Week 17 Laos to Vietnam

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There are five key elements to lengthy travel. Firstly the planning, secondly taking every opportunity to try new experiences, thirdly interacting and engaging with the locals, fourth is living out of a suitcase on a tight budget and lastly, but quite importantly, is immodium. Several of us got sick at the beginning of this week and had a couple of uncomfortable days and got through a giant pack of immodium between us. I wasn’t too bad but had a horrendous crushing headache for several days which didn’t really react to medication or rehydration salts, but no harm done and less guilt when indulging in the cakes at the end of the week.

Wed 6 (afternoon)
Still in Luang Prabang, Laos. We had a completely free day which was lovely so I wandered the town and the banks of the two rivers, caught up on laundry and did some photograph management. Mel, Wendy and I went to dinner at L’Elephant where the bill came to over over 1 million, mainly due to 2 expensive bottles of wine (very ordinary). Tom and Kim had been sick all day and I thought I had avoided it, but unfortunately my stint of sickness started this night.

Thurs 7
We had been warned that the drums would start at 4am for a special Buddhist celebration and that it would be loud as our room was inches from a giant temple drum, but we hadn’t figured on the whole room vibrating and items dropping out of our packs. Actually the drums were very melodic, with symbols and smaller drums creating very pleasant music.

As we were wide awake, and to give me a short break from the bathroom where I had been resident for most of the night, Mel and I went to watch the dawn alms-giving to the monks for a second time. This was slightly different as all the monks followed the same route today and appeared to all be gathering afterwards in one temple. The line of monks stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions, which was a magical sight. I didn’t take my camera as I wanted to fully experience this event. It was much darker than the previous day as it was threatening rain and the shots would not have been good anyway.

Later in the morning we visited the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Museum which had a fascinating display of costumes, household items and religious traditions from several of the different tribal groups of the country. The rain started just as we arrived and was pretty heavy. Sadly it was time to leave this lovely country and head for Vietnam.

In the afternoon we went to the airport to catch the hour-long flight on another Laos Air prop plane to Hanoi. It was dark when we finally reached our hotel and as I was not well I went straight to bed, while most of the others went to KoTo for dinner. KoTo (know one, train one) is a restaurant that trains street kids to become chefs or waiting staff and is very similar to Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen in London.

Here in Vietnam I am even more of multi-millionaire with 1 million Dong equal to 43 pounds sterling.

Fri 8
We were up early and left straight after breakfast on long, bumpy bus trip trip to Halong Bay which took about 3.5 hours. The weather was dull and very cold which took is all by surprise as we had packed overnight bags for this short side-trip and were all fairly optimistic, packing for a sunny and hot climate. Wrong.

We stopped half way at a Humanity Centre where the children of victims of Agent Orange who were born with disabilities, were employed. The most common disability was missing or deformed limbs, so the delicate and speedy embroidery they did was amazing. Although the prices were a bit steep, I bought a new blouse that had been made here, to support their cause.

The quay at the starting point of Halong Bay is truly manic, with hundreds of boats trying to tie up and thousands of tourists being moved around, with their guides trying to match their group to the correct boat. Luckily we had a great local guide called Hue and she got us smoothly onto the correct boat pretty quickly. We had the whole vessel to ourselves and we were pleasantly surprised with how much room we had in the cabins and that we had flushing toilets instead of the pump versions we had expected. There was a large indoor dining room and an outside verandah on the middle deck and the top was an open deck with sunloungers and a great view. The boat could have done with some maintenance and I tried not to look too closely at the gaping holes all over the place.

The clouds were low and it was hard to see the thousands of limestone karst islands in the distance, so we assumed that the trip would be a disappointment. However not long after we arrived amongst the islands, the sun broke through and the afternoon cleared up. Our first stop was at the Surprise Cave, which is a large cave consisting of 3 sections. There are lots of rocks that resemble various things such as animals, Buddha’s and the famous rock cock. They had installed red lights under this phallus-shaped bit of stone, making a big red glowing penis.

The next stop was to transfer into some canoes and paddle about the edges of the islands and into a lagoon area. There were lots of girls from the local floating village in their boats, laden with booze and provisions that all Westerners must need such as Oreos and Ritz biscuits, who were very persistent and were desperate to sell you something. In fact they floated around our boat and our neighbours well into the night, shouting “You buy !!??!” whenever you made eye contact and were very annoying.

Nicki and Tom were crazy enough to go swimming and jumped off the bottom and middle decks in a bombing competition. They were blue with cold and had chattering teeth by the time they finished.

The food onboard was amazing and they kept delivering more and more plates of food . I took it easy as I was still fragile and tried a bit of each dish, but did not drink. The time and care the crew had lavished on the food was amazing and it looked beautiful. There were lots of carved vegetables and fruits, including one spectacular display that came with dinner in the evening and accompanied the giant tiger prawns.

The temperature kept dropping until we were all wearing every single piece of clothing we had brought, plus the duvets off our beds. I only stayed for a short time when the party moved to the top deck to watch the stars and the lights from the other boats at anchor around us, as I was sober and tired. I got an early night and slept like a baby as we gently floated in the South China Sea.

