Visiting Vietnam (Central and North)

---

Vietnam

---

Hoi An
November 17th- November 20th


Well the the night bus was pretty rough. I usually do ok on overnight transport but this one sucked. The bus itself was pretty cool as all the beds fold down nearly horizontal into something almost like abed. My problem was that my seat was about 7 inches shorter than all the rest therefore I could have my legs straight. I eventually got comfortable thought about 4 hours before we arrived so at least I was able to get some sleep.

---

The 4 of us arrived in Hoi An at about 6am and luckily found a place near the bus station. After dropping off our bags and grabbing some breakfast we toured around the city and its endless supply of tailors. Hoi An is a beautiful city unlike any other I have been in. This is one of the few areas that was not completely leveled by the war so many of the buildings are quite old. Just walking around all day was really cool to do! With the old buildings and a river flowing through the middle this city is what post cards are made of.

After actually checking in and having a shower Matt and I headed out to get some quotes on some clothes we were hoping to have made. After surveying a bunch of stores and getting quotes we settled on a store which I had 2 shirts and a tie made and another store where I had a pair of shoes made. All things totaled came to about 45 bucks which I didn't think was too bad at all. The coolest part is that they'll be ready to try on tomorrow morning. Not only cheap but super fast. Yeah the quality might not be the best in the end but hey I can't avoid a cheap price when none of my clothes back home fit me. Having to negotiate with them for the prices is actually quite fun and I think I've gotten quite good at it. All you have to do is remind them that there are 40 other tailors around and stick to you guns. Its amazing how much the price comes down when you get up to leave.

Afterward I went off on my own and explored a bit of the city before stopping in at a food stall and grabbed some of Hoi An's specialties. First up was Cao Lao (????) which is a kind of noodle dish and it was really good. Inf act I had it every other day I was in Hoi An. Next up was something called white rose which was something similar to a dumpling. Again really good. After diving into 2 of Hoi ans big draws (the tailor and food) I met up with everyone else before crashing for the night.

Something I've noticed here in Vietnam is that many of the vehicles have weird songs that play when they back up instead of the usual beeps you'd get back home. The sound is the same but the beeps are different songs like happy birthday or the drink milk love life song. Really random. I wonder if they'd be a big hit back home?

---

We headed off early today to see My Son which are some old ruins. What we saw of them was really cool but today was absolutely swallowed by rain. It poured all day which made the boat ride back to town, not only cold and wet but shorter as we had to cut out a visit to a local village. The tour guide we had was pretty good though and gave us lots of cool information which was good. Really cool to know a bit more about some of the temples in the area.

When we got back from the boat ride I went and had my fitting for my shirts. One shirt was perfect but my black and white shirt I'm having made was a bit small so it'll have to be fixed but I was able to head back later in the day and have another fitting. It was still a bit to small so this shirt will have to wait until tomorrow. After heading back and having a nice hot shower to warm up we all headed out for dinner (which was Cao Lao ??? for me again) before finding an awesome bakery that had super good cakes and brownies. We finished off the night by playing a few games of pool before we all headed to bed. Hopefully they weather will be better tomorrow.

One thing I've noticed as I've headed north is that the temperature has really dropped. I know its no where near as cold as everything back home right now as I keep getting emails about all the snow everyone is dealing with but it has definitely gotten a lot colder. In saying that I's still abe to walk around in shorts and a t-shirt but I'm not spending my days sweating to death like I have been for most of this trip. Maybe its due to the rain but who knows. It's probably for he best anyway as this will lesson the shock when I dive back into the Canadian winter when I leave Vietnam in 2 weeks after 6 months of ridiculous heat. Either way weather its rain or sweat keeping me wet here it'll be nice to be dry again.

---

Today we are heading off to a cooking class but before we did that I stopped in at a tailor and ordered a suit to be made. After bartering them down 30 bucks and getting them to throw in a tie I'm only going to have to pay 75 bucks for this suit and again it will be ready for me tonight. Blazing speed these tailors have here.

