Advertisement
Published: July 30th 2010
Edit Blog Post
We started our trek into Vietnam a few days ago. Thanks to this fabulous Vietnamese man, Larry who was on business in Laos, helping us along the way. Chatting it up along the 15 hour bus ride, extremely car sick, trying not to be rude and keeping conversation. Telling me how he drank weasel poop coffee in pakxe (a farm you can find up in the bolevan plateau) and is a vice director of a trading company up in Hanoi. Not going to lie this weasel poop coffee sounded intriguing and I'm ashamed I missed out (which is a luxury here in SE Asia and sells for 20 US dollars a cup). Anyways, he was of much help, telling us where to go for our exit stamps for Laos, our visa checks, our entry stamps for Vietnam, etc and waiting for us along the way. Seeing as everyone on the bus was either Lao or Vietnamese, we were the dead weight being Americans and having to go through a little more of an extensive check. He's waiting for us at each station looking worried, seeing as we did not see the bus any longer (which our bags were still on). Freaking
out and running across the border to find our bus and getting groped by little Vietnamese men and women as if they have never seen a white person before (YES, we're real live flesh, not just angels that have fallen from heaven), we find our bus. So a million hours later we finally get to Danang, Vietnam. We take a taxi to the center of town to find a guest house. Every single one we walked up to, before we could say anything.. put their hands up.. "sorry, full." it took us a good hour before we found one that was available. I mean, usually people are BEGGING us to stay at their guest house. This is the first time we've experienced being denied. So this is what being a leper feels like...
We got out of Danang as soon as possible.. what a miserable city (not before the daily drama of remembering we forgot Denise's passport at the guest house while we were on the bus to move to our next location) and headed to Hoi An. What a beautiful place and such a difference from Danang. It had a old french-villa type feel to it. The 'ancient
town' had a no motorbike policy, but the whistles of the patrolmen hardly had an effect of those filthy rule breakers (I notice, America is not the only place that has a 'fuck authority' attitude). We spent a good 5 days here. We took a cooking class at Red Bridge cooking school and oh mannnnn it was awesome. It started off by them taking us to an organic farm to pick some fresh vegetables, we then went into one of the local homes on the farm and had a 'drink' that involved frog eggs (so if you can be vegetarian and eat chicken eggs, can you still be vegetarian and eat frog eggs? ...I just wont dwell on it too much). Afterward we went the market to get more veggies and MEAT for those dirty murderers who do it it (i kid, i kid). I saw more organs in that market than I had ever seen in my life, including my college career (where I've seen many... anatomy class & such or on the side of the street at 2am in a big pile of vomit). Being the vegetarians of the group, I found it funny how everyone was cringing
and looking away as Denise and I were getting up close and personal trying to find the grossest shit possible. Finally, we head to the cooking school and made up a few MASTERPIECES. Including pho soup, trout wrapped in banana leaves, a salad, etc. It was just a beautiful atmosphere and so much fun. They even had a swimming pool.
The next day we signed up for a snorkeling tour with Rainbow Snorkeling (supposedly endorsed by 'national geographic'), heading to the Cham islands off the central coast. Everyone got sea sick along the way and I think at least 3 people were throwing up. Sorry, no pics. Our first spot, well... we saw about 3 fishes along with a huge hunk of metal that was probably tossed in the ocean as a piece of garbage. Our second location, as soon as we jumped in we felt these tiny little stinging sensations. I thought I was being delusional from being so sick from the journey until I thought to myself "ow, this really is starting to fucking hurt." As I was swimming back to our pirate ship, I could hear zapping all around me but I couldn't SEE anything that
could be stinging me. I got out, along with a few others and inspected my body. I had these little red bumps all over my legs and arms, and about 10 minutes later they began to welt up. And almost as fast as I got them, they went completely away. Wtf? I asked our scuba master, lets call him Scuba Steve, and he said that sometimes dead jelly fish get washed up into that bay and they can still carry an electrical charge even after they have passed. So, my next question Mr Scuba Steve, why would you take us snorkeling to a spot that would electrocute us? Finally we went to the main island to have lunch, which was good, but with the majority of us still sick and some of us exhausted from being stung by a thousand dead jelly fish thanks to the lovely judgment by our tour guide, we just wanted to get out of the sun and get the hell out. So, in conclusion.. snorkeling was a BUST.
But on a more positive note, the town was beautiful with a million tailoring and lantern shops on every corner, we had a great time. I
even got a dress made which is beautiful and fits great. We then headed in another coffin like sleeper bus to Nha Trang. Lonely Planet related the journey to Hell. Which I completely agree with. Once they picked us up, we got the last beds. I got the short end of the stick and had to sleep in the very back where it is much more cramped than the single beds and they fit 5 people. I got stuck right in between 4 British girls who were obviously traveling together (thanks girls). With a face full of ass and a stomach full of elbows, I definitely concur with Lonely Planet. Plus one of them kept farting. Seeing we were in a 5 person coffin, it had to be one of us... but I'm sure they probably all blamed it on me afterward seeing as I was the easiest scapegoat. Which I'm ok with considering I'm alive and out of that shit hole (literally).
So here we are in Nha Trang. Much bigger of a city but a hope skip and a jump away from the beach. Yet here I am, on a computer. Riding in these sleeper buses give
you the same results of a hangover. Tired, dirty, and with a headache. So beaching and lounging will have to wait until tomorrow seeing as the sun kind of makes me feel like a vampire right now. But I'm definitely looking forward to relaxing tomorrow and being catered to with some good ol' Vietnamese beer.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.124s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0639s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb