Quang Binh

Arriving at Hoi An train station, our first contact with trains Vietnamese, it was quite confusing as to how the system works. There is one waiting room with one locked door that leads out to where the trains come and go. There are no platforms just railway lines set in concrete. The ticket states which carriage you are in, which cabin you are in and your seat number. The door is unlocked when the train approaches. Our carriage in this instance was way out of the station area and quite a long walk to get to it. Having no platforms it is a huge step up to get into the cabin and to get 20kg bags in as well takes some strategic planning. The guards refuse to help and Vietnamese men expect the women to do this anyway so are not forthcoming either. However Gary and I managed and set off to find our seats. It was nice - a 4 berth sleeping cabin all to ourselves. We were travelling during daylight so did not sleep and we passed through some wonderful countryside. It is the time of year when the rice paddies are being prepared in readiness for the monsoon season so vast amounts of different work was to be seen. Oxen ploughing, women planting and hoeing, men burning off the stubble and children helping too. We travelled through small villages boasting shacks for houses with haystacks in the garden. Life is hard in rural Vietnam and we wonder whether they are just existing rather than enjoying life. They are happy people though. I guess if they have warmth, food and shelter they are content. Arriving in Quang Binh we headed by taxi to our hotel - brand new 68 hotel. The main reason for this stop is to visit the Paradise Caves here and we are staying just 2 nights as to be honest there is nothing else to be seen here even in the township. There is not even a restaurant. The caves are relatively newly discovered (2005) and the town is only just gearing up for tourism. So we arrive and immediately see there is a flight of stairs to get our bags up. Whilst Gary pays the taxi driver I discover a lift from the underground garage. Pressing the button we wait and wait and wait ...........it is stuck on the upper floor. (This lift later was to scare the life out of me.) GIving up we made for the stairs and on reaching the top we were greeted by a lovely young lady speaking English. This is good because we need to book our tour for the caves - later though - and our next train to Ninh Binh. We are shown to our room by her husband and explore our new surroundings. Very nice until we hit the bathroom. The bathroom is completely tiled and a huge feature tile is of a partially naked lady in a suggestive pose. I am sure Gary would have been happy to see her each time he used the bathroom but I just couldn't see the need for it or the reason behind it being in a tourist hotel. Anyway after a tour of the hotel we were upgraded to a very expensive VIP suite. They have had very few Europeans staying here and get quite nervous when Europeans book so were keen to keep us happy. Unfortunately the young lady was the only staff who spoke any English and we wondered whether we were the only guests there as well. Each time we used the lift, we were on the 4th floor, Gary had to manually finish closing the doors. This often took a couple of efforts as the doors were stronger than Gary. On one occassion we were in the lift and it stopped between floors. With my "what if" personality I experienced sheer terror but Gary found the emergency speaker button and after a while the lift reset itself and we started to ascend again. They explained it as a power cut but the next day the lift was serviced and even the doors closed by themselves after that. MCIver could have a rest. With our cave tour booked for the following day - a minivan from Hoi An was to pick us up - we left the train booking in her capable hands for the day after. Next morning we arrived for breakfast which was just awful. We had had a very mediocre meal in the hotel restaurant the night before but this was terrible. They were doing their best but were very inexperienced in the guest trade. We had a conversation with them and the next day was a vast improvement. We had met the chef in the lift and he had shown us that he had been out shopping and brought jam and cheese and fruit etc. It was good they had taken note of all our suggestions and acted on them. Time will tell whether they survive or not. Next day we were picked up on time for our tour and how amazing that tour was. The guide was awesome, lunch was awesome and the caves were incredible. We have both seen some beautiful caves in our travels but these topped the lot. The 2 hour trip there and the long trek to the top of the mountain was well worth it. Being newly discovered it was pristine with no glaring coloured lights or any form of commercialism. Just a wooden boardwalk through the first km but the entire length of the cave is 31kms. Another 7kms can be visited but you have to swim part way and crawl on your belly for a distance too. We had limited time so 1km was sufficient and we were still half an hour late getting back to the bus after descending 502 steps to get down. Only 3 of us from the tour went to the Paradise Caves, all the rest went to an older more commercialised cave and didn't seem to come away with the same buzz. Good decision Gary!!!!!! After the return 2 hour journey to our hotel we walked in to be greeted with "I have some bad news for you" OMG what now? Unable to book the sleeper train at the time we had requested she had not booked anything!!!!!!! Sending her husband to the station to book anything that was available as we had to leave the next day regardless and this was the only mode of transport available she waited for his phone call. Good - sleeper train booked - leaves at 2.15pm, travel overnight, reach Ninh Bin 1.30am. Downside: this was a "hard sleeper" ( no need to explain that) and a 6 berth cabin. Ok that's fine we have no choice anyway. Well the ticket was booked but..........to Hanoi not Ninh Bin.......back to the station for said husband to change ticket. OK done. Half way home he realises he hasn't booked a foreigner ticket...........back to station for said husband. We had paid 100,000VND for them to book the tickets and each change cost them 75,000. She was ropable with him but nice too. It was a sad situation as they had a 14month old daughter who was being brought up by her parents and who they only saw once every few months as they had to work to exist. She was pregnant with their second child. We felt really sorry for them and they were a lovely couple. We gave them the I Pad cover that I got with my keyboard which of course doesn't fit the Samsung. He was wrapped with it and that made everything worthwhile. It wasn't the perfect stay but we were pleased we made this out of the way, off the beaten track stop. FIgure we were possibly the only tourists in town. Bye for now. Next blog our incredible train trip from Quang Bin to Ninh Binh................can't wait to blog about that one.