Sat 9
Sadly we had to leave early, so the Captain started the engines at 7am and cruised an hour and half back to the main quay. The road didn’t get any less bumpy on the way back but we did stop at a different Humanity Centre where I had a long chat to one of the guys who worked there, which was interesting. We were allowed to take photos here and one of the girls (in the hat) was everso smiley and laughed so much when I showed her the picture that she set off a gigglethon, with the whole row of girls laughing. It was moving to see how well they cope with their disabilities and its such a shame that Agent Orange continues to cause such devastating hardships with this innocent second generation.

Halong Bay was only 150 kilometres from the border with China, so we were quite far North. The population is 85 million so land is at a premium and the country is quite densely populated. The villages we passed through in both directions were not very attractive and although they are clean, they were untidy. The government gives a fixed area of land for a family to build their house in this region of North Vietnam, with a long thin plot. The villagers then build upwards to make the most use of the site, making tall, thin houses. It looks as if they had chosen an element from every single page of an architectural catalogue, as there were many different types of window, balcony railings, ornate doors, etc. They then paint all the features in different colours. All very modern, gaudy and chaotic. Not aesthetically pleasing at all. We passed some ugly power stations and some towns were the streets were black with dust from the coal lorries that constantly thunder past, feeding the power stations.

On arriving in Hanoi we checked back into the hotel and went for an orientation walk with Nicki to the Old Quarter, which still has many French-influenced old buildings buried under the modern layers and really ugly surface-mounted electricity supplies. We went down a few of the 36 shopping streets, each one mainly selling one type of item, such as shoe street, bedding street, crash helmet street - you get the picture. There were also some specialist shops and I took a shot of one of them that sold only hair, both real human and synthetic.

There are about 8 million people in Hanoi and 4 million with motorbikes - but its OK as only about a quarter of them are hooting their horns at any one time. Its mad. Its a complete free-for-all at the junctions and crossroads, so you have motorbikes by the thousand and cars, trucks, bikes, cyclos and pedestrians all going in different directs. The only way to cross any street is to just walk slowly but determinedly across, only pausing for cars and trucks, and letting everything else make its own way around you. It really scary the first time you do it, but it gets easier and you end up being quite nonchalant. The most dangerous thing to do is to stop or hesitate, as the bikes have already calculated their revised route around you.

In the evening we were collected from the hotel by a bunch of cyclo drivers and with one of us per vehicle, we made a strange and quite dangerous convoy. These are three wheeler bikes with a kind of bucket on the front with a seat and a canopy and you get driven around like Lady Muck as your driver sweats buckets whilst peddling you and trying to negotiate the crazy traffic. I felt quite sorry for the poor chap who got lumbered with peddling my cyclo, and tipped him well. They dropped us at the Water Puppet theatre where we watched the 45 minute show.

After watching the clever performance of the musicians and the puppeteers, but confusing storyline, we were ready to hit the town. Most of the others whimped out, but Mel, Kim and I joined Nicki for drinks at Mao’s Red Lounge followed by dinner at the infamous Little Hanoi restaurant. We were so tired that we treated ourselves to a taxi back to the hotel.

Sun 10
We intended to get up at dawn to see the large number of people practising Tai Chi at the lakeside, but we were too tired to get up. The whole morning was dedicated to finding out more about Ho Chi Minh. Our guide Hue took us firstly to the giant mausoleum where his preserved body lies in state. They are very strict about the entry rules and we left Nicki and Hue looking like bag ladies with all our bags and cameras, while we had to line up two by two, like school children to silently walk past his body, inside a glass case, guarded by 4 uniformed soldiers standing to attention.

After taking photos of the building on the outside we moved to the residential complex where we saw the official French-built mansion that Uncle Ho declined to live in, preferring a more simple existence. We saw his small house by the lake where he held meetings and ate, plus his favoured house on stilts where he spent his free time and slept. We then moved on to the large museum that was very interesting and had good English labels, so we knew what we were viewing.

Afterwards Mel, Kim and I went to the Museum of Fine Arts and then lunched at the Smile Cafe, which is another charity we had read about that supports Agent Orange victims. Kim and I spent the afternoon exploring a few more of the shopping streets and soaking up the manic atmosphere of this crazy city. I managed once again to avoid buying anything.

We left in the early evening for our overnight train and a journey of over 14 hours from Hanoi to Hue. Rather than going through the train station, there was a slightly strange check in route via the back of a random restaurant further down the street, to reach our first class carriage. The cabin was small with two sets of bunks that were rock solid and narrow. However this was luxury compared to the other classes, where 2nd class were three bunks high and looked like coffins with only inches of space between you and the one above and 3rd class had wooden benches with people sitting on plastic stools down the aisles.

None of us got very much sleep as the train rocked badly and we were at right angles to the direction we were travelling. The train also stopped lots of times during the night, sometimes for a faster train to whiz past which made you jump. However dawn was pretty as we passed through more open countryside and past paddy fields. The South seems less densely populated and is slightly more attractive. We eventually arrived in Hue at about 8am and after dumping the bags at the hotel and having 10 minutes to freshen up, we started a full day adventure.

