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Published: October 19th 2006
Vietnam - Same Same but different
We arrived in Vietnam a few days after Typhoon Xangsane hit the central part of the country and caused massive damage and a number of deaths. We didn't know what to expect. Would the country be in a state of chaos? Would there be huge outbreaks of diseases from dirty water? Would we be able to get through the country to Cambodia? And if we couldn't how would we get to Thailand? Might we need to lend a hand? Or even worse, fly???
As it turned out, it was almost as if the typhoon hadn't happened. Although we saw some damage around Danang, all the places we stayed seemed intact and nothing seemed to have dented the local's desire to engage us, and more importantly, sell stuff to us. And maybe it's this sort of energy and resilience that makes Vietnam such a nice place to visit. Vietnam felt so much more alive than China. It's a quirky sort of a country, with a personality all its own. Part of this is the local dress that seems to consist of conical hats and pyjamas for the women, who are so elegant and beautiful,
and tee shirts rolled up to the nipples for the men. Part of it has to do with the architecture. Everywhere we went, deep in the countryside and in the cities, we would see hugely ornate houses in the loudest of colours, three or four storeys high that are as narrow as they are deep. Often only the fronts would be decorated, while the sides and back would be left as bare concrete. We just couldn't make sense of it. And part of it is that the Vietnamese seem to enjoy living on the move, be it on houses floating on rivers, or on boats, or even just on the back of their scooters.
Although Vietnam makes China seem crass, brash and unsophisticated by comparison, it also reinforced our perception of the Chinese as honest and helpful, while the Vietnamese beat even the Morroccans at sales and scams. It all started at the Friendship Gate - border with China...
Friendship Pass - Not so friendly
You will have read in the last episode that we had managed, without too much fuss or palaver, to make it out of China. And the brief walk to Vietnamese territory was
without incident. But then it all started to go a bit pear shaped. The Vietnamese immigration process required a particularly chaotic approach to passport presentation and a weird 2000dong (7p) payment for a health check which basically required us to declare our state of health. We lied about the diahorrhoea because we thought we might never get through otherwise, and frankly it had become such a normal state of affairs by this stage that it barely didn't occur to us.
Then out into Vietnam, where, surprise surprise, there was a taxi driver just waiting to take us to Lang Son so we could catch a bus to Ha Noi. Alarm bells were obviously ringing because the first taxi driver you meet when you first arrive in any country is going to fleece you for every penny he can get, either because you aren't familiar with the currency (Rome 2001), or because he gives you a very poor exchange rate (Cuba 2003), or because there doesn't seem to be any other option (countless). But having half heartedly negotiated with him, the air conditioned interior of his 4x4 was more than we could resist, so we paid him 80 RMB (about
5GBP) to take us 18kms to Lang Son.
Or that's what we thought we'd agreed. But no. We were taken to a petrol station right next door to nowhere and quite a long walk from Lang Son. At this point the taxi driver dumped our stuff out of the car while shuffling us towards the bus to Ha Noi. And then he fleeced us on the Renmimbi to Dong exchange rate. So far so bad.
By this stage we have the mini van driver trying to sell us tickets to Hanoi for 300,000 dong each (about 10GBP). We've only got 400,000 on us, and frankly it sounds very expensive. So we say no and start to walk away. This gets us a small discount and we are promised, amongst other (and ultimately too extravagent) things, that the bus is leaving NOW and that we will be dropped wherever we like in Ha Noi. We take the offer reluctantly and once again are promptly fleeced on the exchange rate by paying in Renmimbi. We then head to the mini bus depot where we wait half and hour for the immediate departure.
We are lucky enough to be seated
in relative comfort (compared to fellow scamees we've talked to who weren't so lucky) and the journey takes about 4 hours to do 180 kms. The roads here are bad. We arrive in Ha Noi and are unceremoniously dumped at a hotel of the van driver's choice. Not ours. Once again, not best pleased, and this time we kicked up a real stink. But by now our bags are out of the car and we're in Hanoi and just want to get on and put the whole frustrating episode behind us. But insult was added to injury when we got an e mail from the Norwegian lads telling us that they'd spoken to locals in Nanning and taken a bus all the way from Nanning to Hanoi for 120 yuan - about 8 USD each!
