Good Morning Vietnam
Trip Start
Apr 20, 2004
1
13
21
Trip End
Mar 30, 2005
Na Trang,
Vietnam
Thursday, September 2, 2004
We started in a place called Hue, in the center of the country. This was a lovely quite town, with lots of colonial buildings. The people are very friendly, even if they are all trying to sell you tours and bus tickets.
We did some interesting tours, one of the DMZ area. The high point of this (for Martin anyway) was getting to checkout the tunnels in which people had to live and hide out during the war. The other attractions on the tour where not so good - a pile of rocks once used as a look out post for example (???)
After Hue, we took an overnight bus to Hanoi. We were sure not make the same mistake twice about the bus, and I think the people in the bus ticket office must have thought we were some kind of freaks cos we asked that many questions about the bus before we got on it.
We stayed in the old quarter in Hanoi, and even though it's the capital, it doesn't feel like a big built up city. In the center of the city there is a lovely lake, and you can go sit under the shade of the trees there, chill out and watch all the locals buzzing around.
Early in the morning you can see all the old people standing around the lake wearing their pyjama's doing their stretches and exercising with their hula-hoops. Some more enterprising ones bring their weighing scales and charge the others to weight themselves before and after!
The other thing about Hanoi is the driving - the streets are choc-a-bloc with motorbikes - weaving in and out of each other, up on the pavements, stopping for nothing, not other bikes, not other cars or trucks, not people or animals and especially not red lights! Martin has discovered the only way to get across the road is to play them at their own game and just keep moving. However this takes nerves of steel, and I am not quite up to it. A number of times he has looked around to find me stranded on the other side of the street hemmed in on all sides by speeding motorbikes.
From Hanoi we did a boat trip to Halong Bay. We boarded our boat at about lunchtime with about 13 others, some Israelis, French, Japanese and Kiwis. We did some cruising, swimming and sunbathing, it was lovely and relaxing. We also explored a cave called the amazing cave, and surprisingly, it was amazing! After this we had some lovely dinner on the boat, and settled down for our night's entertainment. The Israeli guy produced a guitar, however being such an eclectic bunch there wasn't much we had in common musically, and getting the sing song going was proving difficult, until we discovered someone who has broken all music borders internationally - Chris De Burgh. Martin led the way by doing a great rendition of Patricia the Stripper - which even the Israeli's knew!!! All in all we had a great nights craic.
The next day we did some Kayaking and exploring small islands - this was hard work in the heat, but definitely worth it, some of the views were amazing!
It was on one of these islands Martin asked me to marry him and I said yes :o)
That night we stayed on Cat Ba island, before heading back to the mainland the next day.
After Hanoi we headed south again to Hoi An. This is another smallish town, well known for it's old buildings and cloth shops. We treated ourselves to a really nice hotel with a pool and satellite TV, which was pure luxury, compared to our normal backpacker style hotels. We spend a day walking around exploring the old houses and narrow streets, which were beautiful. There was also a lovely beach just outside the town on which we took some time out to relax on. But most of our time (or mine anyway) was spent in the cloth shops picking out clothes from the Next Catalogue. Basically, you can pick anything you want from the catalogue and the ladies in the shop will measure you up, and have it made for you in within a couple of hours (for a fraction of the price). I intended to order only a dress, but ended up with 3, a suit, 4 tops, 2 pairs of shorts and some trousers - I just couldn't help going back for more. Even Martin got carried away ordering shirts.
After we tore ourselves away from Hoi An, we arrived here in Na Trang, which is like a seaside resort town. Other than just lying on the beach all day, we decided to visit some of the local sights. So the lovely man in our hotel recommended a boat trip, which he said would bring us to many lovely islands, an aquarium and a floating bar - free wine included. Naturally, this took our interest (don't think it was the island or aquarium that sold it though) so we signed up and headed off the next morning. We visited the first island, did some snorkeling and headed to the second for lunch. After lunch we were due at this floating bar and we are getting quite excited - picturing a fancy bar floating in a lagoon somewhere, with comfy loungers to relax on in the water while sipping some exotic cocktails. When our guide told us our floating bar had arrived, we looked into the water to find the boats captain swimming along in a rubber ring pushing a square of polystyrene on top of which was a tray with some red wine, paper cups and plastic flowers! We were all given life buoys and told to jump into the water for some wine. It was hilarious - we bobbed up and down in the water for about an hour trying to drink this local wine without getting salty seawater into it. Although, truth be told, it probably tasted better with the seawater than without.
The fact that the captain drank more wine than the rest of us put together didn't seem to bother anyone though.
To rejuvenate ourselves after our adventures at sea, we decided to visit some mineral mud baths and hot springs, which are just out side the town. This was interesting experience, we spent 30 min sitting in hot mud followed by 30 min sitting in hot water after which we swam in a hot pool for a while. We both felt very relaxed afterward, ready for a night on the town (just the thing to undo all the good work eh?).
The nightlife here is quite good, and the local specialty being the Jam Jar! These are plastic jars (slightly bigger than actual jam jars) full of the cocktail of your choice, all for about a Euro. What can I say, I am addicted and find it hard to tear myself away.
For the last few days we have been just enjoying the local beach. Every day a little lady sets up a shop just at the water selling seafood, so today we bought some lobster and prawns of her for lunch and enjoyed them while sitting on our sun loungers, it was bliss.
One of the things I like best about Vietnam was the way everyone seemed to live their whole lives on the side of the street. You could be walking along the footpath, and you will come across gatherings of them, blocking the pavement, just sitting on tiny little stools chatting and laughing away. Some will cooking noodle soup (there is always noodle soup on the go, it's like a cup of tea at home!), some will be eating and drinking, maybe playing cards or broad games. Some will be selling fruit or bread while others will be fixing bicycles or sewing clothes or painting something and running around in the middle of all this will be some children and a few dogs and as you make your way through all of them, everyone of them will ask you what are you doing tomorrow and do you want to rent a bike from them!!
We stopped and bought some noodle soup of some of these, and have to say it was delicious! But the best was the other night here in Na Trang. We were going for a walk after our dinner when the receptionist from our hotel called us over. He was sitting on the street with other men. He showed us some bowls of what looked like custard and asked if we would like to join the others and try it. Tho, our receptionist explained that his mother makes this once a month for Buddha. Not wanting to offend, of course we said yes. Next thing out of nowhere a girl arrives with some tiny chairs, which looked like they belonged in my 4-year-old nieces Wendy house, and we were told to sit down. She then arrived back with some beers, glasses and lynches. We tried the custard, which was lumpy and very sweet, I think Tho and the others sensed we didn't like it, so they began producing all sorts of fruits for us to try. Every few minutes our beers were topped up as the men all raised toasts in Vietnamese - which we happily joined in. And so we sat there on the side of the street with these men drinking beer and eating strange fruits for half the night all in the name of Buddha. After a while when we could eat no more fruit we decided to leave, the men took this a bad reflection on Martins manhood - that he couldn't handle his fruit!!!
So after a few days on the beach, it's time to move on, we are off to Ho Chi Minh tomorrow, more buses, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger - right?
