boat, then sang a short song in that language! We had Swedish, French, Thai, Vietnamese, Americans, and Chinese on the boat. The fourth island was a small fishing village that had small bowl shaped boats for us to ride in (the boats were woven out of coconut leaves, lined with tar, and about 6 ft in diameter-- common mode of transport for locals when they want to ferry to their fishing boats). Our last night in Nha Trang was pretty wild. I¡¦ll just say that we met the owner of Crazy Kim¡¦s (Kim really is Crazy), and became friends with the bartenders at the Sailor¡¦s Club¡K. it was a long night.