Ha Noi - honk, honk, blast, honk, beep, toot, honk, toot, toot, toot
You remember what we said about the traffic in China? And in particular the horns? Well that applies double in Vietnam. There are more scooters here than there are cars and driving by horns is the only way of safely getting around. Ross and Steve posted us a comment saying
that they hired scooters and drove themselves around Hanoi. There was no way! Ross and Steve - you are certifiable. Crossing the road here requires nerves of steel. You step out and move slowly into the flow of traffic and just let the scooter drivers flow around you. It's pretty unnerving, but it's the only way. The traffic is ceaseless. And we got used to doing it this way very quickly.
As our first proper introduction to Vietnam, it was a nice place to start. Loads of energy, friendly people and lots of English spoken. It felt a lot cleaner than China and there was a lot less spitting. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to spend much time here thanks to the parsimonious Vietnamese authorities in Berlin who only gave us a 14 day visa. We got acquainted with the traffic, and lack of pavements, caught up with our travelling buddies, Benny & Ger and Aisha & Chris for some food and drink and GOOD coffee, and visited the Temple of Literature. And then it was off to Halong Bay...
Halong Bay - Almost 2000 islands and ten times as many boats
We did a three
day tour to Halong Bay which took us on a large boat out to the islands. It is absolutely spectacular with about 19000 rock islands rising vertically out of the water. And despite the huge number of tourist boats, we still managed to find secluded spots where there was no one else around. The tour also included a visit to a large and rather psychedelically lit cave on one of the islands. Luat our guide, amused us by pointing out various rock formations said to resemble frogs, dragons, fingers or ladies. We all concluded that Luat simply had an overactive imagination, but it never explained why all Daren could see was ladies on bikes. We also got a chance to swim on a couple of lovely golden sand beaches in tepidly warm water, with no one else around. And we we were taken on an almost vertical trek with a 70 year old local guide who was clearly fitter than the rest of us.
One of the highlights of visiting the islands was a kayaking trip. We were dropped off at a fish farm, which was where the kayaks live. Getting to the kayaks required a tight rope style
walk across wooden beams which were lashed to air filled plastic drums (check out the photos). These formed the fish pens. If it wasn't already precarious enough, there were very large fish with big teeth in the pens below that spent a lot of time thrashing around looking hungry. But we and our small group made it without incident into our kayaks and out into the green water of the bay. We followed Luat under a rock arch in one of the cliffs, and found ourselves inside a large lagoon completely enclosed by cliffs. We were the only people in there which gave us a chance to try out the wonderful echoes.
We were also really lucky to share the trip with a great bunch of people. Gus, an Australian on a six month volunteer stint in Vietnam was travelling with his Mum Marion, and was able to give us loads of information about Vietnam. Carrie, Kelly and Kath, an hilarious Canadian trio, kept us laughing most of the trip. And a great Polish couple whose names we never learned.
Hue - Where old meets not so old
We included Hue in the itinerary at the last
minute, catching the overnight train to get there. Hue was the capital of Vietnam for a time, so it has old royal tombs, an old citadel and forbidden city, pagodas and temples, some of which we visited. At most of the sites, we got the distinct impression that nature is winning the battle to take these places back. It was a sense we often got in Vietnam - that humans are only just managing to keep plant life from taking over.
Hue is where we were finally forced onto the back of one of the millions of
xe oms or motorbikes that patrol the roads of Vietnam offering rides.
A - this doesn't sound like much of a big deal, but given that my first and almost only experiences of motorbikes involved me standing still while my brother's motorbike went off without me when I first tried riding it, I wasn't feeling very confident about being on the back of one. Especially with all the driving by horn. But it was actually great fun. They couldn't go too fast because it was mostly sandy tracks and pebbly drives which was probably a bit of a blessing.