After a short bus ride we arrived at our cooking class which was really good. It was nothing like my class in Chiang Mai as this had about 20 people in it and was a bit like a classroom. The guy would cook something at the front of the room and then we'd all go to our own little stoves to try it ourselves. The first two things where really good. Both were a type of spring roll but he even showed us how to make the part they wrap it in which is really cool. The 2nd one was a little different to as it was a fried spring roll wrapped in a fresh spring role. I hadn't tried this yet in Vietnam but it was really good and something that will be cool to make back home. The big dish we made was an eggplant stew-like dish made in a hot pot that was just ok. After this they showed us how to make a rose out fo a tomato and a fan out of a cucumber which was quite random. After the class we headed into the restaurant to enjoy our eggplant dish and a few other dishes made by the restaurant which was cool.

Oh also before we got on the bus to come here we had a market tour which was really cool. We even saw a lady eating duck embryo which is a "delicacy" here in Vietnam. A delicacy I hope never to try. The cooking class itself was really cool and was set in an open air classroom over looking the river. It was still beautiful but would have been a lot better if it weren't pouring rain still. The rain also cut out a boat ride you usually get to and from the class but after an awful boat ride the day before I was glad they didn't run it.

When we got back into town I went and picked up my shirts which now fit me just right and I went and tried on my suit which needed a few small alterations. We then all met up at the bakery to have a piece of cake and coffee (or well hot chocolate for me) before I headed back to the suit place and picked up my suit. Less than 12 hours ago I ordered it. Amazing. Once i had my suit the hotel and had a bit of an early night after packing up my bags.

---

This morning we all took advantage of the fact that there was no rain. Well it was overcast and looking like it could rain at any moment but at least none was falling right now. With all the rain over the past few days the river that runs throw the town has flooded a lot. Two bridges are completely cover and one street is actually under water. The people who use boats as taxis must be making a fortune. While walking around the 4 of us finally took the pictures of this city we were hoping to get and we also picked up a few souvenirs at some of the stores and markets in the city. I then grabbed another Cao Lao ???? before hoping on the bus to Hue (Hway) which is my next stop.

It's all winding down and coming to an end so fast. It weird seeing these places I spent so long reading about and researching come to life before me and quickly move from my future to my past. Also hard to believe that it's not long now until I'll be home shoveling snow! It's hard to get my head around.

---

Hue
November 21st- November 22nd


****the rest of the blog has been written at home so it's pretty hard remembering/having the drive to go into super detail at some points but it's all there in some capacity******

We arrived in rainy Hue and luckily found a place within seconds of the drop off point which was good as none of us felt like walking around trying to find a place in the rain. Needing a bit of a pick me up to try and shake away the rain the four of us headed out for a few drinks in Hue After a very wet and rainy walk to find a place we stumbled upon a bar called DMZ bar which he had all heard about so we decided to head in there for the night. The night was pretty fun as we spent a good amount of time playing different bar games with the staff before heading back to the hotel and grabbing some sleep.

---

Rain, Rain, Rain. After hanging around the hotel for a bit, hoping the rain would pass, we eventually headed out into the rain to explore the old city section of Hue.

Sam Miguel, Old city, movies and food, Rian! language, larium

hr]Hanoi
November 23rd


Although still not an overly comfortable ride this overnight bus was a lot better than the first one as I made sure I didn't have stupid, 1 foot shorter than the rest, seat 17. At least I was able to get more than a few hours of sleep. We arrived in Hanoi very early though and something I have heard along my travels is that the touts in northern Vietnam are a lot pushier than those in the south. Well off the bus no more than 5 minutes and one was already trying to start a fight with me. This city was going to be interesting.

We all hopped in a taxi that ended up having a fixed meter that ran a lot faster than it should but it still got us to the area we wanted which was the old quarter. After wandering around for a while getting our barrings and trying to find a place we found a hotel that ended up being one of the best places I stayed at on my trip. The rooms themselves were nice but what made this place was the staff as they were super nice and helpful, not to mention they gave us the best prices we could find for tours of Ha Long Bay and Sapa. Our room actually had a lot of character and it seemed to fit right in with the set of Friends, so we quickly dubber mine and Allies room as the friends loft. It even had a cafe across the street that served drinks in super big mugs.

