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Published: April 16th 2013
ipad stand
sharing my seat with someone on Vietnam Railways27 March
Back on the train from Hong Doi to Hue. Thankfully only three hours this time. I am having a quiet confrontation with a person who is lying on my lap again. It is a battle of wills which I am unlikely to win, but the irritation I am causing gives me great pleasure - sick puppy? Look at the pictures and judge for yourself.
We missed our train last night and ended up staying in Dong Hoi for an extra night. Our motorbike exploration of a bit of the Ho Chi Minh trail detained us too long, but my god, it was so worth it!! I am sorry we didn't just plan to stay here for two days to start with, instead of trying to rush through. We will have to come back.
In the morning we set off to the Phang Nha Cave, which is in the reserve of the same name. There are several caves here which you can visit, but we only had time for the one, otherwise we would miss our train...
We paid and had been allocated a boat, on which we were sitting waiting for a driver. It was
ipad stand
she is literally in my lap!! forcibly demanded that we put on our life jackets, in the sweltering heat in the sun while we waited..... And waited. "Where is the driver? When can we go?" We ask the young man sitting on the front of the boat looking at us. Some gesticulating and scowling is the reply. Another 5 minutes. "We need to go now otherwise we are going to run out of time. Where is the driver?" More harshly this time. More gesticulating and scowling and then the youngster heads off to where a group of drivers is sitting around smoking and drinking tea. (I feel like I am back home on a building site at union stipulated tea time).
Another five minutes and a man comes over and smiles smarmily. "Where is our driver? We have no time to wait. if we cannot have a driver now we will have to leave. Are you the driver?" " No, I am a guide, we made some changes to the schedules today. Please wait". We make as if to go. "We can't wait. We have no time. We will take our money back. Thank you." Miraculously a driver appears.
Besides this false start, and
fields of rice and ancestors
from the train Hanoi to DongHoi the fact that prices have doubled both for entrance fees and boat fees since our brand new guide book was published, the cave experience was okay. The cave itself is extraordinary. I have never been inside such a massive and awe inspiring cave before. And this is not even the big one! The lighting is a little lurid for my liking and the noisy crowds of local tourists clambering onto stalagmites is a bit annoying, as is being shouted at and poked and asked to have your picture taken with all and sundry. But the cave is really magnificent, and the boat ride to it is pleasant. All I can say is thank goodness Son Doong cave (the big one) is not open to the public!! Leave it to people who will care for it.
The trip didn't take the two and a half hours it was supposed to take, probably because we didn't feel the need to stop and shop on the way out. So we were left with some bonus time to kill before heading back to Dong Hoi for the train. We decided to take the long way back through the park and via a part
of the famous Ho Chi Minh trail.
Wow!! There is still jungle here. Robin, you will be happy to hear that they are looking after the trees!! The lush tropical forest is mind blowing. The limestone cliffs rearing up out of the green take your breath away, and as the road winds tightly up and down and away from civilisation it just gets better.The mountains engulf you out here, tease you with cascading waterfalls, deafen you with the sound of singing cicadas. The soaring cliffs are crowned with ancient vegetation, and there are just no people. We didn't see a car for at least 100km. (Which only started getting a bit worrying when we were reaching the empty mark on our fuel gauge and there were no villages to be found). Then, on a hillside, a large bare spot with only the stumps of trees remaining. no these trees have not been cut down; they are remnants of a defoliation drive by the Americans. Imagine fighting a war here. What a great waste. Thank goodness that this little piece of paradise is now protected and was not completely deforested by Agent Orange blitzes or other dioxins dropped on the
views from the train
Hanoi to DongHoi Vietnam area during the war.
(Sorry, I have to interject here: I have won!! After much raving she has raised her seat back. YES!!)
By now we are learning the Vietnamese way:
Time: Their concept of time and hurrying is very different to ours - we asked for a rental motorbike the night we arrived and would have paid extra for it to stand outside the hotel unused for the night, just so that we could get off early the following morning, but the concierge assured us he would have a motorbike waiting for us at 07h15. Needless to say it wasn't. "I will call them now. Go and have some breakfast and it will be here when you are finished". Needless to say it wasn't. "Please take a seat and I will call them. It will only be 5 minutes". Needless to say it wasn't. By 09h00 we were on the road.
