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Published: July 26th 2006
It is easy to become blase when you have been travelling for a while, things that would normally make your head turn or stand in awe become the norm. The sights and sounds that at first were strange are just part of the background noise we've come to know. Such as the chirupping little lizards and the calls of the Gecko that sound like it is saying Gecko or obsenity with two sylabuls and the last word ending in you! But after the serenity and laid back feel of Laos, it was a jolt back to a different culture when we started our trip from Laos to Vietnam.
The bus journey was interesting it started off easy enough but after the bus driver ran over a dog without the blink of an eye leaving it's squashed remains behind while two kids stood screaming, a couple of women vomitted into a bag and threw it out of the window and the constant clearing of throats and spitting out of the windows (this seems to be Loas favourite pass time) we wanted to get off!
It is amazing the difference of the Vietnamese people to the Lao, although both are very
Street Scene
I'm sure he could have got more on if he'd just tried a little harder
friendly, the Lao are more reserved, whereas the Vietnamese have a totally different concept of personal space. The man behind us on the bus was leaning on Andys head at numerous points of the journey (much to Andys annoyance), the fact that we looked different was definately intereted them! Andy had his arm hair pulled numerous times, they found body hair interesting as for a starters they dont have much and then Andy's blonde too (kind of)! They didnt get the hang that no matter how much they spoke to us it wasnt going to improve our vietnamese (we dont speak a word of it and they couldnt speak a work of English and they werent using charades either). Our English guide books were fascinating as were our passports, they would just grab the things from us and paw over them curiously before giving them back. All this was done with smiles and laughs on all parts and I just wish we could have communicated with them. The journey we were taking across the Laos Vietnamese border is not a common route for travellers although it is becoming a little more popular, therefore the places we passed through dont normally
see many Westeners.
The border crossing was easy enough but we were the first into the hall and the last to leave. We were the only westerners on our bus and the imigration staff were curious at the things we had in our bags, curious about us and wanted to practice their English. Our platipus drinking pouches caused alot of interest and explanation. A lot of confusion was also raised by the fact that we had an old Vietnamese Visa that we hadnt used in our passports as well as our valid one (due to a blunder by the Vietnamese Embassy in London). We had heard about boarder officials asking for gifts to allow you over and we we're expecting the worst when we were the only ones left, but luckly we got through with no problems.
After another 7 hours on the Bus we arrived at Vinh, where we felt like we had grown two heads as everyone just stared at us constantly, we decided to try and book a train straight out of Vinh and start from the top and work down. However all the sleeper trains we're full so we had to settle for soft
Street Scene
Although Football is fast becoming the most popular sport in Vietnem, badminton must be a close second. As every space on every pavement or road is a potential badminton court. seats (a bit like the more luxury coaches). After another 8 hours travel (23 hours in one day) we arrived in Hanoi and we new for sure we'd left the relaxed chilled enviroment of Laos behind. We were soon bombarded with the sounds and hassell of the Vietnamese capital and it was only 5am. We took the first tout after a little negotiation and checked into a hotel and fell lucky as it was quite good, plus we got the taxi paid, which is where we normally get ripped off.
The next day we headed out to explore the streets of Hanoi, which is the most fascinating city we've been to in terms of goings on.
"Hello, Motor Bike"
"Hello, no thanks"
"Cylco?"
"No thanks"
"Where you going?"
"Just over there"
"Motor Bike?"
"No thanks, and stop calling me motor bike!"
"1 hour tour very cheap"
"No Thanks I'm just going to our hotel"
"Motorbike?"
While scooters, push bikes, cyclos, cars, buses all fight for every inch of tarmac, sounding their horns while zig zagging round each other at cross roads, trying to avoid the street vendours who have set their stalls up actually on the road
between the parked scooters and shop keepers randomly shouting out to you and hopefully pointing at something in their display that you may have not relized that you want. All this happens several times on every street you turn down.
We wandered around the old quater doing a bit of sovenier shopping and just generally taking in the sights of the city. We decided to have breakfast at baguette and Chocolatt, a dine for a cause cafe. So after experiencing our first cyclo trying to rip us off after agreeing a price of 15,000 dong only to be told it was 50,000 then 15,000 each, I just gave him 15,000 and walked off.
Baguette and Chocolatte is a social project that helps out disadvantaged or street kids to get a qualification and experiance in the hospitallity or catering trade to help them get a start in life, and the food and coffee was so good there we went back several times during our stay in Hanoi.
The old quarter of Hanoi is fascinating. Each of the streets are named after the things that are sold there or the trades carried out on the streets. There is Bat
Dan - wooden bowl street, Hang Giay - paper & shoes street, Hang Bac - Silversmith street and the list goes on. There is even grave stone street where all of the traders make and engrave head stones and memorials, we particularly liked Thuoc Bac - herbal medicine street as the smells were beautifully aromatic.
