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Published: June 26th 2006
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After spending a couple of days catching up with Roxy and Mark in Mui Ne, we felt that we still hadn't really experienced much of Vietnam, and indeed didn't really feel that we were in Vietnam - or the Vietnam we had expected to experience at least. So we jumped on a bus to Nah Trang to see what that was like. We drove into Nah Trang city and found a guesthouse called the Perfume Grass that had lovely rooms for the bargain price of $10 a night. The guesthouse was right by the seaside and the long stretch of beach that attracts not only foreigners but many Vietnamese tourists.
We did our usual walk around the city to get a feel for the place, and found a nice place to have some of the local seafood. We actually had a beautiful claypot with fish, a local delicacy and absolutely delicious. However, the rest of Nah Trang didn't have much of an impact on us. Perhaps we were still feeling a bit disillusioned after some of the scams and such that we had been experiencing. We probably could have spent more time in Nah Trang to find some hidden treasures,
Stef getting measured in Hoi Anh
Stef is being measured for that critical 'distance between the nipples' measurement. Funny as she was only geting a pair of suit pants made ;-) but we were quite keen to head up to Hoi An, famous for it's tailors.
We didn't fancy a 12 hour overnight bus, so we decided to get the sleeper train up. Our guesthouse displayed a sign saying "Free Train bookings" which we thought was refreshing as most guesthouses usually add a few dollars for such a service. So we booked two soft sleepers on the night train through the guesthouse - basically the most comfortable way to travel. We actually looked forward to the trip. When we collected the tickets from reception later in the day, we saw that although the tickets had the correct price on them that we were expecting, the price we were being charged was higher. We were then informed that we had to pay for the messenger to ride to the train station, stand in queue for us, and pay for his ride back - times two. What happened to the "Free booking service" we enquired? "Oh, this didn't include the actual purchasing of the ticket". We tried to point out that a free service means that we shouldn't have to pay any more than the cost of the ticket. But we were
wasting our breaths and ended up giving in. So we toddled of to the train station, got on the train and found that our tickets were not, in fact, soft sleepers, but HARD sleepers. We had paid the price of two soft sleeper tickets - we had been scammed yet again.
So you can see why we were feeling a bit peeved with the people of Vietnam. We had been so excited about getting here, leaving it as our last country to visit. But the Vietnamese people were just gradually wearing us down. Was it just that we were spoilt by the wonderfully generous and laid back people of Myanmar and Laos? Or had the Vietnam War made the countrymen greedy for anything they can swindle out of westerners?
We thought perhaps once we got to the North, things may be different. We arrived in Hoi An, almost half way up the coast, after taking a local bus from Danang train station. The bus ride was really quite interesting, a reason why we usually try to take local transport as opposed to the coaches arranged for tourists only. Not only was the bus conductor/ fare collector blind in
one eye, but so was the driver! But it didn't seem to cause too many near misses. We also picked up a delightful class of deaf children who were very excited about a class excursion they were going on. They were wonderful to watch, and thought the same about us 😊 Our bad feelings for the Vietnamese started to wane because of them and bring a little faith back into our hearts.
An hour later we arrived in Hoi An and found a hotel with a pool for $10 a night, right in the old sector. Hoi An is rather charming with roads of shopfronts (two story houses), the majority of which are tailors. We had absolutely no plans to have anything made, but we ended up staying 4 days as we kept finding things to be made! They can make anything from suits and dresses, to board-shorts and shoes. It's a quaint little place with some lovely restaurants along the river. At night it really is quite lovely to stroll along the riverside, lit mainly by the red lanterns hanging from the shophouses and restaurants.
The time came for us to move on, and we took a
Hand powered river dredge on the Perfume river
This is how they keep much of the Perfume River in Hue navigable and also supply huge amounts of sand for the areas constant construction. bus to Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam. Vietnam doesn't have so much as guesthouses than small hotels, so it can sometimes be quite hard to find other backpackers. However, we booked ourselves on a boat tour of the Perfume River and tombs of old rulers. I won't bore you with the little extra things we had to pay along the way for fear of sounding like a broken record, but we ended up having a fun day as we met Sonja, and Austrian girl, and Pascal from France but living in England. We saw the beautiful Tu Duc tombs which was actually the grounds of Tu Duc; beautiful Lily Ponds surrounded by reception halls, concubine villas and temples. It really was quite lovely. The interesting thing that we saw from this point onwards were the entrance fees for such places. You can not enter anywhere for free in Vietnam - everything has a price (here comes the record...) but there are two prices for entering places. For example, to see the Tu Duc tombs, it was 55,000 dong for foreigners, and 20,000 dong for locals.
The next day, we headed for the Citadel, the enclosed city within a
Weird things inside the Citadel
We are really not sure what these are but they looked like paper mache people hanging over one of the man made lakes inside the Citadel. city where the Emperor and his family traditionally lived. Much of it was destroyed during the "Tet Offensive" in 1968 when the Viet Cong launched an offensive throughout South Vietnam and captured Hue for over 3 weeks. However, it was still nice to walk around and get a bit of a feel for what once was. When we left, hot, thirsty and in need of a swim at the beach, we bumped in Sonja, Pascal and Sarah - a girl from England who had joined them that day from Hoi An. After failing to convince a local beer truck to take us to the beach, we decided to go for a beer. Sonja, who knows where to find the cheapest anything, introduced us to "Bia Hoi" - this is draft beer that can be found in hole-in-the-wall type stores that cost only 2000 dong (20 cents) - quite a bargain and a great place to make friends! We were joined by a local cyclo driver called Huang, who was very chatty and keen to make friends with us. Despite drinking as much Bia Hoi as us, he later drove the three girls back to the city, whilst getting his mate
Cyclo Blondes
Sarah, Sonja and Stef on a cyclo in Hue. Not the most efficient way to travel but it was fun. to take the two boys. We think he enjoyed having three blondes on his bike - a very rare sight indeed anywhere in Vietnam!
Our new Bia Hoi drinking buddies joined us the next morning on our trip on a 12 hour day train to Ninh Binh, apparently the most friendly place in Vietnam, as recommended by Millsy. We really hoped this new place would live up to it's reputation.
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