Advertisement
Published: January 18th 2010
And the rest...
A few people have mentioned lack of blogs recently so long story short, windows xp in all its glory decided that it no longer wanted to boot leaving my little laptop as useful as a paperweight. Without another computer or any recovery disks, its pretty tough to fix a pc these days but after a day of tearing my hair out, I came up with a plan to download and install linux from a camera memory card since my laptop lacks a CD drive. I managed to barter with a guy who owned a camera shop to let me use his computer to put a bootable image on the memory card by promising to buy something if he helped me- although he didn't speak English and I'm pretty sure he didn't have a clue why a westerner suddenly decided to come into his shop and use his PC. This aside, it actually worked so we're back on track.
As we never seem to have much spare time at the moment, I'm going to cover all the places we've been since then in a single blog rather than writing several, so here goes!
We arrived in
Hue early in the morning and headed to a cheap hotel. As it was pretty empty and the owner really wanted us to stay, I took the opportunity to haggle and got a dollar knocked off the room rate. Shattered from the mad night on the bus, we perked up with a Vietnamese coffee- the way they serve coffee is actually quite an acquired taste as a coffee with milk is actually a strong black espresso type coffee served with a dollop of condensed milk to give a bitter/sweet drink that packs a punch. We headed straight for the citadel which is a set of huge city walls about 20km in circumference with a small complex containing a royal palace used by the royal dynasty until uncle Ho decided that he would rather force communism on the country and they were 'persuaded' to abdicate their position. The place itself is rather run down and partially still being reconstructed from the war so was a bit mediocre, especially compared with the royal palace in Bangkok, but it was certainly worth a look.
Down the road there was a small museum containing a handful of US tanks and artillery that were
captured by the VC. We stumbled across a supermarket on the way back where things actually display a price tag which was a novelty in Vietnam and amusingly it was full of westerners who were obviously also fed up with the usual foreigner rip-offs elsewhere.
The next day we rented a motorbike from our hotel- a shiny new Yamaha which was a pleasure to drive. It was a little mad driving in the heavy city traffic but as long as you don't make any unexpected moves then the other motorbikes typically just plot a course around you- its kind of a 6th sense that the Vietnamese have and the only explanation as to why there aren't more motorbike collisions. A motorbike trip is all but essential if you want to escape the city and see the real Vietnam away from the tourist traps. We headed out of the city in search of a pagoda but due to the crapness of the maps in lonely planet (something we're finding more and more) we didn't get to see it as it wasn't where it was supposed to be.
Never mind! We wandered the back roads in search of it and
instead found a Buddhist monastery in the middle of a pine forest, nicely off the tourist trail. We parked up and wandered in, meeting a friendly monk who invited us to have a look inside the huge stupa, promising that there was very special inside. He unlocked the door and left us to explore. Inside was the usual alter with golden Buddha and an old monk who looked a lot like Gandhi sitting mediating on a podium in the lotus position. At first I thought it was a dummy as he was really still but we concluded that this is probably part of meditation. We left and the young monk came over and locked the door. Stacey enquired as to why we were locking the meditating guy inside and turning the lights off to which he replied, “it's okay, he's dead”. We checked that we hadn't misheard but sure enough the old fella had died and was propped up in the lotus position inside the stupa. We enquired as to how long ago he had died, expecting it to be a few days and this being part of a ritual so were surprised when the young monk said he'd been
there since 2002. It was a bit of a shock. We'd gotten lost, stumbled on a monastery in the woods and been shut inside a stupa with a stuffed monk. It turns out that this chap was actually quite important and was the head of Buddhism in Vietnam. We thanked the young monk for showing us the stupa and its 'wonderful' contents and headed off once again, quite pleased that we'd gotten lost and seen something a bit different.
We then headed back through the city to a beautiful temple that was sat on top of a hill overlooking the wide river- very picturesque. We then finished off by heading inside the the citadel and exploring within the huge walls, stopping for a brief game of football that some young kids had invited us to join. All it all it was great to explore further afield so the $5 motorbike hire had been worth every penny (or cent). That evening was New Year's Eve so we treated ourselves to a nice meal and sat, drinking beers and chatting to an ozzy couple who were over on holiday.
