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Published: July 21st 2010
As our bus approached the Cambodia - Vietnam frontier, we could see the change of panorama. All of the sudden, the houses changed from being very humble, on stilts and made out of wood to concrete, no stilts with Chinese letters on the entrance. Everything was greener (probably Vietnamese can afford irrigation), the streets were wider with actual concrete sidewalks!
The Cambodian side immigration office was a tiny wooden house while the Vietnamese immigration office was a huge but empty building. It makes you wonder if they are trying to show off to the newly arrived tourists from Cambodia. We are excited about stepping into a new country but we are very sure we will miss Cambodia, a small country with a big heart.
Our plan with our friends Tammy & Peter was to head to the island of
Phu Quoc. This island is about one hour by bus and 2 hours by boat from the border. Our bus dropped us off and we stepped into the fast boat that took us to Phu Quoc. We are impressed to see there were only a handful of other foreigners on the boat! The ride was very smooth but we had to
bear listening to loud Vietnamese karaoke music videos and, for the first time, realized how load Vietnamese people are! Or may I say, the way the Vietnamese language sounds… It can sound at times similar to Chinese and is very different to the softer sounds of the Cambodian language.
As we arrived to Phu Quoc, we were looking around the taxi station deciding on which transport we were going to take to our hotel. We were then approached by a man that told us he could get a small bus for a good price. Another couple joined us in the end and we embarked on our first “persistent tout” experience. In general, touts are people that harass you, so that you will follow their advice of going to a specific hotel or shop, where they get commissions based on how many clients they bring. Well, our driver turned out to be a persistent tout that would not let us go to our desired hotel, until we went to see the hotel “he” wanted us to stay at! Our travel books have been warning us about this kind of people since Thailand and Cambodia, so we were all 6 trying to
battle against our tout’s desires. The trouble with a tout’s advice is that usually their hotels are not good and overpriced (in order to pay for their commission)! It took us quite a bit of fighting but we finally managed to get him to go where we wanted to. Oh, and he tried to increase the cost of the ride also. Then and there we learned how persistent and business minded the Vietnamese on the tourist trail can be!
We stayed about 6 days in Phu Quoc. It was great little place to relax and catch up on our (very delayed!) blog. The beach was pretty but unfortunately we found a lot of garbage (plastic bottles, cans, etc.) around it.
In our hotel there were three cats that lived there and it was fun playing with them and they would sometimes invite themselves to our room… they would jump thru the windows and play inside. I think the big green/orange gecko that lived in our room attracted them!
Besides chilling out and eating lots of yummy Vietnamese food, we toured Phu Quoc island for a day. The streets were full of motorbikes and we were able to practice our
off road and crowded roads techniques. We even went on some muddy roads while driving to a waterfall that, unfortunately, turned out to be almost dry.
Restaurants in Phu Quoc were all about seafood and fresh fish. We walked thru the night market area where many small and informal restaurants were and you could see big ponds with all sorts of live animals (lobster, crab, snails, and fish). You were supposed to pick your catch and they would cook it fresh for you. It all look somewhat appealing but Rustin and I have turned into vegetarians for two months now, so we didn’t try those specialties.
Our second stop was the
Mekong Delta. We stopped in the fairly big city of Can Tho. The Mekong Delta is famous in the travels thru South East Asia for the river brings to life many cities in this part of the continent. In Vietnam, the river finally enters the sea after coming all the way from the Himalayas. Near the river you see a very particular way of life. Many boats in the river are actually houses and there are boat markets scattered all over the region.
Our first night we
had candlelight dinner by the pier and walked along the shores where we got our first dose of Ho Chi Ming, you can see and hear this name everywhere in the country (school names, hospitals, etc.) Before the war of Vietnam, North Vietnam and South Vietnam were 2 different countries. Ho Chi Ming was the leader of the communist movement and army to take over South Vietnam and create only one country. Of course, China was also communist at the time and was financially supporting North Vietnam in the war. This is when the Americans got involved in one of the most famous wars in our history. It is a major part of Vietnam history and you can still slightly feel a difference between the north and the south people. Also, even before this war, Vietnam had already been in wars with the French and several others, so you can really feel that the people in this country are hardened by the wars.
