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A Room With A View???
I don't think so ...!! Note the next door wall 6 inches from ours!!We had arrived at Hoi An! Having slept fitfully in our ‘kennels’ on the Night bus (12 hours) from Hue we found ourselves at the ‘Main Office’ of Trekking Travel Tours in Hoi An - the pavement on the main road! Luckily for us even the main roads in Hoi An aren’t that ’main’! Rather befuddled and bewildered, we asked the little girlie on the bus if she knew where to find the Sunflower Hotel. She said it was, ‘Two minutes down the road!’ and, do you know, for once a Vietnamese local was absolutely - right!
The Sunflower is a petite hotel with about 18 rooms. It’s a 2 star - well, we rarely go above this as we have found that small hotels and hostels at the bottom end of the price range are (1) cheaper!!! - bit of a revelation that!! (2) more intimate and friendly and generally (3) more like us!!!! Within a few moments, and without any stage directions or warnings whatsoever, Duy entered our lives (stage left) with a broad grin (which never seemed to leave his face) and two cups of Vietnamese tea! Well, that was it! We felt ‘feet under the table’
Me and Long
Note the Mr Hann (the bad guy in 'Enter the Dragon') jacket!! and ‘right at home’! All the staff were lovely and, of course, in a small hotel they actually, honestly recognise you and chat to you!!!! We were shown to our room and looked, excitedly for our own private balcony which, we were assured, each room boasted. Well, there it was in all its glory! A perfect little construction with the next door’s exterior wall 6 inches away from ours! The result was that our room was in almost total 24 hour darkness! I mentioned to Duy that we MAY stay a little longer in the Sunflower…. And he (smiling of course) completed the sentence for me, ‘If we change your room’. As if be magic we found ourselves transferred to the upstairs ‘superior’ room with swimming pool view. It was lovely and with a beautifully comfortable bed for Janie - well, some of the beds we have experienced so far we call ‘pavements’ ‘cos you might as well be sleeping on one!!!
Hoi An is the most perfect little town! We both fell instantly and deeply in love with the place! It is rather like a mini Venice of Vietnam - with lots of little waterways and canals leading
Janie ... High and Dry!!
A corricle on Hoi An Beach and a beautiful maiden... from the sea up to, and through, the centre of the town. Add to this the myriad of deep red handmade lanterns which adorn every shop and café, and the huge floating multicoloured lantern sculptures on the river, and you begin to get the picture. At night, when all the lanterns are lit it is the most wonderfully romantic picture and so beautiful it brings a tear to your eye! It felt rather like being in the middle of a fairytale - well the happy bit of the story, at the end! We found ourselves enchanted by this atmosphere and decided to stay for longer than our intended 3 nights so that we could continue to savour the magic of Hoi An.
The other factor regarding Hoi An is that it appears to have made few major concessions to the tourist industry. It has the feel of the ‘real Vietnam’. The only exception to this is that it has established a reputation for the finest cloth and tailoring in the whole country. It is almost impossible to resist the allure of the little tailors shops with their promise to make anything to fit anyone perfectly inside 24 hours. Janie
Easy Rider - Hoi An Style!!
Note the perfectly fitting helmet.... was drawn magnet-like to a shop owned by two sisters - Lang and Long! To begin with it was just an order for a pair of beach shorts but quickly developed into ‘a few extra little items’ and a suit for me! The cost was so small that it was very difficult to say ’No.’ My suit has a mandarin collar and Janie ordered a beautiful Vietnamese formal dress. We have told Kirstie that we will turn up to her wedding looking like a pair of Vietnamese tourists!
The Sunflower is ideally placed midway between the ‘Old Town’ and the local beach. We found ourselves falling into the routine of beach in the morning and fittings for clothes in the evening - with a few Hanoi Beers to help dinner down! A variety of transport was utilised to reach these destinations! We began by using bicycles and, when we felt ‘bum sore’ or just plain lazy, resorted to motorcycle taxis or just ordinary taxi.
It was during one such sojourn that we encountered Fong, a diminutive Vietnamese beach hawker who had collected the most amazing range of English phrases such as, ‘I didn’t come down in the last
Me and Fong..
The beach hawker. This one hour conversation cost me 2 years of my life!! I went from 60 to 62!!! shower’ and ‘Don’t worry; be happy’. Having succeeded in selling us a string bracelet she chatted to us for about an hour - during which time I aged rapidly. By two years to be precise!! How? Well, it transpires that in Vietnam they measure time rather differently to us! God knows how they manage it but she worked out that my Vietnamese age is 62 not 60! Not only that but it transpired that the date in Vietnam was 7th February and NOT 4th March! Silly us!!!
The other delightful feature of Hoi An is that every Tuesday is ‘Women’s’ Day’. Menfolk are expected to (1) make a fuss of their wives/girlfriends and (2) buy them flowers - which magically appear courtesy of the large number of flower sellers who materialize on the pavements in town. Keen to enter into the spirit of local customs, Janie received a bunch of yellow tulips. Yellow and red are the predominant colours of the flowers being sold, being the colours of the Vietnamese national flag.
At last, after 8 nights, it was time to leave and make our way to Nha Trang. We were really sad to leave and have promised
Hoi An Riverside
The Little Venice of Vietnam. ourselves that we will return! Lang and Long have said that they need the business!! So … It was the dreaded Night Bus again!!!
