Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

I've never liked calling this place Ho Chi Minh city. It seems incongruous that the government would change the name of the biggest city in the country overnight to the name of a former leader that the people of this very city did not vote for and in fact fought against. It would be like changing the name of Sydney officically to John Howard. I can imagine there would be many residents who would never stop calling the place Sydney. So I am going to refer to it as Saigon, as the locals do. 

Observations

I think I could probably live in this city. Which is a big admission because last time I was here I just wanted to get out. I have walked past loads of nice looking restaurants today and seen quite a few expats having breakfast/brunch/lunch. Little french bakeries, mexican and japanese and indian, thai etc. All costing less than half, in many cases a quarter what the equivalent cafe in Brisbane would cost. I found a whole street of Japanese restaurants and grocery stores, catering to the expats I guess and  went into one for lunch.  It was dark and pretty cool. Two people opened the door for me and as soon as I stepped through the doorway about 15 people all yelled at slightly different times a welcome for me in Japanese. It was a cachophony of voices. Rather overwhelming but it made me feel important and special so thats ok. I was sitting at a bench which surrounding the centre food preparation area. There were about 11 chefs in the middle all working their rice in wet hands into beautifully shaped ships and carefully slicing raw tuna and salmon.

I ordered a lunch set for around $6 and loads of food came out, way too much for me to eat. I was working my way through when a beautiful lady sitting just around the corner from me said in very good english, "you use your chopsticks very well." I told her I try but am no where near as good as the locals.  We started chatting and talked about life in Saigon. She knew I was an aussie because she went out with an Australian 4 years ago. She lives in the north east of the city in an area where lots of expats live. She said it is much quieter than the backpacker area and has some nice locals cafes and restaurants. She works for an international company and has an American boss so she has been polishing her accent for some years now. She could almost have passed for an american. I told her she should come for a holiday to Australia. She said she would love to but the Australian government makes it very difficult for Vietnamese to get a holiday visa unless they are part of a highly organised package deal. Get on the bus, get off the bus etc etc. We presumed it was because the government was scared that some would stay in the country and not go home. But the new, modern Vietnamese person is starting to earn a lot of money and wants to see the world.

Anyway, I told her I was trying to buy shoes for a wedding, and she told me to try Parkson Plaza which was a few blocks away. She offered to drop me off on her scooter as she was meeting friends for coffee nearby. I said, "sure that would be great!" She didn't have a helmut for me but that doesn't stop anyone around here. She said she would go slow, as if that would make it completely ok. Its actually illegal to ride without one now but the police prescence is pretty much non existent so off we went, at a racing pace of about 25km per hour. As I was getting off outside the shopping centre she said to me, "I don't know your name!", so we swapped names and off she went. Thats the southern friendliness for you.

There is a constant threat of a downpour here now, the monsoon is just starting and the humidity must be 95% I reckon. You can almost reach out and touch the air. There are short, sharp, heavy showers once or twice a day. There is a sense of anticipation in the air that the season is changing and the wet season is arriving. 

This part of Saigon is clean and well ordered. Large, mature trees, flower beds down the centre of the roads. This is the Saigon that I read about, but didn't find or see last time. Now if they would just ban smoking inside public buildings that would be great. Sharing a closed up, air conditioned cafe with smokers is horrible.

Tomorrow is my last day in this country. The first week went slow and the next three flew. I'm glad I did different things to last time, I thought I might end up doing exactly the same and seeing exactly the same and I wanted a different experience. This time I didn't like Hanoi and did like Saigon, but I think that is in part because Hanoi was my first landing point, it was extremely hot and I was sick with cramps for the whole 3 days that I was there. Walking along a hot street and bending over double because of a strong cramp does not endear you to a place. But I will give Hanoi another go next time. 

My last day to buy shoes in this place tomorrow, so I'm going back to the modern, Myer like department store to try and find something suitable. I reckon its going to rain tomorrow as well, we had a very heavy hour long downpour at 3.30pm this afternoon, its funny seeing all the scooters racing through the rain trying to make it home, all covered with their little thin raincoats.

Mekong Delta

I flew down to Ho Chi Minh city a few days ago and organised a 2 day 1 night trip out into the Mekong Delta. Its not in flood like last time I went out so I was interested to see how different things might look. I went to a different region the first day and went on a couple of boat rides up narrow rivers and canals. 

The thing about the Mekong is that it is such a big river system that everybody in this region, (and its something like 10 million people,) live and breathe the river. They fish in it, bathe in it, swim in it, wash their dishes in it, wash their clothes in it, throw their rubbish in it, sell their fruit and vegies from boats on it, use it as a means of transport in the outer lying villages that don't have roads, etc etc. The only thing they don't do is drink it, which in hindsight is a very good thing. The little rough timber houses that sit out over the river appear to all  have their bathrooms, (small corrugated and timber slat extensions), dropping their grey and black water directly into the river. I might be wrong but I presume thats how they do it. And then you see a bunch of kids happily splashing about a bit further up river, or an old man using a pot to pour water over himself and then take a mouthful and swirl it around to wash his teeth. All I can say is that many of the locals must have stomachs of steel.

Everywhere you look people are making their living from the river. And then surrounding the river are acres and acres of bright green rice paddies, full of water as they get close to harvest time. And you see little old men and women, in their bamboo cone hats, bent over double pulling out weeds and heaping up the wet clay to make sure the water doesn't flood the wrong paddy. Where ever you look in this large region it's flat as a tack. Not a hill in sight, just coconut trees rising above the lush undergrowth, its a strange image because there is nothing for a hundred miles taller than the tallest coconut palm. Just an ocean of green vegetation and then the brown, silty river splitting into hundreds of smaller rivers and canals. It is quite a place actually.