We headed out to the Ho Chi Minh Museum and saw the one pillar pagoda which is in the same grounds, that is what it says a pagoda supported on one large pillar in the middle of a pond. The Ho Chi Minh Museum was Ok for a while but we found the guide book we bought from the foyer easier to follow. There are lots of letters and artifacts of Ho Chi Minhs from the whole of his political carreer, there are a few unusual exhibits though which are abstract representations or symbolisms such as a model of a type of Ford car which was a commercial failure car wedged in a wall to represent the American military failure. A little too abstract for me. After an hour of so wandering around the museum and seeing photos of Ho Chi Minh with just
Temple of Literature
All the names of men studying here had their name enscibed on these stones once they recieved a doctorate about every vietnamese or Socialist country representative we retired to the cafe to read the booklet which made a very interestign read. Ho Chi Minh was born Nguyen Tat Thanh and he had 50 or so different aliases before he assumed the title of Ho Chi Minh which means Bringer of Light.
That evening we went to see The Hanoi Municipal Water Puppet Theatre, we didnt know what to expect but we had been told that it was an interesting experience and that it was.
I cant describe it any better or to the point so heres a quote from the cities website which describes it perfectly "This amazing form of puppetry based on a liquid stage is more than 1,000 years old. The puppets, typically designed to look like the characters in Vietnamese fables, are controlled by 11 puppeteers, who launch fire-breathing dragons, acrobatic rice farmers and dancing maidens across the watery stage. The band is also important and impressive, providing the music that keeps the legends alive, giving tourists a taste of the beauty of Vietnamese sounds. Performances are held regularly. Tickets USD2"
The music provided by a live band includes wooden flutes, one of
which was like a double flute, gongs, cylindrical drums, diffrent stringed banjo / guitar type instruments, bamboo xylophones and a strange single string instument that in the book it says it is calleda dan bau.
We also visited the Temple of Literature as it was listed as a highlight of Hanoi. This was formed in 1070 by Emperor Ly Than Tong, Vietnams 1st anniversary was established here in 1076 to educate the sons of manarins. In 1484 Emperor Le Thahn Tong ordered that stelae (big stone tortoises with slabs on there backs) be erected recording all the names, places of birth and achiements of men who recieved doctorates in each trienial from 1442. Although this was only done till 1778. We found this place calm and peacuful, surround by the noise and chaos in the centre of the city that it some how they've managed to stop from entering.
Our next stop in Vietnam was Halong Bay and we decided to take a package trip rather than do it ourselves. Booking the tour was a serious headache though. We were told so many stories of not getting what you paid for, rats and roaches on boats, poor food
etc that we didnt know where to book. This is not helped by the cloning culture they seem to have in Vietnam. If something is listed with a good write up in the Lonely Planet or other popular travel guide numerous copy cats open agencies or hotels with the same name. They dont only have the same name, but also the same logo. We counted 7 different Sinh Cafes, and no they are not a chain there is only one original one and the rest are copies owned by different companies offering different packaged.
We eventually booked with the original Sinh Cafe for a three day two night tour of Halong bay.
We set off by minibus from Hanoi to Halong City at about 7.30am, the journey takes about 3 hours and at the stop along the way you reaise just how many people are heading to Halong Bay, especially as it was a weekend and lots of day trippers. Halong city doesn't look that special, construciton is booming, with big hotels and even a rather large beach in the making, it is only when you look out to see you see how specail the area is. The
open sea cannot be seen as hundreds of tree clad limestone islands and islets rise sharply out of the sea.
On arrival at the port of Halong City it was a scene of organised chaos (This is becoming a familiar sight in Vietnam). Hundreds of tour groups were getting on boats and off boats pulled up at the dock, while the boats were competing for the space at the dock to get passangers on and off. We finally got on our boat and settled down into the relaxing atmospehere which was a contrast to a few feet away at the port.
There were 16 of us in the group and we all started to get to know each other over a fantastic lunch which was cooked on the boat. We were sat with two couples, Paul & Kirsty who were on Holiday for 3 weeks and Miguel and Katherine another couple taking a year long honeymoon.
The first part of the afternoon was spent cruising between the islands.
Sung Sot (Suprising) Cave - most tours take in this cave it is quiet impressive but the vietnamese aren't that quiet and you struggle to hear the guide talking
amongst all the shouting thats goin on plus the cave has now been lit up in different colours and looks more like a grotto now, after walking round a completley untouched cave in Loas I found it hard to be impressed by this.