After resting up for the morning we headed out for the afternoon to explore all the old quarter had to offer. Something you see a lot of in Asia is a lot of similar stores close together. In Korea it wasn't uncommon to see 5 bakeries on 1 block, sometimes even next door to each other but Hanoi puts Korea to shame in this regard. Many of Hanoi's streets are even named things such as Shoe Shop street or Blacksmith street (all in Vietnamese of course) and each street is absolutely filled with the shop of its name. It is really weird to to see and I wonder how people chose which store to use. Another trend here in Hanoi is blatant trademark infringement. For example the main tour bus operator that tourist use to get form one end of Vietnam to the Other is Called sinh cafe ???. Well in Hanoi on one street alone you will see about 15 Sihn Cafes none of which are actually the real one. What happens is when something becomes successful someone else will open a shop with the same name as close as they can to the real one in order to get business out of confused people. Smart but still a pretty weird and low thing to do.

Still feeling tired from the night train we all crashed pretty early since we had a early start tomorrow as we are heading up to Ha Long Bay at 8am.

---

Ha Long Bay
November 24th- December 26th


After about a 4 hour drive from hanoi to Ha Long Bay we are quickly loaded onto our Junk (boat) and set off to explore the bay. Outside of being littered with tourist boats the bay itself is absolutely stunning with limestone cliffs popping out of the water all over the place. This is one of those places that the camera just can't seem to capture right so you end up leaving with about 100 photos hoping that just one picture would come close. After a few hours on the water and a god lunch we stopped of the explore a few caves which as someone tagged was more like a rape of nature as the caves where cover with coloured lights in order to make it more appealing. The caves where huge and cool on their own and I thought the lights took a lot away from it as well but again there were still very cool to see. Back on the water we stopped at a small fishing village which consisted of house boats and floating houses which was cool. While we stopped to look at the village about 5 boats filled with fruit came up to us with people trying to sell their goods. Even out on the water you can't escape people trying to sell you stuff in Vietnam.

After dinner on the boat we hung out with some of the other people on our boat before settling in for our night on the boat.

---

After a short cruise we reached Cat Ba island which has a huge national park on it. We all were loaded onto a bus for s short trip to where we would be stating our hike up to a very cool view point. The national park was beautiful and look a lot like Jurassic Park. I kept waiting for the trees to start falling over and a dinosaur to pop up. After our hike we head to the main town where we explored the city and hung out at the beach watching some monkeys get stuck on rocks because of the tide. After dinner and some dessert we all crashed for the night after not getting a whole lot of sleep the night before.

---

The next day was basically spent getting back to Hanoi with the morning being a cruise back on the boat followed by lunch and a mini van ride back into town. When we arrived on the boat all the sun loungers on the top deck where taking so I had to improvise and found a nice seat in a dingy which actually proved to be quite comfortable! For the entire cruise I just sat back and took in all of the amazing limestone cliffs that seem to pop out from everywhere. It truly is beautiful here.

When we got back to Hanoi we settled back into our hotel and met up with some friends we had met along our travels for dinner. After dinner we were walking by a club that advertised a hip hop battle for that same night. This was something we could pass up and ended up being pretty funny. We were totally out of place but it made it that more interesting to watch all the hip hop singers and dancers battle. It was really random and cool.

Somethings I've noticed about Vietnam is that it is really super flat but in saying that mountains pop up out of no where and seem to go nearly straight up. It is really cool even though this seems to be the reason for flooding during the rainy season. I've also gotten a small grasp on the language and now ask how much something is in Vietnamese without even having to think. I may only know their reply if the say five or punch it out on a calculator but it breaks the ice at least. Also in Vietnam people seem to agree and say yes to you even when they have absolutely no clue what you are saying. For example someone came up to use to try and sell us cigarettes and i asked if they had poop in them in which she responded with yes very good. SO either she had no clue what I was saying or they sell some weird cigarettes in Vietnam.

hr]Hanoi
November 27th

Today we didn't do much as we were all feeling tired from our trip to Ha Long Bay and all the early mornings it came along with so we spent the day relaxing and getting ready for Sapa as we were leaving via night train tonight. We also said goodbye to Allie who is flying over to Laos today so our group of 4 has now become a group of three. The train ride itself was actually ok and I actually slept a lot better than I did one the buses. Although the beds where narrow I was lucky in that the were pretty much long enough for me to lay down in which was heaps better than the buses I had taken in Vietnam so far.