I decided to pay a whole $7 extra for my trip, (which made it $33), and stay in a homestay that night, instead of in a hotel in the big city of Can Tho like the rest of the group. 5 of us chose the homestay so when we got to the hotel in the late afternoon the 5 of us were bundled into a taxi and then he took off out of town for about 20 minutes. We soon realised that he kind of knew where he was supposed to take us but not really. And we hadn't been told a thing, just told to get our bags and get in the taxi, we had no idea where we going. So it felt a bit strange, hoping that this guy would figure it out. He eventually rang the owner of the homestay and 15 minutes later she appeared on the narrow village road on a bicycle and told him to follow her. So there we are slowly following a graceful Vietnamese woman in a cone hat riding a bicyle along little roads that got progressively narrower. We finally pulled up in front of a house that spread across a large area with an open air cafe on the edge of the laneway and then a row of hammocks strung out under a bamboo shelter overlooking a small river. It was all very nice.

The poms went off to look at the market and I asked the owner if I could borrow a pushbike and have a look around. I cycled off in the other direction and cruised along the narrow bikeway, passing little houses with courtyards onto the laneway, dogs lying around in the late afternoon shade and kids riding little bikes or playing games with their mum and dads on the steps of their houses. It was all very peaceful. Except for the little scooters that would fly past me every now and then beeping loudly. I rode in one direction for about 20 minutes and then turned around and went back the other way.

They prepared a beautiful traditional south vietnamese dinner for us that night and we ate it outside under the bamboo shelter. Local fish, actually one of their own catfish growing in a concrete tank under the verandah! And ricepaper rolls, vegetables, steamed rice, and other yummy things. I had a huge room with a basic bathroom, no hot water but the outside temperature never went below about 25 degrees so didn't need it. 

By far the worst part of the trip was 3 of the people on the trip with us, they talked loudly about the most boring things on the bus and on the boat, constantly complained about everything and never listened to the guide. Made it painful. But overall definitely worth it.

Dalat

The motorbike ride

So the first full day in Dalat I hired a motorbike, (scooter), from the hotel, $6 for the day and I had to put around $3 worth of petrol in. I  spent 5 hours getting lost all throughout the lovely hill town/city of Dalat. Lots of little roads following the ridges out of town. I kept going along one for a while, 10km usually and then would turn around and come back into town. I got the hang of the whole riding on the ride hand side and also going around roundabout the wrong way. Pretty confusing actually, particularly when there are hundreds of other bikes and no one is giving way on the roundabout. Well not the same way we do in Australia anyway. 

I found my way to the crazy house, which was designed by a female Vietnamese architect who studied in Russia in the 70's. She is pretty cool, she wears flares and platform shoes around the place, hows that for stuck in a time warp?? The crazy house is hard to describe, its a building that is made from off form concrete, it looks like trees and caves and has stairs built into the sides. I'm not explaining it well, google it and you will see what i mean. Crazy House, Dalat, Vietnam.

I also found my way to the summer palace which is a very cool building straight from the 1930's. It was left in the same condition, no change, including furniture, floor coverings pictures on the walls etc. So it feels like you are stepping back in time. Its a series of large open spaces, lounge and reception areas for the king to meet people and then more informal spaces where he, his wife and 4 children relaxed, ate and slept. The gardens surrounding it are beautiful as well.

I saw some other things as well and had great fun riding around town. Couple of slightly hairy moments, but pretty good all things considering. When I eventually got back to the hotel on a bit of a high, my lovely hostess said to me, "why don't you take it out again tomorrow and follow your friend who has hired a motorbike guide for the day?"

Speaking of friends, I think I said that I met some other women travelling alone around the communal breakfast table. One was an Aussie from Melbourne, one was an American from Michigan. We had dinner together that night and the American and I talked about doing a motorbike tour  the next day. She was going to hire a guide and ride pillion with him and I would follow on my trusty scooter. 

Wow, what a day I had!!

We left around 9.30am and I followed them out of town and we started on the hills. It was so cool zipping around corners, some of them hairpin bends as we made our way up the mountain and over the other side. We travelled through pine forests and past massive flower gardens and vegetable gardens, it was fantastic. We stopped a few times so he could show us things, ie, a silkworm farm and silk weaving factory which was cool, a coffee plantation, flower farm and small village. I was riding along with a huge grin on my face, it felt good to be riding through such beautiful landscape. A couple of times huge trucks would come around very sharp corners taking up the whole narrow road but we would just squeeze to the far right hand side and keep on going. It felt like we were absolutely flying but we never actually went over 60km per hour. We were only on 125cc bikes remember so anything over 50km per hour feels pretty fast!! 

We rode for nearly 40km through the mountains before we reached our main stop at a big waterfall. We climbed over slippery rocks and down a pretty dangerous path over huge boulders down to the bottom of the waterfall. When we got to the bottom we got drenched and nearly thrown backwards by the amazing force of the water, it was pretty impressive.  I have heard that you can actually get into a cave right in behind the waterfall but we just stood at the bottom a couple of metres from where it fell into the river.

We then had a local feed for lunch and got back on the bikes for the ride back.. It was just as good if not better on the way back, I was leaning into the corners and having a great time. My friend took a few photos of me and she is going to email them to me, so I will put them up on the blog when I get them.

Dalat is a lovely, cool, laid back mountain town and I would definitely go back.. I had a really nice couple of days before landing in hot, sweaty, noisy, busy Ho Chi Minh city.

Further musings on motorbikes

Part 1

The sleeper bus. 

It should really be called the "no sleeper" bus, or the" impossible to get sleeper" bus. Boy what an experience. I told myself I would never do it because they have a reputation for being uncomfortable and dangerous. Not sure what came over me in the end. I think it was the fact that it was going to save me around $120 and a couple of transfers between airports, hotels etc. Still haven't decided whether it was worth it or not. 

