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Published: April 21st 2008
More Songkran!!
Happy New Year!Well if the second half of our trip was anything like the first half…we were in for more adventures. We landed in Bangkok around 4pm, and the second our cab reached the city, we realized that Songkran (the Thai water festival we were apart of in Phuket) was still going on. We had no idea that it was a 4 day festival in Bangkok!! That night we headed out to find a nice restaurant and walk around the city. We didn’t make it ½ a block from our hotel before we were soaked and covered in more baby powder than the 0-2 nursery at camp goes through in a summer. I guess we should have seen it coming…on the plane ride up, I’d say at least 40 people carried on their water guns. Jake was a little annoyed, but I loved it…how could you not. It was going to happen whether or not I wanted it to, so the least I could do was embrace it. The one thing I didn’t like was the next day…almost everything was closed. We had a big day planned walking around the city seeing as much as we could. We made do, and still managed
Grand Palace
with our pants we had to rent to see a ton of cool things. We wandered over to the Royal Palace in the morning….As we got inline, we noticed we were behind a giant tourist group…probably over 200 Japanese men and women who were all wearing the same baseball cap and t-shirt…and of course all had the same camera. It was almost as amusing as the Palace. Anyways, our tour book says nothing about wearing long pants (it tells you when you need then at certain places), so we showed up in shorts and t-shirts…..and had to rent long pants. Yes, we had to rent pants from a lady on the street for $1.25. I didn’t think there was any way they would fit me, but they did and we headed inside. Some of the shrines and temples were closed because of the holiday, but what we did see was amazing. Everything is done in tile, glass, and/or mirror. The pictures don’t do justice to the awesomeness that was the Royal Palace. Once we realized that most things were closed, we altered our plan and took tuk-tuk rides to various parts of the city we knew were open. (A tuk tuk is the most amazing mode of
transportation ever. Imagine this…Someone chopped the front of a motorcycle off, and attached it to a picnic bench with wheels and a covering on top). We went to Chinatown, Little Arabia, took a river taxi up the river…you name it and if it was open…we saw it!! In the afternoon we wandered over to the famous Jim Thompson house in the center of town. Jim Thompson was a WWII vet who moved in Bangkok to capitalize in the silk industry. Once he made some money, he built this elaborate home. He disappeared in Malaysia in the mid 1960s, but today…his name is well known in Thailand and apparently in the US as the ‘silk god!’ Bangkok was a good time…we were absolutely soaked the whole time. We would kinda dry off…and then all the sudden someone would drill me with a water balloon or pour a giant bucket of mystery water on me from a balcony above. It seems like we picked the best days to be in Phuket, and considering we only had one day in Bangkok…we probably didn’t pick the best one. I still had a blast though…I definitely need to go back one day
The trip
was going better than planned…I didn’t see how things could get any better...and then we landed in North Vietnam. Wow. The whole flight, I kept thinking that I’m going to a country that 40 years ago…Americans hated being in. Not only that, the part of the country I was going to was only seen by American who had been captured. I had no idea what to expect, but was definitely excited. We arranged our visas ahead of time…and we’re so lucky we did. We saw people no let on the plane flying to Vietnam, people not let into the country once they got there…and others pay way more than we did for the same visa. We got into town around 3, and the first thing you notice is NO ONE drives a car. Everyone has a motorbike. The only cars on the roads in Hanoi are taxis and lost confused tourists who have for some reason rented a car. It’s an awesome scene. Not only does everyone own a bike, but they think it is their god given right to use their horn every 3 seconds. When I was in Cairo, I thought the horn usage was bad…in Hanoi, it
Pad Thai on the street
pay more than 1 USD and its a rip-off! is way worse. The other thing I noticed our first night…was that around 11:30pm the roads were just as packed at 6pm. Where is everyone going?!!! We had three full days in Hanoi, and not nearly enough time to do everything. Before we arrived, we had booked a tour to Halong Bay. Everywhere I read said this was a must see. Halong Bay is about 100 km northeast from Hanoi about 3 hours south of the Chinese border. Jake and I got real lucky…no one else had booked this tour, so a small car picked us up just before seven in the morning. The roads are so bad in Vietnam, it took us over three hours to travel the 100km. We had a huge boat just for the two of us. Our guide, Ba, said there are normally between 10-30 people on the tour. There were six people working on the boat, and including our guide…Jake and I had seven people there for us to make sure we had a good time. I don’t know if I will ever see a more beautiful natural wonder. Halong Bay is a collection of 3,000 small islands rising anywhere from 30 feet to
