Advertisement
Published: September 8th 2008
To pick up where we left off...my back still hurt and i was facing a 12 hour seated bus ride to Hue. There are two types of buses, seats and sleepers. We are going cheap so we opt for the seat when possible. This was an overnight ride so we figured we will cram in and just try to sleep most of the time. It is not easy when even my knees hit the seat in front of me. When the person in front of you reclines they are basically in your lap unless you recline and smash the person behind you. This was going to take a serious toll on my back and i wasn't looking forward to it. Ryo, a friend from the Halong Bay trip came to my rescue with some drugs. Over the counter Valium. These magical little pills made the trip one of the easiest i have ever had. As soon i got on the bus i popped 2 of them and waited for them to kick in.
I was sitting next to an English kid that told some good stories about his journey so far and even his experience in the states. After a bit
i had to tell him that it was time for me to pass out. I turned on my ipod and sat back to relax. This is the point when the back pain started to ease up and i was settling in quite nicely. It was time for a new song to listen to...i started scrolling through the pod and feel asleep in the middle of it. I was out! the combination of the Valium and lack of sleep at the backpackers hostel and Halong Bay trip was enough to make me sleep like a baby. I guess the buss had stopped a few times along the way(they always do...to let people get snacks, smoke, or use the toilet) but i slept through it all. I woke up about 15 minutes away from our destination...i looked to my right to make sure Jeff, Krista and the English kid were still there. "ummm....you don't look like the English kid!" i woke up next to a Vietnamese guy with Jeff and Krista across they aisle! Apparently i slept through the part where this guy decided to steal the English kids seat too! It freaked me out for a second! HA!
When you get
Car that the monk burned himself next to
Also on a Rage aginst the machine album cover. A monk burned himself alive in protest of the harsh treatment of monks in Vietnam.off a bus you are automatically attacked by taxi drivers which we usually ignore and walk to our destination. It was really close and after some bartering we found the right room for the right price.
Hue was only a one night stop over. It is really small with not much to see or do. We managed to find a tour of some tombs that were not very impressive and to be honest after you have been to all the cathedrals in Europe and all the monasteries in Tibet nothing is really going to get me really excited. I have officially hit overload with monasteries, tombs, churches...ehhh. enough is enough. Plus the tour guide that was supposed to speak English was not very English speaking. I couldn't understand him at all, and i think he was getting frustrated with us so he kept telling us he would tell us about everything later and never did. oh well you win some you lose some.
After that boring day in Hue...we jumped in another seated bus to Hoi An. This was only a few hour ride that was Valium free and still relatively painless. We paid for seats but were pushed
Monk on Fire
This is the actual monk burning. You can see the car in the background. to the back where their was just a bench seat smaller than a bed but bigger than a seat. We packed 5 people back there until the next stop when a local got off and i stole the open seat. I am learning the ways...if you want something you have to take it.
Expecting the norm...Once again bus stops and we are bombarded with taxi drivers...but this time was even worse. Before we even got off the bus we were taken to a hotel that the bus was obviously in connection with. They told us to look at the rooms and they were going to be the cheapest around. It wasn't true and usually never is. They didn't take us to the bus station... they just keep taking you around to hotels to make commission. We decided to get out and do it on our own.
After some walking we found a hotel and booked a room. Nice place with a pool and restaurant/bar. It was a perfect place to relax and recover from the last weeks craziness. We heard about some really good and cheap tailor shops where we can custom make clothes. Krista was obviously super excited to
be a beauty queen for a day so we all went down to check it out. I got sucked in to the fun and ended up making a jacket, some shirts and shorts. It was pretty cheap and all custom made. I thought it would just be fun and it was but after 2 days of trying clothes on and arguing with the tailors about how i want them made it got to be a little frustrating. Oh well, it was an experience. Plus, i love the jacket even though i wont wear it for the next year. Plus, it would have cost me just as much for just a jacket at home. So essentially i bought a cool jacket and got some shorts and stuff for free. i win.