I boarded the bus in Hue at lunch time on Friday. We drove down to Hoi An, took 4 hours. Then stopped at Hoi An for 2 hours, got back on and off we went down south. Driving all night in a little seat that tilts right back but still damn uncomfortable. Designed for 5ft tall Asians, who also appear able to sleep in any setting, at any time, with any amount of background noise etc etc. Very jealous of the locals snoring away beside me. Reached Nha Trang at around 6am the next morning. Hang around for another 2 hours. Get on a smaller bus and drive for another 4 hours up to the mountains of Dalat. Arrive lunch time the next day. Practically 24 hrs on a bus. Not.. happy.. Jan.

Part 2

The view from the bus window.

Towns, farms, crops, kids, people, animals and bikes. Bikes everywhere carrying everything. I believe that it might just be almost illegal to carry nothing on your bike expect yourself. Everyone seems to make the most of the fact that the bike can carry things. 

* A guy riding his bike, his wife sitting behind them. In between them she is balancing an adult bicycle upside down.

* A woman carrying 8 x 20L drums on her bike, strapped in front, beside and behind her. I hope they are all empty.

* A guy riding on his own but coiled around him is a huge roll of pvc tubing. 

* A bloke gets on his scooter and puts a crate of beer bottles at this feet, balancing precariously. Then his wife gets on behind and balances 2 more crates of beer bottles behind her husband. They take up most of the seat space so she is sitting right on the back of the seat half hanging off, desperately hanging on to those crates.

* A guy riding on his own but carrying a large 40cm pedestal fan.

* A guy carrying a brand new LCD tv, still in the box, it looked around 66cm. 

Do they all assume that they will never crash? They carry such precious things,  including new born babies fast asleep in their mothers arms. 

We pass by so many different crops on my long bus trip, loads of rice fields first of all, then other food crops including peanuts, beans, strawberries, corn, then as we get up higher carrots, more corn, cabbages, and more rice. There are so many food trees along the edges of the road and in peoples back yards, just freely available to anyone walking past to pick. There are paw paw trees, avocado trees, mango trees everywhere heavily laden down, bananas, coconut, pineapple, durian, And then you see the animals wandering around as well. Chickens, ducks in huge groups on ponds and small lakes, some cows and pigs. All free range. Probably have a much better short life than most of the meat grown for food in Australia come to think of it.

All this doesn't really make up for the crapness  of the bus trip though, and I reckon I got maybe 4 hours sleep all up. The trip up from Nha Trang to Dalat is up and over a mountain range, a scarier and more spectacular drive than the one up to Sapa i think. We go from 0m up to 1800m and the trees change to pine trees and the air changes to cool and dry, no humidity for a few days!!!

Dalat

I finally arrived at my hotel here and the wonderful hostess knew my name as I walked in. I had called her the previous day to ask if she had a room free and told her I should arrive at approximately lunch time, but still. This is a very good sign. She shows me to the room and its small but lovely. And the shower!! Its a power shower, within a proper cubicle! It was amazing! And the bed!! The softest in the whole trip. And the breakfast!! Its in her own kitchen around a huge communal table, spread with everything you could want, eggs, bacon, toast, loads of fruit, peanut butter, vegemite, jam. The great thing about the communal table is that you talk to those sitting beside and across from you. I met 2 other women who are travelling alone, an Aussie and an American. We chatted for ages and agreed to meet for dinner.

Hue 2

The motorcycle trip.

Up and ready to go at 8.30 in the morning. My rider pulls up outside the hotel and hands me an old, very loose helmut, more like a bicycle helmut rather than a proper motorbike helmut. Oh well. Its what they all wear. I have no choice anyway. 

He is probably around 50 and has little round John Lennon spectacles and very bad teeth. He introduces himself as Mr Hueng and tells me to climb on board.

He is riding a larger motorbike than the scooters you see everywhere but its still only 150cc. He tells me the government does not allow anyone to buy a bike larger than 150cc, except police and government officials. Got to love the communist party! So we zoom through the streets of Hue, we aren't going fast and so can hear each other and are chatting about all sorts of things for the first part of the journey. He is riding very slowly and carefully and I feel very safe with him. We leave the town and go onto some narrow little back streets and lanes, past the front doors of houses, chickens scattering, people wandering. Its good to get out of the city and onto local little roads, just us two, not with a bus load of tourists. First stop is a lovely timber Japanese arched walking bridge, around 15m long with timber seats built into each side. People are sitting and lying on the seats, escaping the early heat. 

Next we went to a buddhist temple complex, my guide tells me that around 70 monks live here in quiet serenity. He thinks its hilarious they all they eat are vegetables and tofu. We walk around for a bit and then he tells me to go over to the temple main building as they are about to start their morning chants. Around 8 of them stand quietly in their orange robes and then one of them rings a deep bell and they all start chanting, it was pretty surreal. One hits a small bell, another hits a different kind of drum. This feels like I have been let in on their own private meditations, really nice atmosphere.

Then along more narrow little dirt laneways, just wide enough for two motorbikes to pass each other, through rice paddy fields, past large flocks of white ducks, past people in cone hats bent over double pulling rice out and weeding corn fields. Then bumpity bump across a little local bridge and we arrive at a tomb, very impressive tomb as its turns out. 

Spread across a huge acreage amongst frangipanis and pine trees, there is a lake with a timber summer house built over it with steps down into the water. The emperor used to come here  with his family and staff during summer time and spend time in the large boat house reading poetry and watching the family boat around on the lake. Then up stairs and then more grand stairs and into some large, beautifully decorated buildings that were his house and wives houses, that then became parts of the tomb after he died. I think it was built around 1864. He planned the complex of parks and buildings and it took 10 years to build, 10,000 men worked on it. It was calm, majestic and beautiful and just a little bit boiling hot.  

