Vietnam is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you gonna get...

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18 july-30 july

A lot of people warned me, that Vietnamese people would be the least friendly people
of South-East asia. You'd have to bargain for everything and they would try to rip me off
for ANYTHING. So here's the story...

I arrived in Dong Ha (Vietnam) with the bus I took from Savannaket (Laos).
From there I wanted to take the bus to Hué, which would take me about one hour.
Again I had to change currencies. So now I would pay in Dong and I would again be
a millionair (you get used to it, after a while ...).
First contact with vietnamese was already clear on the way. At the pasport control at the border,
we were only with 3 tourists on the whole bus full of vietnamese. We just used the 'european-style' waiting in line. But it didn't seem the vietnamese way to get a stamp on your pasport. They had more the 'teenagers entering a concert of their favourite band'-method to wait... So in the end, the three tourist had to be more assertive which was quit easy, being at least 30 cm taller than the average Vietnamese guy.

So I looked for the local bus to Hue, that would cost about 50000 dong. I found a travel agency who would take me for 70000 dong. It was too much, but still bearable. They tried to book my seat but everything was full. After that I went to the local bus station, where everything is supposed to be loads cheaper... they told me it would cost 130 000 dong!!!! I completely disagreed, and tried my best to bargain. In the end I paid 100 000 because the very friendly looking vietnamese family had paid the same (they told me). Once on the way, they guy who collected the money, tried to let me pay again. I totally acted like they always act to me 'I don't understand' (poets wederom poets!)... After a while they saw that I persisted, so they tried the second method... let's at least try to get 30 000 more. Again I could ignore them and act like somebody completely stupid. Then even the friendly-looking family explained me in english what I had to do....But I kept my pride. They all were laughing very hard and saw it like a game.
At least they tried.... and that's the whole economical spirit in Vietnam. After reading a book about the war, I could understand better why everyone tries to get every penny they can get. It's is a communist country with some chance of free-market but still completely controlled by the gouvernment...

When I arrived Hue, I checked in, in a nice and cheap hotel and relaxed... Ready to discover a new country again. I visited the old citadel of Hue and was astonished by the beautiful architecture here (in big contrast with Laos). I enjoyed seeing some culture again and went to two performances on the same day. One dance-performance and one of water-puppetry. Hilarous. I made a movie of the whole show!
Also the food was a thrilling experience after the daily sticky rice and noodlesoup of Laos. I immideatly loved Vietnam. And all the people in Hué seemed very friendly.
Since a long time, my hairdo was bothering me, and I wanted to try a Vietnamese hairdresser. I knew it would be a risk, but I was ready to take it... So somewhere in the middle of the old city, I parked my bike in front of a shop where I saw two 'hairdresschairs' and tried more or less to show what I wanted by making gestures.... 'Ok', she said, and started cutting my sweaty hair, without washing or anything.... well...
it wasn't too bad 😉
The next day I did a boattrip and went visiting a lot of temples and pagoda's around Hué. I met Vicky from the uk and a couple from America with whom I spent the day.
The following day, I took the bus to Hoi An. I had no idea which bus I had booked, but when it arrived to pick me up, it was UN-BE-LIEVABLE! A whole bus with big chair -or actually beds-, supercomfortable! Even in Europe I had never seen such buses. And especially after coming from Laos where you share your seat with one mother, five childeren and their goat....amazing! I enjoyed the ride completely! So much even, that I didn't bother to look out the window, and missed all the beautiflul views....It was my first and last Superbus!

Hoi An, has always been a tourist topper, and it is right. It is a beautiful old city with a lot of french colonial architecture. There are also chinese influences, so it makes a great mix.
In the morning, I met Laurent from France, and together we visited some of the old houses.
In the afternoon I decided to take a coocking course. First we went to the market and the guide explained us everything
about the different spices and vegetables. After that, we went by boat to the coocking school. The group was really nice. Two families from Qéubec ( the french they speak is hilarious ...), two people from America, Aleisha from Australia and me. A happy bunch of people. We learned how to make ricepaper, spring rolls, making roses out of tomatoes and boats out of pineapple! And it tasted all good.
At night, back in the city, we all had some drinks together and my friend from France Laurent joined us again.
The next day, the food from the coocking school didn't have a good effect on me... I didn't feel a 100% normal, but still me and Laurent went to visit the ruins of 'my son', an ancient temple complex. But we'd both had seen Angkor Wat before, so these temples seemed like very ugly and small brothers of it. Only the ride in the army jeep was worth the trip! A bit disappointed and getting more and more sick, I went to bed in the afternoon.
The killing heat and the rising diarrhoea, made me less and less enthousiatic about the country.
I also decided that I wanted to visit a little village Kon Tum, in the mountains, to get a bit away from the crowds and the heat. But the tourism in Vietnam is already very big, that it is almost impossible to get off the beaten track! On the main tourist-trail a bus for four hours would cost 3 dollars! But if I wanted to go to Kon tum (where nobody goes), I had to pay 17 dollars...Or there was an other option: I could find a deal with a motor driver who would pick me up at 4.00 am in the morning to bring me to the highway, and there I would have to flag down the local bus that would bring me 10 hours up in the mountains with a lot of chance of breaking down on the way. The idea appealed off course to me, but I was too tired and not in a very healthy shape, so I skipped on that one, and decided to take a bus on the main trail, but get off earlier in another untouristy place....Quy Nhon.