---

Sapa
November 28th- November 30th


Arriving in cold Sapa we were shipped to a hotel for breakfast and to organize ourselves for our treks. Most people stay here one night either in a home stay or at the hotel but I am doing 2 days and 3 nights which I was thankful to do as it allowed me to get a bit further off of the tourist trail and actually allowed me to trek alone with my guide for a day which really made this trip. Walking around the town before we left was quite cool as I got to see all the minorities coming in to set up their stalls at the market and at 730 am it was officially the earliest I had been offed weed on this trip by someone trying to sell me some. They weren't messing around either as they instantly jumped up to Opium when I turned down their weed offer.

The trekking itself was not to hard on the first day but the scenery we saw was absolutely beautiful mountains upon mountains pop up out of the ground here. Every direction you look you can see mountains. Its amazing here and its cool to think that on the other side of some of these mountains is China. Its cool too because some of the villagers come into town to meet you and walk with you from the city which adds a bit to the experience even if they end up trying to sell you something when you arrive in their village. The home stay itself wasn't really much of a home stay but was more of a very rustic and basic hostel. It was still nice though even though it was the coldest weather I have been in in a very long time. I was still walking around in shorts though which got me a lot of strange looks from locals and fellow tourists a like but I was trying my hardest to prepare myself for the Canadian weather I was only days away from returning too. We had two very annoying people in our trekking group who would complain about everything. They said it wasn't real enough for them and then at the same time complain that the home stay didn't have towles or hot water and that the food wasn't good enough. I couldn't figure out at all what they had came here looking for. The food by the way was probably the best and largest I have had in Vietnam!

---

The 2nd day we all hiked together until lunch when I broke off from the group and continued on with my guide. At lunch though we ate together with another trekking group and I got talking to an older guy from England who actually lived in Toronto until he was 5 and visits there a lot. He had even been to Sarnia! This guy even turned out to be an actor/director back in London which proved for some cool conversations as his small group of 3 ended up at the same home stay as me that night. The trekking today wasn't too hard even though I had a few stumbled. At the end of the day it's still me walking so stumbles come with the territory. After walking through a bamboo forest and over a few hills we reached my guides village and dropped my stuff off at his home. We headed out to the swimming place but quickly decided against it when we felt how cold the water was. We went back to his house and I help his family prepare dinner which was cool as it was cooked over a fire in their kitchen area which not only cooked our food but kept some small kittens warm at the same time. The other group arrived and we all hung out after dinner before crashing for the night.

---

The 3rd day we hiked to a view point over the village and explored the village itself before heading back to the main road to catch a minivan back to Sapa town. In the minivan I was mentioned all the snow that was hitting back home and someone asked where I was from and when I mentioned Sarnia she said that she has a lot of family in Sarnia (she's from a small town in northern Ontario). To make things even weirder her uncle worked at the place tat my mom works at now although we pieced together that he retired a long time before my mom started there. TO make things uberly creepy and weird it also turns out that her son is studying at Brock and what might he be studying? Theatre! Again I left just before he started so I wouldn't know him but apparently he is in the main production in February so if I go to see it I'm going to have to search him out!

After exploring Sapa town some more and grabbing some dinner I hopped back on the night train and headed back to Hanoi!

*****It is now the end of July and I had forgotten about this blog...so I thought I better finish it...but because of this the rest might not be as detailed as the rest!

---

Hanoi
December 1st


Since today was my last travel day I didn't want to over do myself so I took some time to walk around Hanoi on my own and soak in the city. I went to Ho Chi Min muselium but unfortunately it was closed. The security was super crazy though! There was a white line around the building and as I was taking a photo of the toe of my shoe went over the line and immediately guards came over whistles blowing telling me to back up. Pretty protective!

