Exhausting Vietnam

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When we thought it couldn't get worse it did! The bus left us in a city called Vinh in Central Vietnam. I guess you haven't heard of that place before, but don't worry, no one else has heard of it either! We pretty soon found out that we where the only tourist in a city where no one could speak a word of English. Luckily there was two other tourists, two Malaysian brothers, getting of the bus in Vinh too. Together with them we started to look for a hotel for the night. I was cold, really cold, and too tired to carry my bag for too long. The city looked very strange. Almost all shops where closed and there was not many people around. Then we realized that it was the last day of Chinese new year and holiday in the country.



But there was no time to start complaining. We had a long list of things to do before the day would be over. These were the things we had to get done before the evening:
- find a hotel room for the night
- get local currency from an ATM
- eat
- buy train tickets to Hue
- shower
- sleep

We found a hotel quite easily and payed extra to get warm water for the shower. At this point we still hadn't realized that it wasn't only freezing outside, it was the same temperature inside too and there was no way that we would bee able to take of our clothes and shower anyway. But I guess the thought of at least having warm water was a comfort at the time.

Because Anna and I really hadn't planed to be in Vietnam yet, we also hadn't changed an local money(dong) and the only currency we had was Laos kip. To be able to pay for our room and get something to eat, we needed to find an ATM. While we strolled around the city, we bumped into a New Year party with drunk Vietnamese people offering us brandy shots. It was a lot of fun even if the brandy didn't feel too good in our empty stomaches.

Finding an ATM turned out to be a nightmare. Every ATM we tried in the city was empty because the bank had been closed for a week during the New Year. The Malaysian brothers had some local currency but it wasn't enough for all of us and in this point we where close to a panic attack. The only thing we could do was to take a motorbike taxi around the city and try to find a machine that still had some money in it. Anna and one of the brothers got the honour to do this while I promised to look for a restaurant. Finding a restaurant wasn't easy either because everything was closed and no one we asked could understand what we where looking for.

But they found the money and we found a restaurant. The food was disgusting but we ate it without complaining. Except for the noodle soup in the middle of the night we hadn't had a meal for 14 hours!

Our next mission was to find the train station and buy tickets. We walked in the rain for at least an hour in the direction a nice lady had pointed to us. When we got to the train station it was already dark. The station was packed with people. Again the Chinese New Year made our life difficult. As I already told you this was the last day on the holiday and of course every Vietnamese who had gone home for the New Year wanted to take a train the next day. Anna and I got the last tickets to Hue at 7 am the next morning but our Malaysian friends had to stay in Vinh one day longer.

We were tired, cold and felt bad in every possible way but we decided not to let this day destroy our evening. This was after all our first night in Vietnam and the last evening of the New Year. Determined to have a nice evening we decided to have our own party in the hotel room. We bought 15 beers, 1 kg fruit, some local bad tasting cookies, candy and of course a bottle of champagne (which cost us 1 euro and tasted like old apple cider) . Back in the hotel room, we had to wrap us into our thick blankets not to freeze to death. The champagne was disgusting and the beer didn't really taste either but I drank as much as I could just to keep myself warm. At the party we had one rule, no one was aloud to talk about the bus ride or the weather and we ended up having a really nice evening!

We slept the night in our sleeping bags, under thick blankets with our clothes on. Still the only reason why I wasn't freezing to much was the fact that I was drunk! Next morning we woke up at 5.30 pm and took the train to Hue. The last tickets we got turned out to bee in a sleeping cabin with four beds to which they had sold 10 tickets! It was crowded! The train ride took 7 hours and I was so tired that I slept most of the time.

In Hue we got a nice hotel room with warm water and the first thing we did was to take a shower. At this point we hadn't showered for 60 hours and getting my hair washed that day was probably the best thing that happened for me in Vietnam! I don't have much to say about Hue. I was to tired to get to know the city and what we did there was eat pizza in our hotel room and watch TV.

Our next stop was Hoi An. The bus ride there was terrible too, but I have promised never to complain about uncomfortable seats again so I end the story here. Hoi An was beautiful. The city was small with a lot of cafes and restaurants and around 200 tailor shops.So you can guess what we did here. We ordered clothes and ate their wonderful local food.

But it was still cold and we desperately needed to get somewhere warm and sunny. We took the bus to Mui Ne, a small town with a long beach. My cell phone was stolen from the hotel room and that's all I have to say about this place.

We wanted to see Mekong delta so we continued our travel south to a city called My Tho. This was also one of those places where they apparently don't have tourists and we had a hard time trying to find a restaurant to get lunch. At one of the two restaurants that Lonely planet recommended, we met Tony, a Vietnamese guy who lived in Brisbane, Australia. He was helpful and wanted to show us around in the evening. We ended up at some kind of Vietnamese karaoke/lavatanssi-thing. It was interesting..

Our next stop at the Mekong delta was Chan Tho. How to catch a bus to this city is something I will never fully understand. Apparently the Vietnamese buses don't really use bus stations, so we had to take a taxi somewhere outside the city to a junction where we had to wait and try to stop the right bus. It was an impossible mission, but luckily there was some local people that helped us. We payed at least double prise for the bus but we didn't care. Just the fact that we actually found a bus was enough for us. Of course the bus didn't stop at a station in Chan Tho either, so again we found ourselves somewhere a bit outside the city. To get to our guest house we had to take a motorbike taxi and that is the first and the last time I will sit on a bike with my backpack on.. In Chan Tho we took a tour to the floating market early in the morning, saw a noodle factory and a fruit garden.

Our last stop in Vietnam was Saigon. We stayed there four nights, mostly walking along the streets close to our hostel and reading Spanish.

Vietnam was in every way a very exhausting experience. I felt that everything was made a bit too complicated and it was sometimes very frustrating not to understand what was going on and where I was supposed to go. When we finally reached Saigon, I was tired both physically and mentally. I didn't want to see anything new or travel anywhere ever again.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe Vietnam is an interesting country and it has a lot to give. For some reason it just was too much for us at this point and I definitely have to give it a new chance. We never went to Hanoi or anywhere else up north and that is something I still have to see. Mayby next time!

PS. I have some problems downloading pictures. I will try to put up some more later.

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Photos

Dinner in Vinh
We finally got some food!

On the train to Hue.
Don't know why I look so happy.

Lunch on the train
In Vietnam you get food on the train, just like we used to get on flights in Europe.

Trying local fashion in Hue
It was so cold that you actually needed a hat and a scarf

Sun bathing in Mui Ne
I look happy because I have not yet found out that my phone is stolen.

Floating Market
in Chan Tho. Sadly I didn't manage to get any good pictures.