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Published: April 20th 2008
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The night before leaving from Hoi An I had dinner at this little restaurant facing the river and got to talking with the waiter by the name of Mr. Phong. After several drinks and amazing food Mr. Phong invited to show me his family and village in the outskirts of Hoi An the next day and I happily accepted. The next morning I jumped on the back of Mr. Phong's motorcycle and we went well over an hour out into the Vietnamese country side to his village. It was a great morning where my captive tour guide taught me more about Vietnamese history in those 4 short hours then I did in my entire duration in Vietnam. We trekked through more rice fields (though I learned my lesson the first time and watched my footing), went to tobacco farms, and had lunch with his family of 2 sons, 1 daughter and 4 grandchildren...a great way to spend the morning for some real Vietnamese culture.
Getting back to Hoi An I jumped on the local bus to Phong Nha which not a single westerner had heard of except only local Vietnamese and is rumored to have the best caves and country
side scenary in Vietnam. After a long 8 hour bus ride I get dropped off in Dong Ha (some small bus stop town) and crash in the first guesthouse I see. The next morning I wake up and walk around the small town and love the fact that I am the only Westerner to be seen. Have a quick traditional Vietnamese breakfast of Pho (soup with raw pork that cooks in the hot water) and jump on the back of another motorcycle taxi to take me the 32KM one-way to Phong Nha. After yet another over-an-hour, motorcycle ride I'm starting to walk like a cowboy but enjoy 4 hours of picturesque views of the Vietnamese landscape that is practically deserted except for me and a couple of Vietnamese tourists. But the best part of the day was after the cave which was breath taking. I get back to the bus stop and have 6 long hours to kill before my bus arrives to take me to Hanoi. So I start reading my book and eventually get bored so I start talking to the locals in the bus stop/restaurant. I get to talking with the owner's brother name Nam, who's a
history teacher at the local university and after a couple of hours of playing a newly taught to me Vietnamese version of tic-tac-toe with the wait staff I get invited to have dinner with the owner's brother and their entire family. Now the best part was not only was the food great but dinner was on little kid's plastic chairs on the side of the road where locals that were friends of the bus stop owner would stop by and join in for some food and drinks. Oh, I forgot to mention that they brought out a bottle of vodka and every new guest we had to toast several shots to the occasion. So by the time my bus came not only was I stuff but pretty much stumbling up the stairs of the bus.
Getting into Hanoi at about 6am, slightly raining, and chilly since the rain was taking away the humidity, I get on the back of the first motorcycle taxi, and shivering through the rain we head to the first guest house destination I find in my trusty lonely planet. Side note: I have to say that the Lonely planet has been bang on for Thailand
and Cambodia, but completely off for Vietnam...restaurants were burnt down, or went out of business years ago, and prices are now easily double what they are in the book, not because they've gone up but because the lonely planet put them on the map and they're getting greedy now. So when we get to the guest house and the prices are almost triple that of the lonely planet I literally take one last look at my lonely planet and chuck it into the garbage...enoughs enough, time to do this old fashion style. Luckily, I had a good motorcycle taxi that knew the area and he takes me to a place that has $10 rooms. The room was decent, had a tv, ensuite, hot water, and lots of ants, but hey, it's $10. Crash for a couple of hours...upon waking up and walking out into the street the city that was completely empty and asleep when I got there was now alive with the hustle and bustle of scooters, side walk knick knack sellers, bicycles and the all too familiar humidity had returned.
My first task before checking out the sites was a traveling schedule check...my time's starting to run
Hoi An (Mr. Phong's Village)
Rolled up dried tobacco leaves out and I still have to go through Lao, and China. I hate have to be on a schedule. After a good breakfast I figure out that I only have 3 days in Hanoi, 1 week in Lao (no way near enough) and a good 2-3 weeks in China. In hindsight I wish I didn't linger so long in Thailand since the speed that I've gone up and through Vietnam was much faster than I would have liked spending mostly 1 day and 1 night in most places.
With the limited time in Hanoi I book the 2 day 1 night Junk Boat cruise through Halong Bay after a pretty difficult internal debate of the boat cruise or taking a 3 day trek through Sepa (Northern Vietnam). If I had time I would have totally done both but since I already did the trek in Chiang Mai (which has been the best experience so far) I figured time on the water would be something new.
I'm glad I did since those 2 days were the peace and relaxation I needed after motoring along at the clip that I did through the past couple of days. The Junk Boat
itself was first class and the 12 of us that went on the tour was 3 guys 9 girls (I like them odds 😉. The first day we cruised through the harbor, went through the Cat Ba Caves, and spent a good hour kayaking through the many secluded caves. The funny part was while kayaking I ran into 2 completely separate people I met on the trip in different cities and counties! That night we all just chilled on the deck of the boat and was taught a few new drinking games where I polished off a full bottle of local Vietnamese red wine which I was told tasted better the fresher the wine is since as it ages it just turns into pure vinegar, hmmmmmmmm...so needless to say that next morning my head felt like someone was taking a jackhammer to it for several hours.
Getting back into Hanoi I got onto a couple more motorcycle taxis to quickly explore the city in my last remaining night before catching a flight to Luang Prabang Laos. The one thing that I've learned about how to make it through being on the back of those motorcycles in the mayhem that
is the Vietnamese cities is to just look a head...do not look at how close that motorcycle is beside you or think about how many times they "rubbed" against the motorcycle you were on...and pray to the heavens each time you get off them. 😉
Next stop Luang Prabang Laos...
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Isaac
non-member comment
WTF are you eating?
WTF is that scorpion kinda thing you're eating dude? Ewwwie! Lol.. At least they put a garnishment huh... hehehe. Your pictures of the cave remind me so much of the "Tomb Raider" game I used to play... only there I was watching a smoking hot cartoon character and now, well.. I'm watching you... heheh. Glad to hear you're having fun. Final day of Tax season and we're actually done everything, so cooling down.. but what a busy few weeks.... Gotta catch up on all your blogs now. 25 unread messages to go!