Later in the evening, after packing up my bags for the long haul home I decided to take in a Water Puppet show which is a national theatre style here in Vietnam. It started back in the day as puppets in the rice fields and has evolved to being down basically in a pool instead of a stage. It was something that was very interesting to see but became hard to watch after a while as there was no translation so it was some what hard to follow along. The style itself was amazing though it must have took a lot of coordination and work to be able to perform like this.

after the show I rushed back to my hotel, grabbed my bags, said goodbye to the hotel guy who was awesome and then headed off to catch the bus to the airport where I was going to spend the night and catch my flight in the morning. Unfortunately the bus never came so I headed back to my hotel. In explaining my situation to him he got the idea that I had no money left (which wasn't entirely false as I only had American money left). Amazingly while we were talking about this the hotel manager beside us said that she would let me stay there for free and she'd even give me dinner. My hotel guy didn't want any of that and told me that if I went out until 11 o'clock he'd sneak me in after his manager was asleep. He was even able to get me back into the friends loft! To make this man even more incredible he was able to sort out a free ride to the airport with a couple that was going there tomorrow morning as well.

---

Getting home
December 1st


Today is the big day. 32 hours of transit, 3 different flights and 4 different countries. I was on my way home. Unfortunately I didn't sleep well as I was constantly afraid of sleeping through my alarm so an already long day was already made longer. Upon getting to the airport I changed into my new suit hoping to get a free upgrade, which didn't work. That was OK though as my first flight from Hanoi to Beijing was only a few hours.

Now the Beijing airport was quite an experience. First of all to be in China you need a visitors visa and since I was transferring I was technically entering the country, even though I didn't have a visa. So what happened was that I got a security escort though the airport which was funny because I was still in my suit so I must have appeared to other people like a super star or something. Also since I had lost a lot of weight on my travels and my hair was the longest it had ever been I didn't look anything like my passport. So it took me 3 signatures, 4 passport clerks and a hair elastic to get through the border. None the less eventually I was on the longest part of my of trip home.

Again I tried to get upgraded but again it didn't work and since this was a long flight I changed out of my suit into some more comfy clothes. I was also hoping to get some sleep on this flight but unfortunately that didn't happen and I arrived in Chicago still on very little sleep. Despite being so tired I still felt OK energy wise, that was until my flight to Detroit was delayed. So I ended up sitting in the Chicago airport for about 4 hours. The longer I waited the more tired I was. This was also the first time I had been in "western society" in about a year. To be honest it drove me nuts! My brain was used to not being able to understand everyone talking around me and now that I could my brain/ears was in overload. Everything seemed so loud! I also notice how many people were eating McDonald's and how the proportions where so much bigger here. Not only at McDonald's but even chips, chocolate bars, and everything in between! Oh and when I arrived in Chicago and was checking in for my next flight the guy in front of me was a huge douche bag so I made sure I was super nice to the check in guy, I also laid on him how long my trip had been and this time I got bumped up for my flight! Figures the shortest trip but at this point I'd take it. I wasn't in first class but still a better seat!

So after a short flight I arrived home and on my walk to meet my parents I saw them and started waving through the big window and the terminal...but the didn't even recognize me! After meeting up with them we heading to the luggage terminal but my bag wasn't there! Luckily it was only in Chicago and they were going to fly it down later and drive it all the way to my house tomorrow which was awesome. Turns out I was supposed to re check it in but I was thrown off because I didn't have to do that in china...probably because of the whole visa thing.

It was definitely weird being home for a while. Most of my house looked different as my parents had been remodeling a lot of it since I was home last and for the first time in about 13 years I wasn't met at the door by Lucky, although our new cat is cool he's no Lucky. Another thing I struggled with for a bit was holding a fork as I kept holding it like chopsticks! Also after being in a very humid heat for a good majority of the last 6 months it was definitely weird being in the dry cold of a Canadian December!

Well like i said I left the last bit of this for a very long time so that's most of what I remember! The entire trip, good times and bad, has definitely been the highlight of my life so far!

**** To see my pictures from Vietnam click here ****

---