We weren't really in the mood to go out drinking or spending anymore money so we pretty much just laid low. We spent one day at the beach which was a looooong walk from our hotel. On the way we heard honking and yelling and figured it was just your normal vendor or taxi....then we saw arms fly in the air and bright red hair of the amazing Irish punker
named Kevin, we met back at Halong bay. He jumped off the motorbike he was on and rejoined the trio. We were happy to see this crazy kid and came to find out that he will be joining us for the next few weeks. We organized our departure together so we could all get on the same bus. That was fun. We were told that we would be picked up at our hotel but we had to follow a guy on a motorbike for 10 minutes to the bus. Then once we found the bus we got yelled at by the driver for being late. But something was odd....this wasn't our bus. we paid for a seat and this was a sleeper. hmmm. We boarded anyway and then were physically pushed to the back by the driver where they tried to cram all 4 of us in a luggage compartment. Good luck buddy! after some yelling and causing a scene we just sat down on some sleeper seats. we got yelled at in Vietnamese for about 15 minuets which means nothing to me. They gave up and realized that they tried to rip off the wrong kids and we got
the best of them. So the next people that boarded were Vietnamese and they made them cram in the luggage compartment ...which must be a normal thing because they went without a fuss. oh well, i had a bed and i didnt care if the driver didnt like me.
We made it though the night without getting kicked off, which came as a surprise to me. We got to our destination Nha Trang and did our normal search...we split up....one watches the bags and the others go into all the hotels on the street until we find what we like. We found the Nice Hotel. It lived up to its name and was pretty cheap. We dropped off our stuff and made our way to the beach where we posted up for the whole day. We were at a beach club that had a pool and also beach access. Some beaches are privately owned by the hotels. We had a few drinks by the pool and then made our way to the sand to find and old woman selling freshly caught seafood. We decided to try it out. This was really the freshest you could possibly get. You sit in
the sand as she cooks for you....meanwhile her husband is out diving for more. Unreal! It was by far the best seafood i have ever had. I spent about $7 for 2 lobsters, 6 prawns, 3 sea snails, and 2 crabs. plus she had all the seasonings ready to go. It was a dream come true!
That night we made our way to the sailing club which we heard was the local hot spot from two Vietnamese girls we met at the beach. We made friends with the bar manager who in turn gave us some free shots and free drinks for the girls. The place was crowded but not too energetic. That was until we got the dance party started! We ended up drinking what they call "buckets". Which are a wicked concoction of god knows what. After a few of those bad boys we decided to make our way home because it was late and we had a rough day of laying at the beach ahead of us.
We all woke up not feeling so hot so it was a slow moving day. Back to the beach...buy a chair to lay on...order some food...go to sleep.
That night
we found a restaurant that claimed to be a Texas BBQ. We have fallen for this so many times before. A Vietnamese owned place will try to appeal to westerners by throwing out the loosely used term "western food". We gave it a glance and were interrupted by an older American man that began to try to sell us on all the food they had. He sounded like a used car sales man so we said we will let the food do the talking. We saw the menu that listed nachos, wings, chili dogs and ranch dressing! We sat down and made our way through the menu ordering almost everything we saw! A salad with real ranch, a chili dog with real chili, nachos with real cheese and salsa! Then the owner came back with a plate of free chicken wings. They were incredible! Stuffed beyond belief we made it back to the hotel to pass out early.
We had booked a tour of the islands on what was described as a "booze cruise". We figured we had enough of just sitting around and relaxing lets get mixed in another good party. We boarded a small boat at 9am with
other locals, a few old people, and a few young westerners. It didn't look to promising. Just like the BBQ restaurant we were skeptical...and again we were impressed. The crew put on a live show with a homemade drum set and we sang and danced to international hits. We made our way to the top deck for some lunch and drinks. We did some more back flips and dives...just what a good back problem needs...then had a good swim to the "floating bar" which was really one guy sitting on a tube serving red wine. oh well it was still fun. Too much fun and sun for the day called for a second trip to the Texas BBQ restaurant. Chili Dog, salad covered in ranch, fries, and chicken wings for me please! This time we were greeted with a free round of beers and a free plate of some of the best ribs i have ever had! The once suspected car salesman like owner turned out to be one of the nicest business men in Vietnam...not to mention a great cook! Few hours to get our stuff sorted and then off to HCMC/Ho Chi Mihn City/Saigon!
See you There!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.312s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0548s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Pam
non-member comment
Great to hear from you - seems like Vietnam is for relaxing and not so much site seeing but that's good - you probably needed a break!! Hopefully by now your back is feeling better too although diving off the top of the boat probably didn't help much!! That is one of the biggest chicken wings ever!! Glad you found some good old American food to fill you up!! Keep the blogs coming, I'm loving them.