Manners:The Vietnamese are very respectful of old and baby carrying Vietnamese people and sometimes are polite to each other, but to us - well, we are just in their way.
Queuing:Don't even think of standing in a queue, even if there are queue
from the train
Dong Hoi to Hue barriers installed. There is no concept of standing in line or waiting your turn here. You just go to the counter and start talking to the person behind it, whether they are busy with someone else or not. Otherwise you will spend your life waiting while everyone else does this. And if there is a ticket queuing system, don't bother getting a ticket, just ignore it and push in front at the counter anyway.
More manners:Pushing and shoving to get through doorways, onto trains, into lifts, down corridors, etc is the norm, and general politeness doesn't come in to play. If you get elbowed in the face, or a trolley gets pushed straight into your shins or over your feet, expect nothing. Not even a sheepishness grin. You only get the sheepish grin when you start to cause a scene, and only sometimes, and only if its quite a loud scene. And then you only get noticed because YOU are losing face. You may actually just get shoved harder.
Maybe they think we are all Americans who deserve to get treated like shit around here, or maybe they are a bit like Russians and were just brought up
Dong Hoi
Fishing boats badly so we should excuse them. As far as Russians go, I have had quite a few run-ins with those on this trip too. Impolite, hostile, rude, neanderthalic, are but a few of the more printable descriptions of Russian tourists that spring to mind, but I digress.
Heads and Feet:There are all sorts of taboos here about showing the soles of your feet or touching people with you feet, or touching heads, but they are not practiced by the Vietnamese, so you can ignore them too. I rested my iPad happily on the head of the lady who was reclined into my lap on the train, and she didn't flinch. And feet can go anywhere, they are especially at home on seats, particularly on the headrest of the seat in front, and on tray tables. Just as long as you don't dare to go to the toilet wearing your own shoes - you must put on the slops that are provided for everyone to share to the toilet. Yes, the ones with everyone's pee all over them. Remember we all squat here and I know about getting pee all over my feet! I don't relish sharing everyone else's pee
Fishing net
Dong Hoi, Vietnam with my feet too. But dare to sneak in with your own shoes and you will be scowled at and finger pointed at and head shaken at and shouted at. Do the sheepish "Im just a stupid westerner" grin and they get sooo irritated. I'm starting to love it.
Yes And No:In Vietnam both yes and no in Vietnamese English can mean yes. In Vietnam both yes and no in Vietnamese English can mean no. Learn the Vietnamese words.No in English also means maybe, which in turn means please try harder to flog your goods or services to us as we thoroughly enjoy the harassment and having to fend off your unwanted and uninvited attentions! Though I will admit this is not only a Vietnamese phenomenon.....
And then, just to throw you, a little jewel comes along and you think "these people are so lovely". Take the man in the next row on the train who, out of the blue, passes us a dragon fruit and a knife and shows us how to use them. Or the man who stops us and points at my skin next to his and chuckles at the fact that I have darker
Phong Nha
Boat landing for boats to the cave skin than he does. Or the young girl in a country lane shop who laughs with us as we try to buy water in our best Vietnamese, but discover we are actually trying to buy a man, so she teaches us some new words. Or the table of men at the beach seafood stall who invite us to join them for beer and clams and end up talking to us all night via google translate on the iPhone. Or the lovely lady who watches us devour Che at her roadside stall. Or the ancient man on a bicycle who slows down to our walking speed to have a chat in the best English he can muster ( and it is better than our best Vietnamese!) Or all the hellos, thank you for visiting our country, do you really like the coffee? The new found trust when we come back a second time to a juice shop.
This place is unfathomable. I have a deep fascination with it. Andrew is not quite sure.
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robin
non-member comment
Happy about those trees!
Yes, yes I really am. The ipad on the head just cracked me up....I would never cope being shoved and pushed around like that (plus the pee on the shoes) - I barely cope at Sandton City doll!