My lovely bike rider was waiting out the front for me, we had some lunch and a cold drink and then rode for 20 minutes to the next tomb which was a whole different story. This one was also in the middle of now where, surrounded by beautiful forests and hills and up another huge set of steps. But this one was built in the 1920-30's and there are influences now from France and Europe. The rooms are square and have faux columns, the walls and ceilings are painted to look like grey and white marble. The main room itself was amazing, so much colour and decoration everywhere, not a blank piece of wall, floor or ceiling in sight. They use a process for decoration called cut and paste, (early microsoft windows they tell me!), its really broken bits of pottery glued back on to make a new pattern or picture. They use it to great effect, it looks amazing from a distance.

Back on the bike, and he takes me through a little forest, up a bumpy track to the top of a hill. It turns out that at the top of the hill is an american bunker, we can look inside but not much to see. A concrete building just poking out of the ground with a view of the whole surrounding area. He points in the distance and tells me that over on that mountain range is the Ho Chi Minh trail that the Viet Con used to get information and supplies from the north to the south. He tells me that his father fought in the war, for the south, alongside the Americans.  It seems strange to think that this green, lush hill top had loads of American soldiers using it as a hideout. I keep seeing and hearing things related to the war, but I can't really see any benefits out of it, only disadvantages and loss. The Vietnamese have a relatively calm, shrug of the shoulders type attitude towards it all now it seems as well. They are just happy that as a unified country they are no longer owned by anyone or fighting anyone, they can just get on with the job of making money and developing as a country.

Then we make our way back into the city of Hue. It has been a lovely day, a great way to see the local area, in the hands of a safe, friendly guide.

Hue

Hue is a lovely place, right on the wide Perfume River, which happens to be full of rubbish in some places but don't let that stop anyone from enjoying bathing, washing up and fishing in it! Thankfully the Government has realised the benefit of allowing the public to use the foreshore so both sides of the river are large public parks with people promenading up and down all times of the day and night.

I spent the first full day walking round the main part of the city and across the river looking at the Citadel which was fantastic. One half of the town is enclosed by a 10km long 6-8m high brick and stone wall with a 20m wide moat around the whole thing, very cool. To get inside the main citadel you have to make your way through one of maybe 6 entrances, very narrow arched short tunnels. Then the royal citadel, the most historical section is approached through another main entrance, a Citadel within a Citadel basically. This one provides access into what was the emperors large collection of palaces, temples, meetings houses and homes. He had 104 wives you see so he needed a lot of accommodation! No children mind you, impotent from a bout of chicken pox or something they said.

It was all pretty intact, and some of the main buildings were fabulous, detailed timber construction, hand painted and  carved, beautiful tiles, all very nice. Steps up and steps down, different levels, step up and over and through, it was all about keeping this one particular emperor, who was pretty little, higher than everyone else. He had hundreds of people living in this place with him, military mandarins, teaching mandarins, wifes, concubines, eunichs, etc etc. One big party house!! It was like a minature city. They say he had 50 chefs cooking 50 different dishes for him each day, they tried to outdo each other by making their dishes more and more fancy and that is where the complex and decorative tradional Hue food comes from. Who knew...

There were large outdoor areas, beautiful gardens, ornaments, flowers, lovely rows of trees and then I came across a large open area with 2 elephants hanging around! Apparently you could pay $20 and go for a ride on one of them. They seemed relatively happy, standing under the shade of the trees chewing on bamboo.

I took the long way back across the river and was exhausted by the time I got back to the hotel. I reckon I walked at least 10km, most of it in 35degree temperatures! I had an umbrella but that still doesn't stop the heat, my whole body was wet with sweat, it was literally running down my back and down my legs and down my arms, just thought you might like to know that. If it makes you squirm, my apologies, just skip that last sentence!

Quiet, expensive dinner, ($8) in a nice western style restaurant with 5 other couples from Australia, all over 50....what is it with this area and baby boomers?? Then I hit the sack early ready for my motorcycle tour the next day.

Hoi An 2

Well, I went on a date with 2 French men on my last night in Hoi An!! I met them in the hotel at breakfast time, they were having trouble communicating that they wanted their eggs cooked so the yolks were still runny! We said hi and one of them asked me where I was from. Then we went our separate ways. Then when I came back to the hotel later that morning to have a rest and shower and change my sweaty clothes the person behind the desk said that there was a message for me. It was from the French guys asking if I wanted to have dinner with them that night! 

Now before I go any further I sadly should let you all know that these guys were "older" gentlemen.... approximately mum and dads age! Very nice and all that but they have children my age. They have been friends for years, used to work together and in the last 2 years both have become separated and/or divorced from their wives so they decided to make the most of their new retired freedom and see some of the world. 

One spoke ok English, the other not so much. But between us we worked out what we wanted to say and talked about their lives and my life and had a lovely night. They wanted to drink wine so bought a rather dodgy bottle of Aussie red and then an even dodgier bottle of red from Argentina. Thankfully the Aussie one was better so I didn't lose too much face. We had a very  expensive meal by Vietnamese standards, 1,400,000Dng which is around $70 between the 3 of us for 2 course meals and 2 bottles of wine. But they insisted on paying  so it was fine by me.

They left the next morning and I spent the morning rushing around finalising fittings and payment for the clothes I ordered and then the afternoon in transit to the next city, Hue which was a 30 min taxi ride and then a 3 hour train ride and then a 15 min ride with my very heavy suitcase on the back of a scooter, (free pickup from the hotel!)

Vietnam - General Observations

I am constantly seeing things that surprise me, they move past me so quickly and are gone and then 3 seconds later I think to myself, "did I just really see that?" A few of the more interesting ones below,  but there are literally hundreds every day.