The only option to get there was taking a bus in the evening, and then I would arrive around 1.00 am in the morning in Quy Nhon. The first time in asia that I booked my room (dormbed) in advance. And when I called the backpacker's, they told me: you will have to catch a motorbike to get to the center... Ok, I didn't spent much attention to this quote. So I went on the bus, which was more a Laos-style bus. On the way I kept falling asleep and wasn't sure anybody knew where I had to get of. I wouldn't have bothered if they didn't wake me up, I was so tired and still sick... But at one, they poked me: 'hello Quy Nhon'?. 'yes'.
So there I was, in the middle of the night, along a big highway, me and my bag. Maybe this wasn't a very good alternative to taking the other option of the motorbike ride at 4 am....Immediatly one 'motorbiketaxi' come up to me: 'Barbara's backpackers?, 200 000 dong'. Shit, he knew where I wanted to go, and he had a price... I had no clue how far the center was, and had never paid more than 50 000 for any taxi. So, I just stayed very calm and used my 'bargainers-laugh': 'haha 200 000' (standing in the middle of the night with one man, somewhere in Vietnam, not knowing where the hell I was). I told I would pay 50 000, completely selfconfident (on the outside). '150 000' he told me. No way! I grew even more confident as he even considered starting to bargain: crazy country'! I acted all cool and started walking telling him it was way over my budget. As I hoped he would do, he started driving slowly next to me (that's the sign, that they absolutely want to take you, because they still overcharge you). Btw I had no idea where I was, so I completely walked the wrong way. In the end, he took me for 50 000 (yes!). But then, he started driving, and driving... and driving... and driving... and my confidence was melting like snow for the sun... I think I had been on the motorbike for half an hour. I thought' If I survive this, then it's proofed that Asia is the safest continent in the world'. Aaannd...yes. After more then half an hour, we arrived exactly where I had to be, and because i was so surprised that he didn't rape me, bring me to his killerfriends, didn't pull a knife, didn't beat me up... I payed him 100 000 dong.

I slept in a dorm room with 4 guys, and I almost fainted of the smell, when I entered the room. It must have been over 30 degrees in there. I was sweating so much, that I hardly slept. The next day, I met three of the four guys from my room. Simon from the Uk, and another British and Polish guy. Simon and me hired a bike and spent the day, discovering empty beaches, because there were almost no tourist, and if there where some, they were Vietnamese. Hanging in a hammock, drinking Coke, I finally had the feeling, I had escaped the crowds... but not the heat.

So the next day, I really wanted to flee into the mountains and took the bus again at 4.00 am in the morning (after NOT-sleeping in the bloody dorm-heat) to Dalat. I woke up, and was waiting in front of the hotel, when I saw something funny. It was completely dark outside, but the streets were full of people: Vietnamese in their sportsoutfit! Appartently, Quy Nhon is the place for Vietnamese highclass to spend the weekend. And for them, the image of somebody rich and beautiful is being in good shape with an extremely white skin. So they do their morning-jogging befor the sun (rises at 5.00 am)...But EVERYBODY had the same idea. The streets looked the same like Gent during the 'Gente feesten' at 4.00 am!

On the ten-hour ride, I was the lucky one, sitting next to woman with vommiting child. The buses are designed to Vietnamese standard. So by the time we were 2 hours on the way, the left part of my bum was completely sore ( the feeling you have, when you're lying in bed for one week). And it was then, that I realised that I forgot my passport at the reception of the hotel! I was already longing to the freshness of the mountains since I crossed the Laos-Vietnam border, so I really didn't want to go back. I preferred being passportless in Vietnam (4 days before I would catch a flight to Indonesia) in fresh temperatures, above a remote 35°-degrees celcius- beach with steaming dorm-room.