A funny fact was that Ho Chi Ming had a goatee beard and we think that is why Rustin got so many compliments on his beard from the people in Vietnam! His beard also caught the attention
of the people in Cambodia. It was just an uncommon thing for the men to grow a full beard so everyone found it fascinating.
The next day we did a tour of the markets of the Mekong Delta. We had an early rise and then we jumped on a small boat with an older lady and her grandson. It was a smooth ride thru the channels of the river and we went thru two markets. Our first one was at 7am when the markets are buzzing with activity. There were tons of boats and everyone was selling something. Usually fruits and vegetables, but sometimes prepared breakfast and awesome Vietnamese coffee. It was a very interesting exchange and we felt very happy to be able to watch it all.
We then took a comfy bus that brought us to
Ho Chi Ming City (former Saigon). This is the biggest and most cosmopolitan of all Vietnamese cities. For us and most travelers, though, the most characteristic aspect of this city is the unbelievably huge amount of motorbikes that there are in the streets. It is a spectacle on its own!
In Vietnam as well as in Cambodia (and Thailand to
an extent), a very important aspect of beauty is being as white as possible, especially for women. People in high society are very white, while the people that have to work the land are much darker because of the sun. So the women in the motorbikes are all wrapped up like mummies, from a pretty hat and face mask, to a jacket and thick socks. We got really hot just from seeing what they had to go thru everyday to be white. Also, all face and body lotions that are for sale, have a skin whitening ingredient, so it was not easy for us to find what we wanted. This white beauty factor is common in Asia from Japan all the way to India. Funny to think that in our western culture it is beautiful to be tan and brown!
In Saigon, we got our first glimpse of the Vietnamese family way of life. We stayed for 3 nights in a tiny family run hotel. To go to our room we had to pass through their small living room where their aged grandma would lay on a wooden sort of table all day. Here, we realized that most Vietnamese sleep
on the floor or on a cot. In the morning we had to go early on a tour and we had to step over those sleeping on the floor of the living room. This must be the reason why Asian beds can be so hard! Getting a thick mattress is considered luxury.
The economy in Vietnam is run by the middle class. Most middle class people have their own small business. Every single restaurant, hotel, shop is run by a family of locals, and they usually convert their house into their business or the other way around. Work is life and they work all day long. What is really cool about this is that ,as a tourist with a lower budget, you get to see their everyday way of life everywhere you go, from the family eating together in the living room (reception), to the children playing outside of your hotel, etc.
In Saigon we did a tour of the famous Cu Chi Tunnels. These were an intricate network of underground tunnels that were dug by the Viet Cong. These tunnels were just like a city (rooms, hospitals, kitchens, weapons factories) and held about 10 to 15 thousand people. The
people living in the tunnels were in South Vietnam during the war but they supported the north. They were all soldiers, men and women. It was very interesting to learn about this part of the painful Vietnam war.
Our next stop was the city of
Hoi An. To get there we rode the Vietnamese train! We were only able to book a 6 bed cabin, meaning 3 beds on each side. The mattresses were very thin and the space for the passengers was too small for one to sit up, so therefore we had to lie down for the whole 14 hours that the Saigon-Danang trip lasted! It was actually comfortable and we broke our sleep by having breakfast in the train restaurant. After getting off the train we had to ride the bus for one hour to get to Hoi An. We decided to be brave and take the local non-AC bus instead of the taxis. This was quite an experience… to start with we got overcharged (from 0.50 cents to $1.50) for being the only tourists on the extremely old bus. We were lucky enough to get the front seats…the only place; we realized later, where
you wouldn’t get squished. Our bus was probably holding two times its capacity. There were bicycles, huge packages and tons of people standing up. When we thought not one more person would fit in the bus, they packed a least another 10 people! A seat for one person was instantly turned into a seat for 2 and a half people. None of the clients on the bus seemed to care or feel uncomfortable… at least nobody complained. It was sad to think they probably had to go thru that every single day.
