March 15 ++ Nam

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March 15th 2009

Published: March 24th 2009

March 15
So today we were off on the DMZ tour. We had an early 6am start where we hot a decent buffet breaky and then were off. Along the way we stopped at a few sites. One was rock piles an old US combat base. and some other bases. The first one was just a mountain that the used to land choppers on for supplies and i believe they used it for a look out spot as well. The other base we went to was pretty cool it had a small museum that the guide told us about the war which was good because i hadn't remembered much from history class. There were some old choppers, guns and bomb shelters there that were in pretty good shape. As well as some remains of shot down airplanes. It had a very eerie feeling to it. The highlight of the day was the Vinh Moc Tunnels. They were much bigger then the Cuchi tunnels, which were just used to move around by crawling. These tunnels had people living in them, They had different wards of where people lived, cooked, ect. There was a hospital ward in which 17 children were born. It was really amazing. They were just tall enough for Vietnamese to walk through, being short i only had to duck a little. We walked through a few different layers of tunnels. It was really amazing and impressive.
When we got back to Hue Matt and i grabbed some food and hung out talking the rest of the night.

March 16
So today Matt and i met up and rented some bikes to check out the market and try and bike to the ancient tombs near by. The market was cool both matt and i picked up some presents for family/friends. Mine however is going to be a burden the next 6 weeks to carry around. Well not a heavy burden but its large and ill have to carry it everywhere. So mom you better like it. haha After the market we headed on our bikes to the tombs. With in the first few minutes i had a women ride her scooter up next to me and start talking to me. haha everywhere i go i tell you. We spoke a bit as i was peddling then split ways. But because i was talking neither of us were paying attention to where we were going so we wound up biking around a bit to gain our bearings. Then were on our way again. Then some how 10 mins down the road the woman came up from behind and started talking to me again. haha it was nuts. She said she lives near a temple and would show us the way. We weren't really sure because we were trying to see tombs not a temple but it seemed in the right direction but i blame matt because he had the LPG (lonely planet guide) with him and i didn't, i was jut talking to the woman. So finally after biking quite a long way the woman stops and said "ok You come to my house have tea and pineapple then I take you to the temple." It was really nice but we were a little skeptical i think she wanted one of use to marry her daughters haha. We respectfully decline and parted ways. However now we were quite a bit out of the way so we had to back track to the tombs. We managed to find the first one fairly easy. It was pretty cool and impressive old ruin site. Then there were supposed to be a few more right around the corner. Matt thought he saw something so we made a turn in and walked around a bit i new it wasnt a tomb it was too new. It was some sort of school or something but as we were biking a away a tour bus was heading in so it must have been some sort of attraction or something. From there we decided to try and take another small road but would up way out in some village. Then we tried taking a short cut back to the road but it was a dead end so we had to back track again. Finally we decided to give up and head back.
On the way back we saw something that looked like temple or something cool to look at, so we went in. It was weird though because we had to pay to park our bikes. It turned out to be nothing really. Apparently there was a temple there but nothing was left at all. Just the floor so it was really pitiful haha. From here we decided to head back to town. Where we got some lunch together.Then i returned my bike and got a ride to the train station. Matt and i said our good byes (thinking we weren't going to see each other again) and i was on my way.

March 17
I decided to stay on the train and skip Nin Binh and go straight to Hanoi. I was getting tired of constantly moving around and just wanted a rest. The train ride wasn't to bad it took a long time because we amde alot of stops and some very long. I was cheap and just got a soft seat oppose to most western tourist getting beds. So i was with the locals. They all were staring at me.haha But i have spent numerous hours on buses so i saved a few bucks and just got a seat. It cannt be as bad as some of the buses i have been on and it wasn't bad at all. There was no one next to me either so that was nice.
Once in Hanoi i used my good bargaining skills to get a cheap moto to the hostel. However my driver had to stop a few times to ask directions haha. But i made it there fine. When i was checking in the girl told me they were headed to snake village today to obviously eat snake. The heart and blood the whole deal. I was so stoked and signed up immediately. Seeing as this has been one of the thins i really wanted to do when coming to Nam. To eat snake and their heart. Although when i put it that was i sound savage haha sorry.
The snake tour wasn't starting till mid day and it was only around 8 am at this time. So i walked around to check out tours for Ha Long Bay. The hostel offered a few different trips with different prices and what not but i wanted to have a look around. Most of the tours cost between 50 - 100. I thought about doing it myself because you can get a ferry from the port for a bout 2 bucks and the bus to Halong City probably would be 5 so i could have saved lot of money but not get the kayaking or over night on the junk, plus the backpackers place was offering a tour with a third day rock climbing. So after much debate on parting with the money i decided to just go for the 3 day and do the climbing.
By now it was near 12 and we were getting ready to go to snake village. Apparently they unusually only send 8-15 people but today was Saint Patty's day so im sure the alcohol affected many peoples decisions because we had 40 or so go. It was pretty intense. When we first got there there was a guy playing with a King Cobra. Then once it got too angry he had to put it away and grabbed some pythons that we got to hold, Which were the same type that we were going to be eating later. After playing with our food. get it haha that was bad. They took us over to the seating area which was on docks over a small pond or something i think. They grabbed a couple of bags of snakes and started cutting them up on the floor. Yes they were alive. The guy would cut from the head back on the belly side and pull the heart out and drop it into a shot glass, still beating. He did this to 2 snakes and then the woman poured some rice wine in the shot glass and handed them out. Of course i was one of the first. Game on. So i took the glass along with a real Irish guy we cheersed and down the hatch. They claim you can feel it beat on the way down but neither of us noticed it beat. I felt it go down a bit but not beating. They did this to a few more snakes and drained some of the blood in to a cup as well as the bile into another cup. They ten took the snakes away to be cooked. They managed to serve it around 5 different ways. Some were better than others. I think i was the only one eating everything i was even grabbing ti from other tables can't have food go to waste. Dads training haha. The first thing we got was snake soup which was really slimy like snot. Then a few fried dishes as well as some snake spring rolls. The ribs were decent but very little meat. It was the same as the geko a white meat slightly chewy like i white fish or frog. The worst was the snake skin it was very chewy and slimy. I think it could have been good if they had cut it thiner and fired/crisped it up more. We were also served a shot of the blood with some rice wine and a shot of the bile with rice wine as well. The color and thought were weird but you couldn't taste much the alcohol was super strong. Well at least for me i couldn't tell the difference but some people we claiming one was better and others were claiming the other was better who knows. haha
Once all the food was done some how this weird game started. It was like arm wresting standing up but the idea was to get the other guy to move their feet. It was really fun. I was the first one to beat the local reigning champ from here the game escalated quickly. Even the Vietnamese guys at the table next to us joined in, one was in a full dress suit. haha After an hour of so of this game we packed it up and headed back to the hostel. Where i spent the night online catching up the blog and emails.

