Vietnam, People and Jacques Cousteau impersonations

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10th June 2008

Hi Everyone,

I think I left off in Mui Ne, a southern beach resort in Vietnam. Cut to pictures of palm trees swaying in the breeze and waves crashing on the shore and you’re there.
Onward by bus, and by our standards a very good bus too, 5 hrs later we are in Nha Trang city, a big lively seaside resort a place to catch transport and watch the locals playing badminton and doing tai chi.
The next stage of the journey would have involved a 12hr bus journey, potentially with our rucksacks on our laps, so we opted to go with Vietnam airways instead. A real pleasure, happy friendly staff and flying on an airbus which strangely only had about 50 people on it. 1 hr later we are in Hoi An, world heritage site, famed for its Chinese and French architecture and one of the few cities to avoid bombing during the Vietnam war (or liberation war if your Vietnamese). The other thing Hoi An is famous for is its tailors, and as our clothing is starting to look a little threadbare we had copies made of our favourite clothes! How cool is that?
Claire also had shoes made to her specification, and all so cheap, it’s quite funny seeing hardened travellers standing around in tailors being fitted for pin stripe suits, I resisted, as I think I still have a suit somewhere…..
Whilst in Hoi An we went on a day trip to My Son, Capital of the ancient Cham people. The complex consists of a series of temples constructed entirely of brick using no mortar, they have stood for over a thousand years and nobody has yet come up with a feasible explanation for how this was achieved. The site suffered heavily during the war, and many temples were destroyed craters from the bombing are still visible.
The countryside roads around Hoi An is at this time of year are covered with rice, chillies & corn all drying in the sun the only space the villagers have to dry their crops.
We were in Hoi An for the full moon which is marked here with a festival where tiny paper lanterns are set to sail on the river and lit up decorated boats abound, it’s a very beautiful sight and a great way to mark the lunar month.
I could go on at some length about time in Hoi An, both in the town and on the beach, but I shall continue with our travels.

After a mere 4hrs by bus we arrived in Hue on 22nd May. Hue is the ancient capital of Vietnam and contains the Ancient citadel, a huge walled structure, with cities within cities entrance to each used to be based on your rank within the royal hierarchy. We walked around the citadel in temperatures of 38 - 40 centigrade, but still a fabulous place. The most revered part where the Emperors and there concubines lived is mostly in ruins after war and long abandonment, but what remains is exquisite and a joy to see. Claire celebrated her birthday here, visiting the archaeological museum, museum of liberation & and a collection of US tanks and guns left over from the war, not every girls dream birthday! However we did make up for it by having Russian champagne (so bad we only drank half a bottle) and going for an Indian meal, Claire’s favourite.
Onward on the 25th May to Dong Hoi, heading north. This journey we did by rail on the famous SE6 Reunification Express the train that links Ho Chi Mihn City in the south to Hanoi in the North. We had booked ‘soft seat aircon’. Train travel in Vietnam is interesting, most westerners tend to travel at nights in the 1st class sleeper carriage, but we wanted to see the world go by so opted for day and our carriage was just Vietnamese mostly travelling all the way from HCMC to Hanoi but not being able to afford the sleeper. The carriages tend to get fairly dirty and the smell from the toilet and ever present fish sauce is a challenge. Still, the landscape is endless shades of green and craggy limestone hills which go a long way to distracting you.

The place we stayed in at Dong Hoi sticks in the memory as it was a huge complex, had hundreds of staff working there (at least 12 lifeguards alone) and was almost entirely empty. It was also very beautiful, with miles of empty white beaches to walk along and clean ocean to swim in. Also got to the Phong Nha caves, largest complex in S.E.Asia, and formed over 400 years ago. A boat takes you through them, passed stalactites the size of houses, great place to explore particularly as the temperature stays very reasonably cool unlike outside. We eventually managed to tear ourselves away from the delights of Dong Hoi and on to Nihn Binh. Again by train seven and half hrs of soft seat aircon fun, never been so glad to get off a train!

Nihn Binh sits close to a large national park (the reason we undertook the marathon train ride) and the next day we took a car and guide and went to visit. Its butterfly season and we started with a trek through the jungle surrounded by butterflies of all sizes and colours, also caterpillars’ generally very hairy. We saw a very poisonous snake which had our guide squealing even though it was dead. We got the impression our guide was not the jungle type when he jumped 3 feet in the air at the sight of butterflies taking off near him. We also stopped off at a cave that had been used by people 7500 years ago, you could understand why, it was constant cool temperature, a sort of stone age air-conditioning.
Next to the Primate rescue centre, a project to protect the 32 species of primates in Vietnam that are rapidly on the path to extinction due to encroachment on their natural habitat and being hunted both for food and for use in Chinese herbal medicine. The Cat Ba Langur which lives only on one island in Vietnam has only 65 left in the wild and here at the centre they are trying desperately to stop this remarkable animal from vanishing, My favourites are the gibbons, possibly because they are some of our closest relatives, having opposable digits and sharp intelligence, lets hope they have a future here in their home country.

And finally on to the capital Hanoi, this time by bus in a mere two hrs. Hanoi is busy, lively and hard work, people are constantly trying to sell you something, hats, cd’s, well most things really. The food here is great and between sightseeing or doing jobs (i.e. extending visas) we made the best of it. From here we also booked our cruise around Halong Bay, a stretch of sea that is famous for its limestone pinnacles rearing out of the water. The cruise was very good, we even got to go kayaking around the area, exploring caves and bays. As a bonus we met some very nice people travelling on the boat with us. . Rachel a fashion show organiser (is that right Rachel?) very good company and sharing our passion for good food. Also David, Cora, Feargal & Orla to whom goes the joint prize for the funniest travel stories we have heard, the one about trekking in Thailand with a guide in Speedos will have us laughing for some time yet! Mention also to Andy and Jade, hope your trip to Sapa was good, we were a little jealous.

Our return to Hanoi from Halong Bay also marked the time for us to move on and the next day, 6th June we flew back to Bangkok and civilisation (They have Boots in Bangkok!!!) After some serious shopping we got on a bus to Champon (9 hrs on a very nice bus, Thailand is just so reasonable). Two hours on the ferry and we were in Koh Tao, one of the smallest but most beautiful islands off the south east coast of Thailand. I should explain that during our bus journey we had decided that we were going to do a diving course, and Koh Tao is the place to do it. We signed up for the PADI open water diver course, and there followed 4 days of intensive training, introducing Claire to the joys of physics (the effects of pressure and density) and use of compression dive tables. Initial pool training, which saw 6 of us squeezed in a pool practicing mask clearing, alternative air breathing and various other obscure but vital skills.
We also did 4 open water dives in the most beautiful locations surrounded by corals of all descriptions and shoals of fish. That and the wonderful feeling of weightlessness which accompanies it. As it turns out Claire is a natural diver, and after initial hesitation took to it yes you guessed like a fish to water. We are now both qualified open water divers, and much thanks and praise must go to our ‘to cool for school’ diving instructor Angie.
I did somewhat manage to discredit my roughty toughty diver image by getting seasick on the way back from the first two dives and puking, still all part of life’s rich tapestry if you will forgive another pun.
We are now on Koh Phangan where we are resting and recuperating, as we may yet return to Koh Tao to do our advanced open water diver course (its very addictive!).

For now all the best from

Shane & Claire

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Photos

My Son
Sacred lingum

Being rowed into the cave
These women really earn their living!