Hoi An

After a 30min taxi ride from Da Nang airport to Hoi An we arrived at our hotel called "The Earth Villa" which initially was a little disappointing. Our room was not ready and we had to sit and wait. Unfortunately I had developed a cold and was a tad grumpy. We were invited to relax around the pool but quite frankly all I wanted to do was go to bed and sleep. Rather than sitting and waiting for 4 hours we decided to go for a walk and that was when we realised that our beach hotel was in fact 20 mins walk from the beach in one direction and the old town of Hoi An at least 30 mins in the opposite direction!!!!! So Hoi An town won out and we set out to find some lunch. Hoi An is where you can get clothes and shoes made to fit in a day or so but as our bags are full this was not an option for us. What was an option for me though was a pair of cool, linen trousers for 100 VND - bargain - and a fantastic Indian, freshly cooked meal for us both. Even though the heat was unrelenting and we were sweating to match, Indian spicy food was what we both were hankering for. We were finding Vietnamese a little bland. We were not to be disappointed as the meal was fantastic and the best Indian food we had both eaten for a long time. Trudging back to our hotel we settled into our room - which was actually very big, roomy and comfortable - and had a well deserved swim in the warm pool. This, unfortunately, was where our, or my actually luck changed. Not sure what caused it but I developed extreme back pain that night in a restaurant and was seen walking along the street with a bottle of iced water under my shoulder blade. This is my "achilles heel" and is usually brought on by stress and tension!!!!!!! These two things have been absent in my life for a while now so who knows. Anyway Gary is the most able masseur and a combination of massage and tablets normally do the trick. 2 days later I emerged painfree during which time Gary, bless him again, had made all of the arrangements, with the assistance of the lovely receptionist/tour agent at the hotel, for the rest of our time in Vietnam. Train trips, hotels, next ports of call all planned and worked out through to Hanoi - excellent. We managed to make one more trip into town, mainly because we both wanted to have another Indian meal but also because we wanted to buy some hammocks for Molly. WIth Gary bargaining hard and having a lot of fun with the local market people he bought two hammocks really cheaply. I am sure they will never forget him! Walking home we stopped for our Indian meal and ordered a meal each to share and a beer not to share. Suddenly I became very unwell again - nausea, sweating, pale etc which caused a bit of concern and hastily brought forth some "ginger tea to settle the stomach" (which we paid for of course, the Vietnamese never miss a beat). Gary quickly ate his food and mine was put in a doggy bag and off we set to walk home again. Eventually I was fine and cannot explain what happened but it did curtail what we were able to do in Hoi An. So with our next stop booked in Quang Binh at 68 Hotel, the following morning we set off on our next adventure and by a completely new mode of travel - the Vietnamese train!!!!

