Busing down Vietnam to Saigon

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Hello again,

Firstly thanks for all the blog love I've been getting, glad you guys are liking the blog. I'm just happy to share our adventures and some pictures.

Anyways, last time it was Northern Vietnam and Halong Bay that amazed us, this time it was the central coast of Vietnam.

There is an open bus ticket option here in Vietnam where you choose the number of stops along the way from Hanoi to Ho Chi Min City. The price ranges in the $25-$35 range. Which would be ideal. If you knew how many stops and where you were stopping. So me and Max decided against it and just got a ticket to Hue. Hue is Vietnam's 4th largest city and has an old citadel which is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our bus was suppose to be a 12 hrs sleeper bus; however, we're in Vietnam, it's not that simple. We don't go by normal time but rather Vietnam time. So our adventure began by having the simple instructions of be at the hotel by 5:30 and a minibus will come pick you up and take you to the actual bus. Sounded simple enough, so as the responsible guys we are we were took it easy in Hanoi, looked around a bit, hopped on the internet for a while (that's when I wrote the last blog), went for dinner ... at 5:15, rushed dinner, and finally ran to the hotel in time for 5:29. Made it! So we sat down and waited for the minibus, and waited, and waited as the clock ticked away. At 6:15 we ask reception if we missed our bus but they assured us we didn't and not to worry, it's on Vietnam time. Sure enough it arrived and we hopped in and met Coby and Hime, two Israeli's who are traveling around SE Asia. As we were getting acquainted the minibus stalled just 2 meters from our hotel so we all had to jump out and push start the bus and run and jump into the minibus. But we made our sleeper bus with enough time to wait an additional 20 mins before the bus left.

Now if you're ever traveling in SE Asia and you have to take a night bus, get on a sleeper bus! The bus seats fewer people than a regular bus because there are three rows of bunk beds on the bus and each person gets a bed rather than a chair. The beds are made for the average Asian person so it's a bit cramped but it works and you actually get a good nights sleep. Well, compared to my Croatian night bus experience, you get a lot of sleep!

On the bus Max and I decided to skip out on Hue and continue down to Hoi An instead. Lucky for us the bus stopped in Hue and the next bus to Hoi An was at 1:30pm, so we had a few hours to look around Hue with and that's really all we needed. We went for breakfast at
a small little family run place. The father/grandfather asked us what we heard as "football?"
"Yeah, sure, football, good good!" We decided to go for whatever meal we got. Apparently our hearing sucked cause he brought us two bowls (football, two bowls, sounds the same right?) of rice noodles and beef which was quiet delicious. Then we decided to go see Hue's Citadel (Khin Thanh) which was sort of a bust. It is very run down, now I'm sure it will be beautiful once they finish the renovations and such, but it was just a time killer. We caught the bus to Hoi An, which turned out to be 30 mins late and a couple hours late into Hoi An, so at 7:30, 25 hrs after we were suppose to start our trip we finally made it! Tired from the trip, we decided to find a place to stay with the Israeli's at the hotel we got dropped off at. They had one 4-person room available for $20/night, it just happened to be the top floor of the hotel! It seemed to be either a potential restaurant/penthouse room that still needed to be restored a bit. But we had a room with 4 single beds, a big open area with a bar tables and chairs, a deck, 2 bathrooms, to say the least we scored a pretty sweet place. Now Hoi An is famous for all its tailors where you can get custom made suits, shoes, jackets, anything! We got none of these, we basically chilled in our hotel room, walked around with Hime and Cohen. We were hoping to find the sun and beach; however, it rained most of the time we were there so we found an internet cafe and played video games instead. No jokes, we had fun though. We also convinced the Israeli's to go to Laos and go tubing.

We left the Israeli's and Hoi An after a couple of nights. Like I said, we didn't do much there but as we look at it: we're on vacation, it's ok to do nothing! But we hopped on another sleeper bus, this time down to Nha Trang to find the beaches and sun! After another 13 hrs bus ride we made it to Nha Trang and we found the sun!! A very nice Vietnamese man named Minh found us and introduced himself as Minh. A very nice guy who worked for his step-mothers guesthouse and offered us a cheap room so we obliged. After getting settled in and taking a nap (we arrived at 6:30am), we met up with Minh so he could show us a place for some cheap local food (back to the $1/meal days!). It was a very delicious beef and noodle soup in a hearty broth (and not super buttery). Since the sun was out we decided to hit the beach and relax for a couple of hours but like Sihanoukville we were bombarded with souvenir vendors and people advertising their restaurants for food. We decided to go for a pub crawl; however, we never found the first bar that night. Instead we found a bunch of swedes; Patrick, Johan, Sixten, Johan, and the last guy we don;t remember his name (oops). Pretty swell guys who had traveled around China for a month before snaking their way down Vietnam. We decided to grab a nice western burger and beer dinner and then go dancing. Very fun night.