This time the bus was packed - mainly by locals - who have spent a lifetime sharpening their elbows and packing down in the Vietnamese rugby scrum of everyday life. They habitually push, shove, jostle and nudge and this means that we, in turn had to learn these skills rather quickly in order to survive! Eventually we landed up on the back couch of the night bus - an interesting place to be! The good point to this is that it is more comfortable than the ‘kennels’ in which most of the passengers travel as you lie on a padded mattress; the downside is that you have to share this mattress with four other passengers. Imagine, if you will, sharing a double bed with four other humans! It’s fine as long as you get along well together! Luckily we landed up with a young couple from the USA (Ryan and Norah) and a rather random Israeli lad - whose name escapes me! We passed a ‘sociable’ and interesting night given that, because there was another
Janie On A Mototaxi...
As you can see the passenger has a really good view of the road ahead! couch on top of ours, we could not even sit up!
I must admit that leaving Hoi An was a real wrench! We felt so much at home there and were beginning to feel a part of the fabric of the place. Nha Trang, we assumed, being a larger holiday resort would lack the intimacy and appeal that Hoi An oozed from every tiny street. However we have learned several valuable lessons on our travels thus far, and one of the main ones is to beware of prejudging places or people. We have also learned not to pay too much attention to other people’s opinions or feelings about a place as these are probably based on purely personal perspectives and prejudices.
The above certainly applied to Nha Trang. We booked into the Phu Quy 2 and found ourselves on the 14th floor with the most magnificent view of the whole area, including the beautiful, endless, white sand beach which lay just the other side of the road. We went to eat at a restaurant/brewery which lay right on the aforesaid beach and enjoyed the sunset.
Nha Trang was a wonderful beach holiday. We felt that we needed
There were five in a bed...
and the little one said.... Janie, me, Ryan (USA), Norah (USA) and the random Israeli (honorary photographer for the evening!!!) on the back 'couch' of the night bus! Hoi An to Nha Trang. to stop and recharge again before the excitement of Saigon and then Cambodia. We spent 4 or 5 relaxing days on the beaches and dined on fresh king prawns - provided on a mobile canteen (complete with mobile barbeque!!!) by our personal ‘chef’, Tan. She was a weather beaten old lady with a down-to-earth sense of humour who assured me (in vivid sign language) that HER prawns would have Janie and I ‘Boom!! Boom!’ all night!
Catch your breath! Onwards, on the day bus (for a change), for 10 hours from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon if you are a South Vietnamese citizen. It is interesting that, for all the changes to the country over the years (similarly to some countries nearer home!) many of the old prejudices and divisions survive. To cap it all, on our arrival in HCMC we were ripped off (officially for the first time that we were aware of!). We asked a random taxi driver to take us to the ‘Green Suites Hotel’. ‘Green Sheets?, was his reply. We repeated our original request several times until, suddenly, a tiny light appeared to ignite in his walnut sized brain. So off
Nha Trang Beach...
...with a gathering storm! we went! Several kilometres later he stopped the cab outside a building site. Janie and I stared in bewilderment! ‘This Green Sheets,’ he proudly announced! He was right! The aforesaid site was surrounded by huge green corrugated security sheets! So this was the ‘hotel’ in which we were supposed to spend the next 3 nights??!! We told him to bugger off immediately and were shocked to find that the fare was 200,000 Vietnamese Dong (£7). This is a large amount of money out here! Luckily we found ourselves near the Saigon Renaissance Hotel where a charming porter located the whereabouts of the real Green Suites Hotel and wrote the address on a very posh card but sombrely pointed out to us that the establishment was located in the ’backpackers’ area of town.’ He was surprised by the look of delight on our faces! We climbed into another (different taxi company cab) and finally arrived at the hotel. This time the fare was 50,000 Dong - much more like it! We had learned several lessons (1) always have the address of the hotel clearly written on a piece of paper (2) only use Vinasun taxis in HCMC (3) don’t trust the
little light in a Vietnamese taxi driver’s brain!!!
After clambering down a dark, narrow alley crammed with street restaurants and assorted sellers, we arrived at our hotel. Once more we were right in the heart of things! Around the corner we found all we could possibly need - a laundry lady, a local restaurant, a pub and cheap shops! Heaven!
The next day we decided to visit the War Remnants Museum in the centre of town. This is a random collection of military hardware left by the Americans at the end of the ‘American War’. There is a huge array of tanks, bombs, shells, helicopters, fighter planes etc. Inside the museum is a series of rooms, each covering a given topic. We began by exploring the ‘Undisputable Truths’ display. This was fascinating! Given that the whole museum would only show one side of the war, there was some persuasive stuff here. For example, at the end of the ‘French War’ in the 1950’s a truce was agreed upon under the auspices of the Geneva Convention. Both sides ‘withdrew’ in 1952 and it was agreed by all that free and fair elections for a government of Vietnam would be
Green Sheets!!!
Our accommodation for the next 3 nights?? I don't think so!!! held no later than 1954. Those elections never took place! However the USA did install a rather dubious leader in the south and began to give more and more aid to this ‘puppet’ government. Why? Well, it transpired that Vietnam was particularly rich in tin and titanium - both desirable commodities at that time.
The ‘Aftermath of Agent Orange’ room showed the awful long term affects of this chemical weapon, used extensively by the USA to defoliate the jungle areas and expose the enemy. The long term affects on the population, particularly children, were graphically displayed. Indeed the affects are still being manifested now in the form of genetic deformities in babies. Janie could bear no more and went to sit outside!
We had planned our escape route from Vietnam, as our visa ran out on 23rd March, and flew from HCMC Airport on 21st! Heavy fines are imposed for those visitors who outstay their welcome!!!
So… On to Cambodia!!! A huge ignorance hole once more lay before us! Now however we have learned to take each moment, and each country as it comes. We are much more acclimatised to living in the moment and not worrying
Green Suites!!!
See if you can spot the difference!! Our taxi driver couldn't!!! about what may lie before us! We are learning all the time - about different cultures and (even more fascinating) about ourselves!
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