Dalat

FIrstly we need to apologise for getting so far behind with our blog. As most of you know we are now in Paris so I think I will just do an overview of our 4 weeks in Vietnam in order to bring us up to date. DALAT. As I mentioned in the last post Dalat is high in the mountains of Vietnam and very much an alpine looking township in its architecture and lower in temperature to what we have been used to. It has a lake and extrememly beautiful surrounding countryside. The town is hilly with lowlying streams running deep in the interior of the township. In fact it is almost as though each road is fronted with a business/shop facade and between each road is a whole new world of domesticity with connecting bridges over these streams and walkways for access to homes which are in deep gullys between the roads. The houses are all beautifully built and of different soft colours reminding us very much of Austria. Amazing use of non friendly, undulating land. It was here in Dalat that I bought a blue tooth keyboard for my Samsung tablet, with a swivel style case as well, all for $28NZ!!!!!!! In Dalat it rains a lot and having discovered a huge local market we emerged to heavy rain. Buying plastic raincoats for 50c each we wandered the streets surprised to see that the main pastime for a majority of men was drinking coffee, smoking and playing checkers in "cafes" whilst being waited on hand a foot by women. These were real dens of iniguity but we decided to "have a coffee" whilst we waited for the rain to stop. Mmmmmm - coffee? This turned out to be a complete surprise and our introduction to Vietnamese "shot coffee". Very strong, very black and very small and more like chicory. We were given a shot glass of this and also a shot glass of cold water which I assume was designed to follow the coffee to cleanse the palate. For us it was undrinkable but with lots of gesticulation on both sides I managed to get some milk and Gary some hot water. This coffee was soooooo strong that watered and milked down we probably drank a latte bowls worth. Very good value for money. Returning to our gorgeous family hotel we stumbled across a shoe shop selling good quality leather shoes made in Vietnam and a pair of boat shoes caught Garys eye - his size too. $17NZ later he walked away with a real bargain and has been extremely happy with them. We did not venture too far into the Dalat countryside even though it is a major wine producing area. We had decided to spend our time in the quaint township and venture into the countryside during our next stop. At our hotel we had a little balcony off our room and it was wonderful sitting there in the evening with a beer - Dalat wine was awful - listening and watching the hubbub of Vietnamese life. GIve them a motorbike, a horn and a cellphone and they are very happy. Our last night in Dalat we were treated to a procession of floats which was breathtaking. The floats were adorned with fresh flowers and lights and seemed to go on forever. There was no police presence and everything worked out fine on its own even if it was a little hairy at times. We were told it was in celebration of Buddah's birthday. Time to pack and move on early the next morning to fly to Da Nang. Dalat airport is three quarters of an hour outside of Dalat so this meant a very early start. Low and behold when we came down the stairs with our luggage at 6am a beautiful breakfast spread was set before us. "Cannot have our guests leaving hungry, plenty of time for breakfast" said our hosts who had got up early especially to prepare breakfast for us before our departure. The taxi driver was left to wait!!! Our trip to the airport was uneventful as was our flight. Vietnam airlines are wonderful and we can thoroughly recommend them. Next stop Hoi An - thirty minutes outside of Da Nang.

HCMC to Dalat via Mui Ne.