* Confounding new things to load onto motorbikes. Its extraordinary and I thought after my last visit that nothing would shock me but they keep coming up with new ideas. ie, 1. Glazed front door balanced between the first and second person. If the bike stops quickly that guy sitting behind is going to go right through the glazed section. 2. A guy  with a few baskets at his feet with 10-20 ducks heads sticking out of the baskets quacking away and then behind him his wife who is balancing a petrol  motor whipper snipper on her shoulder. 3. A guy on a motorbike with stacks of boxes tied onto his seat talking into his mobile phone whilst dodging crazy traffic. Not sure what our police in Australia would think of that!

* Traffic. It is so insane that I don't understand why there aren't constant crashes. It leads me to believe that they are far better riders/drivers than we are. I can say with confidence that very few Aussies would be able to manouvere through the traffic the way the locals do. Cars just simply turn straight across intersections beeping their horns. Everything smaller is expected to get out of the way, including cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians. Here it is the opposite to how it is in Australia, ie, pedestrians have right of way to some extent, here the bigger the vehicle the more powerful and therefore it is up to everyone else to get out of the way. Buses come careering up to 6 lane roundabouts and just drive directly on, not giving way as such. And when I say 6 lane I mean possibly there are that many, there are no lane markings at all so traffic just criss crosses its merry way. People say traffic in Europe is crazy, I don't think those people have been to Vietnam. When I go to cross roads, I generally wait until there is a small break in one direction in cars and buses. I don't worry about the motorbikes as there are never, ever breaks and they can go around me more easily. Then I meander across the road, slowly but surely, watching the bikes and not changing my pace so the motorbikes can tell which side to go around. Its a bit scary but I just keep telling myself that plenty of people have crossed roads before and they didn't die....not much comfort I know but what choice do I have??

* Rubbish Collection. In Hoi An at approximately 8.30am every day a very loud version of Greensleeves rings out through the streets. Its almost deafeningly loud. And its coming from the rubbish truck, reminding everyone to bring their rubbish onto the streets for collection. A nice way of dealing with a stinky problem. And here in Hue I have just witnessed the more local version, a lady pushing a large steel square barrow wanders along the edge of the street ringing a very loud bell to let people know to bring out their rubbish which they pour directly into the barrow. It seems that women do the rubbish collection, street sweeping etc in Vietnam. 

* Safety. This place reminds me how neurotic westerners are and how overly protective we are of pets, children and ourselves in general. There is not the space, nor the time to be too concerned with safety in Vietnam and the thing is that if animals and children grow up with traffic whizzing by their front door they seem to learn not to step out onto the road and into harms way. And when I say traffic near the front door I mean that most Vietnamese have their front door approximately 2-3 metres at the most from the edge of the road/lane/street etc. I regularly see children hanging out right near the edges of the road, just wandering along, no adults in sight. And dogs just casually lie on the edges of the road, expecting that motorbikes will go around them, which they do. And you regularly see 8 or 10 year olds riding pushbikes along the roads with motorbikes, cars, trucks and buses whizzing past them honking loudly. They just casually cruise along, often with another kid sitting on the bike rack on the back or behind with his/her hands on the shoulders of the kid in front standing on pegs fixed onto the back wheel. To and from school they go, giggling and talking to other kids on pushbikes riding beside them, oblivious to the frantic traffic centimetres from them.

Hoi An 1

So following on from my Sapa visit, I spent 2.5 hours yesterday afternoon in a wonderful spa getting massages, and a pedicure, for a cost of $42, would have cost $170+ at home and the place was wonderful! Clean, quiet and very professional. What an absolute contrast to my previous days! The thing about Vietnam is how different it is between one area and the next. 

Hoi An is a lovely old town on the river, much quieter than the larger cities but oh so many touts! They say there are 500 tailor shops here, and they all have the same jackets and dresses hanging up for display. I have a fitting later this afternoon for a dress, trousers and shirts but i'm not holding my breath on quality. Seems that now that everyone comes here for tailoring the standards have slipped dramatically, which is rather ironic as it turns out. On the plus side, local beer is so cheap here its ridiculous, 25c per glass! Its thirsty work wandering the hot streets so sitting in a cafe sipping a cold cheap beer as the sun goes down is a very common practice around here. And I can't seem to get away from Aussies, particularly old ones! I reckon there are hundreds of baby boomers here travelling around with groups or just on their own.

Went for a tour to My Son archeological ruins today, similar to Ankor Wat but a lot smaller. America bombed them almost beyond repair during the war, they should be the ones paying for the restoration work that is going on! Such a shame that they didn't care and didn't choose their targets in the war. I was wondering why the rainforest in the area doesn't have any really large, tall trees. The guide said that the whole area was completed removed of all plants, animals and people during the war by the Agent Orange and other defoliation actions. So what i saw in that area was only 40 years old, was a strange feeling. The ruins are 1000 year old brick and stone temples, with carvings in them, including words, amazing stuff, based on Indian Gods and Goddesses. The Cham kingdom ruled the whole of South East Asia for 1000 years from 500-1500AD. But it was almost too hot to enjoy, 37 degrees in the sun they told us.

Finally managed to get some photos off my camera and onto a flash drive, paid someone 25c to do so for me! 

So below are photos from my trek in Sapa, not sure how to get the words next to the photos yet but you will get the picture:

1. Sitting down to lunch, woman on the rights house, the poorer one. Note how weather proof the house is!

2. View from my hotel room in Sapa.

3. Gorgeous 3 month old on the back of the second womans back. He slept the majority of the time.

4. The seat where i met my trekking tour guides, they are to the right of me.

5. Another view from my hotel room. I couldn't get enough!

6. The inside of the richer Hmong womans home.

7. Outside view of the richer house, not really richer, just larger, a power supply and newer.

8. The trek back down the mountain after lunch. The green hill in the middle of the photo is the very same one that Bron and I struggled across and down, it seems so small compared to how high up I am!

