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Published: October 21st 2006
Typical Sight in Hanoi
While I was up on the balcony I spoted a typical sight in Vietnam...Women selling bannanas and a rikshaw.Was sitting in a taxi today thinking about how I'd describe China and I realized I hadn't even written a blog about Vietnam yet...
Just like Cambodia, Vietnam is a country with a long history, well over a Thousand years. But as an American it sparks thoughts about only one thing...The Vietnam War! When I told my Dad I was going to Vietnam he responded by saying, "Oh, your going to the place where a lot of my friends died". What do you say to something like that? I said nothing, just continued the conversation as if I hadn't heard his remark, but I had and it got me thinking about what I should expect from Vietnam. In the months before heading to Vietnam other travellers had warned us about encountering anti-American sentiment during their visits. That wasn't going to stop me from going. Don't they have a right to be angry, we have lots of blood on our hands.
I'm happy to say I didn't feel anything other than welcome during my visit. Vietnam is a vibrant, unique, developing country. It was quite a change from Cambodia and Laos, the roads were paved, there were highways, traffic lights,
Blue Skies & Floating Village
Part of thew floating village we woke up to find outside our boat. This was where the kayaking expedition began...take a look at the blue skies. This also turned into a great spot for a swim. both Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and Hanoi were major metropolis', the overnight buses were clean and comfortable and overall the country gave the impression of an up and coming place. I even read at one point that with close to 90 million people Vietnam is close to cracking the top 10 most populated countries in the world. Overall our visit was great, pleasurable and I would surely recommend that anyone pondering a visit to Vietnam should go. I guess you might be wondering where the title of the blog came from, by the end of the blog I'm sure you'll get it...
Our Route... Saigon...Nha Trang...Hoi An...Hanoi...Halong Bay...Hanoi... Our visit started with us sitting on an eight hour bus ride from Phnom Phen, Cambodia to Saigon, the bus ride itself was uneventful, except for the fact that crossing the border occurred at large buildings instead of the bamboo shacks we've become accustomed to. To keep this blog from turning into a novel, and to keep me from going insane I'm just going to touch on the highlights of our visit, which lasted close to three weeks.
Now I know I keep referring to the city as
Hanoi...Old Quarter
This was taken from a balcony overlooking the Old City in Hanoi. Notice the lack of traffic laws, motos, cars, bikes and people all fight it out on the road... Saigon, even though it is now called Ho Chi Minh City, but during our visit it seemed more Vietnamese people refereed to it by the former so I figure why mess with the locals. The Highlight of Saigon for me had to be our visit to the War museum, which was a powerful experience. Aside from the tanks, helicopters, artillery, machine guns, mortars and jets they have on display, the museum is filled with some of the most moving photographs I've ever seen. There is an entire wing dedicated to all the journalists that died during their coverage of the wars with France and then America. I can't begin to describe what it's like reading the captions of Pulitzer prize winning photos that have appeared on the covers of major publications all over the world and then reading the last lines of the captions that go something like this..."this photo was recovered from the roll of film found in his camera after he died". The museum also contained a graphic account of the lasting problems caused by Agent Orange and other chemicals used by the US and the South Vietnamese during the war, Vietnam is filled with Handicapped people who
Moto Bike ride...
Just a shot of Brian and Kate on the back of a moto as we ride through the streets of Hanoi...Man those rides were fun! are lasting reminders of how terrible this war really was! The second highlight had to be the epic bar crawl that Brian, Kate and I had, a total of seven different bars and a mean hangover the following day. The day after the epic crawl, Brian spent the day in bed while Kate and I went out for a cup of coffee and instead ended up drinking eighteen Tiger beers and never actually finding that cup of coffee...Hey Kate, who's Rockstar? My other favorite part of Saigon was riding around the city on the back of moto-bikes (mopeds), it is one of the craziest experiences. There are no traffic rules so it's every man for himself, but some how you never see accidents. I ended up riding on the back of over 10 motos during my visit to Vietnam, each time was like going on a roller coaster, and each time was fantastic. From Saigon, it was off to the beaches of Nha Trang...
We spent five wonderful nights in Nha Trang, we got hooked up with a great hotel because we met a guy on the overnight bus whose family owned the hotel. We were styling, the place
Welcome to Halong Bay
The views were similar to this pic the entire time. We sailed among the limestone bluffs and enjoyed unbelievable views throughout. had location only 100m from the beach, roof-top swimming pool, free internet and all for only $8US each a night. Our life in Nha Trang went something like this...get up, head down to the brewery on the beach and grab a few lounge chairs for the day, drink some fresh weis beers, go swimming, and read, life really doesn't get any better than that. And of course there were all the women who roamed the beach selling fresh fruit and fresh lobster, crabs and prawns. Imagine that, fresh grilled shell fish delivered to your lounge chair, nothing like getting two lobsters and a half dozen crabs for around $6 USD. Oh I forgot to mention that the beach is lined with palm trees. Our one big activity in Nha Trang was the full day boat ride we took. It was very similar to a booze cruise, there was food, live entertainment (3 Vietnamese crew members singing American songs...freakin hilarious, they even used buckets for drums), floating bar and the boat stopped three or four times so we could go swimming, that involved jumping off the roof, very fun! Unfortunately our time in Asia was dwindling and we had to leave
Fishing In Halong Bay
Life exisits despite shear cliffs plummeting into the water...everyone just lives on a boat. Nha Trang, we caught an overnight bus to Hoi An, so Kate could meet up with her friend Sara and Moskowitz and I had to head north anyway. So it was a sad day in Hoi An, we had to say good-bye to Kate our seven week travel buddy, rockstar, pool shark and new friend, but just not for as long as we thought...
