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Published: July 15th 2004
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Hoi An
Old Town Here are what happened during my time spent in South and Central Vietnam, as part of a trip between Thailand and China.
Ho Chi Minh City was my first stop. Having been there 8 years ago, I was not intending to stay long. I settled in Pham Ngu Lao, a backpacker area, and during the next 2 days, I revisited some sights which I had been to previously, including the Reunification Palace and the History Museum. Nothing too special to write about. Anyway, HCMC looked a bit different now, with more high-rising, modern buildings in its business district, whereas its people appeared to be more energetic than they were in 1996. For me, this time was more exciting as I had to travel at the back of a motorcycle, not on a tour bus, around the busy streets of the city.
My next stop was Dalat, which is a resort town in the Central Highlands. Due to its high altitude, the town has a cool climate and a lot of Vietnamese from other parts of the country come here for holidays. There were not many extraordinary sights to visit, but the atmosphere generally was great, with a number
Dalat
Town centre of French-style buildings that made one feel that this place is not somewhere in Tropical Asia. Certainly, during the colonial era, only the Europeans could come, but now groups and groups of local tourists were here, probably to taste a little "foreign" feel. Apparantly, the economy in Vietnam (at least the urban areas) was doing not badly.
After Dalat, I took a bus down to the coastal town of Phan Rang to catch a train going north. This and the train travel were themselves an experience. First, I wanted to buy a ticket in advance so that I could reserve a bed on the night train, so I tried in Dalat. A travel agent there told me that they could get me a ticket but of course I needed to pay extra because there was no train station in town. After a few phone calls, I paid them and they handed me a piece of paper, which I was told to give to the station at Phan Rang in exchange for boarding. At one point, I was wondering if it was a ticket at all as it didn't look like so, and there would be nothig I could do
Dalat
Prenn Falls after I left Dalat. Nevertheless, I decided to take the risk and I left. Phan Rang is not a tourist destination so English is not widely spoken. Fortunately, I had by now picked up a little bit Vietnamese (as some words are similar to my native Cantonese) and there was no big problem in communication. This is the real Vietnam, unlike all the other tourist places I had been to or would be going, as people looked at me interestingly wherever I went. At the end, I came to the train station, which I think could not be smaller. The piece of paper worked--I was allowed to board when the train came.
Then, there was the train travel I would like to write something about. Travelling on a Vietnamese train is an experience one would not easily forget. To sum up, the exact impression would depend on your class of travel, from terrible to comfortable--I had tried different classes at various sections. This time, from Phan Rang to Danang, I had a hard sleeper, which means that there would be 6 beds in a compartment. There were 7 people instead when I had boarded the train. So the journey
Dalat
A French house, now a museum began. Probably because I am a foreigner, the other people kindly let me have one bed as they, 6 people, somehow shared the other 5 beds. Not a pleasant sleep for me though, and the journey was bumpy despite that the train was slow. I thought the rail infrastructure in this country was not in a good shape (and I was right--one month after I left Vietnam, I learnt from the news that a train there had derailed and got some people killed).
Finally I arrived at Danang, where I immediately transferred to nearby Hoi An, which is a well-preserved sea port dating from the 15th Century and now a Unesco World Heritage Site. The town, known as Faifo in the past, was an important port on the sea trade route along the South China Sea with different nationalities staying here. Today there are still Chinese settlement with their assembly halls in town. From Hoi An, I took a day trip to the ruins at My Son, another World Heritage Site and once the centre of the Kingdom of Champa. A bit history here: before Vietnam became the present-day country, its central-south area was controlled by the Cham who
My Son
Ruins of the Champa Kingdom were influenced by the Indian civilisation (like the Khmer). This was different from the Chinese-influenced Dia-Viet in the north and thus the French gave the whole region (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) the name "Indochine". The Champa Kingdom lasted from 7th Century until 1471 when it was wipped out by the Vietnamese.
Having spent time in Hoi An and My Son, I headed back to Danang to visit the Cham Museum, which houses some relics of that civilisation. There, an old man claiming himself as a professor offered to give me a tour of the museum for USD 3. I accepted and he explained me the history, some of it he had to use French instead of English. It seemed that this educated man had witnessed so many changes in this country during his life, the latest being the coming of the market economy (and possibly the loss of welfare at the same time). I felt sad that he still had to work as such at his age and I paid him double instead. (But in Vietnam, everyone everywhere expects you to give a large sum of tips anyway, I mean everyone!) Then, I took a train to Hue, another
My Son
An Indian-influenced civilisation bumpy ride.
My travel in Vietnam continued. The following will be listed in another blog entry.
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