We reboarded the boat and headed off to our next stop where we soon joined by about 5 other boats. The crew unloaded Kayaking and after Sues miserable effort of paddling and just going round in cirlcles she was soon banned from paddling and progress was made. We headed through a tunnel and found ourselves in a lagoon completley surrounded by 100 foot high limestone walls. After a bit of exploring we headed back to the boat to shower, and get ready for dinner.
After eventually getting to sleep due to the heat being unbearable through the night, the noise of the engines starting up at 5am didnt wake me but as soon as we passed out of the shelter of the bays into the open sea the boat was being tossed around on the swell and I woke up feeling instantly nauseua's.
The second night of the tour we stayed at Cat Ba Island, the
largest of the islands in Ha Long Bay, here we checked into to hotel, and was took to see the Hospital Cave. This is a cave that the VC lined outwith concrete walls to make a hospital for the higher ranked soldiers. The Cave included a Table tennis room, a room for dancing, a cinema and a swimming pool (don't know about you but I've paid a lot of money for holiday resorts with less facilities that that). The rooms kept anything for 1 to 6 patients in, again depending on rank and room the hospital had. A guide took us round who actually worked as a doctor in the hospital during the War, greeting us in Vietnamise milarty style and then sining a song that they used to sing.
The group then split into two where some went off on bikes, and as Sue hates bikes I got volinteered to the trekking. The walk itself would have been quiet easy except for the heat and hudity again, once at the top we got some great views over the island and a welcomed breeze.
Later that afternoon we headed to Monkey Island, which was just a little island
with a beach. There were signs up telling us to '"beware of monkey's, the bite" but we didn't see any anyway.
Return Boat from Cat Ba to Halong, we were lucky with our tour as the weather had broken up and was overcast and rainy. For some people this was the last day of their tour on a 2 day tour and I think you get to see and do far more on the 3 day 2night tour than the 2 day one night tour if time allows. After lunch in a restaurant at Halong city we returned back to Hanoi and just had time to have a drink and dinner before we boarded the bus to go down to Ninh Binh.
Whilst on our short stay in Ninh Binh we commisioned a car and drver and went to visit the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre, Cuc Phuong National Park. Vietnam has 21 species of Primates, five of which are found no where else. Most of the primates in Vietnam are rare or entangered and some are on the brink of extinction. All primates are protected in Vietnam which means hunting, trading and possesion of primates is forbidden. However
the illegal trade of primates is highly lucrative and Vietnam is on the main illegal animal trade route to China and other parts of the world. As well as conservation in the wild captive breeding programmes are designed to ensure the long term preservation of endangered species. The Endangered primate Rescue centre sucessfully breeds some of the worlds rarest primates.
The centre currently houses 140 individuals, about two thirds of the animals at the centre have been confiscated from poachers and wildlife traders and the remainder have been born at the centre.
As well as the enclosures for breeding pairs or groups of primates there are two enclosed pre-release areas. When safe areas are identified for their reintroduction to the wild in National Parks and individuals are either recovered or young old enough to fend for them selves they are released into a 2 hectare enclosed area that is like their natural habitat. The primates are microchipped to allow tracking and monitoring before release. If this goes well and they settle into the small semi wild they are moved to another larger 7 hectare enclosed area. After which when a safe place in a naitonal park is identified
the individuals are re-released to the wild whilst ensuring there are always some breeding pairs at the centre. There were some really funky monkeys at the centre especially the Red Shanked Douc Langur. They looked like wise old men with grey hair and white beards.
To fill our day we headed over to Kenh Ga Floating Village, a small stretch of river where people live on boats (most made of concrete), the place seemed very laid back, kids running around shouting "hello" at us people laid almost horizontally in there boats rowing down the river using there feet. The landscape here is beautiful as the river is enclosed on one side by sear faced vertical mountains although the river life was quite relaxed and not as we had expected it from reading the lonely planet guide.
The drive around the countryside to the centre and the village was beautiful and interesting. We passed through little villages and fields growing Bananas, Sugar Cane, Pineapples and numerous other fruits and vegetables. A couple of motorbikes passed us with cages about on the backs and sides of their scooter that must have been holding about 3cubic metres worth of pinapples. I
Hospital Cave
This was the washing area for high rank soldiers, water was pumped from the stream below outside tried to get a picture but unfortunately as I am a muppet with a camera I got a picture of the hedge and not the motobike as we passed them.
We returned to Ninh Binh and after dinner and relax it was time to get back on yet another bus and head further south.
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Andria
non-member comment
Wow
Thats all i can say regarding your travels.... its so nice to see the photos of places I will probably never get to see. I have loved reading the blogs as they came through. I just wanted to wish you "Happy Anniversary" for saturday and hope you have a fab day remembering your special day. Take care, lots of love Andria xxxx p.s Sue your plant is still alive! ;o)