9. The view down to the valley floor. I had to walk right down to the bottom to reach those little tiny houses in the photo! Can't believe i made it in hindsight!

Sapa 2

Well having left Sapa and gone back down to the lowlands I can confidently say I had the experience of a lifetime. Just two days before I was sitting in my  room feeling sorry for myself, thinking that I was not making the most of my time. Then the next day I was taking a rest in a square in Sapa when the obligatory local hill tribeswomen came up to me and asked me to buy their wares. "You buy something from me?" They say. Then they start with the questions, "what is your name, where are you from, how old are you, are you married, do you have children"....etc. I decided to turn it around and have a bit of fun so started asking them. It turns out that they were 23, 28 and 35, all married of course, (most are by 16), and one had 4 boys, one had 2 boys and a girl and the other had 2 boys. Two of the women were carrying the newest child on their back as most of the women do, one was 3 months old and the other was only 1 month old. They were so cute! I ended up talking to them for quite a while and both babies woke up, had a feed and I nursed both of them. The three month old was smiling and gurgling at me which was awfully cute!

Eventually I decided that seeing as they had spent an hour with me and therefore unable to bother any other westerners to buy their things I would buy something small from each of them. They grow hemp and indigo, weave the hemp into cloth, dye it blue with the indigo, (a process that can take up to  a year), and then hand weave and embroider patterns onto it before turn those sections of embroidery into purses, cushion covers, wall hangings, mobile covers etc. Whatever they think westerners will buy. It's actually very beautiful and considering they might spend 3 days embroidering something that I then pay $4 for, its quite humbling. Anyway, after we had done our deal I kept talking to them and said I wanted to go on a trek with a group or preferably one on one. One of them said that she would take me to her house and give me lunch if I was interested. So I  jumped at the chance. We negotiated a price, $7.50 for each of the two women coming with me, plus I pay $2 extra to the woman who has to buy the ingredients for our lunch. We arrange for them to pick me up outside my hotel the next morning. 

Sure enough, there they were, patiently sitting on the footpath outside the hotel when i came down after breakfast. One with a basket on her back, the other with the cute 3 month old, wrapped up tightly and fast asleep. We set off back up into town to go to the local market and buy food for lunch. This was a process in itself because they don't buy much food from the markets or the local shops, too expensive for them. I am starting to realise that these people are not just poor, they are only just living. No wonder they try so hard to sell their wares. I feel bad that 98% of the westerners they ask will wave them away and so no thanks, me generally being one of them. So we wander through the wet market, past women sitting under old umbrellas and blue canvas behind huge piles of various green vegetables, herbs, bananas, eggs and other locally grown food. The women who is doing the buying tentatively chooses 5 eggs, they cost her 11,000Dng, each which is 50c. Extremely expensive compared to the cost of other food and things up in northern Vietnam. That is almost westerners pricing. It seems crazy. Then she buys 3 packets of noodles. As we are leaving, the two women have a bit of a conversation and then one says to me, "do you each tofu?" I said yes and so one went off back to the markets to buy a small amount of tofu. I think they were feeling bad about only having noodles, rice and eggs for lunch and wanted to give me something more. This was new to me, I had seen the richer Vietnamese down in Hanoi with loads of food to eat each meal, green vegies, eggs, pork, sometimes chicken, sausage, bread, soup, coffee, beer, lemon ice tea etc. These people were  absolutely third world, they made the vietnamese appear rich! We had our food nestled carefully into the basket and we set off down the road out of town. 

We walked along a road for around 20 minutes and then all of a sudden one of them pointed to a dirt track that led upwards off the main road, "this is our track, we go this way." Yikes, memories of my last trek flooded back, surely it won't be that bad I say, couldn't be that bad. To Bron I say, yes it was...

We followed varying degrees of quality tracks upwards, ever upwards for around an hour, I was getting extremely hot and thinking I might not make this if we don't stop soon. Then we  came to a ridge and I looked down the valley and it was amazing. We were looking way down into the bottom of the valley, on top of the ridge that I walked with Bron last time and far below the road and houses and village where we eventually had to get to. Oh boy, i say to myself, what the heck have i done??

We came to a timber shack and stumbled down a narrow, slippery, non existent track which was the main way of getting to one of the womens houses. She took me inside to show me what her house was like. No windows, just large cracks between the vertical timber planks to let in light, and also the cold in winter when it gets down to 0 degrees. Hard, compressed dirt floor, little tiny timber stools to sit on, I think only one of my butt cheeks would have fitted on the whole stool! They are very tiny people mind you, I'm not suggesting I have a big butt!! This was an absolute eye opener, the building was sort of divided into 3 areas, one for sleeping, one for eating and socialising and one for cooking. There were areas above us under the roof space for storing rice and corn, their two staples. But there were no chairs, no beds as such, no kitchen utensils apart from a couple of pots and a few small bowls and chopsticks. The one concession she was most proud of  was that there was a funny switch in the corner of the main open area and it was power! For two small lightbulbs. But electricity is so expensive they only switch it on sometimes at night just for a short time. It was mind blowing. We sat for a while on the little stools so I could cool down and then off we went for lunch at the other womens house. She told me as we were leaving that her friends house here was much bigger, newer and nicer then hers! I'm thinking to myself, how could hers be any more simple? But it was. We walked another 20 minutes down the side of the mountain, walking through corn fields, mud, slippery tracks, large step downs, it was all rather scary for a slack westerner like me. They of course confidently stepped down with no concern about slipping etc. In fact they held my arm to assist me whilst carrying baskets and babies on their own backs!! Rather embarassing  really.

