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Published: August 12th 2007
(Slovenska verzija sledi v nadaljevanju) (versio catalana mes avall)
Hello English speakers! Vietnam has super fancy computers and internet connections (and were paying exactly 13 cents an hour!!) which means we have the time and energy to write an english version on the blog! =) Vietnam is coool! Were in Hue at the moment, the old capital of the country, in the old South Vietnam, very close to the Demilitarized Zone! Absolutely no one in the country speaks English, which is weird, since they have a lot of tourism! It is a bit annoying because the lack of communication leads to strange situations, especially because whenever you ask something they never tell you they dont understand, they simply say yes or no and its up to you to believe them or not! In the hotels for example, it is very common that they will start shouting at you when you are leaving: you, pay now!!! and its like, ok ok, i was only going for lunch..!!!! Once again, it was a shock to cross the border between Cambodia and Vietnam. It was cool because we did it by boat on the Mekong, but when we got to the first city,
we got the feeling we were back in Europe! The thing is, it is probably less developed than Thailand, but much more similar to Europe in many aspects! the cities are very cosmopolitan, quite clean, with reaaally nice parks. The first place we visited was Can Tho, on the Mekong delta, and we did a boat tour around the delta. Then we left for Ho Chi Minh City (which absolutely everyone still calls Saigon), where we spent a couple of days (all the photos up to HCMH are under the blog entry called Good morning Vietnam).
After HCMC, we took a 7 hour bus to Dalat, a former hill station where it was freaking cold!! It was a huge shock, getting on the bus at 40 degrees in HCMC and waking up in the middle of winter in Dalat! The explanation: dalat is 1400 meters high! It was like being in Austria.The town is surrounded by endless green mountains, it has a lake and loots of very posh villas. It definitely didnt feel like Vietnam=) Unfortuntely the weather only became worse since we arrived and, since there wasnt that much to do in the city anyway, we decided to leave
for Hue the afternoon of the next day. A 16 hour bus (!!!) (the trains are down because of the storms) took us to Hue, where weve spent three days so far. The city is really nice. The old part is surrounded by a Citadel and inside there is the impressive Imperial Enclosure,which is a Unesco site. Yesterday we visited the Demilitarised Zone, which was the border between North Vietnam (that is the super good communists) and South Vietnam (the super mean capitalists and their American friends). In theory, they agreed to have a 5km wide demilitarised area duting the war. Ironically, though, at some point it became one of the most militarised areas of the world!!!!! We saw many interesting sites, but the most impressive was, without a doubt, the Vinh Moc tunnels. In 1966, USA began a massive bombardment of Noth Vietnam. Just north of the DMZ, the inhabitants of Vinh Moc found temselves living in one of the most heaviliy bombed parts of the country, which forced them to begin making tunnels by hand!! There are 2.8 km of tunnels, which can all be visited and are very well preserved.As you can imagine, the place is simply
increduble! The tunnels are really claustrophobical, I cant imagine how they survived 4 years inside!!!
And thats it so far, later today were taking a bus to Hanoi (but a sleeper bus this time!) from where we will go to see Halong Bay for three days.
Anna&Iztok
Com passen de rapid els dies!! Sembla mentida que ja ens haguem polit un terc del viatge!!! En fi.. ara que portem mes dies a Vietnam, ja puc parlar amb mes propietat i dir que magrada, mencanta!!! Potser Cambodja es mes interessant (perque es mes diferent i esta molt menys explorada) pero Vietnam tambe es genial. Lunica cosa dolenta es que ningu no parla angles (i els que ho fan, com el guia davui, no els enten ni sa mare!!) i moltes vegades son super bordes, volem pensar que per problemes de comunicacio. (Es tipic que als hotels et vegin sortir per la porta i et diguin: You, pay now!! que dius vale, vale, si nomes anava a dinar..). Aixo, i que son uns guarros en majuscules (en general a tots ells llocs on hem estat menys Macau)!! Per comencar, no tenen la cultura de no llencar coses a terra.
Market in Dalat
I guess KFC does the shopping here :)Pam! tot va parar al mateix lloc! La gent llenca la merda per les finestres del bus, els rius estan guarros.. als mercats flotants per exemple, tot va a parar al riu. Pixen al riu, renten la roba al riu, netegen la fruita al riu..!