Arriving in Hanoi at the butt crack of the morning, found a nice place to stay, dropped our passports off for the Chinese Visa and booked a tour to Halong Bay for a couple days later. The day was going great, we had some dinner and drinks and then our luck turned bad... Some how I was yet again targeted by a pick pocket, but this time I was ready, wallet now attached by chain to my shorts. So while this girl picked my pocket on the back of a moto, I felt something wrong and before getting off the bike and letting the driver go, I checked my wallet and found all the money missing. I demanded my money back from the girl, screamed for Moskowitz to stop her, the driver of the moto
Inside the First Cave
Amazing limestone formations, these are stalagtites and the ones that grow up from the floor are stalagmites, by the way they form over thousands of years. didn't know what to do because I was still sitting on the bike, that's when, pardon my french, the shit really hit the fan. We were surrounded by Vietnamese bystanders that had been sitting on the corner eating and drinking, no one spoke English, two guys took the lead grabbing the driver and the girl, repeatedly smacking her across the face. while Brian and I watched in horror and asked him to please stop hitting her. She returned my USD but had already gave my Vietnamese Dong to Brian's moto bike driver who had fled with the money. Brian just kept saying lets get out of here, the two Vietnamese guys were trying to get me to go with them, obviously that wasn't happening. The guys turned out to be undercover/plain clothes/off duty police officers and even if I had wanted to leave, not sure we would have been able to. Before another three minutes had elapsed we were being whisked away by the Police in a truck. That's where the seven hours spread over two day visit to the Police Station (I say station but what I should say is storefront) began. Somehow I had forgot my motto of
Vietnamese Fisherman
Just another of the many fisherman we saw during the trip. NEVER GO TO THE POLICE!!! I was interviewed three times, filled out four Police Reports, was asked to sign another five blank Police Reports (can you say corrupt?), Brian was interviewed, they brought Hotel Receptionist to interpret because obviously Vietnamese Police don't speak English. Our trying experience with the Police came to an end with me receiving most of my $180 USD returned to me, less maybe $40 USD for "Tips" to the police. The folder on this simple crime was over one inch thick, bureaucracy is a large part of life in Vietnam, I didn't even want to press charges but the police were hell bent on sending this girl to jail for three years! It took the sweet talking by the owner of our hotel (and money) for the police to finally return my money and from what I last heard the owner of the hotel was also able to get the Girl and Guy off. I just couldn't stand by and let a girl with two kids get a 3 year sentence for stealing 180 bucks and then returning it within 1 hour, weird as it might sound I spent the entire day at the station feeling
Inside the Larger Cave
The second cave was much larger, but also more crowded and more developed inside. There was a concrete walkway, plus the entire cave was lit inside. THe first cave was by far much cooler. guilty that I didn't just let her keep the money. By the way this is the short version of the events that happened. During the visit to the station I watched the police hit people at least 3 times in the head, saw the criminals shackled to a bench for more than fifteen hours and was a firsthand witness to the curruption and bureaucracy that is Vietnam! Now that I covered the "Beast" part of the title it is back to the beauty part...
With Brian and I all set to leave for Halong Bay the following day, Kate got word to us that she was overwhelmed by how much she missed us (just kidding) and she was arriving in Hanoi that evening. We booked her on our tour and the Rockstar crew was back together! The three of us had a wonderful visit to the limestone bluffs that make up Halong Bay, we spent one night on a boat, went swimming a few times, explored a few caves and even went for a three hour kayaking adventure through the beautiful channels and caves, even had to duck a few times to avoid bumping my head. So even though
Cave Parking
I told you the second cave was packed with people...Well here is all the boats anchored outside. The scenery was still breath-taking! this was a short kayaking experience compared to other kayaking trips, it was still quite memorable and lots of fun! Moskowitz and I even discussed how great a place Halong Bay would be for a four or five day kayak expedition.
We headed back to Hanoi, decided to spend two nights instead of one, remember we spent almost the entire time of our first visit at the Police Station so we needed to have some sightseeing time. The night we got back to Hanoi, we where given a bit of a treat. Kate has a friend from London, Houng, who is originally from Vietnam, he also happened to be in Hanoi on an extended visit. Lucky for us his Aunt was having him over for dinner that night, obviously since people from Asia are very hospitable there was room for three more at the table. Dinner turned out to be a feast for the ages, felt like I sat down for Vietnamese version of Thanksgiving. Must have been ten different dishes on the table everyone of them amazing, fresh spring rolls, bbq chicken wings, fresh glass noodle salad, vietnamese sausages, and another noodle dish that involved too many ingredients
Village Garbage Collection
This was the local garbage boat in Halong. Not sure what they do with all the garbage they collect, but maybe somebody else can let me know...Speaking of environment, the water could stand to be a bit cleaner, Vietnamese people just throw their candy bar wrappers right into the water, actually pretty sad to see! too list. After dinner we sat around with Houng's family which included an 8 month old baby, drinking tea and eating fruit while Houng translated English to Vietnamese, dinner with Houng's family was a highlight of the visit to Hanoi, and a great example of the beautiful side of Vietnam.
By the way all the pictures in the blog are from Hanoi and Halong Bay, I have pictures from the rest of Vietnam but they are on DVD and I haven't been able to find a computer with a DVD drive in Nepal. If I find a place to upload more pics I will. Next Blog...CHINA!!!
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Kate
non-member comment
Answer: We were rockstars
Nice journal Alan. Great reminder of the rockstar crew that we had going, especially since im now home and applying for jobs!! Hope Nepal is working for you, did you keep the beard growth up? Speak soon, Kate x