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Published: September 17th 2007
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
Uncle Ho's resting placeAs ironic as it seems this is vietnamese for happiness and good fortune but as you'll soon read, we had nothing of the sort. After a surprisingly nice bus ride we arrived in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. The city was still asleep at 6 in the morning...or should i say the shops were closed. Hundreds of people were out practicing tai chi, playing badminton, and doing aerobics around the lake in the middle of the city.
After checking into our hotel, we checked out the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. This is where the former communist leader's body is displayed for the world to see. It was kind of a crazy experience because his body is just chillin' right there in the glass case. You were not allowed to take cameras inside and Russ was forced to take off his prescription sunglasses. They made everyone line up two by two and march in a straight line down a set path. Then they saluted us when we walked in, but got super pissed if we stepped even a foot off the red carpet that was the walkway. You definitely felt the communist vibe. We walked around his body staring...since Russ wasn't
House on Stilts
Ho Chi Minh's house in Hanoi wearing glasses he was squinting pretty hard. Actually they probably thought the white boy was being disrespectful and just making faces at Uncle Ho...haha. After that we headed to the "Hanoi Hilton", but in the process of getting there were screwed over by some motorscooter drivers. We told them to take us somewhere close to eat but they ended up driving 2K away and trying to charge us 5 times what they originally said. This all came to a head in an argument in the street where we compromised, even though we were upset. We were also kind of laughing inside at the fact that we were yelling, "NO WAY! That is way too much dong for you!" While he was saying, "You give me more dong!' I don't care who you are or how pissed you are, that is still some funny stuff. A few hours later we finally ended up at the former POW camp and toured around what was left of it. It was a little odd because they emphasized how the Vietnamese were brutalized there by the french during their revolution, but really didn't mention what was done to the US POWs during the Vietnam War.
Four Star Resort
At the entrance to the Hanoi Hilton Hmmm go figure. They did, however, talk about how the captured Americans that actually enjoyed being there. The Americans were given sweaters to keep warm, played badminton and basketball, enjoyed delicious tropical fruits and chicken and actually had doctors to ensure that they were in good health. According to the pictures and comentary, the NVA treated the captured POWs with respect and kept them safe while the South Vietnamese and the Americans tortured and killed many of the NVA. After hearing the story of the war from both sides, both of us came to the conclusion that war is a dirty business on both sides of the fence. Both sides do terrible things to the captured prisoners to get information, usually by the same methods, and both sides firmly believe they are the "good guys" fighting against the "bad guys."
While we were shopping around for tours we thought it was odd that they all referred to the boats as junks. Then, once we saw our boat, we thought it was pretty hilarious that we were actually sailing on a junk that was a piece of junk. It was definitely not the one on the brochure in the travel
Hanoi Hilton
Ryan basking in the sunshine in his chaise lounge waiting to be fanned with palm fronds and fed grapes. agency. This would come to be a running theme throughout the whole tour.
At the docks on Ha Long Bay the captains rammed there boats together as close as possible to load their passengers. We got onto our boat after crossing the decks of 2 other boats. It was an overcast day but the place was still amazing. There are thousands of mountain-like islands dropped into the middle of the ocean creating a pretty unreal landscape. We stopped on one of the islands and got to hike inside some caves. Half of our tour boat was to stay on the boat that night and the other half was to go to the hotel on Cat Ba island. Upon arrival to our hotel we realized that it too was not the hotel in the picture...Oh well it wasn't terrible, it's just that nothing was what you were told...We just chilled on the beach and saved our energy for trekking the next day.