The next day, after a nice sleep in, we went with Minh again to find some cheap food. Through our discussions with him yesterday we found out that he works roughly 18 hrs a day and doesn't really get a lot of time off so we said that we'ld buy him a massage. He was very keen on the idea so after another $1 meal we made our way to Happiness from Hands massage parlour. This was a massage parlour teaches the blind how to massage so they have a way to make an income. There are a bunch of these types of places all over SE Asia, for a good cause and only $4 for an hour and a bit massage who can go wrong?

Well..... I mean the massages were terrific. Kristoffer got a hard massage and really took a beating getting every little knot in his back beaten flat. Max got a nice relaxing massage. After the hour was done and we were leaving, one of the Vietnamese blind masseusers was impressed by Max's vercy masculine and hairy chest and ran his fingers across it. It wasn't until we were walking with Minh we learned that the guy was gay, so Max was fondled by a blind Vietnamese masseuse, there I said it! It was pretty funny. That night we took it easy and filled our Ipods with some music and movies and waited for the night bus that would take us to Mui Ne. We met up with the two Israeli's Coby and Hime since they had just arrived from Dalat. Our meeting was short but it was nice to see some familiar faces, even if it was only a quick hello and goodbye.

Now our Mui Ne experience was quiet something. Firstly, we weren't really sure how long the bus was suppose to take or where it would drop us off in Mui Ne but we put our faith in the bus company and went with the flow. We figured it would take about 4 hours and since the bus left at 8 we would be there after midnight sometime. We can't say much about the bus trip, Max watched Star Trek on his Ipod and Kristoffer slept. We had a pit stop for food and it wasn't until 2:00 am that we made it to Mui Ne. Going with the flow only had one fault; you don't really have anything booked. So we started walking, after a short search we ended up waking up a very confused and tired Vietnamese lady who got us a room. We weren't really tired so we watched some tv until 3 before crashing for the night. Max's last words were: "It's so nice not having an alarm to wake up to..." We were awoken out of our Malarone-dream filled slumber by a knock on the door...at 7 am. We were getting kicked out and they didn't have any other rooms to give us. The reason was that the roof was broken and today was the day they were going to start fixing it. We were very confused and half asleep so we quickly packed and left. As a small bonus we didn't have to pay for the 4 hrs we used the room for, which was nice of them.

A couple buildings down we found Mellow guesthouse and a room and crashed for a bit more. At 1 pm when Max finally got up, we started our day. After food and wandering we found a tourist shop. Now let me just explain a little bit about Mui Ne. It is a sleepy beach resort town with lots of hotels along the x kms long beaches. Some of it's attractions are the red and white sand dunes (5-25 kms out of town) and then what ever activity you can do on the beach. We wanted to go to the sand dunes and go tobogganing there.

Now mom's and dad's of Kristoffer and Max let us just tell you know, we're fine, everything is ooooohkay! We didn't die or hurt ourselves when we rented those motorbikes. They were in fact a lot of fun! For $10/ 24 hr period, you too can rent your very own motorbike! After a couple of training runs up and down the street we settled on the automatic bikes and headed over to the red sand dunes to do some tobogganing. It was awesome to drive around on these little bikes and now being a bigger fish in the traffic we realized more how simple the traffic is here. Weaving in and out of the way of people, bicyclists, moto's, buses, ox drawn carts, and cars we made it to the dunes. Immediately we were surrounded by 10 yrs old kids with toboggans wanting to show us around (and make a few bucks). Two kid named Chong and Dong helped us by supplying the sheets to slide on and guided us to the runs. It was a lot of fun, let us tell you, but you get COVERED in sand! In fact, 2 days later we're still finding sand! Max had the bail of the day which hopefully is posted in the video for this blog.