We got to the second womans house and yes, it was smaller, older and no power. I was inside the house of one of the poorest women in Vietnam. The Hmong tribes are the poorest of the hill tribes and the hill tribes are the poorest of the people living in Vietnam. I made the mistake of calling them Vietnamese. They are not Vietnamese, fiercely independent, have their own language, different clothes, different living styles, different history in fact.

So the very shy husband comes in from working in his corn fields, with a small baby tied to his back and a 3 year old walking beside him. The other two children were at school. We three women sit down and rest while he scurrys aournd for the next half hour preparing the fire and putting on pots for cooking rice, noodles and then frying eggs, tofu and tomatoes. He serves up all the food into bowls in the middle of the table and we turn around and start eating. The men will often cook, particularly if the woman has gone up into Sapa for the day to sell her wares. I told them men in Australia often don't cook, told them that it was a good thing for them! One small good thing amongst a sea of hardship and difficulty. They kept offering me more food, it was good, simple but good. They all ate really quickly, shovelling the food in with chopsticks. The food left over would be served for dinner that night and for the children after school. I was full and now cool. Babies and dogs, chooks, cats, pigs and chooks and chickens all milled around just outside the wooden doors waiting for any leftover scraps, but  only get corn i think. The dogs only get corn as well, so looked pretty skinny and undernourished. In fact all the animals are very skinny and relatively unhealthy looking. Made me feel just the tiniest bit guilty about me trying to decide whether to give Suki turkey, beef or chicken for her two full meals per day.... boy are Australian pets lucky...they have no idea. Speaking of dogs, there were around 3 adult dogs hanging around and a couple of litters of puppies, some around 3 months old and some were just 2-3 weeks old, just starting to open their eyes. Lots of cute puppy noises etc. They told me they don't eat them until they have grown up.....yikes...that was tough to hear. I am looking at these cute puppies thinking that to them they are just food, like chooks or cattle or sheep are to us, (vegetarians not included). They don't eat cats because they are considered pets but dogs are fair game. The benefit to them is that dogs don't need to each much to survive, whereas pigs need to eat twice a day and need a lot of corn. Chooks they keep for eggs and just eat them every now and then. No other meat exists for them. It was very tough to hear that and think about it. They are constantly on the edge of starvation, all of them, people and animals. Talk about counting your blessings.

After lunch we started on our great descent down the mountain to get to the villages at the bottom. Phew that was a trek and a half. Slippery, muddy, difficult, steep, etc etc, very hard work on the thigh muscles and knees. Slowly, slowly, we made our way down and eventually got to a stony track that led to a small suspension bridge across a fast flowing river with rapids, very beautiful. We stopped at a roadside cafe for a drink overlooking the river. The poorest Hmong woman had never had a can of drink! So I bought her a can of Liptons Iced Teaone and showed her how to open it. She liked the flavour but said it was too sweet. It cost the price of 2 eggs, which has more value to her? No choice really, no wonder she has never had a can of drink. By now my muscles are starting to seize up a bit, (bringing back memories Bron?) so I know that I have to keep walking before they give way altogether. We continue along the  rough road and walk through other villages, Dzao people and Tay people, distinguished by their different coloured clothing and headress types. Little kids running around laughing and playing in the dirt. Who needs money when you can still be this happy?

My guide has arranged for two local Hmong guys to meet us at the end of the final village with their motorbikes. I am paying for all of us to get transported the 8km or so back up the mountain to Sapa. I put on a dodgy helmut and climb on. The other two women, one with a baby strapped to her back climb on behind the other guy, 3 on a bike. We slowly bump our way back up to the main road and then meander up the mountain again on a kind of normal semi-bitumen road. The road trip back was lovely, the view down from the road was directly down the valley, no safety barriers here, and the view was amazing. Huge mountain backdrop and rice terraces everywhere. 

Back at the hotel I paid the motorbike guys and then sat down with the women to pay them. I was so exhausted, muddy and sore but absolutely elated and stoked at the experience. I knew that not many people get to experience that, most just get herded along on organised treks like we did last time. I had been given a personal viewing into their lives, I had spent a good part of the day asking them all sorts of questions about how they lived, what they thought about things etc. I had really been able to get inside their heads and understand who they are as a people, an amazing privilege.

I paid one of them $12.50 (extra for lunch) and the other $10 in the end. I imagine thats probably nearly a weeks income for them sometimes, if they don't sell any wares for a few days.
A very cheap price for the experience considering it was going to cost me $15 to join a large group tour that day which i nearly did instead. So glad I ran into these women. 

Wow a long post, but it had to be, had to get it all out and down onto paper. Amazing. Emotionally challenging, but so worth it. Even the sore, stiff legs 3 days later are still worth it.

I am in Hoi An now for a couple of days, 500km south of Hanoi, so will write about it in two days time after I have some more adventures.

Sapa

Ah lovely Sapa. If only the journey to get here was a little less tiring and scary. First a rough night on a noisy, creaking, banging train, sharing a 4 berth cabin with a mother and daughter from northern  europe and a middle aged Vietnamese man who kept talking on him mobile. ps, everyone, i mean everyone in vietnam has a mobile  and is constantly talking on them, including whilst maneouvering a motorbike in heavy  traffic! Anyway, back to Sapa, the train creaks to a stop at 5am, we all pile off and wander towards the small army of locals  shouting "taxi, taxi". Thankfully i arranged with my guesthouse to organise a shuttle bus ride so someone was standing  with a piece of paper with my name on it. I jumped into a crowded 12 seater mini bus with an assortment of tired tourists, aussies, french and german from the accents. Then the drive up the mountain. Its a stunner, you just have to look at the view and not the road ahead. An hour of climbing and the air is finally cooler,  phew! Then we arrive and i remember just how spectacular this place is, so different from Hanoi. I have taken photos of the view from my bed and balcony, (better than the last place Bron!), and will upload them when i can. This hostel can't do it for me.