[Loosing-your-passport-in-Vietnam-chapter:
So i decided not to get out of the bus and use the remaining 8 hours to think about a solution. I imagined different scenario's in my head using all my creativity. But when I arrived in Dalat, I called the hotel in Quy Nhon and the solution was just so easy: they would give my passport to the driver of the same bus the next day and I would could collect it at the busstation the next day. Easy as that. Off course!
I took a motorbike to my hotel and was so happy that I didn't even watch the road very well.
The next day, I wanted to go and get my passport. I found a map in Lonely Planet, with a busstation marked on it and assumed that they were right. I started walking and thought it would be about 2 km's. I reached the point marked on the map, and off course there was just NOTHING. I should have know, because the last months not once Lonely Planet had marked the 'local bus station' right. As far as i could remember, the motorbike-drive the day before, I had walked in the right direction. But it was far beyond the LP map. I asked several motorbike drivers and they didn't know where to bring me. Everybody pointed out another direction. But I trusted my own memory. Finally I met one woman who spoke English. She pointed me again the other way. Again I convinced here that I was quite sure it should be here somewhere. And then she pointed 100m further 'o yeah, I forgot, big bus station just here'....hmmm,
I'll never understand them.
My joy grew bigger, as I approached the right busstation. But then, I feared for their answer: 'no'.
There were 3 offices, so I had some chances to find my passport. I went to the main office. The first guy
ignored me completely (which means: I don't speak English). Then next one said: 'No', hadn't seen any passport frowning his eyesbrows 'Where the hell are you talking about' - wise. I explained it again and again: 'Quy Nhon-yesterday-passport-forgotten-today-bus would take passport-Dalat? No? No passport?'
The fifth person I explained it to, suddenly ran to the bus that had arrived 30 minutes before....I saw him coming back with a white package! And yes, there it was!
After that, my friend motordriver pointed one of his guys to take me back to the city for 15 000 dong!
I was glad they saw me like a professional tourist. Because the day before I bargained the price down from 30 000 to 15 000. They spared me from the bargain-task for at least ONCE in Vietnam. I love Dalat!]

In Dalat I visited some architecture-stuff (not particularly beautiful). At night I met one interesting Vietnamese man, when I was eating some rice in a stall on the road. At first I thought, it would be the usual scenario: 'Hi how are you? Where are you from? Sorry I don't speak English'...
But no, this guy (maybe 65) was Vietnamese but actually living in California (San Jose). His English wasn't all that good, but still. He told me about his girlfriend (who just left the table to go vommiting in their hotel), that she was 'very poor-I help her', his wife in USA doesn't know about it. But later in the conversation he admits that his true love is a 56-year old doctor ('good age'), she is still living in Vietnam and doing good for the poor people. One day, he wants to come back, and live with here in Vietnam. He lookes me in the eyes 'You see, I tell you the truth', and I believe him.
We talk about Belgium, he knows about the languages and the crisis, we talk about Barak Obama, the oil crisis, the rising food prices and the Vietnamese economy. In the end he pays my dinner and tells me how glad he is, I didn't pick those tourist-restaurants. 'No need to...' I agree, and go home with a smile.

The next day, I am already on my way to my last destination in Vietnam: Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City, like we should call it). It takes a long while to get there. Because after one hour of delay, the bus departs and five minutes later the bus breakes down again....In the end I arrive safely in city.
I already knew exactly what I wanted to visit: The Cu Chi tunnels and the War museum.
The Cu chi tunnels is a whole network of very tiny tunnels underground that was used during the war by the Viet Cong (North Vietnamese). I admire how elaborate their systems were to 'attack the enemy'.
The War museum itself, was terrifying. I'm still not completely recovered from the shock I got there.
The awful truth about the whole war and 'Agent Orange' is smashed in your face without warning!
In the meantime, I was reading my book about the war, so was completely into it all and it overwhelmed me. And that was the end of my journey in Vietnam. I was ready to meet my frien Bieke in.....
Jakarta (Indonesia)!

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Comments

[vincent]

Vietnam
Wow, goed verhaal. ik zocht naar een afbeelding op google, en kwam ineens hier terecht. Heb erg van je verhaal genoten! Misschien dat ik al je verhalen maar is ga lezen. Jij doet tenminste nog wat met je leven, jij ontdekt de wereld.