After tobogganing we continued onward to the white sand dunes which were an additional 20 kms away. We figured we'ld make it just in time to see them before the sun went down; however, we were sadly mistaken. It was a very fun drive though! The drive back home was stellar as well and since we had the bikes till 4 pm the next day we went home and crashed. It was very hot in our room so we slept with the window open and due to that fact we got an unexpected visitor during the night. We didn't notice until the next morning when we found a cat at the base of our bed, just chilling, taking a catnap like cats usually do. We got up and packed and left the cat to slumber while we used the last few hours of our time to moto around Mui Ne. After returning the bikes and a quick bite to eat we were off to our last, and very quick, stop in Saigon (or Ho Chi Min City).

Our only full day in Saigon we spent going to the two most touristy places: The Cu Chi tunnels and the war remnants museum. We had two options of getting out to the Cu Chi tunnels (which were over 70 km away from the guesthouse), we could ether rent a jeep for $35 or take two moto's for $30. So on the moto's we went with two very fun and different drivers. Kristoffer got an old man who cursed everything that crossed his path. He yelled at other moto's, cars, bicyclists, pedestrians, school kids, anyone! Max got a speedy little Vietnamese man who kept gunning ahead and; therefore, had to wait for Kristoffer and his driver to catch up. We eventually got to Cu Chi tunnels after an hour and a half drive. Now, Cu Chi tunnels are some of the tunnels the Viet Cong built and used during the war against the US. Experts have mapped out over 200 km of tunnels stretching from HCMC to the Cambodian border. These tunnels were the veins for the Viet Cong (or freedom fighters, depending on how you look at it). We received a guide and were pitted with two other Canadians from Halifax and a couple from Belgium. We got to crawl through the extended tunnels (since the original ones were only 50 cm x 70 cm) and we got to see the simple yet inventive ways the Vietnamese built their booby traps, field hospitals, and even kitchens. We also got to shoot travel stories back and forth between the group. Max and I also jumped on the opportunity to hit up the gun range and shoot some guns. Well, only one, it was expensive and there was a minimum amount of bullets we had to buy but we got to shoot an M1 Garand. Both of us were unsure if we hit the target at the end of the range but the thing we were sure of was that our ears were ringing after the fact.

After departing from the Cu Chi tunnels we were on our way to the War remnants museum in downtown HCMC. This is Max's favourite museum so far and he had good reason to say so. Remembering back to History 12 and the little we touched on the Vietnam War, we were in for a history lesson. The museum was very well laid out with American planes and tanks littering the courtyard and inside the museum multiple photos and artifacts with English and Vietnamese signage. The museum included: a description of the French's colonization and suppression of Vietnam, the Vietnam War itself, and the aftermath of the American bombings and use of chemicals. Along with beautiful, scary, insane, and absolutely horrifying images. The museum even had fetus' in jars that were affected by Agent Orange. It was truly an eye-opener. I didn't take any photo's there I just walked around in awe, but a highly recommended place to go see if you ever find yourself in Saigon/Ho Chi Min City. After the museum we treated our moto drivers to some beers and we asked them a bit about life in HCMC and themselves. They were interested in our trip and we agreed to have them take us to the airport the next morning.

That night we took it easy and hit the hay since tomorrow we're off to a new country! The Philippines and it's adventures will have to wait till the next blog.


What we learned in central Vietnam:
- blind massages are sweet but Max still got groped by a blind gay Vietnamese masseuse
- We're on vacation, it's ok to do nothing
- Laos should pay us money for advertising Vang Vien to everyone we meet
- Sand tobogganing is more dangerous than moto's
- In Bruges asks the question "but who gets the Vietnamese?" I sure hope my side does!

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Photos

Citadel
The nicest view in the place

Part of our hotel room
This was maybe 1/5th of the top floor

Pool
Playing pool in Nha Trang.

Giant seated Buddha
In the center of Nha Trang close to a nice Pagoda.

Kitty!
This curious creature found its way to our bed during the night. Quiet a random but amusing sight the next morning.

The White Sand Dunes of Mui Ne
Can you see them? Yeah, neither could we, but they should be right there!

Sand Tobboganing
So much fun!

Cu Chi Tunnel entrance
The tunnels had to be doubled in size to fit tourists (70 cm x 50 cm original size)

American Tank
An American casualty of the Vietnam War at Cu Chi tunnels, now a photo opportunity

Max and his moto driver
1.5 hrs to Cu Chi tunnels and your butt feels it.

Vietnamese architecture
They don't really build buildings to the same height, it's sort of a free for all in what heights you build.

Comments

[Peter Wright]

The Vietnamese
I'm glad the Vietnamese have finally come down off the fence and picked a side.