So I had a little morning nap and then went for a wander around the little touristy township, uphill all the way. Surrounded by mountains everywhere you look, its amazing. It is much quieter than last time i was here, the cafes and shops are almost empty of tourists. They tell me it will be much better come the weekend when all the big markets are on, but i will be gone by then, which is a good thing in hindsight.

 I am hoping to go for a trek tomorrow or Thursday, maybe both if i think i can handle it. Last time wasn't so crash hot... hey Bron....

I decided at the last minute to stay an extra night here rather than going back to Hanoi afterwards for 1 night before heading south. I decided i was over Hanoi and wanted more down time up here in Sapa. So changed the tickets and will now go back to Hanoi by train overnight on Thursday and then fly directly down to Hoi An that morning.

Hanoi

Well what a difference sleep makes. I arrived in Hanoi after 2 hours sleep the night before, hot, tired and cranky. I got lost in the small streets of the Old Quarter and it was crazy hot, i reckon 35 degrees and maybe 85% humidity and the locals were looking at me wandering around like an idiot thinking to themselves, "only a tourist would choose to walk in the heat of the day." Yep, that was me, an idiot. I got home dripping, jumped in the shower, and then lay on the bed feeling rather sore and sorry for myself. Found myself watching tv, Australian masterchef 2 would you believe! Yes, sad but true. Asleep by 6.30pm, didn't wake up until 7am the next morning. 

Right, thats it, today I'm off to do something interesting and constructive!! So I started walking through the streets to the west of the lake, and all of a sudden the traffic was less, the noise less, the streets wider and leafier, so nice to wander along. Then there is a park with a huge statue of Lenin of all people! I keep wandering and eventually get to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, yes he is really in there, embalmed within an inch of his life! I look across the park to the massive building and there is a line of people snaking along, a good 400m long I reckon. It might be a weirdly cool thing to say you have seen Mr Ho Chi Minh embalmed, but not that weird and I keep walking.

Eventually come to another large, formidable building in a park, its the Mr Ho Chi Minh museum. I arrived there at 11.40am. The sign on the front door says "closed for lunch between 11.30am and 2pm....".

So, I walk through the park and join the locals sitting on park benches under the trees, buy some postcards and a fake copied Lonely Planet for $5 that tells me that the museum is closed between 11.30 and 2pm.

A old guy comes up to me and asks me what my name is and where I'm from. He tries to sell me a motorbike tour and I tell him I might see him when I finish looking at the museum. Sure enough he is still waiting there by the entrance on the main road when I come out 2 hours later. So I cut a deal where he will take me to see a factory where they make laquerware and then he will take me back to my hotel to save the long, hot walk back. So he gives me a helmut, kind of a fake bicycle one, not sure how much protection I will have and I jump on the back of his scooter. So, my first ride on the back of one of the million scooters in Hanoi! We join the throng, he weaves and ducks and whizzes from side to side avoiding on coming traffic, cars and bicycles all at once! Its scary but also exhilarating. As Bron told me, its best just to look sideways at the scenery, rather than ahead at the oncoming traffic!!! So we shoot across the city, I buy a lovely laquer bowl, he gets his kickback from the store and we are all happy! Then the long ride back and he takes me to a massive lake, which looks more like an inland sea! It's beautiful riding along the edge of it, and so much nicer than the busy roads. He tells me he takes all his tourist rides along here and they are all surprised by it. 

So the second day is so much better and more interesting than the first. I have my first bowl of Pho for dinner, which is a clear noodle broth soup with beef and a bottle of tiger beer, which sets me back 67,000 Dong, ($3.20), wow...

Tomorrow night I get on a 4 berth sleeper train for the 350km journey up to the mountains and the town of Sapa...

Penang days 1-3

hmm, where to start...

firstly its really hot over here! just thought I would get that  off my chest. Its hotter and more humid that the hottest and most humid Brisbane summers day. And today was the worst, we walked around parts of the city of Georgetown with umbrellas to try and reduce the heat but we still nearly collapsed after an hour and had to retreat to an air conditioned bus.

When I say we I mean my new best friends! well actually I have already said goodbye to them. Mi Wa from Japan and Yin from Malaysia. They were staying in my dorm room when I staggered into the hostel absolutely shattered after a massive day in transit. Up at 4.30am, 8 hours on the plane, literally run from Kuala Lumpur international arrivals to check in at domestic for the next flight to Penang, arrive at 7pm, wait in the heat for a bus, sit on the bus for an hour, walk through the streets of Georgetown in the general direction of the hotel, arrive at 8pm, which is 10pm Penang time. Gee was I over it. Then I walk into the four bed dorm which was a 4m x 1.5m concrete box with no window, and I think, "what the heck am I doing?". I had a shower and crashed. Woke up the next morning to find two smiling faces. Yin says chirpily, "hi, I'm Yin and this is Mi Wa, we just met last night here in the dorm, want to hang out together today?" 

So there you go, it wasn't so bad after all. We had breaky and off we went to explore. All day walking, talking, sweating and seeing amazing things. Penang is just absolutely crumbling, full of old tall chinese terraces with beautiful timber shutters and arched patios that form the undercover footpath. The obligatory bikes and horn, the general cacaphony of noises and smells that tells you you have arrived in Asia. But boy does it take you away from the everyday. I have forgotten what I do for a living already and only think about Suki occasionally. Well okay, every time I see a scrawny street cat I think how lucky she is to have an owner like me.... ;)

I could go on about what I saw but this pretty much sums it up: colonial, British, Chinese, old,  broken, busy, lush, tropical, green, hot, sweaty, yummy, thirsty,  chicken, stingray, curry, chilli, rice, noodle, beans, jelly, kordial (yes that is how they spell it), buddhist, hindu, krishna, decoration, walking, architecture, temple, rainforest, water, fish, ferry, train, bus, plane.