The next morning we hiked up into the mountains of Cat Ba island. It was super muddy from the monsoon the day before so it made walking and climbing pretty difficult. It was like a giant muddy
Ha Long Bay
Imagine this times a thousand slip and slide. People were falling all over the place and even our guide fell right in a huge mud pit. Reaching the top after about an hour we climbed a tower to get a 360 degree panorama of the island, it was amazing. While there were about 10 of us up there someone said I wonder how many people this can hold. No one answered and so we continued to take pictures before heading down. Once we got down we realized there was an old sign saying, "limit 5 people." It was about 150 feet tall so thank god nothing happened. Our guide took us kayaking around another part of the bay later that day...not in the caves in the pictures though...haha. Kayaking was a really cool way to see the bay and it was nuts to be the only people in a canyon as far as you can see. We left for the harbor and waited for our boat...a boat arrived but it was not the same one as before, this was of course our NEW boat. The funny thing about our situation was, everybody was in the same situation. It was funny to hear stories of other
people getting screwed over. You cannot avoid being scammed in this region and you have to learn to laugh at what is happening to you otherwise you will end up being very stressed out and angry the entire time. You actually take comfort in and laugh at other people's experiences because you think...well my room sucked, it was basically in the engine room and I thought I was going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning the entire time...BUT...a rat didn't chew through my water bottle and then crap on my pillow. I guess I am kinda lucky, as odd as that sounds. We stayed on the boat that night with some of the original group that got seperated the day before. We played S@#$head and some other fun drinking games with the people on the boat and had a really fun time. We also learned how to take the funniest pictures ever. What you do is relax your face and shake your head back and forth wildly, then have someone snap a photo of you. It seriously provides hours of laughs and the most ridiculous faces ever made...it could have also been the beer and the fact we had nothing
Cave Formations
Inside the cave in Ha Long Bay to do in the middle of a lake...not sure. That night there was the loudest thunder storm we had ever heard, they sounded like a shotgun blasts and would rattle the boat like a tin shack. Another funny comment about our night was that we floated into another boat. We didn't have an anchor so we floated randomly around this little lagoon and hit another boat in the middle of the night. Also while heading back into the harbor the following day our driver cut off another boat and we collided...where did they get these guys? Our tour in Ha Long Bay was not what we expected it to be...nothing went as planned and it seemed that everything was disorganized. However it was a lot of fun and we met some great people.
As everything else in northern Vietnam...leaving didn't go off without incident. As we were checking into the airport, we found out that our bags were too heavy and we would had to pay extra...more money, surprise, surprise!! Instead of doing that we rifled through our bags and threw the heavy stuff in our carry on. Then, while walking through security Ryan was pulled to the side
Rave in the Cave
They handed out glow sticks and we danced to techno all night long...it was great because in the process of unloading our packs Russ had forgotten to take his knife out of the carry on and accidently placed a pair of scissors in there as well. Security gave us some hassle, but they let Russ run back through security and immigration to try and put the knife in his checked bag. The attendant at the counter then was giving Russ a hard time because we think he wanted to keep the nice knife. Instead, Russ talked a guy from England in line into putting the knife in his checked bag. Yeah, this whole situation would have been really great in the US...Don't leave bags unattended...If someone asks you to carry something do not do it and please report them to security...I can picture it now. While this whole ordeal was going on, Ryan found out that the 225,000 dong ($14) departure tax was no longer required. Since dong is not exchangeable in other counties, Ryan had to then run back through security and immigration as well to change the money into dollars. Since we didn't have to spend the $14 we had planned, we bought a bottle of Crown Royal and a bottle of Stoli
What Are We Looking at Here?
According to the guides...something involving a fairy, a horse, and a married couple named Bob and Roxanne or something like that.. to celebrate with our friends Brett and Ryan...compliments of the Vietnamese government, of course. Eventually, we made it on the plane.
We just met up with them in Bangkok and it was really crazy to see some people from home. We are halfway around the world and hanging out with our friends...It made us realize that it isn't really that hard to do if you really want to do it...most of it is just in your head. Just buy the ticket and go. Anyways, we knew the night was headed downhill when RT ordered a mojito and they brought him a pitcher with a straw that was a half inch in diameter. Let's just say that got the party started and it ended with the for of us on the side of the stage singing songs in front of the entire bar. Well, that is about it for now, but we'll be in touch.
Here is a link to Brett and Ryan's travelblog: http://www.mytb.org/brett---ryan
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Ian
non-member comment
Sounds fun!
Sounds like you guys are having a blast. Other countries and their wierd nonproper customs...you must expect to get scammed, bartering is commonplace, and people seem rude, but if you approach it with the right head it all works out. I'm totally jealous that Ryan and Brett are hangin with you guys...totally...