Hoi An = Budget Blower!

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Our first proper sleeper bus experience was an interesting one. We were quite excited about the prospect of getting proper beds on a bus and getting some sleep but they were really more like seats with no down leg bits. These really weren' t designed for men who are over 6' tall like Dale but because he'd been quite ill in the day he managed to get more sleep than Sophie which made a change. Both of us were kept awake for some of the night though by a Vietnamese man who obviously didn't suit swaying bus journeys and was sick for pretty much the whole night.. and we mean very very sick! It didn't make for very nice background music!

We got to Hoi An at 6am and found a nice hotel just outside the old town. Although we hadn't had that much sleep we had only planned 2 days here so after showering went straight out to explore and give Sophie the opportunity to indulge in her favourite activity.. shopping! For those who don't know about Hoi An, it's famous for two things. The first is being a UNESCO World Heritage town and a very beautiful one at that. The buildings here are so pretty and even if you don't pay the fees to go in them it's fascinating just wandering around the streets which are pretty much unchanged since they were first erected. The second thing Hoi An is famous for is being Tailoring Central. There are around 500 tailors in the town that will knock you up anything from a pair of hotpants to a wedding dress with most garments only taking 1 day to complete. Not only do they make clothes but Sophie was in heaven when she found they do shoes too.. anything you want.. flip flops (thongs!), boots, platforms.. you name it or show them the photo and they will make it for you.

It is very hard to keep control of budgets here and Sophie immediately found out why people said it was addictive and once you start you can't stop. The only good thing for us was that we have both lost quite a lot of weight since we left the UK 10 months ago, this meant that we daren't get anything like a suit, shirt or trousers made becuase within a few weeks of us returning we won't fit in the beautifully fitted clothes so we were restricted in what we could get. In the end Sophie opted for a long dress she'd been desperate to get since leaving Australia, a jacket in her two favourite colours of grey & pink, some sandals and then some knee high boots which she was most excited about as she can't ever get them in the UK becuase they always look like wellies on her! At that point she had to stop going in the shops as the temptation was too much.

On our second day Dale wanted to take a day trip to My Son, something Sophie wasn't too keen on doing so he booked in on his own for a 1/2 day trip there and left Sophie to her own devices however his visit to My Son was not what he was quite expecting. As soon as the bus arived to pick him up and he found there was only one seat left on the huge coach filled to the brim with American tourists he quickly came to realise this was not going to be a nice quiet tour to some ancient ruins. The bus driver for the day was a Vietnamese version of the UK's very own Lewis Hamilton. An amazing driver who managed to get the huge coach round corners on two wheels while dodging the oncoming speeding traffic, and all the time this with his mobile in one hand and a cigarette in the other... incredible!

On the 1/2km walk on the way up to the top he spotted some amazing cham arcitecture and thought this would make a good photo as you do. It just so happens that in between the cham house and Dale there was a cow standing in the middle of the field at the point of snapping away he heard a cry from behind say "Oh my god" (in a drawling American accent) "that guy has come on tour to take photos of cows!" He managed to ignore this comment putting it down to their natural blooded cultural ignorance but he was still left feeling little bit embarrassed that they was all having a big old laugh at his expence... nevermind he thought we have many at theirs so fairs fair!

The ruins where not the best he had seen but the setting against the jungle backdrop more than made up for that. These are also some of the oldest cham ruins about in Vietnam so you have to be left a bit in awe at having the opportunity to see whats left of them and he learnt that they know this by how far North they have been built. After a little wander round by himself he started to head back to the coach as it was coming close to shepherding time (the time when a tour group is led back on the bus like good sheep!). To his surprise as he rounded the corner there were 3 American tourists standing randomly in a field.. he had to stand aghast as he got closer and realised that they where standing next to a cow with one of them taking a flippin' picture of it! So he had to make a comment and say "Sooo come on tour to take pictures of cows have we?!"

While Dale was away Sophie spent her time going to collect her new wardrobe which was met with mixed reactions. The trouble is that we only had a few days here in our eagerness to get up North so had to take pot luck on which shops we used and meant that the quality was mixed to say the least. The jacket was absoloutley perfect and just what she had had in mind so that came top of the list. Next was the dress which was ok but not quite the same quality as the jacket but was good all the same. Possibly the worst experience was the sandals & boots which was a real shame, the sandals were ok but the boots were not as fitted as Sophie was hoping and they looked quite cheap too and with no time for fixing she had to accept them as they were. She was just glad that she'd managed to get them down to a 1/4 of their original price otherwise there could have been tears in the shop! Advice for anyone coming this way would be to think carefully about what you want to get and what you can get more cheaply elsewhere. Sophie wishes she'd just stuck with the jacket now because the dess, shoes & flip flops could really have been purchased from a market for a fraction of the price, it's just the fun of having something tailor made that you get carried away with and it can be dangerous!