March 18th
Today was the Ha Long Bay trip. We had a group of about 16 so not to bad. After the 3 hour bus ride we arrived at Halong Harbor, which was swarming with boats and tourists. It was mayhem. The dock itself was like bumper boats. It as crazy. We managed to get on out boat and head out into the bay. We had passed by one of the caves which was fine by me because it was crawling with tourists. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating. It was very foggy. Which was a bit of let down i was hoping to get an beautiful sunset or rise or even just to see more rocks than the ones around us. It was still very beautiful though. Some massive rocks just jutting up out of the water.
We had an awesome lunch on the boat and then headed out on some kayaks for the afternoon. They were 2 person ones so i had a German girl hop into mind. We paddled around for a few hours. We paddled though a cave tunnel into a beautiful lagoon then we paddled around a few islands to a cave. Which i though we were going to be able to kayak though. However, we had to dock our kayaks and walk though. It was pitch black and our guides torch didn't work well so it was a good thing i brought my head lamp. They were all laughing at me before but who's laughing now there all walking into things and bumping their heads haha. Our tour guide was really cool, funny was well. He pulled "see over there" me "yea" him "theres nothing" jokester.
Then we paddled back to the boat where we got to jump off it. Of course i was first to go as well. Throwing some back flips off, good fun. I was also scaling the side of the boat to get back tot the top rather than using the ladder because it was on the other side of the boat. They we all quite impressed with my "climbing" skills haha.
After that we got served dinner which was really good, finally i got to eat large amount of food since it was all inclusive. After dinner we all just hung out at the table and chatted. I met 2 Norwegians ( one was mega hot) an Irish couple an English couple an ozzy and English girl and a guy from Cali. It was a good night just hanging out and chatting.

March 19th

Today we headed to Cat Bat island we 6 of us got off and the others stayed on to go back to Hanoi. We did a little national park hike up a mountain. It had a decent view but again it was pretty foggy. After the hike i got dropped off to do my climbing. I hopped on the back of a moto and went off up some mega hills i thought we went going to make up and then when we did the engine cut but i realized it was all down from here and he didn't need the engine any more haha. I got 5 climbs in. By then end i was feeling pretty good the first few climbs i pretty much forgot how to climb but by then by the end i was actually pinching some holds. But i got some kin ripped of my finger on the 5h one so i decided to call it quits after that i was pretty tired/pumped anyway. The scenery couldn't have been better either it was beautiful rice paddies with water buffalo roaming around. I thought it looked beautiful from the ground but when you got to the top of the climb and looked back it was even better.
After climbing i got dropped back at the hotel where i showered up and walked to the near by beaches. They were really gorgeous. They were inside small coves and there were some of the Rock islands out in the water. It reminded me of the Sea of Cortes in Baja minus the rock islands. There was a nice walk way around of of the headlands as well. It was really beautiful. When i got back we all meet up for dinner and then went to a bar to have some drinks. We all were hoping Quan (our guide) would do some karaoke but no such luck, He was a really cool friendly guy, who i forgot had nicknamed me Rambo. haha

March 20th
We had a very nice breaky on top of the hotel before we got shuttled back to the boat. We/ Quian was getting nervous because the Capitan called and said the tide is low and he might not be able to make it to the dock and we would have to rent a smaller boat to get to him. But we managed to make it ok. We had a massive lunch then had the 3 hr bus back to Hanoi. I was catching the night train to Sapa tonight so i just used the net and got some dinner before i headed to the train station.

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