Sleeper Buses and Cave Diving

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I ended up spending two full days in Hanoi. I went all out and bought a total of 86 DVDs. I shipped them home via sea and they'll take longer to arrive than I will. It rained very heavily on and off during the two days. People were saying it's been the worst rains in 25 years here. It hasn't really affected me as much as you'd think though.

I went to Hanoi Hilton, as it's affectionately known as, the place were McCain was held POW. Being election day eve back in the states, I suppose it was an interesting time to be there. What is striking about the prison is all of the pictures of the American prisoners are of them smiling, playing games, decorating Christmas trees, playing basketball. It's an utter contrast to the picture that gets painted for you back home. I'm sure the propaganda comes from both ends and the reality lies somewhere in the middle.

At the hostel, we played Connect Four for a while, with the losing team buying shots for the winners. One shot we did was of the infamous snake wine. If you're wondering what snake wine is, it's more or less what it sounds like. It's more of a liquor than a wine but it actually has the snake inside. They also have scorpion wine, seahorse wine, and all kinds of ones with various insects and critters. But we of course went for the ultimate one: the king cobra wine. It wasn't as harsh as everyone made it out to be. It actually wasn't bad at all, it's just that it's impossible to get rid of the taste for the next hour or so.

At the hostel, I met Colleen from Colorado. She's hardcore into rock climbing so she's pretty much fully convinced me to try it somewhere along the way. We booked a hop-on-hop-off sleeper bus that runs from Hanoi all the way to Saigon in the south and we left that night.

It was my first sleeper bus. Actually, it was the first time I ever saw a sleeper bus. They're definitely better than regular buses, and especially better than mini buses. But of course they don't accommodate me and my height too comfortably. Every seat reclines to a decent angle, but not all the way. And the person sleeping behind you sticks their feet in a little compartment underneath where your head is. And they jam pack as many people in as physically possible. There are 3 rows of beds from front to back, meaning there are two aisles. There are two levels (like a top and bottom bunk for each bed) and the back rows on each level are just five beds smooshed right up against each other. Then of course only two of the five beds in the back are facing an aisle, so if you're on one of the ends or in the middle, you have to climb over someone to get out. But you never really need to get out anyway because the bathrooms are always padlocked with a sign saying "No use toilet make smelly ride" or something similar.

On the bus, we met Alison and Erica, two girls from Alaska who were also climbers. No, they don't like Palin, and yes, everyone asks them. Kevin and Scottie, both from my Halong Bay cruise, were also on the bus. We all chatted for a while before trying to go to sleep. It's a bit tough though because everyone in Vietnam uses their horn literally at least 10 times per minutes. Sometimes they beep like 20 short times all in a row, or one long 10 second beep. It's absolutely ridiculous and I'm never going to complain about horn usage in New York again.

We got into Hue about 12 hours later and all booked into the same guesthouse. That morning was the night of election day in the states. So after we heard the results, Colleen and I started drinking whiskey early to celebrate and the Alaskan girls got a box of wine. I don't want to get into anything political here, but I can definitely say that it was the first time it was ever acceptable and warmly welcomed for me to be publicly proud of being an American overseas.

After a few whiskeys and wines, we decided to book an hour cruise in the Perfume River. It was really a junky wooden boat in a smelly river. There was no scenery and the entire duration of the ride involved a young girl trying to sell us stuff.

We wanted to go to the demilitarized zone, which was nearby, but didn't make it in time. It's supposed to be an old American airstrip and they have lots of old tanks and stuff there. Hue was pretty boring so we opted to skip it and bus it down to Hoi An the next day.

The ride to Hoi An was a lot shorter; I think only four hours. Colleen and I payed the extra $1 each for air conditioning. Hoi An is a bit better than Hue. But there's not much there other than countless seamstress shops. I heard all about people getting suits made in Vietnam and always had it in the back of my mind, but never really thought about it for myself. But I decided to get a cashmere suit made because it's dirt cheap here. So I figured it'll be worth it even if I only wear it once every couple years. Also I was with three girls so they helped me pick everything out so it even matches and everything.

After two nights in Hoi An, we bused down to Nha Trang. It was another overnighter, so Colleen and I got some whiskey for the ride. We ended up in the back row of the bus, which I wasn't happy about because it's the one with five people sleeping in only the width of the bus. But it was actually a lot more comfortable because I didn't have to squash my toes in those compartments underneath someone's head.

In Halong Bay, a guy on my cruise talked about Couchsurfing (couchsurfing.com for those who don't know about this... it's awesome!!) in Nha Trang with Gab, this Canadian guy who now lives here. So we decided to set it up and save the $4 we would spend on accommodation. He also is a divemaster at the dive shop in town. So I'm definitely going to do a couple dives tomorrow, possibly a cave dive as well, and Colleen is going to do an Intro to SCUBA, basically a single dive for people who don't have their certification.


So we got into town at 6 am but had to wait until 1 pm, when Gab was done diving. We basically just sat on the beach all day, which I usually hate, but I slept for a while and it was really nice in the shade. The water was super warm too. I ordered a steamed crab lunch right on the beach and it came with what I think were clams in hermit crab shells. So good!!!

We met up with Gab and his roommates. We also met his friends, who pretty much all work at the dive center. They're all Canadians, Americans, and Dutch. Tonight we're going out to watch soccer and figure out what time we have to wake up for diving. I'm totally excited for the cave dive.

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