600 feet. Some of the islands have caves, and we explored one for an hour during the day. It took about two hours to get to the caves, and an hour to wander around the caves. When we got back to the boat…the crew had prepared a feast for us. I have never had a meal like this. Normally, a great meal uses three different animals. Ours had six. We had Snapper, Squid, Shrimp, Crab cakes, Chicken, and Steak. It was a feast for kings!!! We had to be back on shore at 5 to make the 3 hours 100km drive. We had about three hours in this secluded area to kayak, swim, and jump off our three story boat! The whole time we were there, we had to remind each other where we were. Our second day, we book another tour…this time we went northwest to Tam Doa…the first capital of Vietnam over 1,000 years ago. There we got bikes and went of a 15 km ride through the villages and rice patties. Originally we wanted to rent motorbikes, but after seeing that everyone in Vietnam rides around like Evil Kneivel…we decided to pass. We probably took 2 ½
Our Tuk Tuk Driver
ready for a water fight! hours riding though the villages, taking pictures, and even stopping a few times when little kids would flag us down. We ended up in a small city somewhere and our guide led us into a building where there was……another huge lunch. The Vietnamese know how to host guests!!! The afternoon was capped off with a two hour small boat journey up a river and through some rice patties. That night, we went out in Hanoi…it was really our only chance because we didn’t have to be up early in the morning. One thing I didn’t mention at the beginning is how ridiculously cheap everything is. We would go out for a nice dinner every night, and the bill would be 80,000 dong…equal to about $5.00 US. Beers at bars were between 5,000 and 15,000 dong (.30 cents - .95 cents). All over Hanoi, there are small rooms maybe 10 x 10 feet. Inside the room there is a man, and a keg of cold beer. For 3,000 dong a beer (.18 cents) you sit outside his tiny place and watch the world go by. Jake and I went every night to a different one and met so many different, interesting,
and weird people. Our third day was the one day we had to see all the classic tourist things in Hanoi. We got up at 9, and headed off to see Ho Chi Minh. Yes, Ho Chi himself is embalmed in a glass case for everyone to see. Instead of walking, we decided to travel like the Vietnamese do, and ride a motor bike. On every corner there are men with bikes trying to convince tourists to take a ride with them. So we walked out of our hotel, and each hopped on a bike for a wild ride across town. Before you go into the room where Ho Chi Minh is, you walk through three sets of security. No cameras, water bottles, NO NOTHING! They love him in Vietnam and view him as the man who is responsible for where Vietnam is today. When you walk in, you walk side by side with someone else and in a straight line. I had my hand in my pocket while we were waiting outside…and I got yelled at by two guards with giant muskets. It was kinda creepy to see him just laying there. Apparently he gets shipped off to Russia
for three months a year for cleaning and to hang out with Lenin. He just got back, so I guess he looked pretty good for an old man. Jake wasn’t feeling well, so I had the rest of the afternoon to myself. I just walked around the old quarter, in and out of temples, and did some shopping. I also checked out the Hao Lo Prison. The Hao Lo Prison was one of the biggest POW prisons during the war, and is perhaps most famous because Senator John McCain was held there. Only about 20% of the prison remains, but it gives a pretty good idea of what life was like. There is one room however that attempts to show how well the Americans were treated. It shows them celebrating Christmas, playing basketball, and playing cards (among other things). If John McCain can't raise his arms all the way above his head because of the torture he went through there...how could he have played baskeball. We met a couple from Pennsylvania who said John McCain write in a book of his how much of a joke that room is. (McCain visited the prison in 2000) It was interesting..almost like a
Nazi Concentration camp. So that was my afternoon... there was one more thing I wanted to do. Hanoi is famous for crazy food…especially dog. I know it is wierd and cruel from an American standpoint...but this is part of their culture. There is a small part of Hanoi called Okah that everyone swears by. I wanted to try it, but that night when we went to dinner Jake didn’t seem to keen on the idea. I settled for pig kidney and liver with crispy noodles and Chinese broccoli. Food was great!! The staff at the restaurant was probably dumber than Ohio State's offensive line. Toward the end of the meal, the lights started to flicker, and then went dead. Not a shocker, Hanoi loses power all the time. The whole city is powered by water, so when the hydro power runs out...the city goes black. This time it wasn't a blackout...we smelled buring plastic, and sure enough there was an electrical fire in the kitchen that was shorting out the lights. No one that worked there seemed to know what to do. Jake and I sprung into action. One of the managers brought a fire extinguisher to a table near
us and was clueless on how to use it. Jake knew exactly what to do! I moved everyone away (they all seemed enchanted by the flickering light) and Jake put out the blaze!!
To cap our adventurous night, we saw a famous water puppet show, and headed back to our favorite hole in the wall beer depot. I wish I had another two weeks in Vietnam to see the coast and Saigon. It is definitely the most amazing country I have ever been in. Everyone was so nice, and accommodating. One thing that made it so attractive was that there were not many tourists. I loved sitting back and watching life go by without the daily rush of tourists like Bangkok or other large cities have. When I go back, the only thing I'll do is rent a bike...with a horn.
I'm going home for a few days and then off to the Middle East with my parents and grandmother! Next time I write, I'll be in Jerusalem!
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