Leaving HCMC, or Saigon which sounds sooooo much nicer, was to be our next adventure. The hotel booked us our tickets on the VIP tourist bus to Mui Ne our next destinaton on the east coast of Vietnam. Promptly at 8am we were hustled into a taxi to, we thought, the bus station. A few minutes later we arrived at a "corner shop"and were asked to wait. "SIt please, sit" so we sat. Waiting just a few minutes enjoying people watcuuhing, "come with me please, come with me". Up we jump, grab our bags and toodle off down a busy main street following this young guy who was totally unemcumbered with baggage and now striding metres ahead of us. Dodging bikes, scooters, cars and buses we catch him up with a sigh of relief all round. "Wait here please, sit please, sit" so, once again, we do as we are asked. No sooner as our bums are on the plastic, childs stools - "Follow me please, quickly, quickly!" Off we dash again, straight across a busy main road, through a park to another main road one block over. At this stage it crosses my mind we may almost be back to where we started at our hotel, but promptly dismiss this as pure insanity!!!! We are hot, dripping with sweat and struggling to pull our main baggage along extremely lumpy roads and over iron barriers. "Wait here please, wait here. Bus come soon." Ok but this is a street not a bus station, how do we know when our bus comes and will it just stop for us or what - it is already half an hour after we should have left anyway and this is rather deja vue. Alarm bells are ringing loudly. "Best you stay with us" we say and, bless him, he agrees. So we wait and we wait - stroll around taking a few photos here and there and generally relax knowing we are in safe hands. I know, you can feel another disaster about to unfold and you will not be far wrong. Next thing we see a bus hurtle past and our little man waving furiously at the back end of it. "Was that our bus?" I ask. "Yes, yes but wait here please, stay here, right here." and he disappears into the mass of people who are everywhere. We do as we are told. Rematerialising he grabs my bag and yells at us to follow him - back through the park, across the road to our previous port of call where a furious exchange is happening and cell phones are being overworked. This is now getting ridiculous but before we can start asking questions a taxi is hailed, our bags are thrown in, we are bundled in the back and our little man jumps in the front. Off we go - to where, we have no idea and all we can do is laugh. We speak no Vietnamese and they speak no English and we wonder whether we are going all the way to Mui Ne by taxi!!!!! Driving out of HCMC through the suburbs and onto the motorway we travel for about 30minutes until we see this bus stopped at the side of the road. Coming to a halt behind it our little man jumps out with a big smile on his face "your bus, your bus. Get out please, get out". Well the bus is the right colour but we ordered and paid for a sitting bus and this is a sleeping bus. Oh well let's just get in and hope, our bags have already been literally thrown in the luggage hold by the very grumpy driver, so here goes nothing. Stepping on to the bus the driver confronts us with an open plastic bag???? We have no idea why. Showing our confusion he barks "shoes off, shoes off, in bag, in bag". Once again we obey and struggling to get our Keens off (which let me tell you would have been far better off being left on our feet) we finally get them into his little green plastic bag. "In the back, in the back"and he jerks his thumb in a backwards motion, sits in his seat and drives off leaving us to lurch towards the back of the bus to find a lounger type seat each. I have to say that this type of seating arrangement is a very popular mode of travel in Asia but the buses have been thrashed and it is hard making inroads into seat choice when everyone else on the bus has made themselves comfortable and are seemingly asleep. Consequently Gary and I spent the next 8 hours in broken, non adjustable seats which were one behind the other. The only way we could comunicate was if I first got his attention by hitting him on the head with my bottle of water!!!!!! The journey itself however was not too bad, if a little hairy at times, because let's not forget we are, after all, in Vietnam. The driver did drop us off right at our hotel in Mui Ne though even if it was with one, final grunt! Mui Ne. We were dropped off at the entrance to Mui Ne Hills hotel which turned out to be the bottom of an alleyway and at the base of a steepish little hill - hence the name of the hotel. Lugging our bags behind us we started onward and upward. About half way up a motorcycle materialized, took my bag, I jumped on the back and poor Gary courageously made it to the top on foot. This was a nice place to stay, swimming pool, all day breakfast, 2hours of happy hour in the evening, a kite surfing beach across the road, an upgrade from mui ne hills 2 to mui ne 1, lovely young people staying who attached themselves to us and are still in contact. All in all a good stay. We took a jeep to the sand dunes, walked along the perfume river but generally blobbed out, swimming, eating and interacting. The weather was beautiful and we extended our stay here for one day. Saying goodbye to everyone was a little difficult but we had booked our bus to Dalat so it was time to move on. The bus trip to Dalat was slow (multIple stops) and painful (cramped condItIons). The bus was small and crowded and designed for Vietnamese people who are only half our size every which way you look at them. Two rather large men from northern England were in front of us and the man on the aisle side only had one bum cheek on the seat and was hanging on for dear life as the bus driver threw the bus around corners both up and down the mountainside. One was overheard saying "first of all they scare the life out of you, then they make you shit your pants". Nothing good can be said about how the Vietnamese drive. Very fast, overtaking on blind corners and brows of hills, constantly using the whole road not just to the right of the centre line, the horn honks continuously. On high mountain roads this can be a tad scary and a huge sigh of relief is heard once a destination is reached. On the other hand it all works, even if a bit noisy, and there are few accidents. After 6 hours we finally made it - intact. Catching a cab to our hotel we were greeted with smiles, a choice of room and a grand welcome all round to a beautiful family hotel. Hello Dalat we are glad to be here In this mountainous, alpine region of Vietnam. More to come x

The Journey through Vietnam begins

The journey through Vietnam  Begins

 

Ho Chi Min City (Saigon)

 

After the fiasco with the visa, we passed through customs formalities easily to be met by a smiling young man holding a sign saying ‘Garry Scott’. Ok, he spelt it wrong, but at least the pick-up request worked.  A 20 minute ride through hectic traffic and lots of motorcycles saw us at the hotel.