Hoi An - 200 tailor shops and still nothing to wear
Hoi An is a short hop from Hue. It was on this leg, and especially through Danang, that we could see the damage from Typhoon Xangsane. It was really sad. We saw huge piles of twisted metal that had once been advertising billboards; brick houses missing walls; many many buildings without roofs; walls that had toppled over; sand everywhere. But we also saw gangs of people out putting roofs back on; running their restaurants from tent sites; sweeping the road, rebuilding and just getting on with it.
Hoi An was a chance for us to relax so we didn't do much more than eat, drink and hang out. We did visit the Cham ruins, which were in use between the 3rd and 14th centuries, as preparation for Angkor Wat. It was nice and small and very manageable. But other than that we spent most of our time mooching around the town which is another UNESCO world heritage site. We also managed to catch up with Benny & Ger and Chris & Aisha again which was great fun.
Mui Ne - Paradise if there wasn't so much
rubbish
Another overnight train which we shared with our lovely Northerner, Jane, who we met while in Hue. This is probably the yukkiest train we've been on so far. But the views of rice paddies at sunrise made it worthwhile. It also confirmed my impression that Vietnam is a country of water and reflections. Everywhere you go there is water, and it's always so still that there are perfect reflections everywhere. It creates a rather strange impression that nothing is quite solid.
At 7:30 we arrived in Muong Man, which isn't near anything. We were, of course, met by incredibly helpful xe om drivers offering to take us to Mui Ne for $35 each. Even though we were getting the hang of being motorbike passengers, the distance and our large backpacks put us off. And it was too bloody expensive. One guy offered to get us a car for $45, but again, far too expensive. So we set off on foot down the only road we could see. It's amazing what walking away can achieve in Vietnam. The man offering to take us by car kept circling us on his bike, and the price got steadily lower the
further we walked. It was only the abrupt change in road surface from asphalt to mud that stopped us from walking the price right down to zero. But by now he was down to $20 which we could all live with. He went off to get us a taxi, and we waited in a cafe over cups of
ca phe sua da - fresh made coffee with sweetened condensed milk over a large piece of ice - gorgeous! It turned out to be a 40 minute journey, and because the driver kept his meter on, we know we didn't pay massively over the odds. This made up for our Friendship Pass experience!
And Mui Ne was absolutely worth it. We stayed in a palm covered cottages right next to the golden sandy beach. We had a great local restaurant down the road that did the best squid (four squid meals in two days for Abbie). We shared meals with Jane, Ryan (kiwi) and his girlfriend Edy (Italian) and Claire (British). We were most impressed by a Dutch couple also staying there who must have been in their thirties who were doing a year long tour of the world with
Cave, Halong Bay
How do you tell the difference between Stalagmites and Stalagtites? Tights come down, fnar fnar!!!their three children aged 5 - 10. And they were doing it on a real backpacker budget. We couldn't believe how relaxed they were.
When not eating, sleeping or drinking, we spent our time lying on sunloungers under palm shades, watching the crabs dig their holes in the sand, or watching the local fisherman pull in their nets or watching the farmers herd their cows along the beach. The only thing that marred the experience was the amount of litter on the beach and in the sea. Some of this may have been caused by the typhoon, but it was sad to see such a beautiful place so full of rubbish.
Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City - and a bit of celebrity spotting
We took a bus from Mui Ne to Saigon arriving quite late in the evening. We headed straight out for a drink in a local bar to decide what to do next. However, our thought processes were pretty distracted by the fact that Des Lynam was sitting at the table next to us. Go figure. Anyway, although Saigon looked like it was worth exploring, we wanted to see the Mekong Delta and our Vietnamese visa
was due to expire so we went off and booked ourselves a trip leaving the next day and taking us all the way to Phnom Pehn in Cambodia.
Saigon to Phnom Pehn via the Mekong Delta
Day 1: Everything takes longer than the schedule!!! No kidding! I'm sure we'd all expect nothing less from private taxis/busses etc. It was a 7:30am start with a couple of hours on a big bus. Then on a small boat (mind your heads) to an island (Cai Be) on the Mekong Delta to see floating markets and coconut candy being made. The Mekong here is really huge, and people live on it in house boats, or boats or in houses that literally dangle over it. It's used as a major thoroughfare and a market place. We'd never seen anything like it before.