So after a few days enjoying Hoi An and all it had to offer we set off for our next flying visit destination of Hue, our last stop before we reached the far North where we had most of our time planned for...

Hue

Our bus ride from Hoi An to Hue should have been an easy 4 hour ride with 2 quick stop offs on the way, given that it was a sleeper bus too we had visions of relaxation and arriving in Hue fully rested up... This was not meant to be!

As we got on the bus we were greeted with a large family of 6 on the bus and this one was like the family from hell! It all started from the time we set off, they realised that they had been told to be picked up at 7.30am from their hotel, then everyone from the Sinh Cafe got on the bus and the bus preceeded to go back round the corner to their hotel to pick up another lot of people at 8am! There seemed no logic to making 2 pick ups from the same hotel but it was hardly the end of the world but to them it was and all hell broke loose as they demanded to know why they'd been given the earlier time and lost 1/2 hour in bed which delayed our leaving time by 15 minutes.

The family could well have been contenders for the noisiest, most annoying family in the world as they shouted to each other rather than talked, used the toilet non stop then kept shouting to the driver that the flush didn't work.. or the light didn't go on.. or there was no toilet paper.... so this went on and to make it worse they were accompanied by 2 small children who screamed at anything and everything and drove the whole bus to dispair.

As we said there were 2 stops on the way to scenic points. The first was the marble caves where we had 15 minutes to have a look around and the second to a beach where we had 20 minutes. Probably because they were shouting so loud the family missed the times we had in each place so wandered off and didn't return to the bus until well after 1/2 hour each time leaving the bus driver to run around looking for them and all the other passengers on the bus drumming their fingers at having to wait for them. Needless to say we were very glad to have reached Hue even though we were a little late. We were even happier to find a hotel with a huge room with bath and the best cable tv to date for $8! We are loving the rooms in Vietnam!

We really hadn't planned much for Hue so spent the afternoon doing our usual of wandering around and having lunch then planning what to do the following day. Dale had really wanted to visit the DMZ (demilitarized zone) but logistically it was proving to be a nightmare, plus it was a long long day mostly on a bus so he scrapped that idea and we settled for a day of hiring a moto and exploring the Thien Pagoda and the ancient citidel of Hue.

Predictably we woke up the next morning to it peeing down with rain.. not just rain though but fine drizzle that soaks to the skin so we donned our ponchos again and off we went. As we said our first stop was the Thien Pagoda about 4km outside the citidel walls. This pagoda is a lovely pagoda in itself and Sophie was most taken with the beautifully tended gardens which were kept immaculately by the monks and loved the odd rabbit that kept poking it's head up, but Dale was there for another attraction altogether. This attraction was an old Austin car which was made famous for being the car Thich Quang Duc drove from Hue to Siagon in only to set himself alight in protest of the policies of President of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem. More (or less) importanly for our generation, the photograph of this event adorns the cover of Rage Against the Machines album so this is why we knew it so well. The pagoda is beautiful though and although it was raining we enjoyed looking around and taking in it's peacefulness as the young monks did their thing.

After a lunch stop to dry off we set off for Hue's main attraction of the ancient citidel surrounded by huge walls all around. This attraction was ok but it is probably best enjoyed in the sunshine as it's more an outdoors thing but we didn't have this luxury so drudged around in our ponchos trying to make the best of things. It sounds really silly but as soon as we found out this 'ancient' citidel only dated back to the early 1800's we kind of lost interest, mainly because this doesn't really seem that old to us and as nice as it was at the end of the day it was a city within a city within a city with a few nice temples but not much else. The most amusing part of our tour there was when Sophie was trying to take a photo of a robe and a Japanese tourist stood right in front of it.. this was not funny in itself but it was when Dale then went and stood right in front of every photo the Japanese lady tried to take from then on as Sophie sniggered in the background!

We had our sleeper bus booked to Nihn Binh that evening so had to leave the citidel after a few hours and went back to the hotel for our pickup. When we got on the bus we were pleased to find that a change of company was met with a better class of sleeper bus and Sophie promptly fell asleep as soon as she got on and slept pretty much until they arrived in Ninh Binh 12 hours later. The same could not be said for poor Dale who had chosen a seat with a wet matress from the leaking window accompanied by dried spit on the window which was nice so he spent the next few hours watching Slumdog Millionaire for the umteenth time...

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Photos

Snake wine
It made us both cringe just smelling this knowing a snake was inside! Yuck! It's in every souvenir shop in Vietnam and is supposed to be very good for you

Dale and the car
This car took the buddist monk Thich Quang Duc to his death. This car is most famous among our age group for being on the cover of Rage Against the Machines album

Sophie in an art gallery
The paintings were so lovely but a bit out of our budget

Comments

[Mr and Mrs Smith]

Oh... Vietnam
Love the way you guys blog, love your pics...and am just reminded how much we loved living in Vietnam. thx:)