Mon 11
Today I spent several hours with a man between my legs - and he went away smiling. We were spending the day touring the area on the back of motorbikes with very friendly and careful drivers and a real character of a local guide called Mr Tam.

First stop was the old Citadel which was a defence wall surrounding a very large city that held the Imperial city where the mandarins carried out the administration of the country, as Hue was the capital at the time.. Within this was the Forbidden City where the Emperor, his dozens of wives and upto one thousand concubines lived. The Forbidden City was divided into areas that were restricted either just to the Emperor or to his extended family. They are restoring the buildings and the area is a World Heritage site.

Our next stop was at an amazing 3-tiered mausoleum for one of the last Emperors. There were lots of steps between each tier and the whole tomb complex was both high and large. There were lots of stone warriors on the middle layer that reminded me of the Terracotta army in China. In the surounding area we rode past mile after mile of local cemetery ground with a huge range of different types of graves, stupas, headstones and memorials.

We visited a village next to a pretty covered bridge where Tom and Trish had their fortune told by a tiny little old woman who spoke good English. It was hilarious as we all sat around drinking cold cans while listening to their “futures”. We also had an even tinier and older woman demonstrate all the stages of rice making, while Mr Tam gave a commentary. It was cute but felt rather staged and as she was so on cue for each part of the demonstration, it felt a bit like a circus show.

Back on the bikes and a lovely ride through the paddy fields and tiny rural villages where life has not changed for centuries and everything is done by hand. We passed fishing villages too with tiny hand-hewn wooden boats or boats made from reeds and huge fishing nets that hang on frames and are dipped into the river.

We stopped at a local nunnery for a vegetarian meal and then visited the villages where they make insence sticks and the conical hats that loads of the locals wear, as they are sun and rain-proof. On we rode and eventually came to the famous Bunker Hill and saw some of the concrete gun mounts that remain from the American army. The site has a wonderful view down the Perfume River. Hamburger Hill is 35 kilometres further on.

We took a short and boring trip on the Perfume River but it did have one good stop at the Tien Mu Pagoda temple where we were very lucky and arrived just as the monks started to chant. We met a delegation of monks visiting from Sri Lanka and had a good chat. The oldest one was 97 years old, spoke several languages and had a great sense of humour. Another - the tall one in the picture - was originally from Denmark and has been in Sri Lanka for 25 years.

The whole day was jam-packed with interesting and wonderful sights and the ride on the motorbikes was great fun. My bum was very numb at the end but what a great day. We ended it back in the city which was exciting driving through all that mad and manic traffic on the back of a bike - I ended up just ignoring all the mayhem and just concentrating on which way my driver was leaning. In the evening we had a couple of drinks in the DMZ bar and then a meal with half of the group who lasted the distance.

Tues 12
Rain. Not normal rain but stuff that could give you a concussion if you stood in it for more than 3 minutes. Thankfully we had a 4 hour bus ride from Hue to Hoi An. We were meant to go on a route over the mountains on the Cloud Pass but took the quicker and more direct tunnel option due to the weather. We also skipped a stop at the beach for the same reason but we did pass by China Beach which is where the American troops were sent for R & R during the war.

After a quick check in at the hotel (that has a swimming pool), Nicki took us on an rapid orientation walk through the town. As it was still raining and they had chosen this “dry season” to dig up the main roads in the centre, it was a very wet and muddy experience. She showed us a range of recommended tailor shops and one of the shoe shops that all make to measure, which is now what this town is famous for. There are hundreds of tailors and material shops and its all a bit overwhelming. Unless you have brought something to copy (example or a picture) you either describe what you want or spend hours ploughing through the mountains of catalogues looking for inspiration. The examples they all have on display in the shops are very old fashioned and seem to be inspired by the high school prom fashions of the 70’s and 80’s. However, I did order one thing and was duly measured.

We all went for a group lunch at a riverside restaurant that was very god local Vietnamese food. It was still raining hard so the view wasn’t up to much. We had a free afternoon so we wandered the zillions of shops and trudged through more and more mud and avoided losing an eye to other peoples umbrellas. Luckily the French influence remains here and there are great patisseries selling delicious cakes full of calories and wickedness and superb coffee. Had to do it. There are also good bars and even though the wine is expensive, there was a decent choice. We met for a group dinner at Cargo which is an expensive French-Vietnamese fusion restaurant. The food was nice but again we spent far too much on wine and were shocked with the number of zeros on the bill.

We have 2 free days here in Hoi An and then we move on to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) - where we may be dressed as extras from Saturday Night Fever ......

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Comments

[Gudrun]

Hello
Hi Lainey, sounds like you're continuing to have a great and very interesting adventure. We've had lots of snow in UK (never seen anything like it in my 30-odd years of life) and I've been home-bound for 8 days now! Take care and enjoy.....

[Lindsey Woodward]

What a lovely Pictures Lainey
Wow some fab Pics look a lovely place, I hope you are alright ! Lindsey Peter Margaret