Despres dabandonar Ho Chi Minh, un bus de 7 hores ens va portar a Dalat. Despres de la matada del bus vam arribar mes morts que vius a Dalat on, sorpresa, hi feia un fred que pelava!!! Si, si, FRED, a Vietnam! Vam pujar al bus a 40 graus i vam baixar que feia fred dhivern. Lexplicacio? que Dalat esta a 1400 metres. El primer que vam fer al poble va ser, evidentment, anar a dormir un parell dhores. Per sort al bus ens van estalviar el karaoke (que ja es raro) i vam poder dormir bastant, pero mai no es el mateix.. Ens vam rellevar a les 10, ens vam posar totes les samarretes que teniem a la motxilla i vam llogar una moto (es que li hem agafat el truquillo :p) per anar a explorar la city, que es on tots els vietnamites van de lluna de mel, i que es un
lloc pijo pijo! El poble es precios, pero sembla mes austria que vietnam! tot envoltat de muntanyes, amb un llac gegant, tot de mega xalets.. Vam anar al mercat, on vam comprar moltes coses bones per menjar (jeje), com una mena de patates fregides fetes amb verdures que ja us deixarem tastar =) i vam veure com venien el peix.. pobrets peixos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Els tenen vius en una mena de piscines i quan algu els compra, pam! els hi tallen el cap alla mateix, i et donen el peix partit en dos i sense escates pero que encara es mou!!! A mes, vas caminant pel mercat i de cop et van saltant peixos pel davant, que sescapen de laigua, pero no hi ha cap problema, els recullen del terra i cap a la peixera un altre cop! A part del fabulos mercat i les vistes, Dalat te poca cosa a veure, sobretot plovent com plovia! Fins aquesta setmana haviem evitat les pluges quasi completament, pero laltre dia totes les pluges dels telenoticies ens van acompanyar a Dalat. Vam decidir que teniem dues opcions, comprarnos un anorak o marxar pitant del lloc si volem evitar una pulmonia, i vam triar la segona
The street
Run for your life!!! opcio =) El dia seguent a la tarda vam tornar a agafar un bus cap a Hue... de 16 hores aquest cop!!! 16 hores al bus per 7 dolars i mig, i la gasolina nomes es una mica mes barata que a Europa. A vosaltres us surten els numeros? Jo no entenc el negoci.. No us penseu que siguem massoques, es que Vietnam es molt mes gran del que sembla a primera vista i el dia 19 hem de tocar el dos del pais, i els trens no funcionen per les pluges! Aixi que es o fer tirades llarguissimes dautobus o res.. per sort ahir vam descobrir que existeixen els autobusos amb llits, i dema a la nit marxem cap a Hanoi aixi. Hue es una ciutat emmurallada molt bonica, amb moltes coses per veure. Ahir estavem tant cansats despres dle bus que nomes vam passejar,ens vam reservar les coses mes interessants per dema =) Avui hem anat a la zona desmilitaritzada, osease, la zona de separacio entre Vietnam del Sud (capitalista, amiguitos dels americans) i Vietnam del Nord (comunista), on totes les parts van acordar no tirar bombes, pero que va ser una de les zones mes castigades durant
Street food
Street food is very colourful. The lady mixes everything in one glass, making some kind of "food shake" la guerra. Hem vist molts llocs emblematics per la guerra, pero lo mes impactant davui ha sigut veure els tunels de Vinh Moc, on vivia la gent durant la guerra. El 1966 els EUA van bombardejar massivament la zona mes al sud del nord de Vietnam, fins al punt que la desesperacio de la gent del poble de Vinh Moc els va portar a excavar 2.8 kilometres de tunels amb les mans! Son impressionants, unics a Vietnam, i completament conservats. Es pot visitar tot, pero es super claustrofobic.. no puc imaginarme com aquella gent van sobreviure 4 anys alla a sota...i hi van neixer 17 nens i tot!! INCREIBLE. Hi ha tres nivells de tunels, entre 15 a 26 metres sota terra, i hi tenien de tot, hospital, sala de reunions, pou, .......!
Anna & Iztok
En lep popotniski pozdrav,
kako hitro tece cas, tole potovanje bo se kako prehitro minilo, zabredla sva ze v zadnjo tretjino najinega potepanja, smrc smrc. A pred nama so se kako zanimivi dnevi, polega tega imava pa tudi zelo lepe in predvsem zanimive spomine na pretekle dni. Zdaj sva ze skoraj en teden v Vietnamu, tako da sva si ze ustvarila
nekoliko boljso sliko o tej drzavi. Kljub temu, da je turizem precej razvit smo turisti za njih se vedno relativna eksotika, tako da te ljudje na ulici ne samo gledajo, temvec te pozdravljajo, mahajo in vsi po vrsti sprasujejo od kod prihajas. Brez skrbi, nobenih presenecenj, nihce nima pojma kje je Slovenija. Zadnjic sva enmu tipu razlozila, da sva iz Slovenije, nakar se nama je naslednji dan drl: Nigeria, Nigeria... Brez komentarja. Poleg tega njihova anglescina ne dopusca nobenih globokih razgovorov, tudi tisti turisticni vodici, ki kao obvladajo anglescino, imajo tako izgovorjavo, da jih verjetno samo njihovi ucitelji razumejo. In v hotelu ti recimo recejo: "You, pay!" Ok, ok, peace bro', saj bos dobil svoj kes...