Then we're heading down narrow waterways past small communities and what looks almost like jungle. We have lunch in a restaurant that feels like it must be deep in darkest jungle. Then it's back by boat to the minibus to a ferry crossing where 'foreigners' are 'not allowed' to stay in the bus, but must do the crossing by
foot. Fine, except this was in the middle of the biggest monsoon downpour of the year. We (and our fellow passengers Ian and Steve) got completely soaked. Then once we got to the other side we didn't have a danny la rue (clue!) where to go because our bus hadn't come on the same ferry! Twenty minutes later we found our bus driver who found our drowned rat impersonations incredibly funny, which needless to say dampened our enthusiasm somewhat...
Then a longish (2? 3? hours) ride in the minivan fighting for control of the air conditioning, which the driver insisted on only applying 2 settings: Arctic cold (not so good when you're soaking wet!) or Arizona hot! It was all a bit too much to bear, particularly in light of his absolutely terrifying driving style, so we both ended up shouting at him.
We were eventually delivered safely to another boat for the final leg of the day, a cruise up-river to Chau Doc. It was about 5:30pm and most of us had expected to be at our hotel by now, not preparing for another three hour journey. Luckily they were able to feed us so we didn't
mind too much. And we got to see a pretty special light show from the boat. First the sun set in a blaze of pink and orange. Then there was a thunderstorm on the horizon, with regular flashes of lightening illuminating the clouds in the distance. What with this, the 'put-put' of boat engines and the search lights from other boats, we could almost have been travelling with Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, right into the heart of darkness...
Day 2: Up at 6am for early breakfast and in the bus at 7am. Thirty minutes later we were thrown into rowing boats on the river with all our luggage, each taken across the busy shipping channel by rowing women (not unlik Venice or Cambridge!), to a fish farm. Then more rowing in rickety boats, under dangerously dangling power cables for the floating homes we were visiting, and eventually stopping at a Cham (no, not Sham!) village (read that as 'shopping opportunity'). Saw a mosque, then walked the plank back to our boats, for a mid-river docking scenario where we had to leap from our moving row boats to a moving 'big' boat, packs and all.
Realative peace accommpanied
Canadians (and Abbie) at the Fish Farm, Halong Bay
From Left to Right, Carrie, Kelly, Katherine & Abbie us for the next 3 hours to the border crossing. We arrived here, departed our boat, and were then greeted by all the child salespeople we hadn't yet met from the rest of Vietnam. Drinks, crisps, drinks and money changing were the order of the day, as we waited for our tour guide to arrange visas and get us out of 'Nam. In the meantime we were corralled around a picnic table and guarded by the authorities, who took great pleasure in keeping the pesky children away by surreally 'hitting' them with flowers...
30 minutes later, we were across the border, for the 10 minute ferry ride (SLOW ferry, we opted for) to the Cambodian border. This took about another 30 minutes, as each of us received our 13 passport stamps to enter the country! Then another 3 hours up the river (nearly there!). More walking the plank at the ferry 'terminal' - a bit like an abandoned garage, only less salubrious. Into, yep, a mini bus. Here it only took us 2 hours to get to Phnom Penh, where, after surviving the first hour on possibly the worst road outside of Mongolia, we were greeted by the relative
calm and warmth of the Cambodian capital. Yes, we made it!!!
Where to Next
We are now in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. We expect to leave here on Saturday 21 October, travelling by bus (5 hours) to Siem Reap and visiting Angkor Wat. We've been told it's huge, so we'll opt for the 3 day ticket. Then on to Bangkok in Thailand. We expect to spend a total of about a week in Cambodia...
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JessicaDawn
Jazz
oh Vietnam, thanks for the blog!
I was in Nam in April, and reading your blog brought back all of the great memories. It just reinforced what I already knew, I have to go back. I especially liked your pics of Halong Bay, as I think that was the area of Vietnam that really struck me, the beauty was unreal. But I have to say unfortunatly I found the same thing with the amount of trash on the river banks, I wish we could blame it on the typhoon.