Amazingly we made it up for the 8am bus to Hoi-An
the next morning. Hoi-An is one of Vietnam's most historic cities and amazingly the classic French-Asian architecture survived the war unscathed which is more than can be said for most towns. The place was traditionally a fishing village on the banks of a small river and although this is still the case to a certain extent, a lot of money now a days is brought in by its bustling tourist trade. For a change we decided to stay at the hotel that the coach dropped us off at since it was cheap, nice, with reliable wifi and even a small pool inside the hotel.
Knackered from the previous evening's fun, we caught up on some sleep before venturing out into the old town. The architecture is very French colonial in style and not dissimilar to that in Luang Phabang, but the town sports a huge number of tailoring shops where locals will produce and garment you want from a range of materials (silk seemed popular) fully fitted for a fraction of western prices. Stacey was very tempted by this but unfortunately it would be really impractical trying to carry yet more stuff around with us so it the end
she settled for some souvenir chopsticks.
The next day we did a walking tour of the town and visited several historical sites including temples, merchants houses and even had a performance of traditional music. There isn't a lot else to do in the town itself except wander around the bars and restaurants - a particularly popular one is the Cargo Club that serves some fantastic cakes and coffee. In the evening we sat in a small restaurant on the riverside drinking bia hoi and watching in amazement as the river began to burst its banks and fill the streets with a few inches of water, eventually reaching the engines on all the motorbikes parked in the street. In the rainy season it is not unusual for the river to flood and completely submerge the bottom floor of buildings on the riverside in the style of York, and some of the buildings even had marks on the wall to indicate how high the water had reached. One of the marks was taller than me and was dated at only the previous September.
On our final day we took a day tip to the Mae Son ruins which were a
set of ancient Hindu temples that have descried as Vietnam's version of Angkor Wat, perhaps a bit unfairly as most of the sites were quite small and usually in ruins after being destroyed in the war. It was interesting enough and worth a visit but wasn't as amazing as some of the other ruins we'd seen in Thailand. We booked another night bus for that evening for the trip to the beach resort of Nha Trang, this time forking out an extra couple of dollars each to go on the sleeper coach in which a bed was promised, as much as anything just for the experience of being on such a coach.
It was certainly an experience when the bus arrived. We had to take our shoes off and put them in plastic bags before being allowed to get on. The bus was taller than normally and had three rows of bunk-beds running down the length of it, seating up to about 40 people. Unfortunately they must have been made with Asian people in mind as the beds were not long enough to lay in properly and became quite crippling in some positions. However, we did sleep better than
usual for a coach ride and didn't have any psychos pulling off our blankets and shouting at us in the middle of the night.
The next day at Nha Trang we got of the coach early in the morning and managed to avoid the touts peddling their overpriced hotels, determined to save a little bit after having spent a bit more in Hoi-An. One tout was following us on his motorbike, pestering us to look at his hotel. We ignored him and headed to the one we'd selected. We asked for a room and the receptionist said there was one available but then the tout shouted something to her in Vietnamese and suddenly the hotel was 'full for the night' even though it was only 7am. We left and the tout said 'now you see my hotel' and I just about lost my temper with him as it was obvious that he'd had us black-balled from the place we wanted. After giving him a mouthful and sending him on his way, we found another place for $7 a night: basic but nice and quiet.
We caught a few hours sleep before heading out to explore the beach. It
was obvious why this was Vietnam's premier beach resort as the beach was beautiful: a few miles long arcing gently around the bay with golden sand and palm trees lining a shaded promenade most of the way along. We'd heard that Nha Trang was 'the' place for backpackers to get drunk and live it up so were worried that we wouldn't like the place, but there was so much beach that it was easy to find a secluded spot and lay in the shade of a palm tree, watching the waves roll in. And this is precisely what we did for our second day there as well with the addition of a swim in one of the warmest and most inviting seas that I've ever been in- it really was a fantastic place.
Across the bay there was and island with a Hollywood style sign on a wooded hill saying 'Vinpearl Land' , linked by the longest and highest oversea cable car in the world. This was Vietnam's top theme park that we'd read about but decided not to visit. However, after talking to a few people about the place, it actually sounded pretty good so we decided to
head there the next day - if nothing else - just for a change from sightseeing.