As this blog is being written about 4 weeks after the event and on a boat in the South China Sea, a lot of events have been forgotten, I prefer to say ‘over-written in my memory’, so will just give you a précis of events. We did heaps more things and we are getting pretty tired now so must find time for some relaxation soon. Still enjoying travelling though, and we are a good team. We actually think we are in the Amazing Race sometimes.

We did our usual routine when we get to a new place. We go out and explore the surroundings and check out food places and look at trips we can take that interest us. We had several opportunities to practice our street crossings this day. We actually got good at it and sometimes didn’t even break into a sweat. It is a bit unnerving feeling the wind of a motorbike as it passes by just inches from you. The trick is to step out side by side and walk at a steady pace straight across the road. It is the car and bike rider’s job to avoid you. I recon we should do it blindfolded.

I was walking down a side street and caught sight of something happening in a small alley-way. It was all quite dark and as it was threatening to rain, there was no sun to lighten things up. It turned out it was a really small but busy eatery. Everyone, businessmen included, was sitting along the wall of the alley on tiny plastic stools and a plank of wood supported by cardboard boxes, was in front of them. By now Cathie realised I was missing and came to find me. “This looks good”, she said. So we sat down with the locals and ordered a baguette filled with I don’t know what, and a drink of fresh passion-fruit juice.  It all tasted great, nice and spicy and fresh. We had stumbled on a little gem known only to the local office workers who didn’t like the staff canteen. Our bill came to $3.75 NZ.

Friends of mine from Dunedin, Neil and Kerry Walker, were expected to be in HCMC on the 18^th so I texted them and got a reply to say they were arriving at 4.00pm. I found their hotel was a 10minute walk from ours and we went round to see them. They were on a golfing tour of Vietnam with 30 others. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours with them in their hotel room drinking their duty free gin. Their time was short as they were going on a river cruise but it was good to catch up.

I needed another haircut, so called in to a hair-dressers, and was told to come back in 15 minutes. Ok. Walked another 20 meters and here was another one that could take me now, so didn’t turn up for the other one. They gave us both a glass of horrible iced tea, gave me a cold-flannel wash : hands, arms, face, neck, head, and chest (inside my shirt! Was this a front for a massage parlour?), and a guy set about giving me my usual number 4. Then he used a cut throat razor to clean up my neck, and sideboards and around my ears. I sat frozen to the spot until he had finished. Those things are dangerous. He trimmed my ear hair, nose hair and eyebrows too. Job done,,, Asian haircut number 3.

That night we found a big night market, only after walking right past it on the other side of the road and walking about a kilometre too far. Navigation seems a bit off lately, and can’t rely on Cathie… she’d get lost in a cupboard! Had another street meal here but it wasn’t too good.

Wandered around the city next day and got caught in a torrential downpour. After waiting for what seemed like hours under a security guards umbrella, we spied a pub across the road so made a dash for it. Bad move, got soaked to the skin in seconds! Crashed through the swing doors and slid into a western style restaurant ie a cowboy bar, with staff dressed up western style and a guitarist playing country and western music. We sauntered up to the bar, dried ourselves off on the bar towels, and ordered some drinks. Well the afternoon got interesting as we interacted with the bar girls who wanted to practice their English. Saying we had to go after the first drink we were told it was still raining so why not have another, and another, and some food, and a cocktail. I did keep going to check to see if the rain had stopped but thankfully it hadn’t. It turned out a good afternoon and we were sorry to say goodbye. We learnt a lot about their education system and their lifestyle. All of them had a great sense of humour and they understood all of my jokes.

Next day we took a private tour to the ChuChi tunnels about 90 minutes south west of the city. These are a series of tunnels on 3 levels covering 200km in which the Vietnamese soldiers and families hid during the Vietnam war. Up to 20,000 were living in this way for 3 years. They had kitchens and medical centres and workshops. We saw demonstrations of several cunning booby traps, which snared lots of American soldiers. We went down one level in the tunnels and in the pitch dark, crawled 40 meters.  Cathie wanted to do another section so another 20 metres later we emerged hot and sweaty, but satisfied that we had experienced it. One question stays in my mind though….why did Cathie take her handbag down there?  J One of the resourceful tricks the Vietcong did, was to make shoes out of old tyres, but made the soles so that the footprints looked like they were walking in the opposite direction! Clever.                                            A good day.

Now we are off to MuiNe.