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Published: January 31st 2006
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Sorry for the slackness, Vietnam, to be honest, kind of confounded us. It's really a worthwhile place to see, but we spent quite a lot of our time either being pissed off, or feelling guilty for being pissed off.
The thing is that we went through Thailand and Laos in a state of pretty much constant enjoyment. People ask you if you want a tuk tuk, you say no thanks, and they leave you in peace. Someone offers to sell you something and most of the time if you don't want it, they leave you in peace. Not in Vietnam.
We just felt really exposed there, and it was virtually impossible to avoid being hassled. We knew the reasons why, and don't think we didn't feel bad if we got annoyed, but it's just so bloody tiring. It's also a pretty emotional experience because there are a lot more people begging, a lot of people who've been physically mutilated by the war and its after effects, and a lot of kids out there doing things they shouldn't bloody well have to do.
I mean, I feel like the least you can do is see what goes on in
the world so you can have a better understanding of things, and while you're there you do what you can to help, but it can be hard. You feel guilty, you feel angry, you feel impotent, and sometimes you feel ashamed.
Anyway, enough of that. Since it's been awhile, i think I'll just put things in note form, and add some pics when I can get a decent connection.
Hanoi - I think we pretty much covered this. I dont' think I mentioned the Cha Ca that I ate though. Top dish; a Hanoi specialty. You get a makeydo sort of hotpot brought to the table (very unstable and practically molten - Food tastes better when there's a chance of disfigurement don't you think? Why else would people order those ridiculous 'sizzling' dishes that spit in your eye? Anyway, I digress) In the hotpot is fish and herbs, cooked in sort of turmericky soup. Then you bung a few rice noodles and some spring onions in your little bowl, add some of the fish and soup and it's well jolly. Try it if you go. I had it at our 'local' - Bar 69. A good spot.
After a couple of days we went on a fancy trip to Halong Bay, where we got to sleep on a junk. Top trip it was; the bay is beautiful and it was nice to get of town. Met some good people too; it's a funny thing in Vietnam, you feel like you're always on a school excursion. A lot of things worth seeing are often a way out of town, so you sign up for these day tour things, and they herd you around like a bunch of 10 year olds, it can be funny, or it can be flippin' annoying. So anyway, we played at being fancy people who go on cruises, and ventured at cocktail roulette. I ended up with a glass of listerine and a glace cherry, Stuart got a beer. hmm.
Hey, this isn't really note form just in case you were looking to me for editorial tips.
So then we got a night train to Hue. This was pretty cool; we got a sleeper carriage and unbelievably, I slept like a log. Stuart spent most of the night reading or peering out the window.
Only stayed in Hue for a couple
of days, just long enough to check out the Citadel and to go on the Year 6 Trip to the DMZ. I didn't mind this, it was a nice drive in the country, but it takes a loooong time to drive anywhere in Vietnam, so it was a big day. Not everyone was so keen, because there isn't a lot left to see in places like Khe Sanh (I was kind of hoping some Westy would have left a Barnesy t-shirt there somewhere, but no.) but it's interesting to put things into context.
From here we got a bus to Hoi An, where we stayed for a few days and got some clothes made up. Jim was promising to come out with a Miami Vice style suit, but copped out and got a sports jacket (why is something with pin stripes and lined pockets called a sports jacket?) and some long shorts. I went in with the intention of getting a couple of shirts for work, but the ladies in the market had other ideas. They did a pretty good job though, and it's cheap.
We also checked out My Son (some Champa ruins out of town), which
was a really nice morning. We had to leave by five, but it was worth it, because we were about the only people there and it was a good break. Good people on the tour again too.
What else, what else. Oh yeah, food is good in Hoi An. They do a thing called White Rose, which a little portion of prawns and umm, other good stuff, in a square of rice noodle. Also, we went to a place called the 'Blue Dragon' which donates money to help local orphans and disabled kids. They did a killer fish in Banana leaf dish.
From here we were originally planning to go down to Nha Trang and hang around the beach for a bit, but a few people had told us the vendors were really incessant on the beach, and since we can go to the beach any time, we decided on Saigon and the Mekong Delta.
Saigon was much more laid back than Hanoi, and we had a better time there. Made friends with a couple of cyclo drivers who took us everywhere, and we got to relax a bit more.
Went to the Mekong Delta for
a couple of days too, which was quite good. We spent an awfully long time messing about in boats... an inordinate number of boats, but we saw some interesting things as well. We stayed out at someone's house in a bungalow, and they put on a lovely spread for dinner.
Here's a weird thing: Stuart gets bitten by mossies everywhere. Where you'd swear there are no mosquitoes, he gets bitten. But in the Mekong Delta, which was literally covered in them, he didn't get bitten once, and I still have welts on my feet. Weird.
You know what else is weird? The first day we were in Vientiane, which is close to a month ago, i got bitten by something on the back of my right leg, and my thigh went numb and stayed that way. I haven't developed any tropical ulcers or umm Dead Muscle Syndrome, so I'm not worried particularly, but still, weird.
So anyway, there you go, now to Cambodia.
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