The city of
Hoi An had very beautiful and particular architecture. In the old town, there are many small and old Chinese looking houses. Some of them were very colorful with red dragons in the entrance. Also, there were several beautiful and small Vietnamese temples. It is a very enchanting town, seemed to come out of a Chinese fairytale! Here we rented bikes for a couple of days and drove around the old town. It was steaming hot from noon to 4pm, so usually we retreated to our hotel room and enjoyed their pool. Hoi An is also a huge shopping town. There are hundreds of small shops
in the old town, the most popular ones being shoes and tailor shops. Tailor shops are extremely famous. You get gorgeous, inexpensive and good quality, anything, done for you here… from fancy dresses to business suits to winter jackets. Most people find it hard to resist and even long term travelers get a couple of things done and sent home by courier package. We were able to resist!
On our third day in Hoi An we decided to go to a small food stall/restaurant by the river. We tried a unique dish that is exclusive to Hoi An that consisted of thick noodles with vegetables and some freshly squeezed sugar cane juice. It was very tasty but unfortunately the next day Rustin woke up with food poisoning. After a half day of throwing up (exorcist style says Rustin) he started feeling much better that night and we decided to leave next day on to Hue.
Hue is the imperial city of Vietnam. We were surprised and delighted to see such beautiful imperial Chinese inspired architecture. Our first couple of days we strolled around the old imperial citadel and ruins. We also visited some small war inspired museums.
Hue
had quite a big backpacker district and we hang out here for lunches and dinner satisfying are cravings for western food. Our choice was usually some yummy vegetarian pizza. While in Hue, the city hosts the famous yearly Hue festival. This festival is a mixture of groups and performers from Vietnam and all over the world. They have performers from Europe, Russia and even Cuba. Unfortunately we were not able to go to the festival because the tickets had sold out some weeks before.
From Hue to Hanoi, we took a sleeper bus. We had heard comments about these buses since they can be up to 1/3 of the price of the train. The travel agencies always talked about how it was better to take a sleeper bus than the train because of the price and comfort. We ventured out and took the sleeper bus, only to have a very uncomfortable night. We realized then that most Vietnamese like the sleeper bus because they are small enough to find this comfortable. For an average westerner, the space is not long enough or wide enough. Everybody seem to have a nice sleep except the tourists!
Hanoi was only a
short stop for us. We walked around all the markets and shops that the city has. Our main concern here was getting our Indian visa since we would soon be travelling to India and we read it took about 5 days to get the visa done. We left our papers and passports with the embassy of India and left for Sapa.
We had heard a lot about
Sapa, but we didn’t expect to fall in love with the area. It was definitely one of our main highlights in South East Asia! Sapa is 6 hours by train from Hanoi in North Vietnam. From the train station one has to take a small bus for about 1 hour. Most of the road is straight uphill as you circle misty mountains and start discovering a different side of Vietnam.
This area has tons of small rural villages where the mountain minorities of Vietnam live. Most of the minorities are Red Dzao and Black H’mongs. These groups follow a very old fashioned lifestyle and the women traditional dresses all the time.
For our first two days we just enjoyed the marvelous scenery and cool weather… misty mountains and rice paddies. We
found a simple but delicious restaurant that had to have one of the best views in the town and made it our base for hours of reading and blogging. That first night it rained for many hours and the next day the mountains had dozens of flowing waterfalls. So gorgeous!
Our highlight in Sapa was doing a mountain trek where we could walk among mountains, rice paddies and small rural villages. Sounds awesome, right? Well, it was certainly a memorable experience!
We found an excellent travel agency/hotel that offered a trek on a much isolated area of the mountains surrounding Sapa. They told us they were the only ones with access to this area so far, so therefore, we would hardly see any other tourists. We felt so lucky indeed, since we had already heard that Sapa was very touristy especially in the summer season. Also, the group was only going to be 4 people maximum.
That night we booked our trek. Later on it was the beginning of the Soccer World Cup. So we were excited to go to a bar to see the first match. The bar was full with at least another 30 other people and there
was a festive ambience going on. Most countries in South East Asia follow the World Cup very closely! That night we met some cool guys among them was a girl from Canada that was interested in joining us on our trek. She actually ended up being our trek buddy for 2 days. We had much fun with her and our guide.
