Category: Vietnam 2011

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!

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.

The day started with a great breakfast which seems standard fare around here, then off to the markets to do some browsing, and in the girls’ case, buying. They took their dresses they wanted copied to our tailoring friends and got that started. Ben & I took off and went for a drink by the river near the Japanese Bridge.

As we were walking around, just as we got past the touristy part… we walked past a pub with some girls dressed in less than most around here. We walked on past and as we did, the girls yelled out, “You come in for drink?”. “Nah, no thanks”.

“We love you long time!”

We laughed, they laughed and on we went. My life is now complete.

We decided that motorbikes would be the go for the day. We hired a couple, Hannah came with the boys and after she somewhat struggled going in a straight line, we decided it’d be best if we took a guide and she ride with him. The steeds were some Yamaha 120CC scooters which were pretty decent I have to say. Big wheel ones so pretty easy to control. The traffic was going to be the challenge.

So for $5 for the bikes, $5 for the guide and a few dollars of petrol from an old woman who hand pumped it, off we went. The guide took us all through the back alleys of the local area, showing us more of the river, the locals and how they lived, we stopped at a pottery area where they make a lot of bowls, mugs, trinkets and so-on. Hannah had a go at making a bowl in a very “Ghost” movie kind of way with the old women… Or not. We bought some trinkets and we were on our way.

We made our way slowly to Marble Mountains – home to 5 mountains of marble and limestone. They have been decorated massively by Buddhists over the centuries and feature large sculptures of Buddha, some large pegodas and various other statues. So many caves to explore and to get to the peak, you have to go through “Heaven” cave which has a small opening at the top, then giving a 360 degree view of the surrounding areas including the famous China Beach.

It was boiling hot, bloody steep and the marble was hellishly slippery, but it was very interesting and worth doing.

After that, we were “heavily persuaded” to buy something from the shop where we had parked our bikes. We’d worked out by now that the guide had a bit of a hidden agenda and was taking us to places where he either knew someone or got a kickback. We bought something after much haggling (getting a touch sick of it) and away we went. We went via China Beach which has been basically leveled and started afresh and then back home. Greg Norman and Colin Montomery (golfers) have designed golf courses here and the beach area is seriously amazing real estate. 5 star resorts as far as the eye can see, the one on Top Gear where Jeremy Clarkson is lazing around by is a 5.5 star resort on that same strip.

After we dropped Hannah back, Ben & I decided to go exploring a bit more by ourselves. Back to the beach area we went, had a drink and spring rolls and thoroughly enjoyed just relaxing. By now we were rather confident of dodging everyone on the wrong side of the road, bikes/pedestrians/cars pulling out from nowhere without looking and we were riding as the locals do – fast and care free.

Whilst all this was going on, Laura & Deb were treating themselves to 4+ hours of beauty therapy. If it exists, they did it. Manicure, pedicure, foot massage, threading (like waxing but they use a string of cotton), sampled the local delicacy and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

After a big day, we had another tasty meal but in an Italian restaurant this time, then home to bed for an early night as we had a sunrise trip to My Sun (pronounced Mee Sun) ruins in the morning.

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.

Rule of thumb… just because someone nods, doesn’t mean they understand.

Case-in-point – the 5 of us caught 2 taxis on the way to the airport to fly to Da Nang. A fairly easy thing you’d think… but no. Deb & I were in one taxi and I said, “domestic”, I got a friendly smile and a nod from the taxi driver. After a few stalls and some incredibly bad driving, accompanied by more smiles and giggles, we eventually made it to the airport, some distance behind the others.

As we go inside to “departures” – no Laura, Ben or Hannah to be seen. We get a phone call from Laura asking where we are, we say we’re here… can’t see each other. We ask a guard, he points us out the door then in the next one. The next guy says upstairs… still nothing. Only after we asking a cleaning lady does she say, “next terminal – big building” does it click we’re in the wrong bloody spot!

I also forgot to mention that we’re carrying all our bags, we’re running super late and the others are busy trying to stall the people checking us in to allow us to get there. So Deb & I sprint as fast as we can Amazing Race-style across to the next terminal, finally find the departures and sweating our bums off, we check-in, 5 minutes after it officially closed. The rest of the trip to Hoi An was uneventful.

For those thinking of a visit to Vietnam… Flights are good here. Ho Chi Minh City to Hoi An only takes 1h10 and costs about $45. The planes are Airbus 330s (the big ones usually used for international flights) and it ran on time.

Off the plane and you’re greeted with essentially nothing in Da Nang except for heaps of people trying to get you to travel with them – taxis, chauffeurs etc. A maxi-taxi costs about $25 for the 45minute drive to Hoi An.

I’ll write about what we’ve done in Hoi An in another post…

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!