The 'Lonely Planet' guide which has proven very unreliable promised a 3km walk to the cable car, although this actually turned out to be about 5km which made a big difference in the baking heat, so we walked there which took about an hour. Arriving there, we found there was a bus service from Nha Trang that run regularly, of course not mentioned in Lonely Planet - thanks guys! So very hot already, we bought our tickets for 300,000 Dong each and boarded the cable car. Now this is slightly over £10 which isn't a bad price for a theme park by western standards but is fairly expensive for the typical Vietnamese family. Apparently, it was only 10,000 dong a few years ago but the owners had decided to jack up the price enormously and concentrate on westerners and more affluent Vietnamese holiday makers. This was reflected with a mostly empty theme park (which was great for us, no queueing for rides!) and also the fact that there were as many westerners as Vietnamese in the park.
The ticket included a 10
minute (or so) ride on the highest oversea cable car in the world to Vinpearl island. Stacey was nervous at first and I was forbidden from standing up, moving around or carrying out any other movement that might make the cable car rock around. On the island, we headed for the aquarium to get out of the sun and cool down. It was pretty good and had a great underwater tunnel. We then spent the afternoon in the watery park riding the lazy river, playing in the wave pool or injuring ourselves on the huge slides (for me it was a gashed elbow and for Stacey it was a torn muscle in her chest) but it was great fun an a nice change from the daily sightseeing.
In the evening we rode the fairground rides and played on the arcade games which included a retro air-hockey tournament. All in all, a fun day.
We'd booked an early bus to Dalat for the next morning but could have quite happily spent an extra couple of days relaxing in Nha Trang. Dalat was described as a hill retreat town with a cooler climate where the country's vineyards are located. Getting there
was a bit of a disappointment as we'd had visions of something resembling Shimla, but were presented with a sprawling city, complete with chaotic traffic. Never mind. It was cooler and had a pleasant enough lake in the middle. As the town is so spread out, recommended accommodation would have meant a big hike and the hotel that the tourist bus dropped us off at was a bit out of our price range at $25 a night, but thankfully the touts came through for us and we were offered a place across the road with wifi, hot water and uniquely, free Vietnamese tea for only $7 a night.
The plan was to rent a motorbike and head out into the countryside, but Stacey was in quite a bit of pain from enjoying herself too much on the water-slides so we settled on a trip to the market, a slow walk around the lake and a visit to the crazy-house. The “crazy-house”, as it is known, was built by a local architect as a home/guest house which is totally unique in the mad staircases, rooms and general layout. It can only really be described as the sort of place you'd
love to live in as a kid as it you'd forever be playing hide and seek. Hopefully the photos will do it some justice. Interesting, the architect had built another building in town with unique design before this, but it was torn down as it was seen as being 'anti-communist'. Strange, as her father was the second president of Vietnam after Ho Chi Minh.
Keeping Stacey full of anti-inflammatory pills meant that we were able to rent a motorbike the next day and head out into the countryside. We were heading to a silk factory some 30ish km away down in one of the valleys. With the road signs being poor/non-existent, we soon got lost and ended up somewhere random in the hills but eventually figured this out and turned around. It was a very nice ride through the pine forest though so it wasn't a total loss!
Back on the right road, we were on our way to see silk go from worms butts to the finished material. We turned off onto a dirt track in a small town called Nam Bam and pulled up at the place. There was no tour as such so we just
wondered around trying to figure out what was going on amidst the whirring machinery and looms that made the place seem straight out of the industrial revolution in the UK. They take the silkworms in their cocoons and boil them up in a machine, which catches the end of the silk thread and winds it onto a bobbin. The dead worm is discarded and the silk is weaved into sheets of fabric with various patterns using huge old looms that run using punch-cards to form the pattern. The white silk sheets are then dyed into all sorts of colours before being shipped and sold. Of course, health and safety was minimal there so it'd be quite easy to lose a limb if you touched the wrong thing.
On the way back, we noticed quite a few small fires that were burning away in the dry grass underneath the pine forests. When heading for the reservoir, we came across quite a big fire that was burning and were worried that the whole forest might set alight, but thankfully it had burnt out when we passed on the way back. There is a huge reservoir there amongst the forest which was
quite picturesque and reminded us of a smaller version of Kielder.
Having seen most of what Dalat had to offer, we booked passage on a bus for the following morning for the long trip to Ho-Chi-Minh City, or Saigon as its more traditionally known. Dalat turned out to be okay but we concluded that Vietnam's real beauty was in its fantastic coastline.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0321s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
David B
non-member comment
Meditating Monk
How on earth did they preserve the monk - not a bit smelly? See you are starting to prefer Yamahas to Porches - much cheaper and greener.