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Published: January 6th 2007
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Vietnam was one of my favorites, it is trully a beautiful country, great tasting food, the only thing unbearable are the constant hounding of the touts, much more than in Laos, Cambodia or maybe even Thailand, you can't really blame them for trying to make money but their persuasion tires you and just want to get out of there, I remember walking in the markets of Hue and trying to keep my eye straight on the road, a peek here or there will entice the touts and aggravate you to no end, i even made a mistake to promise one to come back later just so he leaves me alone, true enough the next day he remembers me and i had to run for cover!
Many memorable moments, one having to cross the worst border crossing in my life from Pakse, Laos by a rickety totally brutal bus ride to Hue, almost 24 hours later we made it only to be left off in the middle of the road and be prey to the rainy weather and hungry touts trying to make money from us, true enough they did as the only way to town from there is by moto,
my British friend and I had no choice., arrived in a totally flooded streets of Hue, got stuck in the city for couple days due to a tropical storm that came from the Philippines, and made me completely nuts! the night the bus can get through the floods, we got picked up from our hostels on the way to Hanoi, the British girls pleaded that we backpackers should take our packs inside rather than storing in the under compartment lest it be soaked by the stinky water, the driver assured us it's safe, and when we won't budge threatened us all to be let off the bus, what choice do we have? When we arrived in Hanoi, everything was soaked except for the French guy's pack. 2 things happened , the British girls forgot their passport in their hostel and the driver won't drop them off somewhere, we calmed them down by assuring we can contact the hostel to send it the next day, and Pascal, the Frenchie, almost got left by the bus after we got stopped by the police for contrabands, actually we did leave him, then another bus caught up with us dropping him off in the
process, later he admitted to me he was looking for a loo and did not notice we took off. on the way to Hanoi we have been stopped more than a couple times, i don't know why, it's aggravating, they never checked for passports or anything, surely it has something to do with the locals and their boxes of illegal items?!?
Hanoi was chaotic! took me a good 5 minutes standing in the crossing path to figure out how to cross the roads safely, motorcycles whizzing by you, i figured i'll cross with the locals, still a scary task, other than that and the touts Hanoi was beautiful, just loved it, and nice cool weather too, highlight for me was the cuisine, Pascal took me to this nice small restaurant with the best spring roll ever, with wasabe inside, yum.
On to Halong Bay for the cruise, very touristy but still a world heritage site so worth going and trully amazing karst limestones, just like in Palawan or maybe to some degree Vang Vieng in Laos. Went to Cat Ba island and the beach was nice, also did some hiking, went out one night with bunch of people,
one of which was a crazy Irish, boy this kid can really drink.
Arrived back in Hanoi, next day to Sapa this time with a German guy , one of the nicest laid back dude i met,our guide only speaks French and of course it's all gibberish to me, so he acted as the translator for sometime, but poor dude he got overwhelmed at some point he translated it in German to me, that back and forth between the guide's bad French to English translation wore him down, the beer was on me that night, he commented, while we shared a room in the hostel, that he was amazed how i can snore in any position, hey i was tired, the next day on the village i was out snored by the Aussie kid who's girlfriend keeps jabbing him in the ribs, coz we can't sleep! The whole village that night came to the house we were staying at to watch the Miss World contest, we being house guests stayed on and watched with them for awhile and polishing some local brew, the Canadian girls over dinner was telling us how they over shopped in Hanoi and now are
really tight on their budgets as they are nearly broke but that did not stop them from buying a thing here and there from the touts who walks with you on the trail to sell their wares, amazing! One old lady during rest stop on top of the cliff, offered me and the Aussie kid marijuana, we said no thank you, did not end there though, opium? the Aussie kid looked at me in amazement, they will sell you anything!
From Hanoi after getting back from Sapa i decided to fly to Danang to get to Hoi An, got a taxi with 3 nice Thais, turned out they went to school in Boston, we hung out for the day in Hoi An then they went to Hue. Hoi An is a nice cool town, had some boxers made from silk in couple hours, and got some really cool souvenirs, touts here seems very aggressive, went to a day trip to My Son temples. Flew again this time to Saigon, not wanting to experience another horrible bus trip. In Saigon went to the backpackers area, while walking i bumped into the horny Israeli guy from Hue and he recommended a
nice hostel for me which turns out good, for $8/nite, private room with A/C, this guy while we were stuck in the bloody deluge in Hue talked non stop on how he needs to get laid soon, the ladies kept their distance from him since.. So while in Saigon did all the touristy tours, tunnels, Mekong delta trips, Mui Ne excursion etc. My last night on the town me and an Irish lad decided to hang out get some dinner and drinks, as we were walking he asked me if i would like some happy hour, naturally i said yeah, where? Turns out he meant boom boom with a prostitute, as he was propositioned before, of course i said no.. Anyway, next day left town as i signed up for the Mekong delta trip crossing over eventually to Cambodia, the group was nice, with a trio of Kiwis i ended up hanging out until Siem Reap. I met a couple of elderly NY based Pinoys, nice couple, the woman keeps buying things, never said no to all the touts, to their delight. So there was Vietnam, I made a promise to myself to come back in the near future and
take my time...
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