The next day we started our trek. We got to meet our local guide which was a tiny lady belonging to the Black H’mong, it was hard to believe she treks for hours every day! After, we were taken by car to a huge and beautiful waterfall, which was very impressive to see from up close. We then rode for another hour before starting our trek on a really rough rocky tiny trail in the middle of the jungle. It was downhill and since it had rained two days before the trail was somewhat muddy and slippery. The adventure had started!
Our guide told us to be careful with leeches during our trek. We all felt somewhat nervous about it… even our guide, she really dislikes leeches. They crawl on you without you even noticing it. We stopped
every 15 minutes to check on our shoes. Xiomara almost got two on her, but was able to pick them out of her shoes before they reached her skin.
After going on the small rough trail for about an hour or two, the trail opened up and we had gorgeous views of the misty mountains. That first day our hike was intense and we walked almost 6 hours total in a lot of uphill and downhill paths, but the views were magical all the way. After several hours we stopped by a beautiful river to have a cold sandwich and fruit lunch that our H’mong guide prepare for us. She went and got big banana leaves to use as our dishes.
During our hike we crossed several small villages where we could see how the minorities lived. Most people had dogs, goats or pigs running around their house. Usually they raised them in order to eat them. Meat in general is considered a delicacy and they usually have it only on special occasions since it is so expensive for them. Most people in the villages seemed very shy; it seemed they don’t see tourists very often, so they mostly
kept to themselves. In one of the villages, though, we stopped for a snack at the house of a friend of our guide. It was very impacting to see how little people live off in here, but we felt very lucky to be able to spend some time in this lady’s house. She made us feel welcomed and while she chatted with our guide, we played with her puppies =)
The last hour on our trek for the day, turned into a very adventurous one. Our guide was exhausted since she had trek really hard the days before and she wanted to take a small shortcut to get to village where we were going to stay. The shortcut turned out to be a walk among the rice paddies and thru corn fields; we also crossed a knee high river and jumped some mud pools. By the end of the adventure, Xiomara’s shoes and socks were soaked in mud and her pants were wet. Unfortunately we didn’t bring more clothes because we didn’t want our backpacks to be heavy.
We arrived to a village with only about 6 houses where we met our homestay host. This family makes a living
out of hosting guests like us that are on a trek. Their house was very big but basic… all wood and very little furniture. We enjoyed a nice talk and tea in the balcony table that had a pretty view to the mountains. We then went to the kitchen to watch them wood fire cooking. They made so much food for us, it seemed like they were expecting 7 people but we were only 4. There were tons and tons of food in the table. They wanted us to be full and happy. They also offered us some typical Vietnamese rice wine, which is like a very strong vodka… it certainly helped us have a good night sleep.
The next morning the friendly dog that lived at the homestay walked us to the gate of the village and then we parted ways. He and Rustin had become quite good friends. For our second day’s hike was only about 4 hours. This was good news since we woke up very sore from all the uphill and downhill trails the day before. We passed thru several more villages and walked by waterfalls and rivers. As we walked we passed groups of children
that were working. Usually the men and women work in the rice paddies and the children take care of the animals, hence the pictures of the water buffalos and the kids. We would sometimes see kids that were only 8 years old and were already taking care of their animals by themselves in the middle of the mountains.
By the afternoon we approached Sapa town again and passed by one of the markets to visit our guide’s mom. In the market they were selling all sorts of souvenirs, fruits, food, etc. One person was selling dog meat; we realize this because they had a fully cooked dog head in display!
Well, it was now time to say goodbye to our guide. We had a wonderful time with her.
We spend an extra day in Sapa relaxing. After that, we jumped on another night train to Hanoi. In Hanoi, after getting our Indian visas, our flight took off the next day to New Delhi, India.
~By Xiomara
Vietnamese Facts Hello: Xin Chao! in Vietnamese
Yummy dishes: soft fresh vegetable spring rolls, Pho (extremely famous breakfast noodle soup), Stir fried everything; stir fried vegetable and rice noodles in
Sapa, Phu Quoc’s fried spring rolls with rice noodles and sweet and sour sauce (delicious!).
Beer: Saigon red (export) and Saigon green, Festival and Hue (Hue), 333, local Can Tho beer, Bia Hoi (extremely cheap and mild flavor draft beer). Almost every city makes its own local beer!!!
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jose
non-member comment
super!
Se ve prity. Igual que en la tele. jejeje.