Iz HCMC sva odsla do mesta Dalat, ki je priljubljeno letovisce v vietnamskem sredogorju. Ima prijetno klimo z lepimi hiskami in majhnim lepim jezercem. Pocutil sem se kot doma, kraj je na las podoben Bledu, manjkala je le ena cerkvica na otocku sredi jezera. V mestu imajo zelo zanimivo trznico, kjer sva kupila zelo zanimive lokalne specialitete, nekaksno sladko suho sadje. Poleg tega sva iz prve roke videla, kako prodajajo sveze ribe, ki so res sveze, pravzaprav se zive! Ko se odlocis za nakup
Inside the Vinh Moc tunnels
The main tunnels had small side rooms where whole families lived. They even had a maternity room, where babies were born! ribice, hopa jo mahnejo z enim kolom, jo stehtajo ter ocistijo in ti jo zavijejo v plasticno vrecko, medtem ko je boga riba se vedno ziva in v zadnjih izdihljajih poskakuje v vrecki. Oh oh oh. Klima je bila vec kot le frisna, prvi dan sva se uspela izkoristiti za turistnikovanje, drugi dan je pa ze posteno lilo, poleg tega je bilo pa se precej neprijetno mrzlo. Skoda, pokrajina v okolici je obetala veliko, imela sva ze vse lepo splanirano, zopet en izletek z motorjem, tko sva pa cel dan prezivela v neposredni blizini hotela. In si zrihtala prevoz do mesta Hue. Prav neverjetno, kaksne probleme sva imela, da sva kupila karte za bus. Na avtobusni postaji so nama napletli zgodbico, da busa tisti dan ni, ker prevec dezuje in da je kao prevec nevarno. Cez eno uro sva karto kupila brez problemov preko turisticne agencije in se usedla na isti bus, za katerega so se zjutraj trdili, da ga ni. Nama povsem nerazlozljivo, ne bi rekel, ce bi nama skusali prevec zaracunati, ampak da ti nocejo prodat karte... Sem pa tisti dan srecal v Dalatu eno prijateljico Tino iz Ljubljane (hodila je na Ledino, mislim, da je bla 4.e
The beach
The beach just outside the Vinh Moc tunnels, which was the site of severe bombing during the war ali nekaj takega). Svet je res majhen...
Do Hueja sva rabila 16 ur, nocni bus, ki ga bova cimprej skusala pozabiti. Ne toliko zaradi tega, da bi bil neudoben, temvec zaradi kamikaz, ki so zaposleni kot soferji na tukajsnjih avtobusih. Priznam, da sem se dvakrat ze konkretno ustrasil, resno sem mislil, da se bo najina pot koncala prav tam. Prehitevanja v slepo, izsiljevanja, predvsem pa mehka kolena povzroca dejstvo, da tako hitro in blizu vozijo mimo motoristov in kolesarjev. Clovek ima obcutek, da imajo ti soferji poleg volana listek papirja s crticami, koliko motoristov so ze zgazili. Od zdaj naprej vzameva vlak, ce bo to le mozno!
V Hueju sva si ogledala lustno mestece, ki premore eno trdnjavo ter obzidje. Mesto se nahaja tudi v neposredni blizini t.i. demilitarizirane cone, kjer je bila meja med Severnim in Juznim Vietnamom ter je v casu Vietnamske vojne kljub svojemu imenu videla najvec spopadov. V enodnevni turi sva videla vsa glavna spominska obelezja vojne in dobila porcijo rezimske lekcije o tem, kako so pogumni Vietnamci strahopetnim Americanom dali vetra 😊 Najbolj zanimivi so bili brez dvoma podzemni rovi, kjer je cela vas zivela 4 leta in Vietkongovcem pomagala pri dobavi vojaske opreme. Medtem,
ko se Americanom seveda niti sanjalo ni, kje se nahajajo. Sej verjetno se jim res ni, drgac bi jih ze nekako zbezal ven... No kakorkol ze, definitivno poucen prikaz o nepotrebnosti in krutosti vojne, sploh ko smo se lahko ozrli po okoliskih hribih, kjer si vegetacija se vedno ni opomogla po obilnem bombardiranju, ki ga je bilo v tistih letih delezeno.
Danes sva zadnje urice pred odhodom iz Hueja izkoristila za ogled mestne trdnjave, kjer je bil kralj iz dinastije Nguyen sef vse do zmage komunistov. Zvecer pa ze sediva na nocnem busu (bus ima celo postelje, juhu!!) do Hanoija, od koder greva v Halong Bay ter naprej proti severu.
Anna&Iztok
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Tobi
non-member comment
Hello
Hi anna and iztok, it is great to hear that your fine... philipp and i are close to leaving thailand and go back to good old germany..we wish you a nice trip and we will follow your travel blog... byebye tobi