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Published: February 24th 2006
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Hello there! So after not adding entries for a while, we finally have free, decent internet, so... here we are.... in HANOI! Since Nha Trang, we've been to Hoi An and Hue... so here's an update on our rather eventful week (can't believe it's been almost a month here already!)...
In Nha Trang, we decided to take the "night bus" to Hoi An... a 14 hour drive. Best to sleep through it, we thought. We met some cool people on the bus... a Swedish couple who shared their Bob Dylan tracks and a cool guy named Malcolm from Martinique (and possibly the only dude in Vietnam with dreads. awesome!) The ride was a tad bumpy, but somehow we all managed to get to sleep... at like midgnight, however, we were woken to the screeching sound of another bus that sideswiped ours - scraping right by (Sarah's) window... wow. A nice way to way up! So then, the busses stopped, (and everyone took out their iPod headphones), and the driver from the other bus, long with his crew, approached with fists in the air! One guy tried to punch out our driver, and then the others came right on to the
Typical Bun Stand
every bun stand s exactly the same... strange meaty things, buns, pate, random veggies, and laughing cow cheese... only ever lauging cow cheese... bus - an all-out brawl began... fists waving, t-shirst ripping, blood spewing, a.k's firing (okay... no aks.) It was part scary, part hilarious seeing these little Vietnamese dudes fighting and screaming at eachother... Quite a sight! So eventually... their issues were settled, and the whole affair ended with laughter and handshakes. Okay... an eventful bus trip.... haha
So arriving in Hoi An at 6 am wasn't that cool... our hotel looked nifty on the outside (a pond, traditional decor), but our room was a bit smelly. Allll the rooms here are a bit smelly! Anyways, it was 7 USD, which is the cheapest we could find in Hoi An. The town is sooooo pretty!!! Being a UNESCO World Heitage sight, there are lots of building rules to follow, so the whole old part of town looks like it would have many years ago. Like the rest of Vietnam, it has the classic Bun Stand with Laughing cow cheese and a convenience store selling the excact same items (minus the water... there are 7 billion brands of water here... "Quater" is our fave). What's "different" about Hoi An, is that it's rather famous for it's tailor shops... every other building
is a tailor shop, and instead of being accosted regularly by people asking if you want a cyclo or motorbike, you're constantly being pulled into these really long conversations about your family and home life, only to be asked if you could please come visit the family tailor shop. "very cheap... many colours... you want pants? a dress? we make anything"... gahhh! so we went, with one nice gal, to "market stall no. 10"... the market is insane! So much noise! So much fabric! People getting measured and fitted in every square meter of the place... I (Sarah) ended up getting a cool jean jacket made, and a dress (which wasnt exacccctly what I envisioned, but it's nice), and Evan got some green leather flipflops made. I think everyone else we met had their entire wardrobes produced here.. but it's actually not that cheap! It was fun, though! We met up with Malcom and some others for dinner on the riverside! Such an awesome place to people-watch... we tried to count how many times an hour the cone-hat ladies shouted "you! boat ride! very cheap!"... but lost count. Delicious food, esp. the Hoi An specialty, 'Cau Lao"... a tasty noodley
dish! yummm...
The next day, we went back for some fittings, wandered around, and then rented some bikes with Malcom, so that we could head to the beach! We ended up sharing one, which was an interesting sight... two people plus bags plus guitar on one rickety bike... but as Evan insists, that's the way they do it back in G-ville... At the beach, we saw a rather rowdy party circle... a whole bunch of Vietnamese kids were celebrating their pal's 20th birthday! They invited us to join in their festivities, which was actually awesome! Evan played some guitar with them, then passed it on to the others for some Vietnamese music... we talked as much as we could.. their English was functional, and Malcom had his Lonely Planet translation section... haha... so we spect a few hours there, hanging out, singing, and trying their wacky picnic snacks. Wow... some things just taste bad. But that's okay... by the end of the afternoon, the sand became laden with buried vomit (not ours! we didnt care to sample much of the intensely sour home-made lemon rum!), so we exchanged some emails, said goobye (Sarah got a ring from an admirer!),
and left for the hotelll...
The next day, we woke up far far far too early to try and catch sunrise at the My Son Cham Ruins... well, we tried. Our bus was a tad late, so we ended up missing it... but at least we beat the crowds! Upon telling our bus driver that we'd missed it, he told us "maybe you see it in the afternoon". Okay... The ruins were amazingly cool... big orange brick temples. The Americans may have bombed the heck out of a lot of them, but many are still standing quite well, and you can see a lot of the elephant heads and stuff... they actually made these structures out of perfectly cut bricks... no mortar or anything. what talent! It was also neat to be away from the city... the ruins were in the middle of the forest/jungle, so we got to walk through some neat little paths... it's a gorgeous location - in a valley, surrounded by those huge black shadowy mountains that line the landscape pretty much everywhere here. That night we had some more food, saw more friends and acquaintances from other places... it's like everyone is neighbors here
the tailors' market... INTENSE!
it was a crazy crazy place. so much material, magazines, measuring tape... gahhh or something - we run into eachother all the time!
Our last day, we got in a bit of a pickle... our bus company, T.M. brothers (bad!) wouldn't let us use our bus ticket unless we paid them 200 000 dong (like 20 bucks) for a boat trip that was in our package of tickets as a "free trip". scam. The tickets apparently "weren't valid", even though they were fine at the time we actually took the boat trip. So after fighting on the phone, we just paid. Then the guy tried to make us pay extra again. Bah! But we weren't the only ones having issues with this company (google t.m. brothers. bahhh!)
From Hoi An, we took the bus to Hue... Our hotel was unusually damp and smelly, and our toilet screached violently after being flushed. Innnnnteresting! But anyways, we managed to get away from all of the "Hello! Motorbike!" areas... We just walked as far as we could, and ended up seeing some very interesting slummy sort of areas... so many people live in these boats along the river, too. Lots of boats were lined up, with laundry lines everywhere. The old town was beautiful...
a Vietnamese B-day Party!
so much fun... just never try those shrivelled oranges. yuckkk coloured paint-peeling houses and overgrown gardens, houses built on top of the japanese bridge. The Citadel was neat, too. Eventually we gave in to another cyclo ride, which showed us this really neat lake where the emporer used to go to meditate. We were'nt in lotus season, but it was great.
Then we took another night bus to Hanoi... It was a long one, and one that everyone complains about! For some reason, the air-con was blasting the whole trip (even though it was cooooooold outside!!!), and the bus kept on stopping to pick up ranom people on the side of the road. It was a full bus, so there were a lot of people just sprawled out on the floor. We got there, only to find ourselves in another pickle wit our sketchy bus company! Us and another couple ended up getting in a bit of a fight with the guy, but we won! Wahoo.. he drove away angrily on a motorbike... too bad though, he had our guitar. Guess we won't be seeing that one soon!
So now we're in HANOI!!! great city! having fun... will finish update later, as this is getting increddddibly long and
boring and teeedious... and there is a long line. ciao!
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jon
non-member comment
no more g-tarrrr
exciting. and am i the only one on here who wants to see what this dress looks like?? you two have fun. and keep updating.